Including the machine learning aspects of the VFX work. Follow along with Wylie’s fantastic thread on Twitter.
The making of the Blue Eyes of Dune: Part Two, aka the Eyes Of Ibad (thread)
— Wylie Co. VFX (@wyliecovfx) March 11, 2024
Here’s their step by step guide in one of the tweets:
Step 1 – Denoise plate, removing all grain.
Steps 2 through 4 – Rotoscope of sclera, iris and pupil individually.
Step 5 and 6 – Key out reflections of sclera and iris/pupil separately.
Step 7 – Using roto and key, minus out reflections from plate.
Step 8 – Apply base overall blue tint. The eye is flat, somewhat blue at this stage.
Steps 9 through 14 – Add additional blue to iris/pupil, this includes saturation, lift, gain, multiply, gamma. Depending on the shot, these values may shift slightly to look the same in a sequence.
Step 15 – Restore some pupil detail. Because the pupil is black, it requires some extra attention.
Step 16 – Add back on the original environment reflections, reflections sitting on top of a blue eye would not be blue. This requires an accurate key and/or more roto.
Step 17 – Bring back original eye lashes, veins, and anything else not requiring additional blue.
Step 18 – Recover luminance lost in reflections from adding blue tint or reflection key.
Step 19 – Add back on original plate grain.
Step 20 – Add eye mattes to EXR channels for further tweaks in DI by colorist.
Step 21 – Export, review, and send.
