lower thirds

GoPro Boosts Entire GoPro CineForm Studio Product Family

Today's announcement from GoPro is a significant one for a few reasons; one, it's a signal of incredible collaboration and innovative vision from the development team at the company. It's also a welcome announcement to a broad swath of the marketplace. We've seen how users ranging from consumers, motocross, skydivers, surfers to general enthusiasts have pushed GoPro cameras to the limit - but now we're starting to see how professional production crews are integrating GoPro cameras into some pretty sophisticated production pipelines.

The GoPro HERO2 introduced a breadth of features the professional crowd cheered about. Now with the availability of GoPro CineForm Studio, GoPro CineForm Studio Professional, and GoPro CineForm Studio Premium, the company is introducing some very sophisticated post production technology that's intuitive enough for the consumer crowd, and highly valuable to the professional filmmaker cutting HD documentaries, or sophisticated 3D stereoscopic productions.

This is big news!

Here's the press release that hit this morning:

 

 

GoPro® Strengthens Entire GoPro CineForm® Studio Product Line for 2D and 3D 

Post Production Workflows

 

HALF MOON BAY, CA (January 18, 2012) – GoPro, the world’s leading activity image capture company, today announced the release of a new version of its professional family of 2D and 3D production software - GoPro CineForm Studio Premium and GoPro CineForm Studio Professional.  The company recently released a new version of its free software, GoPro CineForm Studio, which adds powerful new features appealing to consumers and professionals alike.  

“This announcement represents a significant milestone in GoPro’s efforts to provide a complete camera-to-software solution for 2D and 3D productions for its entire customer base,” said David Newman, GoPro’s Senior Director of Software Engineering.  “The updated GoPro CineForm Studio software line has huge implications, not only for consumers and enthusiasts, but for professional cinematographers and filmmakers who are increasingly embracing new camera technologies to help them tell their stories in ever more exciting and unique ways.  The new software maintains an intuitive user interface for basic tasks but also provides sophisticated Active Metadata-driven capabilities that slipstream into the most advanced production pipelines in the industry.”

 

What’s New in the GoPro CineForm Studio Product Line

GoPro CineForm Studio

Available for both Mac and Windows platforms, GoPro CineForm Studio enables users of every skill level to adjust aspect ratios and instantly correct distortions or ‘image stretching’ that typically occurs when resizing images. And for high impact, dramatic time lapse sequences, GoPro CineForm Studio now enables users to add keyframes anywhere in the video, and add effects such as pan and zoom to introduce movement and drama to time lapse sequences. 

Other new features include: 

• Automatic recognition for 3D videos for YouTube uploads 
• Auto-update of HD HERO2® camera firmware
• Support for popular .mov and .mp4 video formats to bring in content from other camera systems

 

GoPro CineForm Premium and GoPro CineForm Professional

For professional cinematographers, filmmakers and videographers, GoPro has also strengthened its family of professional applications; GoPro CineForm Premium and GoPro CineForm Professional. GoPro CineForm Studio Premium captures the most popular features of both CineForm’s Neo HD and Neo 3D into a singular, new solution ideal for 2D and 3D broadcast and feature film production. GoPro CineForm Studio Professional extends even more powerful stereo 3D post-production capabilities to 3D broadcasters and 3D feature filmmakers, and is optimized for multi-camera stereo rigs, such as SI, PHANTOM, RED, and ARRI ALEXA. Additional features at-a-glance include:

GoPro CineForm Studio Premium:

• New and improved user interface
• Non-destructive Color correction
• Non-destructive Reframing/Image manipulation
• Non-destructive 3D correction
• Support for a wide range of consumer and professional 2D and 3D (single body) 

                        video cameras

• Support for HD and beyond

GoPro CineForm Studio Professional:

• New and improved user interface
• Non-destructive Color correction
• Non-destructive Reframing/Image manipulation
• Advanced Non-destructive 3D correction
• Support for a wide range of consumer and professional 2D and 3D (all types) 

                        video cameras

• Support for HD and beyond
• Independent eye control for professional 3D camera rigs

 

Pricing and Availability

GoPro CineForm Studio is available immediately as a free download here. 

 

GoPro CineForm Studio Premium is priced at $299, and GoPro CineForm Studio Professional is priced at $999 and are available for download here: http://www.cineform.com.

 

About GoPro

Based in Half Moon Bay, California, GoPro makes the world’s most versatile cameras, enabling people to capture and share their lives’ most exciting moments in professional quality HD video and photos. GoPro’s HD HERO line of wearable and gear mountable cameras are used collectively by more consumers, professional athletes, and video production professionals than any other camera in the world. GoPro’s products are sold in over 60 countries via specialty sports retailers, Sport Chalet, Best Buy and at GoPro.com.

 

GoPro Media Contact:

 

Rick Loughery, GoPro Kevin Bourke, BourkePR

(415) 738-2480 x722 or pr(at)gopro(dot)com (508) 259-6018 or [email protected]

 

GOPRO®, HERO®, and CineForm® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Woodman Labs, Inc. in the United States and other countries.  All other company, product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their rightful owners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Imagineer's mocha Key to 3D Conversion Pipeline for TRIXTER

Since 1998, TRIXTER has been creating outstanding visual effects and digital character animation for feature films, television and commercials. From the early days, TRIXTER established itself as a major player in the field of emotive character animation, both for fully computer generated animated features as well as live-action productions. Over the past few years, TRIXTER has expanded its expertise by branching out into visual effects and has recently accomplished some outstanding work for German and international projects such as Percy Jackson, Lilly The Witch, Iron Man 2, Narnia 3, X-Men: First Class, Journey 2, Captain America and many more.

