Rating: 
Summary: A very Precise and perhaps Overfocused Reference
Review: Being relatively new and in self education of digital compositing, this was one of the first books I purchased. Based on the way the context goes, this book will either be your bible or a dust gathering reference on the shelf. For me this was the perfect way to get started and learn exactly and truly in depth on how many different things can be acheived. However, it may be too precise. Unless you have the high-end programs Commotion, Digital Fusion, or After Effects, this will probably be a waste of your time. The projects it focuses on are very common to the field, but there isn't enough of the creative aspect, or case studies on how problems are fixed. Also, I found it very useful that the book went into how to do each effect in various programs, but others have said this was a relative waste of space. Overall, the book stretches into every basic realm of the field and career, giving numerous case studies and information to help people develop their demo reels etc. If you already have a job in the field, or are relatively experience, then this book is a good reference on the basics and common problem solving techniques. For others, this book is good to open your horizons... if you have the right software that is. I give this book four stars, mainly because of how much it helped me.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than a college class!
Review: Digital Compositing in Depth is a fantastic book! The info given will be a HUGE help to anyone in or wanting to get in to the visual effects field. The fact the book comes with 2 CD's containing both materials and demo versions of several compositing packages. Way cool! I've been doing visual effects for 10 years now and wish I had Doug Kelly's book back when I was starting out, it would have made the "school of hard knocks" a lot easier!
Rating: 
Summary: Everything you need to teach yourself digital compositing!
Review: Digital compositing is the digitally manipulated integration of at least two source images to produce a new image. This is a new, rapidly growing, and increasingly important art form. It is used to put actors into fantastic sets, to make computer-generated characters interact with the real world, to make the impossible look real, or just to fix something that went wrong on the set. This book, DCID, is written for anyone, at any level of expertise, who wants to become a digital compositor. If you are just starting out, the basic chapters will give you enough information to understand the technical parts of the more advanced chapters. If you are already an intermediate or advanced digital compositor, the simpler chapters will provide a useful review of what you already know, and the advanced chapters will show you how to hone your existing skills and develop new ones. In addition to the technical chapters, DCID includes several chapters on the rest of the digital compositing business: finding a job, working in a studio, starting your own studio, making a living, and staying out of trouble. Unlike some books on computer arts, DCID does not stop at showing you basic techniques. The projects, advice and case studies in DCID are based on real-world television and film productions. The project files on the two CD-ROMs are not compressed, cut-down or simplified versions; these are the full video or film resolution footage and data files that you can expect to use in professional productions. DCID is intended to give you instruction and practice at real-world levels, using the same tools that are in daily use in television and film production houses. If you learn and practice what this book teaches, you should be able to produce digital composites at a level of quality that studios and clients are willing to pay for. When I compiled the CD-ROMs for DCID, I tried to avoid the shortcomings of the usual "bonus CD" included with many computer graphics books. First, the 650MB available on a single CD-ROM just doesn't cut it, because video and film footage takes a lot of space. Instead, there are two chock-full CD-ROMs with this book; I think 1.3 gigabytes, about 3800 files, is a pretty good compilation. Second, one of the goals of DCID is to enable you to choose your own digital compositing tools, so I have included demo versions of several of the top programs for you to try out. Third, a tutorial project that you don't have the tools to complete is next to useless; therefore, I have designed most of the projects in DCID so that you can complete them with one or more of the demo programs included on the CD-ROMs. I hope you have fun with the CD-ROMs; I think they contain a lot of toys, eye candy and serious tools for you to play with and learn from. If you are teaching yourself, turn to page one and start reading, and work through each chapter and project in order. I know that it's really tempting to jump right into the first project, but I warn you that you will lose more time - and suffer pointless frustration - if you don't read the material in order. I have heard from readers of my previous books that they tried to just follow the step-by-step instructions for projects, skipping over "the stuff in between," only to find that they made bad judgement calls, didn't understand why they were doing what they were doing, and ended up with poor results. In the end, they had to go back and read the book in the original order. I haven't written all these words just to fill up space, or because I really love to type; every word is where it is for a very good reason. If you have the good fortune to be using this book as part of a formal class on digital compositing, congratulations! Make the best of it; you are lucky to have immediate feedback and guidance from peers and instructor(s). It's much more difficult to learn an art form without that feedback. Follow the directions of your instructor, and make the time to read the out-of-class materials and do all the extra projects and tutorials. What you get out of the class is directly proportional to the effort you put into it. Even the most brilliant and talented slacker is not going to do well as a digital compositor; in the end, you are judged by the quality of the work you finish, not by the "promising" way you fail to finish a job. If you have the challenge of teaching a class in digital compositing, I congratulate you on your wise choice of DCID as a classroom resource [grin]. I designed most of this book's projects to be completed with the demo software and source footage included on the two CD-ROMs. The only other resource you need is student access to workstations capable of running the software. In addition to the reading material in this book, I highly recommend Ron Brinkmann's Art and Science of Digital Compositing as companion reading; it covers the theory and higher mathematics of digital compositing in much more detail than DCID, but does not address specific software as DCID does. Finally, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions about classroom use of DCID, please email me at dakelly@earthlink.net. I'm always happy to help an educator. If you are an experienced compositor, feel free to skip around. However, DCID is laid out in a progressive order, with basic concepts explained in the early chapters and more difficult concepts building on those basics in later chapters. If you get lost, look for references to preceding projects that you skipped over. The odds are good that the concepts you are having trouble with are explained in those projects. Thanks for reading, and I hope many of you find my books useful.
