I happened across the 2007 Adobe Design Achievement Award Winners page today, and enjoyed watching some quite amazing works of animation and other design arts by students and folks not older than myself. Being in my position and seeing things like that makes you think. There are a multitude of people out in there in the big wide world who are orders of magnitude more dedicated, focused, and hardworking than yourself, and who for those or other reasons are able to create work that is seemingly incomprehensibly better than anything you yourself are capable of creating. I suppose that is a good starting point, and certainly better than living in a state of ignorant denial about how great your work is.

Not everyone can be a genius, because then no one would.

Regarding my previous post, which is by far the most “rant-ish” and emotionally charged post on this blog so far, it turns out that brutalizing Maya into doing your bidding is a challenging and time-intensive occupation. Sortof like this graph:

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Recently I was doing an activity that I have previously found myself doing on multiple occasions: Looking through all of the different codecs that are options to render out my newly perfected 1080p23.976 scene into. I could choose the apple Animation codec, which is rumoured to be nearly lossless, at the expense of harddrive space and at the cost of being unable to play it back in real-time, but to the benefit of having a lossless image. A similar predicament with the 8-bit 4:2:2 Lossless codec. On the other end of the spectrum, there is the temptation of encoding to something like mjpeg, and having a small file, easy playback, but horrendous image degredation.

Apple and Red Cinema have been hyping the new Apple ProRes 4:2:2 codec for a while. “Perhaps I should use that!’ I thought. “If this codec can compress 4k video from the Red camera down to 200mbits/sec, then surely it could help me with my mere 1080p workflow problems!” And so then I decided to do some research about just what technology the ProRes 422 codec used and how it compared to others of similar variety.

During that process, I came across this comparison of the ProRes 422 codec and the Avid DNxHD codec, which is apparently one with a similar intended specialty of “Why yes! I can compress your HD footage so you can actually work with it, while preserving detail!” Apparently, the ProRes 422 codec is a bit more lossy at similar bitrates than Avid’s codec. After a little bit of searching, I discovered that not only are Avid’s codecs freely available, they are cross-platform between Windows and OSX. This issue was lending me trepidation earlier on as well, myself considering what would happen if I had a bunch of scenes rendered out in Apple ProRes 422, and then needed to reboot into Windows to do some specialized work on something, only to be unable to read my files!

Anyway, barring complete disaster, I will be using the Avid codecs for some of my needs.

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In a previous post, I briefly discussed some of the specific concerns of working with footage from the Canon HV20. In this post, I will talk about these things in a little more depth, and with some example pictures to more fully demonstrate what I’m talking about.

Here is a full resolution frame-capture of a video stream shot with the HV20 (the image is a link to the full resolution image). All of the images posted here are compressed with jpeg 80% quality, and should have most of their original attributes preserved. Note that the pulldown has been removed with After Effects, and that this was originally a frame comprised of two interlaced fields. Note that this picture is HUGE (1920×1080), so if you have a regular sized monitor, expect to scroll around to look at it completely.

If you look closely at the image, you can discern fragments of interlacing artifacts left behind from the pulldown removal. This happens because the mpeg2 compression of the interlaced image results in fields that are imperfect with macroblocks and other imperfections. This confuses After Effects’ algorithms, leaving behind chunks of image that still have interlaced areas. Effectively this just looks like bits of the image have weird blocks of ‘liney’ areas. Below is a 4:1 crop of the above original frame, doubled in size.

You can notice these artifacts on the edge of the finger. In After Effects, there are plugins to process a frame to remove interlacing artifacts. With one of those applied, the image looks a little cleaner.

There are still noticeable artifacts from the mpeg2 compression. You can make out macroblocking and chroma abnormalities on the thumb and surrounding areas. If you were to look at the individual color channels, this would be more noticeable. Usually the compression artifacts are worse in the blue channel. There is a plugin that comes with the Magic Bullet Suite called the “Deartifactor” that takes a whack at removing compression artifacts such at as these.

