Blender VS. After Effects VS. Fusion: VFX Compositor Comparison

what's up guys it's brad from light architect as you may know i've slowly been transitioning through visual effects workflows in after effects blender's inbuilt compositor and more recently blackmagic fusion this video is a short comparison between these three softwares for visual effects based on my experience so far now to proceed this video i should mention that i've only been working in fusion for a little while now so this video is not going to be without bias however i have grasped the basic workflows of each software and hence will be going through and giving my opinion on the pros and cons of each and showing some of the basic interface and workflow differences based on my experience so far for the sake of this comparison video i'm going to be using the exported render layers from our live action helicopter searching visual effects shot i've composited similar variations of the same shot and experimenting with each compositing software the first software i used to composite the shot with splendor 3d the main reason for this is because all of the 3d elements were created in blender already so it was easy to create test renders and then composite the passes to dial in the look right away after doing a bit of testing i finally got something i liked and rendered out all of my passes on a multi-layer open exr sequence for further and more precise compositing blender's compositor is the first node based compositor that i've used and it changed my perspective on node based workflow in general it's fairly common knowledge that the node-based workflow is very powerful but if you are used to a layer-based workflow from programs like after effects or even photoshop getting started can be a bit intimidating surprisingly however in working in blender's compositor it didn't take me long to actually realize the power of nodes the biggest advantage to a node-based workflow in my opinion is the ability to connect and composite your data with multiple inputs and outputs with a better visual picture of how things are related with a node based workflow it tends to be easier to understand the big picture of complex shots with lots of render layers with a bit more ease you can even organize your node groups if your node tree gets a bit more complex blender's compositor while not as advanced as others is in my opinion very easy to understand because each node allows you to open and close the effect controls within the node itself in comparison to programs such as fusion where the effect settings open in a separate side panel in comparison to after effects in fusion blender doesn't have nearly as many effects and nodes to choose from that said you have enough filters color effects and combining nodes to merge your render layers together most of the time if you don't need a highly specific effect the biggest downside of blender's compositor in my opinion is the speed in blender you use view nodes to view different points of the compositing tree at any given time in your compositing process and it takes a while for blender to process the image which can be bothersome if you are on a time crunch compositing in a layer based program such as after effects i would argue is a bit more intuitive initially for whatever reason it seems easier to grasp a layer based system as you are essentially overlaying different elements on top of each other in a timeline just like you would in a simple non-linear editing software but with a bit more complexity due to added effects and tools for simple composites after effects is a great way to overlay and adjust various elements together in addition to this you have more effects and tools to choose from in comparison to blender's node based system it's also much easier to hand animate or position your layers in the composite compared to blender where it seems everything has to be done through nodes which can be a bit awkward if you need to do a 2d animation of one of your inputs with a bit more precision after effects is also much faster in previewing results of changes you make in comparison to blender you can lock or isolate layers to view them separately and see what they are providing to your composite without having to add or move your view node saving precious time now with after effects you can link and parent layers together in various ways and also use layers to drive track mats of various sorts that said as i mentioned before the disadvantage of this layer-based system is that it's more difficult to use your render data as inputs and outputs linking with each other like a node-based workflow and visually when you do so it's harder to see the big picture of what has occurred in your composite when things get complex now i haven't tried compositing in nuke yet which everyone says is the best however so far i think that blackmagic fusion's interface offers the best of the advantages of both blenders and after effects compositors blackmagic fusion is an even more advanced node based system giving us the ability to connect information that we need to composite together with inputs and outputs effectively most of its nodes offer many more inputs compared to blender's compositor meaning less steps are needed to create similar effects like after effects fusion also has far more effects and nodes to choose from compared to blender and in addition to this you can easily hand animate and position your layers in the composite with ease as far as speed goes fusion's preview system is much faster than blenders however it seems slightly slower in previewing than after effects one thing i really like about fusion is the ability to see the results so far of any part of the compositing tree in either of the two preview windows at the top of the screen simply by clicking on the right view or left view button on a node the advantages of being able to isolate and tweak what you have currently at any given part of your node tree with a single mouse click is a huge time saver as i mentioned previously one con of fusion compared to blender in my opinion is that the settings of each node open in a separate window compared to blender where the settings open up in the node itself which to me gives a slightly better picture of what is happening in the composite in conclusion i think it's fair to say that blackmagic fusion is far better for advanced composites compared to after effects and blender's compositing workflow however all three softwares have their place and you can achieve excellent results with them i'm almost always going to run to after effects for quick and simple 2d compositing such as muzzle flashes and simple 2d stock footage compositing for any projects where i'm creating 3d effects in blender i'm likely going to try and composite as much as i can within the blender compositing pipeline as well as it allows me to do test renders and experiment without moving to another software most of the nodes in blender get the job done for me currently however for a more specific effect or advanced composite in the future fusion's versatility and library of nodes might be necessary to achieve a better result anyways guys that's it for this video i hope it was helpful leave a comment below if you have any thoughts of your own regarding this topic subscribe if you're interested in more visual effects content and i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: LightArchitect

Views: 58,720

Keywords: after effects vs blender 3d, blender 3d vs blackmagic fusion, fusion vs after effects, nodes vs layers in visual effects, vfx breakdown blender, how to learn visual effects, best vfx compositing software, industry standard vfx software, filmmaking in blender 3d, cgi tutorials, ian hubert, lightarchitect, citybuilder3d addon for blender, after effects tutorials, blender tutorials, visual effects tutorials 2022, andrew price, andrew kramer, blender add-ons 2022

Id: OmC0CWoVQHM

Length: 6min 5sec (365 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 18 2022