Compositing THINKER by Edon Guraziu

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Realistic Compositing techniques for 3D-Assets

For Syntactic Labyrinths we shot live-action backplates with a tracking dummy for both THINKER and RECEIVER.
In this tutorial I cover the process of compositing the assets into your live-action footage in After Effects.

We started with a simple tracking dummy that matched the dimensions of the 3D-asset we were going to replace later.
I'm using high-contrast tracking markers with a variety of shapes that I can track to accurately get sheer and motion data.

You can Download these Tracking Markers for Free on our store.

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You might notice that the replaced 3D-asset is a slight bit smaller than the tracking dummy. In our case the solution was to simply create a small section that is a matte-painting on which the 3D-model sits on top.

Creating the clean-up layer is quite simple in this case as the environment is a clean gradient with very subtle light differences.

If you want to prevent doing any clean-up you can use a smaller tracking dummy or shoot a clean plate without the dummy.

The good thing is that we had already seen the 3D-asset we were going to use for THINKER.
This meant that the small crew on set could anticipate what lighting conditions were going to make the asset look good while keeping it integrated realistically.

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Below you can see another example of a wide shot in which we

• replaced the tracking dummy
• added additional details to the room
• and tracked in the motion with the subtle motion-blur and lens artefacts

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