Tutorial Details
- Requirements: Eyeon Fusion
- Difficulty: Beginner
- Run Time: 28:21 min
Final Product What You'll Be Creating
It may be true that After Effects is the more popular software for creating eye candies and blending CGI and reality. But it’s also true that different studios use other softwares for creating their works. This time we will take a look at node based software called Eyeon Fusion. In this first tutorial I’ll present Fusion’s workflow and some of its basic tools. You will learn how to import footage, connect nodes, set up their parameters and create some simple animations.
Additional Resources
- After Effects vs. Nuke – AE Premium
- Intro To Combustion For The After Effects User – AE Basix
- Final Cut Pro: The Beginner’s Series
- The Big Ol’ Compositing Application Rundown
Enjoyed this Post?
Subscribe to our RSS Feed, Follow us on Twitter or simply recommend us to friends and colleagues!
By Luka Tisler
Join our newsletter!
Create a Tutorial, Get Paid!
Have something to teach the world? Want to earn money doing it? Tutorials, screencasts, and articles published here on Aetuts+ are largely contributed by readers just like you! We'll pay you great money for good content. Find Out More
I like it :) but After Effects still is better
I agree with you Anthony. It seems like simple things like dragging in a text and a background -takes an extra step to create [=connecting those nodes]. And so I wonder, how come it seems like big\serious post-production houses use something like Fusion or Flame? Are they considered to be more professional in some way?
Anyways, Great tutorial Luka! it was Very nice of you to give us a glimpse into this node-based world. Thanks! :]
Well…AE really isn’t that good for anything except motion graphics. AE is in my opinion quite slow to work with, compared to Fusion and Nuke.
Fusion on the other hand is really good at Comping. There is a handy script(inside Fusion, not a download) that makes the workflow MUCH faster than AE. The script opens a little window where you can type what effect you want, and it inserts it. Having to dig into the footage in AE(to create keyframes and expressions) is in my opinion a huge timekiller.
I was a AE user before, but after trying node-based compositors, I’m never moving back to AE(for comping of course).
That’s unfair to say that AE isn’t good for anything but Motion Graphics, I mean, hell… the entire series of Heroes had the visual effects created and finished in AE. I agree that a lot of node based compositors do the VFX end of things a lot easier and more efficiently if you know how to use them, but it is unfair to says that AE sucks for visual effects and compositing.
Well there is a ‘node’ based workflow in ae; just click Composition – Comp Flowchart View…. I know it’s not a full node system, but it’s there!
The reason studios use Flame and stuff to do VFX in, is because the systems are completely hardware based, and MADE specifically for doing VFX. you literally turn it on, and it launches Flame. You can virtually work in real time, with super complex visual effects shots, with little to no rendering time, because they are usually pumping an insane amount of data through its huge processors. Not to mention insane RAM amounts, processors up the wazzu…
Also the reason a Flame can cost upwards of $500K
Yeah..It was a bit unfair to say that it can’t be used for VFX, because it can. I should have been clearer on that. As I said, I used AE for VFX/comping before, dunno why I was so harsh against it :S
I can’t reply to your other comment by the way, thats why I’m commenting on this one.
And your right about the studios
Wrong, Heroes used Autodesk Maya and Inferno.
Agreed. Another film that comes to mind is Van Halsing. A lot of the most intense composites in that film were done in After effects.
while you are paying for both hardware and software, you could pretty much buy a super computer and a copy of nuke & AE for $500k!
After Effects is a very good application. I use mainly Fusion for most of my work but I still use After Effects, Sometimes I use both in the same project because something is faster in After Effects and somehting is better in Fusion.
sorry to say that but After Effects is not very good when it comes to 3d integration. it doesn’t have a real 3d engine so it lacks so many features that other compositor like Nuke or Fusion Provides.
for example let say i want to import a fbx file from maya. I cant import in After Effects but in Fusion you can. and an Fbx file not only imports geometry but lights, cameras, shaders and animation with it.
it’s IMPOSSIBLE in After Effects.
these applications(Fusion, Nuke) are now ready to integrated with photorealistic renders like Mentalray or Renderman something you can’t even think about with After Effects.