Deartifacted:

Non-Deartifacted – Blue Channel Only:

Deartifacted – Blue Channel Only:

Sometimes it is hard to see what the deartifactor is doing in areas of detail. Here is another comparison in another less detailed area of the image.

Non-Deartifacted – Blue Channel Only:

Deartifacted – Blue Channel Only:

There is also a filter in After Effects called Remove Grain that was once sold as Grain Surgery by Visual Infinity, but is now included for free with After Effects. This plugin is quite amazingly good at removing grain while preserving detail in the image. While the compression artifacting is not quite grain, it does do a fair amount to improve the apparent image clarity, and while it does soften the image some, it can be adjusted for good results.

Remove Grain filter applied:

Here is the final processed image, in full resolution.

Most likely the effective qualitative differences in the image when viewed full-resolution are relatively minor. However, when you get into things like doing dramatic color correction or other processing, or attempting to extract a matte from an image using color keying, it is absolutely essential to have the best quality image that you can to work with. Of course it is not really a great idea to try to use HDV for something requiring excellent chroma key matte extraction, but for 800 dollars, this camera produces some amazing images, and you would be hard pressed to find a better solution for less than several thousand. There is also the possibility of capturing 4:2:2 uncompressed video before the MPEG2 compression stage from the HDMI output of this camera, if you have a Black Magic Intensity card, or an equivalent HDMI capture device, which could theoretically be plugged into a laptop. There has been some experimentation in this area, but little noticeable benefit is likely to be achieved.

As free alternatives for the post-processing of HDV, there is a plethora of possibility with AviSynth and various other freeware windows applications. There is quite a bit of activity around the area of using AviSynth for post-processing of HV20 footage.
The Farnsworth plus Sillyman Process
Automated 24p pulldown workflow using DGIndex and VirtualDubMod
Morgan MJPEG2000 as an alternative HD Intermediate Codec
AVISynth and VDub Templates / Code

To end this post, here are some other full-frame image-captures from the HV20, with no processing applied to them other than pulldown removal and deinterlacing.

An indoor image recorded in low light, showing the characteristic of the camera in high-gain mode, which can be avoided if operated properly.

An outdoor image from the camera on a relatively bright day.

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Among the constant plethora of activities in the area of technical matters, (that I sometimes seem to use as a form of procrastination from ‘real’ work), I have been doing some interesting things.

I have been going through the manual and tutorials on Nuke, and am quite struck by its differences from After Effects. Nuke is less friendly in the construction of the user interface, and yet very powerful. Like many compositing applications, it features a node-based interface. A node-based interface is basically a different way of combining different elements into a final image. An image or moving image is loaded in, and then multiple nodes are linked together in a stream, each applying some process to the image. This combination of nodes forms a ’script’, which is much the same as a project in After Effects. After Effects features a layer-based interface, where different elements are stacked on top of each other in layers, and the layers are arranged in time. This is what I am used to, but a node-based interface is beginning to make sense for some more complex projects using many image elements.

I have also been working through some more advanced tutorials on texturing and modeling in Maya, attempting to build on what I learned this summer, and gain the knowledge I will need to actually create some of the crazy things I have in mind for this project.

Close to the end of Week 06, I received a new HD video camera, the Canon HV20. Purchased from Newegg.com for $799, it is capable of shooting 1080p24 in the HDV format. I will be using this to acquire textures and live action image elements for my project at a high enough resolution to successfully work at 1080p24 for the final output. Of course with a new acquisition format, there is a great deal of testing and learning to do in order to become comfortable with a post-production workflow.