 

Today, TRIXTER is unique in its ability to provide quality digital production for live action and animated features, in mono or 3D stereo. Whether it be key framed computer generated creatures or motion capture driven performances, matte paintings or FX work, TRIXTER has the experience and talent to deliver work of the highest standards. Its community of innovative digital artists and computer technologists collaborate creatively with filmmakers, helping them to bring their vision from the storyboard to the theater and delight audiences around the globe. TRIXTER has offices in Munich, Berlin, Los Angeles and Toronto.

 

Imagineer Systems’ Ross Shain recently spoke with Michael Habenicht, Compositing TD for TRIXTER, and talked extensively about their innovative and highly acclaimed stereo 3D and visual effects projects from this past year. They also talked about mocha and the role it played in their pipeline.

 

Imagineer: Can you tell us about recent projects TRIXTER has worked on, the challenges you faced and how you overcame them? We understand that you used mocha fairly extensively on many tough projects; what can you tell us about your experiences?

 

Michael: mocha has been used extensively on all projects at TRIXTER this year, ranging from stereo conversion for "Green Lantern" to VFX for "X-Men: First Class," "Captain America: The First Avenger," and "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island." mocha’s Planar Tracker and roto capabilities were heavily relied on for these films!

 

Imagineer: Tell me a little about your pipeline and the other software you use. How does mocha integrate into your workflow? 

 

Michael: We use Nuke for all the compositing here at TRIXTER. mocha integrates really well as it is only a matter of exporting to the clipboard and then pasting directly in Nuke. Also the new features since Nuke 6.2 was released that allows us to export only the keyframes for shapes, instead of having to “bake” every frame, really improves the workflow and speeds things up. So much can be done in mocha that, once we export to Nuke, there’s little back and forth for final adjustments - and that’s another huge time saver!

 

Imagineer: How many shots were tracked with mocha, and how did mocha assist the process? 

 

Michael: Well, I would say nearly every shot gets tracked with mocha at some point in the process - mocha touches everything, especially if a shot requires some cleanup, replacement or roto. It provides excellent results in no time. Simply load your clip, draw the shape, track it, paste it into Nuke. Our artists, some of whom have never used it before, learned it very fast and were instantly impressed by what can be achieved. The ability to add a grid to the tracking gives us very good, fast feedback and perspective about the quality. Also the magnifier that shows the keyframe before and after is an essential aid to good consistent roto.

 

Imagineer: Can you talk about any particular challenges or shots on which mocha was a significant help? Would these shots have been more difficult to achieve in another set of tools? 

 

Michael: On X-Men our task was to replace Mystique's eyes. Without mocha, it wouldn't have been possible in the given time while allowing us to keep to our quality standards. The shots provided several challenges. First we had to track the eyes or the face to get the general movement. mocha's robust algorithm significantly helped with this. It doesn't get distracted easily by small movements and variations in the pattern that differ from the overall movement. So blinks of the eyes were rarely a problem like they used to be when you tried to track a single feature in another software. The first round of tracking helped to roto the eyes and place the new ones. The second round tackled the movement of the pupil. Reproducing all subtle movements of the original performance was key to a successful shot. This way we could preserve all the character's emotions even with her new set of eyes!

 

On Journey 2 (a project in stereo 3D) we had to do a lot of cleanup. An animal that was used on set for filming had to be removed here and there so that a new CG creature could be inserted. mocha was a big help by providing reliable tracks for patches and roto.

 

mocha is an amazing tool that keeps getting better. We’re looking forward to new developments with mocha - features we know will benefit us even more, like a python api. This new feature will help us integrate pipelines and workflows even more effectively. 

 

mocha has truly changed the way we work here at TRIXTER and enables us to tackle the most complex VFX and stereo 3D conversion projects with the confidence that we can deliver flawless results, every time!

 

Hello, SkaterGirl!

Recently, we were introduced to Digieffects customer, Julian Bleecker; photographer, digital media artist and founder of Hello, Skater Girl. We were so mesmerized by the imagery he created, capturing women skaters competing in the gritty backdrop of skate parks all over the US; we wanted to meet him and learn more about him and how he creates his art.

 

Digieffects (DE): Can you tell us a little about HelloSkaterGirl, and about yourself?

 

Julian Bleecker (JB): I moved to Venice Beach California awhile ago and wanted to get to know the history and culture of where I was living. I'm an over-enthusiastic amateur photographer. A camera and a lens provides a decent way for me to ask questions about where I am and who I'm around in an indirect way, which is comfortable for me. I stared shooting in the Venice Beach Skatepark because I knew that place was a dog-eared page of the story that is this beach town — the history of this place passes straight through surf-skate life and culture. It was an amazing visual-anthropology to shoot there and get to know all the wonderful and curious people and their stories about skating and the Westside — Dogtown, Santa Monica, Venice, Mar Vista, Marina del Rey. I became a bit obsessed with capturing as many facets of the life as possible. Almost by accident, I found myself traveling to shoot with skaters and at competitions all around the country.

 

I got to shoot at X-Games 16, which was amazing and daunting to be up close to incredible skaters. Towards the end of a long, hot, sweaty day of shooting and lugging around gear and being humbled by the other professional photographers, I went into the air conditioned Nokia Theater to cool down. The Women's Vert Ramp Competition was on. I hadn't even thought once about shooting any of the women's events. Why not? It's not an excuse, but I can only surmise that the bias of a year of shooting men unconsciously led me to ignore women skaters. Not shooting with women wasn't a choice so much as a result of the familiar systemic issue that skateboarding is for guys.

That day was an eye opener. The women were bringing heat. This was real competition. Plenty of thrills. Lots of air. They were 110% sporty. Competitive while also encouraging and supporting one another. 

That event was the start of this project. Through the Hello, Skater Girl project I hoped to distinguish what these sportswomen are doing without fetishizing the fact that they are women in a sportsman's game. Rather that they are women skating like women. I hope that these images in the book show a bit of that and their spirit and personalities.

