LIGHTING TD DEMOREEL - MARGOT AUCLAIR

LIGHTING TD

My name is Margot, and I am a passionate Lighting Technical Director dedicated to creating immersive worlds through the art of lighting. I am glad to share with you my demoreel!
I hope it will highlights my dedication and passion for lighting in the animation and visual effects industry.

Project 1 - ASTRAN

Softwares used : Katana - Houdini - Arnold - Muster (Renderfarm)

This project is my graduation movie short film.
I was the Lead Lighting Rendering and TD Pipeline of the team.
I was involved in the overall development and the planning. Coordinating with my teammates to assign tasks and distribute lighting shot amoung the team members.
My biggest challenge was mastering Katana, and ensuring it worked smoothly for everyone while keeping the project on schedule.

Lighting

I conducted thorough research to find references and define the lighting as accurately as possible before we began the shooting.
My goal was to match the 3D lighting to the plate lighting while enhancing the beauty of each shot. I have done my best to light the work of my teammates, who put in tremendous effort on this project.
Lighting the creatures, environments, and FX was an exciting process, seeing everything come to life. This experience honed my attention to detail, organizational skills, and time management for each shot.

Technical Achievements

As I was saying, I was in charge of the learning of Katana, a software I was entirely new to, and very different from what I was using (Maya, Houdini...). I was also very new at coding!

I started by trying to create a Cyclo Template scene. To do this I have watch many tutorials and spended (many) hours searching for issues I had. The Foundry website, their support team and the Katana and Arnold Discord servers also helped me a lot.

I firstly managed to create a .bat as a TxConverter since Katana is only reading Tx. (was very proud of myself for this at the beggining haha, very very new at "coding"!). I have also created a Katana Launcher with a .bat for launching Katana with Arnold, with our OCIO config, and with our custom variables. 

During my apprenticeship, I documented my findings to explain to my team how to work efficiently in Katana, using the templates I had created. This process taught me how to synthesize and communicate complex information clearly.

Finally, I have created one template scene for each sequences that we had. Where we were able to import assets, animation, scatters, groom... And do all we need to do up to (and including) the rendering stage. I have created lots of variables switch who have made our lives easier.
We had the multi-shot Lighting in Katana where I created all the Master LightRig, then we went on to Key Lightings and Child Lightings with my teammate Antoine Hazard, who handled some of the shots.
Finally, I rendered all our shots, using variable switches for easy versioning and custom file naming.

Learning and working with Katana was a highly rewarding experience. It taught me persistence, patience, and the importance of continual learning. The lighting work in this software was incredibly fulfilling, and I look forward to working with it again.

ASTRAN is the most significant project I have worked on, and it has also taught me the most - both humanly, as artistically and technically. 

(See credits bellow)

Project 2 - DEER

Softwares used : Maya - Arnold
I love doing animal lighting! The goal was to enhance the shape and details of the Deer using a sunlight. I aimed to create a natural and realistic lighting setup that hightlights the deer's features and brings it to life.
Breakdown of the Lighting Process
Back Light - Adds depth and separation from the background.
Key Light - Primary source of illumination, defining main features and textures of the deer's body.
HDRI - Worked as fill light and helped in adding subtle details enhancing the overall realism of the scene.
Final Shot.
Challenges and Learnings
Working on Deer project allowed me to refine my skills in animal lighting and deepen my understanding of how light interacts with organic forms.

(See credits bellow)

Project 3 - DUNE

Softwares used : Maya - Arnold

"We wanted to do a fan-made trailer of Dune 2, inspired by the universe of Denis Villeneuve." quote by my friend and teammate Lancelot Maestrini!

It was fun to light this Worm chasing the Copter!
Here is my reference for the Copter and Worm shot (see the shot bellow)

(See credits bellow)

Here is the full fan made trailer (I haven't do the lighting for the Thumper shots and the Copter in front of the sun shot, see the full credits at the end)

Project 4 - INTERSTELLAR

For this project, I aimed to recreate a shot from one of my favorite movies: Interstellar! Matching the reference as closely as possible.

Inspired by the stunning visuals and emotional depth of Interstellar, I chose to replicate a specific shot that has always captivated me. This scene, where the protagonist is deep in thought, beautifully showcases the power of lighting in storytelling.

