Compositing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- See also compositing (democracy) for the process of combining several motions.
- See also Typesetting for the technique of compositing typeset by hand.
In visual effects post-production, compositing refers to creating new images or moving images by combining images from different sources – such as real-world digital video, film, synthetic 3-D imagery, 2-D animations, painted backdrops, digital still photographs, and text.
Compositing techniques, while almost exclusively digital today, can be achieved by many means. On-set in-camera effects have been utilized since the advent of film such as in the 1902 A Trip to the Moon. Optical compositing is the often complex process that requires an optical printer to photographically composite the elements of multiple images onto a single filmstrip. However, since the 1990s, digital techniques have almost completely replaced what was once the only method of post-production compositing.
Compositing is used extensively in modern film and television to achieve effects that otherwise would be impossible or not cost-efficient. One common use for compositing is scene or set extension which enables filmmakers to shoot on a relatively small set and create the impression of a significantly different location by adding additional surrounding and foreground imagery. A common tool to help facilitate composites is the bluescreen, a backdrop of a uniformly solid color--usually blue or green--that is placed behind an actor or object. During compositing, all areas of a frame with that color are removed and replaced, allowing the compositor to place the isolated image of the actor or object in front of a separately shot or synthetic background.
In feature film, movies are generally shot on 35mm film. For modern compositing, the film has to be digitized with a film scanner. It is then transferred to a computer where it can be edited. The compositors gather all the separately shot images and, with a compositing platform or software, combine elements of each image to achieve a resultant shot. As a result, a single frame of the finished shot may contain from anywhere between two to many hundreds of images from footage shot months or even years apart.
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[edit] Professional Compositing Software
- Autodesk (Discreet) Combustion, Toxik, Flint, Flame and Inferno
- Adobe After Effects
- Apple Shake
- Eyeon Fusion
- Blender (software)
- D2 Nuke
- Cinelerra
[edit] See also
[edit] External Links
[edit] Further reading
- T. Porter and T. Duff, "Compositing Digital Images", Proceedings of SIGGRAPH '84, 18 (1984).
- Ron Brinkmann, The Art and Science of Digital Compositing (ISBN 0-12-133960-2)
- Steve Wright, Digital Compositing for Film and Video, Second Edition (ISBN 0-240-80760-X)
