Throughout these lessons will work through a pipeline from tracking to rendering and finally compositing CG elements into a live action plate. Over the course of the tutorial we will find the most efficient way to communicate through the different programs to achieve our final result. We will examine how essential the 3D space within linear space of a compositing package is and use it to our advantage. By the end of the tutorial you will have and understanding of how to create custom passes from within your compositing package. You'll also be able to work within a linear workflow to take your color corrections to the next level.

Throughout these lessons we'll create a shot that resembles realistic-looking video footage that would otherwise be difficult to shoot. This tutorial offers an overview of key moments from the production that can inspire. Its lessons cover everything from initial analysis, modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, rendering to final comp using primarily modo and Fusion. The discussed techniques are, however, easily applicable to other mainstream applications.

Throughout these lessons we'll delve into the animated growth of a tree branch as a time-lapse video. We'll learn everything from modeling, texturing and shading to the animation and final compositing. By the end of this tutorial, you'll have a better understanding of how you can employ efficient and productive techniques for a time-lapse video that can be used when up against a tight deadline.

While this series of tutorials is not a step-by-step guide, they instead offer an in-depth look at the key aspects of production that goes into creating realistic-looking shots that would otherwise be difficult to shoot without the aid of computer graphics. These tutorials will cover everything from the concept sketches and visualization to modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, rendering and final compositing of the photorealistic shots. While the tools used in this series of tutorials are primarily Maya and modo, the techniques discussed are easily applicable to other mainstream applications.

We'll begin this project by learning about two mask types, the Bspline and polyline masks. We'll then dive deeper into the masking system in Fusion and learn some time saving workflows for checking your roto. 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 Fusion course, but we will quickly get into more advanced topics such as basic and advanced Depth-of-Field techniques, working with HDR data, painting fixes and chromatic aberration.

We'll begin this project by doing a simple one point track using some easy footage and also learn two methods to apply that movement information to other tools. We'll then learn how to do a two point track on real footage and create a black-bar effect over someone's eyes. Lastly, we'll track the four corners of a television screen to replace the image on the screen and composite the reflections. We'll then learn some tips for getting a track from difficult footage using color correction techniques.

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 matte to cut out our car using the bitmap mask, matte control, and channel Booleans tools. 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.

We'll learn how to use the Dissolve tool to create transitions from one image to another, how to use the Gradient Wipe Dissolve with other images to create appealing transitions, how to use the Transform options of the Merge node to position, rotate and scale our Foreground, how to increase the quality of the Merge output by changing the Filter Options, how to blend together two inputs using the Apply options of the Merge tool, how to combine the Alpha's of our two inputs in a variety of ways using the Operator options. We'll also learn the use the the Additive-Subtractive, Alpha Gain, and Burn-In sliders. Finally, we'll learn how to combine the Depth channel of our inputs using Depth Merge.

Using Fusion we can quickly composite and create visual effects using a node-based workflow which allows us to easily tweak any part of the composition. We'll begin this project by learning the basics of importing images and moving around in the Fusion user interface. We'll then cover some basic compositing, masking, transforming, and color correction. We'll finish with a project to composite a 3d render and create an interesting animated wipe and render it into an image sequence. This series of lessons is a great starting point to learning Fusion. By learning the basics and tool-based workflow of Fusion, we will be able to create appealing animations and images.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Exploring options within the background node; Resizing the background node to fit our layout; Learning how to create and control custom color gradients.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Creating a vector paint stoke to remove part of our image; Using the Cross Fade and Edge Blend; Adjusting the composition.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Learning different types of masking and merging; Creating a polygon mask node and plugging it into the merge node; Creating an animated mask.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Learning how to use the channel booleans node; Using the matte control node; Setting up a matte pass; Adding filters and blur to correct fringe .

Topics covered in this tutorial: Masking areas of an image for color correction; Utilizing the labeling system in Maya to mask the final render; Learning how to use Channel Booleans.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Learning how to color correct our image; Sampling all three color channels and using the Range tool; Learning the options of the Wand Mask tool.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Setting color and text of tiles; Learning how to visually group together different parts of our flow to stay organized; Keeping flows manageable.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Implementing notes into our flow to stay organized; Locking Sticky Notes.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Learning to use the correct files with the Fog tool; Gaining control with a depth pass; Utilizing Channel Booleans; Creating custom fog.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Learning how to use the DaySky tool; Utilizing the Shader tool; Adding a Channel Boolean.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Utilizing the Luminance Depth Pass; Reorienting the channels to create a Z-Channel; Normalizing our image with a color corrector.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Masking off part of your image with the Bitmap Mask; Utilizing the color corrector ; Adding threshold settings to increase brightness.