The Art and Science of Digital Compositing, 2nd Edition

Book description

The classic reference, with over 25,000 copies in print, has been massively expanded and thoroughly updated to include state-of-the-art methods and 400+ all-new full color images!

"At ILM, compositing is one of the most important tools we use. If you want to learn more, this excellent 2nd-edition is detailed with hundreds of secrets that will help make your comps seamless. For beginners or experts, Ron walks you through the processes of analysis and workflows - linear thinking which will help you become deft and successfully tackle any shot." --Dennis Muren ASC, Senior Visual Effects Supervisor, Industrial Light & Magic

"Ron Brinkman's book is the definitive work on digital compositing and we have depended on this book as a critical part of our in-house training program at Imageworks since the 1999 Edition. We use this book as a daily textbook and reference for our lighters, compositors and anyone working with digital imagery. It is wonderful to see a new edition being released and it will certainly be required reading for all our digital artists here at Imageworks." --Sande Scoredos, Executive Director of Training & Artist Development, Sony Pictures Imageworks

The Art and Science of Digital Compositing is the only complete overview of the technical and artistic nature of digital compositing. It covers a wide range of topics from basic image creation, representation and manipulation, to a look at the visual cues that are necessary to create a believable composite. Designed as an introduction to the field, as well as an authoritative technical reference, this book provides essential information for novices and professionals alike.

  • 17 new case-studies provide in-depth looks at the compositing work done on films such as Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Golden Compass, The Incredibles, King Kong, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Sin City, Spider-Man 2, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and Star Wars: Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith.
  • Includes new sections on 3D compositing, High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging, Rotoscoping, and much more!
  • All disc-based content for this title is now available on the Web.
  • 17 new case-studies provide in-depth looks at the compositing work done on films such as Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Golden Compass, The Incredibles, King Kong, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Sin City, Spider-Man 2, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and Star Wars: Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith.
  • Includes new sections on 3D compositing, High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging, Rotoscoping, and much more!

