lower thirds

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. 

 

 

 

"Plot Device" Goes Viral...In a Big Way

I've been watching the viewer numbers steadily rise for "Plot Device," the brilliant short from the creative minds of Seth Worley (who directed and co-wrote the film) and Red Giant's own Aharon Rabinowitz (who also co-wrote the film and executive produced it).

I think what's so fun about this whole thing is; they never really set out to create some Internet sensation. They really wanted to do something a little different...and fun...to promote a visual effects suite (Magic Bullet Suite 11) in a way that wouldn't make their fellow filmmakers gag. The result - over 600,000 views on Vimeo, and over 60,000 views on YouTube!

If you haven't seen it, check it out here. It's very well done.....and a lot of fun. I kind of want one!

 

 

Plot Device from Red Giant on Vimeo.

Red Giant: It Just Keeps Getting Better

The development team at Red Giant is hard at it, with newer, better, faster applications coming out seemingly every day.

Here's the latest announcement; a new version of its popular Primatte Keyer - it's at V5.0 with this announcement and can be purchased a la carte or as part of the Keying Suite. Here's the news:

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Red Giant Launches Primatte Keyer V5.0

Version 5.0 Boosts Efficiency and Automation with Three New Tools to Enhance 

Quality, Speed and Control

 

Portland, OR (July 26, 2011) – Red Giant (http://www.redgiant.com) today announced the immediate availability of Primatte Keyer V5.0, the Company’s professional green screen tool for extracting keys from any color background. With this new version, Primatte Keyer V5.0 delivers significantly enhanced automation and efficiency and includes three automated tools that provide artists choice and flexibility in their VFX workflow: Auto Compute, Adjust Light and Smart Sample.

Auto Compute is now an easy-to-access button with an improved algorithm and spot-on default settings; Adjust Light is a brand new tool that evens out background colors for accurate background removal; and Smart Sample generates great results using smart foreground sampling and a histogram pass.

Primatte Keyer V5.0 is available immediately as a standalone application, or as part of the Red Giant Keying Suite.

Eric Addison is the owner of 100 Acre Films, and has been beta testing Primatte Keyer V5.0. Eric commented, “I'd never tried Primatte until recently, but after spending some time with it, it's now earned a spot in my keying toolbox. Red Giant’s Primatte Keyer is extremely powerful, and is one of the easiest keyers I’ve ever tried. With Primatte Keyer, I have found a new go-to keying plug-in.”

Primatte Keyer V5.0 is built on proven, industry-popular chromakey technology and enhanced with professional features to create mattes for any object shot against any solid color, including difficult shots such as blue jeans against a blue screen. Primatte Keyer has been used with stunning results in blockbuster films like Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Harry Potter, King Kong and Spider-Man. For over 15 years, Primatte has been a well known, tried-and-true staple of the compositing industry.

What’s New in Primatte Keyer V5.0

The development team at Red Giant created this newest release with an emphasis on increased automation, performance and image quality. Primatte Keyer V5.0 adds:

• Improved Auto Compute to generate accurate keys instantly;
• New Smart Sample algorithm for refined foreground sampling;
• Two new View modes to help visualize composites while building them;
• New Hybrid Matte feature for generating cleaner matte edges; 
• New Adjust Light evens the background screen color for better selection.

Primatte Keyer V5.0 is available immediately and is priced at $499.00 for new users, or as a $99.00 upgrade for existing users. For more information, or to purchase Primatte Keyer V5.0, please visit www.redgiant.com. 

 

About Red Giant 

Founded in 2002, Red Giant (www.redgiant.com) creates an ever-expanding universe of effects tools ranging from plug-in suites, applications and mobile apps to Guru Presets, free products and sharing communities. We provide software for motion design, photography and color correction that is used for everything from major motion pictures to worldwide television programming to web production. Red Giant offers the industry-leading Trapcode tools for broadcast design; Magic Bullet Suite for color correction; and over 60 products that run in After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, Avid, Vegas, Nuke, and Avid Studio. Our effects have enhanced dozens of feature films such as Angels & Demons and The Social Network, and added sparkle to networks like NBC Universal, ESPN, Disney, CNN, Comedy Central, MTV, and TNT. Join us on Facebook (RedGiantSoftware), follow us on Twitter (@RedGiantNews) and get free content at Redgiantpeople.com.

 

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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.

 

Universities, Film Schools Nationwide Embrace Digieffects VFX Plug-Ins

digieffects - Damage V2 from digieffects on Vimeo.

 

Film schools and universities around the country are embracing Digieffects, their academic-friendly policies, and their commitment to providing extremely high quality VFX plug-ins at affordable prices. As faculties and school administrators continue to grapple with dwindling budgets themselves, they're also seeing an opportunity to also teach their students another reality of the profession - doing more, faster and with less.

