Film task on PC : formats

[Aruna]

Depending on the software package that your are using, you could possible bring in a regular Cineon file, and use a monitor look-up to alter how the monitor displays these cineon files. This is an option when working on discreet's flame and inferno. There may be something similar on PCs. I know on shake you can have a lookup which alters the way shake displays the cineon, putting it into a more viewable colorspace for compositing. I would still use a LUT to comp with though, especially on a PC.

If you are going to convert to .tgas in order to composite, you may want a higher bit depth to retain all the color information. If I remember correctly, targas can only store 16bits per channel.

Ron Brinkmann's book "The Art and Science of Digital Compositing" has more in depth information on linear vs log color space.

[Jayk2k]

TGA's will only support 8 bits. Go with a 16 bit SGI, or TIFF...

[Aruna]

Ahh. TIFF is probably what I was confusing it with.

[Jayk2k]

Oh, and Aruna....

Kyle Y says "hi".... and "Gee, you think he'd use a better shot from GVFX than the Christmas one... "

[Aruna]

Haha... Well, it's HIS 3D in that shot. :P It's not just me under pressure here. It was the only shot that I had breakdowns to.. But let's not go off topic here. :) Tell him I said hi too, and have him email me once in a while. :)

[zanian]

This will determine how you should proceed.

Are these scanned film plates in Cineon?

[3dfArtist]

Thanks Aruna and jayk,

That was helpful.

I work on (primarily) Combustion and Fusion and both have the facility of using LUTs, both existing in tha file and create/edit for the comp.

I have though understood that even with using the LUTs one cannot be 100% sure of the final output on the film print. (I may be wrong, too)


Till I get my hand on that book, can u give me some tips (and tricks) for working on the film formats. May be when integrating 3d with film footage, or compositing croma shots, or even color corrections on film. That will be great.



cheers
3dfartist

[Jayk2k]

If you have access to Digital Fusion 4, (NOT DFX+) you can be 100% sure that what you bring it will go out provided you don't do any extreme color correction...

DF uses float space, and will allow brighter than white, and darker than black. Just import the cineon files as you would normally. Now they will come in at a default sort of dark, so I reccomend adjusting the display LUT to a gamma of about 1.8 or 2.6 if it's really dark.

Now you can comp, and do what you need. Just be sure to periodicly turn on the "show full color range" button on the display to ensure that your layers are matching the rest of the shot.

I recently added a pile of particle sparks to a cineon sequence, and by adjusting the color of the sparks to a value of 6 (instead of 1 which is white) they bloom quite nicely and fit the rest of the in plate explosion. But I had to have the show range set so I could see all the details in the explosion...

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