Introduction to Video Compositing

In today's media dominated world, there is an increasing amount of video content being produced. This content is presented to the audience as documentaries, music videos, films, television spots, or even a simple YouTube video. One of the most important aspects to creating these forms of media is the ability to composite a shot and have it produced in a manner that is aesthetically pleasing to the audience.

What does compositing a shot mean? Compositing is the act of adding elements not originally in the shot to enhance the final composition. Everyone who watches any decently produced media encounters compositing. For example, the compositor could add a tree in the background that wasn't originally there, or the most common technique, shooting in-front of a green screen and inserting a background image behind the main object in focus.

The workflow of compositing the piece of media starts with planning the shot. Where and when is the shot? How will the shot be taken? Based off how the shot looks, the sky may be replaced with a more pleasant and appropriate sky, and the weird edge of a building may be masked out. 3D objects may be added to the shot to give a more dynamic feel. In order to do all of this, various artists have to create these assets for the compositor to work with. The sky may be taken from Adobe Stock and then used by the compositor after he/she created a matte of the original sky. The 3D objects would be modeled, textured, and animated by a 3D artist. Once everything is ready for the compositor, the scene can be properly arranged and composited.

Node-Based compositing allows the compositor to visual manage the edits of the composition via tree-like graph. One node is the original footage. The user would then create another node for masking the image, and have it "linked" to the original node (the footage), and then create another node connecting to the footage for color correction. After many edits the node-area looks like a huge family tree. This form of compositing is very effective and allows the compositor to "un-link" and "link" nodes very quickly with much ease. Node-Based compositing like The Foundry Nuke and Blackmagic Fusion are some of the industry standards for node-based compositing. My experience is that with node-based compositing, animating too many elements can be tedious, but the quality of the tools available for proper compositing is top-notch.

The Foundry Nuke's Interface

Layer-Based composting is best described as layers similar to what is in Photoshop. Adobe After Effects is the dominate layer-based compositing program. The hierarchy order of the layers works as if the top layer is the top image in the display window, and the bottom layer is usually the background image. This type of compositing is great for motion graphics and animated designs. It can get the job done with your average video compositing needs, but the layer workspace can become cluttered and slow down your machine after too many effects and adjustments are made. I also find the compositing tools in node-based programs to be a higher quality, even in the discontinued Autodesk Composite, I find the matte extraction function very effective.

Adobe After Effects Showing Off It's Goodness

It all comes down to preference, but if you're looking to get a compositing gig I suggest becoming familiar with node-based compositing. It may be scary and difficult to work in a new environment, but the benefits of producing dynamic composites will pay off.