Edgar Ascarrunz | Compositing Projects

Hi, my name is Edgar Ascarrunz. I'm from Bolivia and I just finished the compositing course at CG Spectrum. For me, what's special about movies is that they can make us dream while awake, and that's why I love all aspects of VFX, especially compositing. It allows us to bring to life the things other people dream of.

I hope you enjoy the projects I'm about to show you.

PROJECT - SPACESHIP

Taking inspiration from one of my favorite movies, "Guardians of the Galaxy," I decided to create this shot. I started by creating the nebula using noise nodes and adding a planet. For the spaceship (ProductionCrate), I graded the different AOVs; here, I thank Vu Nguyen for providing the lighting. After grading the AOVs, I used cryptomattes to help me select different parts of the spaceship. I also used UDIMs to add a freezing effect to the windows, along with some reflections and textures.

Finally, I rotoed the character taken from ActionVXF, extended the consoles, projected some HUDs (ProductionCrate), and integrated everything into the shot.

PROJECT - CITY

For this shot from ActionVXF, I wanted to work in a 3D environment. Thanks to John Castillo for tracking the city, I was able to use projections. I started by projecting two buildingsfrom ProductionCrate onto the shot, warping them to match the vanishing points and color match them to the plate. Adding some fire effects also from ProductionCrate to one of the buildings helped enhance the storytelling of the character's action. Afterward, I did some roto and rotopaint work to remove the moving cars. Finally, I used roto projections to recover some details and restore the main character.

PROJECT - THE CAVE

I'm a fan of horror movies, so I had to include one. I took a cave shot from ActionVFX and used the movement of the character to place a hidden monster. I started by grading the plate to achieve the desired mood. I tracked the torch to integrate fire and used STMaps to simulate the waviness at the top of the fire in motion. For the monster, I used a character from ProductionCrate, animated it in Mixamo, and placed it using a 3D environment. I camera-tracked the shot and positioned the monster, using lights and occlusion to integrate it properly into the scene. After that, I added shadows and rotoed the rocks in the cave.

PROJECT - HYPOINT

Thankfully, I was able to work with a wonderful team on a project for this year's Film of the Year, where I worked on compositing the shots. I was provided with the environment, and I used cryptomattes to mask and stencil elements, making the necessary adjustments and adding some FX—some provided by my team, others from ProductionCrate. I then tracked the hand to add the glowing beam charging.

We used green screen footage from ActionVFX, where I keyed the character and integrated her seamlessly. For the explosion of the head, provided by my teammate, I added a few larger chunks of the robot's head, rotoed parts of the skull, and animated them separately, adding some glow to integrate everything properly.

Thank you all for accompanying me and watching my projects.

A special thanks to my family and CG Spectrum for allowing me to dream while awake by giving me the chance to study compositing in such a wonderful environment. I also want to thank The Rookies for helping me find the right course at CG Spectrum.