Catcall

by thekuzicartoon on 1 Jun 2024 for Rookie Awards 2024

Lighting of first animated shot! As a lighter, my character is light. For this scene, decided to bring a couple of my characters to life. Responsible for lighting and compositing though I also made improvements to the composition of the shot and the sound effects.

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Catcall

by thekuzicartoon

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catcall /ˈkatˌkôl/ verb

The first use of the 'catcall' is believed to have come from the Shakespearean era where it was used to mock a performer, the audience would shriek and cry like that of a cat.

This then progressed to 'mashers' in 19th century America who were described as 'aggressive male street flirts'.

Thanks to the mentorship with Iván Manuel Benítez Sanz of The Lighting Lab, I have had the perfect guidance to working on my first animated shot. This is a collaboration with Lupin House and animator, Rossana Diez.

Reference

Lighting inspirations:

Setting the Scene

By utilizing Sarah Tarr's Harlem Streets set and Zootopia as a guide, there are not only better leading lines but also further visual interest and depth making the scene feel less 'crowded.'

Light Down To It

Breaking Down the Lights

The character is the 'key' point of most stories. Using ambient, key, fill, and other scene lights draw the focus.

Building Them Back Up

Combining all the above, the character comes to light.

Where Are Lights Placed?

You can see the effects of the lights, but where are they physically?

A Lighter's Character is...LIGHT!

As lighters, lights are our characters. So decided to literally bring the lights to life!

This story is about a girl getting catcalled by a group of guys passing by. Originally, the guys (offscreen) were on foot and ran away from the scene after their catcall failed. This would have required only static environment lighting.

To add a little more interest, the 'running away' footsteps were replaced with a sound effect of a car screeching away. With that, some offscreen headlights would imply a car coming along side our girl putting her in the spotlight.

Devil in the Details

As the 'car' screeches away, the only remnants of the catcallers are their taillights reflecting in the window! A small detail that when noticed adds a little, you know, something something.

A car passing on the other side of the street gave just a touch more life to the scene.

HDRI Difference

Many factors go into choosing the right HDRI - light, of course, but also reflections.

In this case, there is a large reflective window that would reflect the buildings across the street. Choosing the right reflection of those buildings to match the scene was important. Additionally, how the HDRI reflected on other surfaces made a big difference from one HDRI to another.

Compositing

Detail touches such as grading, eye dings, depth of field with bokeh, vignette, chromatic aberration, and reflections were added in Nuke to achieve the final polish.