Digital Compositing With Nuke

Whether you're a novice compositor or a well-versed one moving over from After Effects or Shake, this is THE book for you to learn the ins and outs of the powerful compositing software, Nuke.

First Published in 2012. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This start-to-finish, complete guide to Nuke will give you the foundations on the state-of-the-art visual effects software used by professionals in the film and television industries. Along with the hard-won advice and techniques from expert compositor and teacher Ron Ganbar, each chapter covers a complete lesson in the fundamentals, with step-by-step instructions included so you can easily follow along and start using the program right away. The projects used throughout the book are based on real-world examples of professional productions and project files are included with each chapter so you can work through all the examples. After discovering how to use the tools and understanding the compositing workflow, you’ll learn about basic and advanced compositing techniques, color correction, RotoPaint, keying, and tracking, as well as more advanced topics such as CGI and the 3D engine. In addition, you’ll learn about: • Working with nodes and process trees • Using CGI passes in Nuke to control 3D render looks • Camera Tracking techniques to combine 2D and 3D elements • Camera Projection to turn a single frame into moving images • Gizmos and all about creating your own tools in Nuke • Stereoscopic compositing Ron Ganbar has been a compositor since 1996 and visual effects instructor since 2001. He currently works on a variety of projects as a gun for hire as compositor, consultant, VFX supervisor, and trainer. Ron was made a “Teacher’s Trainer” by Apple for Shake in 2005 and has written, taught, and evaluated courses for the National Film and Television School, Apple, Peachpit Press, Westminster University, and others. "As both a talented compositor (with years of in-the-trenches experience) and an excellent teacher, Ron Ganbar has the unique ability to make even the most difficult concepts crystal clear. If you want to get up and running with Nuke as quickly as possible then start by buying this book!" —Ron Brinkmann, author of The Art and Science of Digital Compositing

This practical, hands-on guide addresses the problems and difficult choices that professional compositors face on a daily basis. You are presented with tips, techniques, and solutions for dealing with badly shot elements, color artifacts, mismatched lighting and other commonly-faced compositing obstacles. Practical, in-depth lessons are featured for bluescreen matte extraction, despill operations, compositing operations, as well as color-correction. The book is presented entirely in an application-agnostic manner, allowing you to apply lessons learned to your compositing regardless of the software application you are using. The DVD contains before and after examples as well as exercise files for you to refine your own techniques on. New to the 3rd edition is an entirely new chapter entitled 'CGI Compositing Techniques', covering how the modern CGI production pipeline is now pushing many tasks that used to be done in the 3D department into the compositing department. All technological changes that have occurred between now and the publication of the 2nd edition are covered, as well as new media on the DVD and corresponding lessons within the book.

The digital compositing process is being applied in many diverse fields from Hollywood to corporate projects. Featuring over 30 pages of color, this tutorial/reference.provides a complete overview of the technical and artistic skills necessary to undertake a digital composition project. The CD-ROM contains composition examples, illustrations, and development software.

Whether you're a novice compositor or a well-versed one moving over from After Effects or Shake, this is THE book for you to learn the ins and outs of the powerful compositing software, Nuke.

In this latest book in the critically-acclaimed [digital] series from New Riders you’ll learn all of the techniques and skills that will take you from beginner to visual effects (VFX) professional in just one book. Seasoned visual effects producer Jon Gress has refined the teaching of the skills and techniques presented in this book for over a decade to distill them down to the most effective methodology, delivered in a way that’s both fun and easy to understand while being state-of-the-art for industry professionals. You’ll start with a solid understanding of the basics of visual effects and compositing, the fundamentals of bluescreen and greenscreen keying, 3D texturing, cloning, wire & rig removal, rotoscoping, 2D and 3D motion tracking, and matchmoving. And then experiment with a wide range of 2D, 2.5D & 3D visual effects, including 3D CGI, crowd replication, face replacements, faking shadows, reflections and Z depth, atmospheric, smoke, cloud & heat FX, sky replacements, day-for-night and digital 3D HUD FX. Building on this strong foundation of compositing and visual effects, you’ll be prepared for the advanced section of the book which teach skills, such as 2D, 2.5D & 3D digital matte painting and projections, film colorization, particle systems, fluid and rigid body dynamics, full digital environments, digital destruction, advanced lighting and rendering techniques, stereoscopic 3D, 2D to 3D conversions, and expert 3D and Photoshop extraction and modeling techniques that can only be described as magic! Throughout the lessons, you’ll glean insider advice on cutting edge methods that even experienced professionals will find amazing. You’ll learn everything you need to know to begin working in the world of visual effects as an industry professional. • All the info you need to go from beginner to professional in one book • Easily accessible teaching style from an instructor who has helped launch the careers of some of the best-known Hollywood visual effects specialists • Includes companion graphics files and videos to follow along with the lessons

Learn professional secrets of digital compositing with this detailed guide After filming is done, digital compositors move in to manipulate color, retouch, and perform other behind-the-scenes tricks that are necessary to improve or finalize movies, games, and commercials. Now you can learn their secrets with this one-of-a-kind guide to digital compositing. Professional animator and author Lee Lanier not only draws upon his own experience, he has also combed some of Hollywood's most active post-production houses in search of the best solutions. Learn valuable techniques, tricks, and more. Covers techniques for digital compositing including transformations, plate preparation, rotoscoping, advanced render passes, particle integration, 2.5D painting, HDRI, stereoscopy and more Shows you digital compositing techniques that can be applied to a variety of software tools, including After Effects and Nuke Includes a DVD with scenes, sample bitmaps, image sequences, and more Start your animation career right with the solid instruction in postproduction you'll find in this practical guide. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.