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--> Eric Veach and Thomas Lokovic
--> "Deep compositing is a way of compositing digital images using data in a different format to standard "flat" compositing". As the name suggests, deep compositing uses additional depth data.
--> This decreases requirement for re-rendering, producing high picture quality, and helps you take care of issues with artifacts around the edges of articles.
--> A normal 2D frame/image will only contain one value for each channel of pixel. However deep images have many samples per pixel at different depths and each contains varying information such as colour, opacity and camera-relative depth.
--> It was first used in the making of 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' and then further used in such films as; 'The Avengers', 'Pacific Rim' and 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug'.
--> This means that during 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' it wasn't necessary to rotoscope each individual car, allowing the CGI monkeys to be placed into the scene. Instead it can be done much quicker and easier through the use of deep compositing.
--> This process has helped dramatically with the film and TV industry. As it allows much more extravagant scenes and shots while reducing the time it would take to composite them.
--> Mike Seymour (2014) Dr Peter Hillman, a senior software developer at the studio. So beneficial and flexible is Weta's deep comp render pipeline that, as Hillman expands: "I am not sure we have a button to turn it off.
Mike Seymour. (2014). The art of deep compositing. Available: https://www.fxguide.com/featured/the-art-of-deep-compositing/. Last accessed 11/01/2017.

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Nuke | Deep Compositing In Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

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--> One of the biggest emerging technologies of compositing software.
--> Pioneers looked into bridging the gap between 2D and 3D workflows by creating 3D environments in which 2D assets in the form of video or images can be translated, scaled, rotated, and warped in a 3D Cartesian space.
--> It can be used to assist compositors with the building of ever more complex shots and scenes, required by the industry.
--> 'Nuke' supports many different 3D processes and nodes such as; cameras, lights, geometry and shaders for GEO.
--> You can then select an area of a 2D video and create a wire mesh over that area, allowing it to be then transported out of Nuke.

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--> Once the 3D asset has been taken out of 'Nuke' it can be placed in a 3D modelling software such as 'Maya'.
--> This allowed you to keep the camera tracking and know exactly what will be seen in the shot while the camera moves, while at the same time allowing you to model on the asset and work out how to object you wish to add to the scene will look.

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--> American animator, inventor, film director, producer and more importantly the pioneer in the creation of the first ever 'rotoscope".
--> Allowed Fleischer to create more realistic animations.
--> Patent was finally given in 1917, however him and his brothers had been making tests with it for a few years prior.

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--> When making a film some shots may obviously require movement, previously this would mean that loads and loads of different mattes would need to be created in order to complete the final scene.
--> However Petro Vlahos managed to create and pioneer the idea of a traveling matte, one that changes to be constantly masking the shapes of moving objects within the scene.
--> The first traveling matte was used by Disney in 'The Parent Trap' in 1961, however the first demonstration of the real ability of the sodium vapor process devised by Vlahos was in 1964 and the film 'Mary Poppins'.
--> At this point in time 'blue screen' was still the main way of creating a traveling matte, however green screen was eventually used due the fact it was cheaper to light and didn't match the colour of blue sky when filming outside.
--> Travelling Mattes can now easily be created with modern technology by the used of the combination of green screen and keying.

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early Pixar work, Tintoy

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--> An alpha channel is the black and white channel of an image or in other words the A part of RGBA, this is used to state how transparent each pixel is. White is Opaque (can't see through it), Black is transparent (can be seen through).

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--> In the early days of compositing, the RGB and alpha channel would be rendered separately and then multiplied together.
--> Now they are done together hence the name 'premultiply'.
--> Premultiplied image / alpha channel = RBG iamge
--> Premultiplication can now be done inside 'Nuke' with the use of the 'premult' and 'unpremult' nodes, making the whole process much faster.
--> Premultiplication is the process by which the RGB values of an image are multiplied by the alpha values with a given image.
--> All images consist of values that range from black to white, these colours are expressed as numbers; white being 1 and black being 0, therefore any shades of grey in between will be 0.3, 0.56 etc.
--> The alpha channel stores the transparency data of a given image stream, this forming a matte.
--> The reason premultiplication is that there isn't a natural value inside a digital image that correlates to transparency.
--> Matte edges should appear clean and sharp, if not edges may contain darkened grey lines and result in a lot more work required to make compositions work correctly.

