Put Together a Realistic District 9 Composite

on Sep 4th 2009 with 144 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Program: After Effects, Knoll Light Factory (Optional)
  • Difficulty: Intermediate

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

Adding outside elements into a scene can be a tedious endeavor. Today we’ll be shown a few different compositing tips as we superimpose the space ship from District 9 into our shot.

Requirements

  • Knoll Light Factory (Optional) You can download a trial version here.

Tutorial

Download Tutorial .flv

File size 402MB

 
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I'm a graphic design student from Dublin, Ireland. I hope you guys will some something form my tutorial. If I'm not on here you can find me over at Keyframe Kid or follow me @YoussefSarhan  

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  • Hooper

    SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Been looking for more compositing tuts thanx!

    • http://www.iretiredat25.com Leo

      For those who are interested, I followed this tutorial and have the files needed.

      Here’s my result: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm1QP0LIURw&hd=1

      And here’s my project file (includes ae project, footage I shot out of my back yard, and full ship cutout): http://bit.ly/OiEdT (zipped on a MacBook Pro, 41MB)

      Note: it doesn’t include the titles, you should come up with your own.

      • Jgar2007

        Great work. That was really good. Do you still have those files online. I wasn’t able to download them. Please let me know if your able to post them back online or email them.

        Thanks,

      • Phraise One

        Do you still have the files?

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/Siupej666 Siupej

    Nice :)
    i watched the movie yesterday..really great.

  • http://www.methodd.com Vag

    Please NO MORE BEGINNERS TUTORIALS !!!!!

    PLEASE !!!!

    • lane

      agreed. this was exceptionally silly.

    • http://www.iumoment.com James

      You are PRO right
      Please stop talking like that :D LOL
      Please

    • Cheesebottoms

      Judging from your website, it looks like you could use more beginner’s tutorials.

  • ckRED

    I’ve seen quite many (big budget) movies the last years where they didn’t manage to make realistic compositing…

  • jink

    if you want to see this tut go to video copilot and look at the set extention tut

  • http://youtube.com/effectsgroup EffectsGroup

    AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love compositing tutorials!

  • m-_g

    Good Tut Youssef !

    Contrary to Vag I would say it’s good to watch tuts in wich the author make mistakes, search why and find the solution. Beginners can see that it is never easy

    Just two points :

    1 : I think you should add a mask to the adjustment layer on the part where there is a tree (upper right part of the picture) because it is in shadow not under the light

    2 : Maybe you should make a null object with a different position of the anchor point to parent your lens flare easier

    Good job and continue to share what you know ; )

    • http://www.keyframekid.com Youssef Sarhan
      Author

      Good 2nd point, Thats very useful to gain more control over the positioning of the lens flare.

      Thanks for the tips

  • Billy

    ae.tutsplus.com’s new site slogan:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3IQTjOMewg

    Sorry couldn’t resist. Funny….and sorta true. ;)

    Actually, in and of itself, this tutorial isn’t bad. Very basic, yet again, but OK. However, nothing presented isn’t covered in much more depth by Andrew Kramer in a number of tutorials. The audio is very good though the clarity is horrific when blown up full screen. I’m sure the downloaded tutorial is better…but who needs 400 megs of basic AE tutorial sitting on your hard drive?

    If you are going to do a compositing tutorial…..downloadable project files are a must. People who want to do this tutorial (beginners) probably don’t have files to use.

    • http://www.gutsblow.com/ Satya Meka

      So finally I couldn’t resist posting a reply to your opinion. I generally reply to technical questions but not opinions. But as you are a site regular and lot of people here including me here consider your criticism very important, I have a few things to say. Firstly, a lot of people compare this site to various other AE tutorial sites. But I say, this site is a bit different from them as the tutorials are more frequent here than any other sites. Consider VCP, Maltaannon or anything they have 1-2 tutorials per month while this site has 8-10 tutorials per month. This is more like a TV channel which HAS to produce content always. Also keep in mind that Aetuts caters to users who range from beginners to advanced users, so you can’t expect highly advanced tutorials every week. Finally, my last point here is there are so many tutorials for AE and AE is not a rabbit hole. There is pretty much a tutorial on the web for everything in AE. So the tutorials from this point should be more about design and building a composition rather than how to use a tool in AE. Now, if I am supposed to design something really COOL, it probably takes me weeks/months to come up with something new. But then again, I can explain only the techniques used to build it, but not the complete composition. In conclusion, what I am saying is this site is FAR from dead. I am pretty sure there will be atleast 3-4 amazing tutorials per month and a few ground breaking tutorials every once in a while. As I mentioned before, it is like a TV channel where the content will always be produced. Even though not everybody finds useful stuff in every post, there will be someone who benefits from them.

      • Flora

        Then please make more tutorials. I love your tutorials as they are very different.

      • Nick

        I agree! This site and it’s all of its tutorials have proved absolutely invaluable in enabling my, and I am sure many others a better grasp of After Effects.
        The scope and diversity of tutorials allows for a greater community, which ought to be considered a good thing by all. Keep up the good work and thanks.

      • Billy

        Satya….the youtube link was something funny…nothing to be taken too seriously. However, even taken at face value, I wouldn’t say this site is dead. There have been a couple of very good tutorials around her since the first of August. However, the number of good tutorials and the span between them has grown significantly….thus the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” anology. The old lady has fallen….but she isn’t dead.

        I anxiously await Maltaannoon’s, Stern’s, Rhabinowitz’s, Kramer’s, Khan’s tutorials. They are much fewer and far between but each and every one is packed with new information and incredible effects. The stuff we have been getting around here lately is just rehash after rehash of the basics. ONE basics tutorial is OK every once and a while….but as a staple?

        This site is free. I understand that. But I am one of those people that would actually PAY a monthly fee to have access to more advanced tutorials. I wouldn’t join the plus side of aetuts right now to simply have access to the project file of one basic tutorial after the next, though. So, to say that people shouldn’t complain because they are free is ridiculous. A meal that is comped to you by a restaurant because it doesn’t taste good…..still tastes badly whether you pay for it or not. Free doesn’t equate to anything. As was said by another poster….sometimes less is more.

        I’d love to pay….as long as I knew I was getting my money’s worth.

      • http://www.google.com/ Satya Meka

        You can criticize any post no matter if its free or not. Honestly, I do appreciate your honesty and look upto your opinions. I do get what you are saying and all I have to say is be a little bit more patient and keep in mind that sometimes the authors are just busy with their personal projects and making new tutorials during that time isn’t easy at all. Also, don’t think I am angry/offended, I am just trying to explain my view of the situation.

      • http://www.google.com/ Satya Meka

        You can criticize any tutorial irrespective of it’s status(free/commercial). Infact, you should! I honestly like reading your honest comments and ofcourse look up to people’s opinions. But all I have to say be a little bit more patient especially sometimes the authors are just busy with their projects and making tutorials is very difficult.

      • John Doe

        This site kicks ass!

    • lame

      who is this guy anyway, he pops up on every single tutorial and says blah blah blah beginners blah blah blah very basic blah blah blah i’ve seen better blah blah.
      geeeez I really wanna see some of your works..I do!
      PLEASE LINK SOME OF YOUR WORKS ON YOUTUBE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      • http://methodd.com Evangelos Methodd

        Hi , if you’re referring to me I work as a professor teaching AE in Greece for the last 11 years. Some of my work can be seen on my site methodd.com and myspace.com/methoddproductions. If you search aetuts you’ll find some tutorials that are way much more demanding than some of the later. Sorry if i offended anyone, wasn’t my intention, i just get the feeling that lately noone is posting something revolutionary Iincluding Kramer from VC)

    • sergey kritskiy

      Totally agree.

      I do not understand, the tutorial was about compositing but what I saw in preview was badly tracked object. Compare it with this one for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucir-9kOYzk

      Half year ago I was visiting ae.tuts to know something new, but last months tutorials are becoming worse and worse, just basics technics or riped of tuts

      This is really sad

      • http://methodd.com Evangelos Methodd

        I agree with u actually 100%

  • http://asdafa kk

    this one is looking cool man..

  • http://www.youtube.com/dagrial Daniel

    Would be great to see more compositing tutorials !

  • http://www.god.com god

    this a poor tutorial, its needs edting and practice the comp before you post.

  • Kevin

    sorry this really could have been edited down to 5 minutes.

  • Billy

    Its sorta funny…I should go through and count up all the negative comments on all the tutorials since August 1st. I seem to get all the blame for being the most negative….but there are SOOO many negative comments in about 90% of the tutorials over really the last 2 or 3 months, but especially since around the first of August. Hmmmm………strange……

    • Rev65

      It may be related to how easily identifiable your avatar is versus all the default ones in use by most commentators. But that’s really a good thing for you, right? ;) I know you’re just trying to be and keep everyone honest.

      In regards to this tut… Is it me or is the tracking a bit loose? I think that latter!

      • Matt

        Maybe because he only used one point. and didn’t track the rotation.

      • http://www.keyframekid.com Youssef Sarhan
        Author

        Hey guys, the tracking isn’t perfect but such is the nature of AE’s pixel tracking. I could have used PF Hoe but everybody has access to it.

        Thanks for the feedbacks, good and bad!

        YS

  • Adam Sklar

    Awesome..
    Although, I did see it was a lil jaggedy and not to the video at some points.

  • Momcilo Stojkovic

    Hi there, great tutorial i always love to see how people have different compositing tips :)

    Can you please upload sound effects files on some free share webs service??

  • cookie

    Sorry, very poor. As far as the comparison with a TV channel. Sometimes less is more…

  • Rex Cardan

    Creative. Mimicking effects in movies is a must. I agree could have used a bit of editing but still good.

  • Huesped

    Wow Billy, you must be an AE GOD, just bitching around on each and every tutorial.

    PLEASE, PLEASE show as your AMAZING and OUT OF THIS EARTH work!!! YOU ARE SOOOO ADVANCED!!!!!!

  • http://www.google.com/ Satya Meka

    Billy..You can criticize any tutorial irrespective of it’s status(free/commercial). Infact, you should! I honestly like reading your honest comments and ofcourse look up to people’s opinions. But all I have to say be a little bit more patient especially sometimes the authors are just busy with their projects and making tutorials is very difficult.

  • Billy

    Huesped….and I’ll continue to comment on just about every tutorial and will do so on their merits. You don’t like it? I find it hard to express how little I care. Get that through your thick skull. I….don’t….care.

    Satya….I understand and appreciate your point. Basic tutorials are easy to crank out….the more advanced ones take more time. However, outside of calling this basic (and I’m not the only one to point that out) I actually said this was an OK tutorial. Youssef did a pretty good job. My comments in this thread are not directed at Youssef but at the editors. And I believe that Adam is simply putting out the tutorials he has. I think you understand my sentiments.

    • Frank

      I too want to see your work and some advanced tutorials from you, Billy.

      Not trying to be combative here. Just saying, why don’t you raise the bar if you’re so troubled by the content on this site? Seems to me that contributing actual material would be more constructive than armchair commentary.

    • Martin Klekner

      Don’t overdo it with that “I dont care” stuff, bill, its starting to be a bit repetitive, doesnt look good =) Well…people are also repetitive with that “AAE God” type of replies every time you comment.

      I think its simple. We all have our point.

  • ABOJUNG

    Replay!!!…

    stock files+ Tracked + color corrected+ lens flare= done.
    pretty decent tutorial on compositing but could have done some more.
    looking at this i feel you got ideas so in the future come up with something nice. all the best!!

  • Huesped

    Hahaha, and of course I don’t care if you don’t care either. That’s ok with me, I just find laughable someone who bitches so much and does nothing for the rest. If you are so good maybe you could write a tutorial, what do you think?

