Autodesk Composite 2013 Autodesk Composite Tutorial
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Contents Chapter 1 Composite Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Composite UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Customizing the Format of your Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Create a New Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Adding a Ramp Tool in the Schematic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Importing Footage . . . . . . . . . .
Composite Tutorial 1 Introduction In this tutorial, you will become familiar with the Composite UI and workflow.
Once you have copied these files and Composite is installed, you can launch Composite. When Composite opens, you see the Composite UI. The Composite UI The default Composite UI has two viewers displayed: ■ Schematic (on the left) ■ Player (on the right) Beneath these viewers is the Tool Details area. The Tool Details has several tabs on the left, including the Animation, Pick List and Composition tabs. These tabs are always present. Every time you add a tool, its parameters will appear in these tabs.
You can have up to four stationary views and eight floating windows. Adjust the size of these views by clicking the dividing line and dragging it left or right. You can also change the position of the views -- in this example, you’ll reverse them -- but to do this, you need to access the Tools, Views and Pick List tabs. These three tabs are elements of the UI that you can access through the Gate UI.
To access the Tools, Views and Pick List tabs: 1 Hit the tilde (~) key or click the middle-mouse button. 2 The Gate UI appears. Swipe through the east gate to access the Tools, Views and Pick List tabs.
3 Click the Views tab. 4 Select the Schematic view and drag it into the viewport where the Player view is currently. You now have two Schematic views.
5 Repeat the steps above with the Player view. and drag it into the viewport where the original Schematic view is sitting. NOTE Each direction that you swipe through using the Gate UI is represented by the four cardinal directions: North, South, East and West. Each direction lets you access a different element of the UI. In addition to the Tools, Views, and Pick list tabs, you can swipe through the Gate UI to access the Composition Browser, the overview Schematic view and a viewer’s options.
To change the composition preferences: 1 Open the Project Preferences dialog box. There are three ways you can do this: ■ Click the film reel icon located in the bottom-right corner of the UI ■ Go to the Edit menu and select Project Preferences ■ click Ctrl + Alt + P 2 Select the Composition tab and click the Format field to reveal the list of formats. Choose the HD 720p option. The composition project preferences will change to match the HD 720p format.
Create a New Composition Now it’s time to create a new composition. To create a new composition: 1 Go to the File menu and choose “New.” 2 The Create Composition dialog appears. Navigate to the folder where you want to save your composition. 3 In the name field, enter a name for the new composition, for example “Red Car.” 4 Click the Create button, which is located in the lower-right corner. You now have a new composition created and open.
Adding a Ramp Tool in the Schematic The first image you will add will be a radial ramp image. You will create this ramp using one of Composite’s image generators. To add a Radial Ramp tool: 1 Hit the tilde (~) key or click your middle-mouse button, then swipe through the east gate to access the Tools, Views and Pick List tabs. 2 Select the Tools tab, then click the Image Generation folder. 3 Choose the Radial Ramp tool and drag it into the Schematic view, making sure not to release the mouse button.
The ramp tool is selected by default. In the Player you can see the output of the ramp and a new tab named Radial Ramp is added to the Tool Details area. All the parameters for the Radial Ramp are now available. Changing the Ramp Colors To change the ramp colors: 1 Click the color swatch under the start parameters. The color picker appears.
2 Click the advanced button to expand the color picker. 3 Click the white swatch in the color palette to set start color of the ramp. 4 Click the OK button to apply the color and discard the color picker dialog box. 5 Click the end swatch under its parameters and the color picker will appear again. 6 Click the light blue swatch in the color palette to set the end color of the ramp. 7 Click the OK button to apply the color and discard the color picker dialog box.
In the tool’s panel, you’ll notice there are tools with a sphere icon next to them. These are called super tools. The Image Import super tool is used to import footage into the composition. 2 Select the Image Import super tool and drag and drop it into the Schematic view without connecting it to any other nodes. The tool is added and it is currently selected. The Tool Details area now displays the parameters for this tool. You’ll see a path and a browse folder icon along the top of the Tool Details area.
