University of Illinois computer science alumnus Ron Brinkmann has recently published the 2nd edition of his text on digital compositing for visual effects. His book, The Art and Science of Digital Compositing, Second Edition: Techniques for Visual Effects, Animation and Motion Graphics, provides a complete guide to the technical and artistic elements of this process and is the leading book in the field.
The book is available for purchase at Amazon.com.
How did you become interested in the field of computer graphics and visual effects?
Well, I've always loved movies, particularly Science Fiction, so I guess it was natural to be curious about how I could leverage my computer science degree into working on films. Fortunately the timing was good - computers were well-poised to become a dominant force in the moviemaking process.
How has the field evolved since your 1st edition?
The availability of lower-cost and higher-power computers means that we don't need to make nearly as many compromises. It used to be that we'd be very concerned about not using higher resolution or bit-depth if we could avoid it - nowadays it's much easier to throw around large files.
What new challenges and opportunities lie ahead in the next 3-5 years?
Generally we're at the point now where movie FX can do pretty much anything, so the real challenge is figuring out how to do it within a reasonable budget. Timeframes for postproduction on movies is getting shorter and shorter, so there's that to contend with as well.
What new insights are available in the 2nd edition of the book?
My original goal was to simply update the chapter that contains the case studies - to cover a number of more recent works and thus have the opportunity to discuss newer tools and techniques within the context of those case studies.
But as I was dealing with the acquisition of those various properties (a process that ultimately took well over a year, all told - traversing the bureaucracies of major movie studios is definitely not recommended for the impatient!) I found myself continually coming across areas that I felt could use a bit of an update in the main body of the text as well. Although the book was originally written in a fashion that I'd hoped would be reasonably obsolescence-proof (concentrating on core compositing concepts rather than their use within a specific application), technology doesn't stand still and there were a number of areas that I realized could use further elaboration and some updating.
The new subtitle - Techniques for Visual Effects, Animation and Motion Graphics - is of course partially an aid to help people find this book a little easier when they're searching for information on the web. But it also reflects the fact that this edition is even more focused on providing a set of practical, real-world concepts for working with images. Technology continues to advance but ultimately one needs to be able to apply that technology to solve a problem. And technology is ultimately (and even etymologically) all about knowledge of techniques.
Why did you choose to focus your text on concepts versus tools?
The best artists understand the concepts behind what they're doing. Knowing what buttons you can push isn't nearly as important as knowing why you'd push them. Plus it means that the book doesn't go out-of- date nearly as quickly :-).
Was there anything about your experiences as a student in CS at Illinois that you feel particularly prepared you for the career path that you chose?
It's always handy to have a strong background in a variety of CS- related disciplines. Equally important is the general engineering background I received there - physics, mechanical engineering, etc... they all end up getting used at one time or another.
What advice do you have for current CS students interested in entering the field?
Go beyond the expected. Don't assume that just putting in the time to get the grade is enough - look into side projects and such. And make good contacts - it's still as much a matter of WHO you know as it is of WHAT you know.
Can you tell us a little about one of the most interesting or challenging visual effects projects you've worked on recently?
I'm mostly working on the software side of things lately, and we're concentrating on some of the various challenges that working on Stereoscopic movies will bring. I'm doing a lot of stuff with a company called The Foundry and their compositing software 'Nuke'... and there's a lot of Stereo workflow stuff that we're focusing on.
Brinkmann received his BS in computer science from Illinois in 1986 and has been working in the field of computer graphics for over a decade. He has been involved with both hardware and software design, development, and use. He was one of the founding employees of Sony Pictures Imageworks. He later co-founded Nothing Real, a software company that produced the digital compositing application Shake. Nothing Real was acquired in 2002 by Apple. He is now working with The Foundry on their Nuke compositing application. His primary field of expertise is in visual effects for feature films, and his personal feature-film credits include: Contact, The Ghost and the Darkness, James and the Giant Peach, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Speed, Hideaway, Tall Tale, Last Action Hero, and In the Line of Fire. Brinkmann is a frequent speaker at seminars on the topics of visual effects, digital filmmaking and general technology.