Im thinking to begin a freelance job and I need a good compositor. Im thinking about Blender internal compositor or Shake. Is Shake 4 worthing the money (400 dollars)? Or can Blender internal do the job? What features have Shake and dont have Blenders compositor? Other ideeas?
It depends on what you need a compositor for, if Blender’s compositor (which has a nice number of new features for 2.43) can do the job then use it. The compositor can do a lot of things, it will do even more when the new passes come in.
TV commercials but not only this. Please take a look here: http://www.cmivfx.com/m/sprite_shake.mov Can this be done using Blender compositor? Is Blender compositor a real 3D compositor one like Nuke? http://www.cmivfx.com/m/nuke_002.mov
I can’t view the .mov files. But I can tell you by 2.43 the compositor will have the addition of a DOF and chroma key node.
Also
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Compositing
This is the start of the compositing section, read through and you’ll see all the possibilities of the compositor.
All of the building blocks for the more complex tools are available in blender 2.43. You could even do a chroma key with the stuff from 2.42, but it’s much faster and easier to use the real deal chroma key node in 2.43. So to answer your question, yes Blender’s compositor can be used, but you may have be inventive in your composites, or know what is going on behind the scenes of the uber-cool node in shake and rebuild it in blender.
Cheers,
Bob
So that’s what the new Displace node is useful for!
That reminds me that it would be nice to have “Selected Node” option in the image editor. It would show what Viewer node set to the selected node’s output would show. It would act based on last selected node in case multiple nodes are selected. It seems to be quite useful in Shake and IMHO it would fit Blender as well.
you so funny BeBraw…I am writing that wiki section this a.m. on that node, and am about to find out. check the wiki this evening.
I am starting a gig tomorrow doing video editing, commercial production stuff for an investment house, and I am using Blender. BUT, I am kinda handy with it too, so feel confident in using it. If I had been a Shake user for 10 years, and only Blender for 3 months, then Shake would be it, of course. That being said, there really isnt anything I have seen that cannot be done in Blender, and I am quite into it. The simplicity of the VSE, and the flexibility of the nodes for enhancement, image format support, and then the modeling ability (to create fly-in titles and such) make it the best package, imho.
And where to find tutorials for Blender compositor?
artisanicview: Mainly Roger and Hoehrer have done excellent job with the wiki material. I am sure you will find it most useful. Take a look at the compositing section at http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual .
Thanks for the recognition, BeBraw (blush). For tuts, follow the Tutorials link off the table of contents page.
I think one of the neatest features of Blender as a compositor is the fact that you can also use all of its 3d and animation tools in your composites. Things like making garbage mattes out of beziers, then keyframing shape keys to control the matte. Or mapping images to planes, subdivide, then distort by moving verts. You can make all kinds of flats, arrange them at different depths and create real parallax effects. You can even use camera mapping to turn matte paintings into 3d scenery.
How many high-end compositors have real (and mature) 3d capabilities? We’ve got particles, fluids, softbodies, advanced materials, armature/lattice/spline based deformation and keyframe animation 
Shake might have some nifty one click nodes, but I bet as a standalone app it doesn’t come close to Blender for versatility and functionality 
Okay, that was probably an unfair comparison. Another point though is that you don’t need to choose. Use Blender for what it is good at, then use Shake on it’s output.
edit: Oh yeah, and Blender can so totally nail that sprite commercial!! Especially with good source footage and some practical water splash. Man, I want to get a hold of the footage that guy used in the video. I’m all excited about Blender compositor now
Oh, CMIVFX, the guys who just released the Blender fluids dvd, I guess I need to go through some more of their free video tuts :rolleyes:
@BeBraw: just finished displace node: http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Compositing_Nodes_Distort#Displace_Node
It’s really cool. It warps parts of your image; animated it looks like you’re looking through a moving glass block wall.
I want to recognize all the excellent work thanks(Roger and BeBraw) for the wiki docs and coding Bob.
aw shucks, it aint just me and BeBraw. See http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Wiki_Tasks for all the work being done worldwide by dozens of people. I appreciate the compliment though; after all, we are only working for art’s sake, because of something we believe in so strongly we are willing to donate an incredible amount of time to. I think we have a quality document, and using the wiki system is really easy and cool, and easy to edit and make colorful documents, so the unsung heroes who set it up and keep it running hack free deserve a lot of credit as well.
All compositing nodes have been updated for 2.43. Lots of really cool nodes added. njoy!
Ooooooooh, must have:D
This could have some very good uses.
And how to import video sequences into compositor? I can see only Add/Input/Image.
How the time node is working? I cant figureout.
Unfortunately the compositor features arent so good explayned. Maybe we need a compositor tutorial DVD? 
Something like how the stuffs are working in other compositors and how the same scene can be created with Blender?
artisanicview: See http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Compositing_Nodes_Input#Animations and http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Compositing_Nodes_Input#Time_node .
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Thanks for tips and links. Werry useful stuffs. I didnt see this before. Anyway will be very welcomed some tutorials who describe in detail how to achieve some concret (and stunning ) results like this from cmivfx.com.
not to make some people mad here but for 400 dollars i would go with shake.
it is just a different caliber and also used a lot in the industry by pros.