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Composite User Guide
Composite 2011
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Published by: Autodesk, Inc.
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Autodesk Composite 2011 User GuideTitle:
2Document Version:
March 11, 2010Date:
Contents
Chapter 1 Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About Composite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Part 1 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Chapter 2 About Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
About The Chapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 3 Interface Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Basic Interface Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Gate UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Drop Gate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
The Composite Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Tools, Views & Pick List tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
The Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Zooming and Panning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Navigating and Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Working with Schematic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
iii
Chapter 4 Start Compositing Now! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Try First, Read Later . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Start Composite, Create Composition, Import Media and Go . . . . . . 77
Add Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Add Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
To Render the Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Part 2 Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Chapter 5 About Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
About the Chapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Chapter 6 Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
About Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Example Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Setting Project Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Archiving or Restoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Chapter 7 Wiretap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Accessing the IFFFS Libraries on the Network Using Wiretap . . . . . . 111
Accessing Media Via Wiretap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Accessing IFFFS Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Chapter 8 Importing Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
About Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Physical Location of Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Supported Media Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Importing Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Using the Image Import Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Log to Lin Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Moving Imported Compositions into Project Folders . . . . . . . . . . 126
Image and File I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Premultiplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Chapter 9 Getting Familiar with Your Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Working with a Task-Based UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Pick List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Tool Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Animation Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Layer Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
View Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
iv | Contents
Color Picker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Calculators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Hotkey Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Setting User Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Previewing Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Creating User Defined Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Other Workspace Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Chapter 10 The Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
About the Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Player View Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Setting the Target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Setting Context Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Playing Back in Multiple Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Playback Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Setting the Target for the Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Setting the Channels for the Target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Setting the Mark In and Mark Out Points for Playback . . . . . . . . . 197
Setting the Repeat Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Setting the Frame Rate for Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Setting the Real-Time Playback Preference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Synchronizing or Separating Playback between Views . . . . . . . . . 199
Setting the Playback Point when the Player Updates . . . . . . . . . . 200
Setting the Resolution for a Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Setting the Grid in the Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Setting a Region of Interest (ROI) in the Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Displaying Masks and Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Showing or Hiding Tiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Turning Hardware Rendering On or Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Setting the Pixel Aspect Ratio of the Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Displaying Player Option Information in the Player view . . . . . . . 206
Displaying Manipulators in the Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
In-player Pixel Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Adjusting the Zoom or Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Applying a LUT or Color Conversion Tool to the Player . . . . . . . . 210
The Mini-Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
The Fullscreen Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Chapter 11 Working with Compositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Creating Compositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Rendering, Caching and Versioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Linking Compositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Closing a Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Contents | v
Chapter 12 Multilayer Compositing and 3D Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Reaction Compositing and Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Compositing Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Basic Compositing in Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Working with Maya Pre-Comps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Working with Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Working with Geometric Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Using Parenting Axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Working with Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Working with Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Working with Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Camera Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
3D Displacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Transforming Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Reaction Rendering Effects and Output Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Setting up a Stereo Camera Rig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Chapter 13 Pre-Compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
About Pre-Compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
The Pre-Compositing Import Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
About Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Using Pre-Compositing Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Pre-Comp File Creation and Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Chapter 14 Importing FBX Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Importing FBX Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
FBX Import Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Chapter 15 Premultiplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Premultiplied Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
When to Premultiply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Common Problems with Premultiplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Premultiplication Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Chapter 16 2D Compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
About 2D Compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
2D Compositor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Alpha Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Channel Processing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Composition Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Multi-stream Compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Stereo Viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