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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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--> Garbage matting is a form of rotoscoing used for 'clean up' when mistakes are made in the process of shooting greensceeen.
--> These mistakes can either be parts of of the shot weren't entirely greenscreen or even to remove shadows cast by the actors, objects in the scene.

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--> Layer-based compositing puts layers of video on top of other layers creating a list or timeline.

--> A node is a single function that could be either a video, image or effect, that becomes part of a network (for example a merge function would be a single merge node that is then connect to the various inputs). Effects like keying or rotoscoping tools are all their own nodes, once the node is place all that must be done is connect them to the function that you wish to create the effect on.

Which is better:
--> The viewpoint on which is better all depends on what it is you are compositing. Most big name software such as 'Nuke' are bode based and are most usual when looking at frame by frame, with each frame needed a lot of nodes. However if the porject you are working on is much smaller then layer based may be the better option, and therefore you would use a software such as 'After Effects'.

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--> Green screen allows a scene to be shot against a green background, therefore it can be taken into 'Nuke' and the back plate of the scene be placed behind it. This process is called 'Keying'.
--> Before Modern softwares this wouldn't be possible and instead techniques such as the 'glass shot'  would have to be used.
--> Nuke contains a range of tools that allow the removal of green screen from VFX assets that utilize green screen.
--> The keying process imparts transparency to images that would otherwise not contain alpha channels, this is basically defining a range of colour to clip to either zero or alpha.
--> Unwanted elements are garbage matted and therefore removed from the scene.
--> Keying functions come into two categories; simple and advanced. Simple functions such as; 'keyer' and 'IBKgizmo/IBKcolour' are used for near perfect green screen footage and so can be keyed in almost one click. More advanced keyers include; 'primatte' and 'keylight'.
--> In full essay go into more detail about each function
--> Just as with rotoscoping set ups can be made for each 'keyer'' allowing the process to be sped up.

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--> The idea of drawing around the element that you wish to keep or discard from the film, and also is a way to create an allpha channel.
--> Originally invented by Fleischer in 1915 and was at first scene as a short-cut to animating. However many saw the process as time consuming due to the tedious nature of tracing the film.
Modern:
--> Rotoscoping now-a-days is conducted on computer softwares such as 'Nuke' which only requires a simple 'roto node' and therefore is much easier than before when an actual rotoscope machine was needed.
--> However although rotoscoping is much easier and faster while using software, it is still an extremely time intensive and laborious process and so many try to avoid it unless it is completely necessary.
--> various types include; mask, bezier, cusp and exotic.
--> Within Nuke you can save pre-setup versions of a rotoscoping node network allowing to speed up the process slightly, almost like creating your own personal plugin.

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--> Nuke contains various versions of the software, for example 'NukeStudio' and 'NukeX'. It is most simply a node based workspace for compositing. It allows the you to bring small amount of data into one.
--> Inside Nuke you are able to rotoscope, key, premultiply and more. All of these would previously have been done separately and so compared to how films were made before software such as Nuke was created. Nuke cuts short the time to composite dramatically, as everything you need it in one place.
--> In the late 90s the mains software used to composite was 'SMOKE' by Autodesk, although also node based, it has since been outdated by the creation of Nuke. Due to this all film and TV companies will rely on the use of Nuke or After effects, dependent on whether they would prefer a node of layer based composite.

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--> Created 'The Great Train Robbery' (1903)
--> Used ideas created by Melies to aid in the creation of his film by using mattes and double exposure
--> Needed to use compositing due to the fact that early orthochromatic film needed a lot of light and the technology needed has not been created yet.--> The train moving past the open window had to be place in after the filming had been finished

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--> One of the First important figures in the evolution of green-screen compositing.
--> In 1898 Melies created the film 'Four Heads are better than one' shows the very beginnings of green-screen compositing. This was done through the use of mattes for multiple exposures.
--> In this extremely early example is was simply done by covering parts of the film that needed to be removed with pieces of glass covered in black paint.

