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“onezerothrice” has been hard at work developing a new Augmented Reality library to work with Flash, complete with a predefined Marker, called ARtisan.

ARtisan is the fastest and easiest way from point A to point B in browser based augmented reality. With ARtisan, the developer needs no knowledge of the inner workings of augmented reality to create in-depth, interactive AR experiences.

The results look impressive so far, with demos on using a marker as a mouse, displaying basic 3D objects, and using a marker as a steering wheel in a driving game.

via ARtisan, via HackADay.

Science augmented reality, flash, library

Imaginary Forces sits down with FXGuide to talk about how they built the computer vision sequences, the Terminator’s eyes, in Terminator Salvation.

fxg: What techniques did you end up using for the final shots?

Jeremy: The initial tracking of all the shots was done in PFTrack and Boujou. We did this to every shot that we could. We then brought that into Cinema 4D which is our primary 3D program. Often we would rebuild the set or do minimal construction of elements in order to have a surface to create these point clouds.

In most cases we would render a depth map out of Cinema 4D of this crude scene and then bring that into After Effects. We used a plugin from Trapcode called Form, which essentially creates a grid of particles whose Z position can be determined in space based on the depth map. So we could line up the particles with the original shot. Then almost the entire interface animation was done in After Effects.

via fxguide – vfx knowledge – Behind the Scenes of Terminator: Imaginary Forces.

Graphics imaginary forces, movie, vfx

Panavision cameras have been a staple of Hollywood filmmaking for over 50 years, but is rapidly losing ground to the rising digital cameras like the Red One.  And it’s not entirely for technical reasons:

Some of Panavision’s problems parallel those facing other companies in the production industry. The company has been hit hard by the steep downturn that began last year during the Hollywood writers strike and the subsequent standoff between the major studios and the Screen Actors Guild. The economic recession also led studios to make fewer movies and advertisers to cut back on making commercials, further weakening demand for filmmaking equipment.

The article also makes a great reference toward the end:

In addition to renting the camera, Red Digital Cinema sells its camera and accessories for about $30,000, making digital cameras affordable for filmmakers. By contrast, Panavision cameras aren’t for sale and typically rent from $10,000 to $60,000 a week.

If you can rent for $60k/week, or buy for $30k permanently, what are you gonna choose?

via Panavision’s future is in need of focus – Los Angeles Times via Final Cut User.

Hardware camera, panavision, red

Mental Images, creators of MentalRay, have just released RealityServer2.3, a web-based 3D rendering system based on Service Oriented Architectures (SOA).  All this means it’s a web-services framework allowing devleopers to integrate 3D visualizations via Flash or Silverlight, connected to a high-powered backend running RealityServer.

“We’ve built the core of our online 3D service around RealityServer,” said Alain Chesnais, chief technology officer of SceneCaster, a web service that enables users to design and share 3D rooms. “Working closely with the mental images team, we were able to quickly take advantage of several of the new features in RealityServer 2.3. We’re thrilled to be using it in our ‘My 3D Scenes’ application on Facebook and Friendster.”

via CGDigg: Your daily fresh CG news – MENTAL IMAGES : RealityServer 2.3.

Science mental images, realityserver, web

The Foundry has posted a case study online from Svengali, discussing their use of Nuke in JJ Abram’s Star Trek reboot.  Svengali used Nuke in approximately 80 VFX shots, including the wide shot of the Federation Shipyards (above).

“We also included some CG elements like the Enterprise dockyard and the building skyline in the distance, both provided by ILM for continuity. We modelled the Trail Bar and the moving vehicle in Maya using simple geometry, and then loaded everything into Nuke. In Nuke, we were able to construct the perfect 3D setup, animate and project our matte painting elements over the geometry, and even test the best way to simulate the fake headlight effects on the motorbike vehicle. Nuke made the assembly, compositing and initial balance grading of the many disparate elements pretty straightforward.”

CaseStudy_StarTrek_v2.pdf (application/pdf Object) via Jim Geduldick (Twitter).

