There will be BLOOD, lots of Blood!

 Today I've definitely been feeling a bit under the weather.  Not that that is in any way connected to this post but it meant that rather than going in to SIT to work on things today I stayed home. 

So when Callum asked me to mix him up some fake blood for his shoot this weekend I was in just the right place to do it.

I'd got some practice in with fake blood while Art Directing Don's film so I'll be a pro at this soon.

Callum wanted a quite red blood with a bit of depth to it.  He gave me this image as a reference:

This is what I mixed up.  I think this counts as mission successful! 

I combined a couple of different recipes after experimenting on Don's shoot. 

For anyone interested this is the process I use, read on.

For this blood I used:

• Liquid Laundry detergent (the one I used was a clear blue colour)
• Red food colouring
• Blue food colouring
• Flour
• Coffee
• Glucose Syrup 

I don't use measurements although if you want to be able to replicate it exactly wouldn't be a bad idea to make note of what you use.

The laundry detergent makes a good base since it makes things a lot easier to clean up.  It also gives the blood a nice flow from the way the soap kinda drips.  Not so watery.

Obviously if you are dealing with blood in the mouth of actors or certain allergies it's better to use a recipe without the detergent.

I added at least 3 tsp of red colouring to a cup of detergent for my starting point. I had leftover Glucose Syrup so there is about a 1/4 C in the nearly 1 litre of blood that I made today.  This adds a bit of tackiness to the blood.

There's probably about 4 Tbs of flour in this mix.  This is sieved and mixed in which makes the blood more opaque and realistic looking.  It also thickens the blood.

The coffee is used to make the blood darker, as is the blue colouring which also adds some realism. Since the detergent I used has a slight blue to it the blood doesn't need much.  You have to be really careful with blue colouring since it is really strong stuff.  If you put too much in the colour can never be fixed.  I don't even add full drops at a time.  Instead I use a knife or toothpick to get the tiniest amount of blue at a time to add.

I like to mix in parts- split across different containers so that if too much of something is added I don't lose the lot.  This also means I can mix mishaps together in small amounts and sometimes correct the mistakes. 

Knowing how the blood will be used is pretty useful- if it's going to be spread thinly it probably needs more flour to add depth.  If it needs to slowly drip then more syrup and flour is going to help.  You also want it to hold up under the light- so if you know it will be brightly lit it might be worth making the blood darker so it doesn't end up looking orange. 

On a final note- it's worth mixing this up a day or two before.  Since you are mixing detergent it needs sometime for the bubbles to settle down and also to get rid of any lumps from the flour.  

I don't know if I'll ever be needing to make blood again but I feel like I now know I lot about it.

Add it to the knowledge bank!!

Keying and Roto in Nuke

Once I had my edit together I rendered out each sequence as an image sequence (Tiff files) for compositing in Nuke.

My first pass was to key and garbage matte each shot.  I kept this relatively simple to start but found that most of my footage worked better with multiple keys.

I've found Keylight and Ultimatte to give the best results on this particular footage.
 Keylight is picking up hair detail better in many of the shots but giving a dirty alpha, while Ultimatte is nice an clean but also chops off the detail.

Ultimatte Key- See the lack of detail in the hair

Keylight Key- Nice detail but....

... the best Alpha I could get from Keylight without losing detail

The solution? Use them both! I added a key mix to this shot and rotoscoped a basic mask to determine the area each key effected.

Key mix set up

Final Alpha

Working with Problem Shots:

For one shot I plan to composite two shots together.  One actor starts in front of the greenscreen but runs off it so I have a roto job here, while the other actor stays in front of the green screen. Unfortunately the second actor is, once again, out of focus so this shot might take longer than I thought!

In an attempt to cut down on rotoscoping I experimented with the IBK (image based keyer) node.  IBK is made up of two parts- IBK colour and IBK gizmo.  IBK colour is used to generate a cleanplate while IBK gizmo uses the cleanplate and footage to create a key.  I already had a clean plate for this shot so I used my own.

Unfortunately the results weren't great.  The ares where the actor went off the greenscreen did key out but the final key was really messy.  I couldn't think of a way to fix it other than rotoscoping anyway so I decided to scrap this and just get on with the roto!

Another of my shots involves compositing 3 actors into the same shot.  The last part should be simple, all three actors are in front of the green screen and the camera has the same settings and placement; but I knew I would have a roto job on my hands for the first half of the scene.

Unfortunately things are more complicated than I originally thought.  Turns out that the focus on each plate isn't as sharp as it could be- which gives a beautiful green or yellow glow to each actor.

This is also a problem sometimes on motion blur as well so I've found a tutorial that gives a handy node set up for reducing spill.

how to despill a greenscreen shot - same approach in smoke and nuke from torsten neuendorf on Vimeo.

This has been useful in reducing some of the edge issues and also action shots such as this one:

Original footage

Despill node set up and Rotoscoping in action

Since the action in this shot also goes off the greenscreen a significant amount of rotoscoping was also needed.

A closer look at the Rotoscoping required in this shot

The InBetween: Filming!

So, as you know, I have recently been helping out on a couple of other projects.

