Compositing Tutorials?

#1

Are there any good beginners tutorials out there for compositing? I’m trying to make a short animation using Mental Ray, Afterburn and Vue. I’ve never done any multipass rendering or compositing before. Combustion tutorials would be best.

Thanks!

#2

here are two pages that explain the basics. however, it’s not combustion related, but you get an overview of the techniques:
http://www.seraph3d.com/CompositingTutorialA02.htmhttp://www.andrew-whitehurst.net/amb_occlude.html

#3

Thanks pokoy! Those look good to get me started.

#4

www.VTC.com has a training series for Combustion 3 & 4. You can watch a number of videos free to see if it suits you. But for $30/month (suspend or resume subscription anytime), you get unlimited access to their whole library of software training titles. It’s much like Lynda.com (except Lynda.com doesn’t have any Combustion titles).

I have a book called “Combustion Ground Rules” which comes with Video Tutorials on the CD. It’s a worthwile resource for a Combustion user. There are a few free video tutorials on Combustion at www.3d-palace.com The best resources would cost more (still far cheaper than a college course)…but are much more extensive…such as:
http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/index.cfm/ID/307333

http://www.turbosquid.com/Storefront/index.cfm/ID/1274

On another note…you will have to render your Afterburn components with the Max Scanline renderer since Mental Ray doesn’t work with Afterburn. That’s very annoying, and one reason I use finalRender Stage 1 R2 (much faster than Mental Ray and far more compatible with Max plugins).
http://www.finalrender.com/products/products.php?UD=10-7888-35-788&PID=36

PyroCluster from Cebas (which also makes finalRender), is a Volumetric Effect/Shader system like Afterburn (if you are a licensed owner of Afterburn, you qualify for a Competitive upgrade at a heavy discount), and it DOES work with Mental Ray. Cebas claims that PyroCluster is faster than Afterburn (maybe just marketing hype, maybe it’s a fact…you’ll have to see for yourself)
http://www.cebas.com/products/products.php?UD=10-7888-33-788&PID=47

One caveat with PyroCluster, is that it currently isn’t compatible with Max 9, but if you own a copy, I’m sure you can get in on their beta (the full release is due out any time now).

#5

Thanks for that dnashj33. I come from a realtime gameart backround so these long render times kill me. Anything that speeds it up is appreciated.

#6

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