Compositing software

[[SHOCKWAVE]]

I am thinking of getting more into compositing. What would be one of the better or is the more popular packages to consider?

[WesChilton]

Well, that depends on your budget and what you want to do. AE is relatively in expensive for the non-pro version, it will get you rolling but its limited.

Personally I prefer Fusion and or Nuke. They are both extremely powerful have a real 3D environment, powerful scripting and are FAST. Especially with hardware support. The down side is that both start at over $5K unfortunately. Fusion does have an entry level version still I believe that will do quite a bit.

AE Pro is still a great solution for someone on a budget... and who doesn't need to generate film sized plates. It has tons of great out of the box plug-ins, tons of inexpensive 3rd party support and the learning curve is gentle.

There are a couple of others out there... I just haven't had a lot of experience with them

[Melvil]

Nuke is $3,500.

5k is accurate for Fusion, unfortunately. They do offer a free learning edition that watermarks, so that is great to try out the program and start learning on.

I've been learning Fusion and love it. I prefer the UI in Fusion over Nuke, but they're both excellent compositers.

If you're on a Mac, Shake has long been the most popular compositor for professional work, and will likely remain so for a while yet. Apple has discontinued development though, so I think starting to learn it now is dubious.

There are other choices as well, but Nuke and Fusion are my favorites and seem to be gaining popularity in the industry.

[[SHOCKWAVE]]

Thanks. That is my main focus is the popularity of the software. I do not want to waste a lot of time learning one that is not overly popular. I want to make sure I invest wisely of course.

[Mikala]

I use Fusion or Combustion.
Fusion is a light year ahead speed and format import wise over Combustion. Sadly I don't see a future for Combustion

[BillS]

Yep.. Fusion would be the choice over combustion with the next step down the price scale being AE.

[CAClark]

Fusion definately, and for sensible costs, DFX which is very similar to fusion.

Cheers!

[[SHOCKWAVE]]

What is the learning curve like for Fusion and combustion?

[Melvil]

If you haven't used a nodal compositor before any one of them will have a slight learning curve, but personally I find nodes to be very intuitive.

I found Fusion easy to get up to speed with. Eyeon provides some courseware that teaches through a project-based approach, and most things are fairly straightforward and easy to figure out on their own. There aren't a lot of program-specific quirks that you have to "know the program" for.

[Tatsu]

I primarily use Fusion at work so that would be my first recommendation but as noted, it is expensive. If on a Mac I would recommend Shake even though it won't be updated. It's probably the most affordable compositing package still used in high end film and TV work. It's quite powerful and if you learn it, it will be easy to transition to other node based packages should the need arrise.

[CAClark]

I found fusion pretty quick to pickup at work, though I am far from an advanced user.

Cheers!

[Meurig]

Shake all the way. I'm using it every day at work and absolutely love it. So wonderfully easy to use and very powerful. More recent versions are only available on Mac or Linux which is a shame, but v2 worked on windows and isn't hugely different to the later versions, just missing a few features.

[Lee Medcalf]

We primarily use After Effects in the studio here, its not as powerful as say Shake or Flame, but it has a large support community and if you have any familiarity with Adobe products its comparatively easy to pick up.

[Mikala]

As I can get Combustion 2008 for $199 I'm thinking to give it one last chance. I'll tell you if there has been any real worthwhile improvements.

[Melvil]

As I can get Combustion 2008 for $199 I'm thinking to give it one last chance. I'll tell you if there has been any real worthwhile improvements.

All I've heard is that 2008 is getting the Color Warper from Flame, have they announced anything more than that?

[Mikala]

This might show you more..
http://store.autodesk.com/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=DisplayPage&Locale=en_US&SiteID=adsk&id=ProductDetailsPage&productID=87646200
Check out the whats new tab.

[david.figueroa]

for Windows. Fusion 5 for mac Shake and for all After Effects......

[jorjo]

Fusion / DFX with th eLW Pipe & Combustion with the MAX pipe.

On the other hand Ive used LW to feed Combustion with advanced.rla through render buffer exports etc Other than a few inconsistancies with camera settings and ratios that have to be adjusted to suit, they work 99% effectivly together with only a few minor workarounds needed for the more advanced tasks you may want to explore.

Theres quite a bit of support out there for combustion, including a fair wadge of video tutes and walk throughs, It certianly wouldnt be a bad choice by any means.

On windows for semi pro/ lite pro use I'd figure Fusion, Combustion and AE as likely players what your after Shock.

[[SHOCKWAVE]]

This is all good info. Sure is a lot to think about. I have been looking around looking at who has decent support and training as well as which is more commonly used here in T.O for future employment possibilties. Buying a car was easier.

[Flashfire]

Shockwave... look into what Mr.X is using... theyre in Toronto and one of the top employers.

[[SHOCKWAVE]]

I was checking them out last week and they use Maya, Flame, Shake and Combustion.

[tommywright]

Every studio I go to uses a different compositor but they are all node based and they all have basically the same tools (some better than others -i.e. Nuke). If you learn one, you will very quickly pick up others if you need to. This is assuming you are wanting to use a popular program because you're looking for a job as a compositor in the industry. If you are just looking for a good composting program for freelance, I'd go with Fusion (if it's not too expensive).

I remember they once ran a deal for LW people for like $1500 or so... maybe that was if you bought LW with it. I don't recall exactly but I remember it was a good deal.