Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/57248
Stereo 3D n n n n man error. For the most part, Gener8 also employs off-the-shelf software whenever pos- sible: 3D animation programs, such as Maya, Imagineer's Mocha Pro or SilhouetteFX's Sil- houette for roto, and Nuke for finishing and painting. Proprietary tools, such as Gener8's StereoComposer, facilitate communication among the packages. "We come from a game- development background, and we are used to building pipelines to suit each project's needs. We don't force our clients to do it our way. So when Jenny [Fulle] said, 'Let's try something new,' we thought, 'Awesome.' We like to in- novate and change, and we liked the idea of economizing without adversely affecting the quality of the 3D." The Advantages Indeed, the 3D fire was the driving point of the hybrid process, enabling the group to get depth and volume from the CG pyro. But there were also time/money considerations. If he had to estimate the timesavings reaped from the pipeline, Mumma would put it at months. "Shared pipelines are usually so scary, but The Creative-Cartel team managed the process so well. I was blown away," he says. "Usually you come crashing and burning into the final date, and this was a soft landing." For Iloura, though, it was not so much about timesavings as it was having its CG im- agery fit comfortably within the stereo scenes. "However, it was more back-and-forth work than we usually do," Melenhorst adds. At Gener8, Becker estimates that the unique workflow saved his company nearly two months' production time. "Jenny [Fulle] found a way for us to solve the more challeng- ing elements, which were fire and smoke, by implementing this new pipeline," he says. "We never had to worry about extracting Ghost Rider's fire from the shot; it was under the control of visual effects." That workflow was quite different from Gener8's conversion pro- cess on a previous project that contained fiery CG characters. "The cost of breaking out fiery elements was high for our client—and perhaps unnecessary. What Jenny has done is eliminate redundancy by providing the effects house with stereo assets prepared by Gener8—maximizing on the scheduling time," Becker notes. "We didn't have to wait for the shot to be done be- fore converting it; the CG was added after the conversion. This gave the effects artists more time to make things sexy and not worry about setting stereo." Fulle, who is a proponent of shooting tradi- tionally and then converting to 3D afterward, Due to the fire and other factors, a new pipeline was devised to deal with the stereo 3D conversion on the film. believes the new workflow gives film makers more freedom on set and allows them to make choices later compared to if they would have been filming in 3D from the start, forc- ing them to commit to decisions during the shoot. "It allowed us to get more boom for our buck," she says. Studios have been doing stereo conversion for a few years now, and since that time, conversion has often been considered a post production pro- cess—and it is not, contends Fulle. Typically, conversion is done after visual effects, and the plates are not shared back and forth. And that process is best suited for filmmakers who want to see the whole film in context or who make a lot of changes in editing. But for those who can cut and shoot in their mind and know exactly what needs to be changed when they see the cut for the first time, the benefits they can reap from this type of hybrid pipeline can pay off big. "We didn't have the luxury of waiting until the whole cut was locked. We had to turn over sequences as they were ready, so we could push the sequences through and keep the pipe full," says Fulle. The converts to such a new workflow extend beyond the immediate facilities working on this movie. For instance, Mumma points to a tent- pole film that shot in 3D. After the pickups, the production team was going to reshoot some sequences in stereo—until they saw this hybrid pipeline. It prompted them instead to complete- ly retool their own pipeline to match the hybrid one and better handle the changes. "I showed them the work and the pipeline, and they com- pletely changed their methodology," he adds. Becker also knows of a number of studios interested in this pipeline. "It's a new para- digm," he says, adding that any film with CG in it would benefit from the workflow. "Film- making often is a conflict between art and in- dustry. In tough economic times, the desire to save money can often result in inferior prod- ucts. But what we did here was create a better product while saving time and money." While he agrees that this new method is not for everyone and that there are still shots that will call for using 3D cameras on set, Mumma does not believe the 3D cameras are the solu- tion for every film, either—especially given that so much conversion is still done on 3D filmed projects due to alignment and calibration issues with the cameras, among other factors. "This is a maturing industry and everyone is learning a lot," says Mumma. "This is a way of finding a happy medium for hybrid shots." n Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor of February/March 2012 41 Computer Graphics W orld.