Generating an artificial key-light shadow in AE?

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Why do it in post when it would be so easy to bring in additional lights in the studio? No filter can simulate what a real light does.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Richard Christy]

It’s hard to describe the studio setup other than, the current setup is what we have to work with. We have neither the resources or the room to bring in any more lights, or move the subject. I know the conventional wisdom is to always adjust issues at the time instead of after the fact, but in this case, it’s inevitable.

However, I should mention the foreground subject does not move. They are always in a stationary position for the duration of the video.

I have seen AE plug ins that let you designate an area you wish to focus on (IE: using a simple, circular mask type cursor) and it generates the desired effect in and around this area.

Are you saying there is no such method that will allow to generate the key-light shadow?

[Barend Onneweer]

If you can’t bring additional lights, can you put a piece of black fabric or foamboard on one side of the subject? This ‘negative bounce’ will help creating a less flat look.

Other than that, you can manually mask out your highlight areas and lift them a little using any colour grading tool.

Raamw3rk – digital storytelling and visual effects

[Richard Christy]

It is a screen, but we’re not chroma keying. We’re going for a desired effect and the current lighting setup proves to get us what we need. The lack of shadow is the unwanted bi-product.

I under this is a manual process of adding the shadow back in, and I’m willing to give it a try. That’s actually why I’m posting. I just need to know WHAT method. Not sure how to go about it…

My assumption is that, at some point, someone has ran into a similar problem and fixed it in AE after wards. I just need to find this method so I can give it a try.

My Google searches always return results for shadows in a chroma key environment (and not really the same thing in this case).

[Barend Onneweer]

Your description is a bit confusing. A picture would probably come in handy right about now.

But it sounds like you want to manually draw in the highlights. So create an adjustmentlayer, mask the highlight areas, add a little feather to the mask and use Levels, Curves or Exposure to lift the highlights a little.

For more detailed advise you really should show an image of what you’re working with.

Raamw3rk – digital storytelling and visual effects

[Walter Soyka]

Can you post a screen shot of your footage?

If I absolutely had to do this in post, I would try to track points or features on the subject’s face. Next, I’d hand-paint a depth map of the face. After that, I’d try to morph the depth map according to the tracked features as the subject moves. I’d use a Sobel filter to attempt to convert the depth map to a normal map, and then I’d use normals-based re-lighting to attempt to realistically cast the shadows.

After all that time and effort, I’d be totally disappointed in the results.

Have you considered exposing the subject properly, rotoscoping the subject, and manipulating the screen background in post?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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