User manual APPLE SHAKE 4 - TUTORIALS MANUAL

Shake 4 Tutorials Apple Computer, Inc. © 2005 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved. Under the copyright laws, this manual may not be copied, in whole or in part, without the written consent of Apple. Your rights to the software are governed by the accompanying software license agreement. The Apple logo is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Use of the keyboard Apple logo (Option-Shift-K) for commercial purposes without the prior written consent of Apple may constitute trademark infringement and unfair competition in violation of federal and state laws. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this manual is accurate. Apple Computer, Inc. is not responsible for printing or clerical errors. Apple Computer, Inc. 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014-2084 408-996-1010 www.apple.com Apple, the Apple logo, Final Cut, Final Cut Pro, FireWire, Mac, Macintosh, Mac OS, Nothing Real, QuickTime, Shake, and TrueType are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Adobe and Photoshop are trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the U.S. and/or other countries. Cineon is a registered trademark of Eastman Kodak Company. Maya, Alias, and Alias|Wavefront are trademarks or registered trademarks of Alias Systems Corp. in the U.S. and/or other countries. IRIX is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. 3ds Max is a registered trademark of Autodesk Inc. Other company and product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective companies. Mention of third-party products is for informational purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation. Apple assumes no responsibility with regard to the performance or use of these products. 1 Contents Preface 7 7 8 8 11 11 12 16 19 24 24 26 31 33 34 37 40 41 43 47 47 48 50 55 66 71 75 80 91 91 92 Welcome to Shake 4 The Tutorial Lessons Installing the Tutorial Media Mac OS X Notes Shake Basics Tutorial Summary A Tour of the Basics Loading Images Viewing Images, Parameters, and Channels Working With Windows Launching a Flipbook Compositing Elements Setting Resolution Filtering and Masking Tuning Parameters Working With Layer Nodes Transforming an Image Fading an Element Rendering a Sequence Intermediate Skills Tutorial Summary Inserting Nodes Into a Tree Grouping Nodes and Using SetDOD Using the Time View Creating Motion Blur Importing Photoshop Files Keyframe Animation and the Curve Editor Color Correction Depth Compositing Tutorial Summary Simulated Depth and 3D Compositing Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 3 93 98 102 107 111 121 125 Chapter 4 133 133 133 136 138 139 144 153 156 163 163 164 165 167 169 172 175 178 179 183 183 183 186 191 194 200 201 201 201 202 206 208 Working With Z Channels Creating Composites With ZCompose Color Correcting Premultiplied Images Fading With Distance 3D Compositing With the MultiPlane Node Animating a MultiPlane Camera Importing Camera and Animation Data Working With Expressions Tutorial Summary Creating the Fan Composite Creating a Light Source With RGrad Looping Frames in the Time View Using Local Variables and Expressions Simulating Volumetrics With RBlur Concatenating Color Adjustments Adding Motion Blur to Pre-Animated Elements Using Keylight Tutorial Summary Using Keylight to Pull a Key Testing the Mask With a Viewer Script Adjusting the Mask With Parameters Masking Color Correcting the Foreground Image Advanced Keylight Techniques Using fgBias to Remove Blue Spill Using a Holdout Matte Using Primatte Tutorial Summary The Basics of Pulling a Key in Primatte Inner Mechanics of Primatte Masking Primatte Spill Suppression in Primatte Compositing Outside of Primatte Tracking and Stabilization Tutorial Summary Tracking and Stabilizing Nodes Stabilizing an Image Sequence Converting Stabilization Data to MatchMove Data Using the MatchMove Node Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 4 Contents 215 218 Chapter 8 225 225 225 226 232 234 237 238 241 243 243 243 247 252 Position the Foreground Element Color Correct the Foreground Element Working With Macros Tutorial Summary What Is a Macro? Creating a Handmade Macro Saving and Testing the Macro Adding a Button to the Interface How to Set Slider Ranges Creating Macros With MacroMaker Creating Sliders in MacroMaker Creating Clean Plates Tutorial Summary Stitching Images Stabilizing and Stitching Background Plates Creating a Clean Plate With QuickPaint Chapter 9 Contents 5 6 Contents This guide includes hands-on tutorials, demonstrations, and explanations of Shake features and workflow. In addition to the fundamental topics, this guide also explains specialized topics, such as 3D compositing, expressions, keying, and tracking. Check the lesson summaries below for a quick overview of each tutorial. For further study, you'll want to explore the Shake 4 User Manual. This is a two-volume book (also available in PDF format from the onscreen Help menu and in the Shake/doc directory) that contains detailed information about color correction, keying and spill suppression, masking, transforms, premultiplication, bit depth, logarithmic color space, caching and optimization, and other Shake features. The Shake 4 User Manual also includes a helpful "Cookbook" chapter with additional tips and macros to improve your workflow and productivity. The Tutorial Lessons · Tutorial 1: "Shake Basics"--This tutorial introduces Shake through a series of common · · · · tasks, including loading and compositing images, tuning parameters, transforming images, adding masks, and rendering. Tutorial 2: "Intermediate Skills"--This tutorial shows how to optimize your workflow with the SetDOD node, and how to use the Shake Time View, and the Curve Editor. You will also learn how to add motion blur, how to color-match the elements in a composite, and how to import Photoshop files as layers in a composite. Tutorial 3: "Depth Compositing"--This tutorial demonstrates different methods for creating "real" and simulated depth in your composites. You'll start with Z channels and filtering options. Then you'll work with Shake's MultiPlane node. Tutorial 4: "Working With Expressions"--This tutorial shows how to generate animation with expressions, rather than keyframes. Tutorial 5: "Using Keylight"--This two-part lesson covers the basics of using the Keylight