The Art and Science of Digital Compositing (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics) Book

Digital compositing, defined here as "the digitally manipulated combination of at least two source images to produce an integrated result", is a huge field incorporating 2-D and 3-D still and animated artwork. The Art and Science of Digital Compositing homes in on a specific area--visual effects in film, multimedia and commercials--and expands on it in a highly precise and technical fashion. The author, Ron Brinkman, has applied his expertise to many projects, including such feature films as James and the Giant Peach and Die Hard. Here he teaches aspiring film, video and multimedia artists how to create mattes; manipulate time; track, view, and analyse images; work with various film and video formats and understand the issues of quality versus efficiency. Brinkman concentrates on improving what you've put together by manipulating colour, brightness, perspective, lighting, cameras and more. You can apply much of the introductory information-- resolution, bit depth, compression, colour and geometric manipulations--to simple image-compositing projects. But then you're off into Hollywood territory, though the tone is one of serious insight, not whimsical observation. This is essentially a textbook for people who are looking for an in-depth discussion of technology for advanced animation production. As such, it does an excellent job. --Kathleen Caster, amazon.comRead More