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Normans technique was snatched up by hollywood and used in lots of big films such "Robin Hood" 1992.
I will talk about how a glass shot works in detail giving examples of it being used throughout time and where we see it used today and why also talking about limitations of the techniques along with the benefits. An example of a limitation would be having to wait for the artist to finish the painting on the glass before you could even being to shoot. This could take hours or even days so you would be waiting around ready to go for a while maybe in the freezing cold just waiting for the painting to be finished. Where as today because matter paintings are all done on a computer if you make a mistake its just simple click of a button and you can fix your mistake where as back in 1923 if you messed up you have to start from scratch and would have wasted hours of time and money.

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This is a rare set up of a glass-shot from the film "Slander the Woman" 1923.

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Muren also picked on people using CGI and realised it would be better process for stop motion than Go motion. The first time he used CGI with is stop motion was in jurassic Park, with the dinosaurs. About 4 minutes of Visual effects dinosaurs where made with a compute but the effect and look was something that changed films forever. I will then go on and discuss this further and go into more detail on the technique of was created and how it was used for the dinosaurs.

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How They Made Jurassic Park's T-Rex - Sculpting a Full-Size Dinosaur

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In 1976 he worked for ILM (In industrial Light and magic) then going onto to work for LucasFilms. He worked on the first Star Wars film "A New Hope" along with the The Empire Strikes Back". The Empire sticks back was where he discovered a technique that made stop motion characters look more realistic and giving them motion so they looked like real life characters.
Muren developed his technique when shooting the TaunTaun stop motion sequence for "The Empire Strikes Back" along with Phil Tippett. In the Book "The Making off The Empire Strikes Back" it says how by December they had completed the stop motion they need for the scene and it had been rotoscoped and sent to Lucas for approval and most of it was except two shots "the Han puppet, while on his Taun, tosses a sentry market into the snow, turns his steed and canters out of frame" these where the two shots that where not approved according to the book Muren says "the shot itself didn't look right". it took two days to film and the background was fantastic, however it just didn't look real. Lucas really wanted a long shot so they did a replacement shot of the Taun running away into the distance, they realised if that added a blur over the animal they would make the creature look realistic to the human eye. When you look at a live action shot of a horse running the camera captures the information of the movements therefore it shows blur. So what they did for the shot was add in the blur to the stop motion which adds the realism, so they moved the Taun in the frame so the shutter of the camera is opening up and the Taun puppet is fiscally moving in each frame. Edlund says in the book, "it's a combination of blurring motion controls with stop-frame". This was the first shot they introduced blurs onto a puppet, it wasn't perfect there where a few problems but it was sufficient enough for the film.

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For this section I will be discus multiplication and premultiplication
the history of cgi and the developed of it through history why its easier now and the lengths they had to go to do what we can today in less time.

In the early days computers where very much slower that what we have today. they uses to render the RGB layer first without the alpha channel, they would render it at full colour and then render out the alpha channel which is time consuming as the compositor would have to multiply both of the separate rendered channels together himself. Pre multiplied is the RGB render multiplied with the alpha channel. un pre multiplied is when you take your fully render RGB channel and divide with with your alpha channel, you can do this by using a merge node. This will then take pixels back to the original render by diving pre-multiplied image with the alpha channel.
From this I will then go on to talk about CG renders and they way this pixels look with pre multiplied and un pre multiplied nodes attached and how it differs with 16bit and 32bit.

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Steve Wright, Certified NUKE Trainer, explains how to work with premultiply and unpremultiply operations in NUKE. Understanding these settings is key to successful compositing. Steve has trained NUKE artists in workshops and studios around the world and regularly produces NUKE tutorials. You can find out more about the range of training Steve offers on http://www.vfxio.com/.

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He was known for being the earliest practitioners of visual cameramen and even sat on set and convinced the legendary D.W Griffith of the value of the glass matt painting shot and original-negative painting.

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I will be discussing how Maya and Nuke work together, especially when 3d tracking. It makes it a lot easer to model 3D objects into tracked background plates as we can open the tracked section we want in Maya to add 3D into helping with perspective and other elements.

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Dennis Muren is a special effects film specialist and supervisor. He is most noted for his work with significant directors such as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Throughout his career he has one nine oscars, also the the first special effects artist to have a star with his name on the Hollywood walk of fame.

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From here I will be doing a case study showing examples of rotoscoping being utilised in the industry today in Television and film. One breakdown I have seen that shows clearly the use of rotoscoping is in Jurassic world I will discuss why and how they used rotoscoping in one of there shots form the movie. Then I will discuss how rotoscoping is done using layer based and node based softwares explaining the similarities and differences I discovered from my own research.

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In the 1940s rotoscoping became important for visual effects. U.B Lewerks a well know animator pioneered the uses of the rotoscoping in films such as in Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds". Rotoscoping in film was uses to make holdout mattes, this meaning compositing different elements into the same shot. creation of black mattes would hold out certain elements. Rotoscoping would be used to make shaky film stable this was done by rotoscoping each frame onto an alignment chart, comparisons of different charts would help track each position. this was a very difficult process and took a long time to complete there would of been lots of different parts that would be needing rotoscoping and things could get out of hand easily.