node: pulling keys, applying masking, creating holdout mattes, and performing spill suppression. Preface 7 Welcome to Shake 4 · Tutorial 6: "Using Primatte"--This lesson describes the basic use and mechanics of the Photron Primatte keying plug-in, as well as masking and spill suppression. · Tutorial 7: "Tracking and Stabilization"--This tutorial demonstrates the primary uses for Shake's tracking technology, including removing unwanted motion from an image sequence and "matchmoving" an element to the motion of another element in the composite. · Tutorial 8: "Working With Macros"--This tutorial demonstrates how to create reusable groups of commands, called macros. In this example, you'll set up a basic macro for a motion blur effect that is adjustable to any angle. · Tutorial 9: "Creating Clean Plates"--This tutorial demonstrates how to stitch images with the AutoAlign node, and how to use the SmoothCam node to stabilize footage. You will also use the QuickPaint node to create a clean background plate. Installing the Tutorial Media Before you continue with the tutorials, you need to install the tutorial media. The sample files for the lessons are located on the Shake Installation disk, in the Documentation/Tutorial_Media directory. Licensed users can also download these files from the Shake Installation website. · Installation CD: Copy the Tutorial_Media folder from the Documentation directory to your $HOME/nreal directory. · Online (Linux/IRIX Users): Contact your system administrator for the URL and password to access the download site for the Shake tutorial media. Note: You can install the tutorial media files anywhere you like, but the $HOME/nreal/ Tutorial_Media directory is used in this guide to simplify the process of instruction. Mac OS X Notes The following information applies to Shake on the Mac OS X platform: Using the Three-Button Mouse You must use a three-button mouse with Shake as many functions are not possible with a single- or two-button mouse. The middle scroll wheel commonly serves as the middle mouse button. Many commands in Shake require you to "middle-click." The Delete Key The Macintosh Delete key located below the F12 key is the equivalent of the Linux Backspace key; the Macintosh Delete key grouped with the Help, Home, and End keys is the equivalent of the Linux Delete key. 8 Preface Welcome to Shake 4 Important: Macintosh users should bear in mind that the Delete key used in Shake is not the key located below the F12 key but, rather, the one grouped with the Help, Home, and End keys. If you are using a smaller Macintosh keyboard without the second Delete, use Option-Delete (again, the key below F12). Keyboard Command Differences Between Platforms Some keyboard commands are different between the Mac OS X platform and the Linux or IRIX platform. In most cases in this documentation, the Macintosh keyboard command is cited first, followed by the Linux/IRIX command. Control vs. Command On the Mac OS X platform, you can use the Control or Command key interchangeably. For example, use Control-C or Command-C to copy an object. Launching Shake in the Terminal Mac OS X wraps up binaries and their contents into one icon in the Finder. Click the Shake icon in Mac OS X to launch Shake, or right-click the Shake icon to obtain menu options. For example, right-click the Shake icon and choose Show Package Contents from the shortcut menu to open the subdirectories. Alternatively, you can use the Terminal to navigate to shake.app/Contents/MacOS/ to find the actual binary files. Preface Welcome to Shake 4 9 10 Preface Welcome to Shake 4 1 Shake Basics 1 This tutorial introduces Shake through a series of common tasks, including loading and compositing images, tuning parameters, transforming images, adding masks, and rendering. Tutorial Summary · · · · · · A tour of the basics Loading images Viewing images, parameters, and channels Working with windows Launching a Flipbook Compositing elements 11 · · · · · · · Setting resolution Creating a new element Tuning parameters Working with layer nodes Transforming an image Applying a mask Rendering a sequence A Tour of the Basics In this tutorial you'll create a composite with images created at Big Sister's Watching, NY by Brandon Robinson and Melissa Graff. You'll start by layering the images for the composite. Then you'll incorporate additional elements for soft shadows and lighting. Before you begin, let's review some basic Shake operations. Launching Shake You can launch the Shake application from your desktop or from the command line, assuming the Shake binary files are located in the directory created for Shake during installation. To launch Shake: On the Mac OS X platform, browse to the application directory and double-click the Shake icon, or simply click the Shake icon in the Dock. On the Linux or IRIX platform, enter the following in any shell: shake m m For you Mac users, the Shake icon may appear on the Dock. If it's not there, then you can drag it to the dock from the application directory. You can also launch from the Mac OS X Terminal, but you must type the complete path to Shake (that is, Applications/Shake/shake.app/Contents/MacOS/shake), or set the appropriate environment variables. Note: For more information, see "Environment Variables for Shake" in Chapter 14 of the Shake 4 User Manual. 12 Chapter 1 Shake Basics Using the Shake Panels When you start Shake, you'll notice that the interface is divided into four panels: Viewer, Node View, Tools, and Parameters. Each image process in Shake is accomplished by connecting items, called nodes, as a tree structure in the Node View. The result is an overview of the images, layers, and processes in your project. Shake projects are called scripts because the results are stored as a list of sequential commands in a script file. So, where do the nodes come from? The Tools panel lists the objects and functions-- the nodes--that you can add to your script. The Viewer shows the output of a selected node in the script. The Viewer is also the place where you use interactive controls to transform images and create shapes. In the Parameters panel, you edit a selected node or change project settings on the Globals tab. And, speaking of tabs, three of the four panels are divided into a number of tabs that allow access to commands, additional parameters, and other functional windows, like the Curve Editor and Audio