Fusion is not a compositor, it’s a supercomputing compositor . go check out.
http://eyeonline.com/web/eyeonweb/products/fusion6/fusion6.aspx
The other reason for using flame is that its cleaner to look at when clients comes in! The interface is not as messy as After Effects, and the clients wants results immediately. They don’t want to sit and wait for AE 3 min. to render 5 seconds of video.
@Mohanad Taiy, it’s not the same, node based in After Effects are only comps, while in Nuke effects and images also.
nice tutorial :) but i think it would be better if you compare Fusion to After effects and say why is Fusion better and in which things :)
Try to get these:
http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/vfx_index.html
There’s very well explained why Fusion and stuff is better in some cases.
AE is better for “when” (Motiongraphics), Fusion for “what” (advanced Compositing with 3D Integration, working with Mattes and stuff). In AE, you get fast into pre-composing everything and it gets hard to work with. It’s simply because you can’t link in multiple or really nice ways.
I’m using AE for most of my work, but I’m able to use Fusion and like it for advanced things.
Beside that, I don’t know why this is such a polarizing thing here. Fusion, Nuke etc are great products for high-end stuff, AE for “simple” things. Beside, you can run AE on the fastest PC on earth, it will never be as integrated as Flame or fast as Fusion.
I think this Tutorial isn’t that useful, too. You can watch the Fusion Course-Ware on their homepage, which describes all the workflow and stuff you need to know to start getting into it.
Regards
I think noone that trully masters AE needs to know any other program for compositing and creating motion graphics (especially motion graphics). With AE you can handle pretty much every post production task. The reason some studios work on high end compositing software such as Flame and Inferno (not Fusion or Smoke) is that these programs are hardware based, and can produce totally realistic effects with minimum fuzz. Still these high end programs are used mostly only for compositing and post. AE is the ONLY choice for complex motion graphics!
Thanks for commentz!
I will talk about advantages and disadvantages in next tutorial, but for now, let me just say, that in Fusion, you have much more control over your tools and you can influence multiple images (or videos) with just one tool. Also, there is a huge difference between working with 4K footage in AE or in Fusion.
I partly agree with Methodd about software used for MG or compositing, but let me just say (after 2 years of using Fusion) that you can do pretty much everything in Fusion that you did in AE. And I also noticed, that AE peepz are a bit spoiled with all the plugins (myself included).
fusion or smoke or ae or any programe ,gives the same result,so the programe is not important but who use the programe ,thats the important ,…….:)
i want just ae tutorials not nuke or fusion or else.
its not fair. (im a premium member)
Hey guys,
If you’re looking for more Fusion tutorials, check out my site at http://vfxhaiku.com I have over 7 years of experience using fusions on multiple feature films, and I break down a lot of the techniques we used into approachable tutorials.
Hope you like it!
i am a 2d compositor at http://www.worldwidefx.net and i greatly appreciate your training on fusion kert. we are the team that did the compositing for the expendables. check out our breakdown on our website. we use fusion and nuke. but 97% fusion.
a 2d compositor working on hollywood feature films is browsing aetuts? WTF?
I’ll give the trial a shot. But Mac users can also play with the Quartz Composer to get a feeling about the whole Node/Patch thing before desiding to spend thousands of money. :)
Try Blender!
It’s a good Node based Compositor too
and it’s totally free!
and you got the source code as well.
although not as much powerful as Fusion or Nuke.
but give it a try.
good tip.
I just found out Fusion is not for Mac, so no trial of that. But Nuke is for Mac.
hey man that was awsome,cool,great.i dont have enough words tto thank you.looking forward for more tuts from you mate.finding fusion tuts from basic is most likely impossible.so i think you that shres your kowledge with us is a best teacher.thank you again sir.
where is the tutorial?