In this workshop, Nacho Thomas explains how feature film artists use compositing techniques like paint-overs and projections to work faster without sacrificing quality. By relying on strong fundamentals and practical, ready-made tools, artists can achieve polished results while keeping the flexibility to adjust lighting and color even after projection painting is finished. This workflow offers a proven, production-tested solution to common VFX bottlenecks.

Duration: 5m 8s

In this lesson, Nacho discusses how professional VFX artists efficiently handle tight deadlines and budgets through smart technique selection. By combining projection mapping with strategic paint-over work, artists can transform basic renders into detailed, cinematic shots in remarkably short timeframes.

Duration: 7m 56s

In this lesson, Nacho takes a pragmatic approach to VFX production that prioritizes efficiency over traditional perfectionism in 3D modeling. By strategically using kitbash assets, stand-ins, and deferring quality enhancements to the compositing stage, he demonstrates how artists can achieve professional results on limited hardware and tight deadlines.

Duration: 35m 57s

In this lesson, Nacho demonstrates techniques for optimizing render efficiency and compositor-friendly deliverables. By separating renders into logical passes with appropriate bit depths and organizing lights into controllable groups, the pipeline minimizes file sizes while maximizing creative flexibility downstream. He illustrates how using procedural scattering, proper EXR organization, and separate volumetric passes reflects real-world VFX production standards that balance technical efficiency with artistic control.

Duration: 42m 59s

In this lesson, Nacho walks through professional VFX workflows that prioritize quality control and fast iteration. By carefully reviewing test renders before committing to full sequences and using projection-based painting, he shows how artists can complete most of a shot’s final look much faster than traditional methods. Although projection painting has limits, it offers huge flexibility for last-minute changes and fits smoothly into existing compositing pipelines without slowing down other departments.

Duration: 30m 2s

In this lesson, Nacho's workflow shifts from traditional compositing approaches by prioritizing mathematical consistency throughout the pipeline. By manipulating the diffuse albedo, he shows how artists can make significant changes to asset appearance (from simple color shifts to complex dirt and wear painting). This approach produces more realistic results and preserves flexibility for downstream corrections, ensuring that compositors can continue to adjust light groups and other elements without breaking the mathematical relationships established during rendering.

Duration: 36m 16s

Nacho covers the concepts behind building effective tools in Nuke in this lesson, a process that requires understanding both the technical framework and practical user considerations. The key is starting with a clear purpose, building the interior functionality first, then carefully exposing only necessary controls while implementing fail-safes for unexpected usage. Mastering TCL expressions and understanding nodes like ST Map and Expression are fundamental skills that enable creation of sophisticated, production-ready tools.

Duration: 46m 1s

In this lesson, Nacho continues to discuss tool creation in Nuke, working toward finishing a tri-planner projection system, (which follows logical principles based on manipulating position and normal data to create axis-aligned ST maps). He shows how to convert continuous world-space coordinates into repeating 0-1 ranges that can be used for texture projection, and how to mask these projections based on surface normals. Adding user controls for tiling, translation, rotation, and scaling; Nacho shows how you can create a production-ready tool with intuitive parameters.

Duration: 55m 48s

In this lesson, Nacho examines how artists can utilize a projection workflow to enhance their 3D renders. By leveraging position passes and painting albedo modifications, Nacho demonstrates how to work non-destructively, maintain full control over lighting, and complete complex shot work faster. The method is effective for destruction, weathering, and environmental detailing where traditional UV texturing or card-based projections would be prohibitively time-consuming or technically impossible.

Duration: 36m 26s

In this lesson, Nacho presents a professional DMP projection workflow. The P-world projection technique, developed by Michael Garrett in 2010, remains the industry standard because it allows painted elements to stick properly to surfaces across multiple frames without geometric limitations. By carefully managing overscan, creating proper projection cameras, and using sophisticated masking techniques to eliminate echoes, Nacho shows how artists can efficiently paint onto 3D scenes while maintaining the ability to see real-time feedback in their composite.

Duration: 49m 38s

In this final lesson, Nacho demonstrates a non-destructive, industry-standard compositing workflow that keeps beauty passes and AOVs consistent while allowing fast iteration during look development. By projecting painted textures and using light-group color correction tools, he shows how to efficiently add weathering and fine detail to 3D renders. The workflow’s key strength is its reversibility and compatibility with downstream compositing, letting teams adjust individual light groups and AOV passes with confidence that the underlying mathematical relationships remain intact.

Duration: 54m 9s