Panel. You don't need to know all the screen controls at this point, but you'll probably have some questions while you're working through this tutorial. Being the advanced compositing artist that you are, you never crack open the user documentation--except for this tutorial guide, of course--so how can you figure out what all the screen items do? Contextual help, that's how! Chapter 1 Shake Basics 13 Contextual Help Move the mouse pointer over a control or parameter to display brief help messages in the Info field at the bottom of the screen. These messages explain what each item does and also show any relevant hot keys. The Info field displays context-sensitive help. For example, suppose you want to know what would happen if you clicked on the ColorWheel command on the Image tab. Move your pointer over the command and the message Create node: "ColorWheel()" appears in the Info field. Go ahead, click it if you want. You'll add a ColorWheel node to the Node View. Your first color wheel! Shortcut Menus and Lists In addition to the contextual help, you can right-click many controls to display shortcut menus with additional commands and functions. Try this: Right-click the View Channel button. A shortcut menu appears with the hot keys for each channel display option. 14 Chapter 1 Shake Basics For many onscreen controls, there are also click-and-hold behaviors: · Click a button to toggle between its two default states. For example, click the View Channel button to toggle between RGB and alpha channel views. · Press and hold a button to select an option from a pop-up list. When you press and hold the View Channel button, for example, you can select from a list of available channel options. Click to toggle between RGB and alpha views. Press and hold to choose from a pop-up menu. Overriding the Default Button Choices To override the default choices, Control-click and hold to choose your next option. For example, the default button behavior for the View Channel button is to toggle between RGB view and alpha view. To modify the behavior to toggle from RGB view to red channel view to alpha channel view and then back to RGB view, perform the following steps: 1 2 3 Make sure the View Channel button is set to RGB (Color) View. Control-click and hold the button, then choose the Red Channel button from the pop-up menu. Control-click and hold the button, then choose the Alpha Channel button. Because the alpha view already toggles to RGB view, you do not have to Control-click and hold again to toggle back to RGB view. To save this behavior, choose File > Save Interface Settings. Chapter 1 Shake Basics 15 Loading Images To load images into your project, you use the FileIn node from the Image Tool tab. In these tutorials, the notation for creating nodes is identified with this format: Tab NameNode Name, as in "insert an Image-FileIn node" . Note: Do not confuse the FileIn node with the Load and Save buttons at the upperright corner of the screen. The Load and Save buttons are for retrieving and saving Shake scripts. If you still have that ColorWheel node in the Node View, you need to remove it. Click once on the node to select it, then press the Delete (Mac OS X) or Backspace (IRIX/ Linux) key. To load the images: 1 In the Image tab, click FileIn to launch the File Browser. 2 Browse to the $HOME/nreal/Tutorial_Media/Tutorial_01/images directory. Note: See "Browsing Tips" below for information on saving this directory to a list of favorites. 16 Chapter 1 Shake Basics 3 Double-click the background directory to open it, select the background.30-59@.jpg image sequence, then click Next at the bottom of the browser (or press the Space bar). You click Next instead of OK to select additional files. When you're done, you'll load all the images at once. 4 Click the Up Directory button, and browse to the orchid directory where you'll find the orchid.30-59#.exr image sequence. The "30-59" tells you this is a sequence of 30 frames. The # symbol indicates frame numbers padded with zeros, so that all frames have four-digit numbers. Don't believe it? 5 Just for fun, click to deselect the "Sequence listing" checkbox. You'll see the individual files in the image sequence. This is a good thing to know if you ever need to load just one frame from a sequence. 6 Click to select the Sequence listing box again to switch back to the original view. 7 Select the orchid.30-59#.sgi image sequence, then click Next. 8 Click the Up Directory button and navigate to the table directory, where you'll find the table.30-59@.exr image sequence. This sequence name includes the @ symbol instead of the # symbol. The @ symbol indicates these frame numbers are not padded with leading zeros. Toggle the "Sequence listing" option and you'll see. 9 To load the sequence, activate "Sequence listing," then select table.30-59@.exr. This time, do not click Next! 10 Click OK to include the last file and close the browser. Chapter 1 Shake Basics 17 . Browsing Tips There are several ways to navigate within the File Browser: · To move up one level, click the Up Directory button or press Delete (Mac OS X), or press Backspace (IRIX or Linux). · To move back to the previously viewed directory, click the Previous Directory button. · To move down one level, double-click a directory. · To scroll by file, click in the file list, then press the Up Arrow or Down Arrow key to scroll up or down. · To scroll using the mouse, middle-click and drag or Option-click and drag (Mac OS X), or Alt-click and drag (you do not have to use the scroll bar on the right). You can also use the mouse scroll wheel. · To jump to a file name, type a letter to move to the first file that starts with that letter. · To review browsing history, use the Directories pop-up menu, which lists the files in your $HOME directory, as well as recently visited directories and favorite project directories. · To save a favorite location, click the Bookmark button near the top of the File Browser. The current location is saved to a list of favorites. · To import multiple files, click Next, or press the Space bar. On the last file, click OK to import all selected files and close the File Browser. After you click OK, the selected images appear as FileIn nodes in the Node View. They might overlap each other, but this is easy to fix. 18 Chapter 1 Shake Basics 11 Drag a selection box around all the nodes, then press L on your keyboard to