Compositing is the process or technique of combining visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene. Live-action shooting for compositing is variously called " chroma key ", "blue screen", "green screen" and other names. Today, most compositing is achieved through digital image manipulation. Pre- digital compositing techniques, however, go back as far as the trick films of Georges Méliès in the late 19th century, and some are still in use.
49-419: All compositing involves the replacement of selected parts of an image with other material, usually, but not always, from another image. In the digital method of compositing, software commands designate a narrowly defined color as the part of an image to be replaced. Then the software (e.g. Natron ) replaces every pixel within the designated color range with a pixel from another image, aligned to appear as part of
98-401: A house to be classified by realtors as a raised ranch, there must be a flight of steps to get to the main living floor – which distinguishes it from a split-level house . The ranch house style was adapted for commercial use during the time of the style's popularity. As the concept of a "drive-in" shopping center was being created and popularized, the ranch style was a perfect style to fit into
147-427: A stage, perfectly synchronizing all nine performances. Background projection throws the background image on a screen behind the subjects in the foreground while the camera makes a composite by photographing both at once. The foreground elements conceal the parts of the background image behind them. Sometimes, the background is projected from the front, reflecting off the screen but not the foreground subjects because
196-410: A three-layer sandwich of film is run through an optical printer . On the bottom is the unexposed copy film. Above it is the first matte, whose opaque backing color masks the background. On top is the negative of the foreground action. On this pass, the foreground is copied while the background is shielded from exposure by the matte. Then the process is repeated; but this time, the copy film is masked by
245-474: A two-story ranch home will save space, allowing for more square feet of living space on the same footprint. Variants include the California Ranch, Suburban Ranch, Split-Level Ranch, Raised Ranch and Storybook Ranch. The raised ranch is a two-story house in which a finished basement serves as an additional floor. It may be built into a slope to utilize the terrain or minimize its profile. For
294-507: A very strong light source so that the projected background is as bright as the foreground. Color filming presents additional difficulties, but can be quite convincing, as in several shots in the famous crop duster sequence in Alfred Hitchcock 's North by Northwest . (Much of the sequence, however, was shot on location.) Because of its complexity, rear projection has been largely replaced by digital compositing with, for example,
343-408: Is a composite of all the individual exposures. (By contrast, a "double exposure" records multiple images on the entire frame area, so that all are partially visible through one another.) Exposing one section at a time is made possible by enclosing the camera lens (or the whole camera) in a light-tight box fitted with maskable openings, each one corresponding to one of the action areas. Only one opening
392-550: Is a domestic architectural style that originated in the United States. The ranch-style house is noted for its long, close-to-the-ground profile, and wide open layout. The style fused modernist ideas and styles with notions of the American Western period of wide open spaces to create a very informal and casual living style. While the original ranch style was informal and basic in design, ranch-style houses built in
441-468: Is a tract of ranch-style houses built on and adjacent to Butte Court in Shafter, California, in 2007/08. These houses borrowed their style cues from the 1950s Western-styled ranch houses, with board and batten siding, dovecotes, large eaves, and extensive porches. Notably, all houses in this tract were on 1/4-acre lots, and had their front garages turned sideways so that the garage doors were not dominating
490-404: Is a type of matting, and one of four basic compositing methods. The others are physical compositing, multiple exposure , and background projection, a method which utilizes both front projection and rear projection . In physical compositing the separate parts of the image are placed together in the photographic frame and recorded in a single exposure. The components are aligned so that they give
539-411: Is copied. Digital images can be copied without quality loss. This means that multi-layer digital composites can easily be made. For example, models of a space station , a space ship , and a second space ship could be shot separately against blue screen, each "moving" differently. The individual shots could then be composited with one another, and finally with a star background. With pre-digital matting,
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#1732791791245588-502: Is revealed per exposure, to record just the action positioned in front of it. Multiple exposure is difficult because the action in each recording must match that of the others; thus, multiple-exposure composites typically contain only two or three elements. However, as early as 1900 Georges Méliès used seven-fold exposure in L'homme-orchestre/The One-man Band ; and in the 1921 film The Playhouse , Buster Keaton used multiple exposures to appear simultaneously as nine different actors on
