-
compositting shadows
I have a job coming up in which I’ll need to composite a full body actor into a different environment, upon which, they’ll have to walk around.
Aside from matching perspective, I’ve always found getting the shadows right to be difficult.
Usually, I motion track my actor into the scene, duplicate the layer, and then rotate the duplicate down on the X axis until the duplicate is under the actor to some extent. Tint the layer and blur it out a bit and you’ve made a fairly accurate shadow cast.
The second step is to create a darker shadow under the actor’s feet by keyframing a mask around a black solid.
This method has proved to work fairly well, but it is time consuming.
I’m just curious if anyone has any preferred method or has seen a tutorial that may present an easier/more effective way to achieve this affect.
Additionally, any notes on matching perspective would be appreciated as well.
Currently, I just take notes on the camera’s angle, height and lens mm and then try to recreate that when I film other components of the scene.
Thanks!
runawaykitee.blogspot.com
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” –Albert Einstein
-
1 Reply
-
You may find this plugin (Shadow from Warp) useful (especially when it come to the shadow being cast on 2 separate planes:
https://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/rgwarp/Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up