Rating: 
Summary: No Sir, I didn't like this book one bit!
Review: For someone who is new to compositing, this book could give you a new perspective on the 2D half of the visual effects industry. Most of the information in this book is embedded in the tutorials and projects, so it is sometimes hard to read and study the book unless you have the same software installed and are following tutorial steps. Although it was not focused on just one compositing program, a proponderance of the tutorials seemed to be centered around Digital Fusion, which is appropriate because a demo version of Digital Fusion is included on the book's CD-ROMs (the demo is full functional except that it adds a company logo to random places on your composited frames), giving you everything you need to start learning to composite. If you are interested in compositing, also consider the Ron Brinkman's wonderful new book "The Art and Science of Digital Compositing" - Brinkman's insightful book is not tutorial-based, but is very comprehensive and contains more film-industry-oriented examples (as opposed to Kelly's book, which seems slightly more geared towards video work.)
Rating:
Summary: Good Coverage & Basic Tutorials
Review: For someone who is new to compositing, this book could give you a new perspective on the 2D half of the visual effects industry. Most of the information in this book is embedded in the tutorials and projects, so it is sometimes hard to read and study the book unless you have the same software installed and are following tutorial steps. Although it was not focused on just one compositing program, a proponderance of the tutorials seemed to be centered around Digital Fusion, which is appropriate because a demo version of Digital Fusion is included on the book's CD-ROMs (the demo is full functional except that it adds a company logo to random places on your composited frames), giving you everything you need to start learning to composite. If you are interested in compositing, also consider the Ron Brinkman's wonderful new book "The Art and Science of Digital Compositing" - Brinkman's insightful book is not tutorial-based, but is very comprehensive and contains more film-industry-oriented examples (as opposed to Kelly's book, which seems slightly more geared towards video work.)
Rating:
Summary: has it all
Review: hi,
I teach compositing(after effects,combustion,flame).
I read this book a few years back when i was just starting out and refer it as a MUST READ to all my students.
I wish the author had followed up after this book...woder why he did not :( .
this book is a bit dated but has all the theory and practise you'll eve need.Actually it'll be more than what you need if youre just starting out. 4 stars cause no one or nuthing is perfect.
thanks kelly. b
Rating:
Summary: has it all
Review: hi,
I teach compositing(after effects,combustion,flame).
I read this book a few years back when i was just starting out and refer it as a MUST READ to all my students.
I wish the author had followed up after this book...woder why he did not :( .
this book is a bit dated but has all the theory and practise you'll eve need.Actually it'll be more than what you need if youre just starting out. 4 stars cause no one or nuthing is perfect.
thanks kelly. b
Rating:
Summary: No Sir, I didn't like this book one bit!
Review: I bought this book hoping to learn more about compositing techniques and instead had to skim throught all the explanations of how to use Digital Fusion. If you don't use Digital Fusion don't bother with this book. Literally half of the book has tutorials that read more like a software step by step than an actual overview of compositing. I usually don't like to write negative reviews, but I really don't like spending money on a poor product. Sorry.
Rating:
Summary: There's a lot of wasted paper here
Review: I can't say the book doesn't have any useful information within its pages, because it does have some. But considering its size, it doesn't have much. The author could have written 2 seperate books, one on compositing, and one on Digital Fusion, and still used less paper. At one point, he spends 15 pages showing the reader how to preform a simple time-stretching feature on every piece of compositing software. Then he uses 15 pages to show you how to reverse footage for every piece of compositing software. I found the book very frustrating to try to read from cover to cover. He also tells you constantly to refer to the manuals of programs that are not Digital Fusion. I wouldn't describe the coverage of Digital Fusion are truely 'in depth' either. But someone who uses Digital Fusion would get more out of the book than I did. This book could have been much better, I'm surprised so many people actually like it.
Rating:
Summary: Digital Compositing is great for hands on learning.
Review: I just got my copy of Digital Compositing in depth and already I have learned so much from it. This is the first book I have ever seen with 2 CD-Roms included and the color section has plates that are useful not just 'gee-wiz'. The software and examples represent the real-world problems that I face using video. The definition of terms and step by step explanations and how to sections make this book ideal for anyone with compositing needs. Highly recommended.
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