First Object Match-Move and Composite Attempt

For my first object match move, I decided to try a model I had created for an animation class of a soda can. My end goal for this match move and composite was to create a realistic looking render of the can so that at first glance it was not apparent the object was a 3D model. I also decided to use the brand "Bonk Energy Drink," which is not real but in fact an item in the online video game Team Fortress 2.

The final video can be seen here

Some things that worked: reflections, color correction

What didn't work: 3D camera track, not all reflections looked accurate, too dark, too little depth of field, color correction needed improvement.

The "Set"

tracker

I followed a similar process to my 3D ball track, but with some changes. Since this was an interior shoot, I was very concearned about light. I used my desk lamp as a key light off to the left of where the object would be, in order to be able to re-create this light in 3D space later on. I used a small post it note with dots drawn on it as a tracking marker, hoping this would give After Effects enough information to generate a point cloud. However, I later found out that this was not enough as after a nine hour render, my first match move was a failure. The track had too many errors and bounced around in the final video.




I also made some mistakes with my camera settings, as my lens aperture was set to f/2.8. With such extreme depth of field, my final 3D object looked too crisp and out of place when compared to the rest of the objects in the video.

point cloud data

track solid, used later as a shadow catcher

 Once in After Effects I tracked a solid and camera to my marker. This solid I later used as a shadow catcher for my light source, making sure to set it as the origin before moving into Cinema 4D. This ensured that once in C4D, my object would be in the correct place in 3D space.






Moving into Cinema 4D, I exported the point data from After Effects to generate a 3D scene that matched that of my original clean plate. I changed the color of my track solid to white in order to make it easy to composite out as a shadow catcher. I then proceeded to bring in my can model, adjusting some of the material properties trying to match that of a real soda can. This was an area I had difficulties with, and plan to focus on for my next attempt.

track solid in C4D

 After adjusting some of the material properties I created a physical sky in Cinema 4D. This sky serves as a place to insert my HDRI map I took of my room, allowing the can to "see" accurate reflections of what was around it. However, this proved to be difficult as my floor was showing up in the reflections of the can. By adding a compositing tag to the floor I was able to solve this problem, but of course after my nine hour render!

HDRI map from the cans perspective 

I then moved to my render settings, ensuring to enable multi-pass rendering and selecting: RGBA image, Shadows, Ambient Occlusion and object buffer.

Moving back into after effects I duplicated my C4D file layer three times in order to have the four layers needed for this multi pass-render. I finally did some modest color correction to the can in order to try and mimic the color of the scene. I then hit render and prayed to the After Effects gods.

Ambient Occlusion Pass