Case Study: Spumante

Pipeline Overview

Spumante is a time-freeze VFX shot. The full pipeline included: DeGrain, DeRolling (rolling shutter correction), Undistort, Camera Tracking, Object Tracking, Fluid Simulation, Maya Scene Setup, and Fluid Pass Rendering.

The Sigma 10mm ultra-wide lens introduced significant lens distortion requiring careful undistort calibration before the camera solve. The fluid simulation was rendered as a separate pass and composited in Nuke.

Adopted Workflow

1. Log Conversion & DeGrain: Removing digital film noise from the Canon 7D plate to improve solver feature visibility.
2. Rolling Shutter Correction: DeRolling the plate to eliminate skew caused by the CMOS sensor scan speed.
3. Lens Calibration: Constructing a radial undistortion map using a checkerboard calibration grid in Nuke.
4. Dual Solving Phase: Solving the static 3D camera trajectory first, then tracking the dynamic object markers on moving props.
5. Fluid Dynamics & Render: Simulating liquid flows in Maya, rendering a raw pass, and compositing everything back into Nuke.