Hi!
My new tutorial “Blender 3D Compositing” is now available at cmiVFX.com.
Originally I just wanted to do the follow-up to my previous tutorial about camera-tracking with Syntheyes and create a tutorial about inserting CG elements into some HD footage. But when I started recording I realized that you already need a strong foundation of compositing knowledge to be able to follow the required steps for CG integration. That’s why I decided to do the whole show and create a complete and extensive compositing tutorial that not only shows you how to integrate CG into film and add some nice effects but also goes into a lot of details of the technical side of compositing. So be prepared for more than 5 hours of nodes, renderlayers, renderpasses, pixelmath, filters, masks and colorgrading!
Watch the teaser here:
http://www.vimeo.com/15994859
Here’s the official press-release text:
Princeton, NJ (10/19/2010) cmiVFX releases New Blender 3d Compositing Training Video.
In this in-depth Blender training video, you’ll go through every step of the compositing process, from working with 3d and rendering, to tracked data from an external tracker like Syntheyes, to color correction and grading, it covers the gamut! When you walk away from this class, you’ll have been introduced each of the core concepts needed to be a successful compositor, seamlessly integrating fully 3 dimensional CG into real footage. cmiVFX breaks down each tool one by one with fast and easy chapter references designed for even faster muscle memory. cmiVFX continues to deliver the training and content you need, quickly, efficiently and affordably. When it comes to high end CG and VFX training, there is only once choice… cmiVFX!
http://www.cmivfx.com/productpages/product.aspx?name=Blender_3D_Compositing
One tool to rule them all!
One of Blender’s key features is the tight integration of every tool that you need for a complete production pipeline in one single package. A node-based compositor with a built-in feature-complete 3d modeling and render pipeline is really a godsend for anybody who wants to integrate CG elements into film. You can perform every task from modeling and animation, to rendering, compositing , and video editing in Blender without ever having to leave the application. No pre-rendering, no exporting, no hassle!*
Integration Because of this versatility, Blender is the perfect companion for match moving applications like Syntheyes. Once you have exported the tracked camera from your camera-tracking software it is only a matter of seconds to import the data into Blender. In a step-by-step example, I will show you how to setup world, and render settings, layers, passes, filters and curves to achieve convincing CG integration. With Blender’s render layers and multi-scenes, we will set up a versatile masking system that can be used for secondary color-correction, re-shading and light improvements. The color-grading tools of Blender and effects like glow, diffusion and vignettes give you a lot of artistic freedom to create a great look and atmosphere for your CG projects.
Total Control
Naturally, the whole concept of nodes, render layers and render passes may look intimidating first, but it is well worth the effort to explore the vast array of possibilities they offer. Not only do they allow to create some nice effects like glow and depth of field, they will likely change the way you think about light and shading. The complete*control over each and every single render pass, combined with the power and elegance of a node-based compositing workflow, will take your renderings to the next level. Use layers and passes to create beautiful and flexible lighting setups that would require hours of tweaking and re-rendering if done in the parameters of the actual lights. With nodes you’ll render once and tweak the rest in the compositor. It’s as simple as turning on the lights with a switch.
All you have to know
In these 5 hours of online video training, you will not only learn how to integrate CG into film, but all of the essential skills that you need as a 3d compositing artist. You will learn how to setup multiple render layers in a multi-scene workspace with individual render settings, how to deal with AlphaOver, premultiplication and the different blend modes, and how to recombine all available render passes into one final image and enhance them with curves and color-balance tools. We’ll cover the essential effects and filters like glow, DoF, motion blur, diffusion, vignette, displacement-maps and glare/ghosting. And while we’re at it we’ll round off our CG-workflow-tour with a trip to Blender’s video sequence editor to add some nice sound effects to the finally rendered image sequence and output an h264 quicktime-movie.
An open environment
What makes Blender so attractive is its ability to open up tools to the general public while still maintaining research and development during its course.