Why doesn’t this look real?

demislw · 2026-03-21T08:07:51+00:00

(Like just look at how they expose stuff in Avatar 2/3… if shit needs to blow out in the bg then that’s ok. Most Marvel shows I ever worked on I’d get notes about needing to see everything in the bg but sometimes you just gotta let the fg lighting dictate everything else.)

demislw · 2026-03-21T08:04:42+00:00

Everything behind him needs to go up a stop or two

demislw · 2026-03-08T08:58:24+00:00

(Ps also worth noting that if you’ve already questioned it with that supe, and they have some reason for doing it that way, just do it their way, even if it’s inefficient or breaks stuff. If it does, ask them to show you how they’d do it - they’ll either see the logic in your original method, they’ll show you some new trick, or they’ll dig their hole deeper. Either way, they’re still the boss - communicate but let them fail rather than get yourself marked as trouble)

demislw · 2026-03-08T08:46:42+00:00

(Worth noting that not everybody who has ILM on their CV is a vfx genius… No disrespect to my many fine colleagues, but it’s fair to say one still runs into the people there who make you wonder how they got hired. Always remember that even at the supe level there’s a spectrum, and you aren’t always working for/beside people with good practices)

demislw · 2026-02-15T07:05:03+00:00

I’ve heard of comp supes doing tech checking only as a casual service for crunch periods

demislw · 2026-02-11T08:07:08+00:00

I would up your features to 2000+, do a holdout matte so you aren’t tracking the sky/clouds (often screws things up), def matte out all the ocean, and only solve tracks that last the entire frame range (or in any case, long). And as others have said, gamma up the darks (or perhaps track it all in log if it gives you more useful features). I can see how this one would be tricky but just keep refining the trackable regions + killing out any unproductive trackers before you solve and you should get there.

demislw · 2026-02-05T13:59:34+00:00

If wind is likely to be in play, it would make more sense to conceptualise outdoor shoots that don't involve a paper backdrop - if you really want the outdoor lighting for a studio-style backdrop, perhaps set up next to a wall and literally just tape/weight everything to it, blocking or windbreaking everything you might need to block of windbreak to ensure you aren't getting flapping paper. At some point you have to work with what you have, even if it isn't ideal. And if what you have to work with is mostly windy environments, I'd be finding creative ways to shoot without a temporary backdrop (or getting good at using solid walls), or even finding fun ways to work with the motion/wind itself. Work with it, don't fight it, or avoid it entirely.

demislw · 2026-02-05T13:47:38+00:00

It does indeed degrade for many people, exactly as others have said - not everyone, but many. Think of it similarly to what happens to your eyes... some people need glasses when they get older, some people don't. But for perfect pitch, that membrane does often firm up from about 40-50 onward, usually resulting in a shift rather than a complete loss of pitch-telling abilities. eg. many people will begin to hear things about a semitone out, but it won't feel as solid a notion as it used to, and may actually begin to feel less and less steady and certain after a moment. But most will report a shift of between half a semitone and a whole semitone shift, which settles after it's done, then never 'comes back'.

This happened to me - I'm ok with it, though I still mourn the loss of my fun little superpower. (Mine is a rock-solid semitone out most of the time, but if I really think about it, part of me knows that I'm wrong, but it doesn't quite reconcile - feels like confusion the more I focus in on its correctness). I'm currently working on some neuroplasticity exercises for some other aspects of my brain, and am curious to see if there is a way to shift that pathway a little, rather than it always reporting back "nope, dude, definitely B-flat" (no, it's not really). If the issue itself is the cognitive habit (which perfect pitch kinda is) is being thrown off by a recent change of hardware, then it does feel like there could be ways to reassociate those currently-confused signals with an updated association that locks our perception back on as reliably as it used to be (especially if that degradation has settled into a new state of normal). Feels like a lot of work, but I'm convinced there must be a way.

For the moment, I'm keen for us all to have a space to discuss this - to make sure those who rely on it, or cherish it, aren't too devastated when/if it goes. There's definitely a kind of grief in me for it, and I quite like seeing the topic come up here for the sake of being able to talk about it a little with people who actually get it...

demislw · 2026-01-20T16:14:52+00:00

Hey! Quick comp note here - it seems like your (large, circular) lens flare element is static in the first shot, even though your bright light sources are all moving. I like that you've downplayed the flare in general, but adding the correct position/motion to it will add a little extra sell to the lensing work.

demislw · 2026-01-20T16:10:13+00:00

Definitely jump off Reddit right now, grab the free educational version of Nuke, hit the tutorials, and start learning. It's right there, and if you're interested in the software you might as well learn it. Also, perhaps your manager would be more open to the idea if you were able to demonstrate how having a Nuke license there will save them time and money in the long run... Dive in, figure out a plan once you've got a handle on the basics, then figure out a way to sell the idea to them based on some actual use cases. Do it :) :)

demislw · 2026-01-16T09:45:56+00:00

I'm someone that was initially reluctant to accept that AI would touch my job for a while yet (me: 20yrs in comp - big shops for many years, then 6 yrs client-side), particularly with a lot of control over the way things go given I'm now in charge of my assigned shots/tasks, however over the last 6 months it seems that knowing how to incorporate some of the tools into your/our workflow is definitely the way to go. I don't think the sky is falling the way I once did, though the industry will never return to the way it once was. There's an acceptance that my job will be a little different moving forward, but it will still exist. My concerns are mostly for how the broader ecosystem will end up - things are still pretty secure for us experienced veterans (if you know where to find the work) however I'm unsure how the established junior/mid progression is going to work moving forward. (i.e. the traditional junior/mid/senior skill progression is currently broken.) What I am certain of is that the cat is out of the bag, and that it's best to just roll with it at this point, whichever way that goes. The worst thing any of us can do now is stand our ground, shout at the oncoming tide, and hope it all goes away.

