Christy Anzelmo from Foundry talks about new Virtual Production Pipeline and more

Christy Anzelmo from Foundry talks about new Virtual Production Pipeline and more

Foundry have been developing creative software for the Digital Design, Media and Entertainment industries for over 20 years. Foundry products are used to create breathtaking visual effects sequences on a wide range of feature films, video-on-demand, television and commercials. The company partners with others players in that field to solve complex visualization challenges and turn incredible ideas into reality. Senior Director Christy Anzelmo talks about the current products and new virtual Production Pipeline. The interview can be found on TL Network coverage.

Interview with Christy Anzelmo of Foundry

An overview of IBC2018 with the conference CEO

An overview of IBC2018 with the conference CEO

At the start of IBC 2018,  held September 12-16 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Bright Blue Innovation Editor Angel Scott  has a 1:1 with IBC CEO Michael Crimp.  The discussion covers the hot topics of the conference and the next generation technologies that are being covered by the sessions.  They discuss the shift from hardware to software in the industry as the dominate base on the expo floor.  The discussion includes the major trends in the growing ecosystem that makes up the world of broadcast.  The interview can be found below.

 

A discussion with Charlie Vogt of ATX Networks at NAB2018

A discussion with Charlie Vogt of ATX Networks at NAB2018

At the recent NAB show in Las Vegas, I had a chance to sit down and talk to Charlie Vogt, CEO of ATX Networks about the industry, what he has been doing since Imagine Communications and the challenges of video media  distribution.  He highlights the switching and distribution technology from  the ATX product line that support the full range from SD through 4K HDR delivery.

The interview with Charlie Vogt follows :

 

 

Vicon Advances MoCap at SIGGRAPH 2016

Vicon Advances MoCap at SIGGRAPH 2016

Siggraph, July 2016 – In an interview with Jeffrey Ovadya, Director of Sales and Marketing for Vicon Motion Systems, we got a chance to hear about their latest mocap camera and also Project Katana which was being demonstrated on the conference expo floor at SIGGRAPH 2016.

Motion Capture, or MoCap has moved to the mainstream for VFX production in movies, TV, advertising and most content creation.  It has even expanded to support automated PTZ camera movement for live TV production using virtual studios.  The primary product from the company is high speed cameras for motion capture that are mounted to a scaffolding system or framing to define a 3D space where the movement is captured.  The new cameras and software are designed to be smarter and easier to use, as mocap moves from the professional space to the prosumer market.

For simplicity in the use of mocap, Jeff said that Vicon has started a program called “Project Katana”.  The idea behind it is to have a system that in real time will create a mocap skeleton model ad bring the data into systems like Final Cut.  The goal is to have final quality, fully rigged and articulated skeletons of the mocap session at the end of each shot.  This will provide full skeletons of all characters in the 3D capture space, at the end of each day, along with the production dailies.  In order to perform this analysis, the studio setup and network has to be self-healing.  The data environment for motion and the rigging connections in the project are being done using a Matlab mathematical modeling core.

The booth at the SIGGRAPH expo was showing the system however there is not release date or a “product name” for when Project Katana will be released.

Print

To address this shift towards simplicity, Vicon has introduced the Vero camera.  It is available in two models the v1.3 which is a 1.3MP camera and the v2.2 which is a 2.2MP camera.  Designed specifically for mocap applications, the cameras are an 850nm IR greyscale camera that operates at either 250FPS for the v1.3 or 330FPS for v2.2.  The high frame rates on the cameras allow for real time and full range live motion capture.

The cameras have a variable focus lens from 6mm-12mm for use in low angle and high angle applications.  A major design simplification for the user is the single cable connection.  The cameras have standard RJ45/Cat5e Ethernet connector that serves to be the interface for the camera control, data connection from the units and power the units using the POE specification.  For this single cable connection system, the cameras have been designed to only require 12W to operate.  Like the prior generation and larger camera the Vantage, the Vero has on-board sensors that monitor camera position and temperature to ensure optimal performance.

Architects bring 3D printing to the outside world

Architects bring 3D printing to the outside world

August 2015, Siggraph – Two panelists came from Amsterdam to attend Siggraph 2015 and at the Lenovo’s panel share discussion about their new project. Tim Geurtjens and Gijs Van Der Velden are co-founders of MX3D, a company researching and developing groundbreaking robotic 3D printing technology. They developed 3D large scale printers that allowed printing large structures and different materials including plastic, stainless steel and aluminum. Tim and Gijs recently came up with an ambitious plan to build a steel bridge over the canal in Amsterdam. Geurtjens confessed that idea of building a bridge using 3-D printing techniques started with frustration about the 3D printing market. “We use 3D printers all the time, but they make only the small parts. We asked the companies that manufacture 3-D printers to develop printers for large parts but the companies were not interested in developing them” said Guertjens, “so we decided to do it on our own.”

Tim and Gijs discussed their plan to build a 3D printed steel bridge over the canal in Amsterdam. “We want to show the world what that technique could do”. The founders of MX3D are getting government support for this project as the city officials are really interested in presenting Amsterdam as an innovative and progressive city. Even though they invented the technology, they estimate that it will take them a year to understand fully, the capacity and the limits of their technology in an outdoor application and do a design. The starting date is set for spring 2017 and with an estimate to take 3-4 months to print the bridge. The most interesting thing about this 3-D image technique is that we can not only print the building as a new object, but we can use the multi-robots in the system to build in place from an existing structure. In that case, the projects can be of unlimited size” said Geutjens.

Using these 3D printing techniques, it is possible to recreate things. Geurtjens sees the printers as an extension of the existing techniques. Currently, there is a Chinese company that is us using additive manufacturing to print buildings, but it is more efficient and most appreciated, if we use the technology to create additional decorative pieces. It is well known that decoration is the heart of architecture. The use of computers and printers allows these designs to be extravagant, as it does not matter how complex the pieces are. Why use traditional techniques if we can add to them with the time and money consuming details?