In this session, we discovered the different roles of a digital compositor within a production or VFX company, along with the production stages to follow to create a film, video game, commercial, etc. We also saw the different compositing programmes available nowadays and we also had our first Nuke overview.
A Digital Compositor’s role is to create the final composition of a frame, shot or sequence (including animation, background, graphics, and SFX). The several rolls or stages that a digital compositor can opt to are the following:
- Roto Artist – focused in rotoscoping (beginner position)
- Prep Artist – rotoscoping and patching
- Junior/Junior-mid/senior Digital Compositor – they usually put the parts together in a scene and support and help Roto and Prep Artists
- Sequence Lead or Lead Compositor – in charge of a sequence
- 2D Supervisor – organises sequences, meets with final clients, etc
- VFX Supervisor – organises artists, clients and production
On another note, we also learnt that there are three stages to produce a film:
- Pre-production – starting from the initial idea that is shaped into a story which is organised in a storyboard, with animatic, and design.
- Production – after the film is organised, in this stage it is prepared the layout, R&D, modelling, texturing, rigging/setup, animation, VFX, lighting, and rendering.
- Post-production – in this third stage is when it is taking place the compositing, 2D VFX and/or motion graphics, colour correction, which will result in the final output.
Lastly, we saw the different compositing programmes available such as After Effects, Davinci Resolve ‘Fusion’, and Nuke 13. In this class, we will be focusing in Nuke so we had an overview of the very basic tools of the programme and created our first composition. As this programme is based in nods and layers, which I have seen before in programmes such as Photoshop, After Effects, and Blender, it was easy for me to learn how nods were connected to work together. I played around a bit with the programme at home later on and created a little animation based on the instructions the professor gave to us. I could not export it as I’m still not sure how to do this but I took some screenshots of how it looked at the end.
My first impression of Nuke is that this is complex programme and I will need to dedicate a good amount of practice time to get use to the node’s work space, as I am more use to layered programmes like Photoshop and After Effects.