November 11, 2013 Workshop 17 Notes

COMPOSITE EDITING

We review two examples. The first example, depicted in parts IA and IB, uses a simpler overlay technique of adding one animaiton rendering over the other animation rendering. The second example, summarized in part 2, arrives at a composite animation by using the "alpha channel" of one animation as to provide a transparency for ovelaying it onto a second animation.

PART IA: Initiate the animation in Maya by using render layers.  

1. Within Maya , go to the Surfaces module and create an plane surface for
   the ground and a cone.
2. Add a spot light, go to the shadows Tab and turn on Raytrace Shadow Attributes.
3. Go to the Dynamics module and under the Effects menu, create a “Fireworks” effect
   placing the emitter above the cone.
   
4. Go to the Channel Box/Layer Editor (upper right hand corner), select the Render tab,
   and create two render layers. Using the standard technique, place the light, cone and
   plane on the first layer, and place the emitter on the second one.
   
5. Turn on the first render layer only.
   
6. Go to the Render Settings Window and setup a Maya Software rendering. Batch render
   30 frames. Using QuickTime Pro, compile the movie file as “baselayer.mov”.
7. Turn on the second render layer only.
   Go to the Render Settings Window and setup a Maya MentalRay rendering. Batch
   render 30 frames.Using Quicktime Pro, compile the movie file as “fireworkslayer.mov”.
   

PART IB: Combine the two animations in Composite 2014.

1. Open AutoDesk Composite . Select File/New and and initiate a new composition file
   on a local temp drive on a Windows Computer under a folder created with your name
   (t:) or an Apple Computer (temp).
   
   
   
   
2. Use the create button to build the project file.
   
3. Go to the File import tool and import the movie files for the first and second render
   layers, “baselayer.mov” and “fireworkslayer.mov”.
   
   
   
4. In the dialog box, find the directory where the files are located, select and import them
   into the Composition window.
   
   
   
5. Select the Output icon and the icons for the imported files, and select the “L” key to
   organize them within the window.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Within the Composition Window, hold down the middle-mouse button to launch the gate
   menu and select the “Pick List” through the east gate.
   
   
   
   
7. On the far right-hand side of the screen, go to the “Composition” category and then drag
   the “Blend & Comp” tool on the bottom of the dialog box to the Composition Window.
   
   
   
   
8. Re-arrange the icons and move the Blend & Comp icon to the right of the baseLayer
   icon, and draw a connection arrow to the “Back” input channel.
   
   
   
   
9. Similarly, draw aconnection arrow from the fireworkslayer icon to the “Front” input channel.
   
   
   
   
10. Next, draw a connection from the Blend & Comp icon to the Output icon, and note that
    the fireworks only will be visible in the output image screen on the right hand side.
11. Select the Blend & Comp icon, and in the lower-left hand dialog box also select the
    “Blend & Comp” tab. Go to the “Method” area on the right-hand side and change the
    Blend” type to “Add” and the “Comp” type to “Over”.
    
    
    
    
12. Note that the Composition Output window now depicts the fireworks over the ground
    plane and cone.
    
    
    
    
13. Now select the Output icon, and in the lower dialog box go to the Output tab, and select
    the desired format (try NTSC for practice).
    
    
    
    
    
14. Next select the Render tab in the same dialog box, and through the “File Name” option
    determine the pathway to the render output files. Also, change the File Format to “png”.
    
    
    
    
15. Finally, right-click on the Output icon and choose the “render” option, and then the
    “Start” button to generate the “png” files.
    
    
    
    
16. Finally, open QuickTime Pro and compile the PNG files into a single QuickTime movie.
    
    

1. Create a scene with a ground plane, two spheres, a spot light and an ambient light. Apply transparent materials to the spheres. Set the camera attributes environment background to grey.
   
      
   
   
2. Key -frame the spheres moving vertically over 48 frames
   
   
3. For each sphere go to the attributes editor, go the "nurbsSphereShape tab" and "Render Stats" sub-tab and turn off "Primary Visibility".
   
   
   
4. Render out the scene as a jpg series (which will not record an alpha channel), and compile as a QuickTime movie. This rendering will show the ground plane and sphere shadows, but not the spheres.
5. Now, turn back on visibility for the ground spheres, and turn it off for the ground plan, ensure that the "alpha channel" check box is turned on in the Render Settings common tab, render the scene out as a series of "targa" files, and compile as a QuickTime movie.
6. Go to the Composite 2014, load the two animations and connect them to the "Blend and Comp" icon as in the fireworks example.  Note that the animation of the two spheres are connected to the "front" input port on the upper left-hand of the "blend and comp" icon  and that the animation of the ground plane is connected to the adjacent "back" input port of the "blend and comp" icon (see figure below).
   
   
   
   
7. Select the icon for the animation of two spheres and note that the background is transparent in the output image preview. This is the result of using an "alpha channel" in the original Maya rendering.
   
   
8. Select the icon for animation of the ground plane and not that the backgrond isn't transparent since no "alpha channel" had been used in the original Maya rendering.
   
   
   
   
9. Double-click on the "Blend and Comp" icon, and set the Method as follows:
   
   Comp : Over
   Blend: Normal
   Correction: None
   
   
   
10. Creat the output file format and render out the animation as perviously for producing the animation (see part IB steps 1, 13, 14, 15, 16 above).