637-602: The OpenFX 1.4 API . Most open-source and commercial OpenFX plug-ins are supported. Natron is named after Lake Natron in Tanzania which, according to Natron lead programmer Alexandre Gauthier, provides "natural visual effects" by preserving its dead animals. Natron was started by Alexandre Gauthier-Foichat in June 2012 as a personal project. The project was the winner of the 2013 Boost Your Code contest by Inria . The prize
686-663: The computer-generated imagery (CGI) environment changes in real time to maintain correct relationships between the camera angles , subjects, and virtual "backgrounds". Virtual sets are also used in motion picture filmmaking , usually photographed in blue or green screen environments (other colors are possible but less common), as for example in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow . More commonly, composited backgrounds are combined with sets – both full-size and models – and vehicles, furniture, and other physical objects that enhance
735-469: The southwestern United States . By the 1950s, the California ranch house, by now often called simply the ranch house or "rambler house", accounted for nine out of every ten new houses. The seemingly endless ability of the style to accommodate the individual needs of the owner/occupant, combined with the very modern inclusion of the latest in building developments and simplicity of the design, satisfied
784-648: The GPL according to the FSF does not allow loading and linking closed-source plug-ins, or plug-ins that are not distributed under a GPL compatible license, but they have to be distributed separately. Data produced by Natron, or any software distributed under the GPL, is not covered by the GPL: the copyright on the output of a program belongs to the user of that program. Ranch-style house Ranch (also known as American ranch , California ranch , rambler , or rancher )
833-530: The United States (particularly in the Sun Belt region) from around the early 1960s increasingly had more dramatic features such as varying roof lines, cathedral ceilings, sunken living rooms, and extensive landscaping and grounds. First appearing as a residential style in the 1920s, the ranch was extremely popular with the booming post-war middle class of the 1940s to the 1970s. The style is often associated with tract housing built at this time, particularly in
882-452: The appearance of a single image. The most common physical compositing elements are partial models and glass paintings. Partial models are typically used as set extensions such as ceilings or the upper stories of buildings. The model, built to match the actual set but on a much smaller scale, is hung in front of the camera, aligned so that it appears to be part of the set. Models are often quite large because they must be placed far enough from
931-417: The camera lens screens out only the backing color, the background area records as black, which, on the camera's negative film , will develop clear. First, a print from the original negative is made on high-contrast film, which records the backing as opaque and the foreground subject as clear. A second high-contrast copy is then made from the first, rendering the backing clear and the foreground opaque. Next,
980-424: The camera so that both they and the set far beyond them are in sharp focus. Glass shots are made by positioning a large pane of glass so that it fills the camera frame, and is far enough away to be held in focus along with the background visible through it. The entire scene is painted on the glass, except for the area revealing the background where action is to take place. This area is left clear. Photographed through
1029-423: The car positioned in front of a blue or green screen. Traditional matting is the process of compositing two different film elements by printing them, one at a time, onto a duplicate strip of film. After one component is printed on the duplicate, the film is re-wound and the other component is added. Since the film cannot be exposed twice without creating a double exposure , the blank second area must be masked while
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#17327917912451078-422: The changing scene behind it. In the studio, the resulting "background plate" is loaded into a projector with the film "flipped" (reversed), because it will be projected onto (and through) the back of a translucent screen. A car containing the performers is aligned in front of the screen so that the scenery appears through its rear and/or side windows. A camera in front of the car records both the foreground action and
1127-522: The film Gladiator , for example, the arena and first tier seats of the Roman Colosseum were actually built, while the upper galleries (complete with moving spectators) were computer graphics, composited onto the image above the physical set . For motion pictures originally recorded on film, high-quality video conversions called " digital intermediates " enable compositing and other operations of computerized post production . Digital compositing
1176-409: The first is printed; then the freshly exposed first area must be masked while the second area is printed. Each masking is performed by a "traveling matte": a specially altered duplicate shot which lies on top of the copy film stock . Like its digital successor, traditional matte photography uses a uniformly colored backing – usually (but not always) a special blue or green. Because a matching filter on
1225-439: The front of the house. Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan specified that Walter White 's house in the television series be a Rancher. In an early draft of the script for the series' pilot episode , he described the house as "a three-bedroom RANCHER in a modest neighborhood. Weekend trips to Home Depot keep it looking tidy, but it'll never make the cover of ' Architectural Digest '." The real house used to film exteriors in
