Art or Craft - or Both
“After a year or so of motion graphics I handed in my showreel at a local VFX company that had done work on some TV disaster movies. Fortunately they had just finished a show and all their freelancers had left for other projects so they gave me a chance to prove myself. That was in 2006, I've been a compositor ever since. I decided to stay a freelance artist so I could see different workflow approaches and pipelines and have contact with a greater number of artists.

Stefan reflected, “You can approach compositing as an art or a craft. Since I have a background in computer science, not design per se, I have tried not to compete with artists who are more skilled in design and matte painting. Instead I've approached compositing as a job where you try to find elegant solutions to problems. Scripting has often played a part, as well as understanding the math behind image processing.”

“Fusion on the other hand has a smaller market share but is much cheaper, faster in many ways and thus - in my opinion - very suitable for companies that have tight deadlines and over-the-shoulder client sessions, like advertising. In the end, an artist proficient in one application can get familiar with the other one quite rapidly. It's a different story with After Effects, of course, which is layer-based instead of node-based and needs a different approach.”

Stefan has a very active blog and tutorial website where he shares his experience, ideas and interesting discoveries on visual effects and compositing. He also has a collection of Fusion scripts and macros he has created over time for specific tasks. Among the advancements that Fusion has gained over the last several months, Stefan finds Dimension, the optical flow and stereoscopic plug-in, is very effective when it comes to fixing stereo problems or analyzing motion, although its cost is very low compared to other similar software. “Moreover, the current version of Fusion basically comes with a free plug-in that bridges the workflow between AVID editors and the compositing department,” he said.

Under the Hood
“Also, under the hood, every version of Fusion has improved the API, the programming interface that can be used to write plug-ins. What sets Fusion apart is its ‘Fuse’ plug-ins that do not need to be written and compiled in C++. They are simple text files written in the scripting language LUA, and capable of accessing the power of a modern computer's GPU for real-time image processing by executing routines written in OpenCL. It's a powerful way to extend Fusion's toolset and I have published a couple of these plug-ins as open-source myself.

“The regular kind of plug-in would be written in C++ and needs to be compiled - it's a requirement of that particular programming language. But because Fuses are small programs written in LUA or the graphics card language OpenCL and are human-readable text files that Fusion will execute on demand, you don't need to compile anything or restart Fusion to execute the updated version of your plug-in. They are a way to rapidly draft ideas or test routines. An important factor in my case is that you don't need a special programming/compiling application for C++. A free text editor is enough to write Fuses.”

When thinking about the fundamental skills that all compositors need to master to gain control of their work, he said that using real-life reference footage and photos is probably the best suggestion for compositing students. “Effects like light wraps for example work much more subtly in these kinds of images than what you usually find in compositing tutorials. Also, skies are much brighter than you might expect, especially if your final image should be bright enough to reveal details in areas lit by ambient light only.

The Soft Side
“But there are also soft skills involved in being a compositor. After university, a comp job usually involves implementing the wishes of third parties – the director, DP or supervisors - which can be frustrating at times. You usually don't hear about that in Hollywood making-of interviews. Often you end up with a dozen revisions that may not improve anything and sometimes a whole shot will be omitted due to last-minute editing changes. Maybe the director wants the background for a green screen shot as crisp as the foreground, even though it would have to be out of focus to be physically correct, or wants the sky not to blow out even though it would in real life. So, it’s better not to fall in love too much with the images you have created.”

Stefan noted that, usually, these are the kinds of frustrations that happen when the whole shot hasn't been executed or thought-out well enough. But nobody will blame the script writer, DOP, light crew or director. In the end, it's the compositor's job to save the shot, on time and in budget. In these cases it pays off to be a good communicator.

“Depending on your role,” he said, “it's important to point out possible obstacles early on, either to the supervisors once you are assigned a shot or, if you are the supervisor, during the planning stages and on set. This requires experience but communication and being a team player are things you can already start training for on student projects.”

Technical Harmony
Regarding editorial contact, Stefan finds the project's scope plays into that. A long form production like a movie will basically have a refined cut before film scans are done or files are exported for the visual effects crew, as a one-time operation. On a TVC with an in-house editor there might be more revisions to the edit and VFX work has to begin almost immediately after shooting, which requires a closer connection to the editorial department.

“Nevertheless, editing and comp department communication needs to run smoothly because compositors need a way to see their finished or in-progress shots in context. When available, a VFX editor can be an important bridge between departments, in my opinion. Some of my recent projects that didn't have one suffered from lack of communication or technical misunderstandings. The production editors’ job is telling a story, and they won’t have much time for technical VFX issues like file sequence numbering, the challenges of matching AVID speed ramps or rebuilding splitscreens already prepared for the rough cut.

Companies Stefan has worked with in recent years include Pixomondo, Scanline VFX and Parasol island, handling 2D and 3D compositing on film, broadcast, commercials and trade show projects. Among the feature films he has worked on are ‘The Avengers’, ‘Battleship’, ‘Vicky and the Treasure Gods’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’. www.comp-fu.com  www.eyeonline.com