Rapporten är en erfarenhetsbaserad reflektion över min praktiktid på 3d-produktionsföretaget Kaktus Film i Stockholm. Under min tid på företaget var jag med, från början till slut, i produktionen av en tysk musikvideo till en artist som heter Eisblume. Min roll i projektet med musikvideon var 3d-grafiker. Jag har primärt arbetat med tre olika saker; att skapa och animera blodådror som växer fram i olika miljöer, att skapa vattensimulationer och att färgmatcha och justera de renderade bilderna. Rapporten beskriver min kunskaps/arbetsprocess på Kaktus Film och de problem som uppstod i arbetet. Rapporten ger också en helhetsbild av arbetsprocessen i en storydriven kortfilms 3d-produktion. Arbetet i en sådan produktion beskrivs delvis utifrån min deltagande observation på Kaktus Film, men också utifrån litteratur inom området. En beskrivning av arbetsprocessen i en storydriven kortfilms 3d-produktion har skrivits parallellt med rapporten och finns bifogad som en bilaga till rapporten. Bilagan kompletterar den reflekterande texten för att ge en tydligare helhetsbild av en typisk produktion.Under min praktiktid på Kaktus Film kom jag att reflektera över att det finns så få kvinnor på 3d-produktionsföretagen. Jag beslutade då att utföra en mindre genusundersökning. Genusundersökningen behandlar frågor som kretsar kring könsfördelningen i 3d-branschen. Till exempel vad den ojämna könsfördelningen kan bero på. Genusundersökningen visar att var tredje person på en 3d-relaterad utbildning är kvinna, medan andelen anställda kvinnor i 3d-branschen uppskattas till endast 10 procent. Teorier om att den kulturella jantelagen ligger till grund för könsfördelningen diskuteras. Det visar sig också att den fördomsfulla uppfattningen, att män är bättre på tekniska uppgifter, gör sig starkt ihågkommen i 3d-branschen. Genusundersökningen börjar under kapitel 5.

Today, production companies are being asked to create scenes that are almost impossible to render. To create these impossible shots with speed and quality, the industry has created render passes. In this research project, the aim is to learn and understand the fastest and most efficient methods to create 3D Medical Sciences Visualization. A deeper understanding of Render Passes using Nuke compositing software in an industry based pipeline will answer the above statement. This project was developed in collaboration with the Uppsala Biomedical Center (BMC) and the Special Effects company Oddville. The final animation will also be used for BMC medical conferences. The results revealed that the render passes did allowed for the animation in postproduction and also saved a great deal of time.

It has been confirmed that vented gases from swine manure compositing operations contain biodegradable ammonia and amines as main odorous compounds. The thesis focuses on the odor-removal performance from the gases by sparging them into an activated sludge aeration liquor in which the odorous compounds can be absorbed and biodegraded. An acrylic column (0.20 m i.d.¡Ñ1.2 mH) was used as the activated sludge aeration tank and a wooden case (1.0 mL¡Ñ0.6 mW¡Ñ0.6 mH) as a swine manure compositing tank. Seed sludge for the odor removal experiments was obtained from a swinery wastewater plant located at southern Taiwan. Both swine manure from the swinery and a pre-fermented composite sample obtained from a compositing plant located at East-southern Ping-Dong County were used for the odorous gas generation. Experiments were conducted at mixed liquor suspended solid (MLSS) concentrations of 2,250-2,750 mg/L, liquid pH of 6.4-6.6, and aeration intensities of 0.1-0.5 m3/m3.min. Results show that the experimental removal efficiencies for both ammonia and amines with, respectively, 18-50 and 180-250 ppm in the influent gas were greater than 80% with aerated activated sludge liquid depths of greater than 0.60 m within the tested aeration intensities. Keeping the activated sludge at around 25oC favored the biodegradation of the absorbed ammonia and amines and resulted in the removal of the compounds to around 85-95%. Temperatures of lower than 15oC shifted the removal to as low as 50-60% because of the limitations in both the biological growth and activity. Results from the study confirm that the activated sludge bioscrubbing approach should be applicable to odor control for the compositing plants.