1274-548: The glass, the live action is composited with the painted area. A classic example of a glass shot is the approach to Ashley Wilkes' plantation in Gone with the Wind . The plantation and fields are all painted, while the road and the moving figures on it are photographed through the glass area left clear. A variant uses the opposite technique: most of the area is clear, except for individual elements (photo cutouts or paintings) affixed to
1323-403: The glass. For example, a ranch house could be added to an empty valley by placing an appropriately scaled and positioned picture of it between the valley and the camera. An in-camera multiple exposure is made by recording on only one part of each film frame , rewinding the film to exactly the same start point, exposing a second part, and repeating the process as needed. The resulting negative
1372-488: The houses often have owner modifications that add individual character to the fairly uniform style. As these houses were mostly built between 1945 and 1970, they have modern infrastructure and their heating/cooling systems, wiring, plumbing, windows, doors, and other systems can all be easily repaired and upgraded. Small-scale tract building of ranch houses ended in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Those still built today have usually been individual custom houses. One exception
1421-544: The houses to cut costs, eventually reducing the style down to a very bland and uninteresting house, with little of the charm and drama of the early versions. By the late 1970s, the ranch house was no longer the house of choice, and had been eclipsed by the neo-eclectic styles of the late 20th century. Very late custom ranch houses of the later 1970s begin to exhibit features of the neo-eclectics, such as dramatically elevated rooflines, grand entryways, and traditional detailing. These neo-eclectic houses typically continue many of
1470-508: The large tracts of ranch homes being built. Commercial ranch buildings, such as supermarkets and strip malls, typically follow the residential style with simple rustic trim, stucco or board and batten siding, exposed brick and shake roofs, and large windows. American tastes in architecture began to change in the late 1960s, a move away from Googie and Modernism and ranch houses towards more formal and traditional styles. Builders of ranch houses also began to simplify and cheapen construction of
1519-589: The late 1990s, a revival of interest in the ranch style house occurred in United States. The renewed interest in the design is mainly focused on existing houses and neighborhoods, not new construction. Younger house buyers find that ranch houses are affordable entry level homes in many markets, and the single story living of the house attracts older buyers looking for a house they can navigate easily as they age. The houses' uniquely American heritage, being an indigenous design, has furthered interest as well. The houses' simplicity and unpretentious nature, in marked contrast to
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1568-406: The lifestyle interior features of the ranch house, such as open floor plans, attached garages, eat-in kitchens, and built-in patios, though their exterior styling typically owes more to northern Europe or Italy or 18th and 19th century house styles than the ranch house. Neo-eclectic houses also have a significant level of formality in their design, both externally and internally, the exact opposite of
1617-411: The mid-1960s onward, the ranch house echoed the national trend towards sleekness in design, with the homes becoming even simpler and more generic as this trend continued. Prominent features are of the original ranch house style include: Constructing a one-story ranch-style house requires a larger space and significant formwork, including foundation, roofing, windows, and various materials. In contrast,
1666-407: The more dramatic and formal nature of neo-eclectic houses, makes them appealing for some buyers. The more distinctive ranch houses, such as modernist Palmer and Krisel , Joseph Eichler and Cliff May designs, as well as custom houses with a full complement of the style's features, are in particular demand in many markets. Many ranch-style neighborhoods are now well-established, with large trees, and
1715-568: The needs of the time. Ranch houses were built throughout America and were often given regional facelifts to suit regional tastes. The "Colonial Ranch" of the Midwest is one such noted variant, adding American Colonial features to the facade of the California ranch house. Ranch houses of the 1940s and 1950s are typically more deliberately themed in nature than those of the 1960s and 1970s, with features such as dovecotes , Swiss board edging on trim, and generally western and even fantasy trim styling. From
1764-532: The needs of their inhabitants. Walls were often built of adobe brick and covered with plaster, or more simply used board and batten wood siding. Roofs were low and simple, and usually had wide eaves to help shade the windows from the Southwestern heat. Buildings often had interior courtyards which were surrounded by a U-shaped floor plan. Large front porches were also common. These low slung, thick-walled, rustic working ranches were common in what would become
1813-646: The original. For example, one could record a television weather presenter positioned in front of a plain blue or green background, while compositing software replaces only the designated blue or green color with weather maps . In television studios , blue or green screens may back news-readers to allow the compositing of stories behind them, before being switched to full-screen display. In other cases, presenters may be completely within compositing backgrounds that are replaced with entire "virtual sets" executed in computer graphics programs. In sophisticated installations, subjects, cameras, or both can move about freely while
