Matt Leonard leads our intermediate Fusion course at fxphd, building upon his 100-level introductory course. Since members have learned the basics in FUS101, Leonard will cover using the app on a project basis, tackling scenes over several classes in order to show how to truly get the most out of the software. From greenscreen keying, to tracking and using 3D projections, to graphics design, you'll see why Fusion is used by so many different types of artists.

Leonard's sphereVFX company has been doing Fusion training for years, including creating an intermediate level DVD for the app. Leonard has worked in the animation and visual effects industry for over sixteen years producing state-of-the-art work for feature films, broadcast and commercials in the UK and US markets..

Professor: Matt Leonard

Class 1: I Love Sarah Jane, House Damage We start our new course with a straightforward visual effects shot taken from the short film, "I Love Sarah Jane". In this class we'll look at transforming a smart residential home into a busted up, graffiti scrawled, zombie trashed house. We'll use a collection of techniques including roto, tracking, paint, colour correction and much more.

Class 2: Robots and Wendy House Our second project for the course spans three weeks and involves adding multiple CGI robots into a handheld, live action plate shot on the RED camera. The shot will involve multiple compositing tricks including multi-pass renders, tracking, roto, sky replacements, colour correction, and a bunch of integration techniques such as light-warps, edge-blurs, and more.

Class 3: In the second of three classes covering the Wendy House and CGI Robots we focus on Material/Object ID customization, Camera Projections and Normals.

Class 4: Continuation

Class 5: Motion Graphics in Fusion Our next project spans a couple of weeks and really shifts gears into the area of motion graphics. Our project is to create on-screen graphics similar to those seen in Iron Man, Minority Report or The Island. We'll be using a mixture of live action along with graphical elements created in Photoshop and Fusion. All these will be treated to create a very animated, stylised, motion graphics look.

Class 6: Continuation

Class 7: Lexus Commercial In yet another three week project we create the illusion of a camera pull back through the inside a car while driving down the road. What we have to work with is quiet different; a stationary car shot on a green-screen stage. To pull off this complicated shot we'll be looking at creating a 3D pan and tile environment, adding contact lighting, realistic reflections and a host of tricks to create the illusion for a moving car.

Class 8: Continuation

Class 9: Continuation

Class 10: Aftermath This shot, originally created by Theodor Groeneboom, shows off Fusions 3D and particle tools to the max. This final class goes step by step through the process of creating a building explosion from a single photograph. We'll be covering a whole mixture of techniques and tools including camera projection, particles, colour correction, paint, roto, to name a few.

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