digital Compositors....

Hmmm....number of compers?...well....I just dine't gneau, Chahlee!

i'm a comper, been going steady for almost 6 years now.

edit - maybe we should list what programs we know, so if you need to ask questions.

i know After Effects, eyeon Digital Fusion, and R&H's icy (which is supposed to be alot like shake)

Im learning, I'm not really good at 3d, so im giving my go at editing and sorts, and just include 3d with it, because Im ok, i have my diploma, but im the worst modeller ever..

I'm learning After Effects, i ordered a couple series from Lynda, and they are very helpful.

Actually, on my linux machine, I have shake running way faster than I ever ran it on my mac. I obviously don't have any super-computer freezer room hardware. But I have to say, Flames and inferno's serve their purpose in the commercial world because of the "show me now" factor, but in terms of productivity, I would say programs like shake most likely wont ever move the autodesk products out of place, but then again, If apple keeps pushing in the creative market as they have been, we just might see a mac based inferno-esque system popping up out there. Weird.

-Z

i myself think it's only a matter of time until desktop systems are powerful enough to run whatever they want in real time - 2k, 4k, HD, whatever...

I know AfterEffects to some extends. I work most in 3d, but use compositing when ever needed. However I love compositing and wanna to learn more about.

I working in 2d and 3d. Im just starting to learn premiere pro. Its a lot of fun. Most of the time I just edit music videos.

well im not sure if i can say that im a digital comp. but i got some afx skills and know something about keying and boujou

I have been f/t compositing for about 7mths now. I started posting here while still at school (see question about the Big Freeze down the bottom of the page). I got a job at the beginning of 2nd year, so completed my studies through work.

Trying to keep up my 3d FX as well. Just popped back to check out Tyson's front page and damn! He always makes me want to try harder

Latest stuff:

Lead compositor for the new Tomb Raider promo movie

http://www.tombraider.com/anniversary/index.html

Also looks like I am going to be doing work on some movies for the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

i'm interested in getting into compositing. what do you compositor's out there think is good demo reel material?

compositing 3d into live action footage? compositing live action video into/on to other live action video?

i'm trying to figure out what projects i should work on myself to enable me to make a good compositing demo reel.

some stuff that has a demonstration of the basic skillset at the least. Projects that show you can roto, pull a key, and maybe even stitch multiple shots together to form panorama shots, that type of thing. If you want to see a great reel, check these guys out. A couple friends of mine who have since disbanded this project for the most part, but put this stuff all together in like six months or so.



If you look close, you will see that aside from the awesome matte paintings, the compositor really knows his stuff, with each breakdown, you can see the difference from the lens warp on the original plates. There are some tracks that are really good as well, I actually did the one on the soldier shot where he is walking along the fence. And then there's a ton of other little things that make it a great reel. Good composition in the shots, Good CC, and creative solutions for obviously low budget effects. That in my mind is what makes a good compositing reel. Find someone who really likes doing matte paintings and bro up with them to do some shots. Or just re-reate some shots from movies. You'll be surprised how much you learn.

But in all honesty, if you haven't gotten your feet wet yet, shoot some footage and roto some grass out and stuff. Then you'll know whether you like compositing. Not that it's all roto, it's just that it's the unseen effects profession. Compositors are kind of like the men in black of the digital workforce. They put tons of work into shots that if done correctly, "never gets seen."

But that's only what I have seen. I've only been compositing for a couple years.

-Z

when you do your tracking for shots do you use image sequences or just .avi's and .mov's?

i have some random footage i've shot on 24p and have tried tracking it to no avail. i know it's something i'm doing (or not doing). the only tracking programs i've used are icarus (free education edition) and voodoo tracker (again a free program). have you had any experience with these programs?

i won't be comping anything if i can't track video footage and import the 3d data to Max.

as far as compositing goes, i've only used after effects. which is a great program, but every compositing job i've seen wants shake experience. i feel as though i'm wasting my time using after effects.

i've never used those 2 tracking programs, just syntheyes and boujou. my experience with both has been good, but the data never comes in "perfectly". it's always re-oriented in some goofy angle, and I have to select everything and kind re-align it all so i understand it.

also, you may want to preprocess your footage before you track it. really crank up the contrast on it, since thats what trackers look for. and you're probably better off trying to track a frame set, but, unless the software itself specifically prohibits certain types of footage, anything should work. I usually render out a TGA sequence to track.

That' was a great reel Zach, thanks for posting that. It's incredible what people get up to, I'd have no idea where on earth to start in creating some of those shots, those guys must have super knowledge over camera's and everyhting, pretty much everything looked spot on, those 1st two shots were great, and the one where they were fighting up top of that mountain, how do you do something like that? Is it just a matter of scailing the green screen footage down, create a good, nice Matte Painting, and add a little camera shake to it, or is there something more to it?

Those army shots were also stunning, excellent stuff. It also probably helped that the music was spot on

This thread is a very interesting read, even though i desperately want to be an animator, reading what you guys are talking about has made me want to go out and just shoot some crap, just to see what i can come up with - hmm, sounds like a challenge!

Yeah, that would be awesome. Then I'd have an excuse to use the cameras at my school <3. But yeah that kinda challenge would be awesome.

sometimes people ask me about what books are good for learning compositing and/or After Effects. For a long time, the only books I'd reccommend to anyone were those "creating motion graphics" ones, because they were well written and pretty thorough, even though they were more tailored towards motion graphics than visual effects. I've recently discovered 2 books that I think are absolutely amazing resources and would reccommend to anyone who wanted to learn about compositing.

this one is all about compositing techniques, and is the only book i've ever seen anywhere that covers almost every single thing i've done at work for years. One of the authors worked at ILM for a long time, and they explain almost every technique in AE, Motion, and Shake. As far as I'm concerned, this is now the best book available for compositing, period.
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Pro-Trainin ... F8&s=books

This one is for AE users only. I finally got a chance to look at it this weekend, and it's awesome. Much more tutorial oriented than the Apple pro book, but that's because it's application specific.
http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-After-Effec ... F8&s=books

others I'd reccommend...

if you really want to get the most out of your miniDV camera, you NEED this book - it's for filmmakers and he explains how AE might be the best digital movie finishing tool ever.
http://www.amazon.com/DV-Rebels-Guide-A ... 41-3187156

If you really MUST know what is actually going on mathematically when you do visual effects, this book is good too. But, I may stop reccommending this one because of that first one, the Apple Pro one.
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Compositi ... 41-3187156

I agree, I think it would be cool to see a compilation of your work. I remember when I saw my old boss's demo reel for the first time, I was like holy crap! Are you serious? And then I got scared, and then I hit the books. You can check that reel out here. This place still exists on paper, they just haven't gotten any work for a long time.



I bet Hype's reel is something like that if he were to put it together.

-Z

yeah, that's a pretty impressive reel. i wonder after all that great work why they're not getting any work?

no, i don't know him, but that's cool! i searched him on the internal database, and it looks like he's not currently here. was Garf2 the last thing he worked on here? did he go back to MN?

I can't remember if it was the very last thing he worked on there. I know he worked on scooby doo 2, x men (not sure which one, 2 maybe? lol), probably a few others. He did camera matching stuff as well there. He came back to minnesota for a little bit at least, he's good friends with my boss. I'm not sure what he's doing now though.

I know he wanted to stay here in Mn and keep working, but we all know what the industry is like here .