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Reasonable Time to Get Up & Running in Fusion

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Ben Gamble

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Reasonable Time to Get Up & Running in Fusion

PostTue Oct 10, 2017 12:05 am

Looking into Fusion - please forgive the completely noob nature of my questions, but any advice greatly appreciated...

1) Any sense of how long it should take to get up and running to produce work in Fusion, with a background of Photoshop and Cinema4D, and several years as a still image compositor and illustrator? A couple weeks, months, or years?

2) Can you do the same color correction in Fusion that you would do in Resolve, or are the color tools different between the two programs?

This software looks like the perfect piece to tie together video, cgi, color correction, and photoshop stills.
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Marlo Shemere

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Re: Reasonable Time to Get Up & Running in Fusion

PostTue Oct 10, 2017 5:41 pm

I am trying to do exactly what you plan on doing. I have good photoshop compositing experience and general 3D experience.
The major hurdle is a lack of in-depth tutorials from Lynda and others.
Only cmiVFX has tutorials at the moment but I am hoping Someone will do "Fusion 9 Essential Training".
Fusion is completely different to Photoshop when it comes to how you go about 3D compositing.
Its advanced and very powerful and you can create an engaging experience that you cannot do with photoshop.
It may take you 3 weeks, 3 months or a year depending on how deep you want to get into Fusion.
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Ben Gamble

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Re: Reasonable Time to Get Up & Running in Fusion

PostTue Oct 10, 2017 6:25 pm

Thanks for the response, Marlo. I assume that conceptually, it's closer to After Effects than Photoshop. Only node-based, and more geared towards incorporating 3D scenes?

I'll need to spend time in both programs to make sense of it, but if hypothetically, a client would want me to color grade a couple seconds of video, would Fusion work as well as Resolve? Or am I not understanding how coloring works in Fusion?
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michael vorberg

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Re: Reasonable Time to Get Up & Running in Fusion

PostTue Oct 10, 2017 7:34 pm

color correction in fusion is as good and capable as in resolve, maybe even stronger because you can do more complex setups an have more tools to play with.
but on the other hand resolve was build for color correction/grading video footage. so the process is more streamlined and gives you faster control.

resolve is also more build to work on a whole sequence while fusion is more shot based.

they both have strength and weak points and work quiet good together.

to replace photoshop you will have a hard time in fusion for certain things which are super easy in PS, but then you wonder why PS is so complicated for other tasks.

there are some good tutorials out there:
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/90733/190492547
https://www.fxphd.com/courses/#
https://creative.pluralsight.com/softwa ... -tutorials
the old eyeon tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXvQUh ... PvP43xnOmg

and support vito with his great videos:
https://www.patreon.com/Vito
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Ben Gamble

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Re: Reasonable Time to Get Up & Running in Fusion

PostTue Oct 10, 2017 8:16 pm

Thanks for the feedback, Michael. You confirmed what I thought the basic differences were between the programs.

I won't want to replace Photoshop in anyway - only augment what I've been doing with it, and move more into a motion / video integration.

I'll certainly check out the tuts, as that seems to be the one consistent complaint with Fusion - that there isn't an abundance of videos from which to learn.
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Travis Schmiesing

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Re: Reasonable Time to Get Up & Running in Fusion

PostWed Oct 11, 2017 2:21 pm

I would say 1 month will likely bring you to a point where you are efficient enough to confidently use it in production.

I frequently use Fusion for the production of stills but as I think you alluded to... It is an additional tool in the process, and does not replace Photoshop. Fusion blows Photoshop away when it comes to masks and adjustments based on mattes. You do it once, and it is done for the project.

I then link my Fusion output image into Photoshop via file "Place Linked" so that it updates when I render out a new version from Fusion. I do 80% of my color adjustments in Photoshop as I find color correcting in Fusion to be frustrating at best. It could be because I am coming from a Photoshop/AE background but the Fusion controls are far to sensitive and the color reproduction doesn't feel as good to me as what Photoshop does.

Another nice thing is to set a Resize just before the final output from Fusion. My final images are typically 6k but we do our progress renders for review at 3k. By resizing the output from Fusion to upscale to 6k I can save a lot of time as I don't have to worry about re-scaling elements of a PSD comp later. Not sure if that made sense.

Anyway.. give it a go for a month and see how it works.
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Ben Gamble

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Re: Reasonable Time to Get Up & Running in Fusion

PostWed Oct 11, 2017 2:39 pm

Great advice, thanks Travis. It sounds as though there is excellent integration between Photoshop and Fusion, where they are actively linked to each other throughout a project. I will certainly give myself a little time to dig into this further.
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Chris Tempel

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Re: Reasonable Time to Get Up & Running in Fusion

PostWed Oct 11, 2017 3:18 pm

The biggest factor will probably be how long it takes you to wrap your mind around nodes. You'll fight the software and be frustrated and then it will suddenly just click. If you want lots of tutorials, Nuke is the way to go. They have a Non Commercial version or there's Natron, a free Nuke clone that is only lacking 3D and particles (but they are coming)
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Thierry Bergeron

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Re: Reasonable Time to Get Up & Running in Fusion

PostWed Oct 11, 2017 3:20 pm

Hey Ben, here is a list of people/youtube/vimeo/websites you should check. Some have a lot of stuff, some just 1 or 2 tutorials, some are very basic, some are advanced.

3D World
A Blackbird Called Sue
Alf Lovvold
Alkesh Nanavatny
Andrew Devis
Automatisator Peace
CGSutra
Chetal Gazdar
Cinematic Creations
cmiVFX
Compositing2d3d
DialFX
eEklavyaEducation
Eyeon Youtube Channel
FlinkDimensions
Kenzorman
Lee Lanier
MochaPlanarTracking
Moviola
Niraj Chokshi
Pradeep VFX
RampantMedia
RandomRotation
Rob Redman
RSRAO
Sakura Digital
ShadowmakerSDR
SImon Ubsdell
SteakUnderWater
The Creation
Thenika
TheSirEdric
Thinking Penguin
tiltX
Tony Gallardo
VFX Dude
Videoclip Makers
Vinay Ramesh
Vito Lamanna (Con-Fusion)
YakYakYak
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Ben Gamble

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Re: Reasonable Time to Get Up & Running in Fusion

PostWed Oct 11, 2017 3:30 pm

Woah, this is fantastic - thank you! I hope other noobs know of this. Some of the names I recognize from research - cmiVFX, Andrew Devis, Con-Fusion... It's starting to look as like there are good resources through the community, but just no formal in-depth Blackmagic offerings.

I've been very impressed with the response in this forum!

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