10 Best Compositing Software for 3D Artists

For every digital artist choosing the right software is a very important thing. For a 3D artist choosing the base 3D software is main priority. You can read my article ‘Introduction to CGI softwares’ in order to know about different 3D softwares in details. Along with 3D software choosing the right compositing software is also very important for a 3D artist. Compositing softwares are softwares using which 3D artists can apply final touch to their still renders and animations. Compositing softwares are often used by VFX artists. There are a lot of things that can be done with compositing softwares such as, 2D and 3D tracking, keying, background adding, matte painting, color grading, adding glow, multi pass compositing, adding stock elements, adding lens flares, depth of field, etc. There are some compositing softwares that are used in film industry and some other software which are used by mainly independent artists. In this article I will talk about 10 best compositing softwares you can use to composite your renders.

     1. Nuke

        Nuke is a compositing software by a company named Foundry. At this time Nuke is the most popular compositing sotware in the film industry. Nuke is an advanced node-based compositing software which has all the necessary tools required for film industry. This software is used by almost every VFX studio such as, Dreamworks Animation, Sony Pictures, Weta Digital, Industrial Light and Magic, etc. Using Nuke’s Node based workface you can do different kinds of compositing work. Nuke has both 2D and 3D workface. In the 2D workface you can do motion tracking, keying, rotoscoping, matte painting, color grading, text effects, warp effects, denoising, multi pass compositing, planar tracker, lens distortion etc. In the 3D workface you can do camera tracking, basic model import, 3D particle system, UDIM import etc.

    2. After Effects

After effects is a software by a company named Adobe. It is a compositing software which is best suited for motion graphics work. It can be also used for VFX compositing and 3D compositing. After effects is also used in some studios. Unlike Nuke After effects has a layer based workspace. The 3D workspace of After effects is not much developed like Nuke. In the 2D workspace you can do motion tracking, masking and rotoscoping, puppet tool, matte painting, color grading, multi pass compositing, keying, particle system etc. Again in the 3D workspace you can do 3D camera tracking easily. You can also import .obj and .c4d models using Video Copilot’s plugin Element 3D. You can also use other plugins by Red Giant and other companies to make awesome effects. After effects masking tool is also easy to use and very effective.

    3. Fusion

Fusion is a software that was created by Blackmagic Design. It is also node based software like Nuke. It is basically used for VFX and 3D compositing in the film industry. This software was used in some Hollywood movies like Hunger Games, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy etc. and TV series like Empire, NCIS and American Horror Story .It was also used in a lot of video games. It also has 2D and 3D workspace like Nuke. In the 2D workspace you can do motion tracking, keying, rotoscoping, multi pass compositing, matte painting etc. In the 3D workspace you can do 3D camera tracking, planar tracker, importing and rendering 3D models, 3D particle system, 3D motion graphics etc. Fusion has a fast camera tracker and easy to use keying and node system.

        4. Flame

Flame is a compositing software developed by Autodesk. It is a node based software like Nuke and Fusion. This software is used for final post-production in the film industry. Flame is a post-production pipeline that can be used with other softwares like Maya, Mudbox and Shotgun. Flame was used in creating lots of feature films. Some Netflix features were also made using Flame as compositing software. Like other compositing softwares Flame also has 2D and 3D workspace. It’s one of the most expensive VFX compositing software in the world. That is why it is not used much in the industry like Nuke and Fusion.

    5. Blender

Blender is an open source 3D software developed by Blender Foundation. It has a powerful node based compositing workspace also. This workspace was created so that 3D artists can do everything in one software. Blender’s built in compositor is mainly used for 3D VFX compositing. It is usually used by independent 3D artists. Blender’s compositor has 3D camera tracking, masking, keying, denoising, adding glow and glare, multi pass compositing, adding stock elements, color grading etc. Blender’s 3D camera and object tracker can be used both manually and automatically. Blender’s compositor was used in a film by Blender Foundation named ‘Tears of Steel’. Also a VFX company named Barnstorm VFX.

    6. Natron

Natron is an open source node based compositing software. Its interface is a bit similar to Nuke and Fusion. Natron does not need very high quality system. It can be used in a 64 bits processor and 8 GB and higher RAM system. It also has 3D workface like other compositing softwares. You can do flexible rotoscoping, planar tracking, powerful keying etc. in Natron. It has a curve and dope sheet editor for animation. Many free and open source plugins can be used with Natron. Natron has a tracker node which can be used with Blender’s camera tracker. It is also used by independent artists mainly.

    7. Autodesk Toxik

As the name suggests Autodesk Toxik is a compositing software developed by Autodesk. Toxik provides the ability to work with very large footages like 4k, 8k and higher. It also has a node based compositing workspace. You can do pretty good animation with Toxik. Its user interface is pretty good also. It has a powerful 3D compositing workspace. It can be used for VFX and 3D compositing purpose.

    8. Motion

Motion is a compositing software created by Apple Inc. It can be used for motion graphics, VFX and 3D compositing. It has features like 32 bit rendering, filters, After Effects integration etc. It also has both 2D and 3D workspace. It can be also used for 2.5D compositing. You can do vector based paint strokes, point tracking and matchmoving, advanced keyframing, 3D shadows, custom particle system, depth of field, text generator, keying, 3D texts using Motion. It also has 360⁰ VR motion graphics support, advanced color grading, comic filter etc. It can be used with Final Cut Pro which is an editing software by same company.

    9. Photoshop

Photoshop is an image compositing software developed by Adobe. It cannot be used for video compositing. It is an awesome tool for compositing. It has advanced masking tools such as, brush tool, lasso tool etc. It has a filter editor called camera raw filter. It also has advanced blur tools like gaussian blur, box blur, field blur, lens blur etc. It also has amazing color grading tools like hue and saturation, color balance, selective colors, gradient maps and more. You can import 3D models and add textures in Photoshop without any difficulty. Photoshop has digital painting features too. It can be used in a pipeline with After Effects.

10. Hitfilm Pro

Hitfilm Pro is a video editing and compositing software for filmmakers. It is a good software but is not used in the film industry. Independent filmmakers use this software for creating short films and small projects. It is basically used for VFX and 3D compositing. You can use puppet tool, keying technology, 2D and 3D camera tracking, particle system, 3D model importer, color grading, specialized effects etc. Hitfilm is layer based software like After Effects. This software is pretty good at masking also. You can do masking, 3D camera projection, sound mixing and editing easily in Hitfilm. Overall Hitfilm Pro is a good compositing software.

These are 10 best compositing software for 3D artists in my opinion. I hope this article helps my fellow 3D artists. You can share this article so that it can help other artists too.