vfx-compositing

What it does

Guide for coordinating and reviewing VFX compositing work across plates, mattes, keying, roto, tracking, stabilization, matchmove, lighting/color integration, grain/noise/sharpness, shadows/reflections/contact, depth/atmosphere, AI-generated elements, clean plates, editor/colorist handoff, rights/safety, and compositing QA. It instructs to treat compositing as shot integration across color, motion, geometry, light, lens, material contact, atmosphere, artifact repair, and delivery handoff. It differentiates this from legal clearance, colorist judgement, or executing a specific node graph, and directs use for briefing, planning, supervision, and review.

How it works

• Start with plate and reference prep: inventory delivery target, plate quality, spatial facts, lighting, matte needs, and rights/safety. Produce a one-paragraph shot physics note before creating any element.
• Choose the composite strategy: select 2D overlay, 2.5D card/projection, 3D matchmove, deep/depth-aware integration, or full replacement/regeneration based on runtime QA and shot requirements.
• Alpha, mattes, keying, and roto: specify core, edge, garbage, holdout/inside, and occlusion mattes; apply multipass keying and correct premultiplied color, with attention to edge quality and artifacts.
• Tracking, stabilization, and matchmove: use appropriate tracking approach (2D point/planar for flat surfaces, camera solve/matchmove for 3D inserts), and verify tracks with a grid and multiple motion phases.
• Perspective, camera, and lens integration: ensure generated elements inherit plate camera logic; verify horizon, focal-length feel, lens distortion, focus/DOF, motion blur, and occlusion ordering.
• Lighting, color, and exposure integration: manage color spaces (ACES/OCIO), identify plate color space, convert elements, match exposure/contrast, and deliver editor-ready passes with notes.
• Grain, noise, sharpness, compression, and lens artifacts: match plate grain/noise, compression artifacts, sharpness, motion blur, and avoid over-sharpening; apply grain late in the process.
• Contact, shadows, reflections, material response; depth/atmosphere; AI-generated element integration: ensure realistic contact shadows, occlusion, reflections, glow, refraction, and depth-consistent atmospheric effects. When using AI, provide explicit integration constraints and negative constraints for outputs.

When to use it

Use when an agent must plan, brief, generate, integrate, repair, or quality-check visual effects composites involving plates, alpha/mattes, keying, roto, tracking, stabilization, matchmove, lighting/color integration, grain/noise/sharpness, shadows/reflections/contact, depth/atmosphere, AI-generated elements, clean plates, editor/colorist handoff, rights/safety, or compositing QA.

What it can touch

• Tools: claude-code, codex, copilot, cursor
• Focus on coordinating, planning, and QA; no implementation details of a specific node graph or on-set operations are prescribed.

Caveats

• License: MIT
• It explicitly notes not to substitute for legal clearance, colorist judgement, or an on-set VFX supervisor, and not to execute a specific node graph; outputs must follow described coordination and QA practices. It warns about AI-generated elements and depth ordering cautions.