FMP – Screen Replacement

Last week, I focused on green screen extraction and screen replacement. There are four shots, and I managed to complete three of them successfully; however, one remains problematic. One of the challenges was removing the reflection of ceiling lights on the screen, as the green screen footage was filmed indoors. There was no automatic solution for removing the reflection, so I used roto techniques to mask those areas. This removed the reflection on most of the screen, but it was still visible on the edges and corners. I think it’s noticeable, so if possible, I plan to use rotopaint to address it further. To make the scene more convincing, I also tried adding reflections by creating a 3D camera and using an HDRI image of the city. Adding this reflection looked more realistic, so I plan to incorporate it into other scenes as well.

The issue with the remaining shot was due to tracking difficulties (Scene2). For accurate screen tracking, I needed to track all four corners, but the bottom two corners were obscured by my hands as they moved in and out of the frame, disrupting the tracking process. I plan to consult Gonzalo to help resolve this. If I can’t fix it, I may need to reshoot this footage.

There was another presentation to show my progress this week, but as I didn’t have significant updates, I mainly shared tracking test videos.

Feedback from the presentation:

• I was advised to consider the core message of the video. The final text, “Your life is here,” could be confusing, as it might suggest that life is in the screen. Emily suggested rephrasing it to “Your life is around you,” which I liked, although I’m a bit concerned it may be too long to display on screen.
• Manos suggested introducing the video content on the screen before the camera movement, emphasizing the message about overusing phones. He also recommended creating videos for the phone screen beforehand and then filming with them, as this could make the hand movements more natural and convincing.

Since I have already filmed everything and completed significant work without pre-created phone screen content, I’ll likely continue with my current footage. For the last scene, I thought about changing the approach: when the shadow touches the screen, it could change to display the text “Look up,” and after the camera moves, “Your life is around you” could appear on the billboard.

For next week, my plan is to complete the matchmoving and create the 3D scenes. I also need to learn and experiment with C4D. This is my first time using C4D, so it will be a rough start, but I hope to work out how to simulate particle systems.