1862-443: The projected scenery, as the performers pretend to drive. Like multiple exposure, rear projection is technically difficult. The projector and camera motors must be synchronized to avoid flicker and perfectly aligned behind and before the screen. The foreground must be lit to prevent light spill onto the screen behind it. (For night driving scenes, the foreground lights are usually varied as the car "moves" along.) The projector must use
1911-430: The realism of the composited visuals. "Sets" of almost unlimited size can be created digitally because compositing software can take the blue or green color at the edges of a backing screen and extend it to fill the rest of the frame outside it. That way, subjects recorded in modest areas can be placed in large virtual vistas. Most common, perhaps, are set extensions: digital additions to actual performing environments. In
1960-440: The reverse matte, which excludes light from the foreground area already exposed. The top layer contains the background scene, which is now exposed only in the areas protected during the previous pass. The result is a positive print of the combined background and foreground. A copy of this composite print yields a "dupe negative" that will replace the original foreground shot in the film's edited negative. Digital matting has replaced
2009-455: The screen is made of highly directional, exceptionally reflective material. (The prehistoric opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey uses front projection.) However, rear projection has been a far more common technique. In rear projection , (often called process shooting) background images (called "plates", whether they are still pictures or moving) are photographed first. For example, a camera car may drive along streets or roads while photographing
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2058-572: The several extra passes through the optical printer would degrade the film quality and increase the probability of edge artifacts. Elements crossing behind or before one another would pose additional problems. Natron (software) Natron is a free and open-source node-based compositing application. It has been influenced by digital compositing software such as Avid Media Illusion , Apple Shake , Blackmagic Fusion , Autodesk Flame and Nuke , from which its user interface and many of its concepts are derived. Natron supports plugins following
2107-459: The southwest United States, which experienced a population explosion during this period, with a corresponding demand for housing. The style was soon exported to other nations and became popular worldwide. Its popularity waned in the late twentieth century as neo-eclectic house styles featuring historical and traditional decoration became more popular. Preservationist movements have begun in some ranch house neighborhoods, reinforced by an interest in
2156-475: The style from a younger generation who did not grow up in such homes. This revival has been compared to that which other house styles such as the bungalow and Queen Anne experienced in the twentieth century. The 20th-century ranch house style has its roots in Spanish colonial architecture of the 17th to 19th century. These buildings used single-story floor plans and native materials in a simple style to meet
2205-451: The traditional approach for two reasons. In the old system, the five separate strips of film (foreground and background originals, positive and negative mattes, and copy stock) could drift slightly out of registration, resulting in halos and other edge artifacts in the result. Done correctly, digital matting is perfect, down to the single-pixel level. Also, the final dupe negative was a "third generation" copy, and film loses quality each time it
2254-454: The typical ranch-style house. Additionally, the increase in land prices has meant a corresponding increase in the number of two-story houses being built, and a shrinking of the size of the average lot; both trends inhibit the traditional ranch house style. Ranch style houses are occasionally still built today, but mainly in the Western states and, usually, as individual custom. Beginning in
2303-402: Was a 12-month employment contract to develop Natron as a free and open-source software within the institute. The first widely available public release was 0.92 (June 6, 2014), which brought rotoscoping and chroma keying functionalities. Subsequent beta releases brought additional features such as motion blur , color management through OpenColorIO , and video tracking . Version 1.0
2352-686: Was licensed under the Mozilla Public License version 2.0, which allowed redistributing it with closed-source plug-ins . Since version 2.0, the software was relicensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 or later to allow better commercialization. All plugins that are distributed with binaries of Natron 2.0 or later have thus to be compatible with the GPLv2 . Closed-source plug-ins , including commercial ones, can still be used with Natron, although
2401-654: Was released on December 22, 2014, together with a large sample project by François "CoyHot" Grassard, a professional computer graphics artist and teacher, demonstrating that Natron could execute interactively graphs with more than 100 nodes. In January 2015, the Art and Technology of Image (ATI) department in Paris 8 University announced that they would switch to professional-quality free and open-source software for teaching computer graphics to students and artists, including Blender , Krita and Natron. Before version 2.0, Natron
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