Now that you’ve created a bookmark, do the following: 1 In the “Renders” folder select the BG Land file. 2 Click the OK button located at the lower right corner of the Image Import dialog box. 3 Now the Image Import tool’s path is set to the BG Land PNG sequence on your hard drive. 4 In the Image Import Tool Details area you can see the format information about this image sequence footage. 5 Click the Play Forward button to playback the frames of this sequence. 6 Finally, turn the Autokey option off.
■ Hold the Ctrl key and space bar and drag up or to the right to zoom into the Player. ■ Hold the space bar and drag the cursor to pan across the Player. The same zoom and pan hotkeys also work for the Schematic view. There are two other hotkeys that you can use to zoom the Player so that it displays pixels at a 1 to 1 pixel ratio, and so that it fits the frame within the Player’s current display size. To fit the frame within the Player’s current size: 1 Bring your cursor over the Player.
7 To retract the Player options, swipe north or up. Using Hotkeys to Control the Player Options When using hotkeys, the position of the cursor controls what is affect by the hotkeys. To set the Player to display the main output of a composition: 1 Position the cursor over the Player. 2 Press the 7 key above the letter keys. The Player will display the main output of the composition which has the ramp attached to it.
To add tools to your composition: 1 Hit the tilde (~) key or click the middle-mouse button to display the Gate UI. 2 Swipe through the east gate, and select the Composition folder from the Tools tab. 3 Select the Blend & Comp tool located at the bottom of the tools tab. 4 Drag and drop the tool onto the connection line between the Radial Ramp tool and the main output node.
■ Select the Blend & Comp node in the Schematic view. ■ The Player will display the result of this tool. At this point, you can name your tools to avoid any confusion. To name the tools: 1 Select the Radial Ramp node. 2 Locate the name field in the lower right corner of the Tool Details area. 3 Highlight the field and enter the name “ramp sky.” 4 Select the Blend & Comp node. 5 Name this Blend & Comp “B&C Land”. Notice that the Image Import tool took the name from the image sequence.
2 Click the Bookmark button to open the bookmarks options. 3 Click the Red Car Renders bookmark from the bookmarks list. You can use the views options to control how the sequences will be displayed in the browser. To use the view options: 1 Click the View label. 2 Click the Thumbnails option located at the top of the options to turn on the thumbnails. 3 Select all the files except the BG Land file, which you already imported.
You can use hotkeys to organize the nodes within the Schematic view: 1 Bring the cursor over the Schematic view. 2 Hold the Ctrl key and hit the L key. This will organizes the nodes. If you want, you can select each of the image import nodes to see the footage. Since the Player is still set to display tool output you can play back each render pass. For the car there is a diffuse pass, a reflection pass, a disco pass, the shadow pass, an occlusion pass and a motion vector pass.
2 Make sure the B&C Land node is selected in the Schematic view. 3 Locate the Blend & Comp tool in the Compositing pick list, the fourth list from the left. 4 Select the Blend & Comp tool and drag it into the Schematic view. If you drop the tool on the connecting line it would behave exactly as it did when adding a tool from the Gate UI tool list. Alternatively, you can drop it on the actual node for the B&C Land. 5 Drag the Blend & Comp tool and release the cursor over the B&C Land node.
WARNING This is a very fast connection method, so take care when there are multiple inputs as you might accidentally connect the wrong inputs. If you do connect inputs incorrectly, and want to cut the connection, hold Ctrl, then click and drag across the connection line to cut the connection. The cursor will change to a scissors icon as you click and drag. You can also hold Alt and then drag a node to remove it from a connection.
Shadow node was connected to the back input of the newly added Blend & Comp tool. Compositing the Renders Now you will start to composite the different render passes for the car. To composite a render pass: 1 Zoom in and pan over in the Schematic so you can see the car shadow Image Import node. 2 Select the car shadow Image Import node and right-click it. The first option in the right-click menu is Add Pick List and all the tools in it. The top Pick List category is the most recent one.
