Digital Tutors - Compositing 3D into Video in Maya and Nuke

In this series of lessons we'll learn how to take the output from a motion tracker app and import a 3D model and light, render and composite it into our original footage in Nuke.

We'll begin this project by setting up our motion tracked scene by adding the original footage and aligning everything to make working easier. We'll then bring in our 3d object and learn how to place it in our scene. We'll then learn how to create ground geometry and create lighting that matches our original shot. We'll then create multiple render passes and layers to make compositing much easier.

After we render, we'll jump into Nuke and learn about such topics as shadow matching, color matte usage and various techniques to match our 3d render with our live action back-plate. We'll finish with a global color correct and add realistic motion blur to finish our shot.

Lesson Outline (27 lessons)
1. Introduction and Project Overview
2. Setting our image plane to test our tracked point cloud
3. Locking our Camera and Locators to the grid
4. Importing our object and integrating it into the scene
5. Creating ground plane geometry to catch shadows
6. Bringing in our HDR Environment and matching lighting
7. Extending our ground plane and adding a curb
8. Setting up our basic color layer and passes
9. Creating a ground and object ambient occlusion layer
10. Building our two Shadow render layers for control
11. Creating a Color Matte layer to capture different pieces
12. Creating a motion vector layer and outputting it correctly
13. Making final changes to our Render Settings and rendering
14. Shuffling all our rendered images into channels
15. Rendering an EXR sequence for faster compositing
16. Importing our footage and create a dual tree workflow
17. Matching our footage shadows using our shadow mattes
18. Applying ambient occlusion with color correction techniques
19. Compositing our sign color passes
20. Using the Color Matte pass to tweak the sign
21. Hue Shifting the Legs into the correct color space
22. Color Correcting the rusty base
23. Fixing the sandbags by adding noise and heavy color correcting
24. Adding Lightwrap to our object
25. Using our motion vectors to add motion blur
26. Creating a motion vector mask for the background
27. Creating a Film look and rendering our final sequence

* Project files are included