Breakdown of the Lighting Process

Concept and References: My primary goal was to capture the essence of the original scene. I meticulously analyzed the lighting, colors, and mood of the reference shot from Interstellar to ensure accuracy and emotional impact.

Nose Light - I began with the nose light, which subtly illuminates the character’s face from the front. This light helps to highlight the facial features without overpowering the scene, maintaining a natural and introspective look.

Key Light - Next, I added the key light, positioned to replicate the main source of illumination in the reference shot. This light is crucial for defining the primary shapes and contours of the character, creating depth and focus.

Orange Light - To add warmth and enhance the emotional tone of the scene, I introduced an orange light. This light mimics the warm glow often seen in Interstellar, adding a layer of richness and complexity to the lighting setup.

Rim Light - The rim light was used to outline the character's silhouette, providing separation from the background and enhancing the three-dimensionality of the shot. This light helps to draw attention to the character, making them stand out more clearly.

Fill Light - Finally, I added a fill light to soften the shadows and balance the overall illumination. This light ensures that no part of the character is lost in darkness, maintaining visibility and detail throughout the scene.

Challenges and Learnings
Balancing the various light sources to match the original scene's mood and atmosphere required careful attention to detail and iterative adjustments. This project deepened my understanding of how subtle lighting variations can significantly impact the emotional resonance of a scene.

Working on this Interstellar project allowed me to delve into cinematic lighting and explore the intricacies of replicating a beloved film's look. It was a rewarding experience that honed my skills in attention to detail and emotional storytelling through light.

(I have used the free Digital Emily here as a 3D model, see credits below)

Thank you for taking the time to view and read about my projects. I look forward to your feedback and hope you enjoyed them!

Cheers - Margot

DEMOREEL CREDITS

My demoreel includes team projects where I was in charge of the Lighting.

Here is the credits -

ASTRAN 

Axel BAUDIN - 3D Generalist
Nawel BENSADOK - Lead AD - 2D/3D Concepts
Antoine HAZARD - Lighting - Animation
Sarah HECKY - Animation - 2D/3D Concepts
Lancelot MAESTRINI - Lead Compositing - 3D Generalist
Nils MITRECEY - Environment - 3D Generalist
Ivan OLIEL - Lead Character - 3D Generalist
Valérian PIERRET  - Lead FX - Environment
Margot Auclair - Lead Lighting - TD Pipeline
Music & Sound Design : Loïc BILLEN - Abel DIARRA - Antoine FROIDEVAUX - Régis ROYER

DEER

Lancelot Maestrini - Surfacing.
Alexandre Wojktow - Rigging.
Jessica Tang - Animation.
Ivan Oliel - Sculpting, Grooming, and Compositing.
Margot Auclair - Lighting

DUNE

Remy MAATOUK - Character Artist
Ivan Oliel - Groom Artist
Lancelot Maestrini - Compositor
Valérian Pierret - FX Artist
Margot Auclair - Lighting

INTERSTELLAR

Digital Emily 3D MODEL

Image Metrics

Director/Rigger - Oleg Alexander

Computer Vision Engineer - Dr. Mike Rogers

Produced By - David Barton

Production Assistant - Edwin Gamez

Render Artist - William Lambeth

Matchmover - Steven McClellan

Facial Animation - Cesar Bravo, Matt Onheiber

Additional Modeling -Tom Tran

Actress - Emily O'Brien

Marketing - Eric Schumacher

Co-Producer - Christopher Jones

PR - Shannon McPhee

Production Manager - Peter Busch

Director of Photograph - Justin Talley

Performance Analysis - Bryan Burger

Dental Cast - Sean Kennedy

Music - Confidence Head

USC - Institute for Creative Technologies

Senior Supervisor - Paul Debevec

Research Programmer - Matt Chiang

Research Programmer - Alex Ma

Supervising Researcher - Tim Hawkins

Producer - Tom Pereira

3D Scanning - Andrew Jones

Reflectance Modeling - Abhijeet Ghosh

Technical Artist - Jay Busch

(list from https://vgl.ict.usc.edu/Research/DigitalEmily/)