Miniatures in Production & Compositing (ft. Star Wars)
June 1, 2022
ActionVFX Staff
Learn the pre-shoot, on-set, and compositing stages of a Star Wars shot using miniatures, Nuke, and Unreal Engine.
The use of miniature models in film dates back to 1902 when French filmmaker Georges Méliès used a model rocket for the now-iconic moon landing scene in A Trip to the Moon. When Star Wars came out in 1977, the use of miniature models took the grand ideas of George Lucas and made them a reality.
Today's tutorial is intended to help VFX Supervisors, compositors, and filmmakers understand the process of shooting with miniatures on a green screen. We use a miniature and VFX collections like Windy Snow and free snow FX to create a Star Wars-style shot of the Millennium Falcon in Nuke and Unreal Engine.
You'll learn:
- How to shoot miniatures for the best result in post
- What to look out for when compositing miniatures
- How to composite miniatures in a CG environment
- How to create a realistic CG environment in Unreal Engine (using Quixel assets)
- Creating accurate textures and shadows on the miniature
- Realistically compositing the live-action and CG footage in Nuke
ActionVFX Assets Used:
- Windy Snow
- Free - Snow FX
- Free - Snow Textures
- Ice & Frost
- Atmospheric Smoke & Fog Vol. 1
- Atmospheric Smoke & Fog Vol. 2
- Steam Jets
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