Digital Compositing for Film and Video

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A Creative COW Book Review

	Ron Lindeboom ron@creativecow.net CreativeCow.net, Cambria, California USA

Article Focus: In the world of graphics production, few books attain legendary status. In the past decade, two come to mind: David Biedny's "Photoshop Channel Chops" and Trish & Chris Meyer's "Creating Motion Graphics." Well, if I were to pick another book that could stand right alongside these two titles and hold its own -- it would be Steve Wright's "Digital Compositing for Film & Video." Some would read that and ask: "Have you lost your mind, Boomer?" To that, I can only answer that in 6.5 years of building forums-based communities online, we have met few people who have mastered what's in this book. Even fewer can articulate this mastery. Steve is one who has accomplished both. Buy it -- unless you could have written it yourself. "Highly recommended. Four and a half Cows ... if you commit to reading it with anything more than a cursory perusal, you'll walk away a master."

If you consider yourself an upper intermediate level user or less, I have a book I'd like to recommend. It's a new book that's just been released by Focus Press called "Digital Compositing for Film and Video" by Steve Wright. Among many other things that it does quite well, it explains what procedural keyers like Primatte are doing and shows you how to replicate the same kinds of processes manually. By the time you finish the lesson, you'll have a degree of knowledge that we've seen in few users in 6.5 years of building forums communities online. The book also explores the many different kinds of keyers that you find inside programs like Adobe After Effects and Steve Wright shows you where, when and how to use each to best advantage. He points out the strategy as well as the utility. Nice touch, Steve. He also takes you through many other areas like matte extraction, despill procedures and color correction. After reading it, you will understand scientifically what is going on under the hood of your favorite imaging and video apps. To me, this is the "Photoshop Channel Chops" of 2001. What David Biedny's legendary PCC book did for Photoshop artists the better part of a decade ago, this book will do for compositors today. I have seen other books handle this subject, some do it well -- none do it as well as this one. Well-written and very easy to understand -- though there are definitely places where you will have to reread passages to understand what's being said. But if you commit to reading it with anything more than a cursory perusal, you'll walk away a master.

Highly recommended. Four and a half Cows. Just buy it -- unless you could have written it yourself.

Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net

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©2001 by Ron Lindeboom. All rights are reserved.

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