The Man Who Wrote the Book On Compositing with Ron Brinkmann | TVAP 56

When I embarked on my compositing journey, Ron Brinkmann's book, "The Art and Science of Digital Compositing," proved to be an invaluable resource. It provided a wealth of visual information and included a DVD with footage for hands-on practice.

Even today, this book remains a seminal work and continues to be relevant for artists, thanks to its emphasis on developing the skill of visual perception. Therefore, it was a tremendous honor to have Ron Brinkmann as a guest on our show.

He served as the Compositing Supervisor at Sony Imageworks for films such as Speed, Contact, James and the Giant Peach, and more.

Interestingly, despite being widely recognized for his expertise in compositing, Brinkmann initially started his journey in the field of 3D as a demonstration artist for Wavefront. (Wavefront later merged with Alias and played a significant role in the development of Maya, a renowned software).

Subsequently, Brinkmann co-founded Nothing Real with his colleagues and created Shake, a compositing software that held sway in the industry for many years, particularly in high-end compositing. (I believe it was most recently used by DNeg for their work on Inception).

00:00:00 : Intro and What to Expect

00:01:22 : Meet Ron Brinkmann

00:05:39 : Speed

00:09:59 : Nothing Real Shake

00:17:15 : Shake's lack of an "undo"

00:19:49 : Contact

00:30:51 : The Art and Science of Digital Compositing book 00:35:06 : Knowing How to See

00:44:41 : How Ron would Design a Compositing Software Today

00:50:23 : The Ethics of AI

00:53:48 : Ron's Career After VFX

00:57:36 : Advice for Artists Starting Out