Getting Started with the COMPOSITOR in Blender (Beginners Start Here!)

In this video, learn the basics of using the compositor to add post-processing to your rendered images in Blender!
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Introduction
0:11 - What is the compositor
1:17 - Where to find the compositor
2:45 - How to get an image to show up in the compositor
3:45 - Using a Viewer node
5:21 - Adding effects with the compositor
7:20 - How to add view layers from your render layers
9:00 - Combining effects with a mix node
11:46 - Adding color balance to your image

[@TheCGEssentials]

Hi everyone! Let me know what kind of effects you'd like to create with the compositor in the comments below! :)

[@cgcores525]

I do a lot of product design and rendering so having control over light groups, environments and things like that is always a must for me!

[@SNIPERBAZ]

Give me this software please 🥺

[@chillbro2275]

Hi, i just got started with blender. I specifically want to see using Grease Pencil animations over live action video.

[@JOBT0]

Thank you so much, this series is super helpful and also very well done. I look at this daily to learn Blender and I learned a lot thanks to these great tutorials. I recommend all Blender "students" to follow and learn. Thumbs up.

[@richardconway6425]

That was a really good introduction to the compositor.
I feel the place everyone should start is with the denoise node, since that is arguably the most important post-render process, which everyone needs to do. Then I would be thinking bloom/glare, and perhaps volumetric mist/fog effects, if needed.
The thing about colour - that's when things can really go downhill. I've seen so many youtube videos where as soon as they start messing around with the colour balance, the image starts to look worse. The more they mess with it, the worse it gets. My belief is that if you want a different colour tone to your scene, the first thing you should do is go back and tweak your lighting. Look at the colour temperature and intensity of all your lights, and think about whether your materials are complementing your light tones, or working against them.
I've come to realise that the way a scene is lit is arguably, along with composition, the most important factor. After all, I think it's valuable to remember that some of the most striking images ever made were black and white.

[@TheCGEssentials]

Great feedback - thanks very much!

[@cgcores525]

Another great tutorial! Super well made and well paced, keep up the great work!

[@TheCGEssentials]

Thanks!

[@offthecufff]

i have a question for CG essentials and anyone else, do you mostly do post processing inside blender or do you take it out of blender and bring it into another editor?

[@milisonics]

Hi Justin. I need help with 2 matters:
1 - i have an animation made with geometry nodes - is any posibility, in Compositor, to Cryptomatte a geometry nodes animation? Because a static result of geometry nodes i know i can convert to mesh and use Crypto on it, but on geometry nodes appears no way to pick it up for Cryptomatte
2 - is there any posibility to apply Cryptomatte on an image imported as Image As Planes?
Many thanks for your time :)

[@KRAZZYWARMACHIENGaming]

I cannot get my final animation to show compositing results but i can see it on one frame ? Can u help sir

[@wizwizington1758]

thank
in other video they just show off their knowledge and big words!!!

[@SugarTouch]

Every time I see blender tutorials for particular subject I instantly understand that blender is the worst tool for this particular subject and it's much better to use something else. Blender is like Swiss knife or multitool : it has everything in it but you're unable to use it when you do serious work. It's just "in case" you have no choice. Blender community have to stop being obsessed with engineering and start listen to real artists it's really made for. Because whole its life Blender is a pice of art for open source _software_ and great example of _programmers_ collaboration. But 3D VFX tool for programmers is .... err.... You got the point. Stop being over engineered Swiss knife for programmers. Star to ask artists instead.
For artists doing composing : use Natron or Resolve (fusion). Natron is open source copy-paste of industry leading Nuke and fusion is here for decades and free in basic functions with resolve. Both are better than _that_ whatever it is...