Datasheet

8 chapter 1 ■ Setting Up a Composite
Industry Perspective: Compositing Software Overview
In preparation for this book, 19 expert compositors from feature animation studios, visual
effects houses, and commercial production facilities in Los Angeles, New York, and San Fran-
cisco (as well as New Zealand and the United Kingdom) were interviewed. As such, a survey of
popular compositing software was taken. The two most consistently named programs were
Flame (or its sister, Inferno) and After Effects. These were followed by Shake and Nuke. Fusion,
Toxik, and Combustion were used more sporadically. A few studios, including Sony Pictures
Imageworks and DreamWorks Animation, continue to use proprietary compositing software.
Flame and Inferno are distributed by Autodesk and are prized for their real-time, high-resolution
workflow. They are strongly favored in commercial production where clients prefer to sit in on
color grading and other final adjustments. Seats of Flame and Inferno are extremely expensive
and can run several hundred thousand dollars. Because of the expense and difficult maintenance
of the Flame and Inferno systems, artists have traditionally learned them by apprenticing under
an experienced compositor on site. Between the two programs, Inferno is considered the more
advanced due to resolution independence and advances in hardware design.
After Effects is distributed by Adobe and is now bundled with its production set of software.
It was developed in the early 1990s and was purchased by Adobe in 1994. Since that time, the
After Effects interface has stayed fairly consistent, with minor adjustments accompanying every
release. Because of its low price and ease of use, it is employed widely in various graphics-related
fields by professionals, students, and hobbyists. That said, professional compositors at larger
studios tend to employ it as a secondary compositing program. Of all the programs discussed in
this section, After Effects is the only one that is layer based.
Shake was developed by a team of compositors at Sony Pictures Imageworks in the mid-1990s. In
2002, Apple purchased the software. Shake has been a preferred compositor in the visual effects
industry due to its long-time support of high resolutions such as 2K, 4K, and IMAX. Shake sup-
ports 8-, 16-, and 32-bit workflows.
Nuke was developed by Digital Domain in 1993 as an in-house compositor. It was released to
the public in 2002. In 2007, The Foundry, a London-based software distributor, took over the
development of the program. Nuke has always enjoyed 32-bit floating-point architecture and
has been ported to every major operating system. Although Nuke continues to be used by Digital
Domain, it tends to be a secondary program at other animation studios. However, many com-
positors have found it to be a worthy replacement for Shake, which has suffered from lack of
development in the last several years. At the time of this writing, several major studios, including
Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital, have purchased site licenses for Nuke.
Fusion (previously known as Digital Fusion) is distributed by Eyeon Software Inc. and has found
its niche in episodic television, feature visual effects, and the video game industry. Toxik is a
relative newcomer to the Autodesk suite of programs and is aimed at high-resolution film and
video work. In August 2009, Autodesk announced the integration of Toxik with Maya 2010; as
such, the use of Toxik (which has been renamed Maya Composite) will likely become more wide-
spread. Combustion, also distributed by Autodesk, has long been an inexpensive desktop rival
to After Effects. Combustion is unique in that it is node based but offers a layer outline similar to
After Effects. Combustion, due its architecture, is best suited for low-resolution projects.
Resolutions and Frame Rates
Compositors are faced with a wide array of image resolutions and frame rates. However,
international broadcast standards and motion picture precedents make the choices logical
for specific media.
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