Category Archives: Post

Post Production is post and prior—a lot of work taking other people’s material from dozens of sources and fitting it all into some other group’s needs. Very technical.

All 3DAvatar™, AllThe3DTime™ [Updated]

News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch previously said …(excerpted)

FirstShowing.Net —James Cameron Delivers Updates on Avatar 2 and Re-Release

Yep, James Cameron and Avatar are back in the news again, but … First, he confirmed that he is producing Guillermo del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness (announced a few weeks ago) and that they’ll shoot it in native 3D using next generation 3D cameras. [Surprise?]

We don’t exactly know what Cameron will be directing next, … he’s been getting inspiration for Avatar 2 by traveling down to South America and meeting with native tribes. “I have an overall narrative arc for [Avatar] 2 and 3, and there are some modifications to that based on my experiences in the last few months from having gone down to the Amazon and actually hung out with various indigenous groups who are actually living this type of story for real… but it’s not changing the overall pattern,” he said.

Finally, Cameron talked about converting Titanic to 3D and also complained about how terrible the Clash of the Titans 3D conversion was (as we all know). …

Marketsaw.blogspot — EXCLUSIVE: James Cameron Interview! Talks AVATAR Re-release, Sequels, 3D Conversions & Working With Del Toro!

[Listen to the audio interview on this page]

 

0:40 – Cameron confirms he is producing Guillermo del Toro’s AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. The movie will be shot in native 3D using next generation FUSION 3D cameras from Pace. …

2:30 – Cameron talks about 3D conversions. TITANIC’s conversion is taking 8 months to a year to complete, not a fast turnaround like CLASH OF THE TITANS. Cameron: “(TITANS) showed a fundamental lack of knowledge about stereo space, …

5:00 – Cameron on how they are technically converting TITANIC. “You just can’t cut out edges, you’re going to get flat people moving around.” He will be using all his knowledge to put things on their right depth planes. They had tests for TITANIC from seven different conversion vendors on the exact same shots and they got back seven different answers as to were they thought things were spatially. “Some of them were not bad guesses and some of them were ridiculous.”

6:50 – The whole argument about conversion will go away for high end, first run 3D. Two years from now when there are thousands of 3D cameras out their shooting live feeds to 3D broadcast networks, how can a producer go to a studio and say…

9:05 – Cameron on talking with Steven Spielberg about converting his classic movies to 3D. …

11:20 – Cameron talks about AVATAR 2’s current status. …

12:04 – He is focusing his writing right now on the AVATAR novel (corresponds to the first film)…

12:45 – The AVATAR re-release will have 9 extra minutes, not 8 and it will all be CG. No extra footage of live action characters drinking coffee. Rainforest; some at night; a hunt sequence – …

15:45 – Cameron does not have the release timing of the 3D Blu-ray as …

IEEE Symposium on Massive Storage Systems Papers Available

The recently completed 26th IEEE (MSST2010) Symposium on Massive Storage Systems and Technologies Conference has made the papers available.

Anyone interested in storage can benefit from one or more of these. [Your editor’s favorite is a proposed Linear Tape File System. Wouldn’t it be great to have an open standard in the LTO5 mechanics space, with attached RAIDs?]

See the site: 

 

26th IEEE (MSST2010) Symposium on Massive Storage Systems and Technologies

Presentations and Papers

IEEE (MSST2010) Symposium on Massive Storage Systems Papers Available

The recently completed 26th IEEE (MSST2010) Symposium on Massive Storage Systems and Technologies Conference has made the papers available.

Anyone interested in storage can benefit from one or more of these. [Your editor’s favorite is a proposed Linear Tape File System. Wouldn’t it be great to have an open standard in the LTO5 mechanics space, with attached RAIDs?]

See the site: 

26th IEEE (MSST2010) Symposium on Massive Storage Systems and Technologies

Presentations and Papers

SoundToys Donates to Gulf

a series of concerts held on July 1st that featured simultaneous shows at multiple venues from coast-to-coast. Over twenty-five venues held charity concerts, from The Roxy in Hollywood all the way to The Press Room in Portsmouth, NH. The benefit was a great success, demonstrated by the droves of music fans that attended to show their support for the Gulf. All of the money raised by ticket sales and online fundraising platforms will be donated to the fishermen and their families who have been directly affected by the spill, as well as to the restoration of wildlife and wetlands.

“In recognition of such an important cause, we will be donating 100% of our online sales from July 15th to the Gulf Coast Restoration. SoundToys would like to support those affected by this spill through any means possible. If you’ve had your eye on any of our products, July 15th is the day to buy,” said Ken Bogdanowicz, CEO of SoundToys. For more information, please visit http://www.healthygulf.org/.