5 Another Blend & Comp is added with the Car Shadow Image Import node connected to the back input of the newly added Blend & Comp. 6 Connect the FG Car Image Import node to the front input for the new Blend & Comp. 7 Select the new Blend & Comp node and access the tools parameters in the Tool Details area. 8 Rename the new Blend & Comp tool to B&C Car Shadow.
Changing the Blend Mode Follow these steps to change the blend mode for the front input, which is the Car Reflection Image Import node: 1 Select the B&C Car Reflection node to access the tools, parameters in the Tool Details Areas. 2 Then, in the Tool Details Area, locate the blend mode option. 3 Click the Blend Method label that reads “Normal” to display all possible blend modes.
6 Connect the B&C Car Reflection output to the front input of the last Blend & Comp node. 7 Select the last Blend & Comp node in the Schematic view to see the result in the Player.
Compositing the Occlusion Pass You will now add one more Blend & Comp tool to composite the occlusion pass over all of our other nodes. Use the quick copy and paste method you learned earlier, along with the Alt key, to fit the new node in the flow. To compositing the Occlusion Pass: 1 Hold the C key down and click and drag the last Blend & Comp to create a copy of it.
4 Select the newest Blend & Comp node to access the tools parameters in the Tool Details Area. 5 In the name field, rename the Blend & Comp node to “B&C Occlusion Pass”. 6 With the B & C Occlusion Pass node selected, locate the blend mode option in the Tool Details Area. 7 Click the Blend mode label that reads “Normal” to display all possible blend modes. 8 Select the Multiply option from the list; the Occlusion Pass is mathematically multiplied over the car and land.
Adding Color Correction to Fine-tune Results Now you will add a Color Correction tool to the FG Car Image Import node to fine-tune the color of the car: To add a Color Correction tool: 1 Press the tilde (~) key or click the middle-mouse button to display the Gate UI. 2 Drag the cursor through to the east direction or right through the gate. 3 Click the Color Correction folder to display the color correction tools below and select the CC Basics tool and drag it into the Schematic view.
NOTE If you accidentally drop the CC Basics tool on the node itself, the Drop Gate will appear with several options, as was discussed earlier. If this happens, swipe east to select “Add After Current.” Conversely, if you drop the tool directly on the highlighted output of a node, it will be added and connected without the Drop Gate appearing. If you select the CC Basics node, you’ll see there are a lot of controls associated with this tool.
you are affecting the hue balance, while the distance that you drag the control from the center affects the gain balance. NOTE As you drag you will see the value fields for the hue balance and gain balance changing. You can also adjust these fields independently, if needed, using these fields. The color wheel lets you adjust them at the same time. 5 Locate the saturation field in the CC basics Tool Details area and adjust the saturation value to 0.55.
This input is used to control what pixels will be affected by the adjustment you make with any tool. The powerful part of this input is what you connect it to. It can be a mask or an image and you can control what channel will be used from that image. On the Tool Details area for the CC Basics tool, you’ll notice the tool has multiple tabs: the CC Basics tab, the Ranges tab, and the Masking tab.
6 Bring your cursor over the Player and hit the 6 key above your letter keys to set the display to be tool output. 7 In the Schematic view, select the Car Disco Pass image import node and you’ll see the image is two solid colors. The car disco pass was rendered out with these 2 colors to be used as selection tools for the different elements of the car. The solid green is the red paint on the car and the blue is the white strip across the car.
8 Locate the channel options on the masking tab for the CC Basics tool, which, by default, is set to alpha. 9 Click the label that reads alpha to expand the list of channels. 10 Click the green option from the list. Now the color correction only affects the red paint on the car because the masking option on the CC Basics tool is using only the green channel information from the disco pass. 11 Hold Ctrl and hit the S key to save your comp.
Adding Blur Tools Now you’ll need to add some Blur tools. To add the tools: 1 Hit the tilde (~) key or click the middle-mouse button to display the Gate UI. 2 Drag the cursor through to the east direction or right through the gate. 3 Select the Filtering folder in the tools panel. 4 Drag a Blur tool onto the connection line between the Car Shadow node and the B&C Car Shadow node.
