Synopses & Reviews
A good compositor must be both an artist and a technician.
Digital Compositing for Film and Video is a hands-on, how-to guide that addresses the problems and difficult choices faced by the professional compositor in real-life situations. This book presents you with techniques, tricks, and solutions for dealing with the badly shot elements, colorations artifacts, and mismatched lighting that bedevil compositors. Included in this book is: in-depth, practical methods for matte extraction, despill procedures, composting operations, and color corrections - the "meat and potatoes" of all digital effects.
Compositing is the artistic blending of several disparate elements from a variety of sources into a single image while making all the component elements appear to be in the same light space and shot with the same camera. When confronted with a bad composite any observer will recognize that something is wrong - the artist will know what is casing the problem, and the technician will know how to fix it. A good compositor must be both an artist and a technician. Yes, a good compositor must be both an artist and a technician.
* Written by an author with 15 years experience, including major films such as Vanilla Sky, X-Men 2, Swept Away, and Solaris
* This edition contains an entire section on working with HiDef video
* Now includes information on Adobe Photoshop
Review
"If you are new to compositing or have always wanted to learn the craft, I cannot recommend Digital Compositing for Film and Video more." - Filmmaking Central
"Giving readers a deep understanding of the theory and practice, this book will be that dog-eared, highlighted reference book found in every professional's library" -Ben Rock, Back Stage
A vital book in the current technological age we now live and work in." British Cinematographer, Sept. 06
Review
"If you are new to compositing or have always wanted to learn the craft, I cannot recommend Digital Compositing for Film and Video more." - Filmmaking Central
Synopsis
Digital Compositing for Film and Video is a hands-on, how-to guide that addresses the problems and difficult choices faced by the professional compositor in real-life situations. This book presents you with tips, tricks and techniques for dealing with the badly shot elements, color artifacts, and mismatched lighting that bedevil compositors. Included in this book is: in-depth, practical methods for bluescreen matte extraction, despill operations, compositing operations, and color correction—the "meat and potatoes" of all digital effects. Written in a completely software independent style, it is totally applicable to any brand of compositing software.
The second edition contains many important additions:
* printed in full color with over 400 color photos and illustrations
* companion DVD with 3.7 gigabytes of test images, including hard to get HiDef video and feature film scans
* new section on working with HiDef video
* new section on digital intermediate, the feature film finishing process of today
* more Adobe Photoshop blending modes and procedures
* new material that reveals the add-mix composite, light wrap, slot gags, and how to defeat banding problems
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About the Author
Steve Wright is a visual effects compositing veteran with 70 broadcast television commercials and over 60 feature films credits. He’s developed video games at Atari, done 3D animations for Robert Abel and Associates, and was senior compositor and 2D technical director at Kodak’s Cinesite. Steve is now a freelance, digital-compositing guru, who teaches, trains, writes, and develops on-line training programs.
Steve Wright is a 20 year visual effects compositing veteran with 70 broadcast television commercials and over 60 feature films credits.
Table of Contents
Introduction; Pulling Mattes; Refining Mattes; Despill; The Composite; Lighting; Camera; Action; Gamma; Video; Film; Log vs. Linear; Working with Log Images; GLOSSARY