As recently as a year ago, boasts by the computer industry that it would create tools to replace traditional on-line post-production hardware were still being greeted with skepticism. But events evolve at dizzying speeds in this field, and those early doubts have been dissipated by the market success of special visual effects software packages. These programs are run on computer animation stands and offer virtually all the features associated with multipurpose digital disk recorders and editing suites.

Freedom

A case in point, Chris Wallace, president of TOPIX Computer Graphics and Animation, Toronto, says his shop’s acquisition of the Flint special effects package gives it the freedom it requires to key and manipulate multilayered productions in-house.

topix is one of three of the country’s leading post-production and f/x and animation suppliers to recently acquire special visual effects systems from Montreal-based developer/distributor Discreet Logic.

These software packages, including Flint, Flame and now Inferno, are gaining in popularity because they are flexible enough to service many everyday post-production requirements while being a real asset in the creation of demanding special effects, says industry veteran Claude Fournier, co-ordinator with Centre de Montage Electronique in Montreal.

In December, cme purchased two Inferno editing and special visual effects units from Discreet Logic. The software system operates on a Silicon Graphics Onyx super-computer workstation with RealityEngine Graphics. But Inferno is still in development and won’t be ready until spring, so cme has on-lined two Flame units and will upgrade to Inferno later, says Fournier.

Highlander III

Flame is also lighting the way for Hybride Technologies of Piedmont, Que. The D1 and r&d shop, headed by president Pierre Raymond, has acquired a Flame unit for work on Andy Morahan’s Highlander iii, a $30 million-plus f/x coproduction feature film.

Raymond says Flame will be used for compositing, editing, lighting special effects and color correction. Hybride will produce three minutes or 25 special effect sequences for the film using Flame, the company’s own proprietary software and Wavefront 3D software.

All of Hybride’s divisions will be required to complete work on Highlander iii, and everything will be done in-house, except for the film scanning, says Raymond.

Interestingly, the company’s powerful D1 editing suite will be used for the low-resolution off-line cut. This will permit the effects to be tested in D1 resolution for final delivery to film.

Assigned to the project are veteran animator Annie Normandin, who’ll work in Flame and 3D, and senior editor Daniel Leduc, whose responsibilities include D1 video and Flame editing.

Scope

The scope of f/x software packages has to be considered in the context of the overall machine and software environment, but the new packages are changing the face of post-production, moving into new areas like color correction.

‘The incidental and accidental result of this acquisition (Flint) has put us in the post business,’ says Wallace, adding topix has no intention of becoming a post-production service operation. But the new software application has eliminated topix’s need to go outside for assembling and finishing purposes.

Affordability

‘And, of course, when you don’t have to pay out $500 to $700 an hour for work on a Harry or a Henry, you can afford to get a little more creative,’ says Wallace.

The Flint system at topix operates on an SGI Iris Indigo 2 with Extreme graphics. Flint is particularly useful in creating 2D effects and combining them with 3D effects.

The same package is being used by Toronto’s John Gajdecki Visual Effects to composite four two-hour TekWar tv movies, produced by Atlantis Films and Cardigan Productions for Universal’s new ‘action network.’

Supporting both film scanner and D1 input and output, Flame offers resolution-independent, non-linear digital editing, compositing, and color correction in addition to 3D animation and paint effects. Just about everything short of film-to-tape transfer.

cme’s deal with Discreet Logic represents a major investment for the company, in the order of $1 million. The biggest part of the cost is the SGI Onyx workstation, which costs between $450,000 and $500,000, while the software packages range in price from $45,000 to $180,000, for the new Inferno system.

Assembling in-house ‘means all our designers and animators can get quicker feedback and look at the finals for commercials. It means more creativity,’ says Wallace.

Applications such as Flint, Flame and Inferno can handle old-style a/b/c/ roll key edits, or compositing assignments ??as they generate paint and graphic characters in a one-stop easy to preview environment.?? As you move up the line, these programs variously offer non-linear editing, rotoscopying, color correction and ultimately, for the Inferno, digital film scanning.

At cme, Fournier says Flame provides for 12 minutes of digital storage memory, a considerable improvement over the 100 seconds available on the the Abekas A62 recorder.

The system works at both film and video resolution levels in all broadcast formats, ntsc, pal, etc.

Now in its 15th year of operation, cme has maintained a busy fall schedule, posting on film-originated commercials and Quebec tv series such as Blanche, Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Les Grands proces, as well as handling transfer duties on Highlander iii, which is being shot on Super 35mm film and coproduced by Transfilm’s Claude Leger.

Further down the road, Fournier says cme is keen on acquiring a half-million dollar 35mm film scanner, for film-to-computer-to-film post-production. Fournier says Kodak is now marketing its new film post-production system which is based on powerful digital/laser scanners.

At topix, founded in 1986 by Wallace, recent animation action includes three 30s for a national Coke campaign out of McCann-Erickson with live-action under the direction of Revolver Films Curtis Wehrfritz, an animated/live-action production on behalf of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a live-action 2D/3D production for City-tv’s Great Movies and City president Moses Znaimer, and various network ids and logos for aspiring specialty channel applicants.

Wallace says Flint was indispensable on the Coke assignment because topix had no more than 12 production days in which to create 90 seconds of television. ‘There’s no way to do a job like this unless one has a Harry, Henry or something of that calibre,’ he says.

