Toronto’s Command Post and Transfer recently became the first post facility in Canada to acquire a Domino, the digital opticals for movies system from u.k.-based Quantel.

While the 10-year-old post facility has been well established in the commercial production market, producing high-end post and effects for television with tools like the Harry digital compositing system, the new acquisition gives the company the capability to bring realtime digital optical effects to motion picture projects.

‘We’ve had great success in doing special effects for video: things like rotoscoping, compositing and rig removal,’ says Andy Sykes, partner at Command Post. ‘The natural extension of that is to take the bag of tricks and tools we bring to the commercial post world and change the marketplace in which we work to cinema release.’

Valued at around $2 million, the Domino system purchased by Command Post is the 12th unit sold worldwide. It is comprised of the Film Scanner, the Film Recorder, and the Double Four creative workstation, which features full film-resolution Paintbox, 3D picture manipulation and color correction capability; the ‘One Shot’ keyer for blue-screen work; and full-resolution realtime replay.

Sykes says the tool has applications both for the feature producer and for the advertiser who wants to produce high-end commercials for cinema release.

‘We’ve seen in the past six months a tremendous interest among commercial clients in using cinema as another tool in media plans,’ says Sykes.

Domino also provides a cosmetic fix, removing scratches and flaws on film, and was used in the restoration of Lawrence of Arabia.

Another of the tricks in the well-stocked Command Post bag is the Flock of Birds motion-capture system from Vermont-based Ascension Technology, acquired last summer. Motion-capture translates real movements into computer models for use in animation.

When voice talent, for example, is instructed to do their best impression of an ebullient can of soda pop for an animated sequence, the same talent can act like one too, and have their unique gesticulations captured and transferred to a 3D computer model, which can then be modified in terms of size, shape and texture.

Twelve magnetic sensors attached to various points on the willing participant’s body transfer information regarding position and orientation of limbs, which, says Sykes, makes some of the most tedious aspects of the animation process, like writing code or applying inverse kinematics to each move, almost realtime and allows the director more realtime input into the process.