line them up. You can also right-click in the Node View and choose Node Layout > Layout Selected from the shortcut menu. Viewing Images, Parameters, and Channels Each node represents a function or operation that can be viewed or modified. In this case, these are FileIn nodes that reference images from your disk directories. As shown in the previous illustration, image thumbnails appear above the nodes. If there is an accompanying alpha channel, a thumbnail includes transparency, as well. To test this, drag the mid node over the background node in the node tree and you'll create a minicomposite. Does this help you composite at all? No, but it gives you a quick preview of what the composite might look like. To create an actual composite, you must connect the nodes. This happens in a moment, so stop fidgeting. Working With Thumbnails When working with thumbnails, bear in mind the following: · The thumbnails represent the frame at the time of file loading. · To refresh for the current frame, select the node and press R with the pointer in the Node View. Chapter 1 Shake Basics 19 · To view the alpha channel, place the pointer over the thumbnail and press A. To return to the RGB view, place the pointer over the thumbnail and press C for "color." · Any node can have a thumbnail--select the node and press T. Note: The thumbnails do not dynamically update (see below). · To hide thumbnails, select the nodes and press T. Press T again to show the thumbnails. · Additional controls for the thumbnails are located in the Globals tab. Shake does not dynamically update thumbnails because it can be inefficient and inaccurate. For example, if you're working on 6K plates, do you really want to spend all of your time resizing 6K plates down to tiny icons? (Please say "no.") Suppose your script has 900 nodes, which I think we can all agree is not unlikely. Continually updating all thumbnails would require... well, that's a lot of coffee breaks. The most efficient and accurate way to check a node is to load it into the Viewer. This leads us to the next topic, loading and viewing nodes. Viewing a Node or Loading Its Parameters There are several ways to activate the controls on a node: · To load a node into the Viewer, click the left side of the node. 20 Chapter 1 Shake Basics · To load the parameters into the Parameters tab, click the right side of the node. · To load a node into the Viewer and the Parameters tab simultaneously, double-click the node. Sometimes, you need to edit the parameters of one node while viewing the output from another. For example, you'll often want to adjust a color correction while looking at the result in the final composite. Loaded into Viewer 1, buffer A. Loaded into the Parameters tab. In the illustration above, the orchid node is loaded into the Viewer--the highlight on the left side of the node is the Viewer indicator. The 1A label also appears below the node to indicate it is loaded into Viewer 1, buffer A (stay tuned for information on Viewer buffers). Chapter 1 Shake Basics 21 The gray square on the right side of the background node--it's supposed to be a tiny text field--indicates that this node is selected for editing in the Parameters tab. So why is this useful? In a real composite--you'll have one soon--you'll often want to adjust a node while viewing the end result at the final output node in your script. We mentioned contextual help for screen controls, and this also works to get information about nodes. As you pass the pointer over a node (no need to click), the resolution, bit depth, node name and type, and channels are displayed in the Info field of the Shake window. For example, move the pointer over the FileIn node named background, and you'll see that it stores an 8-bit image, with RGB channels, and a resolution of 720 x 486 pixels. Displaying Different Channels in the Viewer Use the View Channel button to toggle the display of different channels in the Viewer. This is important when you want to check the quality of matte edges or transparencies in the alpha channel. You'll also need to view independent R, G, or B channels for many color-correction operations. For example, click the View Channel button to toggle to the alpha channel view. There you see the alpha channel. However, nobody actually uses the View Channel button. Remember when you right-clicked this button to see the hot keys? Use the hot keys when the pointer is in the Viewer to quickly view a channel (C, R, G, B, or A). 22 Chapter 1 Shake Basics Panning, Zooming, and Framing While working in Shake, you'll need to pan, zoom, and frame the contents of the Node View, the Viewer, and other windows in Shake. · To pan: Drag the pointer over a window while pressing the middle mouse button. Or, drag the pointer while pressing Option (Mac OS X) or Alt (Linux/IRIX) · To zoom: Drag the pointer over the window while pressing Control-Option (Mac OS X) or Control-Alt (Linux/IRIX). You can also press plus (+) or minus (­) to zoom in or out. · To frame: Move the mouse pointer over the window and press F. · To expand or shrink the window: Move the pointer over a panel and press the Space bar This toggles the window between full-screen and standard view. Setting the Frame Range There are two places to set the frame range in Shake. The first and most important is in the Globals tab. The Globals tab lists all script settings--the frame range, proxy settings, default resolutions, GUI settings, and quality settings. The first Parameters tab contains a listing of parameters for a selected node. There are two ways to show the Globals tab: Click the Globals tab. Double-click an empty area in the Node View. The first parameter in the Globals tab is the timeRange parameter. This frame range determines which frames are rendered. Although it is saved in the script, you can override it in the command line. Click the Auto button to examine the FileIn nodes and determine the frame range automatically. To enter the time range: Click Auto in the timeRange parameter. m m m The timeRange parameter is extremely flexible because you can customize the range: Entry 1-56 20-30 1-56x3 1,10,20-30x2 Calculates Frames 1 to 56 11 images from frames 20 to 30 Frames 1, 4, 7, and so on Frames 1, 10, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, and 30 Chapter 1 Shake Basics 23 Working With Windows Now that you have a few images loaded, this is a good time to