Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/28735
S O N Y [ cont. from 16 ] offering a 3D virtual camera solution that features three HD cameras and stitches the images together to create a 3D image. SR WORKFLOW Sony also introduced a new solid-state SRMaster platform using SRMemory, a multi-stream workflow that includes on-board solid-state recorders, a transfer unit and a standalone digital recorder.The SRMaster platform generates files using the SR codec at 220Mbps, 440Mbps and 880Mbps wrapped in MXF. Sony also supports uncompressed DPX and 16-bit 4K RAW data.The portable on-board memory recorders (HD-SDI single link and dual link, or 3G-SDI dual link) can be hooked up into a studio’s workflow, or users can get the data off the solid-state memory cards, which have storage capacity from 256GB to 1TB.The V F X [ cont. from 24 ] A T N AB SRMemory deck, which has four configurable I/O ports (HD,3D, 4K) comes with a GUI and viewer soft- ware and up to 12TB of internal memory storage.The SRMemory deck can ingest HD data from four cards at the same time and from one card, 4K 16-bit RAW can be transferred into the unit in under 30 minutes. Another product under the SRMaster platform is a 1RU transfer station.You can use this as a log/transfer station and connect it to a network using the 10 Giga- Bit Ethernet port. For playback, the SRMemory deck offers eight streams of HD video and two channels of 4K video, and handles two streams of 2K in realtime — it has four slots. It also supports 96k/24-bit audio. The 1RU transfer station can also interface with the SR-5800/2 tape deck for back-up, cloning to the HDCAM SR digital tape format, at up to twice real- time. It also supports NFS and CIFS to mount a shared F O R proved to be “a real time saver,” says Cardona.“It was a huge tool that gave us pretty accurate results. Updates in the software and tools defi- nitely made the shot easier.” One shot of the building was substantially different from the others, however. “We couldn’t get a photo that captured the angle of the live-action plate. It was something you could only get with a crane,” he explains.“So we projected the matte painting onto 3D geometry and used the camera in Maya to match the shot they got on the day.That way we were able to get the building at the angle they needed.” Rain added to the complexity of the shot. Different ways of handling rain were discussed, Cardona recalls.“There would be no rain towers at all, and we’d add all A U D I O [ cont. from 31 ] TV directory or folder to NLEs or servers. MEDIA BACKBONE Changing directions for a bit, Sony is leveraging its IT technology with Media Backbone, which was intro- duced about a year ago. Media Backbone’s first product is called Conductor, which is a scalable and open solu- tion for production and broadcast facilities.The prod- uct essentially takes people working on “digital islands” using their existing technology and connects them. Big VFX entities working on large film projects could im- mediately benefit from Conductor, but the system is scalable, so smaller studios can take advantage as well. Sony really is focusing on addressing needs throughout the entire process, and there are more products to dis- cuss, but space doesn’t allow. Keep an eye on our Website and in future issues for more details. S E R I E S the rain. Or there would be rain, and we’d have to figure out how to replace it when we added the new building.”They opted for the latter, so Look Effects was tasked with matching the rain, trying to make digital rain look as close as possible to what was captured in the live-action plate. Since the matte painting replacing the real industrial building on the set was now on top of the practical rain, Look Effects had to composite digital rain, crafted in After Effects with Red Giant’s Trapcode Particular plug-in, back over the apartment and incorporate natural atmosphere from the rainstorm as well. “We also brightened up the rain near the windows — the light inside helped il- luminate it,” notes Cardona. “That level of detail was important in selling a shot like that.” F O R day turnaround on the dialogue.As far as workflow, we cut on Avid, they spot it,we get an EDL from a picture, and then the dialogue is assembled and cut, and the sound designers go to work and do the sound cutting on it, so that's noth- ing new, but the quick turnaround, that's standard nowadays in TV.We'll work around the clock.” And then he has to just let it go.“That's really difficult for me.There hasn't been one thing I've worked on that I can say, 'Wow, I'm 100 percent thrilled; I can walk away.' But I hope that's what people like in me — that I'm always working to improve it. But at some point you get it to where it's in a good place and you live with it.” This is not always easy when there's an ample amount of dynamism in your show. “Television has limited dynamics technically,” he says,“but there are numerous ways I work within that scope, delivering a soundtrack that plays with punch on television yet has the dynamics of a motion picture.The ICON, along with its numerous Pro Tools plug-ins, enables me to do that.” The Big Bang Theorygets its audio post at Warners. H I G H E R [ cont. from 48 ] Francisco for the Animation Mentor graduation and learned that he won the Mentor Choice Award. And when he sent his demo reel to The Gruffalo directors, they hired him. Sadegiani had been freelancing for seven years be- fore joining The Gruffalo crew.“I was always into draw- ing,” he says.“It came naturally for me.” As a teenager in Sweden, he and his friends created computer L E A R N I N G games on the Amiga. He attended a succession of schools — an art school for four years and a school that purported to teach visual effects. “We were supposed to learn using 3D software at a high-end level so that we could work in studios,” Sadegiani says. “It turned out it wasn’t that way.” He bought a light table and books, and tried to teach himself animation using 3DS Max Version 3 and Char- acter Studio. Sadegiani worked at a game studio and then began freelancing. In 2007, he started taking Animation Men- tor classes. In the fall of ‘09, Disney called after Sade- giani had finished working on The Gruffalo, and started on Tangled a few months later. Barbara Robertson is a contributing editor for Post’s sister publication Computer Graphics World. T V 50 Post • April 2011 www.postmagazine.com