But, I don't do this full-time, although sometimes it seems so. I'm normally a designer and technology guy. I work in the Advanced Design studio for Nokia here in Los Angeles and I run a design and innovation studio called The Near Future Laboratory where we figure out what could be, even if it's really weird.

 

DE: What camera equipment and software was used?

JB: I'm a Nikon boy by birth. I have a bunch of bodies from a D3S to an N90S. The lenses run the gamut, but mostly I shoot with the wider ones — 14mm/2.8, 16mm/2.8, 20mm/2.8, 24mm/1.4, but I usually keep my old trusty 85mm/1.8 handy. My go-to lens for the skateboard work has been the 24mm/1.4. I've been trying to perfect shooting it nearly wide open with an nearly black-out neutral density filter to let me keep it open in bright sun. The bokeh you can get with these conditions and a bit of luck makes the photography more portrait-like, which is an aesthetic I've been going for. The hyperfocal on wider lenses or slower lenses makes the images lack depth and look quite flat, in my opinion.

On the software side, I use ImageIngester and Photo Mechanic for the ingestion and pre-processing and then Adobe Lightroom and a big RAID array for cataloging and managing photos. The workflow feels medieval. Someone is really going to put sort this digital asset management thing and make it all work nicely. Right now it's harder than it needs to be. All the VFX work is done in AfterEffects and Final Cut.

 

DE: How much time is spent in post and VFX?

JB: I tend not to fuss too much with the images, although the spontaneity of the subject and the fact that its not studio photography means that the light isn't always spot-on. You're basically trying to take photos of very excited squirrels running all over the place and so you never really know what the light is going to do to you — clouds move, the sun moves, sometimes you shoot into it, sometimes its oblique to you. So it helps to capture images with lots of latitude for some corrections between very dark darks and very bright brights. 

I use Nik Software's tools to help with that sort of thing, especially their Viveza tool. When I find an image I want to use, I tend to spend a bit of time with it. And, if I'm using it for one of still life with motion animations, I'll spend anywhere from an hour to a couple of days working with it. Mechanically the DigiEffects Camera Mapper effect makes it easy to setup the animation. Actually getting an animation and camera move that's satisfying can take as long as you want.

 

DE: There are some really nice color and VFX treatments to your work. Which Digieffects products do you use and how did they assist the process?

JB: I used Camera Mapper for all the animations. That was the core tool for the animations. The Buena Depth Cue suite is great to work with. Although most of the depth effects I created in camera, things like the Depth tool allowed me to enhance the aesthetic I was looking in a couple of the animations with very few hassles.

 

DE: What features of the products did you most take advantage of?

JB: Camera Mapper makes it relatively easy to get a great alternative to the tired Ken Burns pan-and-zoom for still images. I mean — I'm trying to use still images in a very time-based media world. It was a challenge to figure out what to do and once I saw that sort of effect in films like The Kid Stays in the Picture and Riding Giants. Camera Mapper and animating camera moves that reveal parallax is a really exciting alternative to 3D that is more authentic to photography in a video format.

 

DE: Can you talk about any particular challenge or frustration that Digieffects helped with?

JB: It took me several tries to figure out how to make Camera Mapper work. I think I wasn't thinking visually and just following the steps as I understood them in the tutorials. I think I'll do my own tutorial. The moves I'm doing are quite simple visually so I think a tutorial would explain the basic principles simply. Camera Mapper set me up to focus on what and how I wanted to animate stills. After doing it many, many times I can imagine how I could do it without the plug-in — but it greatly simplifies the workflow.

 

You can see more of Julian’s work on his web site here: http://helloskatergirl.com Or check out his Vimeo page here to see more stunning videos created with Digieffects: http://vimeo.com/helloskatergirl

 

Julian is also working on a new book; a limited edition collection of photography and the stories behind the Hello, Skatergirl photos. He’s using Kickstarter as a way to get the book into people’s hands. To support this effort, please visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/221647184/hello-skater-girl. 

 

 

 

IRIDAS SpeedGrade NX Central to Stereo 3D Pipeline on Zambezia

 

Zambezia 3D: A Look at a Finely Honed 3D Production Pipeline

As the trend in Hollywood toward increasingly sophisticated, visually immersive stereo 3D production continues, another trend is gaining ground as well; studios partnering with smaller, specialized stereo 3D production artists around the world who have invested in the tools and techniques to create custom stereo production pipelines built on the industry’s most leading edge technologies. IRIDAS customer, Triggerfish Animation Studios, has been building a reputation as one of those experts, with an innovative stereo pipeline built on SpeedGrade NX.  

Triggerfish Animation Studios is a Cape Town based studio of professional artists who specialize in bringing fresh, inventive and efficient techniques into long format animation. It took its first plunge in 1996 as a high-end stop-frame studio producing animation for Takalani Sesame Street as well as creating some of South Africa's most memorable commercials. 

Recently, the team at Triggerfish partnered with San Francisco-based Wonderful Works on the production of the newest, soon to be released animated 3D film, Zambezia 3D. We recently sat down with the team to talk about Zambezia and the stereo 3D pipeline they developed to create this stunning, 3D animated feature film.

The fact that Triggerfish is the only studio in South Africa that focuses exclusively on feature-length animated films means that we're one of the few studios on the continent that have the energy and capacity to pull off a big production like Zambezia.  The central theme of the story was penned by South African writers, so it made sense for the film to be produced by a studio who has always been passionate about telling African, yet universally appealing stories.

Our co-producers in the U.S., Wonderful Works, saw the potential of an independent studio presenting original stories from South Africa alongside big Hollywood studios which meant that we had to make sure that the movie's local flavor and humor would also appeal to American audiences. One of the challenging requirements has been to keep an open mind in the creative transatlantic exchange between America and South Africa.