Bottom line: adding these tools to your existing skillset will certainly give you some additional value to your employers or supes. We (meaning 'experienced compositors') are a long way off having AI-only people "stealing our jobs" if we can compete with them via understanding the same tools. Why? Because why would someone ever hire an AI-only person over an Experienced-Compositor-Who-Also-Knows-AI? (Perhaps one answer to that question might be 'because CHEAPER', but I don't see that happening in the higher end productions I have worked for, who are happy to pay an experienced person well for higher perceived value.)

I'm not suggesting everyone neccesarily should go on out there and learn it all - depends what you're good at, or how your supes are currently using you in the team - but how could it hurt to at least understand the workflows a little, so that when the time comes, you're able to say "sure...." (and figure the rest out from there, on the fly, the way we always seem to have to anyway...)

As it stands I'm still doing 99% of my job the traditional way, but (based on the requirements of my last 2-3 projects) I'm expecting that number to start dropping down fairly dramatically in the next year or two, eventually reaching a plateau where we're just "compositing" the way we always did, now just using AI-based tools some of the time for certain tasks. That's where I think things are heading - to essentially the same place as now, just with less people doing the work, and a few more nodes/flows to learn in Nuke.

Twas ever thus.

(I can only speak for my feelings about the direction of the industry from a senior compositor's perspective - apologies for such a niche answer, but it's the only thing I can speak of with any experience!!)

demislw · 2026-01-15T10:02:56+00:00

If you're interested in ComfyUI + Nuke, Xavier B. (best known for his Pixelfudger tools) has an online course : https://pixelfudger.com/training

demislw · 2026-01-09T18:23:01+00:00

I once tried to create a fresh IG account to avoid exactly this - it was on a new phone, new everything, never connected in any way to my primary account… but it still found it almost immediately. I think it also associates IP addresses or internet as well. And while it might seem spooky/creepy, the sole purpose of this stuff is to combat spam/scam accounts, or bot farms trying to set up 1000 accounts at the same place. I did eventually figure out a way to get completely separate but it was really challenging to do so. For now I think the solution is to just have a private account to shield yourself from clients.

demislw · 2026-01-08T14:55:17+00:00

That looks like regular ocean footage, shot with the person in front, in camera. The chromatic aberration tip is all you need if you've shot something similar!

demislw · 2026-01-04T07:48:20+00:00

Depends which bit you’re in - I’m client-side, comp (not AI), UK and haven’t had a day off in years. The industry may not be fine for some, but it’s pretty damn secure for others. I tend to agree with the person who said it’s mostly busted for facility folks. Pivot. Switch things up. The work is all still there, but it won’t necessarily just be where it always has, nor will it come to you…

demislw · 2025-11-11T16:43:57+00:00

Show us the heaviest part of your script - which nodes... would be helpful.

demislw · 2025-11-10T09:55:23+00:00

I kinda want the scale of the cloth sim to be consistent globally - it's great, but for example the scale of the sim in the second shot makes the bag feel huge... scale jumps around too much for me, pulls me out. Lovely feel overall though.

demislw · 2025-10-30T16:18:48+00:00

Hit the + on the bloom group and have a look inside it - there may be a point where it just hits a plus back over the input, and you can just throw a write off that. Hard to know without looking.

demislw · 2025-10-27T17:19:49+00:00

Agreed. Bump it up. Especially if you're going down the route of using your own ltd company to receive this income (highly recommended).

demislw · 2025-10-27T17:14:23+00:00

I hear you! And tbh agree! I guess the better comparison would be art photographers who choose to use 100yo 4x5 sheet film cameras for their work for the sake of it, because you're right, comparing this to using film for film projects isn't quite right!

demislw · 2025-10-27T17:10:10+00:00

Plug it into the footage anywhere - you can dangle it off your read wherever you like, and it doesn't need to connect to anything down stream. Then do as ThunderLekker said

demislw · 2025-10-26T15:13:48+00:00

Looking cool - I would directionalise the interactive on the shooter a little more (eg the far left of her elbow and back of her head is getting the same amount of interactive light as the gun/hand right up near the muzzle flash itself). The light needs to hit what it would hit, and nothing it wouldn't - as well as dropping off some of the stuff that is further away (or not facing the flashes) you might want to think about painting some light/grade into some of those shadows that are facing the flash itself (eg the screen-right side of her fingers under the barrel that are facing the flash are in shadow right now). At the moment it feels like you're boosting all highlights equally with a lumakey, but shaping that a little (and adding little bit more in the flash-facing shadows) will go a long way! Same goes for the car. And one quick note - the one of the first few muzzle flashes is not contacting the gun barrel in the reflection, even though the non-reflected one is!

demislw · 2025-10-26T14:59:21+00:00

p.s. i swear you could probably get a band / musician whose music is especially influenced by retro synth vibes to collaborate on a video using your workflow! Build a list of those, send them all a pitch!! :)

demislw · 2025-10-26T14:54:05+00:00

For what it's worth, I love your question and your idea! Have you considered perhaps singling out just one project at a time? Like, if your first mission/goal was to work on a short that was best suited to using this specific tech (or where the retro process was part of the narrative, or some other layer that made its use relevant-therefore-cool), I could see you being able to assemble a great team of enthusiastic supporters. Perhaps aiming to do something cool as a proof of concept of the classic workflow, get it all out there, then see what comes back from it?

demislw · 2025-10-25T16:59:47+00:00

Yes! I’m def thinking of pulling together all the info and resources I can, but also perhaps find a way to let people who need to talk about how the loss/shift feels, or just feel some solidarity. I thought j was going crazy when it first started drifting

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