"Our VFX suites and a la carte plug-ins are affordable by design," says Robert Sharp, president of Digieffects. "And for the academic community, who are traditionally shackled by small budgets, the challenge of enabling and teaching their students based on the most cutting-edge post production technology on the market today is that much greater. So we sought to change all that."

And schools nationwide are responding.

"We've seen significant growth among our academic customers, and I'm personally pleased with this trend. A big part of why I do what I do is my desire to give back and remember all those who helped me get where I am today - I am indebted. And what's professionally gratifying for me is when I look across the extensive list of film schools and universities who have integrated our software into their curriculums. And the growth in academia is not soley due to affordablity; students today are not only learning how to use Digieffects to add smoke to a shot, or glow or muzzle flashes, they're also learning the importance of workflow integration, performance and working under real-world constraints. And they'll take that valuable experience with them as they enter this competitive market."

And if you take a look at just a sub-set of the film schools and universities that have fully embraced Digieffects, you see an impressive who's who in academia. Just some of the schools that have integrated Digieffects into their post production and VFX workflow curriculums include:

Angelo State University

Arizona State University 

Auckland University

Carnegie Mellon University

Claremont Graduate University

College of William and Mary

Columbia College Hollywood

Emerson College

Full Sail University

Gainesville State College

Hicksville Public Schools

Illinois State University

Lee University

Loyola Marymount

Miami University

Mt. San Antonio College

National University

New York Chiropractic College

New York Institute of Technology

New York University

Nile C Kinnick High School

Pikesville High School

Portland State University 

Raritan Valley Community College

RMIT University

Salt Lake Community College

Savannah College of Art and Design

Skyline College

Space Telescope Science Institute

St. Michaels College

State University of New York

Strate College Designers

Temple

Texas A&M

The DAVE School

The Grady College/University of Georgia

The Juilliard School

UC Berkley

UC Irvine

UCLA

UNCW

University of Cincinnati

University of Florida

University of Glamorgan

University of Michigan 

University of Missouri-Kansas City

University of Vermont

UW Tacoma

 

Recently, Digieffects formally announced a new program exclusively for academia. The Digieffects Academic Discount Program enables individual students and teachers to purchase any of the Company’s plug-in packages or a la carte offerings at a 50% discount. The program also offers discounts up to 50%, site licenses and preferred technical support to educational institutions. For more information on the Digieffects Academic Discount Program, please visit http://digieffects.com/buy/discounts.

Digieffects: Accessible Innovation

Digieffects' announcement today hones in on some very impressive technology innovation under the hood in their families of VFX plug-ins; Delirium v2 and Damage v2.  While Digieffects has amassed a significant fan base over the years due to their very high quality VFX at accessible price points (their plug-ins make your shots look incredibly high end, and their pricing makes it a no-brainer, must-have in your tool kit), one point that's been overlooked is their attention to workflow efficiencies. Bottom line is, for editors and VFX artists, it's not only about making your stuff look good, it's about taking the tedium out of the workflow too. And that's exactly what Digieffects AutoAnimate technology does.

DC Shoes used Damage to create a 70's look to their stop motion short, featuring surfing sensation Clay Marzon. Check out the short here...

 

Here's today's announcement:  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

Digieffects Integrates Sophisticated, Workflow-Enhancing Innovations into Delirium and Damage Family of VFX Plug-Ins

 

Digieffects’ Delirium v2 and Damage v2 Builds In AutoAnimate Capability Into Select Plug-Ins; Advanced Features, Technology Typical in High End VFX Systems Enables Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro Editors to Instantly Visualize Effects on the Timeline in Real Time

 

 

Wilmington, NC (May 24, 2011) – Digieffects® (www.digieffects.com) announced today it has integrated powerful, innovative workflow-enhancing technology into its family of Delirium v2 and Damage v2 VFX plug-ins, significantly accelerating the editing and VFX workflow for Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro artists. By integrating powerful AutoAnimate capabilities into several of its plug-ins, Digieffects is enabling editors and VFX artists to seamlessly drop an effect on any clip in a Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro timeline and instantly see animated results, in real time with no rendering. 

 

Typically available in high end VFX solutions not accessible to independents, smaller boutique agencies and students, Digieffects AutoAnimate capability significantly accelerates the editing and VFX workflow and eliminates the tedium of manually animating parameters of the effects to test their viability in the shot, which is typically an extremely time consuming and impractical process for editors and VFX artists on a deadline.  There is no need to keyframe any of the controls unless users want to adjust a certain parameter over the course of time.