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(1898) Four Heads Are Better Than One - Melies

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwtEW_nRHis
http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/hollywoods-history-of-faking-it-the-evolution-of-greenscreen-compositing/
http://blog.hrc.utexas.edu/2010/02/02/special-effects-norman-dawn-creates-earliest-techniques/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Dawn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping
http://www.motion-capture-system.com/resources/Documents/History%20rotoscope.htm
http://wolfcrow.com/blog/layer-based-vs-node-based-compositing/
https://www.videomaker.com/article/c3/17836-nodes-vs-layers
http://opticalenquiry.com/nuke/index.php?title=Premultiplication
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matte_(filmmaking)
http://help.thefoundry.co.uk/nuke/8.0/content/user_guide/deep/deep_compositing.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19w3vkFp5X0
https://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/nuke/about-digital-compositing/
https://www.fxguide.com/featured/the-art-of-deep-compositing/
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-After-effects-Nuke-And-Autodesk-Smoke-and-which-among-them-is-better-and-mostly-used-in-the-production-industry

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/vfx-for-filmmakers/0/steps/13250
https://vfxforfilm.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/vfx-process/
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/alpha_channel.html
https://www.lynda.com/After-Effects-tutorials/Understanding-alpha-channels/97575/105058-4.html
http://opticalenquiry.com/nuke/index.php?title=Alpha_Channel
http://www.pixar.com/about/Our-Story ****
http://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/history-cgi/  ****
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matte_(filmmaking) **** (lumiere brothers)
http://people.uncw.edu/pattersone/resources/notes/DSFX_History.pdf ****

Books
Adobe After Effeects CC Visual Effects and Compositing Studio Techniques
Special Effects: The history and technique // Richard Rickitt

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--> He made various changes to the matte shot and how it was used to combine film with a background matte painting. This therefore allowed movement in the shot.
--> First director to begin to use rear projection.

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--> Inventor of the Sodium Vapor Compositer and the Colour Difference Traveling Matte Technologies.
--> Blue and Green-screen effects pioneer
--> Has over 35 wide-ranging patents in the film and television industry alone.
--> Vlahos was approached in the late 1950s by MGM for helping on the compositing for their film 'Ben Hur', due to the problems encountered while creating 'Ten Commandments and blue screen.
--> In total, Vlahos took 6 months to find a solution. He identified that colours that aren't purely green or blue, have a fraction of the two colours within them. For example, purple, which is the result of combining blue and red. Vlahos used a 'Green Cancellation separation and ran it through the original colour negative. This created a 'Blue Difference Matte'.
--> The blue separation positive was mixed with the initial negative and it was shown under red light to create a cover matte.
--> The cover matte was then applied back to the original colour separations, with a composite of the green and a green difference mask instead of the blue separation.
--> This lengthy process needed 12 different film elements to complete the final composite, however it solved the problems of using blue screen and was then used for almost another 40 years.

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The Masters of Compositing Series - Petro Vlahos

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The Masters of Compositing Series - Part 1: Petro Vlahos Produced & Edited by Jeff Foster This is the first in a series of interviews with the pioneers and masters in the compositing/VFX film & television industry. I originally recorded these interviews for my published book "The Green Screen Handbook" (Sybex/Wiley, pub) and had intended to produce one full-length documentary from the materials.

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--> Once filmed and developed, the live-action footage is threaded into a project and projected on to a sheet of glass from behind.

--> Working on the other side of the glass, the matte artist paints the required image in the required areas.
--> When the painting is complete, a frosted glass screen is attached to the back of the unpainted areas of the glass.

--> A camera looking at the front of the painting then films the combination of painting and rear-projected live action.

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--> A single frame is placed in a matte camera and projected on to a sheet of glass.

--> The artist paints over areas that need to be covered up or altered.

--> When the glass matte painting is complete, a piece of evenly illuminated white card is placed behind it. The white light from the card is visible through the unpainted areas of the glass.
--> Then it is filmed again and creates the final film

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--> This involved exposing only the live-action area of the frame while on location, leaving a portion of the image unexposed for the painted elements to be added later.

--> Glass is positioned in front of the camera on location. The appropriate areas of the glass are painted an opaque black to produce a matte.
--> Stops certain areas of the negative film in the camera from being exposed during filming.

--> Once mattes are placed in front of the correct areas, the scene is filmed using a pin-registered 'matte camera', which holds the film absolutely steady during shooting.

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--> Place a sheet of glass in front of the camera on which columns, roofs and bell-towers etc. were painted to fit in with the background set which is being filmed.
--> Create the look that background was actually behind the set and the actors.

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Historical and Contemporary Techniques (involved with Matte Paintings)

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Historical and Contemporary Techniques (involved with Matte Paintings)

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"The Historical and Technical Developments of Visual Effects Compositing"
Deadline: Before 5pm on Friday 25th November 2016