http://thejuniorcompositor.squarespace.com

I have imported all the old posts from this address and am in the process of transferring the old graphics and videos across.  You can find the old posts by going to the top of the page and clicking on “Old Posts”.

At the moment I am trialing using a basic account with Squarespace, which means I don’t have a unique URL.  If all goes well I will look at upgrading and hosting www.thejuniorcompositor.com at Squarespace.

Hopefully this will mean less disruptions on your end and a lot less frustration on my part.

To be honest, I am getting quite sick of Wordpress.  Yes it might be free, but it seems to have numerous bugs for even the most basic things you need to do.  I still can’t get the visual editor to do proper breaks between paragraphs without resorting to HTML hacks or doing in-depth edits of css stylesheets.  This should be able to be done in the control panel, not by coding.

In any event, I am too frustrated with it at the moment to battle trying to get a simple post up.

Well guys, it looks as though I won’t be able to keep up the twice weekly update schedule.  Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, work is really starting to kick in and I only have a couple of nights of the week to myself for downtime.  When I started this blog, lo those many months ago, I had a lot more free time as I was “between projects” (ie, unemployed) so obviously I had time up my sleeve to do more posts.  At this point the Sunday updates are still ago as I have a bit of time to spend on getting materials together.

So stay tuned and if you have any suggestions for topics, hit me with an email and I will look at getting some info on it!

Cheers, big ears.

I didn’t get into to much detail about the actual eqipment that I use in the video, so here are some pics and links of the stuff that makes the magic happen!

DigiDesign MBox 1 rear panel

I believe I wrongly called my audio interface an MAudio, but it was actually made by DigiDesign (much like Autodesk, Avid seems to own everything audio/video and it gets confusing!). I am using the MBox1 USB audio interface which is a bit of a dinosaur these days, but it does what I need.  The temptation was there to get something with more inputs and a mixer because they look cool and have lots of knobs on them, however the fact is that I do most music and audio recording by myself, so will only be using a maximum of two microphones (one vocal and one instrument).  Resist the urge to buy equipment you don’t really need, but try and futureproof as much as possible.

Shure SM58 - the industry workhorse

For a microphone I looked long and hard but in the end I couldn’t go past the Shure SM58 for performance at a very good price.  As I was just getting into audio recording I didn’t want to splash big bucks on equipment that I didn’t know much about.  As I get better with home recording I will have a better idea of the qualities I am looking for a in a microphone.

Sennheiser HD 280 Pro - Niiiiiice

Okay, okay, I splurged a bit on these headphones, but these are your direct interface with your audio.  I have a nice pair of Sennheisers for listening to music but they are *not* the headphones for mastering music.  They up the bass and do crazy things to make the music “pop”.  That’s great when I am listening to the Flaming Lips, but when you are mastering audio you want a flat, non-enhanced version of the music hitting your eardrums.

17" Macbook Pro HD

Za beast!!  I wouldn’t technically call this a laptop as if you have to carry it around in a satchel for an hour your shoulder feels like Mike Tyson did a bit of warmup work on it.  However, a fantastic computer all ’round.  Get the anti-glare screen as the reflections on the glossy screen are truly insane.  Unfortunately I only have a 20″ monitor to share with my PC workstation so they are both limited to 1680×1050.  This will soon change with 24″ monitors being so cheap these days.

Wacom - worth the money

While I use the Wacom for the work, I tend to use the mouse for the vidcast as it just seems like I need to do a lot of precise clicking and keyboard work.  I have started using a Wacom in Maya as well due to have a sore wrist (yay for RSI) and it is starting to become second nature.  The Intuos 4 looks sweet, but unless you really, really need it, it might be an idea to pick up an older but cheaper Intuos 3.

The rest - MS mouse, MAudio Axiom 25 and my pig mug.

The rest of the motley crew.  The MS mouse has lasted for years and is still comfortable to use.  I finally picked up a midi controller earlier this year, the MAudio Axiom 25 and it is totally sweet for making muzak.  Nice keys, pads and dials for under AUD$300.  The pig mug is my constant companion and has been with me since I was a kid.  Thank goodness I just find a tea store in Melbourne and it has been full of proper Early Grey all weekend (coffee at work, tea at home is my motto . . . until I get a coffee machine at home ;p)

Of course, I had to take a day off work to wait for a Telstra technician to come to my house to check my line. Sure he was 3hrs late and four phone calls to Telstra resulted in them getting my contact details wrong four times and having them lie to me and say the technician knocked on my door and I didn’t answer . . . in a one bedroom apartment with me sitting about a metre away from the door.