vi | Contents
Chapter 17 Image Processing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
About Image Processing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Filtering Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Formatting Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Image Generation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Transform Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Chapter 18 Pixel Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
About Pixel Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
PXL Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
CTL Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Chapter 19 Warping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
About Warping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Warp 2D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
2D Transforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Cropping and Filtering the Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
Warping Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
Chapter 20 Effects Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
About Effects Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Drop Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Glow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Chapter 21 Managing Film Grain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
About Managing Grain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Adding Grain to a Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Removing Grain from a Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
Fine-tuning the Grain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
Saving and Loading Grain Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
Chapter 22 Pulling Keys and Creating Mattes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Keying Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Keying Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Extracting a Key Using the Diamond Keyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
Creating a Difference Matte Using the Difference Tool . . . . . . . . . 517
Extracting a Key Using the Luma Keyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
Removing Color Spill with Color Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
Keyer Super Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Chapter 23 Masking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
About Masking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Contents | vii
Masking Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
Garbage Mask Tool Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
Creating Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540
Editing Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
Transforming Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548
Creating and Editing Edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
User Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Output Tab Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
Options Tab Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
Pixel Masking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
Masking Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
Chapter 24 Raster Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
About Raster Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
Paint UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568
Layer Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568
Paint Brush Controls and Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
Paint Stroke Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
Working with Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
Adding, Deleting, Clearing, and Wiping Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574
Layer Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
Stroke Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
Chapter 25 Vector Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
About Vector Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
Vector Paint Image Inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
Shape Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
Vector Paint UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
Chapter 26 Color Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
About Color Correcting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618
Applying LUTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618
Working with ASC CDLs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
Broadcast Safe Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Transforming Color Space with the Log and Delog Tools . . . . . . . . 627
Color Correcting with CC Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630
CC Histogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
Clamp Color Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644
Color Space Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
Processing Images with Photo Lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
Inverting an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649
Remap Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649
Set Fill Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654
Solarizing an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654
viii | Contents
Creating a Monochrome Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655
Modifying a Display With the Pass Through Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
Setting the Amount of Gray in an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
Converting an Image to sRGB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
Chapter 27 Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659
Animation Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660
The Animation Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661
Composition Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661
Animation Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
The Animation Property Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
Player Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
Working with Cue Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668
Contextual Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670
Keyframing Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674
Marking Attributes for Keyframing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674
Setting Keys Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676
Setting Keyframes Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680
Editing Keyframes in the Tool UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681
Editing Keyframes in the Animation Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682
Adding and Deleting Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683
Modifying Interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687
Modifying Extrapolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688
Temporarily Modifying Attribute Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688
Customizing the Layout when Working with Animation Curves . . . 689
Global Time vs. Local Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690
Time Offsets, Keyframing, and Instancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690
Chapter 28 Time Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691
Retiming Footage with the Retimer Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691
About Timing Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692
Converting the Frame Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695
Offsetting Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 696
Chapter 29 Customization Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
The Macro Super Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
Chapter 30 Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711
About Motion Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711
Importing Motion Vectors From Maya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712
Computing Motion Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714
Show Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716
Contents | ix
Chapter 31 Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719
About Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720
Short Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721
Expression Input Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
Visual Linking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
Visual Linking Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
Navigating the Expression String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728
Validating and Applying the Expression String . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729
Viewing the Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729
Associating Comments with an Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730