practice methods of working with the Shake windows. Function Expand a window full screen Pan a window Keyboard Space bar Middle-click and drag, or Optionclick and drag (Mac OS X); Alt-click and drag (Linux/IRIX) Command­middle-click and drag, Control­middle-click and drag, or Control­Option-click and drag (Mac OS X); Control­Alt-click and drag (Linux/IRIX) Notes Press the Space bar again to zoom back to normal view. Works in all windows, including the File Browser. Works in the Node View, the Viewer, the Time Bar, and the Curve Editor. Zoom a window Zoom in on a Viewer + / ­ (under the Mac OS X function Gives you an integer-based keys); Backspace key (Linux/IRIX) zoom so you have fewer roundoff artifacts on your display. The zoom follows the pointer. Home Works in the Node View, the Viewer, the Time Bar, and the Time View. Grab the border between two panes and drag to resize the window. Reset a View Resize a pane Launching a Flipbook In the Viewer shelf, click the Flipbook button to render a Flipbook for the node displayed in the current Viewer. If a FileOut node is selected, the actual FileOut is not executed. To render to disk, use the Render command (right-click in the Node View, or use the Render menu). Otherwise, the sequence is rendered into memory and you can play it back. 24 Chapter 1 Shake Basics Flipbook Controls The following table contains several Flipbook controls. Control . (Period; think of it as the > key.) , (Comma; think of it as the < key.) R, G, B, A, C Shift-drag Escape (Esc) Action Play forward. Play backward. Show the red, green, blue, alpha, and color channels. Scrub through the animation. Close the window. You can have as many Flipbooks as memory allows, but once closed, all links to the Flipbook are lost--you cannot save or use the images again. You can stow the Flipbooks and retrieve them later, but they take up memory. You can also use the Time Bar to indicate a frame range and obtain playback. The Time Bar displays the range that you want to concentrate on, and does not get saved into the script. To set the playback range for the Time Bar: Place the pointer over the Time Bar and press Home on the keyboard (or click the Home button in the Time Bar) to load the script's timeRange into the Time Bar. To play the sequence in the Viewer: Click the Play forward button in the Time Bar to play through the sequence. Playback does not occur in not real time, but does place the images into the memory cache, optimizing future calculations in the interface. m m Home Play backward Play forward m Shift-click the Play Forward button to playback from the images cached to disk from the Time Bar. For more information on the Flipbook, see "The Flipbook, Monitor Previews, and Color Calibration" in Chapter 11 of the Shake 4 User Manual. Chapter 1 Shake Basics 25 Compositing Elements Now that you know how to navigate through the Shake interface, you're ready to composite the elements. Finally! Arrange the FileIn nodes like this, in the order that you want to composite them: To begin the composite: 1 Click the orchid node to select it. 2 In the Tool tabs, click the Layer tab, then click Over. Over1 is automatically attached to the orchid, because that node was selected when you added the new node. The Over1 node has two inputs on the top of the node, although you won't see them until you place the pointer over the node. The orchid node is attached to the first input. 3 Move the Over1 node down a little. Then, drag the second input from the top of the Over1 node to the bottom of the table node to connect the two nodes. 26 Chapter 1 Shake Basics You can also drag from the bottom of table to the second input on Over1. Information flows downward in the Node View like a stream--the image data is passed from the orchid and table nodes, and fed into the Over1 node to create the composite. orchid node table node Over1 node What happened? The top half of the image is gone. We'll fix this in a minute--and explain what it means. Chapter 1 Shake Basics 27 Look in the Parameters tab, where the Over1 parameters now appear. The first parameter is the same for all nodes: the name of the node. By default, Shake assigns a generic name and appends a number to it, which allows each node to have a unique name. You can type a different name in the text field and make it more descriptive. 4 Click in the first parameter field for Over1, and type "orchid_Over_table." The new name reflects the compositing logic for the node: "Input 1 is Over Input 2." If you switch the inputs, then the compositing order is reversed. Note: When you move the pointer over the line--called a noodle--that connects two nodes, the end changes color (magenta = lower end, yellow=upper end) to show that you can drag or delete the connection. 5 Drag the lower end of the table noodle to the first input on orchid_Over_table. 28 Chapter 1 Shake Basics The node logic is switched, which completely changes the result of the composite. The orchid now appears behind the table when it should be on top. 6 Switch the inputs again (or press Command-Z or Control-Z to undo your previous operation). The orchid image appears over the table image again. As you work with the different layer nodes, you'll find they have distinct methods for creating the layered output. The Over node, for example, follows the logic of "Input 1 is Over Input 2"--or more specifically, "The pixel values of Input 1 are placed Over the pixel values of Input 2." As you'll soon see, other layer nodes use different logic to create their output, such as "The pixel values of Input 1 are Added to the pixel values of Input 2" or "The pixel values of Input 1 are Multiplied by the pixel values of Input 2." Breaking Connections Between Nodes Use one of the following methods when you need to break a connection between nodes: · Move the pointer over one end of a noodle and press Delete (Mac OS X) or Backspace (IRIX and Linux). You can also Control-click the noodle. · Select a node and press E on your keyboard to extract the node--and appropriately break all its connections. If necessary, you can always drag any node back over a noodle to insert it again. · Take advantage of Shake's namesake and quickly drag and shake a node to break its connection. Chapter 1 Shake Basics 29 7 In the Node View, select the orchid_Over_table node and add one more Over node. Use the following illustration as a guide to connect the