Colour Correction in virtual sets

Often, when working with Virtual sets, the actors may not be lit quite correctly with the background. They may be too bright, or the wrong colour for the set. To get around this, a process called colour correction is used, this allows us to make the actor sit visually against the backdrop much more realistically, giving the illusion that they are actually there.

By using a tint effect, I was able to lower the lighting levels on the actor. By matching the darkest and lightest tones in the backplate, the actor started to appear to fit against the backplate. This was then further corrected by altering the colour levels on the actor, slightly raising the blacks and lowering the whites to further match the blackplate.

As you can see by the pictures above, the picture to the left shows the actor without colour corrections, the picture on the right showing colour correction. The actor matches the lighting of the backplate a lot more realistically on the right, fitting the grungy, dim feel of the spacecraft.