Upgrade

We upgraded our workstations the best we could.Yeah, sure Tim Cook promised that we would love what they have for us in 2013. We can't wait for that, or take a chance that it might not be what we are looking for. What are we looking for. I'd like that Linux box we have for Mari to run OS X.

Each compositor has 48 gigs of RAM. We also upgraded to a Quadro 4000. The GPU support in Nuke is a great addition. The more RAM you have the more you can cache. It's nice having a huge amount if RAM. If nice to have GPU acceleration. It's a great experience.

The Foundry also needs to step up. When this so called "Love" that apple has for us comes out its going to run Mountain lion. Last time I checked Nuke doesn't supported Mountain Lion.

Sure we can move to Linux. If we were going to do this instead we would have done it already.

Depth of field →

Marc Levoy:

When you move the sensor in a digital camera relative to the lens, the plane in object space that is sharply focused moves as well. How far can you move the sensor before a sharply focused feature goes out of focus? To answer this question, we must first define what we mean by "out of focus". The standard definition is that the width of the blurred image of the feature has become larger on the sensor than some maximum allowable circle of confusion. This size of this circle is arbitrary, but a reasonable choice is to make it equal in diameter to the width of a pixel. The thick black vertical bar at the right side of the applet above represents one circle of confusion.

 

Compiles on the fly

Written by Ben Minall:

I hear that there is a node that compiles on the fly, when can we get that?

*Yes, there is! It’s rather cool and is built on the next stage of the Blink framework stuff I mentioned before. You write your algorithm in this c++ -esq language and coding standard, which could think of as a kind of shading language, and it handles compiling that up at run time for the hardware in your machine. Kind of like an expression node on steroids. It’s just as preliminary stages internally, focussed on solely image processing, but we’ll be adding support for other types in the future, and getting it included in the builds.*

Jon is right, the tracker is really very good. Making the complex tracking experience much better. I have found that nailing tracks in Nuke 7v2 easier than with Nuke 6.3v8.

ModelerBuilder keeps amazing me. I have used it to do fairly simple tasks. I can't wait to throw a huge shot at it.

This heterogeneous compute sounds interesting. Using every ounce of computing power you have. We need it. Images are only going to get more complex and larger.

Deep data from the scanline render will always be welcome. Particles will be that much more interesting to work with.

Sounds like the Foundry is implementing an planning great new features.

Nukepedia - Interview with Jon Wadelton - Interviews - Nukepedia →

WRITTEN BY BEN MINALL:

So I’ve been in software development around 20 years, which makes me pretty old now! I started off working life as an audio engineer back in Australia, but found myself increasingly moving towards a more TD like role, building tools for mastering and so on. Since then I’ve worked in a whole range of fields, from networking and web development through to the world of VFX these days.


 

California Labor Issues « VFX Law →

VFX Law:

Overtime laws in California are clearly defined.  You shall be paid overtime at the rate of 1.5x your normal hourly rate for any hour worked after an 8 hour day.  For any employee working more than 12 hours in one day, each hour after the 12th shall be paid at 2x the hourly rate (double-time).

Why companies have to be reminded of this is beyond me. This isn't something you can wave your right to.

 

Sphere VFX Ltd - A over B Podcast →

A over B:

This month we talk about new trailers, eyeon Generation AM, NUKE 7, OpenColorIO for After Effects and interview Mariana Acuña (The Foundry), Sean Devereaux (ZYNC) and Pieter Van Houte (Sony Pictures Imageworks).

Looking forward to other episodes.

 

Cosmonaut returns from space with extraordinary image of Mt. Everest →

Ron Garan:

“The answer is quite simple, all the photos we take from space are taken in the crew’s own personal time. No time is allotted in our work day normally for Earth pictures. So if we want to capture a specific point on the ground we have to first know exactly when we will fly over that spot, second be available to grab a camera and get to a window, and third have the weather and proper sun angles to get a great shot. Over the course of my six months in space I was never able to get all three of those to align for Mt. Everest.”

It's a wonder why so many directors have turned to visual effects. Sometimes it's just to long of a wait to get the shot. Sometimes the sun and clouds are not in the right position.