[w i l l]

Can this be done easily just using photoshop.... i.e. putting a product into an outdoor scene? What software do the pro's use for this?

Could anyone recommend a good book/links etc on compositing?

Thank you.

[Hervé]

if you have Maya or 3DSMax

http://sfx.realviz.com/Autodesk/

regiter, and you'll get it for free !

[rivoli]

Can this be done easily just using photoshop....

well, it depends on what you mean by compositing. a bunch of things can be comped in PS with very little hassle, but usually one refers to animation when talking about compositing.

i.e. putting a product into an outdoor scene?

yep, that can be done in PS, even though any compositing package can make your life easier even with such a simple scenario.

What software do the pro's use for this?

it depends, there are quite a few of them: shake, combustion, fusion, nuke.. these are all node based compositing apps, but if one is already familiar with PS's layers, after effects might be a good choice as well.

Could anyone recommend a good book/links etc on compositing?

a bit outdated, but "art and science of digital compositing" by ron brinkmann is a very good one. and the basic principles still apply.

[w i l l]

Thanks for the detailed replies. I'l have a look into it!