Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/33429
Stereo 3D that we’ve found extremely ef- fective to deal with that partic- ular problem.” Cinesite also used The Foundry’s Ocula, a set of Nuke plug-ins designed to solve com- mon problems that occur when shooting stereoscopic imagery. “We have used Ocula for a few shots to deal with other problems, like alignment correc- tions of the plates,” Sciolette explains. “We have not been using Ocula for any color cor- rection. Our own solution… is fully automated. Even though Ocula is somewhat automated, it still requires some manual stereo feature OffHollywood Pictures will use Scratch to post its , which was shot using Red Epic cameras and Element Technica's Atom rig. It’s a real choice.” Legend3D’s expertise in conversion comes in part from the proprietary col- orization software that was developed by company founder and COO/CTO, Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.The same technology that’s used in edge detection for colorizing is being used for rotoscoping, speeding up the process considerably.A scene that may take other facilities two weeks to convert, can be realized in just two days using their propri- etary technology, notes Hummel. CINESITE AND PIRATES London’s Cinesite (www.cinesite.com) recently wrapped up work on the new Pi- rates of the Caribbean film for Disney — On Stranger Tides. The film marks the first stereo 3D feature that Cinesite has been involved in, and according to head of VFX technology, Michele Sciolette, getting a workflow in place was key to making things run smoothly. Cinesite handled VFX for more than 300 shots in the film, most of which involved set extensions, though several feature a CG frog they created.The film was shot using dual- camera rigs outfitted with Red One, and later Red Epic, cameras. “It has really refined our workflow,” says Sciolette of the film,“and it has been very different than anything we have done before in that sense.” On Stranger Tides pressed Cinesite with developing proprietary tools to address color differences between the two cam- eras. “In particular, we’ve been working on a set of tools to do automatic color correc- tion between the two cameras,” Sciolette explains. “The beamsplitter on the camera rig will always give you a pair of images that [don’t match] 100 percent in terms of col- ors.We’ve developed our own solution 22 Post • May 2011 input and manual work to set it up, while the one we have developed here is entirely automated and has been extremely suc- cessful on that show.” The studio’s tools are software-based and also run within the Nuke application. “Initially,we were thinking about using it on a few shots, but we ended up using it on all our shots in the end,” he recalls. “It was [used] for color matching the two plates.” Cinesite did not work with the RAW R3D files from the Red cameras. Instead, they were provided with files that had been converted to EXR and DPX file formats. “We were provided both formats,” Sciolette notes.“I think it was the company that was providing the camera rig that was doing the conversion to DPX. It was already a con- verted frame sequence. It was no different than any other film production.We didn’t have to deal with any RAW file conversion. On any film project, we get our shots as se- quences as DPX frames, occasionally EXR, and it was the same here.” Because Pirates was a stereoscopic pro- duction, the studio was given left and right views for each shot. Since the film repre- sented the studio’s first S3D job, a pipeline had to be put in place for viewing and re- view. “There was a significant amount of work dedicated to hardware — getting set up,” he recalls.“The first issue [was] to find a way to review our shots in stereo.” Cinesite already had a screening theater, with a Barco projector, but it was not set up for stereo viewing.The solution was to install a Dolby system like those found in commercial theaters. Smaller-scale viewing also presented a challenge. “We set up different types of re- viewing stations,” says Sciolette.“We have a polarized system that we use in our daily re- www.postmagazine.com view stations. And then we have a few 46- inch LCD televisions, with interlaced polar- ized glasses, that we use on the artists’ floor.” Many of the artists also had 24-inch inter- laced monitors and passive glasses for more informal viewing.“We wanted something that we would use for a few features, and I have to say, in general, it has been extremely successful.There are a few areas that we might want to improve on, in par ticular in the area of correcting for alignment be- tween the cameras,” he says. “For future features we will probably in- troduce that part of the process in an ear- lier state than we did in this case. But that is kind of a minor detail. Everything has been working extremely well considering all the unknowns that we had in the beginning.” Sciolette also says having the team of su- pervisors learn about stereoscopy ahead of time also helped. “On top of all the infra- structure, there definitely was a component [of] making sure the knowledge was here. And there’s no better way to get good at it than actually doing shots.” They’ll get their chance on the next job, the 3D stereoscopic feature film John Carter of Mars. A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE Jeff Edson is the CEO of Assimilate (www.assimilateinc.com), a company that makes dailies, versioning, conform, color and finishing tools — specifically Scratch and the new Scratch Lab on-set dailies workflow tool. Assimilate announced sup- port for Red’s Epic 5K camera at NAB, and the company sees the Red cameras, as well as releases from Arri and Canon, among others, as instrumental in the future pro- duction of stereo 3D films.As mentioned in our Cinesite section, Epic was used on the latest Pirates movie. “[Pirates] was the first major motion pic- ture shot in Red 3D,” notes Edson. “All of the first passes were all done with Red One MXs, and they did all the pick-up shots with Red Epic stereo cameras.” Company 3 used Assimilate’s Scratch to process stereo 5K S3D footage shot with Epic cameras. “3D is a core part of the product,” says Edson of Assimilate’s Scratch. Based on what Edson has heard from pros working in stereo, he sees two ways of thinking when it comes to this particular type of production.“One is, if you can shoot 3D at the same price and same schedule as shooting 2D, then everybody will do 3D,” he notes.“For people like 3ality, that’s their holy grail mission.They have proven that.” Hellbenders