ENDA Episode 167→ The time when ENDA faces a Multipass Challenge (Part 4)

Having the FX render should make comp easier… shouldn’t it?

The answer is: yes…, and not always.

While it’s true that having the AOVs is incredibly helpful, the compositing work will still involve a fair amount of back-and-forth.

Let’s start with colour. We need to colour-correct the FX render so it carries a tone consistent with the main CG render. Above all, we must maintain a clear visual hierarchy: the saturation and value need to match the distance of each rock from the camera. Yes, colour is affected by how far or close an object is to the camera lens.

Then comes the glow. This tends to be underestimated or treated as a simple “make it look cool” filter.  

The reality?

Glow determines how much light the lava is emitting and how that light is perceived by the camera lens.

So we need to be careful not to exaggerate it, respecting the distance from the camera and how the light behaves across the entire plate. The end result should be a subtle glow that feels physically accurate, matches our colour work, and doesn’t distract from the rest of the visual elements.

These may seem like tiny details no one would ever notice. Nonetheless, these are exactly the kinds of details that catch the eye of someone reviewing your reel. Not the flashiness or spectacle of the effect, but how seamlessly everything works together without drawing attention to itself.

You know what else is a key detail? 

The light from the astronaut’s backpack.

But that will be for a future episode.

The journey continues...