TOPIX Computer Graphics and Animation is using Discreet Logic’s FLINT software to produce commercials, a move that is thought to be an industry first.

For some time now, posh post houses doing digital keying and compositing on high-priced Harrys and Henrys have heard footsteps behind them from makers of lower-end, software-driven edit suites that promise a broadcast-quality product for far less money.

Same workstations

Now that prospect is all but here, according to TOPIX president Chris Wallace. ‘A year ago, the computer industry boasted they would have the speed and technical capability to replace most of the on-line hardware in post-production suites. They weren’t wrong. We are now doing full on-line digital post-production on the same computer workstations that we do our 3D animation on,’ he says.

flint is a short-form editing package used mostly in the video production and post-production markets. It offers a software-based digital production suite in-house, as at TOPIX currently.

At its simplest, flint performs digital editing, keying, compositing and color correction. The result is new looks with fully animatable paint, 2D and 3D effects and image processing.

At TOPIX, engineers are using flint on Indigo2 Extreme platforms from the sgi family of workstations.

Just last month, after getting up to speed on the flint system for barely a week, TOPIX animator Susan Armstrong was putting together the animation for a Coke spot produced for McCann-Erikson Advertising and directed by Curtis Wehrfritz at Revolver Films.

topix paid around $70,000 for the Discreet Logic system, plus $15,000 for an extra two minutes of disc drive storage.

At full resolution, with no compression, flint will allow topix to create complex rotoscoping, multiple composites or special effects without image degradation.

In the ball park

How does the flint compare to a Harry? ‘It’s comparable, in the ball park,’ says Wallace. ‘We’re not going to go out and do a final on-line on a Harry. We will do the job right here.’

The result, he says, is huge savings on cab fares.

The system is not as fast as the Harry, he allows. ‘We’re real fast, not real time.’ But Wallace adds there are no ‘killer delays.’