Blackmagic Forum

So, I have a cartoon character watching television as seen below. (Pardon the transparent television. I had to go through making a lot of complicated masking to get the video into the still image of the TV and I'm still working on that.) The character is watching a bunch of cartoon characters dancing around.

But the question is for the start of the sequence. I want to start with a close up of his face (which isn't drawn yet). At first I thought I would add the reflection of the TV video through his eyes with a simple mask but then I decided I want something a little more realistic. I want what is going on on the TV to cast a glow onto him. Not just in terms of color but also seeing the movement vaguely casting itself on his face. So, moving color and shadow of the video on the TV.

I think could do this by layering the video from the TV onto him - blurring it and maybe with a "multiply" composite or something else. But I think that will require more masking, so that feels unnecessarily complicated to build.

So the question I'm having is could it be done more easily. The whole thing is set up in a 3D space in Fusion. If I placed a spotlight or some sort of light "behind" the TV screen and aimed it at the character, would that automatically filter through the video sequence going on and cast its color and movement onto the character?

Or is there yet some other magical thing in Fusion that could do this?

Try using a 3D projector node with the TV video footage as input (and a Blur node in between). Then use that as you would a light.

Ah projector. I came across that once I think in a Casey Faris video, but I haven't tried using it. That sounds like a very good suggestion. Thank you!

Kel Philm wrote:Try using a 3D projector node with the TV video footage as input (and a Blur node in between). Then use that as you would a light.

Kel, if you're still there...I'm having a hell of a time getting the projector to work. I think I have it set up correct as per the manual. But nothing is happening.

Here is the Fusion setup.


The Mediain1 is a TIF still image of the character, just for the purpose of setting up the shot.
The Mediain2 is a video of what is on the TV and what I am trying to project onto Media1
In the view of the Merge3d1 node on the left: The camera is on the right. The projector is on the left.

I've moved my birds eye view 360 (and above and below) to be sure the projector's angles are hitting the character.

I included the settings of the Projection Node. But it should be at default.

You will need to enable Lighting in the Render3D node.

Thank you Kel. I came across that instruction a few hours later! Fusion can be so maddening sometimes.