We always knew and had planned our online edit to be handled off premises at our partner company the HD Hub. Once Zambezia received the green light to become a fully stereoscopic film, we immediately began to R&D pipelines that would allow us all the control the 2D Edit and what we now call the 3D Edit. Early on in production we attempted to incorporate all the stereoscopic effects such as depth blending and floating windows into the Final Cut Edit. The 2D edit would effectively remain untouched other than implementing stereoscopic monitoring and effects. Things became a little more complicated when we discussed these stereoscopic effects with the HD Hub and how we would transfer all this information across to them. We could brute force it and manually recreate all the effects during the online, but that did not last long. XML files could transfer all the information needed, but getting time to test on the Baselight system was impossible. Ultimately we needed an all-in-one Online DI solution that allowed our stereo department to apply all the stereoscopic effects too.

 The Workflow

The animation workflow is very much shot oriented - right down to the folder structure on the server. Each shot exists as an entirely separate entity from any other shot. Animators produced captures of their work during production that then was pulled into the edit each day. These files were stored with the animation files and originally the final rendered passes and fully composited shot would also live within their own folders.

The workflow developed organically to the system we have now where animation captures are converted to Prores/DNxHD and stored independently of the working animation files on a system dedicated to the edit suites. Final rendered DPX files became the next challenge, the director wanted to see them in the edit as soon as possible, so a few simple tools were scripted for DPX to Prores/DNxHD conversions.

With the addition of the IRIDAS SpeedGrade system for handling the online DI and 3D edit, we simply made a few minor changes to allow for SpeedGrade to access the stereo DPX files quickly and easily after receiving an EDL from the edit.

IRIDAS has become a key component of our edit and finishing solution. Once the 2D edit has been locked on each reel of the film, the editor exports an EDL for SpeedGrade, which then directly accesses the final rendered frames of the film.

Once conformed within SpeedGrade, the stereography department steps in. Their roll includes confirming that all final frames are 100% accurate between eyes as any slight disparities can cause visual artifacts and discomfort when viewing 3D films. They then apply any Depth Blending effects required and the application of floating windows is the final pass. SpeedGrade NX is the last step before going to DCI conversion either for cinema tests or final exports of the film. Effectively SpeedGrade was the solution to all our stereoscopic editing and DI needs. It has also given us the potential to do some primary grade work on the film before sending it out for the final grade.

SpeedGrade certainly filled all our current pipeline requirements with regards to a stereoscopic DI solution. Its near-perfect importing of EDLs which then link directly to the DPX sequences has made it so simple going from the offline edit to SpeedGrade. The flexibility and openness of SpeedGrade’s storage format (XML) has allowed us to write add on tools for some smaller in house requirements. The customization via the .fcps files has also made SpeedGrade fit perfectly into our pipeline.

Once we got our heads around the methodologies and innovations of IRIDAS and SpeedGrade, it became an indispensable tool in our arsenal and an extremely powerful stereoscopic workflow enhancement that has become second nature to our team.

 

IRIDAS Speaks with TRIXTER on the 3D Conversion Pipeline for Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Since 1998, TRIXTER has been creating outstanding visual effects and digital character animation for feature films, television and commercials. From the early days, TRIXTER established itself as a major player in the field of emotive character animation, both for fully computer generated animated features as well as live-action productions. In the past few years, TRIXTER has been broadening their expertise into visual effects and have recently accomplished some outstanding work for German and international projects such as Ninja Assassin, Percy Jackson, Lilly The Witch and many more.

Today, TRIXTER is unique in its ability to provide quality digital production for live action or animated features, in mono or stereo 3D. Whether it be key framed computer generated characters or motion capture driven performances, matte paintings or FX work, TRIXTER has the experience and talent to work to the highest standards. And it is precisely this expertise that has captured the attention of major studios and has earned TRIXTER highly coveted spots on the productions of such new 3D blockbusters as Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Green Hornet.

IRIDAS recently caught up with the team at TRIXTER to talk about one of their recent crowning achievements, Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

TRIXTER has quickly become renowned for their expertise in stereoscopy, their early experience with stereoscopic conversions, and their advanced in-house tools and standardized workflows.  TRIXTER has also earned a reputation for managing conversion projects with extreme accuracy.  Following a test project for MARVEL Studios, TRIXTER earned the confidence and trust of Walden Media and FOX Studios and earned a spot for the stereo 3D work on Narnia.

 

We spoke with Michael Coldeway, president of TRIXTER, and asked him about their work on Narnia, the production pipeline they executed, and the challenges they faced.

 

What makes TRIXTER stand apart? What made TRIXTER so ideally suited for the conversion of Narnia?

I believe that one attribute that is not only unique to TRIXTER, but attractive to our clients, is that we do not use an automated process as part of our workflows. But rather, we select appropriate VFX techniques for each shot, be they projection, feature detection, motion detection, 3D point clouds, keying, cleanplates, and in combination with our proprietary stereo 3D pipeline tools. 

We are first and foremost a VFX company. We’re highly experienced in solving problems creatively and technically. Before landing Narnia, we had already put several films in their entirety through our facility in various capacities; this means that our pipeline is proven and reliable, and we understand the realities of stereo conversion, post production and a deadline.

With our general understanding of storytelling and visuals, we now approach stereo conversion in a very unique way - it's not necessarily about just rotoscoping everything, but using all the VFX tricks we've learned, we create a stereo volume which helps the narrative or mood of a scene.

What were some of the key requirements and demands on your team?

The team had a number of challenges and requirements, including the need for our team to work in strict adherence to a detailed creative briefing and tight delivery schedule. The flexibility of our workflow and our ability to leverage all of our technical procedures while keeping the focus on the substance of the shot was also a key challenge. But we invested the time and energy to truly understand what the creators had in mind, the story they wanted to tell, and how the stereoscopic effects would enhance the story. Then we rallied our team behind the vision of the client! 

What stood out as the immediate challenges for the project?

We entered this project knowing that 2D - 3D conversion - or movies that had recently been converted - received a lot of criticism, so the anxiety level was high. For the major US studios, the pressure was high to get the movie into the theaters with no complaints about the S3D. So while quality expectations were very high, there was also a significantly high level of stereoscopic complexity and detail, so the pressure was on!

We also spoke with Michael about the pipeline and asked him to describe TRIXTER’s workflow on Narnia for us.  Here’s what he had to say:

For the Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, we were able to use our standardized in-house workflow from the many, many 2D projects we’ve completed. We only needed to make some changes to our file structure. Additionally, we already had a basic stereo compositing pipeline. Additional modules were needed to implement additional stereoscopic VFX layers and -- especially in NUKE -- we created a lot of creative gizmos to help us control of the 3D space.

IRIDAS FrameCycler is our main tool for stereoscopic reviews. The FrameCycler timeline is generated automatically by our pipeline tool using database information. All artists render directly into a FrameCycler timeline, and review shots in context of the edit (at a workstation as well as in screening room). It's a huge help that all of our different systems are supported: interlaced screens, shutter projectors, anaglyph, you name it. 

Plus, and this was a huge benefit of FrameCycler, the XML format of the IRCP files enables us to easily implement FrameCycler into our automated pipeline.

How important is pipeline automation to your process in general?

Pipeline automation is absolutely crucial for any production over a certain scale.

We utilize a very unique data import process for a company our size. FrameCycler DI and MetaRender are important parts of this procedure.

 As conversion is much more a process of incremental changes compared with shooting live action 3D, how important are real time review capabilities?

Reviewing shots on a decent desktop 3D monitor is crucial for every artist, however in our experience, we realized that regular reviews on a big screen are even more important. FrameCycler made that not only possible, but easy!

What kind of data would you ideally like to get from the set for a conversion projects? 

There are some specific things we need to see, including separate, pre-combined and pre-multiplied 2D elements according to arrangement in depth with alpha channel - clean plates or clean backgrounds - any roto masks created for 2D composite - witness camera footage in sync with original plates - general camera data (lenses, apertures, distances) - ideally a z depth channel for rendered CG elements.

How would you sum up your experience with IRIDAS FrameCycler on this project?

We can safely say that the team at TRIXTER heavily relies on what is a highly stable, well developed and proven solution from IRIDAS.  Framecycler not only delivered the performance and quality our clients demanded, it also seamlessly played with all of our 3D hardware, and that’s critical for us. With a project as massive as Narnia, you don’t want to have to waste precious time wondering if your tools will work together. FrameCycler delivered with flying colors!

TRIXTER has offices in Munich and Berlin, in Germany and is opening an office in Los Angeles in early 2011.

 

Imagineer Systems Bolsters Support for Schools, Students with New Educational Discount Program

 

In a press release dated today, Imagineer Systems announced an even stronger commitment to the film schools and students with a formal educators discount.  Here's the full text of the press release:

 

Press Release

 For Immediate Release

 

 

Imagineer Systems Bolsters Support for Schools, Students with New Educational Discount Program

 

Special Pricing for Schools Help Prepare Students for Advanced Tracking, Roto with mocha and mocha Pro

GUILDFORD, UK (January 11, 2011) -- Imagineer Systems (www.imagineersystems.com) today announced it has launched a new educational initiative designed to make it easier for schools and students to invest in, and learn valuable planar tracking and rotoscoping skills with mocha and mocha Pro, the Company’s powerful, 64-bit VFX desktop software tools.  With this announcement, Imagineer Systems is launching a new educators pricing program for schools and students that includes special discounts on mocha and mocha Pro.  

 The new program comes at a time when schools are expanding their efforts to provide more advanced VFX training for their students and better prepare them for new careers upon graduation.

 “mocha’s impact on the VFX industry can clearly be seen in works as far ranging as blockbuster 3D movies to everyday television commercials, and film schools are striving to prepare their students for these new opportunities,” said Ross Shain, chief marketing officer, Imagineer Systems.  “As a result of these trends, we have seen a sharp rise in installations of mocha at schools around the world.  We decided the time was right to launch a program that made it even easier for schools and students to invest in mocha, giving them the industry’s most powerful tracking and roto tools at a price that didn’t break their already thin budgets.”

 “At The DAVE School in Orlando, Florida, we provide professional level training in digital animation and visual effects.  Tools like mocha and mocha Pro are now an essential part of the VFX industry and we teach them within our compositing and stereoscopic programs,” added Daniel Smith, Stereoscopic Instructer, Dave School. “We have recently found that many companies are looking for experienced mocha users, and we are happy to provide students with the skills they need to land jobs in the VFX industry.”

 For more information on The Dave School, please visit http://www.daveschool.com/.

 Educators Discounts

Effective immediately, qualifying schools and students are eligible to receive mocha and mocha Pro at the following prices:

 

• mocha (Node and Floating License): $149.00 US
• mocha Pro (Node and Floating License): $199.00 US

 Note: Floating licenses will be made available only to qualifying academic institutions, while node licenses will be made available to individuals/students.

 For more information on the educational discounts, please visit http://www.imagineersystems.com/purchase/academic-discount.

 

About mocha Pro and mocha

Leveraging more than 8 years of engineering research and development, mocha Pro delivers all the planar tracking and rotoscoping tools from its award winning mocha, and adds compositing tools for match moving, auto image and wire removal, clean plate generation, lens distortion correction and stabilization, to deliver an all-in-one master VFX tool set.  Built on Imagineer Systems’ award-winning 2.5D planar tracking technology, and integrated with its signature insertion and placement, removal and stabilization tools, mocha Pro offers digital media artists a powerful, intuitive and innovative planar tracking-based solution with a streamlined interface, accelerated workflow and the power to easily manipulate and track shots not possible with traditional solutions.

