Sandra T. Herman: Compositor
Sandra Herman is a Nuke compositor, she lives in Montreal. Her compositing work can be found in the films: Crater (2023), Prey (2022), and Kingston Paradise (2013). She has also contributed to the series: Caillou, Prehistoric Planet 2, Charlie's Colorforms City, F is for Family 4, and Jim Henson's Doozers 2.
Tuesday, 1 October 2024
Monday, 29 April 2024
Compositor Reel September 2024
Compositor Show Reel Shot Breakdown
Access to reel requires a password.
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/917204614
00:00 – Title Card
00:01 – Prey, 2022.
Only the CC as a creative note to make the blood read as more red in the misty plate.
Nuke.
00:08 – Prey, 2022.
Apply metallic highlight to wounds. Clean-up around hands and green blood splatter, where as the full integration (arm, hand, blood) was by John Castillo.
Nuke.
00:09 – Prey, 2022. – Two Shots
Integration of wound, CC, CG mouse, and tracking. Also help from a senior compositor to apply flicker from torches to connecting shots.
Nuke.
00:17 – Little People S2, “Braver Together.” 2018.
Uses surrounding shots to make solo passes of 3D firefly trails. Apply these renders as alpha hold-outs on cards. Match live-action reference of fireflies glow timing. 3D firefly glow.
Maya, Renderman, Nuke.
00:22 – Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania, 2023.
Update previous script with new CG suit render, CC goo at neck to match the chin, and clean-up at the neck. Had help with removing torso from plate. QC, check black/ white levels.
Nuke.
00:25 – Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Optimus Prime marketing stills. 2023.
Relight using warm and cold colours from lighting AOVs to contrast and compose shape. Eye glow is enhanced using ID passes, grades.
Nuke.
00:28 – Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. 2023.
Apply Arcee's shadow for both transformers character and motorcycle, and clean-up some Keying roto-masks for another artist.
00:31 – Space Ranger Roger, “Roger Sticks the Landing.” 2017.
Using goo push shape in plate render, added Ncloth to create second impact berm from scooter wheelat screen-right. CC and roto-masks to blend edges into FG, on top of plate.
Nuke, Maya, Ncloth.
00:32 – Personal Project: Action VFX Plates, "Car-Fire."
Place the burn marks, fire footage, and sparks. CC the fire and smoke for look of a fire that has been happening for a while. Glow and tracking.
Nuke.
00:33 – Personal Project: Action VFX Practice Footage, "Keying."
Worked on outer edges for hair details, removed holes in body of key. WIP.
Nuke.
00:35 – Charlie’s Colorforms City S1, “Charlie is Super.” 2019.
Create hero solo moment with glow, blur, and animation timing for when 2D Harmony sequences appear.
Nuke.
00:40 – Little People S2, “Kolby Speaks Up.” 2018.
Nuke bubbles and rain-spout tools are from previous episodes. Interactive bubbles clinging to the scrubbers are Maya bubbles.
Nuke, Maya.
00:44 – Inspector Gadget S2, “Midnight Madness.” 2017.
Roto-lightening shapes are timed on-off using Echo-node. Apply skeleton graphic and glow on skeleton. Matches look of reoccurring treatment, established in “Jurassic Jerk” (2017).
Nuke. Photoshop.
00:46 – Acapulco, Short, 2014.
Clean mattes of screen-left wall, rotoscoping, and tracking to hold mattes during camera move.
After Effects, Photoshop.
00:40 – Space Ranger Roger S1, “Roger Sticks the Landing.” 2017.
Animated glow pulse. Confetti matches show standard treatment, reoccurs in every episode.
Nuke.
00:55 – Jim Hensen's Doozers S2, “Sand Sailer.” 2018.
Sand poofs follow locators constrained to surfboards. Adapted from Molly’s jet-pack, used throughout S2. CC to match BG sand, and applying more gravity and particle wind than Molly's jet-pack.
Maya, Nuke.
0:58 – Outro Title Card, Charlie’s Colorforms City S1, “Mystery Charlie.” 2019.
Rainbow is cut from the end of the shot using the Harmony/Maya “Brain-bow.”
Nuke.
Video run-time: 59 seconds.
Sunday, 11 June 2023
Compositing Show Reel June 2023
Link to the reel requires a password. Thank you.
https://vimeo.com/836758199 * Revised *
Compositing Show Reel Shot Breakdown – JUNE 2023 –
Intro Title Card: is cut from the end of Harmony/Maya “Brain-bow.” Cut from
shot that matches show standard look.