Because the HV20 is capable of recording in 23.976 progressive frames per second, and the HDV format specification calls for interlaced 29.97 frames per second material, the HV20 has to do some processing to record its beautiful progressive data to an HDV tape. Similar to the Panasonic DVX100, which records 23.976 progressive fps standard definition material in a 29.97 interlaced fps video stream by applying a pulldown to the footage, the HV20 records a 1080p24 stream of video, but packaged in a 1080i30 video stream in order to conform to the HDV standard. The fact that editing system support for the HV20’s footage is somewhat spotty that a process of removing the pulldown outputting to an intermediate codec is a necessary step. Adding additional complication is the image quality of the HDV format itself. Since the format uses mpeg2 compression, there is a relatively significant amount of image artifacting compared to DV. A step that many experimenters with this camera have been using to improve this situation is to add an artifact-removal step to the process. This way, the original footage from the camera can be processed from it’s original mpeg2 format, having its pulldown removed to achieve progressive frames at 23.976 fps, having compression artifacts filtered to improve the image quality, and then outputting the footage to a relatively lossless intermediate codec for editing and post production work (such as mjpeg2000, apple intermediate, pro res 422, or uncompressed). Of course with the adoption of HD intermediate codecs, more difficulties arise with storage space because of the extremely large size of uncompressed HD video, playback issues because of the extremely large data throughput needed to play uncompressed HD video (and the relatively limited transfer rates of hard drives), and so forth. For a large documentary, it would likely make the most sense to edit the footage in the acquired format of HDV and trust your editing system to deal with mid-GOP cutting recompression issues in an intelligent fashion. For this type of project however, because it is more animation and effects oriented, it makes more sense to have uncompressed files to work with… or at least I think it does.

On the bright side, the images from this camera look simply amazing, and I am very excited to incorporate this technology into my project, and figure out what will be the least painful method of working with the footage. Of course my primary goal is to make a good work of media, not to get caught up in the technology to the exclusion of all else, but I don’t think I am falling off of that cliff quite entirely yet.

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This blog has not received too much in the way of activity updates in the life of Jed. Accordingly, here is one on the subject of summertime.

This summer was exceedingly much more busy than last summer, during which time I was unemployed and did not accomplish a great deal. This summer, I was fortunate enough to acquire workstudy, and because of that I was able to get a job working for the Electronic Media department of Evergreen. This job paid $10.78 per hour, and was for 40 hours per week. I was able to do a great deal of fun and interesting tasks, including learning intermediate functionality of Autodesk Maya 8.5, creating some enticing motion graphics in After Effects for a corporate video and some other projects, teaching a workshop on basic audio sweetening for a radio show, assisting with workshops on how to use Digital Performer and giving audio technology students proficiencies in the music technology studios, editing some exciting lectures and other events, and also doing some advanced maintenance work on the advanced music technology studio which involved rewiring the studio for installation of a 5.1 surround receiver system.

Also during the summer, I did some various work for Inventive Pictures, doing freelance grip and camera operator work. If intrigued to see visual documentation of this, look at the pictures for Pool Whore, a short shot in 720p HD about a monetarily poor girl who wants to swim in her rich neighbor’s pool.

Also this summer, I was able to go on a few adventures during spare moments. To get a feeling for what these might have been, look at the photographic documentation of them as well.

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Often I have come across very intense opinions about the superiority of the Mac user interface. While true with “stock” software options, it is my opinion that when bolstered with certain amazing freeware applications, the Windows XP user interface experience can surpass osX in terms of efficiency of operations. Thus, in the style of those lists that have come before me and informed this list, here are a collection of small utilities without which the efficiency and enjoyability of the Windows XP user interface would indeed be nearly as bad as its reputation.

Interface
xplorer2 – The single best file manager I have ever used, and I have used alot. I wish there were anything that remotely approached an equivalent on the osX side of things. (lite version = freeware, more advanced version is shareware)
Launchy / Colibri – Keyboard launching utilities are the single greatest enhancement in interface technology since … (freeware)
TaskSwitchXP – A superior replacement for the Alt-Tab task switcher built into windows
Stickies – Sticky note program, freeware
EssentialPIM – Calendar / ToDo / Personal Organization utility, freeware

MultiMedia
Foobar2000 – Audio player, encoder, ripper, tagger, cataloger, with many more advanced features (freeware)
VLC – Monolithic multimedia player with Matroska support (freeware)
Mediaplayer Classic – DirectShow multimedia player. Best when combined with the Combined Community Codec Pack (freeware)
XnView – Photo viewer / editor (freeware)
wScite / Notepad++ – Text editors for programming and just plain text editing (freeware)