background element. The result appears in the Viewer. We can thank the folks at Big Sister's Watching, NY for their impressive work. But it didn't always look like this, did it? 30 Chapter 1 Shake Basics If you were paying attention when you connected images to that first Over node, your composite looked like this for a brief period: Although everything turned out fine, it's important to understand why Shake clipped the image--it's a feature, honest--and how this can help you. This, and other mysteries, are explained in the next section. Setting Resolution Shake supports an Infinite Workspace, which means you can dynamically change resolution during the compositing process and Shake will handle it. For example, you can simultaneously output an HD image and a 601 video image and your compositing process will be independent of any specific resolution--yes, even independent of the resolution you set up in the Globals tab. You can change resolution at any place, as many times as you need, along the node tree. Resolution = 660 x 170 Resolution = 720 x 486 Resolution = 720 x 486 Chapter 1 Shake Basics 31 Setting Resolution in a Composite There are several ways to set the resolution for your composite: · Composite elements so that one of the elements is already set to the resolution you want to use. Then, use the clipMode parameter in the layer node (Over, lAdd, lMult, and so on) to indicate which image you want to pass as the resolution for the next node in the tree. · From the Transform tab, use the Fit, Resize, or Zoom node to scale your images. · From the Transform tab, use the Crop, Viewport, or Window node to change the size (that is, resolution) of the workspace you're passing down the node tree. These nodes do not resize the image, but instead reset the framing of the image. Notice that none of these methods involve the Globals tab, where you'd expect all global project settings to be defined. The resolution set in the Globals tab does determine the initial resolution Shake-generated elements such as rotoshapes, ramps and gradients, but it does not change the resolution of images read into the script from outside source files. So, what does this have to do with the clipped image in our composite? What you saw earlier was the result of Shake's automatic method for adjusting resolution according to the images you're using. Take another look at your composite to see how this information applies. To set the resolution with the clipMode parameter: 1 Move the mouse pointer over the orchid node. In the Info field at the bottom of the screen, you'll see that this image has a resolution of 720 x 486. 2 Now click the left side of the table node to load the image into the Viewer. This image is 660 x 170 pixels--different dimensions than the orchid image. When you use a layer node, Shake assumes you want to pass the resolution of the second image (called the "background" image) to the next node in the tree. In this case, Shake took the resolution of the table image and passed it downstream. Unfortunately, the smaller resolution also framed out part of the orchid image. Don't fret; you can change which input controls the resolution. 3 Double-click the orchid_Over_table node in the Node View to simultaneously view that node and load its parameters. In the Parameters tab, you'll see setting called clipMode. When clipMode is set to "foreground," the resolution of the first image is used; when set to "background," the resolution of the second image is used. 32 Chapter 1 Shake Basics 4 To ensure that the resolution is 720 x 486 pixels, set clipMode to foreground. The image is no longer clipped. 5 Double-click the Over1 node to view the full composite again. In this situation, the Over1 node restores the orchid image, even without the clipMode fix. This is because orchid isn't truly clipped. The Shake Infinite Workspace ensures that images are never permanently clipped due to framing. If an image is clipped at one point in the node tree, the image data will still be there when the resolution is increased further down the tree. Filtering and Masking All the elements in this project are in sharp focus. Softening a portion of the background will add an illusion of depth to the shot. You don't have a "soft-focus" version of the background, but you can create one with a Blur node and an RGrad mask. Add the blur effect first, then mask it to create a depth-of-focus effect. To add the blur effect to the background: 1 Select the background node, then insert a Filter­Blur node. 2 Click the left side of the Over1 node to load it into the Viewer. 3 Click the right side of the Blur1 node to load it into the Parameters tab. 4 In the Blur1 parameters, drag the slider beneath the first pixels value field (the slider appears when you move the pointer over it), and set the blur pixels to 20. Not bad, but the angle of the background walls means the sides which are closer to the camera should gradually draw into focus. You can fix this with a mask. Chapter 1 Shake Basics 33 5 Using the following illustration as a guide, add a new Image­RGrad node and attach it to the side mask port on the Blur1 node. The blur effect is now controlled by the pixel values in the RGrad1 alpha channel. Lighter pixels allow the effect to be applied to the background image. Darker pixels block the effect. Tuning Parameters So now you've got your basic composite. The mask needs some fine tuning to improve the effect, and this will give you some practice with the Parameter controls. Node controls may include parameters for numerical entry, sliders to set values, color controls, and Viewer overlays (onscreen transform controls) for interactive control. The RGrad1 node has all these parameters and controls. Note: If you are using a stylus, open the Globals tab, then turn on virtualSliderMode in the guiSettings subtree. This assists you with the virtual slider. You should also assign one of the stylus buttons as the right-mouse button. To adjust the placement and shape of the gradient: 1 Click the left side of the Over1 node to load it into the Viewer. 34 Chapter 1 Shake Basics 2 Click the right side of the RGrad1 node to load it into the Parameters tab. 3 In the RGrad1 Parameters tab, set radius to 100, and falloffRadius to 400. 4 Display the subtree for center, then change the xCenter value to 360. 