Possible questions:

What does the role of a compositor mean to you?

Can you see the difference of how compositing and compositing software has changed since you started to now?And where do you see it going?

What is your day at work like?

What does the VFX industry bring to your life?

What was your journey to becoming a compositor? Where did you start? and what are any tips for potential compositors?

Lucas Warren

Mid-Level Nuke Compositor at Absolute Post

What does the role of a compositor mean to you?

To me, it's the final process of putting all your assets together and making it look believable/photoreal. Sometimes doing a great job means no one will ever notice your work.

Can you see the difference of how compositing and compositing software has changed since you started to now? And where do you see it going?

When I started, I think Nuke and Flame were as popular then as they are now. I think the real difference we're seeing now days is the emphasis on AI tech from the Foundry and Autodesk, which is also where I see the industry going. Maybe not soon but in the next 5-8 years. It will be a while before we can use it without an artist's touch.

What is your day at work like?

It varies from day to day, but often we start by talking to the lead or supervisor and getting an idea of what needs doing. Sometimes this involves a dailies meeting with the whole team. We then work and collaborate with other artists to reach that goal. Then review it with a lead or team to QC.

What does the VFX industry bring to your life?

It's a very good creative outlet and being a compositor you often have to be a good problem solver, which I also enjoy.

What was your journey to becoming a compositor? Where did you start? and what are any tips for potential compositors?

I started learning After Effects when I was 17, using it to enhance small projects at school. When I was at university (Film production degree) we learnt more about VFX during a side module. Using Maya to understand the 3D process. After university, I freelanced for 3 months at a small VFX house in Shoreditch, where I worked on some small tv shows using After Effects. When I left I decided to enroll at Escape Studios at Pearson College, where I took the Advanced Compositing course. After the course, I freelanced for about 5 months often for short low budget indie films, usually a friend of a friends projets. Eventually, I saw an opening for a junior 2d artist at Absolute post, and I had just enough experience to get in! My advice would be to start making things as soon as you can because you learn much more by making mistakes. Get used to the software you want to use, in your case, the industry standard for 2D Comp is Nuke, which has a free, graduate, and indie version, I strongly suggest getting stuck into any of those! Show you’re passionate and keen about it and it will come across in any interview. Lastly in my opinion the best thing about the 2D and Nuke community is learning from others, so be open and humble to others who share their methods and tricks!

Laurens Vermeulen

Digital Compositor at One Of Us

What does the role of a compositor mean to you?

Well, what I really like as a compositor is that you're in charge of finalizing a shot. I like to compare it witch cooking. You receive ingredients from different artists (like some cool CG, FX or DMP for example) and as a compositor you use these ingredients to make a nice dish out of it. (If that makes sense, haha)

Can you see the difference of how compositing and compositing software has changed since you started to now? And where do you see it going?

For me there's not a big difference with the software I'm using. I'm using Nuke for my comp work and sometimes reach out to mocha for tracking. Of course there are software updates but so far no major changes since I'm in this industry. Although Unreal is becoming a big thing nowadays where lots of companies are looking into!

What is your day at work like?

My day is quite 'normal' I think. The daily routine changes depending on the show. But normally you just start the day with looking into the notes you received from the client or your supervisor. Address these notes in the morning and publish the shots for review. Then short after lunch there are dailies where you receive more notes. Address these in the afternoon and publish it end of the day. And then slowly on you will finish shots and receive new tasks.

What does the VFX industry bring to your life?

For me being in this industry was a dream coming through. Of course after a while it is your daily job. But everyday when I go to the office I'm highly motivated because I just like my job a lot. I do need to be honest and sometimes some shows and/or some companies can be very demanding and will try to force you to make lots of overtime. I normally work 40/45 hours a week going up to 45/55 in crunch time. But I have been working at companies where I made 100 a week which was very unhealthy. But that made me realise more what I want and I've been very happy since leaving that place. I know that company changed a lot in the meantime. But just want to be honest and say that sometimes it can be hard, but makes you realise what your boundaries are and what company suits the best with you.

What was your journey to becoming a compositor? Where did you start? and what are any tips for potential compositors?

My journey, I graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam in 2019. I did my internship at Ghost VFX in Copenhagen in 2018 and went back there after my graduation. After a short amount of time I got a job at MPC Film in London and moved to One of Us afterwards where I'm for almost 2,5 years now. For any tips; I've said before. I love my job, but it has been very tough in the past. Even though at that moment it was very hard, I am glad I have experienced it because I made me realise who I am, what I can do and what suits me the best for my next career steps.\ The best way to learn comping is just working. We all learn the basics in uni but you learn what's the industry standard way by just getting experience!

Gerard Romea

Compositor at Framestore

What does the role of a compositor mean to you?

Can you see the difference of how compositing and compositing software has changed since you started to now? And where do you see it going?

i dont really see a difference in terms of software.. its adding more IA things slowly and automatizing things , but Nuke is still pretty much the same as 5 years ago. other softwares do have evolved though, specially virtual reality

What is your day at work like?

a day at work is pretty much opening Nuke and addressing notes all day long and since now we work remotely, we are in meetings all day while working

What does the VFX industry bring to your life?

What was your journey to becoming a compositor? Where did you start? and what are any tips for potential compositors?

my journey started as a junior comp in a movie and after doing a good job my supervisor recommended me to a bigger company and kept proving i was good enough for the job and kept growing as an artist and my recommendation is keep learning everyday and ask questions to the people around you when u have questions. better than losing hours trying to do something

Jaimie Bellamy

Compositor at One of us

What does the role of a compositor mean to you?

To me being a compositor is a great role, because it's the last stage of a shot, so you get to bring together the work of all of the artists before you into one final image and make sure that it reaches the best possible stage it can.

Can you see the difference of how compositing and compositing software has changed since you started to now? And where do you see it going?

I'm definitely starting to see differences in compositing software more now than i ever have before. Although it's still very early days and hasn't quite made it's way into pipelines yet, AI and machine learning technology is coming along in a big way and i wouldn't be surprised if we see it start to become more and more a part of the comp pipeline. Since i started five years ago you're only starting to see the introduction of all of this, so it's quite an exciting time to be in comp.

What is your day at work like?

What was your journey to becoming a compositor? Where did you start? and what are any tips for potential compositors?

The VFX industry is a big part of my life. As a kid who grew up loving action movies and superheroes it has really given me a chance to be part of that world and know that somebody out there might be as amazed by a shot that i worked on as i was when i first saw Spider-man swinging through New York. It's also an industry filled with great people who i have the pleasure of working with on a daily basis.

To become a compositor I first went to the University of Hertfordshire to study a general VFX course. I was able to try all parts of 2D and 3D and so i was sure that this was what i really wanted to do. After working hard for 3 years i managed to secure myself a place on the Double Negative (Now DNEG) Graduate Scheme, where i worked shortly as a roto/prep artist before moving to a Comp Assist role, which is sort of a stepping stone to comp.

My tips for any aspiring compositors would be firstly to work on your general art skills, it doesn't have to be much but having an eye for art composition and photography can really help you to create the images that will be part of your job. Apart from that i would just recommend practicing by trying to make things and then getting feedback on those things however you can, whether it's the Foundry BYOC events or just forums on the internet!