After learning about our external collaboration unit coming up in the summer, I got in touch with Dom to talk about practicing my skills in 3DE in order to prepare to possibly take a tracking role in the project. I’ve been told that 3DE is one of the best ways to get started working in the industry, and I like it a lot, so I think it would be a very smart move to try to angle my showreel around it.
When we first started learning 3DE, I had a really tough time even finishing the tutorials, as the software was all so new and the process requires the memorization of a lot of very small but very important steps. However, as is often the case, struggling to get over that hump ended up helping me in the long run because I remember the solution to each problem I had so solidly. I find tracking shots to be actually pretty fun now, and find that I understand the significance of most of the steps.
I talked to Dom about starting a few different shots on my own to challenge myself. I feel that working independently forces me to learn more because I have to solve my own problems, so I will be working on a couple different shots over the coming weeks and meeting with Dom each week to check in and critique.
This is the shot that Dom recommended I work with as an easy starter, just to see if I can remember how to get through the process by myself:
I felt pretty proud of myself when I was able to get everything set up without a reminder: converting the video to an EXR sequence, importing it in the camera tab, exporting buffer compression files. I created a Maya project and set up the project window, saved the file path, and found an obj file for free online, which I textured.
I found the tracking relatively easy, as we had planned.
Still, I was nervous that having to choose all of my own points would be difficult, but when I first pressed “calc all from scratch”, I was relieved to find that the line was very straight.
And, even better, my deviation was only 0.8!
Unfortunately, though, I suspect that this may not be what the parameter adjustment should ideally look like. From what I can recall, it should look more like a cube. My theory is that I did not include enough of the sides of the buildings on the street, and only the street and the horizon line were detected. But when I pulled it into lineup view, it looked perfect, so I continued.
I did have to rewatch the superhero training video to remember the order of calculating the lens distortion in the parameter adjustment window, though. I wasn’t able to remember that on my own. I remembered how to do everything and why, though, just not what happens when. I’ve written it down to study.
I put in the 3D model and was at first confused that I was unable to move it, but realized quickly that I needed to turn off “contains survey data.”
I projected my points onto the 3D model and had no issues.
So I exported the mel script- it crashed a couple times and I was forced to export without 3D models- and ran Warp4. This was the first time that Warp4 has not crashed on me on the first try. I saved the dewarped footage and brought it all into Maya.
Then came some purely aesthetic work. I tried to match my skydome’s exposure to the fading light of the shot and I rotated R2-D2 so that he tilts as he swerves, in order to make it look less like he’s floating along and more like he’s powering his own journey.
This R2-D2 was not rigged and the geo was in numerous small pieces, so I didn’t have the option to move the body and ambulatory limbs separately.
Overall I’d say I did a fairly decent job. I’m not sure if there was anything I forgot that I just happened to get lucky with not ruining my shot. I do suspect that I’m lacking some information on the sides of the shot. However, considering I did this without help and only had to look up one step, I feel pretty good about it.