dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

Opening Scene reimagined

The idea was to start off my animatic with an announcement to all Dreamscape citizens by Silvercrest saying,

Dear citizens of Dreamscape,

Have you ever dreamed of a life that is luxurious, with a comfortable bed, a permanent job, and a great education for your child? Just leave behind those crumbling walls and join us.

We are already building the perfect future for you.

Don’t just think about yourself. Think about your child’s future. RETHINK.

Although I had the announcement ready, I did not know what I would show during the announcement. This part was a whole blur to me. Therefore, during my feedback session, I tried to brainstorm what we could show for each line but at the end of the day I was still struggling to build a connection. How do I want to show Dreamscape to the audience? As a poor place with lack of facilities in contrast to the audio of Silvercrest describing a lifestyle filled with luxery. How would this affect my story?

Luxury in Dreamscape was a topic that was discussed during the feedback session. What is Luxury in Dreamscape? ndividuality, Creativity, slow yet peaceful lifesatyle, freedom of expression were some points that came out. How are we going to show these? If we show a Dreamscape that attracts the viewer too then people would feel like Silvercrest is not important. But we can't make people hate Dreamscape because of visuals that show a poor lifestyle.

Then we decided to approach the problem in a different light. Basically show Dreamscape as it is. WITHOUT AN AUDIO RECORDING. Just background music and local ambience. No silvercrest audio message. No loudspeaker. Just the town of Dreamscape in it's poor state. The catch is, in this poor, crumbling town there is something out of place. Something that grabs the attention of the viewer. Brand new digital posters, billboards in every shot. Not alot.

For instance it could be a line of houses of Dreamscape with rusty walls. Near the door of the house in the right corner there is a small digital screen with a poster of Silvercrest.

I'm planning to have a total of 4 shots. With Each shot, the size of the propganda poster becomes bigger. Maybe lastly a shot of the city a top down view. and on top there is a massive billboard by Silvercrest that has a 3D effect inspired by 3D billboards in Times Square.

I had to take a look at real estate ads that are advertised around the world and surpricingly most of the ads took a similar tone. Dradiant skies, green concept, peaceful yet luxurious living are some common concepts that are advertised.

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

Creating the identity of Silvercrest

Silvercrest is this organization which started off as a development project for Dreamscape but took a sudden turn and wanted the land of Dreamscape to build a city of their own. I want to establish Silvercrest Project during the first half minute of my animation and for this Silvercrest having a strong identity/presence is crucial.

As a creative, my ability in creating brand identities and marketing is not that great. So I am taking some time with this part of the project. For this I have to make sure I do some research on Real Estate advertisements and the real estate company brand identities in order to come up with a strong visual identity for Silvercrest

These are some common logo that are found in Real Estate development projects. These logos have some common things. Most of these logos depict houses or roofs of houses. It is very direct and very obvious. I feel like it is very cliche also.

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

Lumo Design so far

Lumo Design so far is going good. I have to make sure the Wilson logo is changed to something else. Maybe a sports brand in Dreamscape. Moreover, I am concerned about the eyes. I really like the eye design but Irushi said they don't look emotional enough. So might have to work around that also.

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

Test Render 3

Scene 02#Shot 04

The boy stays focused on his craft, hands busy and eyes down. Lumo lets out a quiet sound, just enough to catch his attention. The boy pauses, then looks up at the glowing jellyfish."

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

Test Render 2

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

Test Renders: Establishing Shot (Scene 02 Shot 01) Niko and the Jellyfish

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

Relighting Using Blender + Switchlight

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

Rotoscoping Speed Run Work in progress

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

One Final Touch- Final compositing done on Blender 3D

The last step is bringing the final video into Blender for the final composition. Here, I make sure to match the lighting perfectly and add depth of field to give the shot a more cinematic look. I also carefully set the Blender camera to match and align with the real footage so everything blends together smoothly. Once all of this is in place, I do the final render and the shot is complete.

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

VFX Pipeline Part 2

Step 04 - Exporting PNG Sequence and Video Separately

In this step, I export both a PNG sequence and a video file separately. There’s a reason for this. The PNG sequence is super useful because it can be used to extract different maps like depth maps, normal maps, or even to relight the footage later if needed. It gives you more control in the VFX process. On the other hand, the video file is used as a base because it’s the most solid, high-quality version with all the captured details intact. Having both gives me flexibility to get the best out of each file depending on what the next steps need.

Step 05 - Map extraction using Switchlight

Step 06 - Relighting Through Blender and Rendering

In this step, I bring the footage into Blender to relight it using virtual lights. The footage I use here is the one I extracted earlier using Switchlight. When relighting, I have to be really mindful of where the shadows and highlights are so that the new lighting feels natural and actually fits the final scene. The goal is to make it look like the subject was originally filmed in that environment. Once I’m happy with the lighting, I render it out properly, ready to move to the next stage.

Step 7: Blending the Original Footage and the Relit Versions

In this step, I take both the original footage and the relit version and blend them together. I use DaVinci Resolve for this part. The relit Switchlight version is layered on top of the original footage and I usually blend them using the "Darken" mode in composite settings. This method helps me keep the lighting changes from the Switchlight pass while still retaining all the original details and textures from the source video. It gives me the best of both worlds — natural lighting and high-quality detail.