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. Cover/Interior Image Credits
  3. Introduction to the Second Edition
    1. What’s New
    2. The Real World
    3. Acknowledgments
  4. One. Introduction to Digital Compositing
    1. Definition
    2. Historical Perspective
    3. Terminology
    4. Organization of the Book
  5. Two. Learning to See
    1. Judging Color, Brightness, and Contrast
    2. Light and Shadow
    3. The Camera
      1. Resolution Limits
      2. Focus and Depth of Field
      3. Lens Flares and Other Lens Artifacts
      4. Motion Blur
    4. Depth, Distance, and Perspective
      1. Perspective and the Camera
      2. Depth Cues
        1. Overlap
        2. Relative Size
        3. Motion Parallax
        4. Atmospheric Effects
        5. Depth of Field
        6. Stereoscopic Effects
    5. Visual “Correctness”
  6. Three. The Digital Representation of Visual Information
    1. Image Generation
    2. Pixels, Components, and Channels
    3. Spatial Resolution
    4. Bit Depth
    5. Normalized Values
    6. Beyond Black and White
    7. Floating-point and High Dynamic Range Imagery (HDRI)
    8. The HSV Color Representation
    9. The YUV Color Representation
    10. Image Input Devices
    11. Digital Image File Formats
    12. File Format Features
      1. Variable Bit Depths
      2. Different Spatial Resolutions
      3. Compression
      4. Comment Information in a Header
      5. Additional Image Channels
    13. Vendor-specific File Format Implementations
    14. Compression
      1. Run-length Encoding
      2. Lossy Compression
      3. Chroma Subsampling
      4. Image Sequence Compression
    15. Choosing a File Format
    16. Nonlinear Color Encoding
  7. Four. Basic Image Manipulation
    1. Terminology
    2. Color Manipulations
      1. RGB Multiply
      2. Add
      3. Gamma Correction
      4. Invert
      5. Contrast
      6. Channel Swapping
      7. HSV Manipulations
      8. Look-up Table Manipulations
      9. Expression Language
    3. Spatial Filters
      1. Convolves
      2. Blurring
      3. Sharpen
      4. Median Filter
    4. Geometric Transformations
      1. Panning
      2. Rotation
      3. Scale
      4. 3D Transforms
      5. Warping
      6. Expression Language
      7. Filtering Algorithms
      8. Motion Blur
  8. Five. Basic Image Compositing
    1. Multisource Operators
      1. Add
      2. Subtract
      3. Mix
    2. The Matte Image
    3. The Integrated Matte Channel
      1. Over
    4. Additional Operators
      1. Multiply
      2. Screen
      3. Maximum and Minimum
      4. In
      5. Out
      6. Atop
    5. Masks
    6. Compositing with Premultiplied Images
      1. Color Correcting and Combining Premultiplied Images
      2. Luminosity and the Image–Matte Relationship
    7. Morphing
  9. Six. Matte Creation and Manipulation
    1. Rotoscoping
      1. Techniques
      2. Motion Blur
      3. Limitations
    2. Procedural Matte Extraction
      1. Keying Based on Luminance
      2. Keying Based on Chrominance
      3. The Color Difference Method
      4. Difference Matting
      5. Specialized Keying Software
    3. Matte Manipulations
      1. Checking the Solidity of your Matte
      2. Garbage Mattes
      3. Edge Mattes
      4. Combining Mattes
      5. Image Processing on Mattes
        1. Noise Artifacts
        2. Hard Edges
        3. Poor-Fitting Mattes
  10. Seven. Time and Temporal Manipulations
    1. Apparent Motion
    2. Temporal Resolution
    3. Temporal Artifacts
    4. Changing the Length or Timing of a Sequence
    5. Keyframing
  11. Eight. Image Tracking and Stabilization
    1. Tracking an Element into a Plate
      1. Choosing the Feature to Track
      2. Limiting the Search Area
    2. Human Intervention
      1. Using Tracking Curves Manually
    3. Tracking Multiple Points
    4. Stabilizing a Plate
    5. Camera Tracking
  12. Nine. Interface Interactions
    1. Workflow
    2. The Evolution of Interactivity
    3. Methods of Representing the Compositing Process
      1. Layer Lists
      2. Trees
      3. Compressed Branches
    4. Timelines
    5. Curve Editors
    6. Working with Proxy Images
    7. Image Viewing and Analysis Tools
      1. Image Viewers
      2. Pixel or Regional Information Tools
      3. Histograms
  13. Ten. Film Formats: Media, Resolution and Aspect Ratios
    1. Aspect Ratio
      1. Nonsquare Pixels
      2. Deciding on a Resolution When You Have an Aspect Ratio
    2. Format Conversion Pipeline
      1. A Format Conversion Example
    3. Film Formats
      1. Common 35 mm Formats
        1. 1.85
        2. Super 35
        3. Cinemascope
      2. 16 mm Formats
      3. Specialized Film Formats
        1. Vistavision
        2. 65 mm
        3. IMAX
    4. Video Formats
      1. Fields
      2. Color Resolution
      3. Gamma
      4. Common Video Formats
        1. NTSC
        2. PAL
        3. SECAM
        4. HDTV
    5. Other Formats
    6. Working with Nonsquare Pixels
