Jacky Jones - 2023 WetaFX Rotoscoping Entry

Hello! My name is Jacky and this is my formal entry for the Rookie Awards 2023 WetaFX internship. I have included below three VFX projects I have worked on previously, during my time as a student studying a Bachelors in digital design at the Auckland University of Technology. I am now in my third and final year. Thank you for viewing my entry: I am very passionate about this opportunity and eager to showcase both my skills and devotion thus far.

Crossroads was a short film I created alongside three other friends/peers in 2022, during our second year of university. The concept to this film, narrative, and creature design was all done by me. For the creature I modelled it in Maya, before another sculpted/refined it in Blender: I textured it with another group member in Substance Painter, and it was rigged with mGear and animated in Maya. As seen in the breakdown, compositing was done with NukeX and DaVinci Resolve; simulation in Houdini. 

My two designated creature shots in the film were from 1:10 - 1:16. These two shots I fully animated and composited. For the snatch frame shot, I had to rotoscope both the dog's mouth grabbing the frame, alongside her hand brushing the frame before retracting out of shot. This involved obviously the nuances of the dog's jaw and the girl's fingers. Among both shots too I had to rotoscope the shadows around the walls, floors and bedside table surface; and where I wanted to emphasise glow on the dog's markings.

The Pepsiman advert was my second VFX project I created in 2022, during my second year of university. This was done with two other classmates. Alike the Crossroads film, we modelled Pepsiman in Maya, I was handed over the model to refine further; and I created the secondary Pepsiman Max model based off of this. I also textured it in Substance Painter. Furthermore, for this project I was tasked with the cloth simulation (in Maya); so I modelled, textured, and simulated the apron Pepsiman is seen wearing. Again all compositing was done in NukeX and DaVinci Resolve, with the final product shot/liquid simulation in Houdini. Another teammate created the rigs for them using human IK rigs, with our animation being done with motion capture.

My two shots were from 0:09 - 0:16. I fully composited and rotoscoped both. For the second shot, rotoscoping was relatively simplified as I just had to rotoscope Pepsiman's body as he sat down on the couch. As for the kitchen shot, however; there was a lot of rotoscoping to be done. I rotoscoped the kitchen counter, benchtop, wall, suitcase, shadows, and Oliver; passing through the shot. This was a very detailed job as there was lots of details with his hair I wanted to perfect.

Finally: Interlopers is my first ever VFX project I worked on, in 2021; during my first year in university. This was done with three other friends/peers. It served as a short film trailer to a hypothetical murder mystery concept. Due to no creature involved, it was mainly a matter of compositing/editing, that we did using Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro. We modelled and rendered the final interrogation room scene environment in Maya, and utilised stock FX for the remainder of our shots.

My shots were 0:11 - 0:15, and 0:23 - 0:30. In the first shot, I rotoscoped the horror girl's face in Adobe After Effects, and used Premiere Pro to colourgrade it/integrate it better into its environment. As for the final shots, I rendered the Maya interrogation room with Arnold and used greenscreen to integrate it. For the nosebleed shot I used stock FX and tracked the face in After Effects, rotoscoping it to fit the nostril.

Thank you very much for viewing my entry. I'm incredibly passionate about this opportunity and hope my entry has shown my dedication towards the VFX industry and desire to prove myself enough for this privilege. I believe the opportunity to learn in the rotoscoping department at WetaFX would greatly strengthen not only my skills but my confidence and sense of self-creativity/self-identity in the industry.