Avatar's Color and VFX Workflows

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	How Weta Digital Handled Avatar Modern Videofilm Goes the Distance on Color-Grading for Avatar Production Workflow for Investigation Discovery's The Shift How Renegade Expanded Its MPEG-2 Workflow
	"In layout, we often work with directors to change the cameras, but we didn't change James Cameron's cameras." — Shawn Dunn, Weta Digital Layout Supervisor, Avatar >>
	letter from the editor
	January 13, 2010 Signing onto a James Cameron film means signing up to learn new ways of working. For Avatar, that held true for everyone from the actors working with new motion-capture techniques and the camera crew working with new types of 3D camera to the army of visual-effects and post-production specialists who made it possible for Cameron to work organically within the film's CG world. Barbara Robertson goes into detail on how Avatar multipled the challenges for the layout department at Weta Digital, which added virtual location scouting and greenscaping to its list of accomplishments. As Weta completed shots, they had to be assembled into the film and graded by colorist Skip Kimball at Modern Videofilm, who worked closely with Cameron. Because Cameron was involved with so much that was going on at the Fox lot, Modern set up a Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve workstation at Fox Studios in Century City that was networked to Modern's Glendale facility across town. Using mirrored drives, Modern made sure that Kimball and Cameron could work in real-time, and in 3D, at either location. We talked to Mark Smirnoff, president of studio services at Modern Videofilm, about that solution. Scaling way down from Avatar, F&V takes a look at small-footprint production for The Shift, currently the most-watched program on Investigation Discovery, which follows homicide investigations by tagging along with the Indianapolis Metro Police Department. Two director/producer/shooters using Sony HDV cameras are embedded with the police on location, and post is handled in New York. Executive Producer Kathleen Minton and Supervising Producer Pauline Mason told us more. And we talk to Brian Stetson, director of post production at the Maryland creative-services company Renegade, about upgrading his facility's workflow for MPEG-2 deliverables with the Digital Rapids StreamZHD server. Renegade has not only sped up MPEG-2 creation, but also enabled new workflows involving MPEG-4 and digital delivery to stations. Elsewhere at StudioDaily.com, Studio Monthly has a new ROI Review of Image-Line FL Studio 9, née "Fruity Loops," by Justin Lassen, and Peter Plantec takes a look at the world of GPU acceleration, where new software is souped up to work together with new hardware to — well, allegedly — accelerate your rendering and FX work. Until next time ... — Bryant Frazer, editor [bfrazer@accessintel.com]
	news discussion New Frameline 47 Video Asset Software Announced >> ASC Names Feature Nominees >> American Cinema Editors Announces Nominees for 60th Annual ACE Eddie Awards >> Zoic Editorial Launches >> Deirdre Rymer to Represent Arsenal FX >> Blackmagic Design Adds Digitally Synthesized Composite Waveform View to UltraScope >> Polecam Now Available from The Studio - B&H in NYC >> Volker Bahnemann to Step Down as President and CEO of ARRI and CSC >> Volker Bahnemann to Step Down as President and CEO of ARRI Inc. and CSC >> Sony Releases PCS-XG55 HD Videoconferencing System >> Cadence Selects Telestream for Live Streaming of CES Keynote Address >> Digital Jungle Provides 3D TV Workflow For Panasonic Viera >> Get RSS Feed >> • Lead Animator - Eurocom Developments Ltd - Derby, United Kingdom Eurocom Developments Ltd • Project supervisor - Rainbow S.p.A. - Italy Rainbow S.p.A. • Art Coordinator - WebKinz/Ganz - Toronto, Canada WebKinz/Ganz • Lead Animator - Longtail Studios - Quebec City, Canada Longtail Studios • Senior 3d Artist - Longtail Studios - Quebec City, Canada Longtail Studios • Professional Services Operations Analyst - Avid Technology - Tewksbury, MA Avid Technology • Scheduler/Manager - Confidential - Los Angeles, CA Confidential • Intern - Toy Closet Films - New York, NY Toy Closet Films On the StudioDaily blog: Emerging 3D Devices: Avoiding the Format Wars "Even though 3D TV is in its infancy, the format wars are already at play." In article comments: Panasonic Unveils World's First Integrated Full HD 3D Camcorder at CES 2010 "How soon will Panasonic provide a shoulder-mount full-HD 3D unit?" ROI Review: AJA Ki Pro "Way overpriced. For $4,000 I could buy a new camera." what we're watching Office 2010: The Movie Self-conscious about its image in the wake of Apple's very successful "I'm a Mac" series of TV commercials — not to mention still stinging from the PR hit the company took when Windows Vista landed with a thud — Microsoft is overhauling its marketing messages. Case in point, this surprisingly funny parody trailer promoting the next iteration of Microsoft Office is a cross between the trailer for a Bourne movie and excerpts from the next season of 24. Director/editor/2nd-unit DP Dennis Liu acquits himself impressively as a jack-of-all-trades, but sound designer Dennis Liu might have benefited from a little more time and money to spruce up the audio. Via agency Traffik/@radical.media. analysis more big stories NBC pulled the plug on Jay Leno's prime-time variety show, opting to return the host to his old time slot at 11:35 p.m. and pushing Conan O'Brien's The Tonight Show to 12:05 a.m. O'Brien's response: "Thanks, but no thanks." SHOULD YOU CARE? YES. Presumably, NBC will have to once again begin programming bigger, more-expensive scripted dramas in the 10 p.m. hour, which will restore a lot of production and post-production jobs that had gone missing. And the threats of mutiny by NBC affiliates, stung by the effect of the low-rated Leno program on their local-news broadcasts, will surely serve as a warning to any other network that may contemplate trying to fill out the prime-time schedule on the cheap. The long-term effects of the moves on late-night TV are unclear, though if O'Brien heads over to Fox, as some spectators suspect he will, it could kindle the flames of a new talk-show war that will either establish a new power hierarchy or splinter the market so much further that nobody on TV can make much money after 11:30 p.m. Stay tuned, fight fans! latest video You can wait your whole life," says animation director Ken Lidster, "to get a script that has the opening line: 'Open on a stop-motion animated world in which Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Sasquatch, a leprechaun, an alien, and a Diet Dr. Pepper delivery man discuss the public's inability to believe in them'" ... Modern Videofilm Goes the Distance on Color-Grading for Avatar Modern Videofilm installed a Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve system at the Fox lot in Century City, then networked it via optical fiber to the Modern offices in Glendale, 56 miles away. Data was mirrored on local storage so that changes to the edit or color-grading that were made in one location were immediately reflected at the other. >> Production Workflow for Investigation Discovery's The Shift Footage for Investigation Discovery's reality crime show The Shift is captured on location by a mere two shooters who double and triple as producers and directors, wielding Sony HVR-Z1U HDV cameras with Sennheiser shotgun mics. >> How Renegade Expanded Its MPEG-2 Workflow One of the bottlenecks in Renegade's workflow historically has been its system for encoding files for MPEG-2 based deliverables. Now, Renegade has retired that solution in favor of a StreamZHD server from Digital Rapids connected to its Unity and a 4 TB NAS box. >>
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Diogo Diniz Garcia Gomes
diogodinizgarcia@gmail.com
diogogarcia@ig.com.br