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Bits & Pieces Pixar adds Film Master forT E MERYVILLE, CA — Late last year, as Pixar, who was working on Toy Story 3, considered how to modify its internal pipeline into a true nonlinear workflow incorporating color grading into the variety of deliverables now required of today’s studios — they opted for two Digital Vision Nucoda Film Master systems. In addition to the color tools of Film Master, the systems were seen as foundational in the studio’s plans to build a workflow. Bruno Munger, senior product manager for Dig- ital Vision notes, “As technology has evolved, demands on deliverables have become even more intense, requiring increasingly high-quality, datacentric ele- ments. Companies previously relying on a film pipeline for image mastering are facing pressure for diverse delivery requirements such as DCP and Blu-ray. Every element must be as good as it can be, as good as the original master, and that requires a new way of working.” For projects that are completely computer generated, such as animation, he concludes,“A 10-bit pipeline just cannot handle the process and retain the intended quality envisioned by the cre- ators.The new workflow must be flexible and useable.” Pixar needed a color workflow with true HDR support using 16-bit “half float” OpenEXRs; plus real- time playback of 16-bit half-float files and a tool that allowed rendering and previewing without premature lost of quality. The studio wanted a tool that could preview the many deliverables in grading context while grading in the native OpenEXR format.The Nucoda Film Master also allows the colorist to see how final de- liverables would work in every case, whether for In addition to color work, the Nucoda Film Masters helped Pixar with diverse delivery requirements. digital cinema, film output or for PAL DVD delivery, or more. In order to match exact needs, Pixar wrote its own plug-ins in the standard OpenFX format to en- sure the preview exactly matches the market stan- dards.The colorist could apply matrices, color con- version, dithering, gamma correction, stereo conver- sion and sub sampling from the same Master Color correction timeline. oy Story 3 What Post readers are experiencing Right Now BOOKS: “My favorite authors of late seem to be Edward Rutherfurd — just finished New York — and Michael Cox, who writes thrillers/mysteries.” MUSIC: “The Clash will always be fa- vorites, but again a very varied palette... into a lot of Damon Albarn (Blur) stuff, ‘70s reggae, blues. Lots of great young bands at the moment. Recently saw Arctic Monkeys and Band of Skulls.” FILMS: “The last film I saw that I re- ally enjoyed was the Bansky film Exit Through The Gift Shop.” — Antoine Mills Editor Wildchild,NYC New book introduces Maya 2011 techniques S AN FRANCISCO — Radium VFX supervisor/head of CG, and regular Post contributor, Dariush Derakhshani has written a book that offers insight on building and animating digital models and scenes.“Introducing Maya 2011” (www.sybex.com) is a 664-page book that includes a com- panion CD.The book serves as an ideal introduction to 3D and to Autodesk’s Maya application specifically, starting with the basics.The book then builds from the ground up, combin- ing straightforward text with fun and practical examples that make it easy to learn Maya’s core tools. Readers can follow clear-cut, step-by-step lessons and 4 Post • July 2010 www.postmagazine.com learn by doing, thanks to the hands-on files provided on the CD. There are also examples of models created by accomplished Maya users.A fast but thorough primer will acquaint readers with Maya 2011’s user interface.They can then jump right in and build a simple animation of the planets in the solar system. The book also looks at the basics of NURBS and subdivision surfaces modeling. Readers will gain experience with polygonal modeling by creating a human hand, a decorative box and a steam locomotive.Additional instruction includes applying photoreal tex- tures, rig animations, HDRI lighting, Mental Ray rendering, dynamics, and effects techniques.