With this course our study path will be divided between the understanding of lighting techniques and rendering of environments and materials, the study of colors, elements of photography, compositing, color grading, tricks and functionalities useful for photorealistic and non-photorealistic rendering, optimization of delivery times and quality, with deep attention to how we work in real productions.

“Fundamentals” is completely available with more than 70 hours of lessons covering entire feature set

In “Fundamentals” we will use Clarisse to fully understand the techniques of look development, management and planning of the shot / scene, assembly scenes, set dressing, creation of environments of various types, from minimal to environments with billions and billions of polygons and objects. For compositing we will use Fusion, but the techniques used will also be applicable to other software such as Nuke, particular attention will be given to the concept of procedurality and integration with other software such as Houdini, 3DS max, Terragen, Gaea, etc. etc.

• History of the “Clarisse” project: from the presentation of v.1.0 to today

• What is look development / What is software like Clarisse actually

• Advanced scene techniques and image evaluation: the power of Clarisse

• Understand the linear workflow / LUT and other standards such as OpenColorIO and ACEScg

• Clarisse User Interface: how to take the first steps in software and become productive quickly, customization and analysis of the various modules available

• Manipulation and modification of the main objects, constraints, parenting, subdivision surfaces, smoothing, shading groups, displacement

• Complete analysis of the attribute editor

• Particles, Advanced scattering and scattering nesting, Particle Baking, Particle Painting, Properties and Painting properties

• Groups, Contexts, Geometries, Combiners

• Integration and communication with Gaea, Houdini, 3ds max, Terragen, etc. etc.

• Scene management, assets, layers, resource management, lighting setup, path manager

• Animation management, playblast, expressions, variables, etc. etc.

• Clone stamp tool, 3D View and Image multiple view, Context and Scene browser

• How the Clarisse materials are made, analysis of the various shaders available

• Standard AlShader and Disney Principled Shader

• Bitmap and procedural texturing, pros and cons

• Management of very high resolution textures in cinema, (UDIM, MipMapping)

• Blending of materials, 2-sided materials, Layered material, nesting of materials: how to create complex and realistic surfaces

• Simulation of natural procedural surfaces (sea, rock, snow, ice, vegetation, etc. etc.)

• Subsurface scattering, Skin shading, translucency and volume rendering for the simulation of fog, volumetric lights, clouds, smoke, etc.etc.

• Analysis of the main available nodes, (Math, Procedurals, Color, Utilities, etc. etc.)

• Scope textures, Slope control, Ramp management, etc. etc.

What you will learn

General topics

Texturing / Materials

Lighting / Rendering

Compositing / Post production

• Analysis of Clarisse’s lighting systems

• Different types of light rigs for different lighting situations (internal, external, studio lighting, etc. etc.), analysis of the most used systems, analysis of reference plates

• How to make a lighting rig interesting and how to use it for a cinematic look

• HDRI, dome light, IBL, lighting balance, IES lighting, advanced light properties in Clarisse, Portals

• Sampling, complete analysis of how to manage it to optimize quality and yield times, (analysis of the various AOVs)

• Advanced sampling techniques, adaptive sampling and diagnostic AOVs

• Light linking, scene layering and interaction

• Massive instancing, ownership control of instances within the material editor

• Volume rendering and VDB data management for the rendering of smoke, fire, clouds, etc. etc.

• Motion blur and depth of field

• OSL

• Shading layers and shading variables

• Light Pass Expression

• Hair shading, irridescent materials

• Integration and shadow catching

• Management of displacement and bump

• Export formats, LUT management

• Megascans, what it is and how it can be managed with Clarisse iFX

• Introduction to using Fusion, UI and nodes

• Pre-comp, when to make it and what it is for

• Analysis of the various render passes (beauty, reflection, refraction, specular, ambient occlusion, depth, light selects, cryptomatte)

• LUT, Color correction, Color grading, Chromatic aberration, DOF, dust, MBlur, everything you can do in comp to manipulate the image and its look