Hey everybody! I’ll start a BA thread as well. Thanks for the writeup BlenderNation!. The link is http://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Blender-Compositing-Roger-Wickes/dp/1430219769/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246069880&sr=8-5 but I would prefer you use the adsense link since a few pennies goes to BN when you do.

The book was budgeted to be 500 pages total, (whew!~) and has about 450 written/illustrated pages and then the index, table of contents, etc.

I wrote the book to fill the gap in the Blender “library” of books; mine addresses all the special effects processing, masking, and practical uses for every node, and in-depth on the latest sequencer, to use Blender in a video production pipeline/environment. Tony’s book fully explore character animation and fluids and cloth, so I do not spend one page on those. Instead, I focus on film and video production and post-production, and what Blender supports and how-to do all those neat effects, including camera matching, lip-sync, match-moving, etc. to get your Blender models “integrated” over a live action plate.

Thank you everyone for your support. It was more work than I dreamed, all nights/weekends/days etc, both by myelf, Roland, and my editorial team (I had like two editors review everything) so hopefully the global community will buy it and we can all be compensated for our efforts. If you see a rip-off site with any of the Blender books, please alert me or the appropriate author so we can all fight piracy, and allow money to flow toward future editions (like to match up to 2.5 when it is released).

knekke: you would need to submit a feature request via BlenderStorm, or contact the import author and see if they would spend some time on it for you.

yeah, i hear ya. Apress is publishing this book under their Friends of Ed template, and every book in that series “has”? to begin with “Foundation”. I wanted Blender Compositing Foundation, or Foundations in Compositing with Blender, etc., but I’m not the publisher.

thank you everyone!

Marcus, the answer is in my book, Chapter 13. Just as a teaser, try shift-right clicking on a files when you Add->Movie. Enjoy! I think you will find that Blender is quite capable.

For other questions, please join BlenderArtists for forum and near-real time support questions.

Jahmaica, great question. For the book, I couldn’t really assume the reader knew how to model in Blender, and you need to make masks for later compositing, so I do have one chapter on how to make a mask, rotate it in 3D space, and then composite that over a highway sign. This is very common work in film and such to remove logos and ads that do not have approval (or to swap in logos of the film’s sponsors).

With regard to BBB, as you can probably tell from the cover, I make heavy use of the BBB assets and give examples and explanations of what they did and why are sprinkled throughout the book. When I talk about setting up a backdrop world, for example, I go through the world used in BBB and the three textures they use. One aspect of BBB is the model and how they set up the mattes, so I talk about that (and is another reason I have to talk about 3D space).

Regarding nodes, I actually have about 3 chapters, 10-12, pp 273-388, over 100 pages just on compositing nodes. I go through each node in detail, and have tried to give practical examples of each, and as we learn more nodes, I build up to more complex noodles. I also try to show exactly what it does – the effect it will have on an image, and all the settings/controls. I finish up with a brilliant example from RobertT, and go through his noodle and explain it.

Hey NeptuneKid, I hope it’s both a thinking and a thick book! Regarding 2.5, I think people are going to be largely disappointed if they are expecting some sort of major functionality change. It’s kinda like we are taking a house and rewiring it and re-plumbing and adding fibre, oh and painting the walls a cheery color. Most of the work is behind the walls. The UI change will be most welcome, but with regard to compositing and sequencing, it’s all gonna be the same. It will look different when modeling a mask, and hopefully be more friendly, but the principles and techniques and nodes and VSE in my book will be essentially the same for a very long time.

Also, log any feedback/suggestions at BA thread http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=161330

Enjoy!

I’ve uploaded the full table of contents to my ftp server, so if you want to see exactly what is in the book, please use my compositor ftp account. Using your ftp manager, the host is http://ftp.rogerwickes.com, and the login is [email protected] with a password of “password”. The pdf is in the home directory and the details start on page 7. Thanks again, and if you have any issues, post at BA or email [email protected]