 

mocha is a stand-alone tracking and roto desktop application designed to complement any compositing and finishing environment.  mocha’s unique planar tracker and streamlined interface  allows artists to easily track shots where traditional point trackers fall short.  mocha enables artists to quickly and easily solve difficult tracks and export transform, scale, rotation, and perspective keyframes to the industry’s most popular applications, such as After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Flame, Smoke, Avid D|S, Quantel, Fusion and Nuke.

 

About Imagineer Systems 

Imagineer Systems Ltd innovates and markets next-generation visual effects solutions for film, video and broadcast post production markets.  Imagineer Systems has made its mark on such marquee Hollywood blockbuster productions as Alice in Wonderland, Iron Man 2, Shutter Island, Invictus, G-Force and the Harry Potter series. Imagineer’s desktop product line consists of mocha Pro - roto, planar tracking, compositing, and removal utility;  mocha - planar tracking and roto utility for all VFX artists; mocha AE - a planar tracking and roto utility designed for After Effects and Final Cut Pro users.  Imagineer Systems was founded in 2000 and its headquarters is located in Guildford, United Kingdom.  For more information visit www.imagineersystems.com.  

 

IRIDAS SpeedGrade DI and Paradise FX's Stereo Pipeline for "A Dolphin's Tale 3D"

Joe VanDalsem of ParadiseFX in Los Angeles is a very busy man.  And with the steep rise in demand for stereo 3D productions in Hollywood today, he’s busier than ever!  

 Founded in 1992, Paradise FX has a well deserved reputation for excellence and innovations, as one of the earliest pioneers in HD3D production and post production, and today, they are well ahead of the curve in 3D stereoscopic production.  With a custom designed, state-of-the-art line of 3D “Tri-Delta” dual camera systems, as well as several digital systems in development, Paradise FX is quickly rising to the top of the list for major motion picture producers looking to create the next 3D blockbuster. The results they deliver have earned them industry accolades, awards, and most importantly, some very high profile projects.  

 

We recently spoke with Joe about their latest 3D stereo movie production - A Dophin’s Tale 3D, starring Morgan Freeman.  When we spoke with Joe, the team was at the precise half-way point in the production.  He shared with us some of the technical challenges of 3D production, and interestingly, how expectations and requirements of the directors and DPs are increasingly driving the need for leading edge, real time, on set stereoscopic tools.

 
 

There’s so much to consider in the stereoscopic pipeline/workflow - you need to be thinking about the role of each element in your pipeline, and how the tools integrate with each other - from camera to post.  And the more you can simplify and streamline at the beginning, the more time and money you’re going to save.

 

Right off the bat, we knew we were shooting with RED, so RED Rocket support was critical for viewing dailies.  We invested in IRIDAS’ SpeedGrade DI for a couple of reasons.  One was the RED Rocket support - this alone made it possible for us to be running dailies in 3D and in real time with cinema grade image quality.  Before Red Rocket support was part of our tool set, allowing us to stay in RAW format, we’d spend literally hours rendering before we could look at the content.  Not to mention, once you’ve rendered, you’re locked into formats, color spaces, resolution… there’s no going back - there’s no time.

 

With SpeedGrade DI, we’re viewing 3D content in real time without rendering and no commitments to formats.  We’re shooting a full days worth of stereo content and viewing the entire thing right away - no rendering and in full resolution.  This just isn’t possible with any other software out there.

 

Joe is also a big fan of DualStream NX, IRIDAS’ stereoscopic tool set at the heart of SpeedGrade DI.

 

IRIDAS has engineered an intuitive set of stereo tools that are miles ahead of their closest competitors.  DualStream NX was another key factor for us.  It came down to how DualStream handles stereo files - it’s not only just faster, there’s an entire range of features that enable us to deliver the director and DPs a theatrical 3D experience right in the production office.    To create more of a theatrical experience, we paired an 11 foot projection Stewart silver screen and a FULL 1080p LG CF3D passive polarized projector to emulate what people will ultimately see in theaters.  To do this, you need to do more than just muxing left and right eyes; you’re color grading, applying looks, everything to create the experience.  So not only are we seeing the 3D in real time, we’re able to grade, in 3D, on both eyes simultaneously and look at it in real time.

 

Today, there’s an expectation amongst directors, DP and production crews.  More than ever, time is money.  They want to see shots graded, in stereo, as close to (I can’t say exactly because we’re not working in XYZ space, which is the digital projection standard) how it’s going to look in theaters as possible - and they want to see it now.  It’s this level of expectation that’s driving decision making at the outset of a production - what cameras are you shooting with and in what format, what grading and previz tools are going to slipstream into that workflow and what’s going to deliver immediate, cinema grade content so we can ensure we get the shot right the first time - no rendering, no waiting, no reshooting.  We’re saving money every time we can view a shot and make key decisions on the fly.

 

With SpeedGrade DI, we know what we’re looking at here in real time is exactly what it’s going to look like in theaters.  And our ability to deliver that level of expertise, quality and peace of mind is invaluable to us at Paradise FX.

 

Flying in Stereo 3D with IRIDAS SpeedGrade DI: Wim Wenders’ ‘Il Volo’

German filmmaker, Wim Wenders, has become renowned worldwide for his distinctive cinematography and earlier this year, he set his sights on elevating the immersive experience of his films by adding a new element; another dimension. 

Wenders' latest creation, "Il Volo" (The Flight), is a 27 minute short film shot in 3D that tells the story of a group of immigrants who arrived on boats at the coast of Calabria. Ben Gazarra stars as the mayor of a Calibrian village who sets out to integrate a group of Kurdish refugees into the dwindling population of his own people.  Unlike the fantastical 3D action films of Hollywood today, Wenders set out to create a heightened reality through 3D techniques to create a truly immersive experience for his audiences.

