Making CGI look like its shot on a "handycam"

In a thread earlier Jedi2016 brought up the interesting topic about cgi not looking good because essentially it looks "better" than the original footage it is next to.

I was wondering what you guys do to get around this?

Do you add some sort of camera effect? or would you go about it in AE or premier adding grains or whatever?

Anyone had any experience wit hthis? (good/bad resaults)

Just interested is all.

 

i usually mess with my cg in after effects or photoshop till it matches the basic look of the video or picture

 

Try to match lighting to your 3d scene as close as you can to your shot sequence then render it off and composite it into your scene. Lighting is one of the biggest keys to making CG believable in any video or film format. I don't buy the theory that professional CG work doesn't look right in home video. If you are a professional you can make CG look right in any format.

First off I would set it up and take the DV handycam ratio and fake it to a 16:9 in my re-render of the scene. Things will get slightly stretched, but not enough to be terribly bothersome.

Next I would use the editing software or effects compositing software to add film grain and boost the colours. I use combustion by Discreet and I simply add the film grain and there is a filter for movie colour. The final piece should look good enough to get by.

A good idea that I find is if you have a frame grab from an actual movie bring it into your scene and try to match the grain to it. Remember, adding grain is kinda like adding stage makeup...don't be afraid to use a bit more to make it noticeable. However, it shouldn't be the first thing you notice....


Good luck hope this helps in some way.

Darth Steve

 

interesting stuff there.

I think our schools cams have 16:9, by anychance anyone know off hand what res that is?

Also i dont think i have to change the colours, because im in australia, and i believe pal uses nearly all the colours, well maybe not all, but closer than ntsc doesnt it?

 

i dont know the resolution but you can always film something and then pop it into like after effects and see what it is there

Im not completly sure about PAL either but its not just changing the colors. WHen i match i not only modify the colors i edit the curve, saturation and so on. I mis and match layers ontop of each other. If you could get something to use as reference in your video that also helps

Here is a picture of adding an object i did

here

 

I like the pumpkin, how did you get the grain? or did you jsut grain the whole thing?

 

hmm i did that a while ago, i might have grained the whole scene i cant remember if i didnt do that i would have taken the alpha channel from the pumpkin and had the grain applyed to just that. I did it all in after effects 5.0. Its not too terribly hard the best way for you to learn i think is just doing tests take a simple picture like that and just add objects to the scene and practice learn some techniques on your own, its more fun that way

 

Maybe something like THIS (2.17MB)?

 

Ha, that's a funny clip! Anywho, what about rendering in fields like you can do in Max. Isn't there a way to match the interlaced look, as well at lighting and grain?

 

A good tip is to render your RGB+A Sequence... Make a movie clip from it using the DV codec and then compositing the CG DV with the DV footage using the Alpha channel from the RGB+A sequence as a mask... this adds the look of DV compression to your CG upon which you can add noise and other little touches.