On Thursday, July 15th, 2010, SoundToys will donate 100% of its online profits to the Gulf Restoration Network. The Gulf Restoration Network is a non-profit organization working to provide assistance to the people, wildlife, and wetlands affected by the BP oil spill. We are pleased to offer this contribution to the Gulf Restoration Network at such a critical time.

The idea to help this cause came to life when the Gulf Restoration Network recently partnered with music venues across the country to put on The Gulf Coast Benefit, a series of concerts held on July 1st that featured simultaneous shows at multiple venues from coast-to-coast. Over twenty-five venues held charity concerts, from The Roxy in Hollywood all the way to The Press Room in Portsmouth, NH. The benefit was a great success, demonstrated by the droves of music fans that attended to show their support for the Gulf. All of the money raised by ticket sales and online fundraising platforms will be donated to the fishermen and their families who have been directly affected by the spill, as well as to the restoration of wildlife and wetlands.

“In recognition of such an important cause, we will be donating 100% of our online sales from July 15th to the Gulf Coast Restoration. SoundToys would like to support those affected by this spill through any means possible. If you’ve had your eye on any of our products, July 15th is the day to buy,” said Ken Bogdanowicz, CEO of SoundToys.
For more information, please visit http://www.healthygulf.org/.

Apple’s Audio Logic

Essentially it’s because it doesn’t have to. Aside from the company’s legendary need to control every aspect of the way it appears in public, something that’s difficult at an event staged by someone else, the products, much to the chagrin of the competition, seem to a large extent to sell themselves. Brand recognition for Apple is off the charts since the iPod and iPhone, and although pro audio, like pro video, is an important area for the company to compete, it’s a still a niche market in the wider scheme of things. You don’t build up cash reserves in the tens of billions of dollars by selling high-end music software or even high-end Macs to run it on. That honour goes to the consumer devices.

 

[Editor: There have been a few articles in the last weeks speculating on the when and where of Apple’s declaration of support for the professionals in their marketplace. The meme is catching on that with Apple worth billions now, they not only don’t need the pros, or to be selling the pro equipment that they rely upon…too much of a niche. One who believes that clearly doesn’t understand the philosophy of niche markets, the failure of Sony or the philosophy of Steve…who, by the way, was recently noted for return emailing an editor who wondered if FCP was going to be improved. Steve gave a short comment that he will have to live up to…one expects that there will be a new version of FCS that will leapfrog the market once again.]

For the rest of this MacUser article, go to:
Audio – Apple’s clever decision to tie Logic into the Mac
10:58AM, Thursday 6th May 2010 

Most people’s experience of computers starts with a PC, cheap and ubiquitous as they are. For anyone who studies music technology, on the other hand, it’s much more likely that your lab will be stocked not with beige boxes but with iMacs or Mac towers. …

When it comes to the software, on the other hand, some gentle prodding is needed, especially since all the major music programs run almost equally well on Mac OS X. Here, things start to get a little less clear cut – …

On acquiring the company in 2002, Apple immediately discontinued the Windows version of Logic, signalling its intentions to establish the Mac as the dominant platform in the audio world. …

For those who didn’t need all the bells and whistles, Apple created Logic Express, which was and is still a remarkably capable piece of software. …

Ultimately, it’s hardware sales that keep Apple growing at such a rate. …

This, of course, is understandable and good business: nobody could ever claim Apple didn’t know a thing or two about selling. …

Hollin Jones

Avatar in Spanish, or French, or German-Slate

Avatar in Spanish, or French, or German

While Americans generally associate dubbing with out-of-sync martial arts B-movies, the technique is no joke for audiences around the world, where most of the big-budget films are from the United States. How does dubbing work?

First, pick your languages. Big Hollywood movies are always dubbed into French, German, and Spanish, since those respective countries all have sizable film-going communities. There are often two Spanish versions, one for Spain and one for Latin America. Otherwise, the decision depends on the type of film and its perceived market value in a given country. Animated films are dubbed into more languages than live action, since animation is primarily aimed at children who may not be able to read subtitles. Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, for instance, will be dubbed into 38 languages, while the studio’s live-action offering The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is only scheduled for nine.

Read the entire article: 

Avatar in Spanish, or French, or German

Tutorials and Training | Post | CGI

 All great. Each able to suck up more time than you have.

PAID

Cineversity

Digital Cinema Lessons

>Lynda

Uncategorized

Motionographer Cream – The only list you want to be on

The Third and the Seventh

Make certain to cut out 15 minutes, since you will want to see the entire piece…for example, set it up on a 2nd monitor while eating breakfast and answering email on the other monitor. Oh, and, cut out other time in your day, since you will be showing and sending this far and wide.

