Working with color passes, which are independent images that reflect various components of the final composite, is one of Nuke’s key capabilities. By modifying the distinct elements that make up the composite, such as shadows, highlights, and reflections, color passes can be utilized to produce a final image that is more polished and realistic. Artists can have more control over the final image and make changes to specific elements without altering the composite by dividing these components into independent passes. In this approach, color passes to enhance the final product’s overall quality while enabling more effective and efficient compositing procedures.
To begin with, we had given a .exr image, which had all the element information such as shadows, highlights, and reflections. We had to manipulate it and color grade the truck to match and merge the truck along with the respective background.
Following to this, I manipulated the passes according to what is needed, which you can see below.
Here is an another example which was obtained with the help of manipulating the passes. I started by manipulating the Specular passes of the car, which helped in matching the tone of the car to that of the background. Specular plays a crucial role in image pass manipulating. It helps in manipulating the Luminance pass of the car. Following to this, I manipulated the diffuse pass. This was according to the ratio needed for the car merging with the background and softing the light which bounces off the car.
After this step, I matched the color of the car by using the color grading method, in which we match the color according to that of the background. This step helped me a lot in getting the final touch for merging it with the background.