Cracking on with the scientist scenes. Just 5 left to do after a struggle with an Alex close up shot.

After mainly using Mocha Pro to rotoscope her shoulders and hair, a series of Primatte's, Keylights and KeyChews sorted the face.

Took two goes to get this one - but it was worth it. (And 2 nights funny enough!)

Next up another mid shot ! This one is longer - probably take 2 - 3 evenings work. Not least as I need to render a longer background plate.

The last shot for Census was filmed last night. Census has wrapped. Albeit a VFX shot of headlights for the final MI6/5 vehicle approaching the Dad and Daughter's house - all completed with ease thanks to Steve.

Shot the headlights reversing away from camera (for obvious safety reasons!) the footage will be played in reverse to look like the vehicle is arriving. This will be composited over the inside window blind shot to give the effect it has pulled up outside the house.

May well add police flashing lights as well to give it a more obvious feel as to who it is arriving.

After finishing the second Rob close up shot I went back to the opening wide shot to see if I could make it better.

Sure enough, after using Primatte and a Mocha Pro travelling matte; along with the usual KeyChew node and a few hold out mattes it is now much better. So much so I can feel confident to move the footage up so you can see the feet!

Graded again using Saphire Glow.

Then tackled the one shot which caused me all the heartache - Alex close up.

Took longer but with a stagically placed Mocha Pro travelling matte on her hair it now works. Pleased.

Onwards to the next mid shot!

Following on from the same workflow for the mid shot I attempted my first close up shot.

Two separate keys for the body and head; 2 Mocha Pro travelling mattes covering the face and body provide the hold out mattes along with a Keylight node. Primatte used again for the main key with Keychews applied with blur. All alpha channels brought together in a multi-layer node using iAdd composite mode. Saphire Edge blur then added to the whole output which then feeds into the matte channel of the original footage.

Graded using same method as before; slight desaturation, Saphire Glow then slight decrease in brightness to the whole thing. Piped in a branch off the accumulated alpha channels to the Saphire Glow to remove a slight white rim on the body.

Can't emphasize what a difference the Saphire Glow makes in helping sell the shot. It is only applied at 0.234% brightness but it just adds that certain something which is hard to put your finger on! I read about it being used on a pop video years ago and how the editor/VFX said he applied it to practically everything he does. See what he means now.

I now need to extend the background plate as it's not long enough for the 102 frames as it becomes obvious it is a still frame when the smoke coming out of the space shuttle stops !

Next up a close up of Alex. This was the first footage I had real problems with originally; which led to me trying everything and anything including downloading a trial of Nuke.

I think Nuke is an amazing piece of software but I cannot justify the massive price tag... Over £2,500. Plus, with this new workflow and the lesson I have learnt from the green screen shoot; Shake and it's hidden nodes (now found!) live on!