 

“Digieffects’ AutoAnimate innovation is another example of how we’re empowering everyone in the market with very sophisticated workflow solutions at price points that fit today’s constricted budgets,” said Robert Sharp, president of Digieffects. “We have an extremely talented team of developers here at Digieffects that implicitly understand that VFX solutions are not simply about delivering visually stunning results. It’s also about delivering workflow efficiencies and eliminating the obstacles that slow our customers down. And we’re doing it all at a price point that enables our customers to deliver high value results without draining their budget.”

 

Digieffects AutoAnimate: How it Works

Digieffects AutoAnimate technology enables Delirium v2 and Damage v2 users to easily drop an effect onto a clip in the editing timeline and see the animated results in real time.  This significant workflow enhancing capability eliminates the need for artists to manually animate the different parameters of the plug-in to test the viability of the look in each shot. The manual key framing process is extremely slow and tedious and often takes valuable time away from the edit and slows down the post-production process. When the user selects the Delirium or Damage plug-in that works for the shot, they can simply adjust the controls within the settings and that effect will be AutoAnimated.  

 

Delirium v2 includes 45 effects in 5 categories, such as Phenomena, Color, Patterns & Distortions, Mood, and Compositing Tools. Additionally, the Delirium v2 family of VFX plug-ins are available for purchase individually as part of the Company’s a la carte offerings. Delirium v2 plug-ins enabled with AutoAnimate include:

• Bubbles
• Crazy Stripes
• Electrical Arcs
• Fairy Dust
• Fire
• Fireworks
• FogFactory
• Muzzle Flash
• Nexus
• Rainfall
• Smoke
• Snowstorm
• Sparks
• Stargate

 

Damage V2 includes 7 effects to artistically degrade footage, including Aged Film, Archive, Blockade, Destabilizer, Interference, Overexpose and Skew, and are all enabled with AutoAnimate capability.

 

Pricing and Availability

Digieffects’ entire family of VFX plug-ins are available immediately and are priced as follows:

 

• Delirium V2: $299.00
• Damage V2: $99.00
• Buena Depth Cue V2: $199.00

 

For more information and pricing on Digieffects a la carte options, please visit www.digieffects.com.

 

About Digieffects

Founded in 1996, Digieffects is a developer of visual effects software. Our software functions as "plug-ins" and work in conjunction with Adobe After Effects, Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, 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 service a variety of other markets including corporations, government agencies, universities, non-profit institutions, independent freelancers and hobbyists.  Digieffects has also licensed its plugins to Adobe and Roxio for inclusion in their video software applications.

 

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Using mocha AE for iPhone Screen Replacement and Tracking

Tracking for Final Cut: iPhone screen replacement using mocha AE from Ross Shain on Vimeo.

 

This is an amazing video tutorial by Martin Brenand  of Imagineer Systems. In it, he brilliantly shows you how to track an iPhone and export tracking and mask XML data to Final Cut Pro to finish. mocha AE makes it simple! Check it out....

Evolve IMG Takes Cinedeck EXTREME into the Wilderness of Brazil for ESPN

Cinedeck LLC (www.cinedeck.com) teamed up with Evolve IMG Films on the production this past February to shoot a short documentary TV feature for ESPN's E:60 (www.e60.com) on location in Brazil. Apart from the challenges of international shooting, this particular project presented a host of technical and logistical concerns for the team.

E:60's short documentary story is focused on Bruno Fernandes de Souza, a Brazilian Soccer Star, imprisoned and accused of murdering the mother of his child. The particular production creative called for shooting in very dangerous, military occupied favela's, re-creating and fully staging the crime re-enactment scenes, helicopter scenics, and extensive interviews with the involved parties in Brazilian cities; Rio de Janiero, Belo Horizonte & Campo Grande.

"Cinedeck was a consistent game changer for us in Brazil,” said Joel Edwards, DP / Technical Director Evolve IMG Films. “We had a lot going on, and in every different scenario the Cinedeck EXTREME helped us do our job quicker and better. In one case, we had several interviews that were 2+ hours long. We're using an ARRI ALEXA as our A camera, which uses 32 GB SxS cards to record. We didn't want to cut clips in and out of the interview session because it was all being translated back and forth, plus they were talking about very sensitive subjects; we didn't want to cut record. The easy solution was to record the primary into the Cinedeck EXTREME at the same codec as the ALEXA; ProRes HQ, on a 256 GB SSD drive. With Cinedeck, we just quadrupled our record space. In the same setting, we also rigged a Canon 5D up high for one of several alternative angles - cabled into the Cinedeck's HDMI input - we easily were able to block and focus the 5D.  We also used the Cinedeck's built in waveform scope to check and match exposure levels of the ALEXA, P2 Varicam & 5D."

