Time flies, year one is coming to an end. We are doing the last unit of this school year. In this unit, we need to consolidate and apply all the skills we have learned to make a simple film clip. Of course, we also learned something new – green screen filming technique. We first need to find our own reference, it could be from a movie or a game. My initial reference was Cyberpunk 2077, but due to its complex structure and lighting, after consulting with mentor, I decided to switch to a simpler and more interesting reference scene, which from my favorite FPS game – Valorant.

In this scene, the most important detail to pay attention to is the game of chess on the table. It’s not very clearly shown in the reference image. So, I did some research on this chess. Luckily, I found a physical copy of the same chess piece, which greatly helped me in the modeling of the details.

Next, because of the previous learning and practice, the modeling part was not too difficult. What bothered me the most was the lava-like stuff in the background. But after thinking about it, I decided to set it as a giant block of flame energy.

Because the scene is relatively simple, the lighting pays more attention to details and tries to restore it from the reference image. For example, The color of the different layers of light on the ground and the reflections in the corners of the table.

After the modeling part, the next step is to shoot the green screen clip. It’s an interesting part. Everyone is in the green screen studio, imitating the lighting of the scene and the actions that take place. The protagonist of my scene is playing chess, and I am naturally pretending to play chess. Considering the later operability, I changed the action of holding the chess pieces with my fingers to controlling the chess pieces in the air.

Due to the simple set and the tight timing, we did not simulate the lighting direction of the chessboard. As a result, when I raised my hand, there was no light under my arm, which was a bit strange when it blends into the scene.

Once I‘ve done shooting, it’s time to cut the green screen clip and remove the extra background and objects. There is a problem in this part. in order to imitate the color of the protagonist’s clothing, and make the reflection of blue light (the light of chessboard) more clearly on my body, I choose to wear a light color outfit. As a result, a lot of green light was reflected on me during the shooting. It makes the Post-editing more difficult.

The final step was to merge the modeling scene and the green screen clip, which makes me feel like a collision that broke through the dimensional wall. Very fun.

This unit is a fun and easy (compared to Unit4) to me. Not only consolidated the learned knowledge, but also tried something new. A very fulfilling academic year and looking forward to more learning next year!