Uncommon compositing.(viewpoint video)(methods and usage of video editing software)

Compositing. It's arguably the part of postproduction in which the graphic artist meets the videographer. Compositing is about designing the frame, and building and layering images. Simplistically, whereas video editing assembles clips linearly over time, compositing mixes images in the visual moment, vertically, on a timeline, rather than horizontally.

There was a time in digital video's relatively distant past when compositing was viewed as an exclusive craft. Compositors and editors were almost thought to be from different planets, or at least of differing artistic strengths and sensibilities. That perception was fed by the (very expensive) dedicated Unix workstations that compositing required and by the specific and detailed training it took to capably operate them. Few professional video editors would venture there. In those days, compositing was a big line item on a production budget typically reserved for premium clients and high-profile jobs.

Most of that has changed. Compositing has exploded, driven primarily by the rapid growth of computer processing power, and it has become a regular, indeed expected, part of postproduction. Today, it is just about assumed that all video projects--from wedding videos to corporate promotion to TV advertisements--will include titles and graphics with production values similar to those we've all come to know from watching television. Fancy motion graphics, flying logos, and montages are all standard fare. Much of the time, those "enhancements" are expected for free, and most video editors are automatically enlisted as compositors.

Certainly compositing is more accessible now. Video editing system timelines regularly support multiple layers, as well as keyframe control of effects, objects, text, transitions, and layers. That blurring of the lines between video editing and compositing is nothing new, of course, going back to the mid-1990s when video editing software began to include the ability to layer tracks and visual effects. The developers of the first release of Apple's Final Cut Pro started with the stated goal of matching at least 80 percent of the video editing features of Avid's industry-standard Media Composer as well as 80 percent of the features of Adobe's dominant compositing application, After Effects.

Built-in Compositing

Today, just about any serious non-linear editing (NLE) system or software supports multitrack editing and the ability to layer images, effects, filters, transparencies, and graphics in a single timeline. Applications such as Avid's Media Composer Adrenaline, Pinnacle Systems' Liquid Edition, Adobe's Premiere Pro, Leitch's Velocity, Ulead's Media Studio Pro, Canopus's Edius, and others all have significant multitrack, motion control, and effects-creation capabilities that were once the domain of compositing engines. What's more, because software alone can handle just about any basic editing function without rendering, real-time compositing visualization--functionality that once required that big Unix iron--is the carrot that now drives many digital video hardware vendors (see "Hardware-Enhanced Editing," November, pg. 14).

Yet in many ways, the transition to compositing within video editing applications has just traded one type of complex process for another. Whereas training was once needed to drive the Unix hardware of old, today one often needs to understand the most intricate levels of often very advanced and complex video editing ...