Then after I finally get a phone line and internet connection I buy a Linksys router which proceeds to utterly not work and do a great impersonation of a lump of inert plastic. I had read varying reviews but decided to take the plunge after having a few connection issues with our last modem, a DLink G604T. Well, let’s just say the rumours of Linsys’s decline in quality are apparently true. The thing wouldn’t even connect to the phone line and just spun it’s wheels before failing. The funny thing is I took it back and exchanged it for, yes, a DLINK G604T (hey, better the devil you know), which proceeded to just have a completely pain free, straightforward and quick setup. So there you go.

SOooooo, while I had planned on a video tutorial today, it turned out an old mate and his family were in town so it was down to the beach for a late big breakfast and then onto the Musuem to check out the “Day in Pompeii” exhibit in which my mate Jay Miller was Environment and FX lead for the CG recreation.

Stay tuned for Wednesday when I will organise an “offset tracking in After Effects” tutorial as it is something that I though was uncessarily complicated compared to Shake, but made sense the more I have used After Effects.

Til then, stay cool!

So, if you are in the USA and complaining about your net connections, think about this:



I now live 10km away from the CBD of Australia’s 2nd biggest city and not only can I not get Naked ADSL2 (ADSL that doesn’t require signing up for a phone line), but I can’t get ADSL2 and can only get cable at a ridiculous price of around $140/mth for 60gigs download. As it turns out, I can’t even get connected for a phone line for 2 weeks. That’s right, it will take two weeks for a Telstra technician to physically come to my house to check the phone line to see if they can connect it, which will let me pay $20/mth justfor the privilege of even being able access to slower, more expensive internet with less download limit than ADSL2.



Australia is a technological backwater



More updates soon, hopefully!

It will take a couple of weeks to find a new place and settle in, so there may not be video tutorials for a little while as a lot of my equipment is boxed up.  I will see what I can come up with, so stay tuned and let me know how you are going with your projects and careers.

Matt

Hey guys and girls and welcome to The Junior Compositor, a site that hopes to give you an idea of life in the Visual FX industry.

That’s swell, but who are you?

My name is Matt French and I am a junior compositor & roto/paint artist.  I have been in the industry for 3 years and am working my way up the ranks.

So what’s it all about?

In a nutshell, this site is a chronicle of the ups and downs of working in the visual effects industry.  It’s not all peaches and cream, especially when you are starting out and I hope to provide some insight at how I go about it.  It might help you or point you in the right direction.

Who is it for?

I am not going to lie to here, while the site is partly for you it is partly for me.  By “you” I am trying to target these posts to students and people starting out in the industry.  By “me” I mean . . . errrr. me!  I also want this site to be a kick up the bum for me to always be moving forward.  If I have a goal each week, I can keep moving, learning & helping and not slack off.

What kind of content are you offering?

At this stage I will be getting the website all finalised (screw that ‘get it all sorted out offline and upload, I work LIVE baby!) so the first entries will mostly be blog-style posts but as I get stuff sorted out, there will be more screengrabs, tips ‘n’ tricks, scripts, video tutorials, looking at my ugly mug as I ponder the universe etc.  I certainly don’t have all the answers and can’t promise to inspire all the time, but that is life.

Why should I listen to you?

Hey, it’s no skin off my nose, but I may have some advice that might help you, and conversely, you might have some advice that helps me.  You get a lot more out of life if you operate like that.  Hopefully I can save you some time and get you better results by having you learn from my mistakes.  Please note that this is not a legal guarantee and if you want to sue me, I don’t have anything of value.

I have been working in the industry for about 3 years now.  I started out working on video game cinematic and DVD’s and then moved to a 3D animated TV series and have just completed work on my first couple of feature films.  Some people get to where I am faster, some slower but it seems I have had a steady and rounded progression so far.

 I have also taught introductory compositing at Griffith University’s Film School to animation and design students.