Jeff Foster wants to teach you everything he knows about working with green screens, compositing, and roto techniques — which is quite a lot. He began the process of uploading the contents of his brain to our website with the successful Green Screen Workshop series (The Setup and The Shoot), and continues it with his newly released title Fundamentals of Compositing, Tracking, and Roto Techniques. (This one in turn will be followed in a few weeks by Advanced Compositing, Tracking, and Roto Techniques with After Effects.)
In Fundamentals of Compositing, Jeff teaches you the basics of green screen compositing and setting up a streamlined roto workflow with After Effects and a Wacom tablet. I recently asked him to answer a few questions in honor of its release.
Q: Did you yourself learn anything in the process of creating this course?
A: While the bulk of the content in this title is comprised of everyday workflow techniques I’ve used for years, there’s always something that I stumble upon that is a skipped step or a new/faster way to get around a problem. When I produce each lesson, I do a full run-through of every project a couple of times; with each pass the results get better and better, and I end up adding a few finishing touches to produce a better end result.
Q: What is the most common problem that people will no longer suffer from after completing this course?
A: I think if you are doing a lot of roto work, the tips on using the Wacom tablets to your advantage and putting the keyboard aside will not only speed things up for you significantly, but also help with fatigue. I’m also certain that the motion tracking lessons will help users understand what kind of footage is really “fixable” and hopefully help them encourage better shooting on the front end. It’s so easy to just assume that you can “fix it in post” while you’re doing sloppy handheld shooting, but this isn’t always the case.
Q: What can people look forward to in the second part of this series, Advanced Compositing, Tracking, and Roto Techniques with After Effects?
A: That’s when it really starts to get fun. I go into more advanced techniques for problem-solving green screen composites and more roto techniques. I also show how to do match-moving and tracking with Mocha for AE and matte painting techniques. I even give a few tips and tricks on altering lighting in your scene and making the composited objects look more believable. The two titles really go well together.