Click here [The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman.] to get a new screen with the original feed, or click on the HD, the FullScreen and the Play button here:

Make certain to watch the “Making Of” called “Compositing Breakdown (T&S)

More info at:
GreyScaleGorrilla

For a special treat, we’ve extracted the first 3 questions from an interview done at the blog Dimensión 2.5 [EN PORTADA: Alex Roman y “The Third & The Seventh”]. It is originally in Spanish, so first 3 questions are translated by our mutual friend Google.

Both Spanish and English links are at the end of this article.

Miguel: Better known as Alex Roman, today I present an interview with Jorge Seva, which will disclose your career and the end result of “The Third & The Seventh,” a short film – out of the ordinary.

Welcome to Dimension 2.5. “The Third & The Seventh” is an unconventional short, by your own words, based on a sequence of architectural images from the photographic point of view. How was the idea?

“Alex”: Thanks Miguel. The project has a length of about 4 years on paper. I started thinking about it long ago, while working in a company that infoarquitectura, where the line was the general aesthetics in these cases, very different from that offered by photographers specializing in architectural photography fascinated me so much at the time.

So I thought … why not take a short architectural from that point of view?. It was not until 2008 when I started seriously with the issue.

But before going into details about “The Third & The Seventh”, how about if we talk a little about yourself?. To begin with, and as wakefulness in the introduction to this interview, Alex Roman is a pseudonym.

Indeed, my real name is Jorge Seva, born in Alicante in 1979 and resident in Madrid since 1999.

Alex Roman is an “avatar” I have started using for some time. He had published work with my real name before, but with this new project I wanted to do something different, a kind of aliases. Unfortunately in some specialized portals only allow you to post jobs with “real” name, hence I took Alex 🙂

Miguel: I’ve always loved the realism of your pictures, tell me, apart from many hours of work, what is the secret?

Alex: The working hours is true but I am a very lazy guy and I find it very hard to start. Once started, I shot hours nonstop, but the principle is hard.

Besides, I do not think there’s any secret, but one thing I’ve always clear and are role models. Let me explain. I rarely fixed in CG work as a model of inspiration. I think that I would create a relative error in terms of realism that eventually lead me to an absolute error. My inspiration often lies almost always in professional photography, cinema and advertising.

Observe, observe, and then … watch a little more real models.

Miguel: What are your main work tools?

Alex: Mainly 3ds Max modeling and animation, V-Ray as rendering engine, Photoshop for texturing, and After Effects for postproduction. Ah! and an essential tool in our day, Google 🙂

So, again, here are the links to the interview: In the original Spanish:
EN PORTADA: Alex Roman y “The Third & The Seventh”
and in Google’d English: Alex Roman and “The Third & The Seventh”

Hollywood Camera Works Blocking Knowledge

Head over to the Hollywood Camera Work site for great instructions and tools not found anywhere else for free. Great for practice are the Tracking, Matchmoving and Motion Capture plates and the HD Green Screen and VFX Plates.

For Maya users there is Virtual Dolly and Crane instructions and downloads. For everyone there are Scripts and Blocking Diagrams as well as Illustrator tools for your Blocking templates.

They are promising more free training items in the future—obviously an inducement to use their courses for directors. Notwithstanding, they are superbly done and a great help for people who use cameras as well as those in the post house.

Future Media Concepts Nails Guru Houghton

Future Media Concepts (FMC), announces that the accomplished graphic design expert, Katherine Houghton, has joined their elite staff of instructors at Future Media Concepts; She is expected to enhance their Adobe training repertoire.

A graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Houghton has degrees in both graphic and industrial design and is certified by Adobe® and Apple® to teach;

  • Acrobat®
    After Effects®
    Director®
    Fireworks®
    Illustrator®
    InCopy®
    InDesign®
    Photoshop®
    Premiere®Aperture®
    Final Cut Pro®

Possessing professional experience in both multimedia and graphic design, she joined the FMC team in October to support instruction for the Adobe curriculum. Houghton is based in Philadelphia, but delivers training courses at all six FMC locations and on the newly launched FMC|Online platform. “In order to uphold our reputable position within the creative industry, we need to provide students with first-rate instruction from distinguished instructors,” said Jeff Rothberg, president and co-founder of FMC. “We are extremely excited that Katherine Houghton has joined our elite group of trainers. Her design education and professional background is a great fit for our company. We look forward to seeing the positive impact her expertise has on new and returning students.”

In addition to her multimedia and design backgrounds, Houghton has experience as a multimedia consultant for KPMG LLP, a “big-five” accounting firm. For several years in the late 1990’s, she also held the position of vice president at Confidant, Inc., managing the visual materials, marketing and Internet presence. “I’ve been an active part of the creative industry for many years. It made sense to make the move to Future Media Concepts,” says Houghton. “I feel my comprehensive background will be an asset to the FMC curriculum, which regularly boasts new enhancements. I look forward to witnessing the continuous growth of this amazing training company.”

