Today I've been doing a bit more experimenting with colour correction and various other composition affects to increase the look of my ExpoTees advert. Here is a round up of the nodes I used and what for:
'Grade' Node
I've been using the grade node to increase some of the gamma, white spots and dark spots of my sequences. The reason for this is because the original footage is too washed out and very faded in colour value. I've been using the grade node to increase the gamma so that I can bring back some of the colour in preparation for saturation tests. I've also used the Black spots and White spots tool, which involved brightening the film plate to its highest, and darkening the plate to it's lowest colour values. this is where I then take samples of the colours to bring back more data to make the image look more true to the environment it was filmed in.
'Saturation' Node
I used the saturation node to bring back some more of the colour that was lost in the filming stage. This means I can make my footage more vibrant and thicker than just washed out and pale. I also changed the luminance math to 'average' because this is supposed to fine tune the saturation towards the standard used in film or commercials. You can see the difference too if you toggle the node on or off. After I had done this, I mixed it with the original footage. I then moved onto the next node.
'ColourCorrect' Node
I used the ColourCorrect node to adjust the highlights, midtones and darker areas of the footage plate. This combined with the grade produces a better result for the over all colour variation and whitepoints/blackpoints.
'HueCorrect' Node
Finally, I used HueCorrect just to bring out abit more of the green from the grass, as I felt it needed to be pushed a little bit more. I also brought out a bit more from the purple in the actors jumper, because it added to the colour variation in the footage. It felt right to make it a thicker purple than a paler purple like in the original footage.
- Josh Docherty - 3D Modeller & vfx artist
