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Over at Autodesk’s “The Area” they’ve got an article from Bill Ennis on color grading with Flame, Lustre, and Smoke.  The result is almost 90 minutes of background on the entire process of using the tools for a complete product.

I call this series “Something for Everyone” because if you’re thinking about cross-grading to Flame Premium – or just want to know more about how it works, you gotta check these out. I worked with my old friend Marc Hamaker to put the videos together with the goal of introducing the benefits of Flame Premium in familiar terms.

via Area :: Blogs :: Flame Premium – “Something for Everyone”.

Graphics autodesk, flame, howto, lustre, smoke

The software development team at Colorfront, based in Budapest, Hungary, is being honored with a Scientific & Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences for their color grading system in Autodesk’s Lustre.

Colorfront’s managing director Aron Jaszberenyi commented, “To receive this accolade for DI innovation work is a great honour for our team. Their work had a dramatic impact on motion picture post, but the industry moves on and new challenges lie ahead. We use Lustre in our own DI grading theatres, complemented by the new software tools that our award-winning team are developing in-house to assist every aspect of pre-production, cinematography, dailies, conform, visual effects, DI and deliverables. Colorfront relies on these proprietary new technologies for a fast and efficient high-resolution workflow to serve our international production clients.”

Congratulations !  The full press release with some background on Lustre & Colorfront is after the break.

Read more…

Science ampas, autodesk, award, colorfront, lustre

More and more films are undergoing digital processing after shooting, to correct colors and such.  Over at BestAvailable, they have a good discussion of the power of the Digital Intermediate, the name for this process, and what you can do with it.

The Digital Intermediate (DI) is a process that many—if not most—films undergo these days (as far as I know), whereby the entire film (even non-visual effects shots) is digitized and worked on by the Director of Photography, the Colorist, and the Director. They do this in a very dark screening room, wherein the Colorist sits at an array of controls that would rival any NASA console.

Specifically they talk about Autodesk’s Lustre, and show some powerful before and after shots.

via Best Available: Adventures in Visual Effects, No. 74:In Which a DI Demonstration is Given.

Graphics lustre, vfx

Autodesk is presenting a pair of session in Sydney on June 11th talking about their new 2010 releases of Flame, Inferno, Smoke and Flare, and a meet-and-greet from Olivier Fontenay and Sebastian Gohs, colorists.

Session 1: Presentation of 2010 releases of Autodesk Flame, Inferno, Smoke and Flare, the new Flame and Inferno creative companion, all of which were launched at the NAB Show in Las Vegas last month!

Session 2: Meet Olivier Fontenay, Senior Colorist from EFILM Australia, and Sebastian Göhs, Lustre Colorist from CinePostproduction for the Lustre Super User Tour. Olivier is the man behind the awe-inspiring beauty of blockbuster Oscar-nominated Australia. He is also one of the earliest users of Lustre. Sebastian is the colorist behind Waltz with Bashir, the first animated film to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Sessions start at 2pm, and run through 7 (break from 4-5).  Registration required.

Autodesk Experience the Power.

Graphics autodesk, flame, flare, inferno, lustre, smoke, vfx, workshop

Monsters vs Aliens was DreamWorks Animation’s first full 3D film, and as such they spent alot of time researching ways to create 3D animation and trying out different tools.  In a new case study on Autodesk’s website, they discuss their use of Maya and Lustre to create the movie.

Says McNally “We’ve developed tools in Autodesk Maya to measure distances in a scene and then translate those distances into pixel separation which is how the stereo effect is created in the theater. We use a multirig system where we’re able to treat the primary character in a shot individually giving it the full stereo effect for realistic volume and look but dialing back the stereo on other peripheral characters.” “

via Autodesk – Film – DreamWorks Animation SKG.

Graphics 3d, autodesk, lustre, maya, vfx