Category Archives: Production

xiph.org: F65 RAW, Linear EXR, cleaned, and finals!

by - 2012/06/21 28 Comments Artwork, Development, Production


I’m very happy that our friends at xiph.org have agreed on hosting all of the files we’re producing now and in the next months. In total we expect to have 2 TB of material;

  • RAW files from the Sony F65 camera (4k)
  • Linear OpenEXR files in Rec709 gamut (4k, half float), converted from the Linear OpenEXR ACES gamut files as is output from the Sony F65 player/converter software (closed sw).
  • Cleaned OpenEXR files with alpha (4k)
  • Final renders in OpenEXR – before grading (HD 1920 x 800)
  • Final graded files, in OpenEXR, PNG, etc (HD 1920 x 800)

Here’s already the RAW and OpenEXR from two shots in the film (60 GB)! Everything will be released (entirely!) after the film went to premiere. The files then can also be used to complete the DVDs we’ll make for our sponsors; that way they can fully recreate the pipeline with originals!

http://media.xiph.org/mango/

Mango VFX pipeline – part 1

by - 2012/06/18 29 Comments Production

In this brief post I will illustrate an important part of our pipeline: the shot creation and development. The process described happens for every shot in the movie and appears slightly simplified (footage input and simulations are not taken into account). Here we have a picture of the process, plus a few notes about how production files are organized (on which layers objects should be placed on, and some naming conventions).


Everything starts with a blendfile where the shot is tracked and solved (the track file). This file is then duplicated and used as a starting point for keying and masking (masking file) and also for the main file, where layout, simulations, effects, light and compositing will be used. As soon as the main file is created, all the required libraries are linked in from environment and charachter files, so that the tracked camera can be placed in the right place in the scene. Once that the layout is approved it is possible to proceed with basic lighting and compositing, by creating the proper renderlayer setup. If simulation or effects like gun blasts, explosions or haze are needed, they are added to the same file, but in separate scenes. This system allows us even to use both blender internal render engine and cycles at the same time!
Given the size of our team it makes sense to keep workflow steps as compact as possible, since we can cohordinate on which shot everyone is working. A separate file for animation is created only when needed and it contains mostly liked libraries or objects, such as the camera, from the main file. At the same time, the main file links in masks and actions, so that they can be used in the compositor and on rig proxies.
This system allows a good degree of freedom and flexibility and its proving itself quite reliable.
Other posts about how we deal with footage, simulations and editing will come in the future:)

Screenshots

by - 2012/06/12 20 Comments Artwork, Production

Last week we’ve captured for everyone in the studio for a whole week every minute a screenshot! That’s going to be a great video! Needs time to process, so it’ll be published later (or as  DVD extra ;)
Just for fun, here’s the capture of today 18.00. From left to right,  top to bottom: Sebastian, Jeremy, Campbell, Ian, Andy, Roman, Francesco and Kjartan.

Masking in Blender

by - 2012/06/05 36 Comments Production

This is a first demo of the current status of the masking tools in Blender, that are currently being developed. Since we need it desperately for the work on Mango, we are all very happy to be able to use these tools.

But be aware that the development is still in progress, so you can expect some changes and improvements.
These tools have been merged to the main development version of Blender, so if you want to use them, either build trunk (SVN), or go to graphicall.org and download the latest version there.

Thanks to Sergey Sharybin, Pete Larabell and Campbell Barton for their work!

Production update – halfway!

by - 2012/05/31 17 Comments Production

Tomorrow is June 1st, the start of the second 3 month period, aimed at completing this film. Looking back on the past months I can be very happy already, it’s been a blast and I think we’ll survive well, especially because two new team members are going to strengthen our work force!

Andy Goralczyk: lighting design & compositing
Roman Volodin: vfx artist and animator

We’ll say goodbye this weekend to one team member who’s 3 month period ended:

Nicolo Zubbini: 3d modeling

Nicolo has been modeling and texturing tremendous amounts of environments and 3d models, he’s been great! I’m happy that we can afford him to continue work from home an extra month on finishing more props especially.

Last 10 days we’ve been testing our pipeline on a number of shots (the scientist shooting scene). That’s been extremely useful! And as expected, it didn’t go half as good as we expected even! :) Main bottleneck still is masking and keying (and other tools for cleaning footage). Slightly holding us back is the new compositor and Cycles – but that’s being worked hard on.

We also found out today that the preferred pipeline for linking/sharing data among Blender files won’t work without bad hacks. That went back to the drawing table as well – mostly because you cannot localize (“proxy”) efficiently yet.

The image here is the proposed rough scene planning now. In five big categories we’ll complete this film. Individual scenes/shots and tasks get added next week. I need Ian to return from his break in Seattle to confirm the final edit! Laters :)

-Ton-

Weekly – May 25

by - 2012/05/26 24 Comments Artwork, Production

Here’s my random pick from last week’s ‘weekly folder’.



Here’s one of the shots we’re currently working on; tracking, keying, cleaning, masking, adding 3d environment & props, add guns, light bolts, robots, light design, composite and final grade! Hopefully that’s something we can show next week.

-Ton-

Venom’s Lab 2: new training DVD!

by - 2012/05/21 10 Comments Production, Random

Pablo “venomgfx” Vazquez is working here in Blender Institute on a new training DVD; episode two of “Venom’s Lab”. It’s aimed at people who know Blender’s basics and who want to learn al the techniques to create wonderful characters in Blender.

Here’s the trailer:

The DVD is going to be finished in 3 weeks, pre-orders are being accepted via the Blender e-store now! The profits of our training DVD series goes directly to making project Mango possible :)

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