[pablo]

I want to start this things from scratch
all I know in Maya you have Matchmover+Composite(exToxik) node based,
there's also Nuke...and layer based After Effects
I've found Gnomon Matchmoving and Nuke tutors and FXPHD tutors about compositing and tracking, also Hollywood Camera Work: Visual Effects For Directors
it's pretty much about it

so if someone has an experience in this topic please write some suggestions about which soft is for what, which tuts are ok or best for start, etc

THX as always

[Loudesbois]

That's easy to get.
Matchmoving is a 3D tracking process which allows you to recreate the movement of a live action camera.
For that process you can use Matchmover but the best remains Boujou, which is used by all major studios ( the two DVDs from Gnomon are both excellent ).
Then comes the modeling part, texturing and rendering using the camera you recreated, which gives you the right pespective.
You can do it with any 3d app, including Maya, of course.
Finally you composite both plates ( live action and 3d render ) in a compositing package ( Toxik, Nuke, After Effects, Fusion or whatever ).

[Zigaretos]

The main purpose of motion track is to create a (new) space or guide based on (tracked) live video.
Matchmover, Boujou, PFTrack, even maya's default mo-track are good, but try to use manual track instead of auto-track, you just need minimum of 7 of target points, so you can rename each point like : table top left, table top right, toy feet left, toy feet right, etc.
I think theres a lot of tutos on youtube or google.

Btw, I use Boujou (especialy for paralax problem) or Maya's default mo-track and nuke for comp.

[sassimicah]

okay maya is a 3d app but also has options for tracking video data to allow plate matching of a 3d element ,be it a digital double or an effect like an explosion or a flood .even if you have an older version of maya that didn't come with matchmover you would still have 'maya live' which still does a very acceptable job in matchmoving .
i would insist you start with gnomon coz they have a series on just that i haven't gone through them myself but they seem to have sat down to deal with that particular issue.
nuke is best for compositing although i am ....we are, hoping that it will become what we hope it to become......and that is a scene assembler i.e an artist whether 3d or comp artist will be able to assemble 3d elements in a scene and work out its lighting system from inside the software among other things...right now details are sketchy on that but what would make nuke your best bet apart from that fact is that its getting technical support from sony pictures which may mean you'll be at the cutting edge of compositing as if you were actually using proprietary(software used by the big boys under closed doors) software.
There is nothing wrong with other alternatives like digital fusion but nuke seems to be the beast of the lot followed by shake (only available on macintosh...that being said no one said you couldn't install mac os on pc especially since they started using intel processors).
After effects is in a league of tis own i would say after photoshop this would be adobe's flagship product especially if you are a disciple of andrew kramer with a ton of free tutorials on only cool stuff from making to blowing up planets .......its the software you turn to if you are in a pipeline and want to create a mock effect before recreating that effect in 3d or as full on effects for shorter productions and production times where creating and refining sims would be cost and time consuming.
Back to gnomon i do believe they have tutorials for maya live,nuke (although rudimentary), matchmover and boujou.....i cant say much about boujou coz i havent used it or had the opportunity to. neither have i used pftrack but they are both (at least i heard) good solutions for motion tracking .As for fxphd they have more to offer in after effects and nuke than any other tut website i know and its the best bet for a good learning.
If you are the ambitious type there is also escape studios you should check that out they do have topics on that very subject and the demo videos are sweet.
as for experience it all depends on what you are trying to do and under what schedule coz you dont need to learn them all unless your job is primarily comp work and even then just a few are needed .
if i heard to give a verdict on where 'scratch' for you should be ,it should be gnomon,then fxphd,then videocopilot.i hope i have helped....and that i wasn't long winded.sorry if so.

[flervk]

as for lighting in Nuke, Katana is coming soon.

the main and biggest difference between AE and Nuke is node based system, which is industry standard. AE is king in the motion graphics field, but that doesn't mean that you can't use it for compositing (Christiansen used it on The Day After Tomorrow, for example)- only that it's much easier with nodes.
stuff worth looking into:
pretty much everything Steve Wright does (2 excellent books on compositing, try Amazon or eBook version; also, CG Workshop and just yesterday released Lynda Nuke course - yeah, baby! , FxPHD courses, SphereVFX Nuke 3D DVD (and soon to be released 45 hrs long Nuke mega-course), ESC Studios Nuke course.
Gnomon DVDs are somewhat useful (they're for Nuke V4 - different interface, but basics are pretty much he same), but that guy annoyed me extremely.
and there are Ron Brinkmann's "The Art And Science Of Digital Compositing" (worth every dollar, superb stuff; FxPHD VFX 101 course is based on that very book), and Lee Lanier's "Professional Digital Compositing".


of matchmoving: Tim Dobbert has an excellent theory book and 2 Gnomon DVDs, which are perfect companions; then, there's "The Art and Technique of Matchmoving: Solutions for the VFX Artist" by Erica Hornung (soon to be released, hopefully it'll be good); also, I think you're much better of learning stand-alone tracking software (I preffer PFTrack), so go get FxPHD and CMIVfx PFTrack courses (available at your local warez depot everywhere
that Hollywood Camera Work course is also very good, although software agnostic as they like to call it - but you need to grasp the theory first, so pay attention

hope this helps somewhat, enjoy

[muchograndes]

Watch the hollywood vfx for directors, that will get you on the right track. then start doing more specialized software tutorials, like nuke and bojou or pftrack.