Blender mask editor

I've downloaded Blender 2.64 and am busy testing it. It is extremely unstable, to the point of crashing every other minute when I'm using the keying node in the compositor. On the other hand, it works great while it works!

The mask editor is a huge help for keying. It means that the greenscreen does not have to fill the background, or we can get rid of unwanted foreground objects. I've been working with the same test footage I had before, and have almost figured things out. Here's a screenshot of my node setup: (Click for larger)

It's not simple, I think I'm doing something wrong, and I get some weird artifacts (see red arrow) and an outline of the mask. I'm getting there though, the rod and flags in the foreground are gone!

Here's a good page about the mask editor: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Nazg-gul/MaskEditor

Blender 2.64 Testbuild!

I'm really excited about Blender 2.64. I've been trying to do chroma keying in Blender with no success because I can't figure out how to blur (feather) the mask. The new keying node should be a huge improvement. The despill node was great, but this should take the keying to professional levels.

Not only did they drastically improve the keying, planar tracking was introduced! 

This will also be a great help, and I'm really looking forward to trying it out, it's downloading as I post.

Less flag glow

I fixed the glowing flag, now all that's left for major adjustments are the solar panels

And this time the stamp is right!

Satellite update (again)

I've mostly been working on the satellite recently, and I think it's about finished. Here's what I've got, and while it will take a little tweaking, I think it should do pretty well.

It is also now clearly identified too. Showing that hammer and sickle in context with an American flag shortly after could be a good contrast.

By the way, the 100 passes note in the corner is wrong, it should be 500. I wish Cycles would let you check a box for number of passes, and then set it automatically.

Glowing satellites...

I decided to spice up the satellite a little, and here are some of the ways. The lens for the camera is also now finished, and isn't just a blank hole. I haven't decided on a color, so feel free to give input.

Cycles Satellite

Here's a quick test video render of the Cycles satellite:



Drastic overuse of the glare node. I need to fix that, but it's still a work in progress.

Cycles asteroid video test

It's not as good as the blender internal yet, and I forgot the cloud background, but it's looking usable.

Cycles Asteroid

The satellite must be cycles (I'm not doing metal in Blender Internal render engine!), so it only makes sense to do the asteroid it collides with in Cycles too:

The asteroid looks reasonable, not quite as good. I don't remember if I used the image texture or just a brown color, but the particle system is all white (it should be brown), so I need to get that fixed.

This will make rendering / compositing the first scene a lot easier once I get the world in Cycles too.