    Love ;)

    • http://www.visualfxtuts.com Topher Welsh

      keep the profanity to a minmum dude, this is a family freindly website.

  • joey

    kinda bad tracking. sorry i’ve just seen better. the ship moves to much. tripods are essential.

  • http://johannesfilmstudios.co.nr Johannes

    were did you get the space ship ?

  • James P.

    Nice work Youssef. Some tough critics on this board. This tutorial isn’t the most complex, but the end result is nice and it’s a good example of a start to finish effect utilizing a few different techniques (motion tracking, color correction, effect plugins, etc.) Not to mention it was made by a graphic design student.

    Maybe as the tutorial pool grows we will see tutorials grouped by beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Until then, keep up the good work!

  • William Cannavaro

    Vamos Billy deja de ser racista y acepta las humildes aportaciones de los demas.
    No al racismo amigo, grabatelo en la cabezota

    • ABOJUNG

      what does that mean? something related to racism….
      -__-”

    • Billy

      How am I “racist”….you flippin’ moron. I will say nothing else to an imbicilic idiot such as yourself.

      Racist? what a douche bag…..wow….

      • Rafael Guerra

        That was spanish, racismo doesn’t literally means racism, it means general prejudice…i don’t think it relates much either.

  • bud

    basic tutorial, good for beginners, bad for advanced… good job, hope to see some advanced ones soon

  • lame

    Why dont you two Billy & Abojung make a collab work next time? I WOULD PAY to watch if you guys could do.
    we are well aware of that you guys have almighty skills so you guys should make tuts, it’s gonna be dope!! fo sho! pretty please???????

    • ABOJUNG

      wtf…Mr. lame are u really a lame. have you read the comments. please dont jump in and talk blabla bla………….if u havent then please scroll up.
      maybe billy n myself post some comments, but its not that we share the same view regarding every tuts. and btw, you seem to be a quite good samaritan ^o^. what have you done? have you ever given an honest view on every tuts or just get satisfied with whatever is thrown at you. sometimes when the tuts are not upto par, we give our honest views.
      and also we dont just criticize, but also tells the author about what could have been done.
      what about you???
      and regarding me posting tuts, i have already been asked. and billy has a nice lesson for you if you go back to the previous tuts comments.
      dont be lame PUNK!!

  • Raivan

    In a forum like this it is very simple-

    Keep the emphasis on learning and inspiration. Thanks for the tutorial Youssef Sarhan!

  • 2mnyshp

    he just copied it from this exact tut: http://tinyurl.com/2w4apm !!

    • http://www.keyframekid.com Youssef Sarhan
      Author

      Very nice, you got me. Haha, we needed that.

      • Rafi

        cheers

    • http://www.iretiredat25.com Leo

      nice.

  • Nathanael

    So far, i’m just ignoring all the other negative comments. I just wanna know what the name of the short song in the preview is called lol

  • Daniël

    Hi, Youssef

    Could you please tell me the name of the song of the preview?

    Regards,
    Daniël

    • http://www.keyframekid.com Youssef Sarhan
      Author

      It is from the D9 soundtrack, available on iTunes.

      • Daniël

        Thanks :D

  • http://youtube.com/effectsgroup EffectsGroup

    You know what would be a great advanced compositing tutorial? I tutorial on compositing a plane crash! That would be awesome!!!!

  • Momcilo Stojkovic

    @2mnyshp: I cracked when i opened the link XD

    • lame

      I can’t believe someone’s still up for Rickrolling! HAHAHAH lovedit! :-)

  • http://randomshutterbugger.blogspot.com/ Abhishek

    Reading the comments on this site has become an almost regular form of entertainment for me… Unfortunately.

    I would, however, take a good tutorial over a good critique any day.

  • titso

    it looks like there is a frame mixup on the cg and the real footage, the cg footage is to fast

  • alex9191

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpAhLjMIvSg
    the vidéo is in french ^^
    thanks for your tutorial ;)

    • http://www.keyframekid.com Youssef Sarhan
      Author

      Nice to see someone try it.