Nuke.
Uses surrounding shots to make solo passes of 3D firefly trails. Applied these
renders as alpha hold-outs on cards. Match live-action reference of 2D BG
fireflies timing. 3D firefly glow.
Maya,
Renderman, Nuke.
00:09
– Doozers S2, “Holed Up.” 2018.
Emit blurry dust and rocks, and match the rocks to key shots. Render CG rocks
for alpha. Attach a locator to follow the bulldozer. Dust clouds adapted from
Molly’s jet-pack, from S2.
Maya,
Renderman, Nuke.
00:18 – Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Optimus Prime marketing stills. 2023.
Relight using warm and cold colours from lighting AOVs to contrast and compose shape. Eye glow is enhanced using ID passes, grades.
Nuke.
00:24 – Inspector Gadget, “Gadget and
Oatsfunkle.” 2017.
Uses
tornado geometry from animation department to emit white dir-blur streaks.
Characters brightened to contrast BG.
Maya,
Nuke.
00:30 – Space Ranger Roger, “Roger Sticks the Landing.” 2017.
Build
off of goo push shape in plate render, by use of Ncloth to create second impact
berm from scooter wheel. CC and roto-masks to blend edges into FG, on top of
plate.
Nuke,
Maya, Ncloth.
Combine muzzle flash element with opacity of smoke, placement of smoke footage, and roto-mask
for interactive glow.
After
Effects, Photoshop.
Remove
the red glow from BG flight equipment, apply FG characters on top of paint-out.
After
Effects, Silhouette, Photoshop.
00:43
– Jim Hensen's Doozerz S2, “Sand Sailer.” 2018.
Sand poofs follow locators constrained to surfboards. Adapted from Molly’s jet-pack, used throughout S2.
Maya, Nuke.
00:46 –
Charlie’s Colorforms City S1, “Charlie is Super.” 2019.
Create hero solo moment with glow, blur, and animation timing for when 2D Harmony
sequences appear.
Nuke.
00:50 – Miss Weather and
Friends, “Charlie Goes Camping.” 2022.
Transition fire
glow over main-plate following lighting strike. Match flamingo particles to
approved design.
Nuke.
Nuke.
Same
footage with defocus and text.
Nuke.
Monday, 29 May 2023
Compositing Show Reel May 2023
Compositing Show Reel Shot Breakdown – SANDRA HERMAN
https://vimeo.com/825112358 password protected
00:00 – Charlie’s Colorforms City S1, “Mystery Charlie.” 2019. Title Card: is cut from the end of Harmony/Maya “Brain-bow.” Cut from shot that matches show standard look. Nuke.
00:02 – Little People S2, “Braver Together.” 2018. Using surrounding shots to make solo passes of 3D fireflies trails. Applied these renders as alpha hold-outs on cards. Match live-action reference for 2D background fireflies on-and-off timing. 3D firefly glow. Maya, Renderman, Nuke.
00:08 – Doozers S2, “Holed Up.” 2018. Emit blurry dust and rocks, and match the rocks to key shots. Rendered CG rocks for alpha. Attached a locator to follow the bulldozer. Dust clouds adapted from Molly’s jet-pack, used throughout S2. Maya, Renderman, Nuke.
00:18 – Little People S2, “Kolby Speaks Up.” 2018. Scrubber bubbles treatment increases through sequence. Escaping bubbles adapted from Nuke bubbles used in episode, “Potty Ahoy!” S2. Nuke waterspout adapted from Little People S1, “Help Wanted.” Transparency and roto-mask clean-up. CC to match plate sky colour. Maya, Renderman, Nuke.
00:23 – Doozers S2, “Sand Sailer.” 2018. Sand poofs follow locators constrained to surfboards. Adapted from Molly’s jet-pack, used throughout S2. Maya, Nuke.
00:27 – Space Ranger Roger, “Roger Sticks the Landing.” 2017. Create the impact shape from scooter wheel. CC and roto-masks to blend edges into foreground. Nuke, Maya, Mental Ray.
00:30 – Kingston Paradise. 2013. Muzzle flash element, opacity of smoke, placement of smoke footage, Roto-mask for interactive glow. After Effects.
00:37 – Inspector Gadget S2, “Midnight Madness.” 2017. Roto-lightening shapes, timed on-off, skeleton graphic, cast glow. Matches look of reoccurring treatment, established in “Jurassic Jerk” (2017). Nuke, Maya.
