3D LIGHTING PORTFOLIO | MIARS PORFOLIO

Lighting + Compositing Portfolio

DEMO REEL

BREAKDOWNS

I had the privilege to be one of the Lighting + Compositing Leads on Stone Lions Don't Roar! This involved everything from creating master light rigs to teaching people how to light in Houdini Arnold.

The scope of this film was ambitious- 144 shots! In the span of 7 weeks, I lit over 50 shots of the film. It was such a fun challenge, and I'm so proud of what my team was able to accomplish!

lit in Houdini, rendered in Arnold, composited in Nuke

Reference! Before I did the master lighting for a sequence, I spoke with the director to get an idea for what she wanted the lighting to convey. After receiving a color key, I would find film clips and painting reference to help me problem solve for interpreting the color key into a 3D world. Film reference helped me find nuance in a shot, painted reference helped me break reality to achieve the more surreal tone the director wanted for this sequence.

Color key versus final! We ended up pushing this sequence to be a bit warmer and darker to match the rest of the film.

For this sequence we stuck much closer to the color key! Main shifts were the addition of more fog and cooler blues.

FIRST PASS

This pass was the master lighting copied into the scene. The character lighting was rough and everything felt pretty flat.

FINAL SHOT LIGHTING

Some of the lighting was tweaked from the paintover for continuity (notably the rim on the back of the lion), but overall I integrated the paintover critiques to add some shaping, depth, clarity, and drama.

PAINTOVER

On any shot with a complex lighting change, I would do a 5-10 minute paintover to understand the scene better and allow me to iterate faster. This was occasionally done by the sequence's color key artist to provide another perspective.

Simplified process for one of the fight scene shots:

Final shots from the film!

Here is an early lighting and compositing test I did for Stone Lions. This shot allowed me to help develop a lighting style for the film as well as troubleshoot the pipeline before we started post-production. As the Look Development Lead, it also provided me the opportunity to make changes to the character and environment textures to better support the lighting style of the film.

And here is my amazing team! They were such a joy to work with!

EDIFICE LIGHTING + COMPOSITING

This project's goal was to composite 3D rendered light and shadow seamlessly with a hand-painted background, specifically in a way that would be repeatable for multiple shots. The 3D lighting was rendered out with AOVs and then composited in Nuke with a layered matte painting.

background painted in Photoshop, animated in Maya, rendered in Arnold, composited in Nuke

Responsible for all except character rig.

CLOISTERGEIST SHORT FILM

Cloistergeist is a 6 week collaborative short film about a monk who's quiet monastery life is upended by a playful ghost. As Tech Lead, I was responsible for establishing a 3D style, completing draw overs and critiques for crew members, building much of the set, creating the film's lighting rigs, and lighting/compositing assigned shots.

modeled in Maya, textured in Substance Painter, rendered in Arnold, composited in DaVinci Resolve

Responsible for lighting, cathedral model, and cathedral textures.

GOLDEN HOUR PORTRAIT

The goal for this portrait was to utilize natural light in a dramatic fashion. A warm key light with a barndoor filter mimics sunlight filtered through trees, and a combination of rim and fill area lights mimic the cool sky and the bounce light from the surrounding forest. Despite using a HDRI for the background, all light cast onto the character is from spotlights and area lights.

modeled in Maya, textured in Substance Painter, hair made in XGen, rendered in Arnold, color graded in DaVinci Resolve

Responsible for all except base topology.

PLEIN AIR ENVIRONMENT

The aim for this project was to capture a joyful and ethereal atmosphere using realistic assets. To accomplish this, I leaned heavily into light's ability to convey emotion. My primary references were film photographs and Romantic landscape paintings.