COMPOSITING

ANIMAL LOGIC’S ALEX FRY OFFERS THREE KEY COMPOSITING TIPS FOR ARTISTS

The game is always to make something that appears real, even though it is made through some process of fakery. Whether that’s shooting two separate elements and sticking them together, or layering in CG elements. Regardless of the process being used to gather those elements, the physical reality of what you’re trying to re-create is what’s important here.

Let’s say there’s some sort of hazing over an image, you need to be very clear about what it is. Is this atmospheric haze? If so, is the light being bounced off the front side, or is it light that’s passing through micro droplets and being filtered on its way to the viewer? Or is it an optical effect of the lens system?

Is it a smudge on the front element of the lens? Is that a filter that’s got some grime on it that’s catching some of the light? You need to be clear about what’s causing it, so you know what you’re trying to fake.

Sometimes you might have a piece of foreground photography that’s been shot in a studio, and the light just doesn’t match what you’re trying to comp it into. So you have to think, what can you do to kind of make that work? You have to come up with some justification for it. Perhaps some broken up clouds causing localised shadows? Perhaps a patch of light hitting a wall to justify some weird bounce on a face? The answer isn’t always just bending the plate with a grade to force it into a plate it doesn’t match.