Compositing is the process of bringing all of your VFX elements together. So it’s no surprise that every great VFX studio has a great compositor on-staff. However, you don’t have to be a Hollywood-level VFX artist to composite like a pro. All it takes is a little creativity and time in After Effects. In the following blog post we’re going to take a look at 5 awesome compositing tutorials for After Effects.

There’s been a resurgence of 2D and 3D scene mixing over the last few years. In short, this technique combines traditional 2D art with ‘live-action’ footage to create a unique look. While these scenes can look surreal it is still necessary to match video characteristics like noise and blur so your scene looks seamless. This tutorial from Kert Gartner shows us how it’s done in only a few minutes.

Simple Compositing Techniques with Adobe After Effects from Kert Gartner on Vimeo.

This tutorial from the VFXBro is a great example of using lighting to help sell your composite. The tutorial focuses mainly on keying, but the thing that really helps sell this effect is the shadow that has been motion tracked into the scene. When the shadows and reflections generated by your objects match that of the background plate your audience will have a hard time figuring out what is real and fake.

How can we talk about compositing without mentioning one of the coolest After Effects techniques? Compositing fire elements. In this tutorial from the team here at ActionVFX we share how we created this stunning fire scene using some free elements from our site. If you want to learn more about our fire packs go check out our product page here at ActionVFX.

This helpful tutorial from Tunnelvision shows us how to use some of the most basic effects in After Effects to create a realistic composite. The tutorial covers a lot of helpful techniques, but one of the techniques that stuck out was the creative use of a blur to match the background footage. It can be easy to want to drag and drop a video element into your scene without matching the camera distortion, but a good composite will try to match everything from the depth of field to the saturation.

Dan Allan shows us how to composite multiple 3D objects into a scene in this cool After Effects tutorial. As you probably know, in the professional 3D modeling world artists don’t simply render out the final scene all-together. Instead they combine multiple render-passes together to blend the shadows, ambient occlusion, specular, and more together to create a realistic scene. This video from Dan shows us how it’s done using blending modes in After Effects.

First time here? ActionVFX creates action stock footage for VFX and filmmaking. (We also have some great free stuff!)

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