Visual Effects Category: Digital Rebellion Blog

Houdini coming to OS X

Tue, 17 Jun 08 00:33:30 -0600

Houdini, the nodal 3D modeling application used on many movies today, is finally coming to OS X. Side Effects has released a beta compatible with OS X (64-bit Leopard), Windows and Linux.

Houdini is unique in that it combines a 3D modeling application with a nodal interface, giving you much greater flexibility and allowing you to use the industry-standard interface used for a large number of visual effects applications. I have not used it myself but I will definitely be checking it out.

Four editions available:
1. Free Apprentice edition with watermarked output
2. Non-watermarked Apprentice HD for $99
3. Houdini Escape for $1995
4. Houdini Master (Escape but with particles, dynamics, cloth, etc) $7995

There is also a Batch edition for render farms for $1495.

Right now, only Apprentice and Apprentice HD are available but the rest will be released on July 15th.

Autodesk acquires Realviz

Wed, 07 May 08 14:49:01 -0600

This is very interesting. Autodesk (Maya, 3ds Max, AutoCAD, flint, flame, Lustre.... the list goes on) has just acquired the assets of Realviz. Realviz Stitcher (for combining multiple images into panoramas) and ImageModeler (creating 3D models from still images) are very popular in the visual effects industry and have been used on several high-profile features such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

A quick visit to Realviz's site reveals that its products have already been Autodesk-branded. I see this acquisition as a good thing because it is clear that the purchase is not a defensive move and that Autodesk does genuinely want to develop the products further. I would particularly like to see Movimento, ImageModeler and MatchMover incorporated into Maya in one form or another.

Autodesk also announced today that it had completed the acquisition of Kynogon, makers of Kynapse artificial intelligence software.

Update: VFXWorld has an exclusive interview with Marc Petit, Autodesk's SVP about the acquisitions. He confirms that the products will be integrated into existing product offerings such as Maya but will also be available separately.

"We are seeing some fundamental changes in the way movies, television programs and games are produced. Being able to gather 3D data from 2D material can help at many stages of the production process. We see it in pre-visualization, where it's easy to build 3D environments or virtual sets by stitching pictures together or derive 3D models very quickly from set photos using image-based modeling. Games now require a lot of facial animation. Animators can rough out facial animations using a webcam and optical motion capture. Adding assist cameras on location to capture scenes from multiple points of view is a good insurance policy for post-production. Of course, you can extract camera moves to enrich the post-production process but you can also rebuild sets in 3D from these multiple points of view. Multiple cameras enable optical motion capture of actors in non-intrusive ways without the need for suits or dedicated stages. The performance of an actor can then be modified or augmented during the post-production process using regular 3D tools such as Maya or Flame. Moreover, combining all of these technologies with spatial image-based lighting allows for highly realistic integration of CG elements with live action. We believe that weaving these technologies and products more tightly into our existing portfolio should lead to some interesting new capabilities and will provide for a more efficient production environment."

2008 VES winners

Mon, 11 Feb 08 12:10:59 -0700

These are the winners of the 2008 Visual Effects Society Awards.

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture
Transformers - Scott Farrar, Shari Hanson, Russel Earl, Scott Benza

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture
Ratatouille - Michael Fong, Apurva Shah, Christine Waggoner, Michael Fu

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Miniseries, Movie or Special
Battlestar Galactica - Razor Mike Gibson, Gary Hutzel, Sean Jackson, Pierre Drolet

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series
Fight for Life (Episode 4) - Nicola Instone, Marco Iozzi, Matt Chandler

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program
Rome (Series 2 Episode 6 "Philippi") - James Madigan, Barrie Hemsley, Duncan Kinnard, Gary Broznich

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
Smirnoff Sea - William Bartlett, Scott Griffin, Dan Seddon, David Mellor

Best Single Visual Effect of the Year
Transformers (Desert Highway Sequence) - Scott Farrar, Shari Hanson, Shawn Kelly, Michael Jamieson

Outstanding Real Time Visuals in a Video Game
Halo 3 - Marcus Lehto, Jonty Barnes, Stephen Scott, CJ Cowan

Outstanding Pre-Rendered Visuals in a Video Game
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Cinematic Intro) - Jeff Chamberlain, Scott Abeyta

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project
Sea Monsters - Sean Phillips, Jack Geist, Robin Aristorenas, Mark Dubeau

Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture
Pirates of The Caribbean: At World's End (Davy Jones) - Hal Hickel, Marc Chu, Jakub Pistecky, Maia Kayser

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture
Ratatouille (Colette) - Janeane Garofalo, Jaime Landes, Sonoko Konishi , Paul Aichele

Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Broadcast Program or Commercial
Chemical Brothers - Salmon Dance (Fatlip shots) - Nicklas Andersson, Mike Mellor, Sylvain Marc, Florent DeLa Taille

Outstanding Effects in an Animated Motion Picture
Ratatouille (Food) - Jon Reisch, Jason Johnston, Eric Froemling, Tolga Goktekin

Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Motion Picture
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (The Maelstrom) - Frank Losasso Petterson, Paul Sharpe, Joakim Arnesson, David Meny

Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Broadcast Program or Commercial
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (002_05) - Phi Tran, Matthew Lee, Martin Hilke, Andrew Roberts

Outstanding Models or Miniatures in a Motion Picture
Transformers - Dave Fogler , Ron Woodall , Alex Jaeger, Brian Gernand

Outstanding Compositing in a Motion Picture
Transformers - Pat Tubach , Beth D'Amato , Todd Vaziri , Mike Conte

Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program or Commercial
Nike - Leave Nothing - James Allen, Rob Trent

Outstanding Special Effects in a Motion Picture
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - John Richardson, Stephen Hamilton, Richard Farns, Stephen Hutchinson

Outstanding Special Effects in a Broadcast Program or Commercial
Actively Safe - Lexus Hydrant - Dave Peterson, Anthony De La Cruz

[via fxguide]

Man creates feature film visual effects in his bedroom

Mon, 04 Feb 08 16:48:08 -0700

I love stories like this. Similar to my previous post about the recreation of the Omaha Beach landings using only three actors, Gareth Edwards directed and single-handedly created 250 effects shots in his bedroom for the HD feature film "Atilla the Hun".

His toolkit was Adobe After Effects and Photoshop, and he averaged 2 shots a day over a period of 5 months. It shows that epic movies can be created on a budget with a limited cast and crew, and still hold up to their considerably more expensive brethren. Ok, this guy is a professional visual effects artist, but it shows that it is possible to create high-quality effects with relatively inexpensive software and hardware.

It will be broadcast on the BBC on February 13th. It will be broadcast on the Discovery Channel in the USA at a later date that has not been set yet. Here is a trailer to whet your appetite:

I found this on FXGuide, which has some nice before-and-after pics and an audio interview with Edwards.

List of video formats supporting alpha channels

Sat, 02 Feb 08 09:14:52 -0700

I had a request for this list, so here it is. It is a list of popular video formats that support alpha (transparency) channels. It also includes a few image formats that are used for video work, like TIFF.

I may have missed a couple, so let me know in the comments.

File Format	Maximum Alpha Bit-Depth
Apple Animation	8-bit
Avid Meridien Compressed	8-bit
Avid Meridien Uncompressed	8-bit
Cineon	16-bit
DPX	16-bit
Maya IFF	32-bit
OpenEXR	32-bit
PNG	16-bit
RLA	32-bit
RPF	32-bit
SGI	16-bit
SGI RAW	16-bit
Targa (TGA)	8-bit
TIFF	32-bit

Workarounds for the QuickTime 7.4 rendering issues in After Effects

Thu, 24 Jan 08 01:37:55 -0700

I have heard claims that it is caused by DRM and I have heard claims that it is just a case of adjusting a preference.

The preference in question is the "Show legacy encoders" option. Unfortunately I can't test this out myself as I don't have the CS3 version of AE and I wouldn't really want to install QT 7.4 even if I did. However, people are reporting that adjusting this preference makes no difference. I would imagine that this is correct, as the option simply shows and hides encoders in the QuickTime menus.

This problem only affects sequences longer than 9:59 (I have also heard 9:57 but it doesn't make much difference) in length. If you are exporting sequences shorter than this, you will not be affected.

The bug only affects QuickTime exports. A workaround is to export to an image sequence (I recommend TIFFs). Final Cut Pro doesn't work well with image sequences and it will really slow down your timeline, so I recommend then converting the images to a movie in QuickTime.

To do this, fire up QuickTime and go to File > Open Image Sequence. Choose the first frame of the sequence and click Open. Select your desired frame rate and click Ok.

You now have two options: you can go to File > Save As and save it as a self-contained movie or the second option is to go to File > Export and choose an export format. The former will make no changes to the quality of the images and the second one will recompress it to a given format (such as DV). The latter option is recommended if you are placing it in a Final Cut Pro sequence, as it will not require rendering if you match the sequence settings.

This workaround can be applied to any application that is having difficulties with the latest QuickTime update.

After Effects 8.0.2 released

Tue, 22 Jan 08 17:03:25 -0700

Adobe has released a new patch for Macintosh After Effects users. This patch allows you to natively import and work with Panasonic P2 data, and adds Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard support.

More details of bug fixes are available here.

This does not, unfortunately, fix the QuickTime 7.4 rendering issues, although Adobe are "working with Apple to resolve the problem".

QuickTime 7.4 causes issues with After Effects

Thu, 17 Jan 08 10:07:15 -0700

After some users found problems with QuickTime 7.3, some are reporting issues with 7.4 as well.

The QT 7.3 update broke non-current versions of Final Cut Pro, causing log and capture dropouts among other things. If you were hoping the latest update fixes the problems caused by the previous patch, I'm afraid you are out of luck. You will need to downgrade to QT 7.2.

Additionally, After Effects users are reporting that version 7.4 is causing rendering issues for them. They are finding that AE will stop rendering after exactly 10 minutes with the message "After Effects error: opening movie - you do not have permission to open this file (-54)". The only solution so far is to downgrade back to QT 7.2 or 7.3.1 or wait for Adobe or Apple to issue a patch. Windows users have been reporting these issues as well, and the issue seems to affect widespread versions of AE.

