Book description
Learn professional secrets of digital compositing with this detailed guide
After filming is done, digital compositors move in to manipulate color, retouch, and perform other behind-the-scenes tricks that are necessary to improve or finalize movies, games, and commercials. Now you can learn their secrets with this one-of-a-kind guide to digital compositing.
Professional animator and author Lee Lanier not only draws upon his own experience, he has also combed some of Hollywood's most active post-production houses in search of the best solutions. Learn valuable techniques, tricks, and more.
Covers techniques for digital compositing including transformations, plate preparation, rotoscoping, advanced render passes, particle integration, 2.5D painting, HDRI, stereoscopy and more
Shows you digital compositing techniques that can be applied to a variety of software tools, including After Effects and Nuke
Includes a DVD with scenes, sample bitmaps, image sequences, and more
Start your animation career right with the solid instruction in postproduction you'll find in this practical guide.
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.
Table of contents
- Copyright
- Dear Reader,
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Introduction
-
1. Setting Up a Composite
- 1.1. Compositing Challenge
- 1.2. Compositing Examples
- 1.3. Layers vs. Nodes
- 1.4. Resolutions and Frame Rates
-
1.5. Setting Up a Composite
-
1.5.1. After Effects Projects
- 1.5.1.1. Importing Footage
- 1.5.1.2. Using the Layer Outline
- 1.5.1.3. Nesting, Parenting, and Precomping Compositions
- 1.5.1.4. Using Composition, Footage, and Layer Panels
- 1.5.1.5. The AE Flowchart
- 1.5.1.6. Previewing a Composition
- 1.5.1.7. Rendering a Composition
- 1.5.1.8. Interlacing in AE
- 1.5.1.9. 3:2 Pulldown in AE
- 1.5.2. Nuke Scripts
- 1.5.3. AE and Nuke Tutorials
-
1.5.1. After Effects Projects
- 1.6. Interview: Dorne Huebler, Industrial Light & Magic, San Francisco
- 1.7. Interview: Michael Coleman, Adobe, Seattle, Washington
- 1.8. Interview: Richard Shackleton, The Foundry, London
-
2. Choosing a Color Space
- 2.1. Color Theory Overview
- 2.2. Color Space and Monitor Calibration
- 2.3. Understanding Bit Depth
- 2.4. Bit Depth Conversions
- 2.5. Log vs. Linear
- 2.6. Integer vs. Float
- 2.7. Favored Image Formats
- 2.8. Working with Color Space
- 2.9. Interview: Jason Greenblum, Sony Pictures Imageworks
- 2.10. Interview: Rod Basham, Imaginary Forces, Hollywood
-
3. Interpreting Alpha and Creating Mattes
- 3.1. Alpha Support and Premultiplication
- 3.2. Fundamental Math Operations
- 3.3. Chroma Key
- 3.4. Working with Alpha
- 3.5. Interview: Johnathan R. Banta, Zoic Studios, Culver City, California
-
4. Channel Manipulation
- 4.1. Histograms and Tonal Ranges
-
4.2. Working with Channel Manipulation
- 4.2.1. Channel Manipulation in AE
- 4.2.2. Channel Manipulation in Nuke
- 4.2.3. AE and Nuke Tutorials
- 4.3. Interview: Andy Davis, Method Studios, Santa Monica, California
-
5. Transformations and Keyframing
- 5.1. Understanding Transformations
- 5.2. Working with Transformations
- 5.3. Interview: Erik Winquist, Weta Digital, Wellington, New Zealand
- 5.4. Interview: Darren Poe, Digital Domain, Venice, California
- 6. Convolution Filters
-
7. Masking, Rotoscoping, and Motion Tracking
- 7.1. Mattes vs. Masks
- 7.2. The History of Rotoscoping
- 7.3. Rotoscoping Approaches
- 7.4. Motion Tracking Overview
-
7.5. Applying Masking and Tracking Techniques
- 7.5.1. Masking and Tracking in AE
- 7.5.2. Masking and Tracking in Nuke
- 7.5.3. AE and Nuke Tutorials
- 7.6. Interview: Entae Kim, Freestyle Collective, New York City
- 8. DI, Color Grading, Noise, and Grain
-
9. Integrating Render Passes
-
9.1. Dividing a CG Render
- 9.1.1. Combining Layers
-
9.1.2. Common Render Passes
- 9.1.2.1. Beauty, Diffuse, and Specular Passes
- 9.1.2.2. Shadow and Depth Passes
- 9.1.2.3. Holdout Matte and ID Passes
- 9.1.2.4. Reflection and Refraction Passes
- 9.1.2.5. Light Passes
- 9.1.2.6. Ambient Occlusion and Reflection Occlusion Passes
- 9.1.2.7. Rim Passes
- 9.1.2.8. Motion Vector and UV Texture Passes
- 9.1.2.9. Surface Normal Passes
- 9.1.2.10. Ambient, Translucence, and Subsurface Scatter Passes
- 9.1.2.11. Text and Effects
- 9.2. Working with Render Passes
- 9.3. Interview: Dan Rice, Blur Studio, Venice, California
-
9.1. Dividing a CG Render
-
10. Warps, Optical Artifacts, Paint, and Text
- 10.1. Warping and Morphing
- 10.2. Adding Text
- 10.3. Adding Optical Artifacts
-
10.4. Painting in the Composite
- 10.4.1. Warps, Optical Artifacts, Paint, and Text in AE
- 10.4.2. Warps, Optical Artifacts, Paint, and Text in Nuke
- 10.4.3. AE and Nuke Tutorials
- 10.5. Interview: Aron Baxter, Guava / Nice Shoes, New York City
-
11. Working with 2.5D and 3D
- 11.1. 2D vs. 2.5D vs. 3D
-
11.2. Compositing 2.5D and 3D
- 11.2.1. 2.5D and 3D in AE
-
11.2.2. 2.5D and 3D in Nuke
- 11.2.2.1. Setting Up a 3D Environment
- 11.2.2.2. Geometry Types, Group Nodes, and Constraints
- 11.2.2.3. Reading and Writing Geometry
- 11.2.2.4. Creating 3D Lights
- 11.2.2.5. Shared 3D Parameters
- 11.2.2.6. Adding Shaders
- 11.2.2.7. Additional Geo Nodes
- 11.2.2.8. Adjusting the Scanline Renderer
- 11.2.2.9. Importing and Exporting Data
- 11.2.2.10. The MotionBlur3D Node
- 11.2.3. AE and Nuke Tutorials
- 11.3. Interview: David Schnee, Tippett Studio, Berkeley, California
- 11.4. Interview: Aaron Vasquez, Click 3X, New York City
-
12. Advanced Techniques
- 12.1. High Dynamic Range Images
- 12.2. Stereoscopic 3-D
- 12.3. Time Warping and Optical Flow
-
12.4. Working with Advanced Techniques
- 12.4.1. Advanced Techniques in AE
- 12.4.2. Advanced Techniques in Nuke
- 12.5. Interview: Jerry van der Beek, Little Fluffy Clouds, Marin, California
- 12.6. Interview: Tonya Smay, Freelance / Stardust Studios, New York City
- 12.7. Interview: Chris Staves, Justin Lane, and Jeffrey Dates, MassMarket / Psyop, New York City
- 12.8. Final Inspiration
- 12.9. AE and Nuke Tutorial Challenge
- A. About the Companion DVD
Product information
- Title: Professional Digital Compositing: Essential Tools and Techniques
- Author(s):
- Release date: December 2009
- Publisher(s): Wiley
- ISBN: 9780470452615
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