The Briefing Room

Cinital (www.cinital.com) is an exhibitor at NAB 2007 (booth SL4730). Company Founder, Eliot Mack, answers a few questions about the company‘s newly released Previzion HD Studio virtual set technology that will be on display.

Q: Can you tell us what distinguishes Previzion from virtual set solutions of the past?

Mack: Previzion is a unique end-to-end virtual studio solution that seamlessly integrates computer generated graphics and live video from real-time camera motion to create very realistic synthetic imagery.

Previzion is primarily designed to be a powerful tool for visual effects creation. It has a very flexible and portable tracking system that enables extreme freedom of camera movement and on-location tracking – providing a good fit for dramatic productions. It integrates all of the capabilities required for virtual production into a single application and integrates easily with existing studio infrastructure. It is also significantly less expensive than comparable systems, providing cinematic professionals the flexibility to make the projects they‘ve always wanted to, not just the projects they could afford, with unsurpassed image quality.

Q: Why should a production chose a virtual set solution over a hard set?

Mack: Virtual sets provide the largest advantages when the physical locations would be difficult or dangerous to shoot in. For example, it is much easier to send a two person camera crew to an exotic location to capture high resolution backgrounds, and then shoot the actual actors on a local stage, than to send the entire production to the location.

Q: How does Previzion work with other industry leading software programs?

Mack: Previzion HD Studio works with existing 2D and 3D formats to make project integration seamless. Video can be imported over the high bandwidth 4:2:2 HDSDI I/O. Using the industry-standard FBX file format, the tracked camera motion, zoom, and focus data can be easily recorded and imported into leading 3D applications including Autodesk Maya and 3ds max, SOFTIMAGE|XSI, Luxology Modo, MAXON Cinema 4D, and others.

Q: What do you think visitors to the Cinital booth NAB will find most surprising about Previzion HD Studio?

Mack: I think that most visitors will be surprised that this technology is now within reach. It has historically been an exotic, expensive, and difficult to use approach, and we are making it available to a much wider range of users. Our goal is to make full 3D virtual production as easy and accessible to use as a nonlinear editor.

# # #