Archive of the Visual Effects Category

When a company with a product line as big and deep as Autodesk makes its NAB presentation, you’ll forgive them for thinking like an auto company and describing the updated apps as their 2009 product lineup.

Trevor Boyer has already posted notes about Autodesk’s Sunday press conference. While each of the major products announced have plenty of notable and usable improvements, I’ll vote for lower price points and ability to work with compressed media as the most significant moves that herald future trends. Smoke 2009’s $64,000 tab for a turnkey hardware/software finishing machine–storage included–is a great breakthrough. For the first time, (fiscal) hope is offered to those many mid-level shops which blanch when faced with six-figure offerings from Autodesk, Quantel, et.al. (At present, this was described as an introductory price available through July 21, 2008. It’s a little unclear what happens after that; maybe if enough new buyers are attracted, the price will hold.) more

Cinnafilm, an emerging force in the development of polished GPU parallel processing, unveiled the Cinnafilm HD1 real-time film look system, a major breakthrough in film look effects for HD digital video. The new solution is the result of over four years of dedicated research to harness graphics card parallel processing. Cinnafilm HD1 is intended for creative professionals who wish to easily and cost-effectively apply the look of film to nearly any digital video source, while maintaining the highest levels of production quality and visual integrity. Cinnafilm HD1 streamlines transfer and rendering processes to provide a solution that is fast, efficient, and affordable. Filmmakers can now quickly achieve a studio celluloid look at a digital video price. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

With the increasing use of capable high-end digital cameras, the ability to manipulate data as soon as possible looks to yield great benefits in speeding production as well as ensuring delivery of the directors vision. UK-based FilmLight made a move in this increasingly competitive space–Arri, da Vinci, and LaserPacific are just a few of the companies working on products and proposed solutions–with the introduction of Truelight On-Set at the show.

The company has made a name for itself as one as the leaders in color management technology in post. On-Set takes that capability to the earlier stages of a production, enabling the director and DP to set a look during the shoot that will serve as the foundation for color correction in post. more

GizMac Accessories, manufacturer of noise reducing equipment racks, announced today that it has teamed with Imagineer Systems, creator of next-generation VFX tools, in support of the launch of mogul, Imagineer’s newly-launched collaborative VFX architecture supporting a suite of tightly integrated, modular VFX systems and applications. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

The coolest product I’ve seen so far at the show is an effect filter called CoverFlux from industrial revolution, which allows you to add the iTunes-like Cover Flow effect to images in a slide show. This looks cool on iTunes, looks cool on the iPhone and looks very cool in Final Cut Pro and Motion via CoverFlux. Can’t beat the price, either, since it will be a free download from idustrialrevolution.com once it ships in a few weeks.

Idustrial has other cool products that you can actually buy, of course, like Volumetrix, which shines moving lights through text with an alpha channel, and the campy but cool Superwipe, which comes with a library of image-based wipes like squeegees and airplanes. Even better, you can create new wipes with your own images.

By way of background, Idustrial was exhibiting in the Noise Industries booth, because they build their libraries using FXFactory, Noise Industries effects package. In addition to showing their own effects, Noise Industries also hosted third party developers CoreMelt (transitions, still image animations and other tools) and SugarFx (filters and themes), both worth checking out.

Tell me about Class On Demand Training.

Class On Demand has evolved in the last 15 years into a company that provides a variety of training related products in the consumer to professional space. We’ve evolved from tape based training to DVD and downloadable content.

We’ve won a bunch of awards for our training, and have frankly gotten a reputation for producing very high quality content. Probably as a result, in addition to our retail products, we now do a lot of custom-branded training for companies like Grass Valley, Sorenson, Telestream, and a variety of others. more

Today’s schedule at the Central Hall Content Theater concentrates on VFX, Animation and New Digital Workflows. Hear about animation and ambition on the Indian subcontinent at 9:15; Barry Sonnefeld and team talk about the look on Pushing Daisies at 10:45. At noon my dear colleague Carolyn Giardina of The Hollywood Reporter moderates a VES session with an eclectric group of 3D and traditional animators on the blending of techniques. Horton Hears a Who! filmmakers will take the stage at 3:30.

On the workflow front it’s the F23 and the Red Camera. The F23 session (1:15) focuses on onset workflow; at 2pm there’s a case study about Red/FCP workflow.

To find the Content Theater, look for the teal-ish tube tent in front of Central Hall with eight or so flatscreens playing a come-on loop, pass through the double doors into the building and start walking straight ahead about 100 feet, maybe less. Content Theater is off a little to your right.

Imagineer Systems, creators of next-generation VFX tools, today announced the arrival of mogul. Conceived through customer dialogue and designed and developed by Imagineer Systems, mogul is an entirely new open, collaborative VFX architecture supporting a suite of tightly integrated, modular VFX systems and applications. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

NVIDIA announces that Autodesk continues to empower creative professionals by offering NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 SDI graphics in its newest products for effects and finishing: Autodesk Smoke 2009, Autodesk Inferno 2009, Autodesk Flame 2009, Autodesk Flint 2009, and Autodesk Backdraft Conform 2009 systems. This announcement solidifies the trend in the digital film and broadcast industries where top companies are integrating professional NVIDIA Quadro SDI graphics into their product offerings for 3D compositing, editing, and color grading in real time for 2K, HD, and SD formats. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

Autodesk announced the 2009 releases of the Autodesk Inferno, Autodesk Flame and Autodesk Flint software for visual effects systems, and the Autodesk Smoke software finishing system. The company also announced Extension 1 for Autodesk Toxik 2008 software for digital compositing. The releases will be showcased at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) 2008 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada from April 14-17, 2008 at the Autodesk booth SL1420. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room