Unfortunately I tend to get a bit too invested and ended up running out of time to work on my own project.  I would have loved another week to finish up my script, storyboards and get an animatic out but this ended up being impossible.

Despite the lack of planning and last minute availability issues the shoot ended up going mostly smoothly.  There are a few shots I am not completely happy about but for the most part I have some quality footage.  My actors did a great job!

John created a set piece for me which should help out with some of my compositing but I have a huge amount of post production work still to do.

The Ledge, made by the talented John Mellor!

Bring on the Roto!

On a positive note I have a rough edit completed which is approaching picture lock.  I found it beneficial to edit directly to music due to the nature of this project so spent some time finding a suitable track.  I found it impossible to concentrate at SIT in the noisy lab so ended up editing at home instead!

Environment-wise I have heaps to do still but I have some nice bricks!!

Mudbox is great for these kind of textures so I made 3 paint and 3 sculpted variations. I am so pleased to have a decent computer and software at home to be able to do this kind of thing!

Sculpting in Mudbox

Building Pillars

I filmed one of my scenes in the Rose Garden at Queens Park which has these awesome brick columns with vines growing up them.  So to link the different areas of my world I thought bricks were a good way to go.

In the image above you can see I have begun to create vines too!  Things are still a little clean looking at the moment but I'll get to that later! (No spec maps here yet!!)

Rose Garden

Editing... Oh look more bricks :p

Day for Night

Just a tutorial I felt was worth looking at while my scheduling was a mess.  Just in case!!

Art Directing 'Virtual Reality'

Don's film mostly takes place in the main characters room.  I decided that this was the most important place to start when it came to art direction.


For Amanda's room I started out by looking at the mood board I was given by Don. The main elements here are the warm lighting from the table lamps and string lights and the use of images and set decor to enhance the character.

Don's Mood Board

I think when designing a bedroom that the most important consideration is the character and how their personality is reflected in the contents of the room.  Of course you want things to look great- and this is where things like the lamps and lights come in but a bedroom is an opportunity to gain a glimpse into a character.

I spoke with Don about Amanda's character but was told to speak with the actress playing her for more insight into her characterization.  These are the insights I gained from my conversations with both of them and also my own deductions from the script.

Amanda:

• Architecture Student- creative but technical.  She would have an eye for aesthetics but probably not overly crafty.
• Interested in martial arts- but from a sporting angle.  Enjoyment of a karate doesn't necessarily translate into a fascination about Chinese culture.  
• She has some talent as a martial artist, having worn medals- which discipline is never indicated.    
• Probably procrastinates then works long nights to get things done- her assignment is due the next day and she hasn't started.  Caffeine tablets are a quite extreme measure.
• Has a close friendship with Tamara but not likely many other close friends.    
• She doesn't reach out to any of her friends about the hacker.  So she isn't that close to them. Possibly feels the need to be seen as strong and in control.  Independent.
• Many acquaintances. There are a large number of people at the party.
• Wears bracelets, rings, nail polish.  Things on her hands and wrists.  Her style is loosely inspired by emo fashion (this has come from the director).
• I see this taking a more casual effect on her fashion sense due to her sporty nature- emo fashion is often involves lots of co-ordination of outfits and makeup.  Her personality suggests to me that she would be a bit more casual and dress with comfort in mind.  In my previous designs I looked at casual punk fashion.  Casual but a little edgy.
• Emo and punk fashion is usually connected with music- which might influence her decorating choices.
• Likes to listen to music while she works   

I wanted to look at ways to show aspects of her character but subtly.  Add too many things to indicate an interest and suddenly your character has an obsession.  Add too many different things to a room and your character is fickle, indecisive, or you are hitting your audience over the head with insights into the character.  This corner shows she likes cats, this wall is because she enjoys music, here's a photo of her at the beach when she was five because she likes swimming... and so on and so forth.   That's just getting way out of hand!

Research:

 

I managed to source a number of images to use as posters for Amanda's walls.  Here's one I created myself:

I also spent a bit of time bargain hunting and found some great stuff!

A couple of Audio students also came on board to help out and they did a great job providing other things like clothing and toiletries for Amanda's table.

I spent a bit of time experimenting in Photoshop with the layout of the room. 

Since we were going to be filming day-for-night I had the idea to black out the windows using rubbish bags- which worked really well.  After setting up I asked the art department assistants to photograph the area as a reference:
 

 

For the party scene I found some vector letters and manipulated them to match the colour scheme that I had decided on.  Some balloons and streamers and our party scene was also sorted.

My initial party scene research

This film also required me to make up a few fake liquids :p Wine and blood both play a prominent role.

Since we would be filming in a borrowed home and pouring fake blood on the floor I mixed up a recipe using laundry detergent, food colouring (red and blue), coffee, glucose syrup and flour.  This obviously makes a non-edible blood but cleans up easier. 

For the wine I mixed up some blackcurrant tea with a touch of colouring and had tonic water on standby for bubbles.  And for beer I went with root beer- which didn't work out quite at well as I had hoped since it didn't foam well.  Since the foam didn't work out it may have been better to go with apple juice for the colour.

Finally Caffeine tablets were panadol with a custom label: