I mentioned in my last post that a lot of compositors come from non-3D backgrounds. Being a 2D medium, compositors often come from working with Photoshop or editing software such as Avid and Final Cut Pro. As such, a lot of compositors might not have a full appreciation of the 3D pipeline.
As I suggested, my opinion is that whatever your job in the pipeline, it is a good idea to have at least cursory knowledge of the skills that bookend your position. That way you will be able to communicated effectively with your workmates and be more efficient.
Sometimes, depending on the production, you may find yourself needing particular minor things done and you need them done quickly, not when someone finally has a chance to get to them. The following are reasonably basic skills that can really help out a compositor:
Import match-moved camera data.
At some point, if 3D is being integrated into live action, a Match Move artist (using something like PFTrack or Boujou) will have produced a final locked-off match move solve and camera setup that is being used by the 3D guys. Knowing how to, at the very least, set projects and open files in Maya is something that everyone in VFX should know.
Even if you are not going to do an entire 3D project, things like cards with textures (eg buildings, animations of people etc) can be easily inserted and rendered out. Of course, with applications like Nuke and After Effects you have the ability to import 3D scenes and objects, but it is always handy to know how to do it in Maya. Plus, you have a lot more control in a dedicated 3D application if you have to do something more advanced.
Skydome
Once you have that camera data imported, make sure that you know how to choose and look through the approved camera for that shot. Making a basic skydome is pretty basic stuff. On ‘Animalia’ (a children’s animated TV show), we made a *tonne* of skydomes ourself if backgrounds weren’t made or if it was decided during dailies that a new sky would be needed. The lighters and renderers had their plates completely full, so bothering them to do something so basic would be a waste or their time.
I was lucky enough to sit next to a guy who had studied Maya (John Kitching) and he showed my how to make skydomes. As a 3ds Max user, Maya was a bit of a dark art, but even I could follow his instructions. I mean, really, half a NURBS sphere with a panorama texture placed on it. I think a smart compositor can figure that out! Thankfully I have been putting a lot more hours into Maya over the last 2-3 months, so it is becoming a lot more straightforward.
Particles
Ahhh particles, how I love thee 
I love ‘em and they are what I really loved to work with in 3ds Max. I have only just started transferring my skills over to Maya, and to be honest it is a bit of a struggle. PFlow in Max is an excellent node/flow graph way to get very good results very quickly and intuitively. Maya seems to involve a lot more coding, but also appears more robust when dealing with large numbers of particles . . . something which Max would choke on (at least until the arrival of Krakatoa).
Having said that, the first thing I will be learning in Maya particles is how to create my own smoke, fog and steam. Why? Because you use them all the time in compositing and while you are usually given filmed elements, sometimes you want the smoke to go just there or you want the steam to have a particular look. Sure you might be able to achieve that with retiming, warping and tracking, but if you know how to make your own, then you’d be crazy not to. It seems to me that for these types of elements, sprite particles will do the job. No need for fluid simulations, just a bunch of particles mapped with smoke textures that face the camera! Voila! Instant custom made element.
Tags: 3D, After Effects, Compositing, Maya, Nuke