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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

NASA Night Time Launch

C

Chris Nuzzaco

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I finally downloaded an r3d file to play with in Color. I exported it as a 10 bit RGB quicktime file (1080). My goal was to see how bad I could stress the sucker and really turn the shot into something entirely different. This clip was shot during the day, but I made it night time in Color ;) I ended up getting some banding in the big rocket booster flame, so I applied a guassen blur to it in AE to calm that down. It looks like a heat wave, so I'm pretty cool with that. All in all, it held up well. Another thing I noticed, was that it took on a kind of "storybook" look. Almost looks like a dramatic painting. I personally dig the "storybook" look though :) Ever see LOTR? Those films have some scenes in them where the image has this same kind of painter like feel to it.

Be sure to set your monitors/graphics cards for 2.2 gamma, and 6500K color temp, as thats what this clip was graded for.

http://www.chrisnuzzaco.com/special_uploads/nasanight.mov

Enjoy!
 
Hi Chris. Interesting. I know it's difficult to get it to be consistent across different monitors, etc. So I'm curious if what I'm seeing is what you're seeing.

In the beginning of the shot, the entire frame is black except for the top of the shuttle's launcher which is a kind of "bright" pinkish hue. The value is so much brighter that it starts off as a distinctive shape floating in black. So there's no natural transition (even if it is supposed to be night). Was that your intention? I don't want to sound critical, I'm only saying this for a learning experience and to give feedback. And, of course, my quick explanation/description doesn't do it justice. I like the shot in general.
I think it's a difficult shot to turn into a day for night. Especially the lit smoke. Did you use any real night shuttle launches for reference?
 
I hear ya on the opening frames. I really wanted to see the stand better... but I'm having a bit of a hard time isolating that bad boy. I did have an "evening" version. I'll have to post that one later today. Some will probably like that better. This version in particular is supposed to start off looking very dark, like you can only see the rocket lit up, and then all the other stuff comes into view after the flames start spouting out. My ideal version of this would have the stand slightly visible in the opening frames. I actually did use real shuttle footage for reference. I made sure that the clouds looked lit by the rocket. I didn't want them looking evenly lit like the original, that was a key element actually.
 
I see. Ok. Maybe you can create a shaped mask... like a cone of light coming from a par type of light from below. Then it would make sense that it's the only thing lit in the frame as the falloff would be quick. Hope you don't mind me making a suggestion. But I like pushing stuff in cc ("digital cinematography") too. :)
 
No problem! Look out for a newer version. I just learned how to operate Color this past week.... it seems to apply its transformations in a manner I'm not quite used to. If you crush something out in one room, you can't bring that detail back in the next room over... for example. I'm still getting used to that.
 
The latest attempt..

The latest attempt..

Hey guys, here's my latest attempt. I'm trying to get more photo real. This is actually a really hard clip to turn into night... so many of the tones and colors are too close to get clean HSL mattes, so lots of masking has to be used. I'm liking this one better than my first attempt... This is screen grab I exported from Color.
 
very nice! it really works!

there's some banding in the second smoke puff to the left, not sure if that's due to the the jpg compression, and it's also pretty "bright" considering the distance from the shuttle and that the first smoke puff on the left isn't as bright... but I'm really nitpicking here... just musing.

how does the motion version hold up?

great work making a difficult night for day shot really work. :)
 
I like it

I like it

Cardmaverick said:
Hey guys, here's my latest attempt. I'm trying to get more photo real. This is actually a really hard clip to turn into night... so many of the tones and colors are too close to get clean HSL mattes, so lots of masking has to be used. I'm liking this one better than my first attempt... This is screen grab I exported from Color.
Click to expand...

Nice job.

This is the kind of experimentation I had in mind when I posted the raw footage.

Did anyone ever do a really nice regular (day for day) grading of the footage? I just got my final cut setup finally a couple weeks ago but I'm so busy with housings I don't have any time to play.
 
Chris, I've always enjoyed your work from the Andromeda boards.

I really like the second attempt grab for night; I think the trick is to diffuse the smoke cloud as that's the only glaring aspect about it that still makes it seem artificial to me. Otherwise it looks damn close. Great eye.
 
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