Shot Breakdown – Compositor Reel 2026 – Sandra Herman
01:04 – Video runtime.
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 holdouts on cards. Match live-action references for the glow timing. 3D firefly glow.
00:08 – Prey 2022. – Blood. Nuke. Only the CC as a creative note to make the blood read more red on the misty plate. Expanding Roto-mask on blood puddle to ease-on reveal.
00:14 – Prey 2022. – Mouse. Nuke. Integration of the wound with tracking and CC. Also help from a senior compositor to apply flicker from torches using CurveTool.
00:18 – Prey 2022. – Metal Wounds & Clean-up. 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.
00:19 – 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.
00:23 – Snow White 2025. – Glow, Tracking, Despill. Nuke. Match key shot look of stained-glass glow. Cut out colour shapes to grade and use tracking to apply the fix. Despill green cast on foreground floor, lantern, clothing.
00:33 – Transformers: Rise of the Beasts 2023. – Slap-comp, Set Extension. Nuke. Full-CG Slap-comp of distant buildings, sky, FG set, characters, FX fires, FX smoke, museum and interior, and sparks FX. Graded the set extension BG and FG. The shot was reassigned.
00:34 – Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania 2023. – CG Suit, Replace Body with Paint-out, Neck Goo, QC. Nuke. Update previous script with new CG-suit render, CC goo at neck to match the chin, and clean-up at the neck. Paint-out plate to remove the body. QC, check the black/white levels.
00:37 – Jim Hensen's Doozers S2, “Sand Sailer.” 2018. Maya, Nuke. Sand poofs follow locators constrained to surfboards. Adapted from Molly’s jetpack, used throughout S2. CC to match BG sand and apply more gravity and wind to the jetpack tool.
00:40 – 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.
00:44 – Transformers: Rise of the Beasts 2023. Optimus Prime Poses. Nuke. Relight using warm and cold colours from lighting AOVs to contrast and compose shape. Eye glow is enhanced using ID passes and grades.
00:47 – 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.
00:50 – Inspector Gadget S2, “Midnight Madness.” 2017. Photoshop, Nuke. Roto-lightening shapes drawn and timed on-off using Echo-node. Apply the skeleton plate and glow it. Match the look of reoccurring treatment, established in “Jurassic Jerk” (2017).
00:52 – 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-ed footage. Colour matched the plate.
00:54 – Charlie’s Colorforms City S1, “Charlie is Super.” 2019. Nuke. Create hero solo moments with glow, blur, and animation timing for 2D Harmony shapes.
00:57 – Transformers: The Rise of the Beasts 2023. Arcie Transformation Shadows, Clean-up. 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.
01:04 – Outro, Charlie's Colorforms City S1, "Mystery Charlie." 2019. Nuke. Rainbow is cut from the end of the "Brain-bow" sequence; it’s tweaked for each episode.
