In this latest book in the critically-acclaimed [digital] series from New Riders you’ll learn all of the techniques and skills that will take you from beginner to visual effects (VFX) professional in just one book. Seasoned visual effects producer Jon Gress has refined the teaching of the skills and techniques presented in this book for over a decade to distill them down to the most effective methodology, delivered in a way that’s both fun and easy to understand while being state-of-the-art for industry professionals. You’ll start with a solid understanding of the basics of visual effects and compositing, the fundamentals of bluescreen and greenscreen keying, 3D texturing, cloning, wire & rig removal, rotoscoping, 2D and 3D motion tracking, and matchmoving. And then experiment with a wide range of 2D, 2.5D & 3D visual effects, including 3D CGI, crowd replication, face replacements, faking shadows, reflections and Z depth, atmospheric, smoke, cloud & heat FX, sky replacements, day-for-night and digital 3D HUD FX. Building on this strong foundation of compositing and visual effects, you’ll be prepared for the advanced section of the book which teach skills, such as 2D, 2.5D & 3D digital matte painting and projections, film colorization, particle systems, fluid and rigid body dynamics, full digital environments, digital destruction, advanced lighting and rendering techniques, stereoscopic 3D, 2D to 3D conversions, and expert 3D and Photoshop extraction and modeling techniques that can only be described as magic! Throughout the lessons, you’ll glean insider advice on cutting edge methods that even experienced professionals will find amazing. You’ll learn everything you need to know to begin working in the world of visual effects as an industry professional.
• All the info you need to go from beginner to professional in one book
• Easily accessible teaching style from an instructor who has helped launch the careers of some of the best-known Hollywood visual effects specialists
• Includes companion graphics files and videos to follow along with the lessons
Table of Contents:
Introduction
PART 1: CONCEPTS OF VISUAL EFFECTS AND COMPOSITING
Chapter 01 - Film and Video Primer Bootcamp for VFX
The History of Visual Effects
Principles of Motion Pictures and VFX
In The Beginning - In Camera and Special Effects
Visual Effects (VFX) Concepts
Chapter 02 - Intro to VFX - Advanced Photoshop for 3D and VFX - Digital Compositing
Basic Compositing
2D VFX
Compositing Applications
Keying Types and Concepts
Chapter 03 — Rotoscoping, Motion Tracking and 2D Matchmoving
Roto
2D Motion Tracking
2D Matchmoving
Chapter 04 - 3D For VFX
3D Applications
3D Motion Tracking
3D Motion Tracking Applications
3D Matchmoving
PART 2: VISUAL EFFECTS TECHNIQUES
Chapter 05 - Basic Integration VFX
CG Lighting and Integration
2D Motion Tracking and CG Integration
Roto VFX - Energy Weapons
Basic 2.5D VFX
Fake Shadows and Reflections
Chapter 06 - Advanced Integration and Card Trick VFX
Advanced Procedural Color Matching Live Action Footage
Fine Tune Integration - Grain Match and Light Wraps
2D and 2.5D Crowd Replication
Face Replacement
Card Tricks
Chapter 07 - 3D VFX
3D Tracking and Matchmoving CG
Hand 3D Tracking - Matchimation
3D Object Tracking and Replacement
Faking Z- Depth and Ambient Occlusion
Chapter 08 - 2.5D VFX
2.5D Atmosphere FX
2.5D Smoke - Cloud FX
Fake Birds
2D and 3D Displacement FX - Water, Heat, Cloak
Multipass Rendering and Compositing
2D, 2.5D and 3D Particle Systems and Voxelbased Rendering
Chapter 09 - Bread and Butter VFX
Sky Replacements
Day for Night - Winter for Summer FX
Digital HUD Creation
Wire and Rig Removal
Time Ramping
PART 3: ADVANCED VISUAL EFFECTS TECHNIQUES
Chapter 10 - Digital Matte Painting and Environment VFX
2.5D Compositing
Digital Matte Painting and Set Extensions 2D - 3D - 2.5D
Advanced 2.5D Camera Movement
2.5D Digital Matte Paintings and Camera Projections
Digital Environments
Digital Environment Applications
Virtual Studio
Chapter 11 - Beauty and Restoration VFX
Film Colorization
Digital Beauty
Advanced Lighting and Rendering
Chapter 12 - Dynamics and Simulation VFX
Intro to Fluid and Rigid Body Dynamics Simulations
Specialized Fluid Simulation and Dynamics Applications and Plugins
Rigid Body Dynamics
Bullet Dynamics
Soft Body Dynamics
Chapter 13 - Particle, Crowd and Destruction VFX
3D Particle Based Crowd Replication
3D Particle Based Debris Systems
Digital Destruction
Digital Amputation
Chapter 14 - Advanced Displacement Modeling VFX
Advanced 3D & Photoshop Magic
Displacement Modeling
Chapter 15 - Stereoscopic 3D and Deep Compositing VFX
Stereoscopic 3D
History, Background and Core Concepts
Creating Stereoscopic 3D
2D to 3D Stereoscopic Conversion - Methods of Stereoscopic 2D to 3D Conversion - Technologies and Implementations
Deep Compositing
Appendix: The VFX Compositor's Checklist
About the Author :
With over 25 years of digital & visual special effects, film, video, audio, and multimedia production experience, writer/producer/director and visual effects producer Jon Gress is one of the new breed of independent filmmakers who can write, shoot, direct, edit, and produce Hollywood sized digital & visual special effects. Jon has been on the cutting edge of digital production technologies since their beginnings and has taught production and software applications courses in Visual Effects, Compositing, Filmmaking, VFX Supervision, the entire Adobe Production Suite, Nuke, Fusion, Lightwave 3D, 3D Studio Max, PF Track, Boujou, Mocha Pro, RealFlow, Turbulence FD, Digital Matte Painting and UDK & Unity game engines. He has trained hundreds of visual effects artists, who have gone on to secure jobs in top visual effects companies all over the world and have worked on movies, including Titanic, The Expendables, Harry Potter, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Avengers, Avatar, Gulliver's Travels, Beowulf and many more. He has created productions for many multinational and Fortune 500 clients and is writer/producer/director of the upcoming independent sci-fi feature trilogy Anunnaki - The Movie.
