Compositing CGI with Bigger Node Trees - Nuke 101: Professional Compositing and Visual Effects - page 137

1. Click Merge8 (the very last Merge) and insert another Merge node after it.
2. Bring Read2 (the background) down to the area at the bottom of the tree and con-
nect Merge9's B input to it.
3. Make sure you are viewing Merge9 to see the whole tree's output.
The lemming doesn't look like he's standing on the ground ( FIGURE 3.55 ). One
of the main reasons he appears to be floating is that the composite is missing the
contact shadow elements. The drop shadow and the ambient occlusion need to be
added.
Figure 3.55. The lemming over the background.
Atthebeginningofthischapter,youcroppedtheimageaccordingtotheautocrop
calculationofCurveTool1.ThiscalculationwasperformedontheRGBAchannel
set and so it didn't include the shadow element, which sits outside the lemming
area (it's dropping on the floor, so that's a given). If you call up the shadow or
ambientocclusionelementsfromthebottompointinthestream,you'llbegetting
a cropped version of those elements. Therefore you have to go back up to a place
before the crop, and pick those passes from there.
4. At the top of the tree, with nothing selected, create a Dot and connect its input to
Read1. Drag it to the right until it passes the rest of the tree.
5. Select the new Dot and insert another Dot, connected to it. Drag the new Dot
down until it passes the rest of the tree without passing Read2 ( FIGURE 3.56 ) .
Figure 3.56. Using Dots to keep the tree organized.