To learn more about Katherine Houghton and other FMC trainers, please visit: http://www.fmctraining.com/fmc.asp?s=New+Trainers.

About Future Media Concepts
In 1994, Jeff Rothberg and Ben Kozuch launched Future Media Concepts as the world’s first Avid Authorized Training Center. Over the years, FMC expanded its curriculum to become the nation’s premier digital media training organization, representing the leading software manufacturers, including Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Avid, Boris FX, Digidesign®, NewTek® and Softimage®. In addition, FMC is a leading producer of educational-rich conferences and expositions for the production and postproduction industries including the NAB Post|Production World Conference in Vegas.

FMC has established state-of-the-art training centers in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Orlando, Chicago and Dubai, with onsite training worldwide and online courses available to users anywhere. For more information regarding classes and upcoming events please visit www.FMCtraining.com.

Press Contact
To schedule a press briefing, please contact Kathleen Langlois or Janice Dolan at:
Zazil Media Group
Kathleen Langlois
(p) +1 413 374 7655
(email) [email protected]

Zazil Media Group
Janice Dolan
(p) +1 617 817 6595
(email) [email protected]

New York City, NY – December 17, 2009

Fluff but fun article on Drive-A-Tron/Sway/2012

2012 VFX Drive-A-Tron™

SWAY Studio used its proprietary Drive-A-Tron™ technology to create the sequence. Used in campaigns for Lexus Hybrid, BMW, Mini, and countless others, the Drive-A-Tron™ is a virtual stunt driving machine that simulates the real physics of an automobile. It creates scenes in real-time, with the artist literally in the driver’s seat.
In this behind-the-scenes video, Director of New Business Addie Hall walks viewers through the studio’s pre-visualization process for “2012.” She also offers insight into why SWAY Studio was chosen for this project, and describes the features that make Drive-A-Tron™ a game changer in the world of visual effects.

VFX: SWAY Studio
Creative Director: Mark Glaser
VFX artist: Robert Glazer
Producer: Aaron Abt
Artist: Cesar Chavez
General Manager: Stephanie Heinson

Digital Domain Florida eyes games

Read the entire article at:               [The press releases are at Digital Domain’s bizarre flash based website.]

Digital Domain Florida eyes games – Variety
By DAVID S. COHEN

David Rivera, chairman of the appropriations committee for the Florida House of Representatives, told Daily Variety, “Anything we can do to incentivize growth of (the film) industry is good for our state.”

DD Florida will focus on videogames and animation, said Cliff Plumer, CEO of Digital Domain. “We can do that now …

Digital Domain has been developing its own animation projects internally, and with the new…

The new studio also will have a defense division working on creating high-quality graphics for military simulation and training,…

The incentive package requires DD Florida to have at least 500 employees, paid an average of $65,000, within four years….

That will greatly expand DD’s total workforce, which now numbers around…

Plumer also reiterated that Venice-based DD will keep its headquarters…

“The decisionmakers, the filmmakers, are all in L.A. We need to have our core presence there for that part of the business,” he said.

 

Blackmagic secures first sales after DaVinci buyout

From an article at BroadcastNow.co.uk:

Blackmagic secures first sales after DaVinci buyout | News | Broadcast

15 September, 2009 | By Will Strauss

Blackmagic chief executive Grant Petty said: “We needed new features and we learned that they were for sale. …

Meanwhile, at IBC, Smoke and Mirrors purchased two DaVinci Resolve R360 systems. One will be installed …

Plans are already underway to change the way that DaVinci operates including…

Support for 2K systems will continue and parts will be made available for customer repairs. …

Annual support contracts will also immediately cease and be replaced with a “pay as you go” system.

Best IBC Article 1 – BROADer Issue

From an article at:

the BROADer issue September 09, 2009

Sunny skies over Amsterdam & the media tech industry?

After a fairly dismal few months, when almost everybody I spoke to complained of belts that are too tight, of long pockets and short arms, and [insert your cliche of choice here], there’s a certain positiveness about these deals.

Perhaps it’s not just a coincidence that fine weather is forecast for Amsterdam …

In an email I saw re-published on the @fxguide website, Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design’s CEO, reveals…:

“…one of the things that totally blew my mind when I first started in post production as an engineer way back in 1988 was the color grading room with a DaVinci….

Petty will not be drawn on plans for the DaVinci product line or the prospect of low-cost products, …

Avid’s purchase of Max-T came as a bit of a surprise, but now it’s happened, it makes sense.

Sledgehammer, Max-T’s storage and infrastructure product, one assumes, contains features …

MaxEdit is perhaps the more interesting of the company’s main products, though.

Editing over a network, free of an application, via a browser, and using centralised resources, is …

Avid has hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank and it needs to raise its game in the face of stiff competition …