Composite Tutorials

We’ll begin this project by creating a procedural dirt shader for our ground cover. Then we'll hop into Photoshop to create a photographic texture for our road. We'll then add some detail using more procedural textures to break up the edges of the road and create a broken concrete feel. From there we will set up a particle system for our tires and create render layers and passes. Finally we will composite our shot using the Maya Precomp feature and Maya Composite. We'll learn how to color correct our passes, add various blurs and composite everything together into an integrated shot.

We will start off by covering what compositing is and what a tool is. We will then take a look at importing images into Composite so you learn how to begin work on your own projects. After that, you will learn to use the common tools to build compositions. And to wrap up this project, we will go over how to render your projects out of Composite to show the world what you have accomplished. This series of step-by-step videos were developed with artists new to Composite in mind so we will be moving at a steady, easy-to-follow pace making sure you understand terms and basic techniques.

We will begin this project by importing our footage into Composite and analyzing the job ahead of us. Then we will create garbage masks to break apart our person into manageable pieces. We will then key out our screen using the Keyer supertool. After that, we will analyze the best way to remove noise on each layer. Finally we will focus on the hair and all the detailed roto and keying work involved. We will complete the project by doing some heavy-duty rotoscoping work on the bottle and re-compositing it into our final output.

We will begin this project by manually tracking our sequence in MatchMover and exporting it for use in Maya. We will then take our solved camera into our Maya scene and move our object into place. We will then learn how to capture our 3D environment reflections and create some helpful matte layers. Once we have rendered our Maya sequence, we will learn how to combine all of our images in Composite. We will learn about processing our background footage to capture traveling mattes, as well as many different ways to combine our various mattes to create effects. We will finish by adding a silhouette and color correcting our images.

We'll begin this project by learning what a chroma key is and what we need to look out for while we shoot the greenscreen footage. From there, we begin keying a sample shot using the Keyer supertool. We'll then learn how to refine our matte and edge using the various built-in modifiers. Then we'll combine multiple Keyers to get the best possible result. Finally, we will composite our keyed footage over a background and learn about spill suppression and some compositing tricks to integrate our pieces of footage. We'll end by learning a method of treating compressed or chroma subsampled footage to pull better keys.

We'll begin this project by importing our background plate and creating the text we'll integrate. Then we'll track the background plate and attach our text to the track. We'll then learn how to texture our text and how to combine various tools to make our text look more three dimensional. We'll then learn how to take elements from our background and layer them into our text to create the illusion that the text is in the scene. We'll finish by doing some quick color correction and render out our finished shot!

We'll begin this project by solving four of our shots in MatchMover and combining them in Maya into a cohesive 3d scene. Then we'll create our last camera in Maya and match it. Once all our camera are set-up, we'll learn how to model our object, create dynamics, animate, texture and render our scene. We'll then jump into Composite to do some color treatment on our backgrounds and then composite our layers together. Now, this is a long project that will take some time to complete. If you get stuck or have any questions, please join our forums and ask. We check the forums often and have a very active and helpful community.

We'll begin by taking a look at what is depth-based compositing or layering and why we would want to use it. Then we'll learn about some of the downsides of using this technique. We'll then dive in to Composite and create a matte for our foreground layer using it's depth map and the background depth map. We'll then learn how to work with depth maps including combining maps from different scene scales, using depth-based layering to fix interpenetration issues and making depth maps human readable and error-free.

We'll begin this project by importing our render passes from Maya. From there we will do some basic compositing. We'll then begin troubleshooting our shot and using a variety of tools and techniques to integrate our elements. We'll also learn how to fix issues in our background plate using masks, keyers and other tools. During this shot, we will be animating various elements to tell the director's story. Finally, we'll finish the shot by using warping and filtering tools to create an ending for our infiltrator shot.

We'll begin this project by learning the basic composition creation process, learning how to move around the Composite user interface, begin compositing images together and render out our finished material. We'll then move into the common uses of Composite such as Color Correction, Masking, 3D compositing and Animation. This series of lessons is a great starting point to learning Composite. By learning the tools and fundamental workflows of Composite, we will be able to create complex effects and images in no time. This will allow us to begin exploring other areas of Composite and start using Composite in our own production pipeline.

We'll begin this course by learning how to set-up our project for stereo work and the basic stereo workflows. We'll then go through an entire practical application of fixing a visual problem in our stereo images. During this we'll learn how and when we can re-use data from the left to the right side, and how to actually apply this. We'll finish by learning how to use expressions to change our screen depth solely in Toxik.

We'll begin this project by learning about what stereo disparity maps can do inside Toxik. We'll then learn what a disparity map is and how to covert a depth map into a stereo disparity map. Then we'll dive right in and learn the mathematical relationship between depth and disparity maps and learn how to offset and multiply our depth into a pixel offset value. With our disparity map created, we will be able to create a depth controller to change our scene depth within two mouse clicks. We'll finish by learning how to use our disparity values to automatically update stereo offset using expressions.

We'll begin this project by setting up our motion tracked scene by adding the original footage and aligning everything to make working easier. We'll then bring in our 3d object and learn how to place it in our scene. We'll then learn how to create ground geometry and match the lighting in our original shot. We'll then setup our scene with multiple render passes and layers to make compositing much easier. After we render, we'll jump into Toxik and learn about such topics as shadow matching, color matte usage and various techniques to match our 3d render with our live action back-plate. The end result of this course will be a final color corrected shot of our 3d object in real life.

