The Filmmaker's Guide to Visual Effects

The Filmmaker's Guide to Visual Effects

by Eran Dinur
Released March 2017
Publisher(s): Routledge
ISBN: 9781317353171

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Book description

The Filmmaker’s Guide to Visual Effects offers a practical, detailed guide to visual effects for non-VFX specialists working in film and television. In contemporary filmmaking and television production, visual effects are used extensively in a wide variety of genres and formats to contribute to visual storytelling, help deal with production limitations, and reduce budget costs. Yet for many directors, producers, editors, and cinematographers, visual effects remain an often misunderstood aspect of media production. In this book, award-winning VFX supervisor and instructor Eran Dinur introduces readers to visual effects from the filmmaker’s perspective, providing a comprehensive guide to conceiving, designing, budgeting, planning, shooting, and reviewing VFX, from pre-production through post-production.

The book will help readers:

  • Learn what it takes for editors, cinematographers, directors, producers, gaffers, and other filmmakers to work more effectively with the visual effects team during pre-production, on the set and in post, use visual effects as a narrative aid, reduce production costs, and solve problems on location;

  • Achieve a deeper understanding of 3D, 2D, and 2.5D workflows; the various VFX crafts from matchmove to compositing; essential concepts like photorealism, parallax, roto, and extraction; become familiar with the most common types of VFX, their role in filmmaking, and learn how to plan effectively for the cost and complexity of VFX shots;

  • See visual effects concepts brought to life in practical, highly illustrated examples drawn from the real-world experiences of industry professionals, and discover how to better integrate visual effects into your own projects.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication
  6. Table of Contents
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Introduction
  9. Part 1: VFX Fundamentals
    1. Chapter 1: Core Concepts
      1. Special Effects or Visual Effects?
      2. What Does CGI Really Mean?
      3. 2D, 3D, and Stereoscopic 3D
      4. Realism and Photorealism
      5. The Danger of Over-indulgence
      6. Animation, Games, and Visual Effects
      7. VFX and the Digital Revolution
      8. Digital vs. Film
      9. Film vs. Television
    2. Chapter 2: VFX as a Filmmaking Tool
      1. Common Types of VFX Shots
        1. Fix-it Shots
        2. Screen Inserts
        3. Rig Removal and Period Cleanup
        4. Set Extensions
        5. Crowd Tiling/Crowd Simulation
        6. Action Elements
      2. Advanced VFX
    3. Chapter 3: From 2D to 3D: The Quest for the Lost Dimension
      1. Camera Movement and VFX
        1. Parallax
        2. Perspective Shift
      2. 2D Workflow
      3. The Missing Dimension
      4. Recreating the Camera
      5. 3D Workflow
      6. 3D vs. 2D
      7. 2.5D: The Hybrid Solution
      8. Putting It All Together
    4. Chapter 4: Separation: Roto, Green Screens, and the Challenges of Extraction
      1. Rotoscoping
      2. Green Screen
      3. The Challenges of Extraction
        1. Background Matching
        2. Spill
        3. Non-solid Edges
  10. Part 2: The Inside Look
    1. Chapter 5: The VFX Workflow: An In-depth Look at the Various Crafts of Visual Effects
      1. Pre-production Crafts
        1. Previs
        2. Concept Art
      2. Camera Tracking
      3. Layout
      4. Modeling
        1. Technical Modeling
        2. Organic Modeling
        3. Cost-saving Alternatives
      5. Texturing and Shading
        1. Shaders
        2. Textures
      6. Rigging
      7. Animation
        1. Motion Capture
      8. Lighting and Rendering
        1. CG Lighting Essentials
        2. Rendering
      9. Compositing
      10. Matte Painting
      11. Dynamic Simulations
        1. Rigid-body Simulations
        2. Cloth Simulations
        3. Fluid Simulations
      12. Particle Systems
      13. Crowd Simulation
    2. Chapter 6: Workflow Case Studies
      1. Shot 1: Background Cleanup
      2. Shot 2: The Homestead Strike
      3. Shot 3: Piranha Attack
        1. Asset Work vs. Shot Work
      4. Shot 4: Tsunami Mayhem
  11. Part 3: VFX in Production
    1. Chapter 7: Pre-production
      1. Preliminary VFX Breakdown
      2. The VFX Supervisor and VFX Producer
        1. Model 1: Dedicated Production VFX Supervisor and Producer
        2. Model 2: Company In-house VFX Supervisor and Producer
      3. Preliminary Bidding
        1. Inside the Bidding Process
      4. Storyboarding
      5. Previs and Concept Art
      6. VFX Production Meetings
      7. Tech Scouts
      8. Detailed Budget and Schedule
      9. Case Study: Ellis Island
    2. Chapter 8: On Set
      1. Shooting VFX Elements
        1. Camera Movement
        2. Camera Angle and Position
        3. Lens Type
        4. Framing
        5. Choosing the Right Background
        6. Frame Rate
      2. Green Screens
        1. Action Coverage
        2. Screen Consistency
        3. Cast Shadows
        4. Tracking Markers
        5. Smoke and Atmospherics
        6. Reflections
        7. Lighting Green Screens
        8. Roto or Green Screen?
      3. Case Study: The Crane Dare
      4. On-set Data Acquisition
        1. Camera Information
      5. On-set Reference Photography
        1. Spherical HDRI Light Domes
        2. Lidar 3D Scanning
        3. Photogrammetry
      6. Crowd Tiling
        1. Setting Up the Camera
        2. Setting Up the Camera
      7. Screen Inserts Setup
      8. Stunts and Visual Effects
      9. Special Effects and Visual Effects
    3. Chapter 9: Post-production
      1. The Post-production VFX Workflow
      2. VFX Color Workflow
      3. Image and Video Formats
        1. Bit Depth
        2. Compression
        3. Optimal Quality Formats
        4. Lower Quality Formats
      4. Color Space Demystified
        1. ACES Color Space
      5. VFX and Editorial
        1. The VFX Editor
        2. When to Deliver Shots to the VFX Team
        3. Handles
        4. Edit Refs
        5. Editorial Temps
      6. Budgeting and Scheduling
        1. Budget Updates
        2. Change Orders
        3. Scheduling
      7. The Reviewing Process
        1. Mockups
        2. Style Frames
        3. Playblasts
        4. Turntables
        5. Comp
        6. Final Approval
      8. Communication
        1. Providing Feedback
    4. Chapter 10: The Future
      1. Lightfield Cinematography
        1. Depth-based Separation
        2. Per-frame Dense Point Clouds
        3. Big Changes Ahead
      2. Super-black Materials
      3. Real-time Rendering
      4. AR, MR, and VR
  12. Index

Product information

  • Title: The Filmmaker's Guide to Visual Effects
  • Author(s): Eran Dinur
  • Release date: March 2017
  • Publisher(s): Routledge
  • ISBN: 9781317353171