    7. Converting and Combining Formats
      1. Converting Between Film and Video
  14. Eleven. Quality and Efficiency
    1. Quality
    2. Efficiency
    3. Production Methodologies
    4. Minimizing Data Loss
    5. Internal Software Accuracy
    6. Consolidating Operations
    7. Region of Interest
    8. Working in a Networked Environment
    9. Disk Usage
    10. Precompositing
  15. Twelve. Creating Elements
    1. Lighting
    2. Interactive Lighting
    3. Matched Cameras
    4. The Reference Stand-in
    5. Clean Plates
    6. Film Stock
    7. Filters
    8. Choosing a Format
    9. Lighting and Shooting with Bluescreens
    10. Bluescreen versus Greenscreen
    11. Shooting Order
  16. Thirteen. Additional Integration Techniques
    1. Scene Continuity
    2. Color and Lighting
      1. Lighting
      2. Light Wrapping
      3. Shadows
      4. Digital Color Matching
      5. Spill Suppression
      6. Atmosphere
    3. Camera Characteristics
      1. Camera Mismatches
      2. Camera Movements
      3. Scale and Perspective
      4. Focus
      5. Motion Blur
      6. Lens Flares
      7. Film Grain and Sensor Noise
  17. Fourteen. Advanced and Related Topics
    1. The Digital Representation of Images, Revisited
      1. High Dynamic Range Imaging
        1. Dynamic Range in Film and Video
        2. Capturing HDRI
        3. Working with HDRI
      2. Color Reproduction
        1. Linear Light Representations
        2. Scene Referred
      3. Working with Limited Bit Depth
        1. White Point and Black Point
        2. Nonlinear Color Encoding
          1. Working with Nonlinearly Encoded Images
          2. Video Gamma
          3. Film Imagery
          4. Linear versus Nonlinear when Compositing
      4. Conclusions
    2. 3D Compositing
    3. Working with CG Elements
      1. Z-Depth Compositing
      2. Multi-pass Rendering
    4. Related 2D Disciplines
      1. Digital Painting
      2. Editing
      3. The Digital Intermediate
  18. Fifteen. Case Studies
    1. James and the Giant Peach
    2. Speed
    3. Independence Day
    4. The Prince of Egypt
    5. Budweiser Lizards Commercial
    6. Titanic
    7. A Gentlemen’s Duel
    8. Battlestar Galactica
    9. Carlton Draught “Big Ad”
    10. Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
    11. Golden Compass
    12. The Incredibles
    13. I, Robot
    14. King Kong
    15. Lost
    16. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
    17. The Orion Nebula from The Hubble Space Telescope
      1. Introduction
      2. Data from the Science Team
      3. Preliminary Processing
      4. Color Assignment
      5. Replace Missing Data
        1. Color Composite and Adjustments
        2. Cleaning and Restoration
        3. Final Adjustments
      6. Video Treatment
    18. Sin City
    19. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
    20. Spider-Man 2
    21. Underworld: Evolution
    22. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
    23. Star Wars: Episode 3—Revenge of the Sith
      1. Breaking Down the Shot—ccm436
        1. But Wait ... There’s More
        2. The Plan
      2. Creating the Background
        1. The City
        2. Atmosphere
        3. Traffic
      3. Creating the Foreground
        1. The b2 “Master” Bluescreen
        2. Prepping the B2 Bluescreen
        3. Procedural Extractions and the “Perfect” Matte
        4. Suppressing the Spill
        5. The B1 Head and Arm Bluescreen
        6. bg “Miniature” Plate
        7. LedgeShards and BrokenWindow Renders
      4. Effects
        1. Lightsaber
        2. Lightning Renders
        3. Generic Elements
      5. Final Assembly and Reframing
      6. Summary
  19. A. Digital Compositing Software: Tools and Features
    1. Color Corrections
    2. Filters
    3. Geometric Transformations and Warps
    4. Image Combination
    5. Field Controls
    6. Matte Generation
    7. Timing and Animation
    8. Image Generation
    9. Tracking
    10. Control
    11. Other
  20. B. Digital Image File Formats
    1. Common Image File Formats
    2. The Cineon File Format
    3. The OpenEXR File Format
      1. Using OpenEXR for Visual Effects Production Abstract
        1. Introduction
        2. Description of OpenEXR
      2. Floating-Point Pixels
      3. Compression
      4. Open Source
      5. How OpenEXR is Used at ILM
      6. Color Management
      7. Why not Cineon/DPX?
      8. Real-time Playback
        1. Conclusion
    4. References
      1.  
  21. C. Common Film and Video Formats
    1. Film
      1. Scanning Resolutions and File Sizes
    2. Digital Cinema Projection
    3. Video
      1. Aspect Ratios
      2. Resolutions
      3. Interlacing
      4. Frame Rates
  22. Bibliography
  23. Glossary

Product information

  • Title: The Art and Science of Digital Compositing, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Ron Brinkmann
  • Release date: May 2008
  • Publisher(s): Morgan Kaufmann
  • ISBN: 9780080879260