Lessons
Class Introduction
04:00 2Your Mind is the Camera
08:02 3Set the Scene
06:59 4Get Smart with Your Gear
03:20 5Posing Tips and Challenges
04:51 6Shoot Considerations
04:09 7Shoot Setup
13:02 8Shoot: Working With Animals
09:55Shoot: Creating the Look of Motion
08:54 10Shoot: Levitating Objects
11:04 11Starting the Composite: Organizing Your Images
12:37 12Working With Your Sketch to Assemble the Scene
11:23 13Selections and Masking
30:01 14Selections and Masking Continued: Painting Techniques
08:56 15Shadow Overlays
18:35Lesson Info
Shoot Considerations
so considerations locked down. Tripod? Yep. Thank you for that. So we have something set up here again. If you notice in the original shot, it was shot from pretty down low. I have done some a little test drawing of just drawing in some the perspective lines and compositing. It's really helpful toe Have perspective lines in the horizon line to match up because that horizon line, in addition to as long as you get the height right of the camera, will always be the same. And it's easy to scale with that. Eso locked down with tripod. Match your your camera focal length. Any time you start deviating from that, it shows, even if you don't know you like something just looks off. I don't know what it is. Typically, it's your focal length. So as long as you match that, I was looking at the metadata amusing bridge and I was able to see that. Okay, I was shouting, shooting at 27 millimeters on this full frame. Sony's and I need to make sure that this is set to that as close as possible. So I mark...
ed where Okay, if the twos lineup that's going to to 70. So? So the West match your your camera focal length matched the perspective and framing. So height matters, right? You might have the rights. Uh, you know, millimeter, you might have a tripod, but if you're not getting the right position, camera position, perspective were mingling it up. You know, the lens distortion, everything that happens, it will make a difference in your final composite. It's not that you can't fudge it. It's not that you can't sort of make it work, but it will work a lot easier when you could match those things up as much as possible. So let's see. Also, yeah, matching, obviously the lighting angles in general quality that we have. So again, this will be our huge grey overcast sky. But its its not so we'll do the best we can hear with it. Um, And then it was sort of direction from that and had a lot of Phil. So we'll get another light here. That would be the film. Looks like we haven't marked off, so but yeah, match everything as much as possible, right? Make sure everything is gonna be the same in every shot and that's that's for the shooting for the best. Also, shoot for a variety, right? It's not enough to go for your game plan shoot Mawr than that because you're came plan. It doesn't always come out the way that you think it is. So it's real important toe. Really Mix it up In the end. I've had I don't know how many different shoots where I executed my plan. Perfect. Right? Okay, let's just try a little variation. And it's for the reason that variation always has a high potential to actually do something that was awesome, right? So sometimes planning it. Ah, head of time can not be limiting, but it gets you so locked in, right? It doesn't allow you to in the moment, see what it's looking like. And sometimes you just seeing that and shooting that will allow you to define mawr opportunities to try something different that works even better. So be flexible. Have a game plan, but be flexible toe overshoot and deviate from it as well. It's a very yep. Yep. Try very different ideas. You know, just in case that one isn't gonna be a strong as you thought, Uh, lastly, be prepared to shoot it all over again. It will happen even with the best plan. And you just have your lighting master. Things can go wrong, or it just doesn't look the way you think it will, right? So your mind photography technology, let's say, hasn't always cut up to your your brain photography yet. We'll see. Implants will find out. But for now, sometimes you just need to re shoot. You need to go in there and realize that. Okay, if this was gone or if I did this angle, you know, we've been a lot stronger, more dynamic would have had better. I flow. So sometimes you don't know until you get in there. So always be for plan B prepared and plan for that first shoot to be a complete test. You if you think you got it, it's just a test until you find out otherwise. So that's a good one. Okay, so back to this Here we go for actually shooting, and we'll get some people appear eso there was the game plan. And so it went from from this guy here, uh, possibly to this and maybe to the magic one. We'll see what we're doing with it, but that's that's the plan. So from here on out, let's do this
Class Materials
Free Bonus Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Molly B
I agree a bit with Eric Burke's review (which was a thumbs down), however, I feel like this is neither a thumbs up or thumbs down recommendation, more like a 3 to 3.5 star rating. :) That said, I agree that there was so much talking and not doing in the initial portion of the class sections. I feel like when there is a class offered for Compositing, much of the science people want to know is in the editing tips and tricks AND some of the shooting tips and tricks. Photography of the subjects is important to understand, but examples of live shooting should be kept fairly minimal. Aaron Nace still nails the science behind planning and shooting for composites and also rocks in the editing (in my opinion). Brooke Shaden is also a good example on the editing details. I feel like Bret had something different to bring to the table from the class preview with puppet warp and some of the cutting / masking tips... I agree that all the editing portions of this were super rushed and just touched on a lot of last comments of "oh isn't this neat" and no in-depth instruction on how that feature is used. I just felt like he really ran out of time. At the end he talked about re-shooting the dog, perhaps he could have gone in to puppet warp to change the lower legs and tail a bit as an effort to make it look more like his sketch? Bret seems likable, but does continuously talk about side stories and extra noise that seems could be more focused on the topic at hand. :) I still picked up some tips, but this would be more ideal bought on a sale rather than full price. :) I have a lot of photoshop knowledge and own some other composite classes on CL, so I don't feel too lacking, but this would not be for a very beginner of compositing. I wouldn't mind seeing Bret back with a more refined class structure focusing on the magic of puppet warp and other tricks to get the most out of compositing.
s
Had a good time with this course! Bret is a great instructor, you can really tell he enjoys his work and has a lot of fun engaging the audience. I've done some compositing in the past but with a much older version of PS. This course really helped me take advantage of the new features in PS CC and also helped streamline my workflow. It's a course that both experienced and beginner compositors alike can learn from. A big thanks to Bret Malley and CreativeLive for making this course!
Student Work
Related Classes
Adobe Photoshop