5 Change aspectRatio to 1.5. The result will look similar to this: The overlay circles and crosshairs are interactive transform controls that allow you to make adjustments in the Viewer. 6 Drag the inner and outer circles to change the radius and falloffRadius, then drag the crosshairs to move the center of the gradient, adjusting the appearance of focal range. Chapter 1 Shake Basics 35 In the illustration below, the radius is set to 312 and the falloffRadius is set to 370. It's looking better, but there's still a big difference between the sharp area and the blurred area. Adjust the gradient colors to fix this, then set the Blur1 node to use a color channel from RGrad1 as the mask, instead of the alpha channel. When you change the gradient colors and substitute the alpha channel with one of the color channels, you can adjust the opacity of the mask and its effect on the blur filter. 7 Click the right side of the Blur1 node to load its parameters, expand the Mask subtree, then set maskChannel to R (red). It doesn't matter which of the three color channels you specify. You just need to choose one of the color channels to use as the mask. 8 Now click the right side of the RGrad1 node to load it back into the Parameters tab. 9 Click the centerColor control. The Color Picker opens. 36 Chapter 1 Shake Basics 10 Drag in the luminance bar, under the ColorWheel, until you see a softer focus for the background in the Viewer. Working With Layer Nodes This example includes other elements for soft shadows and lighting. Instead of the Over node, you'll use Layer­lMult and Layer­Screen to blend these elements into the composite you created in the previous exercise. To load the lighting and shadow images: 1 Add an Image­FileIn node to the node tree. 2 In the File Browser, navigate to the $HOME/nreal/Tutorial_Media/Tutorial_01/images/ lighting directory, select lighting.30-59@.exr, then click Next (or press the Space bar). 3 Move up one directory, then open the shadows directory, select shadows.30-59@.exr, then click OK. Chapter 1 Shake Basics 37 4 Arrange the nodes as shown in the illustration below. Composite the soft shadows first. 5 Select the Over1 node, then add a Layer­lMult node to the tree. 6 Connect the shadows image to the second input. Rather than place one image over another, the lMult node multiplies pixel values together. For this reason, it doesn't matter that the shadows image is connected to the second input. The shadow image is multiplied into the existing image, not placed on top of it. Here is the result: Now you have some nice soft shadows in the nooks and crannies, but they might be a little too dark. You can adjust the amount that the first input is multiplied by the second input. 38 Chapter 1 Shake Basics 7 In the lMult1 parameters, drag the percent slider to set it to 65. Next, composite the lighting pass. 8 Select the lMult1 node and insert a Layer­Screen node. 9 Connect the lighting node to the second input of the Screen1 node. Not again! In the Viewer, you'll see a clipped image, similar to what you saw earlier in this tutorial. Move the pointer over the lighting node and you'll see it has a resolution of 360 x 243. This resolution is obviously not the desired output. Chapter 1 Shake Basics 39 10 Drag the noodle from the second input on Screen1 to the first input. That fixed the clipping situation but didn't change the size of the lighting image to match the rest of the composite. You could re-render this element at the full resolution, but who has time to do that? Alternatively, you can resize it with a transform node (just don't tell your CG supervisor). Transforming an Image Most of the transform nodes display onscreen controls that let you interactively scale, move, and even distort the image. In this example, use the Move2D node to resize and position the lighting image. You can speed up interactive tranforms by changing the Viewer update method. Press and hold the "always" button in the upper-right corner of the Node View, then choose "release" from the pop-up menu. This tells Shake to update the Viewer only after you've released the mouse button. To scale and position the lighting image: 1 Select the lighting node, then insert a Transform­Move2D node. 2 Locate the scale parameter in the Parameters tab, then, type "2" in the first value field (xScale). 40 Chapter 1 Shake Basics Or, in the Viewer, drag a corner of the Move2D transform control until the scale parameter is set to 2. The size is right, but the image is not in the correct position. 3 Drag the triangles or the crosshairs to position the image to match the rest of the composite. 4 Open the pan subtree in the Move2D1 parameters, then adjust the values so that xPan = 181 and yPan = 123. The lighting pass should now be in the right place. Fading an Element You're almost done. The final step in this exercise--before rendering the animation--is to adjust the lighting pass. Right now, it's a little washed-out, so you'll use a Fade node to control its effect on the rest of the image. Fade operates on all channels in the image, including the alpha channel. This time you'll use the shortcut menu to insert the required node. To adjust the opacity of an image: 1 Click the Color tab to display the color command nodes. Chapter 1 Shake Basics 41 2 Right-click Fade, then choose Create from the shortcut menu (or, you can click Fade while holding down the Control and Shift keys). This inserts a new Fade1 node that is not connected to any existing nodes. 3 Drag Fade1 over the connection between the Move2D1 and the Screen1 nodes. When the inputs turn yellow, release the mouse button and Fade1 is inserted between the two nodes. 4 In the Fade1 parameters, drag the value slider to 0.25. This reduces the opacity of the lighting pass to 25 percent. 42 Chapter 1 Shake Basics The finished image will look similar to this: Rendering a Sequence When you're ready to create the final images for your composite, you insert at least one FileOut node at the place in the node tree where you want to render. This is often at the bottom of the node tree, because this is where the final result is composited. However, you can place as many FileOut nodes as you need to output from different places along the tree, and send rendered output to multiple directories and formats. To add a FileOut node: 1 In the Globals tab, click the Auto button to ensure that the timeRange is set to 1-30. 2 Attach an Image­FileOut node to Over1. The File Browser opens. 