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Last week, while adding books to our recommendation list, we realized that it had been way too long since we caught up with Ron Brinkmann. We decided to send him an email and ask if he would like to send us some “treats” for our readers. To our joy, not only did he send us some great content to share with you, but also will be a featured artist in the near future.. so keep your eyes peeled for the “Artist Spotlight” feature as soon as he gets some time to breathe!

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Ron Brinkmann is the author of The Art and Science of Digital Compositing, Occasional supervisor in the vfx and animation world, was one of the founding employees of Sony Pictures Imageworks, and part of the initial design and development team that produced the digital compositing application Shake (acquired by Apple in 2002). He was also was slightly involved with Apple’s photo-management software Aperture and frequently speaks at seminars on the topics of visual effects, digital filmmaking and general technology.

How does your book relate to the ‘real world’ of working in production? How does one get started as a compositing artist?

As is often the case, there’s generally not a single, well-defined path to this goal.  But it almost always requires a bit of education (either in a formal academic setting or independent study) to the point where one can show a reasonable level of familiarity with the concepts discussed in my book and a reasonable degree of proficiency in at least one piece of digital composting software.  Usually this is demonstrated on the artist’s reel – a DVD or web-page that contains clips of work they have done.  The role of the compositing artist is a visual one and as such you’ll be expected to have more than just a piece of paper to explain what you’re capable of producing.

The clips on your reel may come from a variety of places – personal projects, class assignments, etc. In general, digital compositing is usually only a part of the work that is done when creating visual effects or animation.  Conceptual and character design, 3D modeling, animation and lighting, live-action photography – these are all things that may be part of a given project.  Everything on your reel should be something that you have personally worked on but, given the collaborative nature of this business, you don’t need to have done every aspect of every piece on your reel.  In fact, demonstrating an ability to work as part of a team is an excellent thing to underscore when you’re looking for work.  (Be prepared, however, to talk about exactly what you did or didn’t do for anything you’re showing.)

Once you start researching jobs in the industry, you’ll find that the range of work that is expected from a digital artist can vary wildly.

In a large visual-effects facility things tend to be fairly compartmentalized in order to provide an efficient pipeline.  Particular areas of expertise are focused on certain specific tasks.  On the other hand, in a smaller facility things are often set up so that an artist will deal with several (or even all) aspects of the shot-production process.   This is a trade-off that many professionals deal with constantly when making job decisions.

Working at a large facility has many advantages: The employment may be more stable because they generally have several shows going on simultaneously.  You will have access to more resources and have a wider range of co-worker expertise to draw from.  There will probably be a support infrastructure in place that can take care of things like file management, backups, organizational issues, etc., allowing you to concentrate more directly on a very specific task.  And larger facilities tend to work more often on bigger-budget, more recognizable projects.

On the other hand, a small facility may allow more freedom, with the ability to deal with a wider variety of challenges and to more directly interact with other disciplines in the production process.  For instance, a junior compositor at a large facility will rarely, if ever, be given the opportunity to spend time ‘on location’ during principle photography or to talk directly to the director or cinematographer on a film.  But at a smaller facility there is less of a hierarchy and more exposure to the full range of the process.  It is also probably easier to get hired into a smaller facility and easier to advance more quickly to a level with additional responsibilities.

The hierarchy at a large facility can be quite deep.

The following positions are typical of what one might find themselves doing over the course of several years in the feature-film visual effects business. The titles are somewhat arbitrary and will vary (as will the responsibilities) between different facilities.

1)  Technical Assistant (TA) -  Absolutely a ‘foot in the door’ sort of position where job duties can literally include getting coffee or hand-carrying some artwork over to a different department. More typically, however, this job is specifically targeted to tasks that require some basic technical expertise – ensuring that data is backed up, generating videotapes or DVDs for clients or supervisors to view, etc.

2)   Rotoscoping or paint artist - This role is very focused on producing high quality rotoscoped masks for a compositing artist to use or on using specialized digital paint tools on sequences of images to remove unwanted objects or clean up artifacts generated as part of the compositing process.

3)   Digital Compositor - Someone whose primary responsibility is combining multiple image sequences together to create a unified whole.

