Compositing for VFX (Evening - 20 weeks)

Week 1 - Introduction to Compositing

• The VFX pipeline
• The Nuke interface
• Project settings and formats
• Read and write nodes

Week 2 - Merging your elements

• Premultiplied images
• Image and channel blending
• Generating masks, alphas and mattes

Week 3 - 2D Tracking

• Understanding tracking and stabilising
• Curve editor
• Multi-point tracking

Week 4 - Advanced Tracking

• Cornerpinning
• Planar tracking

Week 5 - Rotoscoping in Nuke

• Roto and tracking
• Rotoshape breakup
• Human motion vs objects

Week 6 - Mastering Rotoscoping

• Silhouette Rotoscoping (SFX)
• Tracking in SFX
• Working with motion blur
• Project: Roto a shot in SFX

Week 7 - Rig Removal Prep Work

• Painting in Nuke
• Marker Removal Procedures
• Generating clean plates

Week 8 - Mastering Prep Techniques

• Film grain management
• Warping and morphing
• Retiming techniques

Week 9 - Silhouette Painting

• SFX paint cleanup
• Wire removal painting

Week 10 - Keying Foundations

• Luma keying and the keyer node
• Primatte keying
• Compositing outside the keyer

Week 11 - Improving Edge Mattes

• Colour difference keying: keylight node
• Nuke’s IBK keyer
• Pre & post processing: refining the matte

Week 12 - FG and BG Edge Integration

• The despill process
• Keying motion blur
• Edge treatment and luminance

Week 13 - Understanding Colour Corrections

• Colour management and LUTs
• Float and linear light workflow
• Density and colour matching
• Mastering the colour correct node

Week 14 - Colour Matching FG and BG

• Primary grading: grade node
• Exposure, gamma and curves
• Depth queuing and atmospherics

Week 15 - Nuke’s 3D System

• Intro to the 3D interface
• Projection types and 3D displacement
• Projected mattes

Week 16 - Nuke Camera Tracking

• Lens distortion
• Solving the camera
• Utilising camera data

Week 17 - 3D Projection Workflows

• Projection cleanup workflows
• UV and camera projections
• Optimising 3D motion blur

Week 18 - Compositing CG

• Multi-channel workflow
• Rebuilding the beauty pass
• Utilities passes

Week 19 - Integrating CG with Live Action

• CG grading
• Applying convolve filters to CG
• Interactions and depth of field

Week 20 - Final Project Submission

The course also includes:

• A free online primer course before you start studying, so your foundation skills are up to speed.
• Escapee Alumni after-care and career support including help and advice with your CV, showreel and job applications.
• Free Autodesk Software when you register with the Autodesk Education Community (full details will be available in your welcome pack if you choose to study on this course).
• Access to software including Nuke and Silhouette.

Compositors are the masters of make-believe, responsible for creating the illusion of reality. They compose the final image in a VFX or motion picture sequence, creating VFX that make the impossible, possible! Without them, we’d all be looking at the wires that support actors during action sequences, or shots lacking in atmosphere or composition. As a Compositing Artist it is the their responsibility to make the shot look totally believable. You’ll need an artist’s keen trained eye for photo-realistic details so that you always create exceptional imagery. 

After the classroom course is over we offer three months of online mentoring, so that our students can continue to refine and polish their skills. We take aftercare very seriously - since it can take time to put together a job-ready demo reel, we make sure our students get the time and practice that they need to refine their work to make them job-ready. Learn more about our Aftercare support.

Compositors often start out as rotoscope artists or in junior roles, but can rise to become mid-level, then senior compositors and compositing supervisors. From here the path is open to becoming a VFX supervisor.

Escapees from our compositing courses have gone on to work at companies including: Industrial Light & Magic, Framestore, Cinesite, DNEG, MPC, Milk VFX, Sky, Electric Theatre Collective, Jellyfish Pictures and Pixomondo. For more careers advice, download our Careers Guide.