Camera Projection in Maya and NUKE
In this series of tutorials, we'll learn how to turn a 2D image into a 3D scene using camera projection in Maya and NUKE. Software required: Maya 2011, NUKE 6.1 and up.
What you'll learn
In this series of tutorials, we'll learn how to turn a 2D image into a 3D scene using camera projection in Maya and NUKE. By using a reference photo inside Maya and using NUKE's powerful compositing tools and 3d environment, we'll be able to create realistic scenes quickly and easily. We'll begin the tutorial by learning about the theories behind camera projection what makes a good image to project. We'll then set-up our camera in Maya for match moving and look at a technique to get our camera in the correct position. We'll then model our buildings and animate a new camera. Then we'll export our Maya data and bring it in to NUKE's 3D toolset and set-up our projections. We'll finish the scene in NUKE by creating a sky dome and using it's 2d tools to create appealing effects. Finally, we'll use Maya's mental ray renderer to create realistic reflections and composite them on top of our NUKE projections to create our final composite. Software required: Maya 2011, NUKE 6.1 and up.
Table of contents
- What Is Camera Projection? 6m
- Taking Photos for Camera Projection and Common Issues 12m
- Finding the Actual Focal Length and Setting It in Maya 10m
- Adding Our Image Plane for Initial Camera Match Moving 6m
- Matching the First Point of Our Building 7m
- Creating a Basic Camera Rig to Rotate Around Our Point 7m
- Rotating Our Camera to Match Our Rotation to Our Building 11m
- Creating Our Projection Shader 8m
- Using Perspective Tricks to Model the Rest of the Building 13m
- Modifying Our Channel Box to Accurately Control Scaling 12m
- Animating Our New Camera Movement 6m
- Creating Background Buildings 6m
- Maintaining the Horizon Line by Duplicating Our Projection 9m
- Exporting Our Geometry and Cameras from Maya into NUKE 10m
- Creating Our Projection Setup Inside NUKE Using Project3d 7m
- Creating Projections Using the UV Project Node 7m
- Creating a Sky Dome That Matches Our Background Photo 8m
- Adding Zblur and an Alpha Render of Our Main Building 5m
- Fixing Edge Quality with Multi Samples and Edge Blur 8m
- Extracting Our Reflective Areas and Beginning to Shade Them 7m
- Modifying Our Architectural Material to Reflect 5m
- Creating New Geometry and Images for Our Reflections 11m
- Final Rendering and Compositing Our Reflection and Projection 9m
About the author
Along with creating and recording training, he also used to manage the support team and work closely with the production development team at Digital-Tutors, now a Pluralsight company. He began his career working freelance and quickly realized that he wanted to find a company where he could use his talents to help people succeed in the CG industry. Chris has likely watched more Pluralsight creative training than anyone on the planet, and its evidenced by his Einstein-sized brain and encyclopedic... more