Blender for Visual Effects

Bringing concrete examples from industry to light, this book explains how to use Blender to create visual effects for video/film production. It supplies readers with a practical way to learn how to use Blender’s tools across a wide range of scenarios in video/film production, including setting up cameras on a stage, lighting, and other production processes. Maintaining a focus on composition, the book not only explains how to use the most common tools, such as tracking, rendering, and compositing, but also explains how to deal with software limitations and sort out problems. Since the best way to learn something is with a practical example, this book follows one of the author’s own projects, starting with how to prepare the elements that will be needed later on. The example illustrates how to use Blender tools and features for scene tracking, setup, rendering, masking, and other post-production functions—from start to finish in a professional workflow. The book examines all the compositing nodes that can be used in Blender. It details time-saving tips, features such as the motion tracker, and rendering techniques so readers will have enough information to accomplish the most common tasks encountered in the creation of a professional visual effects composition. By following the example project presented in the book, you will gain the practical understanding required to use Blender’s tools in the most common scenarios in video/film production. You will also gain industry insights into the limitations of the software and how to sort out the problematic scenarios that may come up through the various stages of your project.

Problem Definition Introduction Approaching the Task Additional Materials SummaryPreparation Getting Ready Setting up Blender Shooting Calibration Summary Tracking Basics of Tracking Preparing the Footage Working with the TrackerCalibration inside Blender Placing the Marks Solving the Tracking Applying the Solved Camera Plane Track SummaryScene SetupWorld Creation Setting up Elements Lighting Summary Rendering Internal Render vs. Cycles Render Internal Render Pros and Cons Cycles Render Pros and Cons Rendering with Layers Understanding the Render Passes Combined (RGBA) Depth (Z) Ambient Occlusion (AO) Shadow Vector Normal Object Index Material Index UV Formats Basic Channel Format Multichannel FormatRender Settings Render Device Dimensions Sampling Light Paths Film Overscan Summary Masking Starting to Mask Clean Plate Preview Refining the Mask Tracking the Mask Frame-by-Frame Painting Summary Compositing First Steps Nodes Overview Inputs Render Layers Image Texture Value RGB Time Movie Clip Bokeh Image Mask Track Position Outputs Composite Viewer Split Viewer File Output Levels Layout Frame Reroute SwitchGroup Distort Translate Rotate Scale Flip Crop Transform Displace Lens Distortion Map UV Stabilize 2D Movie Distortion Plane Track Deform Corner Pin Matte Difference Key Color Spill Distance Key, Chroma Key, Color Key, and Channel Key Keying Luminance Key Double Edge Mask Keying Screen Box Mask and Ellipse MaskConverter Combine and Separate (RGBA, HSVA, YUVA, YCbCr) Alpha Convert Math ID Mask Set Alpha RGB to BW ColorRamp Filter Filter Blur Directional Blur Bilateral Blur Vector Blur Dilate/Erode Inpaint Despeckle Defocus Glare Bokeh Blur Pixelate Sun BeamsVector Normal Vector Curves Normalize Map Value Map Range Color RGB Curves Mix Hue Saturation Value Bright/Contrast Gamma Invert AlphaOver Z Combine Color Balance Hue Correct Tonemap Color Correction Compositing the Scene Film Grain Fake Grain Real Grain Vignetting PreviewRendering Limitations Depth Pass ID Passes Final Notes SummaryIndex

Sam Vila earned a filmmaking certificate from the London Film Academy in 2006 and other degrees from different schools for film editing, camera operation, Steadicam operation, and postproduction. He has been progressing in his career as a filmmaker and visual effects artist by participating in several productions not only for television but also for feature films.Currently Sam Vila is working as a visual effects artist in Los Angeles, California, using Blender as the main tool to generate all the visual effects on a daily basis. His experience includes five feature films and several short films usually as a visual effects artist. With several years of experience creating 3D content, he has wide-ranging knowledge of many well-known 3D software programs, and he has engaged in professional collaborations with companies such as NVIDIA and OTOY (Octane Render). He is also a co-founder of Los Angeles Blender Group and a very active member of the Blender community.