02 · personal · 2026
f* that
s*ville
A homecoming, on her own terms.
full film · 0:44 · sound on
- role
- Writer · director · editor
- year
- 2026
- production
- Sony a7 IV (S-Log3) · Sigma 35mm · Insta360 X3 (HDRIs)
- post-production
- Maya · Blender · Nuke · After Effects · Photoshop · Illustrator · Premiere
the story
I wanted to make something that covers the bread and butter of post: set extension, sky replacement, 3D integration, reflections — and a lot of roto. The story came quickly. She’s coming home after time away — more confident than ever, ready to take on anything. It’s set in a world where people have claimed their cities as their own. A little against the system, but with love and respect, and no apologies.
shot by shot
5 shots · layer by layerI planned each shot around the effect it needed before the shoot, and captured HDRIs on location with an Insta360 X3 so the CG would sit in the plates. Everything was shot in S-Log3 and comped in Nuke with an OCIO/ACES colour pipeline, output to Rec.709. Once the comps were done, I colour corrected and graded every shot in Premiere.
the road
Wide on an empty concession road, until her car whips through. I shot the plate with set extension in mind and swapped the trees on the right side of the road for a mountain range. The mountains were a still, so I added haze along the horizon to sit them in the distance. The new sky was a still too, so I warp-animated it to give the clouds some movement. The birds came from a green-screen plate, keyed and comped in.
picking the song
Over the shoulder as she scrolls an iPod Mini for the right track. On set, she held a stand-in I made from an old Froot Loops box, cut to the original iPod Mini’s exact measurements. I modelled the iPod in Maya and textured it in Blender. The track didn’t hold: I learned afterwards that Blender needs at least eight trackers for a solid solve. Lesson learned. I’m on the non-commercial version of Nuke, which limits what I can do there, so I brought the footage into Blender and hand-animated the iPod to match. I rendered it, then in Nuke rotoed her hand back over it and matched the lighting, right down to the shadows of the trees passing over the car.
among the wrappers
The iPod lands on the passenger seat in a mess of fast-food garbage. Same Froot Loops stand-in on set. I stabilized the footage and solved the camera in Blender, with the screen graphics built in After Effects.
the reflection
Macro on her eyes, her destination reflected in her sunglasses. The car never moved for this shot, so I filmed the road ahead from the passenger seat on a separate drive and put it into the lenses: roto, warping the footage, stabilizing and tracking, all in Nuke. The blurred background is different footage too, scaled up and blurred to sell that she’s driving.
welcome home
She drives past the sign: Welcome to F* That S*ville. Camera solves in Blender and Nuke weren’t holding up, so I solved the camera in After Effects and exported it into Blender with code. That let me place the road sign, modelled and textured in Blender and Photoshop, lit with an HDRI I captured on location, then comped in Nuke.