VFX Fundamentals is intended for the digital artist, digital videographer, multimedia producer, illustrator, application developer, website developer, user interface design architect, user experience designer, social media user, effects compositor, matte painter, or just about anyone who is interested in generating superior quality digital visual effects and 3D VFX, and delivering them in popular MPEG4 and MOV video data formats.

This book covers digital visual effects concepts, editing, special effects, titling, bluescreen mattes, masking, particle systems, physics, motion tracking, compositing, blending modes, 3D, and more. This equates to digital video and special effects fundamentals combined into one unified title that includes technical terms, topics, concepts, and definitions.

Each chapter will build upon the knowledge learned in the previous chapter. Thus, later chapters in the book will have readers creating advanced digital visual effects projects using mattes, motion tracking, image compositing, special effects algorithms, 3D particle systems and similar VFX software features, dialogs, and tools, all using Fusion’s powerful visual programming language.

There is even coverage at the end of this book regarding content publishing across consumer electronics devices via the use of open source platforms such as Java 9, JavaFX, HTML5, CSS3, iOS, Android 7.0, Kindle, Fire OS, EPUB, PDF, and JavaScript.

In Chapter 1 , you will install open-source Fusion 8 as well as other related 3D and new media software packages that would be useful for your digital visual effects production workstations, including the impressive Blender 3D 2.8 for modeling, rendering, and animation and Editshare Lightworks 12.6 for collaborative digital video editing. You’ll also download and install GIMP 2.

In Chapter 2 , you will take a look at raster imaging and video concepts, like pixels, resolution, aspect ratios, compositing, color channels, alpha channels, masking, blending modes, and so forth. This information will provide your VFX technical foundation.

In Chapter 3 , you will build on the raster concepts by adding motion to the pixels and by covering digital video or 2D/3D animation concepts such as codecs, frame rates, keyframes, bit rates, and similar concepts used for visual effects animation workflows.

In Chapter 4 , you will learn about digital audio content production, since audio is a primary component of digital video and visual FX. You’ll cover sound waves and sampling, amplitude and frequency, MIDI and Digital Audio data formats, and sound design concepts and fundamentals, all in one, unified chapter.

In Chapter 5 , you’ll explore the mathematical world of 2D vector graphics, including points, lines, curves and paths, and the SVG, or Scalable Vector Graphics, format, and how these are used and even animated in Fusion visual effects processing pipelines.

In Chapter 6 , you will be introduced to the next level of i3D vector graphics, including 3D modeling, 3D rendering, animation, and programming. This is important for visual effects, as Fusion 8 contains both 2D and 3D (both unified) compositing pipelines.

In Chapter 7 , you will take a look at the core user interface, features, and approach of Fusion 8. You will get a bird’s eye tour of the entire software package, as well as an overview of how each part of this software works together with the other components.

In Chapter 8 , you will start to delve into the inner workings of Fusion 8, starting with the all-important visual algorithmic editing language utilized in the Fusion Flow Node Editor . Nodes and VFX tools and tiles are covered, as you learn how to create VFX processing pipelines using Hollywood studio–level software.

In Chapter 9 , you will cover another core Fusion feature, the Timeline Editor , as well as the Time Ruler , where you will control the fourth dimension of time for all your VFX projects. We’ll look at keyframing and the playback head and learn how to animate any VFX tool, setting, and attribute in your VFX project pipelines, increasing your VFX power by an order of magnitude.

In Chapter 10 , you’ll learn about Fusion’s Spline Editor , which allows you to create vector assets such as mattes, masks, and LUT (Look Up Table) control curves, thus allowing your advanced VFX visual control representations to be edited mathematically.

In Chapter 11 , you’ll continue learning about how to best utilize Spline Editor in Fusion by taking a look at animated polyline masking . We’ll look at how to create morphing and warping masks using animated polylines, as well as animated blend areas using double polyline masking techniques.

In Chapter 12 , you will learn how to leverage Fusion chroma or luma keying algorithms to have Fusion 8 create your mattes and masking for you by utilizing popular bluescreen or greenscreen technology and workflows. We will look at several of Fusion’s keying algorithms, including Primatte V , UltraKeyer , and ChromaKeyer .

In Chapter 13 , you’ll learn Fusion’s workflow for another popular VFX software feature, called motion tracking . We will take a look at single-point motion tracking, as well as at more complex multi-point motion tracking, using public digital video assets. Motion tracking is a popular VFX topic allowing VFX artisans to bridge 3D software packages with VFX software such as Fusion 8.

In Chapter 14 , you’ll learn all about the i3D compositing engine in Fusion, which we will cover over the next six chapters of the book. We will cover how to import 3D models into Fusion using an FBX file format. We will also look at how to set up cameras, lighting, and texture maps with these 3D assets by using geometry, shaders, materials, and textures that are rendered in real-time. This is done using advanced GPU hardware rendering support that allows VFX artisans to work in real-time, seamlessly fusing 2D VFX pipelines and 3D VFX scenes together.

In Chapter 15 , you will get more advanced in Fusion 3D VFX by learning about how Shaders are constructed using your materials algorithm in conjunction with texture mapping. You’ll dissect advanced Shader pipelines in Fusion so you learn how to create custom advanced 3D shader pipelines for your own 3D VFX.

In Chapter 16 , you will learn about how to model 3D text title assets in Fusion, which can be used in advanced 3D text titling animated sequences, which are popular in VFX project workflows. We cover extrusion, beveling, chamfering, advanced profiles and selective face texture mapping, and 3D text object lighting.

In Chapter 17 , we will continue with 3D text titling and create an animated 3D text titling project by using the 3D text model created in Chapter 16 . We will look at Fusion modifiers, which allow VFX artisans to create animation using algorithmic tools and custom settings with the Flow Node Editor tools and their control panel settings.

In Chapter 18 , you will learn about Fusion’s particle systems . Particles allow advanced visual effects, such as rain and snow, explosions, fluid dynamics, crowd simulations, flocking, sparks and fire, and just about anything else you can imagine. I will cover particle emitters and particle effects, particle rendering, and the difference between Fusion 8’s 2D and 3D particle systems.

In Chapter 19 , you will get into advanced particle systems by covering the particle physics algorithms found in Fusion, as well as by using Fusion modifiers in particle systems. We will continue with the advanced version of your VFX particle simulation from Chapter 18 and apply digital imaging techniques and matte and masking effects to particle systems, assembling your complex 20-node Fusion VFX processing pipeline, spanning the two chapters.

In Chapter 20 , I will cover publishing 2D or 3D visual effects content deliverables using leading content-delivery platforms and popular hardware devices, from smartwatches to UHD 4K iTV sets to legacy HD 2K iTV sets and everything in between, including eBook eReaders, tablets, gaming consoles, automobile dashboards, home appliances, IoT devices, and UHD smartphones.

If you are interested in digital visual effects, 2D image compositing, and 3D special effects, and you want to learn about each of these areas along with the basic fundamentals behind them, as well as about how everything works together in the visual effects domain, this is the book that you need to begin your journey with.

This book is overflowing with tips, tricks, tools, topics, terminology, techniques, concepts, and work processes. Indeed, this book should give you the boost to transition from being a visual effects compositing beginner to being that knowledgeable digital visual effects professional you seek to become, at least where a digital video, 3D VFX, or 2D VFX visual effects compositing pipeline is concerned. This book is a great follow-up to the earlier titles in the new media fundamentals series from Apress.