ENDA Episode 209 → The time when ENDA fights with a fire sword (Part 2)

We’re back with the FX comp!

It’s been a while since we revisited this project, but that doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten it.

Now… I know I said we’d start with the paint-out and some tracking. However, we’re already doing plenty of that on the Barbie shot (among other reasons), so why not begin with something far more interesting?

And that is: subtracting channels.

Yes, it doesn’t sound glamorous or “cool”, but believe me, it’s one of the most essential steps when you’re dealing with CG elements in a shot.

In the video below, you can see that the simulation includes the sword’s reflections. But for now, we don’t need them, because we first need to focus on the sword itself.

Enter the subtractive method.

It’s simple maths: we use the From operation in a Merge node to subtract the reflection channels from the smoke and fire, allowing us to isolate the element we actually want to work on.

So… does this mean we can start colour-correcting and adding the cool effects?

Sadly, no.

And the reason is the alpha channel.

But that will be for another episode.

The journey continues...