Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/7010
38 Post • February 2010 www.postmagazine.com is ver y helpful for adjustments. It allows you to work in a general or ver y specific sense based on radial fall off, so I could designate cer- tain areas of geometry that needed to be moved. It's similar to the Magnet Tool, which enables me to desig- nate multiple viewports or axes of geometry to pro- duce a more fine-tuned version. That's how I got the desired look of Komanoto." Another recent project was modeling a Samsung a777 cell phone for NYC's Splashlight. "Although there were a lot of details to be modeled, the over- all shape of the phone was the most challenging as- pect," he says. "You wouldn't think that a seemingly rectangular phone would be difficult, but it was not exactly a simple rectangle. Where ever y angle met, from the face surfaces towards the side and back, there were some difficult challenges to figure out. I relied on LightWave's Band Saw Pro tool, as well as the basic Knife tool, to keep edges tight and sharp where they needed to be. I used the Subdivide func- tion to get specific details like divets and insets. Later, I went back over the model with the Band Glue tool to clean up geometry." Although Maness is no newcomer to LightWave he says he's still finding "new tools I've never used be- fore. Within the last week, on a new job, I'm finding tools that make modeling more efficient — and there's no big learning curve. LightWave is perfect for short-turnaround projects like commercials and TV." V I RT UA L B AC K L OT S , M O R E A freelance digital matte painter based in Los An- geles, Max Gabl (www.maxgabl.com) has a number of feature films to his credit, including Flags of Our Fa- thers, Stealth and Racing Stripes, as well as an ever- growing roster of TV projects and commercials. Trained as a traditional painter, Gabl has translated his ar tistic sensibilities to the digital world, where he often extends sets or locations, and creates vir tual backlots. "Lately, most of the work I've done is projec- tion paintings on 3D geometr y," he says. "I photo- graph a set or street scene with a Nikon digital still camera and bring the photos into Maxon's Cinema 4D.Then I match the Cinema 4D virtual camera data to the Nikon camera data of the photos — the focal length, the aper ture used — and star t to model the buildings looking through that camera. I basically con- struct the 3D model into the picture once the cam- era is in the correct position." Gabl spends quite a bit of time matching camera angles. "That's where experience comes into play," he notes. "Everything needs to match in perspective, so I adjust the virtual camera angles until they work.Then I can use the same camera to project my paintings onto the 3D geometr y I've built. Once the textures stick correctly to the model, I paint out unwanted elements such as people and cars to get a 'clean' building." Gabl often works with CBS Digital, the network's in-house VFX unit, on promos and virtual backlots, and recently added a shot of Fairfax Avenue to CBS Digi- tal's librar y of vir tual backlots. "Streets in LA are crowded, with lots of traffic, and it's prohibitively ex- pensive to shut them down to shoot. If we build these streets in 3D and archive them in a library of vir tual backlots, we can build them out further when produc- ers need them for promos or want to use them in a series," he explains. "I can paint out billboards and re- place them or change signage as needed. Actors and crowds can be composited in according to the script." For the Fairfax Avenue shot, Gabl brought his still photos into Cinema 4D, where he matched the cam- era angles and modeled the 3D buildings using cam- era projection. He modeled additional elements, such as street lamps and parking meters in Cinema 4D, and CBS Digital added CG cars. Then an actor was shot greenscreen and composited into the street scene. "No one who doesn't work at CBS Digital has no- ticed that the street is 3D," says Gabl. He has worked with other modeling software but calls Cinema 4D "a full-fledged 3D application that can do pretty much ever ything in a much more stream- lined way. I think a lot of ar tists have moved to it be- cause BodyPaint 3D is included: BodyPaint 3D allows you to paint directly on 3D geometry with brushes." In addition to his continuing work for CBS Digital, Gabl has recently done digital mattes and concepts for Oliver Stone's Wall Street 2 and the indie film Fair Game, starring Sean Penn. [ cont. from 25 ] M O D E L I N G for spots, promos and still shoots, sees a lot of waste on sets. "We ask them to bring their own water bottles — we put that request on our call sheets. I provide water in big jugs so they can refill their bottles as much as they want." Saslove also makes sure that all the par ts of sets taken down are donated, if possible, and any wardrobe that doesn't go back to the client also gets donated. "My goal is to have zero waste," she says. "I have a composter at home and I'll tell craft services to save me the coffee grounds; we are always looking for ways to be more environmentally conscious." One way she does this is by encouraging clients to use electronic prepro books, so they don't waste paper. When clients prefer paper-based prepro books, Saslove makes sure they use 100 percent recycled ma- terial, and she offers this trick: "The covers that prepro books come in…half the time they just get left behind, so we scoop all of those up and use them for the next job. A lot of the ways to be environmentally conscious are also financially conscious as well," she explains. "We need to make people more aware. It takes a lot of us working this way for it to become accepted policy." For post houses that have a ton of old media lying around, she suggests finding a local e-waste ser vice. "There are so many 1/2-inch, 3/4-inch tapes, Digi Betas, CDs and DVDs that get thrown out and take hun- dreds of years to degrade, if at all.There are resources that will recycle all this stuff; sometimes they charge, but it's minimal. It's completely worth it to know they make this stuff into road and playground surfaces." Saslove also hammers home the impor tance of disposing of gear in the proper way. "Post houses go through equipment quickly as technology changes, and that has huge impact on our landfills and our water tables because there are a lot of toxic materials used in some of that equipment." Recycling and being environmentally smart in busi- ness needs to translate to everyday life. Saslove offers fun and easy tips for us all: • "We get a ton of take out to the office and I am star ting to insist on biodegradable boxes; that's how you get people to make the changes — when they realize it will affect their business. • "I have a worm farm in a beautiful box in my office — about 3,000 worms munching on my kitchen scraps. They consume their body weight in food every two days, I believe.They live three to 13 years, so you don't have to replace them.They adjust their population based on how much food they have." • Buy organic! "One of the best things people can do is buy organic food to support community sustainable agriculture [through companies like L.O.V.E. and SPUD].You commit — for six months or a year — $20 for a box of vegetables or fruit and that money goes to the farmer. Every week you get a box of or- ganic fruits and vegetables. It's wonderful way to sup- port farmers and keep pesticides out our waterways." • "Our G5 was a good computer but having issues, so we donated it to the National Christina Foun- dation, which provides computers to people with disabilities. They took our computer info, found people in our area and made a match. It's tax de- ductible and it doesn't go to waste." [ cont. from 29 ] G E T T I N G G R E E N and features an image flipping function (ver tical and horizontal) that makes the monitor compatible with both beam-splitter and side-by-side 3D rigs. Additionally, the Master Monitor suppor ts NTSC and PAL, in either 16x9 or 4x3 as- pect ratios, and uses a high definition decoder chip to support HD 720p or 1080i by component signal. The system costs $4,895 and has an active display area of 8.3-inches by 6.2-inches, along with a contrast ratio of 500:1, 60Hz refresh rates and 25ms response time.The package weighs 15lbs. and includes two pair of linear polarized glasses, cables and adapters. [ cont. from 21] M O N I T O R S In addition to those covered, these manufacturers have introduced 3D monitoring solutions: 3DZ UK - www.3dz.co.uk Alioscopy - www.alioscopy.sg Hyundai - www.hyundaiq.com IZ3D - www.iz3d.com LG - www.lge.com Planar - www.planar3d.com Samsung - samsung.com Sharp - www.sharpusa.com True View - www.ampronix.com Viewsonic - www.viewsonic.com Zalman - www.zalman.com