Hey Mark,
I'm not much of a DP so I opt not to ever get involved with any discussions/debates as to which lens is best, camera is best, etc... however.... There are so many things that are overlooked by people when they say AE is the best/fastest program for compositing. If you were to say "AE is probably the best choice for a 'slap comp'" I might agree with you to an extent. However, Digital Domain has built Nuke from the ground up with the compositor in mind and there is a reason that even though Nuke's cost is significantly higher than AE that every large post production facility purchases site licenses of Nuke. Even commercial houses in NYC are actively moving away from AE for comping as it tends to lend itself to a different kind of artist. I havent jumped into AE lately but since the last version I've seen its still severely lacking in 3D compatibility as it was still missing a real 3D environment. 3D cards with bicubic/bilinear deformation is something that once you have access to you wonder how you comped without them. Camera projections are a necessity in so many comps. The wide aerial shot in "2012" of the Las Vegas aftermath was done almost entirely in Nuke in 4K with projections just to maintain proper parallax instead of a 2D push in. Ability to bring high rez animated geo that maintains uv's coordinates is huge if you need to retexture after the fact for a quck patch. I started in AE in 2000 and loved it... But it falls so short when you need things to really polish a comp. DD's proprietary tools that are developed every day are mind boggling when it comes to customization of the application. However, I completely agree with you when it comes to motion graphics as Nuke has only recently just introduced a Dope Sheet which is just a pseudo timeline. Stu Maschowitz used to do some AMAZING things in AE as he is one of those artists I admire immensely. So there are people out there that can do some amazing things with AE as it is just a tool..But the things required to do a complex comp in Nuke require more to do in AE than one would imagine if its even possible. In addition if youre going to look at speed you have to compare it 1:1. When in AE youre probably not always working in 32-bit. More than likely youre working in 8-bit, which if comping, isnt really the most optimal way to work. Dealing with EXR's in Nuke in a native floating point environment is significantly faster than AE especially when dealing with 3D renders with embedded AOV's. These are just my opinion. Again, I mean no disrespect in my retort as I have an immense amount of respect for you and your work Mark. I've watched your music video you did for your daughter umpteen times and have referenced your style for shooting as well to many people to look at as a guide of things to follow and always look forward to your work you produce. Just in this situation I feel there are things that got left out and often do get left out when people refer to "compositing" and comparing Nuke to AE. Anyways, just my 2 cents. One thing I do enjoy about this forum is, for the most part, when there is a cival disagreement of opinion we can respectively state our experience and either agree to disagree or potentially shed some light on the situation from a completely different perspective. I hope you guys are having an amazing time at NAB and I'm excited as hell to hear about all of the things you get to see first hand. I sit here at work jealous while you guys are there at the party. haha, anyways, have a blast guys!
Best,
-John Brennick
Originally Posted by Chris McKechnie