Today rotoscoping is all computer based softwares i uses like after effects and nuke both have elements where you can rotoscope to a industry standard. its the same principles and before but we now can complete it in a shorter period of time. This is because instead of having to hand draw each frame the computer uses previous frames as a basis which means most of the drawing would already have been completed it would just need minor tweaks to get it to perfection.

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CGI VFX Breakdown HD: "Jurassic World:  Breakdown Reel" - by Image Engine

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Check out this fantastic VFX movie breakdown featuring a revealing look at some of Image Engine's VFX work for the Hollywood blockbuster, 'Jurassic World'! For more information, please see the details and links below: http://www.image-engine.com/ Twitter https://twitter.com/ImageEngine Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ImageEngine LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/company/image-engine-design-inc. Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/imageengine SUBSCRIBE - to TheCGBros for more inspiring content!

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Earth Control Max Fleischer Stereoscopic Rotary Process

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Max Fleischer The Rotoscope and Koko the Clown - Koko's Earth Control

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Max Fleischer The Rotoscope and Koko the Clown - Koko's Earth Control

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Disney where rivals with Felischers they constantly raced each other to reach new milestones. Disney normal won as paramount who where behind Fleischers wouldn't support them the way they needed to be. Disney first used the rotoscoping technique for snow white. it helped artist maintain a consistency that might otherwise have been impossible.

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Smoke makes composting easier, but also is a complex software. You can do lots and task such as editing, dissolves, basic wipes and other things along these lines. its also a node base software the same as Nuke however the set up and look of this softwares and similar but do have clear difference. Another similarly these two softwares have is the ability to 3D track. this however only appeared in smoke 2015 its pretty simple to uses just add a Analyzer Mono node and your pretty much good to go and the result is a pretty solid good looking 3d track.
Nuke is know to be the best compositing software with Nuke X adding lots and cool features like particle systems, 3D tracking and Optical flow processing. The closest of the three Nuke packages to Smoke would be Nuke Studio. this is because it gives you a basic editing function where you can also add effects to clips while also using the nodes to have more control. Something I believe gives nuke more of an advantage then Smoke is the fact that you can get it on windows, Linux and mac which opens up Nuke to a lot more users unlike Smoke which is only available to mac. From what I have been reading people tend to prefer Nuke over smoke as they feel its less complex as they say the nodes are more defined.

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Autodesk created Smoke or mac in 2013, dropping the price from 10,100O to a much more reasonable price of around 3000. it made it easier for starters to uses but also let the professionals do all they needed to do. Then in 2015 they released a payment plan of 1280 a year or 160 on a monthly basis. which made it a lot easier for people who only need to uses it for one project and that would be it.

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Now days to be a good compositor you need to know how to composite in all the latest software which is obvious. However with the way the industry and technology is developing, to be a fantastic compositor you need to know more, for instance 3D. Softwares like Nuke have now bridge the gap between 3d environments and 2D space and images. Nuke supports imports of models and 3d environments also lights and projectors shaders and cameras, this is really cool as nuke assist everything else which then overall speeds up the work flow because you don't have to re render the hole character again just the small section that needs a minute change. We do also see the use of of 3D in after effects. However as good as nuke is with combing 2D and 3D it well never completely replace 3D modellers there will always be a need for a modeller or rigger to be within the pipeline. However Maya is all for bringing everything into one software so maybe we will one day see a compositing plug in within Maya.

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simple keyers
difference keyers
hue keyers
IBK/gismo/IBK colour
uses two nodes
The IBK keyer allows you to use two nodes to both carry out the keying process as well as create a clean plate. The IBK colour aspect of the keyer essential creates the clean back plate it can be forgone in the presence of a provide clean plates
complex keyers
pirmatte
ultmatte
keylight
In this section I will talk about what these different keys do and why they are used and why some are know as simple and some as complex

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Petro Vlahos and true pioneer compostier who one and Oscar in 1964 for his technology’s such as sodium vapour composting and Colour difference traveling mattes, which have been used around 35 times throughout film and television. He is a pioneer and developing and using green screen and the creation of the perfect blue screen. There where many limitations according to Vlahos himself with his first techniques such as not being able to walk into the matte and the loss of light because of measurement issues. These are just some of the reasons he kept of making new systems so he could solve the limitations his first ones had.

-Merry Poppins (1964)

-Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

-Vlahos developed colour difference system for Ben-hur in 1959

-Used in Indiana jones and the first Star Wars trilogy

Here I will then discuses the technique of blue screen and how it was utilise in Star wars, also showing examples from videos and images. Also in this paragraph I will be referencing from Jeff Fosters book, (2010). Star Wars used a lot of blue screen in there films so they could add in background plates or other matte paintings this is done with double and triple exposure.
After that I will discuss green screen vs blue screen. The big question that's normally asked is why green screen is used instead of blue screen, why is green the most popular colour to uses? why is one preferred over the other and the different uses for each. showing examples of them both being used in the industry.

