Today sees the start of the special effect sequences for a Short Film that i’m working on called “5th Wall” by director Tom Wightman. The first series of blogs will be on image-projection mapping for an opening shot for the film. The shots are essentially 3D walthroughs of photographed images taken in various locations. Tom’s vision for these shots is to give an abstract alternative to using live footage and to create a world that is “almost real” but at the same time he’s open to suggesions and ideas for these sequences – an absolute dream! This first shot (S1P1) was taken under the river Mersey in it’s service tunnels and will be cut together with 5 other images of the same location to set the scene pretty much.
To begin with I took the photograph and added a temporary level adjustment to it so that I could see the architecture through the darkness in order to make the next job easier. I then created a 3D mesh over the photograph based on the walls and floor which took visual data from the photograph and applied them to the newly created “image planes”. Obviously I needed to restore the photographs levels before applying and exporting this scene. The next step was to move a camera through the mesh to give subtle motion of tracking through the river’s underground network of tunnels. I added a depth of field to the camera with a medium aperture setting which added a subtle amount of distance blur to the shot – again adding to the believability.
I will be adding extra layers, animated lights and particles to the shot in the next installment of blogs about work on “5th Wall”.