  • John

    Complaining about free tutorials is like complaining about the free soup at a homeless shelter.

    …Thanks for the soup, Youseff :)

  • edk

    this is noob

    • xxx

      hello noob

      this is xxx

      nice to meet you

      • http://noisejunkies.net Rafael Guerra

        lol, that was funny.

  • Kevin

    This was awesome! I want to try this so badly but I can’t find a picture of the d9 ship anywhere! I cant afford Photoshop either =( Youssef do you think you can send me a picture of the ship you used to KevinStiller@ymail.com? It would be SWEET.

  • srw

    bad work

  • patrick riley

    could have just parented the ship to the null

  • jens

    tbh, i got really annoyed when you did the same things over and over. but it was a nice tutorial overall. thanks.

  • aetutsboy

    WOW! Excelente! Gracias!!!!!!

  • Jan V

    Sorry but i’m 100% sure that AE’s built-in tracker could have handled that A LOT better.

    And there’s absolutely no need to use PFHoe or any other matchmoving software like you mentioned, with a stationary camera all you need is a 2d tracker – a pixel tracker or a planar tracker.

    And why don’t you just parent the spaceship to the null, why the expression and changing anchor points? If you’ve tracked rotation also, the composite wouldn’t have worked at all if you changed the anchor point.

    As for the lens flares, you should have added another null to the comp, moved it to the place where the lens flare should end up, parent it to the tracker null and link the position of the lens flare to the new nulls position.

    And last but not least, if you mess something up (which is totally normal), you could have edited it out from the final tutorial, what’s the point of showing that you added the flare to an adjustment layer, then added another adjustment layer, then deleted them both, added a new solid and added the flare to that? :)

    i’m not bitching at all, just my 2 cents

  • http://skichallenge.oesv.at.tt Julian

    Well, kinda nice, but why didnt you exclude your messed up steps from the final tut-video? often this is really annoying.

    parenting everything to the null would also be a better and easier way…

    i know, its not easy at all – so good job – but 200 bucks for that? i dont know…

  • Jack

    To those so free with their criticisms:
    1. Why do you put up where you mouth is and make these fabulous and complex tutorials for the rest of us?
    2. The sites teaches techniques. You have to bring your own creativity. And judging by the large number of VCP knock offs I see, I suspect that many people are just looking for ways to copy from others than actually apply the techniques. Andrew Cramer had to learn by doing, reading the manual etc. – you can too. I think this site is turning some of you into uncreative lazy whiners.

    • Billy

      Such a moronic comment….for reasons I have detailed in several comment threads to several other tutorials. Claiming one has to “put their money where their mouth is” is contrary to the criticism of every form of art…..literary, culinary, etc., etc. People can comment all they want both positively and negatively. That is life. Attempting to “criticize” someone else’s “criticism” is illogical….

      • Jack

        Such basic criticisms. You need to be a little more complex in your thinking Billy. Using phrases like “moronic comment” is first grade stuff. So go learn to reason and then come back here and comment. And do it in a video and I hate to read …

  • Zamkovy Mykola

    Could you give a link to project files?

  • fidget

    i think it should be required for the authors to watch their own tutorial before posting it and see if it needs to be re-edited. showing mistakes you might encounter is one thing, but we do not need to see multiple takes of those mistakes. Or maybe the editor for AE tuts should tell the author to clean it up before sending it out. especially if the author is being paid for this.

  • http://www.vimeo.com/bones Bones

    Can you link us to the picture of the space ship?

    • myu from srilanka

      hey guys i’ve cropped the mother ship image in PNG and PSD format..
      here is the download link.
      go to http://www.slingfile.com
      username=moreimage
      password=player
      then go to >> myfiles
      http://www.slingfile.com/members/myfiles=1
      download ufo.png or ufo.psd

      • 14k

        Thanks for the link and image. It is very helpful. Thanks for the all works.

        Plus, I agree with John, “Complaining about free tutorials is like complaining about the free soups at a homeless shelters.”

        Take it or leave it.

        Thanks

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