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I will then go on and talk about the greenscreen technique as it develops through the years and show other video examples of it used in action along with case studies that discuss the pioneers or companies who came up with new ways of applying greenscreen and the pioneers who developed it to make it what it is today.

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Star Wars Visual Effects, from AT-ATs to Tauntauns

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Learn the secrets behind the Star Wars saga's many innovative visual effects, from the Death Star's detailed interiors to the towering AT-AT walkers. This vintage featurette opens by detailing the chess game played between Chewbacca and C-3PO in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.

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This invisible art as some would say is the process of altering footage frame by frame by being painted be that manually or digitally. With the digital change in rotoscoping it has become a lot easier to create better live action or CG composites.
-Rotoscoping was invented by Max Fleischer in 1940 along with his brother dave. He created animations such as Betty Boop, "Gulliver’s Travels” and "Mr. Bug Goes to Town."
early animations where jolty and not to pleasant on the eye. Fleischer wanted to change this and created a device that allowed projection of live action film onto glass animation stand. Animators could then place paper over the glass and trace the footage frame bye frame this was called rotoscoping. This invention gave artist the chance to create more graceful and realistic movement on screen.

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In this section I will be discussing the beginnings of green screen, how pioneers like Gorge Melies discovered a different way of cinematography, how we could trick the camera and audience into seeing illusions original performed by magicians.

I will be looking into Melies early films where he uses techniques similar to what we know today as Greenscreen. Only then he used a different method, he covered sections of the camera with black to block out frames he wished to manipulate or replace with another image.
- 1989 Four Heads our Better than one is an excellent example of this technique begin used. we know this to be one of the earliest examples of Greenscreen compositing.

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(1898) Four Heads Are Better Than One - Melies

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Primary

Books

Mark Cotta Vaz, Craig Barron (2004). The Invisible Art the legends of Movie Matt Panting. China : First Chronicle Books LCC. p39-p37.

- Jeff Foster (2010). The Greenscreen Handbook Real World Production Techniques. 2nd ed.: Focal Press Taylor & Franics Group. p23-p26.

- Jeff Foster (2010). The Greenscreen Handbook Real World Production Techniques. 2nd ed.: Focal Press Taylor & Franics Group. p4-6.

J.W.Rinzler (2010). The Making off The Empire Strikes Back . Great Britian: Arum Press Ltd. p266-p269.

Tim Dobbert (2005). Matchmoving: The Invisible Art of Camera Tracking. : John Wiley & Sons . p40-50.

Secondary

Websites

-(2007). Hollywoods History of Faking it | The Evolution of Greenscreen Compsoiting. Available: http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/hollywoods-history-of-faking-it-the-evolution-of-greenscreen-compositing/. Last accessed 13th November 2016.

Alicia Dietrich. (2010). Special Effects: Norman Dawn creates earliest techniques. Available: http://blog.hrc.utexas.edu/2010/02/02/special-effects-norman-dawn-creates-earliest-techniques/. Last accessed 17th November 2016.

-Matt Silverman. (2004). History of Rotoscoping. Available: http://www.motion-capture-system.com/resources/Documents/History%20rotoscope.htm. Last accessed 17th November 2016

Mike Seymour. (2014). The art of deep compositing . Available: https://www.fxguide.com/featured/the-art-of-deep-compositing/. Last accessed 11th January 2017.

(2015). Nuke vs Smoke. Available: https://www.reddit.com/r/vfx/comments/311x5s/chose_smoke_or_nuke_studio/. Last accessed 17th November 2016.

Oliver Levines. (2011). Bried history of compositing . Available: http://languages.oberlin.edu/courses/2011/spring/cine270/olevine/2011/04/10/a-brief-history-of-rotoscoping/. Last accessed 17th November 2016.

Videos

CGBros. (2015). CGI VFX Breakdown HD: "Jurassic World: Breakdown Reel" - by Image Engine. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6Dqe_O91fA. Last accessed 17th November 2016.

Gregory Golda. (2011). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CID6-L5TmMs. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CID6-L5TmMs. Last accessed 17th November 2016.

pxlpainter. (2004). The Masters of Compositing Series - Petro Vlahos.Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwtEW_nRHis. Last accessed 17th November 2016.

Star Wars. (2014). Star Wars Visual Effects, from AT-ATs to Tauntauns. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIlYk7KQe-s&t=77s. Last accessed 17th November 2016

Steve Wright . (2016). Premultiplication workflows in NUKE. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glnluXLg9KU. Last accessed 17th November 2016.

Tom Scott. (2015). How Green Screen Worked Before Computers.Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msPCQgRPPjI. Last accessed 17th November 2016.

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For this essay I will be discussing the historical and technical developments of visual effects compositing. Focusing on historical techniques and pioneers, understanding and discussing these techniques and giving examples of when where why and how they where used. From this I will also discuss the development of these techniques, particularly how they have been improved or differ form then, to how we composite in the industry today. I will do this by providing different case studies that backup my points and show clearly the development of composting throughout history, along with examples of new software, hardware and techniques that where or have been created to make compositing easier, along with some examples that have been developed from the original techniques.