CPSC 815 Special Effects Production
Fall 2001
Project 1

Objectives:

To learn simple compositing operations within an image manipulation package (e.g., Gimp or Photoshop).

Motivation:

This project examines issues involved in compositing two (or more) still images.

Due dates:

Project web page: 09/13/01

Description:

Use an image manipulation package (Gimp or Photoshop) to composite two scenes:

• using two possibly unrelated images;
• using two (or more) images set up for compositing.

Notes, suggestions, and additional requirements:

• In both cases, attempt to integrate the images as seamlessly as possible, i.e., the final image should appear as though taken with only 1 camera. (Be your own worst critic, paying attention to lighting, scale, color correspondence of the composited images, etc., and any unwanted visible artifacts such as matte halo effects.)
• In the second case, set up the shots as best as you can with the compositing operation in mind, e.g., use a blue screen and a ``stage'' to photograph the foreground element, matching the conditions found in the background frame.
• If you're new to the Gimp, see the following web page for documentation, tutuorials, etc.: <http://www.gimp.org/>. More tutorials can be found here: <http://empyrean.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nem/gimp/tuts/> .

What to hand in:

``Professional-quality'' brief writeup, including:

1. Cover page containing: Course Id--Section No.
   Name:
   Assignment No.
   
2. Assignment description
3. ``Visual chronology'' of the piece, including:
   • idea drawings (e.g., storyboards for the composition of the final shot),
   • principal photography (e.g., the ``raw images'', with props, stage, blue screen background, etc.),
   • matte images generated for the composite (along with descriptions of any operations employed to ``clean up'' the mattes, e.g., smoothing to soften matte edges),
   • the final image.

Electronic submission of images: provide a URL (web address) to your on-line presentation of the assignment. To keep the page size manageable, please use reduced images on your web page, but provide links to the full-scale images.