Add Photorealism with Lens FX-Nuke VFX Compositing

Whenever a camera shoots a scene, the lens adds a variety of effects to the captured image. These effects have to be duplicated and matched by the compositor when merging layers from different camera or CGI sources. Learn step-by-step procedures for replicating and simulating common lens effects—with any VFX software. This course documents nearly a dozen different techniques, including lens distortion, depth of field, soft focus, vignetting, spherical aberration, astigmatism, chromatic aberration, and glows and flares. For each lens effect, its optical cause, appearance, and the math to composite it into your shots are documented in a software-agnostic way. Many are illustrated with CGI animations. Instructor Steve Wright also provides an in-depth explanation of layering order, showing how to combine lens effects in the right order for maximum effectiveness.

01 – Introduction 01 – Introduction and overview

02 – Lens Effects 01 – What causes depth of field 02 – How to simulate depth of field 03 – Creating bokeh effects 04 – Matching a soft focus 05 – Adding a vignette 06 – Creating anamorphic vignettes

03 – Lens Defects 01 – Adding spherical aberration 02 – Simulating astigmatism 03 – The causes of chromatic aberration 04 – Simulating chromatic aberration

04 – Glows and Flares 01 – Adding filter flares 02 – Creating diffraction glows 03 – Simulating veiling glares 04 – The right look and behavior for lens flares 05 – The proper math for adding lens flares

05 – Layering Order 01 – Proper layering order

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