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Trouble Compositing on Dark Scene
Hello,
I have a problem compositing blood on a really dark lit scene. I’ve tried all the different composite modes and I can’t seem to make the “blood” a true blood red color. I find that compositing on a well lit/bright scene is easier and I’ve checked out Lynda.com/VideoCopilot tutorials on compositing blood, however, they don’t talk about this problem.
I have sample print screens:
https://www.reconstructedmedia.com/media/composite-sample.jpg
https://www.reconstructedmedia.com/media/composite-ae.jpgIf you set it to color dodge and try to make it a dark blood red, it brightens. If you set to overlay/Color burn, and try to make it dark, it lowers the opacity. Can any one offer insight about how to handle this problem? How have others composited dark colors on a dark scene?
Thanks in advance.
Nic
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3 Replies
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Hello! Try to lower the saturation and pull down the brightness! that should work!
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Don’t use those fancy dodge/burn modes for this. Also, it’s never a one-layer, one-mode deal. The blood is darker than the skin, so I’d use Multiply mode if I wanted the dark red blood layer to acquire some of the characteristics of the skin. I’d also add a “normal mode” copy of the blood over that, adjusting its opacity until it looks right.
Did you “light” the blood? By that I mean “did you add a gradient (ramp) layer to the composite so the blood appears to be lit by the same light that’s lighting the talent? You might not need to do that if you use Multiply mode.
Maybe you started with a blood red solid, then tried to make it look good through modes? Try tweaking the solid colour *after* you get a realistic non-blood stain. Once you get something that looks like *some* kind of a realistic stain/liquid on the talent, you can then adjust the colour of the blood solid until it looks like a blood stain in the composite. Also, note that if you use Multiply mode or lower the opacity, you can change the solid’s colour to compensate.
Does that help?
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Interesting. It is darker with the multiply modes. However I feel it looks painted on. I will try to add highlights to give it a “shiny” coat. I will post follow up and samples. Thanks for the insight. I appreciate it.
Nic
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