Network
Firefox / Opera – Web browsers (freeware)
Pidgin (formerly Gaim) / Miranda – Instant messaging multi-protocol clients (freeware)
X-Chat 2 – IRC client (freeware)
uTorrent – Torrent client (freeware)
StrongDC++ – Direct Connect client (freeware)
eMule – eDonkey client (freeware)

Security/System
Sygate Personal Firewall Pro – Firewall
NOD32 Antivirus – Antivirus software

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This last week I focused nearly exclusively on working on my Hybrid Music performance. I had been making it a second priority previously, and so had a lot of work to do to catch up. Fortunately, the visual component of my Hybrid project intersected significantly with my AI project’s abstract visualizations.Accordingly, I thought it might be interesting to make a little post about the process and techniques I used to create the visuals that my SOS: Media classmates saw last week for the initial critique-screening of Lethe, which incidentally are the same techniques I used to create the visuals for my Hybrid performance (minus a couple of things).This will come eventually, but before I go further, here is an online version of my Hybrid Music music video, which is missing an introduction with live flute performed by Kina Smith, running into a physical feedback loop effects chain, and creating an underlying “undulating wall of sound”, which is not present in this version. Imagine rumblings at the end when the sound stops and the visuals keep going. To download the Music Video, save that link.

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Currently (Week 9), I am working on Unicorns stuff. We had a pixilation shoot in the sheep meadow behind Morgan’s house on Thursday, and we have been working on the new edit. The new edit is a revised version of the Trouble With Unicorns script that we all wrote during Winter quarter. The storyline has been altered to accommodate the footage that we have. The total length will ideally be somewhere around 20-25 minutes now, and the message that we originally intended to come across, will hopefully now come across in a more condensed but equally powerful way.

I have been working today on the Dan special effects shot, and in the TUTORIAL SCREENCAST below, there is commencement with a detailing of a novel technique of rotoscoping, and some other various happy things regarding my workflow.

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I stumbled accross this (somewhat aged) interview with Todd Vaziri, a lead compositor in Van Helsing, at ILM. It might be interesting for some to see how After Effects is used in a larger professional production workflow on a big effects-heavy film production.
The Interview

(via vfxtalk.com)

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Let me start out by saying this: I am behind. Very behind. I feel overwhelmed with the amount of work I have on my back, and I need a strong injection of excitement and enthusiasm to facilitate the battle with sleep that I will have to wage in order to be victorious.

This past week was an interesting one. Somehow I managed to read the entire 2000+ page Akira manga during spare time I had. It was an amazing epic journey and a far better way to escape and procrastinate school work than bad TV (though I haven’t been down that road in awhile). I couldn’t put it down. Well, I read the entire thing on my computer, so I guess I couldn’t really “put it down” in the physical sense. Sometimes I feel like everything exciting in my life is mediated by this computer. I spend most of my spare time here, sitting in this chair, interfacing with information.

Of course I start off this post saying I am behind. Then I say “well, … yeah… I read 2000 pages of manga instead of working.” Let me follow that up with some reassuring statements of what I actually did accomplish this last week. (more…)

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The Red Camera is becoming less and less of a pipe-dream and more and more of a reality. Recently, Peter Jackson borrowed two prototype cameras and shot a short ‘video’ with them, “Crossing the Line”. There is a small trailer released for that on the reduser.net forums. This was discovered through the excellent site, fxguide.com.

What impacts will technological advancements like this have on filmmaking? An increase in the visual quality of lower budget films? An increase in the conceptual quality of lower budget films? A decrease in the cost of higher budget films?

My guess is that as technology improves the resolution and perceptual quality of digital representations of moving images, we will become just as accustomed to it as we have grown accustomed to the amazing (as seen from a perspective of someone in the 1970s) quality of DV. Cost will drop, and quality will increase, and creating quality films will be just as much of a challenge as before. Fancy technology doesn’t make you a better filmmaker, even though it’s tempting to think so sometimes. Of course, that doesn’t make emerging technology any less exciting.

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