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Compositing Footsteps
I’m compositing a walking character into snowy footage so that footprints are left behind as the character progresses through the walk cycle.
I’ve made the footprints in Houdini using grains so all the footprint construction is done. [Image attached] How do I now composite this in AE/c4d over the background plate without it looking like an extra object stuck on top [HDRI’s and feathered masks have only got me so far]
Any suggestions would be most grateful
Regards
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2 Replies
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You may need to render out a separate pass of the footprints (if you haven’t already). Make sure the matchmoving is good on your footage. Then, I would suggest using blending modes as your main compositing tool; essentially, you’d be compositing the shadows onto the existing snowy surface to create the illusion of depth. I do this regularly, painting wrinkles onto still imagery of cloth and garments in Photoshop; most of the “contours” we see are just combinations of shadows and highlights on the surface, and the smaller textural details aren’t as important unless we’re really close up to see them. You can use a combination of blending modes and masking to get the desired effect.
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