a blog of links related to computer animation and production technology Sponsored by ReelMatters.com
Year: 2020
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StratusCore – Web based virtual studio
StratusCore will provide the following to VES members:
– 40 hours of Virtual Workstation use per month
– 25 render credits per month
– 50 GB of hot storage
– 50% off all purchases
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New Apple iPad Pro with LIDAR scanning support
www.zdnet.com/article/apples-new-ipad-pro-arrives-with-updated-chip-and-lidar-scanner-for-ar-apps/
The LiDAR scanner — a technology better known in self-driving cars — measures the distance to surrounding objects up to 5 meters away. New depth frameworks in iPadOS combine depth points measured by the LiDAR scanner, data from both cameras and motion sensors, and is enhanced by computer vision algorithms on the A12Z Bionic for a more detailed map of a scene. The aim is to boost the quality of AR experience created on the iPad Pro.
Apple said existing ARKit apps will automatically get instant AR placement, improved motion capture and people occlusion.
The tablet will have a 10-hour battery life, a 12MP Wide camera which can capture 4K video, and a 10MP Ultra Wide camera that zooms out two times to capture a much wider field of view.
Apps like DoubleTake by FiLMiC Pro, available next month, leverage the pro cameras and studio-quality mics to turn iPad Pro into a mobile video production studio.6
With iPadOS 13.4, Apple brings trackpad support to iPad, giving customers an all-new way to interact with their iPad.
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A question of ethics – What CG simulation and deepfakes means for the future of performance
www.ibc.org/create-and-produce/re-animators-night-of-the-living-avatars/5504.article
“When your performance is captured as data it can be manipulated, reworked or sampled, much like the music industry samples vocals and beats. If we can do that then where does the intellectual property lie? Who owns authorship of the performance? Where are the boundaries?”
“Tracking use of an original data captured performance is tricky given that any character or creature you can imagine can be animated using the artist’s work as a base.”
“Conventionally, when an actor contracts with a studio they will assign rights to their performance in that production to the studio. Typically, that would also licence the producer to use the actor’s likeness in related uses, such as marketing materials, or video games.
Similarly, a digital avatar will be owned by the commissioners of the work who will buy out the actor’s performance for that role and ultimately own the IP.
However, in UK law there is no such thing as an ‘image right’ or ‘personality right’ because there is no legal process in the UK which protects the Intellectual Property Rights that identify an image or personality.
The only way in which a pure image right can be protected in the UK is under the Law of Passing-Off.”
“Whether a certain project is ethical or not depends mainly on the purpose of using the ‘face’ of the dead actor,” “Legally, when an actor dies, the rights of their [image/name/brand] are controlled through their estate, which is often managed by family members. This can mean that different people have contradictory ideas about what is and what isn’t appropriate.”
“The advance of performance capture and VFX techniques can be liberating for much of the acting community. In theory, they would be cast on talent alone, rather than defined by how they look.”
“The question is whether that is ethically right.”
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‘A race to the bottom’: What’s the story behind bad CGI?
“When something in the design goes wrong, creating a furry Lovecraftian horror who repulses the human eye, all the blame lands on the VFX. And when something goes right (like Sonic’s cuddlier redesign) the team sees no reward, not even job security.”
“Those who work in post production are “much more vulnerable than almost any other industry”, “No one has job security, not even the higher-ups. No one knows where they’re working next year, or three months from now. The industry is in a race to the bottom – everything has to be done quicker and cheaper than the last project. And we’re treated as a disposable short-term workforce.”
“The infamous “crunch” which animators have blamed for rushed work like Cats is a reference to “crunch time” – the period before a film’s release where artists have to work staggering amounts of overtime in order to get a job done before the money runs out. The instability of the VFX industry, and the inconsistency of the work it produces, may be due to these tight schedules.”
“Unpaid excessive overtime is the default,”“Some places are better than others. But generally speaking, when you get a contract somewhere big in London like ILM, the first thing you get is an overtime waiver. At the minute, EU rules limit how much overtime employers can ask for, so workers have to waive their own rights before they begin. These companies plan for unpaid overtime in their spreadsheets before they even start a project.”
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Animation Price Guide by getwrightonit.com
getwrightonit.com/animation-price-guide/
“Estimate the cost of animation projects for different mediums, styles, quality and duration using our interactive instant animation price calculator. Use this price guide to calculate a ballpark figure for your next animation project.”
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Animation cost per minute inflation adjusted
getwrightonit.com/animation-cost-per-minute-inflation-adjusted/
“The cost per minute to produce the traditionally animated films from the 1930s – 1960 was much lower than today even when adjusted for inflation. This is likely due to low paid animators pulling excessive unpaid overtime, including an army of women in the Ink and Paint department who barely made enough money to cover the rent.”
“Overall, animation is a high cost and labor intensive way to get a story to the screen, but there are big returns to be made, particularly with re-releases as a new generation of young audience members discover the films.”
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Kitsu Today CGWire – production tracking – pipeline
https://www.cg-wire.com/en/kitsu
Kitsu is a web application to track the progress of your productions. It improves the communication between all stakeholders of the production. Which leads to better pictures and faster deliveries.
CGWire PRESS RELEASE
“We noticed that a good way to improve the quality of CG movies is to improve the communication inside the studio. That’s why we made a software that is easy to use. All the stakeholders of the production can add and get data efficiently. Everyone is better informed and take better decisions.
The most notable features of Kitsu are:
– The listing of all elements of the production: assets, shots and tasks.
– A powerful commenting system that allows to put notes on tasks while changing status and attaching previews.
– A playlist system to view, compare, annotate and comment shots in a row. It’s super easy for the director to perform his reviews.
– A news feed to know in real-time what is happening during the production.
– Quota tables to evaluate the productiviy of the studio.Aside of that we added other tools to simplify the daily usage : timesheets, scheduling, production statistics, Slack integration and casting management.
Kitsu Today CGWire is deployed in 25 studios. Most of them are split in different locations. So, our users are spread in more than 15 countries working on production of all kinds: TV series, feature films and short movies (our customers are Cube Creative, TNZPV, Miyu, Akami, Lee Film, etc.). Once shipped, all productions tracked with Kitsu met success by receiving awards or getting millions of views on Youtube or on TV.
Another good thing is that Animation Schools really enjoy our product, 10 of them are using Kitsu to manage their end of studies projects (Les Gobelins, Ecole des Nouvelles Images, LISAA, etc.).
Our goal in 2020 is to make the ingestion process even better with a stronger import system, software integration and production templates. With these features, we want to be the reference software for building animation productions, especially for TV series.”
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Edwin Catmull and Patrick Hanrahan have won the $1 million Turing Award
The two men who invented game-changing 3D computer graphics techniques now widely used in the film industry have won the highest distinction in computer science: the Turing Award
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