Crew artist Marie “Eseralie” Leininger put this explainer together to demonstrate some of what the job of a compositor is on a project like Lackadaisy.
‘Comp’ is one of those not-often discussed parts of the filmmaking process, particularly in animated media, where most of the focus tends to be on the animation itself. Because it’s really the part where all of the pieces come together and receive a final round of polish, though, it’s no less vital. Hopefully this provides some insight into what’s involved!
Progress shot of a 2D animation shot, from initial animation to compositing! ⚔️🍃
1) The first clip was an assignment from the 1st year of my animation diploma, done in Toonboom Harmony.
2) In the 2nd clip I'd taken the clip into After Effects with some layered environment sketches, to test out a multi-plane camera zoom effect I wanted.
3) For the final clip, I'd taken the basic character back into Toonboom for colours, refined and coloured the environment layers in Photoshop, and brought it all together with some After Effects particle effects for dust!
More Helluva Boss shots I worked on as a compositor! I did all the compositing for this entire scene where Blitz and Stolas meet for the first time outside the palace. This was my first time using After Effects so there was a lot of trial and error involved.
A few thoughts:
I really love the fountain fx in the background (note: I did not draw/animate the fx). I had to do a lot of masking so that the water appears both in front and behind peeking through the holes in the fountain.
The sparkle fx on Paimon's cape, I had to key out the masking because you can see the cape moves when he pulls back to smack Stolas. Same in the shot directly after when we see the inside of his cape and he's gesturing with his hands in front of it -- I had to mask and key out every movement to make sure the sparkles stayed behind him!
I remember the 'oh right sorry father' shot being a challenge because the rings around Stolas' eyes were on a layer that needed some adjustment but I learned a lot about 'colour key' and 'colour keep' in the process. I was SUPER happy when I figured it out! Especially in combination with getting their eyes to glow.
Playing back the 'I'm so good at daddying' shot to check for stuff, and I must've laughed every single time he said it.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results considering this was my first time compositing and I was learning on the job!
I can finally communicate that I had the chance of being the lead compositing artist on a trilogy of animated trailers for Starfield! It was a real pleasure to be working alongside an amazing team at Eddy and Brunch Studio.
I got to be around so many talented artists for those trailers that I felt like I had nothing to do at times. It was a great opportunity to get a bit out of my comfort zone. Many thanks to the directors and producers at Eddy and Brunch Studio who trusted me with this big project. I learned a lot!