Hello Everyone

I’ve always thought of a compositor as a visual liar because as a compositor we take elements that were never together and combine them and make them appear natural to the viewer. It might be something very exciting like a CG explosion with actors shot on a green screen and a backplate that was shot on the other side of the world. It could be something like changing an actor’s red shirt to a blue shirt because the director feels it will help the story. We must take what was never real and make it appear real. We have to “Sell the Visual Lie”.

Autodesk has been delivering amazing compositing tools for many years and the latest is Composite, which is built on the technology from Toxik. I have been very fortunate to be working as an Application Engineer for the past 7 years for Autodesk. I started as a Combustion specialist for 3 years then I worked with Flame for 2 years and for the past couple years I’ve been focused on Toxik and now Composite. A big part of my job is to support and train artists using Autodesk compositing software. In doing so I have traveled the world and worked with many amazing talented people in our industry. While I’m working and helping these artists I always gain knowledge from them.

So when I was asked if I wanted a blog I jumped at the chance. I love sharing what I have experienced and helping others learn how to use Autodesk software. Besides just reporting what I see in our industry, I will also be posting tutorials and tips here. A lot of the first videos will focus on the basics of workflow and UI which are the road blocks to new users coming from other compositing applications. Then, as I continue to add more videos, I can focus on certain techniques or effects and how you would create them using Composite.

So, if you are a compositor and you need to learn how to “Sell the Lie” using Composite, I’m here to help!!

Ken LaRue
Autodesk Compositing Specialist