To start, Wenders decided to shoot with two Vipers and two SI-2Ks, which required on-location services for both systems provided by Lilliwood and its Munich-based partner Greenpost. 

Thomas Harbers, CEO of Greenpost, provides us an in-depth, unique behind the scenes glimpse of Wenders’ newest 3D masterpiece.  What follows are excerpts from our conversation with Thomas, where he describes in detail the challenges on set, and the tools they used to overcome each obstacle as they explored new 3D territory:

We captured the Viper material using SONY SRW-1, and then ingested all material to two uncompressed Quicktime-movies per shot. The SI-2K magazines went straight into our IRIDAS SpeedGrade DI workstation, as SpeedGrade can work with the RAW files natively. Mixing these files with Quicktimes for dailies was a breeze as SpeedGrade can manage any mix of resolutions and practically every format within one project.

Being the DIT on this job, I usually would not care about what I see in the viewfinder;  I could always set things clean and just worry about not clipping my highlights. But the DoP wanted to see "natural colors," even for the preview.  So we used SpeedGrade to create some nice .looks for our show that were used from the very beginning to simulate film stock and a basic style.

The challenge, however, was to match the 2 sets of cameras. We created looks to make the SI-2K-material look like the Viper material, and another to make the images on our Hyundai 3D LCD look like the Material from the HDCAM-SR played back on a JVC-Broadcast Monitor.

For prepping the Dailies we always used the same kind of procedure, going through a fixed list of steps:

Step 1: Getting l/r in sync

In theory you should never see any temporal offsets between left and right eye. In practice, SpeedGrade has a simple way of taking care of this task.

Step 2 Colorimetry Matching

No two camera sensors are exactly the same. The same goes for lenses. Even if you use a matched pair, you'll still have different optical qualities. On top of that, shooting with a mirror rig always presents its own issues. On our P+S rig we had the left eye camera looking through the semitransparent mirror, and the right eye camera facing the mirror. The differences in colorimetry and the subtle luma differences have to be matched in grading, which is quite easily done in Speedgrade: When you apply a grading to a clip, you can select if you want to have this grading applied to both eyes or only to left or right eye. When you have lenses that differ greatly in vignetting for example, you can even apply a mask to only one eye to straighten that out.

The 2010 release of SpeedGrade which we had available as an early Beta, does the colorimetry matching automatically - with very nice results on almost all kind of shots.

Step 3: Geometry Alignment

With a well calibrated rig, this task shouldn't consume a lot of time. SpeedGrade 2010 does it automatically, even identifying vertical offset, rotation, focal length issues. As it creates a number readout, you can qualify the amount of trouble you create for further work in post. And you can still manipulate each value as everything is just metadata.

These tasks becomes tricky when you need to animate offset values. The mirror-rig from P+S is built with carbon fibre rods which are quite sturdy, but with one Viper camera weighing 5-7 kilos, those rods will bend. Maybe a small fraction of a degree, but that's enough to give you a few lines of vertical offset in the distance.

As soon as there is a tilt during the shot, the bending of the rods will change over time, giving you different vertical offsets in the beginning and the end of the shot. With animated key frames in the Stereo Panel in SpeedGrade, this is easy to address.

Step 4: Convergence and Handovers

"Il Volo" was shot converged. Therefore we didn't touch the convergence slider in SpeedGrade once for the dailies. As we got into post, that changed, of course. We used the animated convergence settings in SpeedGrade to create smooth changes along the Z-axis from shot to shot.

For this part in post, I didn't even have to leave my office to work with the guys at Lilliwood in Bologna: SpeedGrade has remote review capabilities, and Lilliwood runs their own SpeedGrade DI system. We could run remote sessions to discuss the creative aspect of Depth Grading while I was in Munich and they were in their office in Bologna, changing parameters interactively from both ends.

If you ask me about what was most amazing throughout the eight days of shooting from a technicians perspective, it was working with the two SI-2K cameras. As we moved around a lot, sometimes there wasn't enough time to get the workstation set up for prepping the material the same day. I used my notebook instead to have a quick look at the SI-2K-material. The notebook GPU does not give you full performance for realtime playback, but checking the stereo setup works great.

 

 

 

Digieffects Launches Buena Depth Cue V2

Buena Depth Cue Marketing Video from digieffects on Vimeo.

 

This is a pretty big announcement from Digieffects today; it's been nearly 5 years since the launch of Buena Depth Cue and the team at Digieffects has been working hard to really amp up this version with some extremely high quality effects, 64-bit performance.  A free trial download is available here so be sure to check this out.

Here's the press release:

 

 

Media Contact:
Kevin M. Bourke, BourkePR
Phone: (508) 259-6018
Email: [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Digieffects Streamlines, Strengthens VFX Plug-In Product Line with Launch of Buena Depth Cue V2

Digieffects Bolsters Buena Depth Cue V2 with 64 Bit Performance; Powerful Tools for Adding Realistic Depth-Related Effects to 3D Layers in After Effects

Wilmington, NC (December 10, 2010) – Digieffects® (www.digieffects.com), a developer of popular visual effects software plug-ins, announced today it is continuing its strategy of streamlining and strengthening its family of VFX plug-ins with the launch of Buena Depth Cue V2. Buena Depth Cue receives its first significant upgrade since its original launch approximately 5 years ago, adding 64-bit performance enhancements and providing After Effects artists with a sophisticated, powerful set of tools to add realistic 3D layers to their compositions.

