Tools For the Creative Digital Artist

George Furukawa
October 2005

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In the past, video FX and compositing were techniques you might use in a project for a few special shots that needed strong visual effects, or a particularly complex color treatment. Today, these elements are important components in the production pipeline. From pre-visualization, to tests, animation and editing, right through to the final packaging, video FX and compositing applications are as essential to a digital artist as a paintbrush is to a painter.

There are a variety of video FX and compositing applications available to professional videographers as well as serious hobbyists. And you don't have to spend lots of money to acquire quality, state-of-the-art applications that will meet your needs -- while also making your creative video project look like a big budget production.

At its root, a compositor performs two distinct tasks. First, you can use a compositing application to fix problems with your media. Examples would be correction of white balance and artifacts, stabilization and rig removal, to name a few. A good compositor can often save footage that is considered completely unusable by an editor.

Second, you can also use a compositor to create multi-layered sequences that can include basic elements for design, text treatments, particles, or green screen footage and animation.

Compositing applications excel at taking elements from different sources and combining them so that they appear as if they belong together. The classic example is the use of a green screen where a compositor is used to remove the green backing and replace it with another environment, either created digitally or shot practically.

Professional videographers as well as serious hobbyists are using video FX and composting applications in creative ways. For example, Adobe After Effects 6.5 standard ($399) has been widely used in the industry for years for 2D and 3D compositing, animation and visual effects. Apple's Motion 2 ($299) specializes in animated text and other effects for film, video and even DVD menus.

There are two main situations where one would use video FX and/or compositing applications. One is as a pre-conceived creative choice. A user may want to do something dynamic such as have a person talking from the top of the Eiffel Tower overlooking Paris without traveling to France. A green screen, stock footage of the Eiffel Tower and good keying software would cost less than plane tickets and Parisian hotels.

The other situation would be if there was a problem with the video that needed to be corrected. Though there are classes, books and tutorials teaching the use of these numerous effects, many post-production artists learn by experimenting with the effects themselves. Since most updated versions of editing software let the editor work in real-time (without rendering), the editor can keep fine-tuning variables until the exact look is achieved.

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