Recently, eyeon talked to Fusion
artist Daniel Lee of C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures and Reel Arts Studio.
Since the beginning of 1992, Daniel has
worked on thirteen feature films, eight television movies
and more than one hundred television commercials using
a wide variety of software including: Flame, Henry, Edit
box, Shake and Fusion.
His skills are complemented with
many years of experience in photography,
including four years as a licensed commercial
photographer.
Currently, Daniel is a Lead/Senior Compositor at
C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, www.coredp.com and the Owner of
Reel Arts Studio, www.reelartsstudio.com.
Q. How long have you been working with Fusion as
an artist? Where did you learn your compositing
skills, and how did you first get started using
Fusion?
I have been working with Fusion for
over eight years. When I started at C.O.R.E., they
had just setup Fusion as the main compositing
software for films so I had to jump in right
away.
Even though I didn’t have any formal
training, I was able to learn Fusion very quickly. The reasons were that, first, I had seven years
previous experience doing VFX
work for commercials and, second, Fusion was really
easy to learn. Anyone who has a basic knowledge
of compositing can open Fusion for
the first time and get good results in a day or two.
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Q. What shows have you contributed to in the
past?
More than thirteen feature films,
including Silent Hill, Saw II, Resident
Evil: Apocalypse, and Blade II. Eight made-for-TV
movies including Happy Town, The Gathering, and The
Rats. Television series such as The Tudors,
Seasons 1, 2, and 3. I’ve also worked on over 100
television commercials. |
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Q. Tight deadlines and large shot counts put a
lot of pressure on the artistic team. How does Fusion
help you achieve your deadlines?
One artist can work in a 2D as well as 3D space at the same time
with Fusion to complete a VFX effect. In other software,
like Shake, this would require two or more
artists in order to achieve the same type of
effect. Projects are
completed in a shorter period of time and under budget.
For instance, I used Fusion to make a New
York cityscape which was shot in Toronto, seen
at this link, Cityscape.
I was able to do modeling, texturing, and compositing
within Fusion.
The clients were thoroughly impressed with the results. It was done
before the deadline and my boss was thrilled at
how little time it took and the costs we were able to save using that
technique.
Q. What are some of your favourite
tools in Fusion?
Definitely the particle
system! I used it for the Tudors, Season 3. We took
a crowd of 25 people and changed them into a crowd of
20,000. The budget would never have permitted the
hiring of that many extras. I used the particle
system and the duplication tools in 3D space after
importing camera animation from a 3D tracking
software to complete the shots.
I was able
to produce hair animations using the particle system, as
seen at this link, Hair Animation.
There was a shot that required a heavy matte painting of three
people’s heads which were lifted on three
poles. It has over 300 frames and the camera
is pulling back from an extreme close up. They are
supposed to be located outdoors and somehow we have
to add 'live feeling' from the still image
animation. I animated the individual strands of their
mustaches, eyebrows, and hair utilizing the
particle system in Fusion. I needed to make it look as if the
hair was blowing
around. It took less than two days.
The results were so quick and the clients loved them. They
were amazed that the shots were completed well within time
frame and well within the budget.
Q. What other compositing
software platforms do you work with? What features in
Fusion do you find attractive in
comparison?
I have worked with Flame, Shake,
Nuke, and Maya.
Fusion has technical aspects that are above the
others, such as, the particle system in 2D/3D space, and
3D projection. I find Fusion an awesome software to do
my post work.
Q. Do you make use of Fusion’s
3D environment and if so how?
Definitely, I usually do a 3D track
(or someone else might do it for me), import it into Fusion with
3D geometries, project the matte painted image on
the geometry, and comp it with FG elements.
In most live feature films, extreme camera movements
are usually avoided and it helps compositors
utilizing the projection solution within 2D apps onto
some simple geometries without going back and forth
between 3D artists and 2D artists. It has saved a tremendous amount
of time and improved the final quality.
Fusion has been a great solution for that since it has
introduced 3D work environments in Fusion 5.
People are always amazed at the 2D to 3D capabilities
of Fusion. I don’t think most artists realize what the
software can do.
Q. What trends do you see emerging in visual Effects? How do you see the
role of the VFX artist changing, and where do you
see yourself in 10 years?
Technology changes everyday and so do the trends in VFX. Unfortunately,
some of the artists and managers tend to ignore the benefits they would have if some of the 3D
techniques can be used in a 2D application such
as Fusion.
For instance, in order to make
photo-realistic effects with 3D, almost every single
3D-rendered element has to be integrated into a live
BG by a compositor. That is because 2D apps are much
better in color correction. If a compositor can produce the 3D elements with a 2D app, she or
he would be able to integrate them on the fly. This
means you can save quite lot of time and
resources.
Another benefit of 2D artists adopting
the 3D solution is that the 2D artists can plan
everything in a 2D-way-of-thinking and only use the 3D
solution as it is needed. In other words, instead of
worrying about modeling, texturing, and lighting, they
would just simply make a photo-realistic image
in Photoshop and project it onto a simple geometry.
Because 2D artists tend to look at things through
a camera view and don’t see the other sides
of the object.
I guess no one can know how
much merging will happen between 3D and 2D. The new
trend, however, requires us to study both of the aspects,
and if you do, you will be standing levels above other artists. |
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