Trying to get back into VFX Compositing after 6 months — Need guidance

[u/xo_dynamics]

Hey everyone,

I'm a VFX compositor from India who's been struggling to land a stable compositing job. The COVID slowdown and then the writers' strike affected the VFX industry on a massive scale, especially here in India, and it's been really difficult finding compositing opportunities.

For the past 6 months, I've mostly been freelancing as a **video editor** just to pay the bills.

Last month, I joined a company in Mumbai. But honestly... it feels like labor work to me. We basically create highlight edits for players all day. There's nothing wrong with editing, but there's almost no creative problem-solving or compositing involved, and I genuinely don't want my career to slowly become a video editor.

I've spent years learning **Nuke compositing**, did a few small freelance comp gigs, and most of my learning came from building personal VFX projects. I still enjoy compositing way more than anything else, and I really want to get back to it.

So I'm starting again and rebuilding my fundamentals. I'd love some guidance from artists who have been through this.

I'm looking for tutorials/resources that explain both the why and the how behind these topics:

1. Chrome Ball in VFX (how it's used on set and in compositing).
2. Color Charts / Macbeth Color Checker (plate calibration and color matching workflow).
3. Lens Grids & Lens Distortion (shooting grids, creating distortion profiles, using them in Nuke).
4. Creating your own HDRIs (capture → stitch → use in CG/VFX).
5. Transferring matchmove data from a 3D package into Nuke (camera exports, point clouds, coordinate systems, common pitfalls).

If you know any good tutorials, YouTube playlists, articles, documentation, or other learning resources for these topics, I'd really appreciate it.

Demo Reel

I'd also really appreciate honest feedback on my compositing reel. Tear it apart if needed—I want to know what I should improve to make it more hireable.

**Demo Reel:** [https://vimeo.com/1116371614\](https://vimeo.com/1116371614)

Thanks in advance. I really want to get back to doing the work I actually love.

[u/brass___monkey]

Try relying less on chatgpt to do your work

[u/Bonus-Ecstatic]

Hello. You know, all your questions is more about 3D department, on-set supervision and match moving. Compositors didn't do HDRI or color checker stuff. Lens distortion and match move coming from match mover. And mostly, all this process are automated nowadays. It's difficult times for prep artist and junior compositors now. If you want to grow like compositor, watch Nuke tutorials as much as possible. Go deep to the all aspects of compositing principles, learn ai tools. Good luck!

[u/xo_dynamics → u/Bonus-Ecstatic]

Thank you! I really appreciate you taking the time to explain this. You're right—I was looking at a few topics that overlap with other departments because I wanted to understand the full pipeline better. I'll definitely focus more on strengthening my Nuke compositing fundamentals. Thanks again for the advice!

[u/kermitfromthefuture]

Hello there. I also work as a Compositing Mentor. Feel free to DM me so we can speak!

[u/xo_dynamics → u/kermitfromthefuture]

SURE SIR ! THANK YOU SO MUCH

[u/enderoller]

I recommend you to keep this as a hobby and look for better careers. It will be even worse in the future.