Graphics foundry, movie, nuke, svengali, vfx

Just found this via some fellow Twitter-ites, it’s a video comparison of various stages of the REndering & Compositing of various Ice Age 3 scenes.  Compiled by Jeff Gabor of Blue Sky Studios, it shows the animators acting the scenes, two different stages of modeling and pre-rendering, and the final rendered scenes.

View the video at his site.

IA3ComparisonReel.mov (video/quicktime Object).

Graphics blue sky studios, breakdown, movie, vfx

Anaglyphic (Red/Cyan) Image from the Video

Over at the StudioGPU blog, they’ve got some information about another interesting video to debut at IBC in September, a music video for the “Pansy Warrior Princess” site, shot almost entirely in Stereoscopic 3D by Sterling Youngman.

The entire PWP music video project will be CGI, except for Pansy and her band, (which will be shot on green screen using Silicon Imaging’s new 3D 2K camera system). The original plan called for rendering the CG with Brazil. However once Youngman committed to going stereoscopic, it was clear that lighting and rendering the CG under the time constraint of being ready for IBC, would not be feasible without a big studio budget for lighters, compositors and render farms. Enter MachStudio Pro.

The site has information on how Youngman pulled the project together including previz, greenscreen effects in stereo, and doing it all without any huge studio backing.

via StudioGPU Blog: Shaking up the time vs. quality tradeoff in the stereo 3D production pipeline.

Graphics machstudio, music video, pwp, stereoscopic, studiogpu, vfx

Kitware has just announced that ParaView 3.6 is now available for all to download and try out.  Big new features in this version:

• Major Overhaul of the Python API, making for easier procedural scripts
• Experimental new support for CGNS, Silo, and TecPlot from VisIt plugins (only available in Linux Binaries)
• Support for Tabular data like CSV
• New camera animations based on splines & curve-fitting algorithms
• OverView – Information VIsualization tool
• StreamingParaView – ParaView with support for piecewise data streaming

Hit their website to download it now, and read the full announcement after the break.

Update: Not sure why, but “Downloads of ParaView are temporarily disabled. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please check back again soon.”.  Should still be available via CVS tho.

Update #2: This just in from folks at Kitware:

There is a problem with a corrupt DLL in the windows amongst some other problems. They are being resolved as we speak and the download should be re-enabled later today or early tomorrow at the latest. I apologize for the inconvenience.

via ParaView

Read more…

Science kitware, paraview, software

Monday, September 14th will be “D Cinema Day” at IBC09, focusing on the entire processing of generating stereoscopic 3D for films.  Chaired by Phil Streather, CEO of Principal Large Format, the day-long session will cover introductory material, previs, image capture, and finally editing stereo film.

The purpose of our programme on D Cinema Day at IBC 09 is to ensure that people are aware of the latest tools in 3D content creation and editing, how they can be used, and what benefits they can bring to a project. Not everybody can afford current high end 3D post production tools. But there are alternatives out there that are cheaper and more accessible to smaller or independent production companies, and our aim is to showcase some of them to an audience that might so far have limited or no experience of 3D movie-making. The more people who can have access to tools to make good 3D the better.

via CORRECTING and REPLACING New Routes to 3D Content During D Cinema Day at IBC 09 | SYS-CON INDIA.

Graphics 3d, conference, ibc, stereoscopic

Bestario, a Spanish infograhpics firm, has built a new website called “The Wainova World Atlas of Innovation”.  It attempts to map the world’s major science and business incubators with the professional associations linking them, but in the opinion of many winds up being a bit too much flash without any function.

The failing here illustrates an important point about information graphics in general: They’re only as good as the data they map. Without interesting data, they can’t tell us anything worth knowing–and the ultimate promise of infographics is that they provide us surprising insights that we would have otherwise missed. That’s why the best data visualization teams–such as that of The New York Times–are comprised equally of computer scientists, cartographers, journalists, and just a couple of designers

via An Online “Atlas of Innovation” | Design & Innovation | Fast Company.

Science bestario, example, infographic