Breakdowns

VFX shots from my showreel and recent projects, and how they were built.

The white temple

An environment for Hidden in Plain Sight.

The temple the lead climbs toward in the film, which is based on Kafka's The Castle. I generated concepts for the individual assets in Gemini, modelled and assembled the temple in Blender, rendered clay and AO passes, and composited the green screen plate of the actor into it in Nuke.

ToolsGemini, Blender, Nuke, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve

The shot as cut for my showreel breakdown.

Asset concepts

Generated asset sheet of spires, arches, balustrades and small bridges
Asset concepts generated in Gemini.
A generated stone staircase with balustrades
A generated stone bridge with a long stair
A generated curved arcade of arches

Build

The temple assembled in the Blender viewport with its bridge
Front view of the temple model in Blender
Clay render of the temple floating on its own reflection
The temple in Blender with volumetric clouds and the shader nodes below
Clouds and shading in Blender.

Passes and composite

Workbench render of the temple from the shot camera
Workbench render from the shot camera.
Ambient occlusion pass of the temple against black clouds
Ambient occlusion pass.
The actor keyed from green screen, isolated on black
The actor, keyed from green screen.
The Nuke script with diffuse and glossy light passes and the viewer showing the shot
The Nuke script.
Final composite: a man in a dark coat facing the white temple in cloud
Final frame.

Temple interior

From grey lighting tests to a character in the hall.

Inside the temple. I started with grey lighting tests in Blender, developed the look with generated concept art, broke the hall down into individual assets and built it. The character, a performer in a sculptural costume, came from a green screen shoot and a 3D scan, and was lit and composited into the set.

ToolsBlender, Nuke

Lighting tests

Grey lighting test of a robed statue in a dark hall
The same hall lit with warm shafts of light
The interior blockout in the Blender viewport

Concept art

Concept of a domed hall with teal walls and gilded sculpture
Concept looking up into a painted dome
Concept of a sculpted altar wall lit by chandeliers

Assets

Asset concept of a sculpted niche with a balcony
Asset concept of a curved balcony
Asset concept of a long arched gallery
A tall bronze candelabrum
A weathered stone niche
An arched pavilion with sculpture and stairs
An ornate wall sconce

Build

Work in progress: a draped statue in a carved alcove
Work in progress: interior modules assembled in the viewport
The finished hall in daylight with a small red figure
The finished hall in darker light

Character

3D scan of the performer in costume
The 3D scan.
Clay render of the scanned costume
The performer standing on green screen in costume
Depth pass of the character in the hall
Clay render of the character in the hall
Final composite: the performer in red standing in the dark hall
The performer close in the hall, framed by columns

Clean plates

People removed, the background rebuilt behind them.

Two shots where the people are taken out of moving footage and the background is filled in on every frame, so the plate can be used clean. Built in ComfyUI with an LTX video model.

ToolsComfyUI, LTX

OriginalClean plate
OriginalClean plate

Background replacement

One green screen plate, several locations.

A ComfyUI workflow that replaces the background behind a live-action plate while keeping the actor and his movement. I designed the locations as stills in Gemini and ran the same plate through each of them with Wan VACE.

ToolsComfyUI, Wan VACE, Gemini

Plate
Result

Two more locations

The actor in an industrial hall with a large turbine
A turbine hall.
The actor on a wet industrial street with smoking chimneys
A wet street with chimneys.
The workflow in ComfyUI.

Water on a face

Water layered in 3D space around a generated portrait.

The man and the bathroom started as generated stills, and the water as a separate element. In Nuke I placed the water layers in 3D in front of a camera and composited them over the face, then animated the shot in Seedance 2.0.

ToolsNuke, ComfyUI, Seedance 2.0

A tiled green bathroom
A man with closed eyes and wet hair
The water element, splashes and drops on black
Final frame: water running over the face, eyes open
Nuke 3D view with the camera and water layers
Water layers and camera in Nuke.
The water layers seen alone in Nuke

Figure frieze

A tangle of figures, from sketch to Gaussian splat.

A long frieze of pale figures caught mid-movement. I sketched the composition, built and posed the figures in Blender, turned them into a 3D Gaussian splat through ComfyUI, then lit and composited it in Nuke before animating it in Seedance 2.0.

ToolsBlender, ComfyUI, Nuke, Seedance 2.0

Pencil sketch of the frieze composition
The first sketch.
The figures as a Gaussian splat
Nuke 3D view and node graph for the frieze
Camera, splat and defocus in Nuke.
Final frame of the frieze of figures

Motion transfer

One dance, several performers.

A short dance animated on a mannequin in Blender, then carried onto generated characters in ComfyUI with WAN 2.2 Animate, so the same choreography plays out on different people.

ToolsBlender, ComfyUI, WAN 2.2 Animate

From the mannequin pass to the generated performers.
Character reference: a woman in a dark vest with her hands raised
Character reference: a young man in a dark vest

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