The Player is currently set to tool output. You want to adjust the blur parameters while viewing the main output of the comp. 5 Bring your cursor over the Player. 6 Press the seven key above the letter keys to set the Player’s display to composition output. 7 Select the Blur node in the Schematic view to access the tools parameters in the Tool Details area. 8 Adjust the X and Y radius fields in the Blur Tool Details area to a value of 4.5.
To further adjust the shadow of the car, you can decrease the opacity setting on the B&C Car Shadow node. 9 Click the B&C Car Shadow node in the Schematic view. Since the shadow and the blur are connected to the back input of this Blend & Comp tool, you will want to decrease the back input’s opacity. 10 Locate the Back Gain opacity field in the Blend & Comp tool, and enter a value of 0.65. Repeat this same process for the shadow for the land. 11 Select the Blur tool applied to the car.
14 Press and hold the Alt key and drag the new blur tool in between the Land Shadow Image Import node and the B&C Land Shadow node to connect it there. 15 Select the B&C Land Shadow node in the Schematic view to access the tools parameters in the Tool Details area. Since the shadow and the blur are connected to the front input of this Blend & Comp you should adjust the front opacity. 16 Locate the front opacity field on the B&C Land Shadow Tool Details area and enter a value of 0.65.
17 Hit the L key with the cursor over the player to watch the playback. Adding Motion Blur and Depth of Field To complete your comp you will now add some motion blur and depth of field. To do this you will add another Blur tool just before the output. You can drag and drop a tool into the Schematic view or you can drag and drop a tool into the Player to add tools. To add Motion Blur: 1 Hit the tilde (~) key or click the middle-mouse button to display the Gate UI.
6 Select the Blur node in the Schematic view to access the tools parameters in the Tool Details area. 7 In the name field, rename the Blur tool to “Blur Motion Depth” and hit the Enter key. Looking at the Blur node in the Schematic view you see there are several inputs. The top input is the image input, then there is the modulation input and below that is the forward vector input.
10 Go to the third frame in the timeline by moving the current frame indicator. 11 Select the Blur Motion Depth node and you’ll see multiple tabs in the Tool Details area. 12 Click the vectors tab to access the parameters for the vector blur. 13 Set the vectors length field to 4 leaving the width set to 0. You’ll notice that the back tire, which is starting to rotate in the frame, is now blurred.
14 Go to the last frame by holding the Shift key and hitting the right arrow key. 15 You will see the car has driven away from the camera at the last frame. 16 Click the modulation tab on the Blur Tool Details area. 17 Locate the X and Y radius fields and set them both to 3. Now the elements in the scene further from the camera become blurred. But because of the sharp edge of the alpha from the Land ZDepth sequence, the blur ends abruptly and there are artifacts along the edge of the mountain.
Save your composition and playback the frames to see the end result. Rendering the Results In order to render the results: 1 Select the output node in the Schematic view to access the output parameters in the Tool Details area. 2 Locate the Renders tab in the output Tool Details area. 3 Click the render tab to access the render settings for this output node. When you render your composition, by default, Composite will create a folder named “renders” at the same location you have saved the composition.
4 In the file name path, highlight the word “_” including the greater-than and less-than signs, and the underscore dash. Hit backspace to delete the version number so the sequence matches the name of the output . 5 With the output node still selected, locate the name field along the right side of the Tool Details area. 6 Highlight the text field and type “Red Car Final” then click Enter. You can control the file format by clicking the label under File Format. 7 Locate the file format option.
10 Then go to the File menu and choose Render.
The render dialog box opens; if you had multiple outputs, you could select them, but in this tutorial, there is only one. The dialog box also shows all the formatting information and the path and end file’s name. You can change the frames to be rendered if you like. Click the Start button in the lower right corner to start the render. The render progress bar appears along the bottom and when the render is complete the dialog box will close.
Go to the File menu and choose Import. Navigate to the Composite 101 folder and you will see the rendered file. You can import it and play it back.
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