Hi! I have few questions to all compositors.

What programs and things I have to learn to be compositor?

I handle Photoshop and FCP/Premiere right now. I just buy few books from Amazon (2x Chris and Trish Meyers AE book, 1x Combustion and Digital compositing in depth) So I'm now learning Combustion and After Effects. But is this sufficiently? No? What else I have to know? Something about modelling and animation? Maybe learning 3ds max?

Are rotoscope artists same as compositor? What is TD and what he do?

I'm now 17 years old and in school which is crossing about cinematography school and upper secondary school. Little hard to explain because school system are different in Finland than US or other countries. Idea from this "presentation" txt was that I'm not too old to learn "compositor things"? How old you was when you break into FX industry?


Sorry my english, thank you for your time and let me know what you think! Thank you!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jhn,

That sounds like a good start! I bet you need to know how to use Apple's Shake as well. Its pretty big, and used for films more than AE is.

Max is good, but the industry standard is more Maya I think.

I don't know a whole lot about this though...

quote:

What is TD and what he do?

I'm TD TitaniumDoughnut

AE is the industry standard for compositing, if not specialized effects. Proficiency in AE never hurts. As far as modeling/animation, Maya and LightWave are popular. However, that's somewhat a different field.

AE is not the industry standard(talking about the big guys) for compositing, however it is reconised as a good stepping stone, as the industry standard compositing systems cost upward of $30,000.

Combustion is also a great stepping stone, as it is made by discreet, the same people who make two of the industry standard platforms, inferno and flame.

I sugest you try to get some work experience in a larger post house, usually the larger post houses will have this kind of gear and you will be able to realy see how the stuff works.