Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/511209
www.postmagazine.com 10 POST MAY 2015 AUTODESK HELPS IMMERSE VIEWERS IN BJÖRK'S BLACK LAKE MOMA EXHIBIT SAN FRANCISCO — Icelandic singer, songwriter and artist Björk recently debuted her Black Lake multimedia experience at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The ethereal CG and visual effects were created with a range of Autodesk (www.autodesk.com) tools, including Maya 3D animation software, Flame creative finishing software, Mudbox digital sculpting software, reality capture solutions ReCap and Memento. Under the direction of Andrew Thomas Huang, Björk designed the 10-minute music video film experi- ence in collaboration with MoMA, architecture firm The Living (an Autodesk company) and Autodesk. Black Lake is the centerpiece of the retro- spective exhibition charting Björk's career, the exhibition immerses visitors into the world of Black Lake, a song from her new album "Vulnicura." It occupies its own unique space in the exhibit and features panoramic visuals created by VFX studios Wolf & Crow and xRez Studio. Upon entering Black Lake, MoMA visitors are engulfed in a dark, cave-like environment, sculpted from the audio track and inspired by the Icelandic ravine where the original music video was shot. It houses two screens on each side of the room that display different angles and scenes from the music video, and walls and ceiling affixed with 7,000 felt cones and 49 speakers that carry the song throughout the room. Autodesk director of emerging technologies, Brian Pene, explains that he helped "facilitate the tools required for the VFX artists at Wolf & Crow and xRez Studio to bring Björk's innovative vision to life." Footage was shot in Iceland, and post-shoot, Wolf & Crow began building digital assets, as well as a CG version of Björk to interact with various CG ele- ments and environments. Wolf & Crow completed post while its artists were also developing looks for the CG portion of the video, from the re-creation of environments, to stitching scenes together. Using Flame 2015, the Wolf & Crow team handled the edit; they were able to link to footage straight from camera cards at a lower resolu- tion/debayer. After quickly making the required changes, they then upgraded the footage to full resolution, using the new Format Options feature in the Flame timeline, before bringing it online. The software made it easier for Wolf & Crow to work with and play back large volumes of 4K and 5K footage, so that they could accommodate Huang's needs and meet the project's delivery schedule. The team also relied extensively on Flame's planar tracker to overlook lighting changes and occlusions in the timeline. "To say we were excited to join forces when Andrew approached us to work on a project for Bjork and MoMA is an understatement," says Kevin Shapiro, founder, Wolf & Crow. "One of our biggest challenges was integrating effects as an emotional punctuation, without having them overtake the process, which we were able to achieve using Maya as the backbone of our workflow, and adding a lovely Flame gloss on top. The team at Autodesk really helped us out. Given the massive dimensions of this film (4:1 ratio) and dealing with 4K and 5K imag- es, Flame was essential to accommodate a fluid creative process and keep the production on track." xRez Studio created the video's immersive landscape scenery using a com- bination of high-resolution terrestrial and aerial photogrammetry from drone photography and laser scanning, which together captured the region's topog- raphy. xRez's team of artists then turned to ReCap to bring the photogramme- try to life on-screen, Maya to build the 3D scene and tie the visuals together, and Memento and Mudbox to clean meshes. Black Lake runs through June 7th at MoMA in New York. For more details, visit www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1501. BITS & PIECES T2 LAUNCHES TO SUPPORT MEDIA-FOCUSED COMPANIES NEW YORK — T2 Computing, Inc. (www.t2computing.com), an IT solutions company that provides the latest in computing, storage, networking and media hardware and software for the broadcast, post production, and publishing industries, among others, announced its official company launch surrounding the 2015 NAB Show. The company was founded with the perspective that every business is a media company, meaning that a key success factor for many corporations is the ability to use media as part of their data infrastructure and lexicon. The new company is leveraging its team's experience and knowledge of the industry, and has been able to de- velop and deploy custom workflow, infrastructure and mobility solu- tions that correspond with its clients' strategic and tactical goals. "As corporations become more media-focused, and mobile devic- es more prevalent in day-to-day operations, we saw a need in the in- dustry for a solutions provider that caters to the specific needs and challenges that these types of applications pose," says Jerry Gepner, CEO of Tekserve Corporation and its subsidiary, T2 Computing, Inc. "Class-leading experience and superior client commitment is what forms the backbone of T2 Computing. From procurement, to system design, to logistics, to managed support, T2 Computing is becoming known for our extensive technological proficiency across a wide array of industries and the personal approach we provide." Gepner says the company is committed to maintaining long-term customer relationships, which enable its team to deliver the right solutions and better business value. This is reflected in the personal concierge-level approach given during the planning, installation, deployment and continuing maintenance of client projects. T2 Computing is a Premiere Cisco Partner, Silver EMC Partner, Elite Avid Reseller, Gold Adobe reseller and an Apple Specialist. T2's Jerry Gepner