This thesis is an investigation on the changing concept of space and its production, through a reconsideration of montage in the digital environment. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, collage and montage have been one of the key terms that lead the movements of art and architecture. Towards the end of the 80s, however, as a result of the introduction of the digital environment, the quality and quantity of methods of production and transfer of knowledge have increased and the flow of information has gained a noticeable importance. Through recent developments, the digital environment offers many opportunities for representation in architectural field as well as other professions. Montage, which is a technique for construction of a new meaning or entity throughout its history, now changes its character with the infinitely many opportunities digital environment proposes as well. Therefore, this thesis tries to examine the changing scope and formulation of montage in this specific environment through the example of digital compositing which is a recent design and production technique used in the field of photography and cinema. Digital compositing provides layering, editing and merging numerous elements in one frame. Through its inherent potential of decomposing time and juxtaposing different modes of realities, the concept of space and production and visualization techniques in the digital medium change also affecting the roles of the designer and the user in the process. Thus, this new formulation brings forward a new understanding of design process that acts as an interface both spatially and temporally.

This thesis focuses on the importance of technology to create believably composited effects. It was found that many factors culminate in generating believability in a film, including: suspension of disbelief, the story, and the quality of the special effects. Many technical aspects lend to the creation of successful special effects and are involved during every stage of production. There is a discussion of several of the important criteria analyzed during preproduction, production, and post production. A brief history of the technical effect industry is discussed. Personal work for this project includes three case studies. In the form of short video projects, these studies are applications of the researched industry concepts. They deal with issues including incorporation of digital models into live action footage, using pre-existing footage, digital makeup, motion tracking, masking, color correction, and generation of artificial lights and shadows. The creation of these videos included video recording and editing and used Maya TM and After Effects TM. The final shorts showed examples of the strengths and weaknesses of the applied compositing techniques. Implications for the future directions of this field are also discussed.

<p>Rapporten är en erfarenhetsbaserad reflektion över min praktiktid på 3d-produktionsföretaget Kaktus Film i Stockholm. Under min tid på företaget var jag med, från början till slut, i produktionen av en tysk musikvideo till en artist som heter Eisblume. Min roll i projektet med musikvideon var 3d-grafiker. Jag har primärt arbetat med tre olika saker; att skapa och animera blodådror som växer fram i olika miljöer, att skapa vattensimulationer och att färgmatcha och justera de renderade bilderna. Rapporten beskriver min kunskaps/arbetsprocess på Kaktus Film och de problem som uppstod i arbetet. Rapporten ger också en helhetsbild av arbetsprocessen i en storydriven kortfilms 3d-produktion. Arbetet i en sådan produktion beskrivs delvis utifrån min deltagande observation på Kaktus Film, men också utifrån litteratur inom området. En beskrivning av arbetsprocessen i en storydriven kortfilms 3d-produktion har skrivits parallellt med rapporten och finns bifogad som en bilaga till rapporten. Bilagan kompletterar den reflekterande texten för att ge en tydligare helhetsbild av en typisk produktion.Under min praktiktid på Kaktus Film kom jag att reflektera över att det finns så få kvinnor på 3d-produktionsföretagen. Jag beslutade då att utföra en mindre genusundersökning. Genusundersökningen behandlar frågor som kretsar kring könsfördelningen i 3d-branschen. Till exempel vad den ojämna könsfördelningen kan bero på. Genusundersökningen visar att var tredje person på en 3d-relaterad utbildning är kvinna, medan andelen anställda kvinnor i 3d-branschen uppskattas till endast 10 procent. Teorier om att den kulturella jantelagen ligger till grund för könsfördelningen diskuteras. Det visar sig också att den fördomsfulla uppfattningen, att män är bättre på tekniska uppgifter, gör sig starkt ihågkommen i 3d-branschen. Genusundersökningen börjar under kapitel 5.</p>