Wallace says the award-winning Toronto shop is embarking on longer-form formats and has been invited to create a six-minute pilot for the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia. On this assignment, Flint will be used to assemble live-action footage, painting and frescos which recreate the events of the very first games some 4,000 years ago.

Back at Hybride, Raymond says: ‘One of the reasons we purchased Flame is because we’ve decided we’ll no longer make purchases which are not resolution-free. This is because Hybride is rapidly moving into special effects for film.’

Hybride is a 4:4:4 total digital environment with 80% of its non-r&d work devoted to commercials.

Recent work at the shop includes the Flame and Wavefront special f/x on Breakthrough, an mow from producer Nicolas Clermont and Filmline International starring Donald Sutherland, and two PNMD/Publitel commercial assignments: Maximum Ice, directed by Cinelande’s Erik Canuel, and Loto-Quebec from Cinelande director Serge Jacques.

Lesser known Flint features, says Wallace, are its ability to stabilize ‘jittery’ composite images and the ‘time-warp’ option, which extends a 30-frame sequence to 40 frames, or vice versa. The resulting artefax, or computer distortion, creates ‘a unique, cool look based on mixed-frame information called time-smear,’ he says.

Discreet Logic packages are selling in both North America and Europe.

U.S. designer Christopher Woods used Flame as the core software application in creating over 150 special effects for the theatrical movie Super Mario Bros.

And according to Discreet Logic president Richard Szalwinski, other applications include Paramount’s Coneheads, episodes of the Star Trek: The Next Generation tv series, and the new 70mm Robocop theme park motion-control ride from IWERKS Entertainment. This facility is based on themes from the Orion Pictures releases Robocop and Robocop 3.

non-linear digital editing, compositing, and color correction in addition to 3D animation and paint effects. Just about everything short of film-to-tape transfer.

cme’s deal with Discreet Logic represents a major investment for the company, in the order of $1 million. The biggest part of the cost is the SGI Onyx workstation, which costs between $450,000 and $500,000, while the software packages range in price from $45,000 to $180,000, for the new Inferno system.

Assembling in-house ‘means all our designers and animators can get quicker feedback and look at the finals for commercials. It means more creativity,’ says Wallace.

Applications such as Flint, Flame and Inferno can handle old-style a/b/c/ roll key edits, or compositing assignments, and generate paint and graphic characters in a one-stop, easy-to-preview environment. As you move up the line, these programs variously offer non-linear editing, rotoscoping, color correction and ultimately, for the Inferno, digital film scanning.

At cme, Fournier says Flame provides for 12 minutes of digital storage memory, a considerable improvement over the 100 seconds available on the Abekas A62 recorder.

The system works at both film and video resolution levels in all broadcast formats, ntsc, pal, etc.

Now in its 15th year of operation, cme has maintained a busy fall schedule, posting on film-originated commercials and Quebec tv series such as Blanche, Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Les Grands proces, as well as handling transfer duties on Highlander iii, which is being shot on Super 35mm film and coproduced by Transfilm’s Claude Leger.

Further down the road, Fournier says cme is keen on acquiring a half-million dollar 35mm film scanner, for film-to-computer-to-film post-production. Fournier says Kodak is now marketing its new digital film system, the Cineon, which is based on powerful digital/laser scanners.

At topix, founded in 1986 by Wallace, recent animation action includes three 30s for a national Coke campaign out of McCann-Erickson with live-action under the direction of Revolver Films’ Curtis Wehrfritz, an animated/ live-action production on behalf of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a live-action 2D/3D production for City-tv’s Great Movies and City president Moses Znaimer, and various network ids and logos for aspiring specialty channel applicants.

Wallace says Flint was indispensable on the Coke assignment because topix had no more than 12 production days in which to create 90 seconds of television. ‘There’s no way to do a job like this unless one has a Harry, Henry or something of that calibre,’ he says.

Wallace says the award-winning Toronto shop is embarking on longer-form formats and has been invited to create a six-minute pilot for the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia. On this assignment, Flint will be used to assemble live-action footage, painting and frescoes which recreate the events of the very first games some 4,000 years ago.

Back at Hybride, Raymond says: ‘One of the reasons we purchased Flame is because we’ve decided we’ll no longer make purchases which are not resolution-free. This is because Hybride is rapidly moving into special effects for film.’

Hybride is a 4:4:4 total digital environment with 80% of its non-r&d work devoted to commercials.

Recent work at the shop includes the Flame and Wavefront special f/x on Breakthrough, an mow from producer Nicolas Clermont and Filmline International starring Donald Sutherland, and two PNMD/Publitel commercial assignments: Maximum Ice, directed by Cinelande’s Erik Canuel, and Loto-Quebec from Cinelande director Serge Jacques.

Lesser known Flint features, says Wallace, are its ability to stabilize ‘jittery’ composite images and the ‘time-warp’ option, which extends a 30-frame sequence to 40 frames, or vice versa. The resulting artefacts, or computer distortion, creates ‘a unique, cool look based on mixed-frame information called time-smear,’ he says.

Discreet Logic packages are selling in both North America and Europe.

U.S. designer Christopher Woods used Flame as the core software application in creating over 150 special effects for the theatrical movie Super Mario Bros.

And according to Discreet Logic president Richard Szalwinski, other applications include Paramount’s Coneheads, episodes of the Star Trek: The Next Generation tv series, and the new 70mm Robocop theme park motion-control ride from IWERKS Entertainment. This facility is based on themes from the Orion Pictures releases Robocop and Robocop 3.