We'll begin this project by importing our elements and tracking various features of the face. We'll learn how to successfully create a track even when the tracked feature disappears. We'll learn how to create an animated mask to hide our elements during the eye blink. To combine all of the elements together, we'll use color correction, filtering and image generation tools. We'll learn how we can create various animations using expressions and tie everything together using compositing math to correctly control reflections and the layering of our pieces.

We'll begin this project by learning about the garbage mask tool. We'll then learn how to easily and quickly control our mask shape and edge feathering using Toxiks powerful Edge Point system. We'll then jump into the basic workflows of animating masks and how we can keep a consistent shape for a more appealing matte. We'll end by outputting our mask into an image sequence that can be used in other applications.

We will dedicate the first portion of this course to using Render Passes in Maya to separate various elements of our scene at render time. We'll use mental ray's render passes, contribution maps, custom framebuffers, and render layers to create the necessary render passes for our scene. In the second portion of this course we will begin with some quick compositing similar to our Compositing 3D Renders in Toxik course, but we will quickly get into more advanced topics such as Depth-of-Field, working with HDR, Depth-based compositing and spot paint fixing.

We'll begin this project by learning the basic composition creation process, learning how to move around the Toxik user interface, begin compositing images together and render out our finished material. We'll then move into the common uses of Toxik such as Color Correction, Garbage Masks, blending Modes, and Animation. Toxik 2010 introduces some workflow changes that make it easier and quicker to use. We'll also learn about the Tool Options panel and how to use Presets inside of Toxik.

We'll begin this project by doing a simple one point track using some easy footage. We'll then learn how to do a two point track on real footage. Lastly, we'll track the four corners of a television screen. We'll then learn some tips and tricks for getting a track from difficult footage and how to take our four point track and finish the shot using color correction tools to match the images together.

We'll begin this project by importing our layers and assembling them into a basic render of a car. We'll then learn how to create an advanced shadow using the Blend and Comp, Comp Alpha, Drop Shadow, Control Edge and Lens Blur nodes. We'll then learn several compositing tricks to help us really blend the foreground and background, such as Reflection matching, Lightwraping, color correction and grain matching. Throughout this training, we'll use the streams system to have single nodes affect multiple nodes to keep edits fast and simple.

In this course, we will learn how to use the Extract node to separate the Red, Green, Blue or Alpha channels, possibly to use as masks for a color correct tool; how to use the Out of Range node to find out what parts of an image are outside a given limit and how to use it to find HDR and out of range colors or alphas; how to use the Replace node to take a channel from one tool, like Red, Green, Blue or Alpha and combine it with those channels from another tool; how to use the Rewire node to switch the channels around, such as plugging the red channel into all three channels or creating a black and white image of only the red channel; how to use the Streams workflow to have a single tool effect multiple other tools and how to use the Stereo Streams node to view Stereoscopic effects in our Display.

In this series of lessons, we will learn how to use the Compare node to view the output of two different nodes, how to use the Link Image node to access different Versions of compositions and repeat them, how to add notes and use the Note node to organize, how to change the settings of the Output node, which controls the rendered images out of Toxik, how to use the Pass Through node to organize and add placeholders, how to view the areas Toxik is processing using the Show Tiles node, and how to use the Switcher node to change between multiple inputs.

In this series of lessons we'll learn how to get started using the compositing software Toxik. Using Toxik we can quickly color correct, mask, composite, or animate still images and image sequences. We'll begin this project by learning the basic project/composition creation process, learning how to move around the Toxik user interface, begin compositing images together and render out our finished material. We'll then move into the common uses of Toxik such as color correction, garbage masks, blending modes, and animation. This series of lessons is a great starting point to learning Toxik. By learning the tools and fundamental workflows of Toxik, we will be able to create complex effects and images in no time. This will allow us to begin exploring other areas of Toxik and start using Toxik in our own production pipeline.

In this series of lessons we'll learn how to use certain tools found in Toxik. The power of Toxik comes from its flexible node-based workflow. As a Toxik compositor, your artistic ability and turn-around time depends on your knowledge of the tools and how to use them. This Reference Library is designed to allow us to find the information we need about a specific node, or tool, quickly. We'll begin each lesson with a project file already created so we can focus on learning the specifics of each node, instead of general Toxik workflows. We are constantly adding and updating our Reference Library so that it has the ability to evolve along with software applications. Please feel free to contact us if there is a specific node or aspect of Toxik that you want to learn about.

Popular highlights include: Overview of Render Layers; Render Layer Overrides; Material Overrides; Overview of Frame Buffers; Creating Render Passes; Associating Passes with Render Layers; Creating Pass Sets to Organize Render Passes; Building Contribution Maps; Object-centric Contribution Maps; Light-centric Contribution Maps; Rendering Multi-channel EXR Files; Organizing Rendered Passes with Render Tokens; Creating Custom Frame Buffers; Altering Materials' Frame Buffer Contributions; Using SSS Materials with Passes; Utilizing Render Layers and Render Passes Together; Exporting Compositing Data to Toxik.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Exploring the switcher tool and its abilities; Learning to preview different types of looks with only a few options; Setting up your scene for numerous options.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Creating a depth of field luma pass; Using a blur node with modulation; Rendering the output.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Learning to comp two images together; Discovering how to efficiently use a garbage matte ; Creating a wipe effects between two image.