00:40 – Miss Weather and Friends, “Charlie Goes Camping.” 2022. Transition fire glow over main-plate following lighting strike. Match flamingo particles to approved design. Nuke.
00:49 – Charlie’s Colorforms City S1, “Charlie is Super.” 2019. Create hero solo moment with glow, blur, and animation timing for when 2D Harmony sequences appear. Nuke.
00:53 – Kingston Paradise. 2013. Muzzle flash element, opacity of smoke, placement of smoke footage. After Effects.
00:55 – Space Ranger Roger, “Roger Sticks the Landing.” 2017. Animated glow pulse. Confetti matches show standard, reoccurs in every episode. Nuke.
01:00 – Charlie's Colorforms City S1, “Mystery Charlie.” 2019. The same footage used for Title Card, only now it’s a still frame. Video run-time: 1:01 seconds.
Tuesday, 21 February 2023
My latest Junior VFX Comp work can be found in the Marvel film, "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
Multiple trailers can be found at artofvfx.com.
https://www.artofvfx.com/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania/
And...the "Drink the Ooze Sequence" can be found here:
Saturday, 11 February 2023
Prey 2022 ---- Compositing
I worked on the fifth installment in the Predator franchise, the film Prey (2022). It was last spring/summer that I joined the team, at the tail end of production. Here are a couple of industry articles/ promotional materials for Prey (2022), which released on Hulu and Disney Plus in August (2022).
and brush up on your deadly weapons knowledge from this article:
https://www.artofvfx.com/prey-chris-uyede-vfx-supervisor-mpc/
Tuesday, 1 February 2022
Compositing Reel: February 2022
Link to my Compositing Reel 2022 can be found here: https://vimeo.com/674700942.
Please contact me for the password to access the video. The password protection is in place due to DHX Media/ Wild Brain's policy about footage sharing. This revision contains a lighting and compositing rendering based on the “Renderman Magic Shop Art Challenge - 2020.”
SANDRA HERMAN | Compositing Reel 2022 Shot Breakdown
Title Card: is cut from the end of Harmony “Brain-bow” show effect; created for the series by Ken Turner, 2D Animator. Maya glitter animation is rendered by Tristan Mailman, Pipeline TD.
Nuke.
Existing animation department footage of fireflies used to render hold-out passes. These sequences were then made to glow yellow, flicker on-off, and also scaled to fit the background.
Maya, Renderman, Nuke.
The animated rocks are sourced from a previous shot made by the animation department. A short sequence was rendered and combined with a locator constrained to the vehicle to emit rock particles. Dust clouds are adapted from the series jet-pack tool developed by James Dalziel.
Nuke, Maya, Renderman.
00:13 – Inspector Gadget 2, “Midnight Madness.”
Roto-lightening shapes, timed on-off using echo-node, skeleton graphic and cast glow composited in Nuke. Matches look of reoccurring effect, established in “Jurassic Jerk” (2017).
Nuke, Maya.
Sand wake created in Nuke, elaborated on existing reuse show effect, the series jet-pack tool developed by James Dalziel.
Maya, Nuke.
Harmony sequences are from the design department and 2D animation work is by Ken Turner. Motion-blur for the squiggles, glow behind character, and timing for when elements appear is arranged in Nuke.
Nuke.
Arranged muzzle flashes and cast glow, also adjusted smoke footage placement.
After Effects, Photoshop.
Nuke.
Tornado provided by animation department; however, the geometry is used to emit white motion blur streaks. Characters also brightened to contrast background.
Nuke.
00:42 – Renderman "Magic Shop" Art Challenge.
Matilda model by Xiong Lin and rig by Leon Sooi. Pixar models by Eman Abdul-Razzaq, Grace Chang, Ethan Crossno, Siobhán Ensley, Derrick Forkel, Felege Gebru, Damian Kwiatkowski, Jeremy Paton, Leif Pedersen, Kylie Wijsmuller, and Miguel Zozaya © Disney/Pixar - RenderMan “Magic Shop” Art Challenge.
Maya, Renderman, Nuke.
00:58 – Little People 2, “Kolby Speaks Up.”
Spheres emitted by scrubbers rendered from Maya. Escaping bubbles adapted from Nuke bubble tool developed by Gregory Gibbons for episode “Potty Ahoy!” Nuke waterspout by Joel LeLievre, adapted from Little People Season 1.
Maya, Renderman, Nuke.
01:03 – Charlie's Colorforms City 1, "Mystery Charlie."
The same footage used for Title Card, only now it is a still frame.
Video run-time: 1:04 seconds.