Similar to the launch of Delirium V2 last month, Digieffects is bolstering Buena Depth Cue V2 with an updated 64-bit compatible code base, significant speed and performance enhancements, and a number of powerful plug-ins that enable After Effects artists to add sophisticated 3D layers with stunning image quality. New 64-bit compatibility also means that Buena Depth Cue V2 is optimized for Adobe Creative Suite 5.

“Digieffects has always been enthusiastically dedicated to creating the best VFX plug-ins for the creative community, and this is evident in the launch of Buena Depth Cue V2,” said Robert Sharp, president of Digieffects. “But we’re also fiercely dedicated to creating the best experience for our customers. Which is why you’re beginning to see a new Digieffects presence emerging – one that is more streamlined, focused and that better supports our loyal customers. We’re not only strengthening our product lines, we’re also streamlining access to them, making it even easier for users to understand which tools best fit their workflow and budget. Looking ahead to 2011, our customers will see continued effort on our part to make Digieffects plug-ins as accessible and affordable as they are powerful.”

Buena Depth Cue V2: Innovative Approaches for Creating Visual Depth
Buena Depth Cue V2 provides After Effects artists with an innovative workflow for creating visual depth in their projects. Using composition-based effects, such as Rack Focus, Falloff Lighting or Atmosphere, digital media artists can mimic Z depth in a unique way that cannot be replicated using practical depth of field. Buena Depth Cue V2 includes 6 powerful plug-ins for creating depth, including:

• Depth: Displays the depth of each layer in grayscale for use as a gradient map with other plug-ins or applications;
• Falloff Lighting: Adds realistic lighting effects to layers;
• Atmosphere: Shrouds layers in a light haze or a deep, murky mist;
• Rack Focus: Produces realistic depth of field effects and focus pulls, including simulating boke and anamorphic lens effects;
• Camera Mapper: Turns 2D stills and footage into 3D scenes directly in After Effects;
• Flipside: Maps one layer onto the backside of another layer, enabling artists to flip front layers over to reveal back layers.

Pricing and Availability
Buena Depth Cue V2 is available immediately and is priced at $199 for new users, and as a $99 upgrade for existing customers. For more information or to purchase Buena Depth Cue V2, please visit www.digieffects.com.

About Digieffects
Founded in 1996, Digieffects is a developer of visual effects software. Our software functions as “plugins” and work in conjunction with Adobe After Effects, Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Autodesk Combustion, Boris RED and Grass Valley Edius. We have customers all around the world including many of the best known brands in the media and entertainment industry. We also service a variety of other markets including corporations, government agencies, universities, non-profit institutions, independent freelancers and hobbyists.

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Stereo 3D at 260 kph: Mercedes Benz SLS AMG and IRIDAS SpeedGrade DI

IN© Word, an agency formed from some of the best journalistic writing talent in the industry, has produced the fastest 3D road car movie made to date. Former Formula 1 racing driver David Coulthard drove the new Mercedes Benz SLS AMG on the Isle of Man TT Mountain Course at speeds of up to 260kph (162mph), while shot in Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) by DoP Geoff Boyle.  Jonathan Smiles, digital production supervisor and DIT on the project spoke with IRIDAS recently and shared the details of the 3D shoot.

Geoff chose to shoot the ground based shots using pairs of SI2K minis as their small size allows for a very compact S3D setup combined with the advantages of shooting RAW. The SI2Ks were mounted in an Element Technica DC beamsplitter rig on the Pursuit Crane and a MK-V AR. For the amazing chase shots we had another SLS AMG fitted with a rear facing custom SI2K side by side rig. In-car was shot in 2D on Toshiba HD minicams to Nanoflash recorders rigged by Extreme Facilities, who also do BBC's Top Gear. On the helicopter Aerial DoP Jeremy Braben had a pair of RED Ones on a gyro stabilized side by side S3D rig.

 

As Digital Production Supervisor/DIT on the project, I had 9 cameras producing over 1TB of compressed data to deal with on the day of the shoot. During the shoot, I worked out of the Station Master's office upstairs in the Bungalow, a well known TT landmark named after the Bungalow Hotel that once stood on the same site.

Supervising digital acquisition and data on a S3D shoot goes beyond just having to double the data per camera to QC and clone: you need the tools to be able to work in stereo 3D, and SpeedGrade's stereo panel is a very powerful tool to have for on set S3D work.  At that point in time, I was working with the latest beta version of SpeedGrade DI 2010 running under both Windows 7 64bit and Mac OSX Snow Leopard (10.6).

 

For the shoot, I ran with OSX on my 17" MacBook Pro laptop and found the playback performance with S3D material – although not quite realtime – to be very good considering the hardware. On a desktop machine with hardware acceleration, however,  SpeedGrade really flies.

Key areas I need to check for S3D include shutter sync, alignment/geometry and color matching; all of which - in addition to breadth of grading tools - are well served in SpeedGrade.

SpeedGrade gives me a lot of flexibility in how I view the stereo images, including 3D via a 3D display, anaglyph 3D, side by side, difference, 50% blend etc.

There’s a common myth that people believe I spend all my time wearing 3D glasses to check material. The reality is this: I spend most of my time not wearing 3D glasses and using the other viewing modes to assess what is actually happening. For example, most of the SLS S3D shoot was shot parallel, which is not pleasant to view in 3D without first being converged to set the 3D depth. So, using SpeedGrade, I can use the parallax adjustment in conjunction with the difference viewing mode to converge the image (more accurately called Horizontal Image Translation). When you adjust the parallax in difference mode you adjust the image so that the part of the image you want to appear at the depth of the screen cancels out.

The SLS 3D footage has now been finished and been shown on Sky 3D in the UK and will soon be seen all around the world as part of a major consumer electronics manufacturer's 3D TV demo material. The client and agency are very happy with results and I hope you all get to see it in 3D soon.

Jonathan Smiles
Digital Production Supervisor/DIT
www.digitalsafari.net