3 In the File Browser, navigate to the desired directory. 4 In the File Name text field at the bottom of the browser, type "comp.#.sgi" as the file name. Chapter 1 Shake Basics 43 About File Names When you enter the file name for render output, the name should include a combination of the following: · The name of the file. · A frame-numbering symbol for image sequences. When you render to an image sequence, include a frame numbering symbol--either @ or #. A single @ is an unpadded number--that is, 1, 2, 3, 4. A single # is 4-place padding--that is, 0001, 0002, 0003. Either symbol used multiple times indicates that many places of padding, that is, @@@@@ is 00001, 00002, 00003. · A .mov extension for QuickTime files. When you render to a QuickTime file, omit the frame-numbering symbol and append the file name with the .mov extension. The QuickTime format options appear in the FileOut parameters. · A file format extension, such as .cin, .sgi, .jpg, .iff, and so on, is required. For example: Enter comp.#.sgi as your file name, and the rendered images are written as comp.0001.sgi, comp.0002.sgi, comp.0003.sgi, and so on. 5 Once you have entered your file name settings in the File Browser, click OK. To save the script: 1 Click the Save button in the upper-right corner of the Shake window (or press Commmand-S or Control-S). Because this is the first time you are saving the script, the Save Script window appears. Next time you click Save, Shake updates the existing file with the latest changes. 44 Chapter 1 Shake Basics 2 In the File Name text field, type "orchid.shk" as the name for the script, then click OK. Note: To Save As, use Command-Shift-S or Control-Shift-S, or choose File > Save As. To render files to disk: 1 From the menu bar, choose Render > Render FileOut Nodes. The Render window appears. Note: You can also right-click in the Node View, then choose Render > Render FileOut Nodes from the shortcut menu. In the Render window, you can enter a new time range, proxy scale, quality level, motion blur, and the number of CPUs to use for the render. To render all FileOut nodes, enable All in the renderFileOuts parameter. To render only active FileOuts, enable Selected. You can also select a FileOut node after the Render Parameters window is opened. 2 Click the Auto button to copy the time range from the Globals tab. 3 Click Render. The images are rendered to disk, and a 320 x 243 snapshot view of the current frame is displayed. The snapshot is always 320 x 243, regardless of input resolution, and only shows the currently rendering frame. Batch Rendering in a Shell You can choose to render on the command line. Click the Save button at the top of the Node View (or press Command-Shift-S or Control-Shift-S) to save the script. If you have not yet saved the script, you are prompted for a script name; otherwise it writes over what you had before. Note: If you are working in a shell, you have usually set environment variables. For more information, see "Environment Variables for Shake" in Chapter 14 of the Shake 4 User Manual. 1 Save your script and hide or quit Shake. Chapter 1 Shake Basics 45 2 Open Terminal and navigate to the directory where your orchid.shk script is saved. 3 Type: shake -exec orchid.shk -v Note: In OS X, if you do not have environment variables set for Shake, you must type the full Shake path, for example: /Applications/Shake/shake.app/Contents/MacOS/shake -exec orchid.shk -v Usually, you set your environment variables to use the shake command with a lowercase "s." For more information, see "Environment Variables for Shake" in Chapter 14 of the Shake 4 User Manual. On a Linux or IRIX system, type the following (the Shake command begins with a lower-case "s"): shake -exec orchid.shk -v The -v means "verbose," so the render status is displayed. For more information on the command line, see Appendix B, "The Shake Command-Line Manual," in the Shake 4 User Manual. 4 To override the time range, use the -t option: shake -exec orchid.shk -v -t 10-20 or shake -exec orchid.shk -v -t 1-56x2 The above command renders every other frame. 46 Chapter 1 Shake Basics 2 Intermediate Skills 2 This tutorial shows how to optimize your workflow with the SetDOD node, and how to use the Shake Time View, and the Curve Editor. You will also learn how to add motion blur, how to color-match the elements in a composite, and how to import Photoshop files as layers in a composite. Tutorial Summary · · · · · · · Inserting nodes into a tree Using the Time View Grouping nodes and using SetDOD Creating motion blur Importing Photoshop files Keyframe animation and the Curve Editor Color corrrection 47 To explore the topics of this tutorial, you'll work with images from the Beanfield music video Tides, kindly provided by the artist, Maximilian Graenitz. Inserting Nodes Into a Tree Before you continue with the tutorial, take a moment to review different ways to insert and manage items in the Node View. The illustrations show a generic "node," but you can try these with any node from the Tool tabs. · Insert, Method 1: Select the parent node, then click a node button in the Tool tabs. · Insert, Method 2: Drag an existing node onto a noodle to insert it between connected nodes. · Branch: Select the parent node, then Shift-click a node button in the Tool tabs. 48 Tutorial 2 Intermediate Skills · Replace: Select the node you want to replace, then Control-click a node button in the Tool tabs. · Insert Unconnected: Control-Shift-click a node button in the Tool tabs. The new node appears in the Node View unconnected to any other node. · Extract: Select the node, then press E (for Extract). The node is disconnected from the tree. Tutorial 2 Intermediate Skills 49 · Delete: Select the nodes by clicking, Shift-clicking or dragging a selection box, then press Delete. · Delete Connection: Control-click the noodle, or move the pointer over one end of the noodle (it turns magenta at the bottom or yellow at the top), then press Delete. Grouping Nodes and Using SetDOD When your script includes many elements, two features can help you control the organization and rendering of the nodes: the SetDOD node and the Groups command. SetDOD provides a powerful optimization step that reduces rendering time, I/O activity, and memory use. The Groups commands lets you combine two or more nodes into a "grouped" node in the tree. 50 Tutorial 2 Intermediate Skills