4)   Compositing Supervisor -  This person will oversee a team of compositing artists, generally offering both technical and artistic feedback in order to refine the shot as it is being worked on.  Often supervises all aspects of 2D image production, including rotoscoping, paint, matte paintings, etc.

5)   Digital Supervisor -  Someone who looks over all aspects of the digital image creation/manipulation process.  Thus, in addition to compositing, they would deal with 3D modeling, animation and lighting.

6)   Visual Effects Supervisor – The primary technical and creative lead on the visual effects team.  Deals not only with the digital side of things, but also the actual image acquisition during principle photography.

Understand that the above list should by no means be seen as the path that is right for you.  An alternate path might lead through Production Assistant (PA) all the way up through Visual Effects Producer, for instance.  And there are many other positions, from Technical Director to a general Digital Artist who concentrates on color and lighting, that will need to employ digital compositing as part of a daily workflow.

Learn about what you enjoy doing and what you are good at and also what you don’t enjoy doing.

Supervisory roles may have more ‘authority’ associated with them, but they are also filled with a lot of work unrelated to actually creating images.  Many artists have found it far more satisfying to be in a purely creative role rather than to deal with schedules, budgets, interdepartmental politics, client handling, etc., etc.

The types of projects available to a compositing artist are quite varied as well, each with its own particular advantages and disadvantages.  Feature films, music videos, television commercials, title sequences, videogames, corporate videos, scientific animations, medical visualizations, web-page animations – these are only some of the areas where compositing may be employed.   And each of these will also have its own advantages and disadvantages. Large projects – visual effects on a feature film, for instance – may have long production schedules where the artist will spend months on a single shot and years on a single film.  Other types of work may involve a new project on a daily basis.

And of course there are any number of different routes to a particular goal. You may come from a programming background and start out writing code for in-house software tools and then decide you wish to move over to more of an artistic role.  You may start out with an eye towards being a digital artist but then decide that the organizational and people-management aspects of producing are more interesting.  Be aware of what roles are available and how they fit with your own skills and interests.

When starting out in this field it’s extremely important to remember:

Even though you may be an incredibly talented digital artist, part of working in production is the ability to work as a part of a team. No matter how good your reel of previous work is, supervisors and management want to feel comfortable that you are capable of being responsible, efficient and, quite honestly, reasonably pleasant to deal with.  Production can be difficult and stressful – nobody wants to deal with personality issues on top of all that.   If you’re hired in as a TA or a rotoscoping artist, concentrate on doing that job as well as you can.  Don’t take the attitude that it’s beneath you, don’t constantly remind people that you really feel you should be given more senior work.  If you demonstrate proficiency in a junior role, advancement will come naturally.  And when you’re given the chance to take on more responsibility, jump at it!

Does a working compositor needs to know every single bit of information discussed in your book?

Absolutely not.  And in fact much of the information in my book is there precisely so you (and I) don’t need to have it memorized – so that it can be looked up whenever necessary.  Having a broad understanding of the concepts behind compositing is much more important than knowing every specific technical detail (particularly for those things that will change as formats and standards evolve).  Having a broad understanding of these concepts is also, in many ways, much more important than having proficiency in a particular package.  Software will change (or be discontinued) and different facilities will require you to use different tools, but if you understand the way things work, you’ll be well-suited to whatever system you end up using.

Finally, one thing you absolutely should strive to do is to produce the best looking images you are capable of.

Don’t put the burden on your supervisor (or even worse, your client) to tell you whether or not something looks good.  Learn this for yourself and take responsibility for ensuring that you’re satisfied with the work before showing it to others. Don’t settle for ‘good enough’. Learn your tools but also respect your art.  And remember that any work you do that is substandard has the potential to be seen by a lot of people and may end up haunting you for a very very long time.

Fortunately the converse is true as well – well-executed artistry will be enjoyed by many future generations, and you’ll always know that you were a part of it.

Are there any predictions about where digital compositing is heading in the future?

Although it was tempting to write a section of my book dealing with exactly that, I quickly came to my senses – things are changing too rapidly for that to be anything but an exercise in rapid obsolescence.

But one thing is certain – the technologies and techniques that we think of as being primarily a part of ‘visual effects’ are really becoming the tools of that will be used for any kind of sequential-image storytelling.  Image manipulation has become the heart of postproduction, and knowledge of these concepts will benefit anybody who wants to work in that industry.

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