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BITS & PIECES www.postmagazine.com 8 POST MARCH 2016 PREVIS: BLUR EMPLOYS GPU RENDERING FOR DEADPOOL OPEN SANTA CLARA, CA — It's amazing the kind of mayhem that can be unleashed when cutting-edge technology gets pushed past its old limits. Consider 20 th Century Fox's new release Deadpool, which tells the tale of Wade Winston Wilson, a special forces operative turned mercenary whose mutant pow- ers are rivaled only by his smart mouth. It's also the story of how the film's startling opening sequence — one that would've seemed unimaginable a few years ago — came to be. Based on Marvel Comics' most unconventional anti-hero and directed by Blur Studios' Tim Miller (see Previs article, page 32), Deadpool is ac- tion-packed from beginning to end, starting with the film's incredible title sequence. It's a :90-long camera shot that weaves its way through a climactic, frozen-in-time, battle scene. Miller turned to Blur to develop the sequence, which was created entirely in CG. GPU-POWERED RENDERING TURNS SEEING INTO BELIEVING As a first step, Blur developed detailed previs — previews of what the scenes would look like — to show to the studio and to Miller. Typically, such concept previews are rudimentary. They use simplified models, lighting and textures. But not all clients can see beyond these limitations. Kevin Margo, a visual effects supervisor/director at Blur, who served as a lighting TD for Deadpool, had previously explored GPU rendering during the making of his own fully computer-generated short film, Construct, so he knew it would allow his team to make the previs as visually realistic and immersive as possible. "We wanted to put our best quality preview in front of Fox," says Margo. Blur Studios built CG assets from the ground up using Autodesk 3DS Max. They then rendered them using Chaos Group's GPU renderer, V-Ray RT, which runs exclusively on Nvidia GPUs, and is up to 15x faster than a CPU renderer. GPU RENDERING DELIVERS SPEED AND FIDELITY Filmmakers funneled footage captured on set, along with visual effects, into Open Drives' storage offering. Blur's CG artists, equipped with HP Z840 work- stations running Nvidia Quadro M6000 GPUs, then got to work producing a previs of the opening title sequence that was a close approximation of the final. "The power of GPU rendering combined with the speed and realtime interactivity of the HP workstations equipped with M6000s allowed us to consider rendering things we wouldn't have been able to before," says Margo. "It made the process so much easier and more efficient." Blur was able to refine the design, quickly applying textures, global illu- mination and more — all interactively. That led them to complete and render the scene's previs in just days. The result was a physically-based render in super-high fidelity. The executives at Fox could see exactly what the intended sequence would look like to give it the greenlight. — BY GAIL LAGUNA, NVIDIA (WWW.NVIDIA.COM) Blur relied on previsualization to create the title sequence of the Marvel Comics and 20th Century Fox release, Deadpool. WHITE PLAINS, NY —The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (www.smpte.org) — a leader in mo- tion-imaging standards and education for the commu- nications, media, entertainment and technology indus- tries — received a Special Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). AMPAS presented the Special Award plaque to SMPTE at the Academy's annual Scientific and Technical Awards presentation, which took place February 13th in Beverly Hills, CA. The award citation reads, "For one hundred years, the Society's members have nurtured technology, provided essential standards, and offered the expertise, support, tools and infrastructure for the creation and post production of motion pictures." Robert Seidel, SMPTE president and Barbara Lange, the Society's executive director, accepted the award. In her acceptance speech, Lange said, "One hundred years ago, this organization was founded to support the motion picture industry, helping bring order to the tech- nical chaos of the day. As our founder, C. Francis Jenkins, said in 1916, 'Engineers secure the best standards for equipment, quality, performance, and nomenclature, an entirely practical and attainable ideal.' From determining the size and position of perforations in film to today's work in areas such as high dynamic range in digital cin- ema, SMPTE's work enables the motion picture industry to thrive the world over." This is SMPTE's third award from the Academy. The SMPTE team picks up its third award from the Academy. SMPTE HONORED WITH SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL AWARD FROM THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES