Introduction
Imagine a composition where you can take any object and any background to blend them seamlessly in a single click. Looks like a fluke to many. But this is very much doable with AI-powered tools, setting the new stage for the future of compositing with creative workflows.
Let’s discuss it below if you’re interested in learning this subject and making your filmmaking journey more AI-driven. Otherwise, feel free to explore more courses like these on our platform, Frameboxx 2.0.
What kind of workflow do you need while compositing an image or video shot?
Shoot an object or film first.
You need a subject to focus on. Either generate it from AI tools or shoot it in live. It depends on the ideology of the film you want to shoot and produce.
Put the footage together on the tool.
You will have many raw files. How to know which one is the best? It takes a lot of time to skim and search. Let AI tools do the rest of the job, which is finding the best face, angle, or shot for you.
It can do this in repetitions to give you more iterations, saving you precious time to invest more in brainstorming, shooting, or marketing.
Cut out the subject.
The next task in line with the compositing workflow is to cut out the selected object and give it a background.
When you do it manually, it can take ages to find the best BG for an image or person according to their skin tone, type, and shape, and making the scene more appealing takes effort.
AI tools do this in seconds with pre-trained datasets and algorithms. You can now have multiple backgrounds attached to your subject. Choose one out of many and let the AI tool proceed to the next step.
Fix the lighting and shadows.
You can further improve the intensity of the lighting on the object or subject of the shot. By playing around with shadow effects and edges, you can make the CGI images blend more easily with the live-action footage.
This improves the overall output of your virtual film or footage. You can even use AI tools to generate these images and let them blend into the scene automatically.
Add additional extra side effects.
Use practical effects and footage to add to the scene. That is when you refine the narrative of the sequence or the shot you are creating on the virtual engine. With AI tools, you can add more effects on the go without paying extra.
This improves the quality of the story you want to tell to give a viewer an immersive and enthralling experience.
At this stage, you also check the atmosphere you want to create using the CGIs. That is when you check whether you are adding the right images or side effects as per the film's atmosphere, shot, or sequence.
For instance, if you show messy, dusty, or stormy weather, adding a tall tree or happy people picnicking in the park would be pointless. You want to show panic, thunderous emotions, more excitement, and shock around when the weather goes from hard to extreme.
More than that, you want to show dust flowing around so people will not have clear visibility. You will have to add more hazy objects and effects to the scene.
That is just an example, though. But it gets you started with a theme while choosing new effects for each frame or shot.
Fine-tune and control the results.
Adding too many layers to footage can mess up the color or saturation of your entire footage. You need to be mindful as to what kind of color palette you want to go for in every new layer that you add.
That is when you have to go through the final changes in the coloring or intensity of any new image, object, or effect you add.
Watch out for the AI tools and features that let you touch up a shot automatically. It saves you time, and you no longer have to go back to each image or layer to check if it fits the color grades of your choice.
Advanced Techniques in Compositing Keeping the Future in Mind
We gave you a basic workflow in the post above. Let’s explore the advanced techniques below, which you can easily infuse into the workflow to save time and keep up with the future of compositing trends.
HDR Compositing:
With HDR displays, compositing artists can add refined images, lighting, and color gamuts. They will also need new tools and devices to handle the HDR images and objects for a more real-life-like experience for the target audience.
Machine Learning Algos and AI:
ML and AI tools and features can assist compositing artists in keying, tracking, and other important stages involved in the workflow. The AI tools can generate new images, saving costs on purchasing new items and tools.
ML can help streamline the process or certain stages so artists can focus on sharpening their human intelligence.
Deep Compositing:
Dig deeper into the layers of the footage you want to add to your shot or sequence. Get more depth about the pixels added to the frame. Improve the accuracy of these objects for their colors, lighting, and shadows, even to the last pixel.
Deep compositing helps you refine the finishing of a sequence or shot in seconds with AI-enabled tools. You can easily blur a sequence, creating a motion blur effect, or add more layers and pixels to make the image more realistic and 3D.
Real-time Compositing:
One of the newest trends that is picking up fast with game developers and filmmakers is this one. The thin line between pre-and post-production is blurred with the fine-tuning of compositions in real-time.
It means you can keep interacting with the film, gameplay, or any shot or sequence even at the post-production stage. Such techniques help game developers and designers in the long run.
These techniques provide the end user realistic, improvised, and more relatable experiences. The feedback keeps coming back to the developer, and they keep refining the compositions in real time.
The Future of Compositing
As per our study and estimations, compositing will be integrating with more stages of a filmmaking project. It will make the finetuning of the objects easier, simpler, and cost-effective in no time.
Machine learning algos and AL tools will simplify the process and assist artists and filmmakers in creating more immersive projects.
In short, there will be more tools, projects, and opportunities for compositing artists in the future. It is here to make the revolutionary changes in the VFX-led projects with complete transparency, demanding more intelligence and nuances out of a narrative.
Conclusion
Compositing is an art in which you can learn and develop a mindset to enhance your storytelling and sequencing of the shots.
However, if you’re new here and want to learn more about it, feel free to enroll in an animation, filmmaking, or game art course from Frameboxx 2.0 today.
Such a course will enable and equip you to understand the nuances of compositing that we have explained in the post above, keeping the future in mind.