Steve's Books & Compositing Training Products

For those that like to own their own books and DVD's, Steve has produced some "must have" products. A prolific and entertaining writer, Steve has captured the art and science of digital compositing in two highly informative books. His first book is an in-depth text on compositing and is now available in its second edition. His upcoming book is more introductory and will be out in January 2008.

Steve is a recognized expert on Apple's Shake compositing program and has produced a top quality training DVD that you can use for self-paced learning. Shake is a powerful feature film visual effects compositing program used by such prestigious visual effects facilities as Weta Digital in New Zealand and Rainmaker in Canada. Now that Apple has dropped the price of Shake to $499 it has exploded into the market and now anybody can afford to move up to Shake.

Click here to see Steve's training courses and classes.

Digital compositing is both an art and a science and Steve's books reveal both aspects of this exciting branch of visual effects. Highly readable and exceptionally informative, you will find yourself referring back to them again and again. See which one best fits your needs here.

"Digital Compositing for Film and Video" 2nd Edition

A very popular book on the theory and practice of digital compositing. This book has become a steady machine-side companion for even the most serious compositors because it contains encyclopedic knowledge of digital compositing plus it addresses real world production problems and provides their solutions. It comes complete with a DVD containing almost 4 GBytes of project media that go along with 80 carefully crafted production exercises. Available now on Amazon.com

"The compositor's Bible!"
- Jeffrey Jasper, Digital Compositor
New Deal Studios

"Compositing Visual Effects: Essentials for the Aspring Artist"

An introductory book on digital compositing for visual effects that is designed specifically for newcomers to the industry. This book is digital compositing lite, designed to be fun and easy to read, yet full of essential information and concepts for those new to the industry, those thinking about getting into it, or production professionals like directors and DP's that just want to understand what digital compositing is all about because it affects their productions. Available now on Amazon.com.

"I'm excited to begin using it for
my animation & special effects courses."
- Larry Elin, Associate Professor, Television, Radio, Film
S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University

"Digital Compositing for Film and Video, 1st Ed." in Spanish

"Digital Compositing for Film and Video" was so well received that it was translated by the Escuela de Cine y Video for the Spanish speaking market.

Es una guía de orientación, práctica y metódica que se ocupa de los problemas y las difíciles decisiones que ha de afrontar el ingeniero profesional de composiciones en situaciones reales. Detalla técnicas, trucos y soluciones para mejorar los elementos mal rodados de una escena, las distorsiones del color y la iluminación inapropiada que hacen la vida imposible a los profesionales de la composición.

Autor: Steve Wright

"Efectos Digitales en Cine y Video" may be purchased through Escuela de Cine y Video.

"Confessions of the Game Doctor"

Just for fun! Go behind the scenes with the man who covered the electronic games business from day one! In 1981 Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz founded Electronic Games magazine, the first magazine devoted entirely to the new generation of plugged-in entertainment, from video and computer games to handhelds, tabletop games, coin-ops and even state-of-the-art military and training simulators.

Bill Kunkel, The Game Doctor, reveals the untold stories behind both the magazine and the people who brought us the 'classic' era of electronic gaming. Read about Steve's adventures as a mover and shaker in the early days of the video game industry at Atari. Bill documents Steve's contributions to video game design innovation and his appearance on the Today show and rips the veil of mystery off of the infamous "Easter Eggs" now found in all video games. This book is a blast from the past! Every gamer young or old will appreciate its wit and candor!

"Confessions of the Game Doctor" may be purchased through Rolenta Press.

Shake features node-based compositing, which is the workflow paradigm adopted by all of the other serious visual effects compositing programs such as Combustion, Digital Fusion, and Nuke. Click here to view a QuickTime movie that demonstrates the advantages of node-based compositing with Shake. Once you can demonstrate proficiency with Shake, any prospective employer will believe that you can master any brand of node-based compositor. Not so with Adobe After Effects, a layer-based compositing program designed for motion graphics, not for compositing complex visual effects shots. The Shake tutorials come complete with project files so that when you finish the course you will be ready to take on the most challenging visual effects shots.

Shake 4.1 DVD Training Program

"Shake 4.1 Essentials" is available on DVD from Amazon.com for only $99.95. It is designed for those that wish to learn Shake and gain proficiency with its GUI, nodes, and compositing workflow. It consists of 120 QuickTime movies totaling 13.25 hours of tutorials complete with project files. You can own all of the QuickTime movies and project files so you can refer back to them at your leisure as many times as you want. You don't need an Internet connection and you can take the DVD with you when you travel or work. Also available as online movies from Lynda.com, a world leader in on-line training. Combining this DVD with a FREE 30-day trail of Shake is an incredibly cost effective way to learn Shake and node-based compositing.

Click Here to download a FREE 30-day trail of Apple's Shake 4.

"Digital Compositing for Film & Video" - 80 Free Production Exercises

For digital artists that would like hands-on experience with the techniques used to create 2D digital effects, Steve has prepared a spectacular set of 80 real-world production exercises. These exercises are designed specifically to work right alongside of the second edition of his very popular book "Digital Compositing for Film and Video" (above). As you complete a section in the book, a little DVD icon will tell you when there is a production exercise for that section. Just go to the production exercises web site where you will find step-by-step procedures that use the information you just learned in the book along with the images on the DVD to create digital effects and solve production problems. But don't forget, you will need the second edition of the book to make it all work.

For a preview of the Production Exercises, click here to go to the website.