Polishing Everything...
Shannon's Note:
As someone who has solely been a 2D animator, I have never worked in compositing before, until I had the opportunity to do so with this project. I came to realize how important the job would be. As a compositor on this film, I worked in polishing and editing the completed 2D animation. I found that I enjoyed working in this stage of the animation process, because of that feeling of satisfaction I would get after completing the final touches of the animation and being part of the overall final stages. As my director Louise would say, "Compositing is like polishing the poop."
Compositor's Intuition
Louise's Instructional Recording for the compositors
It's a Compositor's main job to combine the animation, background, and color correct. However, As a compositor, you are also somewhat of a director as sometimes some shots may need a little bit of extra to push a point. After Effects is a powerful program, you can blur, add particle effects, and even add dramatic lighting through lens flare. Case in point, a compositor must know the right tools in order to make a shot look the best it can be.
How we did Lighting
Lighting before and after After Effects
Lighting and atmosphere were done both on Toon Boom Harmony and After Effects. The lighting layer was drawn on Toon Boom and exported as its own PNG sequence. We then imported that file into After Effects, where we used the several tools available to blur, adjust, and clip the lighting onto the character. After Effects was a godsend, allowing the compositors to give the mood that one final push it needed to look stunning.