"10 days, 3 different locations in Brazil, 4 different camera formats, 7+ hour long interviews  being translated to and from Portuguese / English, a nighttime murder re-enactment and hours of B-Roll. I'm thinking to myself, "Ok. We're really going to need to get after this one and get it right," added Bill Roach, director / DP, Evolve IMG Films. "Shooting internationally is whole different deal and our goal is come home with the best visual storytelling possible, so it's delicate mix of what can we pull off in field in the most time efficient manner."

"It was the most aggressive international production we've ever been a part of. When you take on a story like this, you have to do it right. You have to have the right equipment, period," continued Joel Edwards. "We used the Cinedeck EXTREME this year at the Super Bowl, and really fell in love with what it can do." 

"In Rio de Janeiro, we shot helicopter scenics on an older 1080i Heli HD Camera system. They had several on board recorders (Nanoflash to CF cards and an HDCAM deck) but it was an easy, no brainer to use Cinedeck EXTREME. We took an HDSDI feed off the router, I sat in the co-pilot seat, monitored the shots and recorded everything realtime to our preferred codec. I was able to playback helicopter footage instantly, while still in the air, to ensure we nailed the moves. Once we landed, no file copying or tape ingesting was needed - it's all there - ready for edit. Perfect."

"Every situation we were in, Cinedeck EXTREME provided us workflow improving options. Master record, dual secondary record, monitor, every I/O connection and computer & edit ready. We loved that we could name and number project / clip names right off the screen - it's made dailies and post production so much quicker, having everything organized, in the proper file folder structure, instantly available in our editing codecs - as soon as it's dumped."

"When didn't we use the Cinedeck?! It's a one of a kind product, I don't know of anything else on the market that can do what Cinedeck does. The codec support and record master quality is top of the line. The more we use it - the more we can't live without it. Hands down, it is the most versatile tool in the box.”

“Brazilian Murder Tale” premiered on E:60 on May 10, 2011 and will continue to air on ESPN’s E:60 program through the month of May, 2011. For more information, please visit http://espn.go.com/espn/e60/index.  You can see behind the scenes footage of the production on the Cinedeck website: www.cinedeck.com

Cinedeck EXTREME starts at $8495 and features unparalleled flexibility with the widest range of edit-ready formats available on a single device. The following formats come standard and are supported natively on Cinedeck EXTREME:

• Avid DNxHD (MXF wrapped)
• Apple ProRes (including 4444)
• CineForm Digital Intermediate
• Uncompressed 422 (.mov)
• Uncompressed 444 (.mov)

For more information on Cinedeck EXTREME v2.0, please visit www.cinedeck.com.

About Cinedeck LLC

Founded by cinematographers in the heart of New York City, Cinedeck is redefining mobile, digital cinematography by delivering the industry’s first extremely portable, affordable camera-mountable cinema-grade recording and monitoring device, Cinedeck EXTREME.  Cinedeck has been honored with the “2010 TV Technology STAR Award”, the “2010 Vidy Award,” and DV Magazine’s “Award of Excellence.” For more information, please visit www.cinedeck.com.

 

Digieffects Helps DC Shoes with a Whole New "Look"

 

DC Shoes is one of the most recognized, skate driven action sports apparel brands in the world. Recently, the marketing and production crew at DC Shoes was challenged to come up with new, fresh ideas to reach these consumers. We spoke with Ross Haines, Justin Smith, and Dino Manuel who shared with us some of the details of their newest stop action short, featuring the likeness of pro surfer Clay Marzo. Here's what they told us:

After a series of focus groups with kids, surfers, skateboarders, and people in the industry, we learned they wanted something new and different, something they'd never seen before. So we got together to brainstorm some ideas and came up with the idea for a series of stop motion shorts, but with a fun twist, and one that captured the kitschy look and feel of old time monster movies.

We didn't know what we were doing, but we poured our heart and soul into it; inspired by Wes Anderson and his work on Roal Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox, and even the funky kung fu flix from the 70s, we had the most freedom we've ever had to do something weird and fun.

So when we were done, we had some really clean footage of a fun, unique stop motion flick. But it was missing something. It was missing that roughed up look. We wanted to make it look as close to an old school, vintage, scratched up film, but without looking obvious, cheap or cheezy.

And that's where Digieffects came through as the hero at the 11th hour! Digieffects did an amazing job giving the film the exact look and feel we were going for. This film was such a success, we're now working on series of 4 more shorts; and Digieffects will definitely play a huge role in giving us those classic looks that simply complete the look and feel of the movies. And our fans love them too; our FaceBook page is approaching 5 million fans and our YouTube Channel is the second most viewed and subscribed to in all action sports. So check out our latest flick complete with the help of Digieffects Damage at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rEAgude9T8