Compositor Shot Breakdown, November 2025

 

Shot Breakdown – Compositing Artist – Sandra Herman

00:00 – Title Card. Nuke.

00:02 – Little People S2, “Braver Together.” 2018. Maya, Renderman, Nuke. 

Used surrounding shots to make solo passes of 3D firefly trails. Apply these renders as alpha hold-outs on cards. Match live-action reference of firefly's glow timing. 3D firefly glow.

00:07 – Prey, 2022. Nuke.

Only the CC as a creative note to make the blood read more-red in the misty plate. Expanding Roto-mask on blood puddle to ease-on reveal.

00:14 – Prey, 2022. – Two Mouse Shots. Nuke.

Integration of wound, CC, CG mouse, and tracking. Also help from a senior compositor to apply flicker from torches to connecting shots, using CurveTool.

00:21 – Prey, 2022. Nuke.
Apply metallic highlights to wounds. Clean-up around hands and green blood splatter, whereas the full integration (arm, hand, blood) was by John Castillo, compositor.

00:22 – Caillou, “The Blame Game.” 2024. Nuke.
Frame to frame pose Roto-shape to reveal Gilbert from the dark alley way. Grade BG set elements for contrast.

00:27 – Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Optimus Prime Marketing Stills. 2023. Nuke.
Relight using warm and cold colours from lighting AOVs to contrast and compose shape. Eye glow is enhanced using ID passes and grades.

00:34 – Inspector Gadget S2, “Midnight Madness.” 2017. Photoshop, Nuke.
Roto-lightening shapes drawn and timed on-off using Echo-node. Apply skeleton graphic and glow on skeleton. Matches look of reoccurring treatment, established in “Jurassic Jerk” (2017).

00:32 – Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania. 2023. Nuke.
Update previous script with new CG-suit render, CC goo at neck to match the chin, and clean-up at the neck. QC, check black/ white levels. 

00:35 – Jim Hensen's Doozers S2, “Sand Sailer.” 2018. Maya, Nuke. Sand poofs follow locators constrained to surfboards. Adapted from Molly’s jet-pack, used throughout S2. CC to match BG sand and apply more gravity and wind than Molly's jet-pack.

00:38 – Jim Hensen's Doozers S2, “Holed Up.” 2018. Nuke, Maya. Create and apply rocks to Nuke particle system, applying a dusty plume system in Nuke. CC to integrate with BG.

00:42 – Space Ranger Roger S1, “Roger Sticks the Landing.” 2017. Maya for Ncloth, Nuke.
Use of Ncloth rig and alternate iteration of Maya scene from TD. Output result of wheel colliding with goo. Integrate the impact shape with Roto of footage. Colour matched the plate.

00:44 – Caillou, “Building a Better Snow Buddy.” 2024. Nuke.
Create paint shape with uneven edges and attach to card. Then apply frame-holds to keep paint strip position following the rolling motion.

00:47 – Charlie’s Colorforms City S1, “Charlie is Super.” 2019. Nuke.
Create hero solo-moment with glow, blur, and animation timing for when 2D Harmony sequences appear.

00:49 – Little People S2, “Kolby Speaks Up.” 2018. Nuke, Maya.
Nuke bubbles and rain-spout tools are from previous episodes. I made interactive bubbles clinging to the scrubbers in Maya and applied escaping bubbles to follow movement of door sliding open.

00:53 – Transformers: The Rise of the Beasts. 2023. Nuke.
Integrate update shadow pass for Arcie as motorcycle, then transition to robotic character shadow. Some Roto-clean-up at the end of the shot. Other artists also worked on this shot.

00:56 – Space Ranger Roger S1, “Roger Sticks the Landing.” 2017. Nuke.

Apply show confetti tool, enhance drama with animated glow pulse.

00:59 – Outro, Charlie's Colorforms City S1, "Mystery Charlie." 2019. Nuke.

Rainbow is cut from the end of the "Brain-bow" sequence that compositors tweak for each episode.

Video run-time: 1 minute 02 seconds.