Compositing is layering two separate still/motion images together for animation. Imagine an object like a ball that you want to show moving in a zero gravity environment. You can shoot this ball on a timeline with a pure green background. You can shoot an space ship like environment separately. You can then take the two footage and work in softwares like Combustion. You can select and delete all the green from the Ball footage and just composite it on top of the space ship footage. This is process is called compositing.
A compositor’s role
Every facility is different, but they are all similar in that the compositing is at the end of the digital pipeline, meaning you are one of the last members of the team to touch the shot before it gets recorded to film. Also, compositors are generally the last to get hired and the last to get released from a project as well.
The compositor’s job is an important one. I always like to use the analogy that the compositor is the equivalent to a sound mixer or recording engineer of a recording studio. As a recording engineer is technically responsible for weaving all of the different pieces of music together, so that they make sense to the ear, the compositor is responsible for weaving all of the pieces of visuals together so that they make sense to the eye.
What skills are needed to become a compositor?
1) Become a problem solver
Probably the most important skill you can possess, and I can’t emphasize this enough, is the ability to problem solve and be resourceful. Often times on a project, image elements are assigned to you that don’t fit together at all and it’s the compositor’s responsibility to make them seamless and believable when they are composited. Elements might come to you in a different color space, resolution, or format than what you are presently working in, and you have to make adjustments as needed. Objects may need to be rotoscoped or painted out of a shot, which in a smaller facility, where you are more of a generalist, you would be responsible for doing this. In a larger facility, the roles are more specialized and you would most likely be compositing only.
2) Train your eye
If you are the type of person that has a knack and a passion for painting, photography and other 2D fine arts, then you will probably make a good compositor. Like a painter painting a landscape, a compositor typically works from the back and then forward. He/she also has to be familiar with camera movement (matching it or stabilizing it), depth-of-field shifts, lighting, shadows, keying, color (grading and matching), contrast, atmospheric perspective, (objects closer to camera have more contrast than objects in the distance, where blacks appear more gray), composition, key-framing and animation, motion blur, grain, etc.
Compositors are experts at mimicking the world around us. Casually take a moment to observe your environment, ie: how transparent a reflection is on a car windshield, or how a sun casts a warm orangey hue on everything as it sets, or how the trees that whiz by you while driving in your car are motion blurred, but the car beside you, going the same rate of speed as you, is not motion blurred.
By the way, the compositing techniques are not only limited to use in films, but they can also be applied to video and games production as well.
From:-
Shazia Raza
9795460063
Academic Counsellor
Picasso Animation College, Lucknow