There is a post on Apple's support boards that gives a way of "hacking" QuickTime back to 7.2 by installing 7.3 or 7.4 and then copying over the old 7.2 files. This is a quick and dirty way of doing it but I would not advise it. Final Cut Pro is a professional and complex application and for best results, I recommend backing up your files and performing a complete Erase and Install. This creates the most stable environment for running the software. You do not want it to fail at an important moment, particularly if you make your living from using it. Remember not to reinstall QuickTime 7.4 again afterwards!

Always remember the Golden Rule: Don't install updates on a production machine unless you have a way of quickly getting everything back to normal (such as a clone), and DEFINITELY don't install anything in the middle of a project.

Update: Some After Effects users are coping by rendering out their sequences in 10 minute segments, putting them together in Final Cut Pro and then exporting them as one movie clip. Obviously this significantly increases the total rendering time and you should make allowances for the extra time burden.

Update #2: Apparently, this issue also affects Cinema 4D and is related to an update in QuickTime's Digital Rights Management (DRM) code. Presumably this is a conflict with code designed to prevent people from copying or distributing iTunes-rented movies.

Cinital Previzion Advanced 3D Virtual Set System

Wed, 09 Jan 08 16:24:18 -0700

CinemaTech has an article about a startup company called Cinital that has developed a 3D keying system for virtual sets. This part is not new, as I have used Serious Magic Ultra 2 (now owned by Adobe) in the past for previewing the key on-set using virtual sets and images. I would not use Ultra 2 for compositing the final image as it did not offer nearly enough control over the final image, but this system looks like it offers plenty in that department.

Where this system really shines, however, is in the tracking system. I have not seen this anywhere else. You can move the camera about and rack focus from the foreground subject to the background and the virtual set will change accordingly. That is very time-consuming to perform in post production but this system does it in (almost) real-time. This is best illustrated by the video at the bottom of the CinemaTech link.

There are no pricing details on their web site but unconfirmed sources state that it is around $85,000.

[via HDForIndies]

Peter Jackson to create TinTin movie using performance capture

Mon, 17 Dec 07 13:51:39 -0700

DreamWorks has acquired the rights to the classic comic series TinTin, about the faithful Belgian reporter and his dog Snowy. It will be a trilogy - Peter Jackson will be directing one of the movies, Steven Spielberg will be directing another, and the third director is currently unknown (unconfirmed reports suggest that if they can't find anyone, Spielberg and Jackson might co-direct it).

Andy Serkis will be playing Captain Haddock in the film. I would imagine he would be good for this role considering he played a similar role as the gruff ship's cook in King Kong.

The films will be visually faithful to the original cartoons, as they will be employing the latest performance capture technology to create a cartoon version of the film using real actors. This technique was most recently seen in the movie Beowulf, which is currently in the running for a Visual Effects Academy Award.

Serkis is no stranger to motion capture of course, having played Gollum in Lord of the Rings and Kong in King Kong, but this will be his first performance capture movie.

[via BBC News]

15 movies to compete for Visual Effects Oscar

Fri, 16 Nov 07 03:53:10 -0700

In an increasingly-digital age of filmmaking, the Visual Effects Academy Award is gaining in prominence. Not so long ago, only three or four titles would be considered but 15 are being considered for the 2008 Academy Awards.

The full list is:

300
Beowulf
The Bourne Ultimatum
Enchanted
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Ghost Rider
The Golden Compass
Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix
I Am Legend
Live Free or Die Hard
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Spider Man 3
Sunshine
Transformers
The Water Horse

My money is on Spider Man 3, purely because of the Sandman sequences. Those are incredibly difficult to recreate in a computer. Another contender could be The Water Horse, although I think water interactions would be easier than sand interactions.

[via Variety]

Vue 6 xStream for Mac released

Fri, 14 Sep 07 18:31:32 -0600

I've been waiting for this day for ages. The Windows version has been out for a while but the Mac one's only just come out. The standard version of Vue 6 has been out for a while for both platforms but I've been holding out for the xStream version.

This software lets you create breathtaking 3D landscapes incredibly easily. It has a technology called Ecosystems that allows you to duplicate objects with random variations such as scaling, rotation, etc, making the objects look more natural. It can also change the densities of the objects based on the elevation of the ground they are on because in real life, trees get thinner as the ground gets higher. It has a lot of really great features that I won't go into now but they're listed in detail on e-on Software's Vue 6 page (not to be confused with eyeon Software).

The xStream version takes that one step further by offering integration with your favorite 3D modeling package. Now you can create a complex atmosphere with sunlight and fog and integrate it seamlessly with your models.

This software was used for Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (and probably 3 as well) and ILM have publicly endorsed the software, and that's a pretty big endorsement.

They offer a free Personal Learning Edition for you to play around with, as well as some pretty cool movies on their site. I suggest you check them out because this software's pretty amazing.

Trial page: http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/?page=try
Vue 6 xStream page plus videos: http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_6_xstream/