Now this project is planned to be C.G. elements composited onto live action plates. This means that we need to have background plates that we can use during production.
For this project, the background plates were shot on Marsten Moor, a location selected for is distinct visual look. However, the landscape of the location is mostly hilly grassland, largely lacking in distinct features. This could have posed a problem with match moving; the process where the virtual C.G. camera has its movements matched to the practical camera used on set.
This problem had been foreseen, however. To remedy the problem, a series of tracking plates were created. These are white wooden boards with distinct black markers which were placed around the scene. This added a great deal in information for the match move, and helped eliminate any issues that might have occurred.
(Click to embiggen image)
With these tracking markers, the background plates could now be tracked with relative ease, but the addition of them to the shot has created a different problem; the markers are now in the shot and don't look very good.
The solution, therefore, is to digitally remove them. This wasn't as easy as it is for some shots, as the camera has a lot of movement in, but I did now have a solid match move of the scene. With this data, I was able to bring a 3D camera and tracking data into after effects. This allowed me to create 3D clones of the shot which could be masked and placed over the markers in the background plate, thus removing the markers.
With this done, the background plate is now ready for production.
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