Volley Gun animation part 1 composite (done?)

This is the first half of the volley gun animation depicting a 360 degree rotation of the camera around the volley gun device while it goes through its barrel elevation animation.







This is the second half of the volley gun animation depicting a the animation of the barrel elevation animation, the vent hatch opening & closing animation, the linstock animation and the firing animation linked to the passage of the linstock over the device's barrel vents.





issues

- I had a recurring artifact in the specularity information pass layer (a flickering light off the elevation screw) that had to be masked over (a first for me to do), this resolved the issue.



-Since this is the first time for me to composite in an effect layer like the smoke effect for this animation I hit a snag on how to blend in the smoke from the effect layer with the device, maybe I would have an easier time doing this if I made the ground  surface and the device into separate render passes but I don't know. I'm thinking that a series of masks around the back end of the effects will help, hopefully?





Currently the opacity of the smoke effect has been lowered in order to facilitate my accurate masking and will be raised back to full before final completion.