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

VFX Pipeline

Step 01 - Recording the footage

So the first step in my VFX pipeline is recording green screen footage. The camera you use is super important here. Basically, the better the camera, the easier it is to work with the footage later on. A good quality camera gives you sharper footage, cleaner edges, and makes the keying process way smoother. Also, having a proper green screen is really important — it should be clean, without wrinkles, and big enough to cover the subject fully. Lighting is a huge deal too. You need to light the green screen properly so there are no weird shadows or bright spots, and try to match the lighting on your subject as close as possible to the final scene. If you get the lighting right at this stage, it'll save you a lot of time later and help everything look more natural when you composite the shots.

Step 02 - Selecting Raw Video Files/Footage

After the shoot day, you’re usually left with tons of raw videos and multiple takes of the same shot. It can be a bit overwhelming because by the end of the day you have so many clips to go through. So in this step, I sit down as the director and carefully watch each take, one by one. I decide which clips I’m going to use for the final cut and which shots actually need VFX work. I make a note of this somewhere so I know exactly what’s going into the final video and what needs to go through the VFX pipeline.

Step 03 - Removing Greenscreen Using After Effects

This is where After Effects really becomes the game changer. In this step, the main goal is to remove the green screen in the cleanest way possible and get perfectly masked footage. You have to be smart about how you do it — sometimes using Chroma Key is enough, but other times you need to go deeper with rotoscoping or even manual masking using the pen tool. Honestly, most of the time it’s a mix of all these methods. At the end of the day, what really matters is that you end up with a clean, sharp subject without the green screen or any background, fully ready for the next stage in the VFX pipeline.

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

My VFX Pipeline for this project

This VFX pipeline is something I’ve personally built and refined over time. It didn’t happen overnight — I had to go through a lot of trial and error, experimenting with different methods, tools, and workflows to finally land on a process that actually works for me. I know that in professional studios, pipelines can be much more complex or follow a different structure, but this one is what I find most comfortable and efficient for my projects. Every step I’ve included here is something I’ve tested, adjusted, and proven to fit my style and the way I like to work.

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

Sound Choice for my Final Major Project

I found this sound on Pixabay and I found this track when I was least expecting. It is a beautiful track and has a motif part that really brings the emotional tone that I need in this piece. Since it is just music also, I feel like this fits my animatic. At least the opening of it. Let's see how things turn out. I am excited!

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

City of Dreamscape - In Development

In the animatic the city was stuffed with more lights and more buildings but I figured when it comes to production you have to be really careful on where you place your light sources in. You cannot just put lights everywhere because you have to match your footage with the lighting of the scene.

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

Remaking the city of Dreamscape. Texturing and assembling

Actually, if I had more time Substance Painter is really fun to work with. Of course it is a challenge getting some small details to work but overall adding colour to your 3D blocks is not bad.

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

Boy sitting establishing shot : Working on my initial shot

I started working on one of the first shots that shows the boy's character fully. The footage was really good in quality that made it really easy for me to work with. I firstly put the footage to after effects and used key light 1.2 to chroma key the footage and remove the greens. Then used advanced spill suppressor to remove any green shadow or reflection on the boy's body.

Then I felt like my actual lighting in the scene was much more different than I wanted it to be. The warmth and the Orange tone was quite missing. So I used switchlight to extract the maps of this footage and used blender to relight the footage using virtual lights on Blender. However Switchlight, while relighting sort of destroys the quality of your footage giving it a clay look. I had to come up with a creative solution for this.

Then after that I overlayed the two footages together on After effects and I blended them together in order to get the lights of there-lit version to the original video. This way I did not lose any detail but also got the desired lighting effect in my footage.

[dinethfernando-mga2023mi6015]

Opening Scene reimagined

The idea was to start off my animatic with an announcement to all Dreamscape citizens by Silvercrest saying,

Dear citizens of Dreamscape,

Have you ever dreamed of a life that is luxurious, with a comfortable bed, a permanent job, and a great education for your child? Just leave behind those crumbling walls and join us.

We are already building the perfect future for you.

Don’t just think about yourself. Think about your child’s future. RETHINK.

Although I had the announcement ready, I did not know what I would show during the announcement. This part was a whole blur to me. Therefore, during my feedback session, I tried to brainstorm what we could show for each line but at the end of the day I was still struggling to build a connection. How do I want to show Dreamscape to the audience? As a poor place with lack of facilities in contrast to the audio of Silvercrest describing a lifestyle filled with luxery. How would this affect my story?

Luxury in Dreamscape was a topic that was discussed during the feedback session. What is Luxury in Dreamscape? ndividuality, Creativity, slow yet peaceful lifesatyle, freedom of expression were some points that came out. How are we going to show these? If we show a Dreamscape that attracts the viewer too then people would feel like Silvercrest is not important. But we can't make people hate Dreamscape because of visuals that show a poor lifestyle.

Then we decided to approach the problem in a different light. Basically show Dreamscape as it is. WITHOUT AN AUDIO RECORDING. Just background music and local ambience. No silvercrest audio message. No loudspeaker. Just the town of Dreamscape in it's poor state. The catch is, in this poor, crumbling town there is something out of place. Something that grabs the attention of the viewer. Brand new digital posters, billboards in every shot. Not alot.

For instance it could be a line of houses of Dreamscape with rusty walls. Near the door of the house in the right corner there is a small digital screen with a poster of Silvercrest.

I'm planning to have a total of 4 shots. With Each shot, the size of the propganda poster becomes bigger. Maybe lastly a shot of the city a top down view. and on top there is a massive billboard by Silvercrest that has a 3D effect inspired by 3D billboards in Times Square.

I had to take a look at real estate ads that are advertised around the world and surpricingly most of the ads took a similar tone. Dradiant skies, green concept, peaceful yet luxurious living are some common concepts that are advertised.