Editing an Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
Removing an Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
Setting Expressions Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
Expression Reference Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745
Arithmetic Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746
Comparison Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746
Operator Precedence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747
Math Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747
Vector Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
Random Number Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
Rounding Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750
Trigonometric Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750
Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
Time Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
Profile Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
Conditional Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752
Chapter 32 Tracking and Stabilizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753
About Tracking and Stabilizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754
Tracking Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754
Stabilizing Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755
Tracker UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755
Tracking Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757
Choosing a Reference Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 762
Positioning the Reference Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 763
Resizing the Reference and Tracker Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764
Resetting the Reference Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766
Resetting the Tracker Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767
Changing the Color of a Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768
How the Tracker Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769
Tracking Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 770
Tracking the Scale of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773
Tracking the Rotation of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775
4-Point Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777
Tracking Difficult Shots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780
x | Contents
Correcting Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 782
Stabilizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783
1-point Stabilizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786
2-point Stabilizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788
Simultaneous Stabilizing and Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790
Chapter 33 Video Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795
About Video Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795
Deinterlace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795
Interlace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801
Pulldown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 802
Chapter 34 Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805
About Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805
Comparison Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
Notes Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 812
Pass Through Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813
Switcher Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814
Appendix A Hotkeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817
Hotkeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818
Windows and Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818
Login Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818
General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818
User Interface Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819
Browsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
Composition Hotkeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 824
Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827
Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
Mac OS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837
Login Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 838
General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 838
User Interface Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839
Browsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 842
Composition Hotkeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843
Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846
Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 851
Appendix B Composite Executables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 859
Working with the Composite Executables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 859
composite Executable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860
txcheck Executable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860
txperf Executable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 862
txversion Executable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 866
Contents | xi
Appendix C Python Scripting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867
About Python Scripting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867
Appendix D Initialization Variables and String Substitutions . . . . . . . . 873
Initialization Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 873
String Substitutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 874
Appendix E Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877
List of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 887
xii | Contents
Preface
Topics in this chapter:
■
About Composite on page 1
■
About This Guide on page 2
■
Getting Help on page 2
About Composite
Composite is Autodesk’s interactive solution for film compositing. It brings
compositing and visual effects tools to high-end 2D artists working at HD, 2K,
4K or above, in film, television, and design. It features a full High Dynamic
Range (HDR) pipeline, next-generation 3D compositing, high performance
interaction at extremely high resolutions, and advanced rendering. It primarily
features a database-less workflow for data management, one Composite seat,
one scripting license, and unlimited rendering capabilities.
The Composite creative toolset includes keying, color correction, tracking,
camera mapping, paint, spline-based warping, motion blur, and depth of field.
Furthermore, it can be updated with extensions that add functionality to the
product by means of new tools and core fixes.
1
1
About This Guide
The Composite User Guide is made up of two major sections: Getting Started
and Reference.
Getting Started
This section describes the basic information you needs to know in order to
get up and running with Composite quickly. Topics ranging from key interface
features and accessing the Help provide you with everything you need to start
compositing now! It is strongly recommended that you read this section before
exploring the Reference portion of the User Guide.
Reference
This section provides in-depth information about all the tools and key features
associated with Composite. Some features discussed in the Getting Started
section are described in further detail here. The reference section includes
advanced topics and is most useful for users who have a good understanding
of Composite basics.
Getting Help
There are two ways to access Help for Composite, depending on whether you
want more information on a particular subject or whether you need assistance
with a specific problem
Viewing Online Help
Autodesk provides documentation in an HTML help system displayed in a
Web browser. The Help is automatically installed with the software.
To launch the Help, do one of the following:
1 From the Composite menu, choose Help > Composite Help.
2 From the Windows taskbar, choose Start > programs > Autodesk > Autodesk
Composite 2011 > Composite Documentation > Online Help.
The Help appears in the browser window.
2 | Chapter 1 Preface
4
6
About Getting Started
Topics in this chapter:
■
About The Chapters on page 7
About The Chapters
The Getting Started section describes fundamental Composite concepts and
explains some of the tool’ s basic functionality, which should allow you to begin
using Composite as quickly as possible. Here is a brief description of the chapters
included in this section.
Interface Fundamentals
This chapter provides the first detailed descriptions about some essential
Composite interface features. Composite interface mechanics like the Gate UI
and the Pick List, as well as critical functions such as zooming and panning,
and working with nodes are explained. You’ll find more in-depth information
about some of the features discussed here, like The Player, in the Reference
section.
2
7
Start Compositing Now! A Simple Workflow Overview
This chapter provides you with a step-by-step example of how to composite
using Composite. The goal is to demonstrate how easily you can begin to use
the tool, even before you explore some of the more advanced topics covered
in the Reference section.
8 | Chapter 2 About Getting Started
/
