Compositing CGI for dummies?
 

This may not be the place for this question, if so put this in the right place.

I'm interested in doing some CGI in my movies. I have been playing around with Cinema 4D and I have no clue how to composite the 3d objects into my video, the same goes with the shadows.

I have found some tutorials but they aren't "dumbed down" enough for me to understand, or they just give the main idea and don't go into detail. Since I am new to this, I NEED detail.

Is there anyone on here capable of compositing CGI into our movies that would be willing to write up a in depth "dumbed down" tutorial?

Travis,

Just for a reference, try downloading the trial version of Cool 3d from Ulead's web site. It's a very easy to learn (though somewhat limited) animation pgm. It's rather unique in that it contains MANY compositions, objects, styles, effects, etc. - and new ones appear regularly on their site. If something is close to what you want it's usually pretty easy to make modifications. Anyway, I thought it was easy to learn. And doing fancy things with text is a snap. I guess that's what you were asking about. If it's not - ignore everything I've just said. Good Luck!

Travis, can you tell us what your project is? Are you compositing titles? Space ships?

Right now, I'm just trying to learn it for future references and if my tests go well and I can learn it rather smoothly I am going to be working with a Fly model.

I will be compositing onto a scene with a mirror in it. Im sure that will make things tricky, but the fly will be very small for the most part in the shot so it should look pretty realistic cause you won't be able to notice details and such.

Im really just looking for a small tutorial on something simple, such as a cube or a cyclinder, first. Then I would like to use that same tutorial to be able to move further in my CGI endeavors. If that makes sense.

Thanks for your time guys.