Rendering takes time, especially without access to powerful hardware. Is there any way to reduce the time of rendering? With the help of compositing reducing the time of renders is very much possible, using a range of alternative methods. A total of three different approaches will be tested in order to save time, as well as trying to maintain quality as close to a render straight from a 3D application as possible. Projections using cards and geometry as well as deep data will be used in an attempt to find the most efficient and useful way of saving time. / Rendering tar tid, speciellt utan tillgång till kraftfull hårdvara. Finns det något sätt att dra ner på tiden en rendering tar? Med hjälp av compositing är det absolut möjligt att sänka tiderna för en rendering genom en rad alternativa metoder. Totalt kommer tre olika metoder att testas för att spara in tid, men även för att försöka komma så nära kvalitén av en bild renderad direkt från en 3D-appliaktion som möjligt. Projektioner på plan och geometri och användandet av deep-data kommer användas i ett försök att hitta det mest effektiva och användbara tillvägagångssättet att spara tid.

Context: This thesis investigates a new method for re-texturing and com- positing new or additional material on specific pre-rendered images using various blend equations. This is done by sampling a number of render passes created alongside the original source material, most notably a UV pass for accurate texture positioning and different lighting passes to enhance the control over the final result. This will allow comparatively simple and cheap compositing without the overhead that other commercially available tools might add. Objectives: Render the necessary UV coordinates and lighting calculations from a 3D application to two separate textures.Sample said textures in DirectX and use the information to accurately light and position the additional dynamic material for blending with the pre-rendered media. Method: The thesis uses an implementation method in which quantita- tive data is gathered by comparing the resulting composited images using two common image comparison methods, the Structured Similarity Index (SSIM) and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), against a Gold Standard render. Results: The results of this implementation indicates that both the per- ceived and measured similarity is close enough to prove the validity of this method. Conclusions. This thesis shows the possibility and practical use of DirectX as tool capable of the most fundamental compositing operations. In its current state, the implementation is limited in terms of flexibility and func- tionality when compared to other proprietary compositing software packages and some visual artefacts and quality issues are present. There are however no indications that these issues could not be solved with additional work.

Image layers are two-dimensional planes, each comprised of objects extracted from a two-dimensional (2D) image of a scene. Multiple image layers together make up a given 2D image, similar to the way a stack of transparent sheets with drawings together make up a scene in an animation. Extracting layers from 2D images continues to be a difficult task. Image compositing is the process of superimposing two or more image layers to create a new image which often appears real, although it was made from one or more images. This technique is commonly used to create special visual effects in movies, videos and television broadcast. In the widely used "blue screen" method of compositing, a video of a person in front of a blue screen is first taken. Then the image of the person is extracted from the video by subtracting the blue portion in the video, and this image is then superimposed on to another image of a different scene, like a weather map. In the resulting image, the person appears to be in front of a weather map, although the image was digitally created. This technique, although popular, imposes constraints on the object color and reflectance properties and severely restricts the scene setup. Therefore layer extraction and image compositing remains a challenge in the field of computer vision and graphics. In this research, a novel method of layer extraction and image compositing is conceived using a moving-aperture lens, and a prototype of the system is developed. In an image sequence captured with this lens attached to a standard camera, stationary objects in a scene appear to move. The apparent motion in images is created due to planar parallax between objects in a scene. The parallax information is exploited in this research to extract objects from an image of a scene, as layers, to perform image compositing. The developed technique relaxes constraints on object color, properties and requires no special components in a scene to perform compositing. Results from various indoor and outdoor stationary scenes, convincingly demonstrate the efficacy of the developed technique. The knowledge of some basic information about the camera parameters also enables passive range estimation. Other potential uses of this method include surveillance, autonomous vehicle navigation, video content manipulation and video compression. / Ph. D.

Deep images for use in visual effects work during deep compositing tend to be very large. Quite often the files are larger than needed for their final purpose, which opens up an opportunity for optimizations. This research project is about finding methods for identifying redundant and excessive data use in deep images, and then approximate this data by resampling it and representing it using less data. Focus was on maintaining the final visual quality while optimizing the files so the methods can be used in a sharp production environment. While not being very successful processing geometric data, the results when optimizing volumetric data were very succesfull and over the expectations.