Endorsed by twenty five thousand Facebook fans, six industry awards and thousands of new users through the trial download and active forum communities, Autodesk, Inc., (NADSAQ: ADSK) announced that the new Autodesk Smoke 2013, professional video editing software is now shipping.

“The anticipation for Smoke, since its thrilling announcement at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Vegas in April, has continued to build throughout the community of creative professionals. As a leader in high-end effects and 3D, Autodesk is committed to making that technology increasingly available to a new generation, and the new Smoke is case in point. The Smoke team has fielded thousands of inquiries and product recommendations in the process of developing Smoke 2013. I’m so excited to announce it’s here,” said Mark Strassman, Autodesk Media & Entertainment vice president strategy and marketing.

Smoke 2013 is designed to meet the needs of professional editors working in video production, corporate video, online video and other competitive creative environments where productions require editing and effects. The new Smoke offers editing and effects within a single, efficient timeline-based workflow, a sleek user interface and runs on a wide variety of Apple MacBook Pro and Apple iMac computers. Extensive customer research and feedback received during the pre-release trial actively helped drive the product development. New features which grew directly out of user recommendations include: ability to drag and drop a clip from the source player into the timeline; ability to expand/collapse the timeline FX pipeline area; and redesign and streamlining of the UI and interface elements to speed up workflows.

Key Features

• New Smoke User Interface (UI) — An intuitive all-in-one creative workflow that combines track-based editorial, industry-standard editing conventions and proven Autodesk creative tools

• ConnectFX — Powerful node-based compositing inside the timeline allows high-end effects and advanced compositing without leaving the editorial environment

• Creative Tools — A robust toolset with proven high-end finishing tools, Action for true 3D compositing, the Colour Warper for professional grading and color matching, the Master Keyer for one-click chroma keying and stereoscopic 3D editing and effects

• Flexible System Requirements — Runs on most Apple iMac and MacBook Pro systems using high-bandwidth Thunderbolt storage and IO bringing true high-end editing and effects to flexible desktop and mobile workflows

Autodesk revamped Smoke to address a growing niche for editors who need to do more than just edit. In a recent survey of over 300 active users of the trial download, over half of which were new to Smoke, many respondents called out the benefits of having an all-in-one package that integrates editing and effects. 51% called out ConnectFX as the top feature and one remarked, “My favorite thing about the new Smoke is the entire package as a whole. I think it's amazing that I can finally afford such an awesome suite of tools.” The Twittersphere has been equally enthusiastic about connecting editing and effects: “Smoke 2013 is a phenomenal game changer. Loving the open sandbox creativity one can explore with. #AutodeskSmoke,” tweeted Deelan Sital of The PPC in the UK.

Recent 3D films including Raaz3, Dangerous Ishq and Haunted have all been post produced at Prasad Group’s state-of-the –art Digital Studios in Mumbai.Prasad Group’s digital studios are equipped with some of the best color grading suites incorporating the latest technologies including 4k 3D projection systems, hardware and software. Prasad Group have been providing 2D to 3D conversion solutions to several global projects and one of the biggest hits of southern superstar Rajnikanth, ’Sivaji’ is just getting completed in 3D and set to re-release shortly. In a full house press screening of clips in Chennai and Hyderabad the results of the conversion process was highly lauded by all alike.

Prasad Group provides the complete range of  end-to-end 3D solutions including 3D Rigs & cameras, Professional 3D Technicians, Data Management, DI, VFX, Stereoscopic Conversion, 3D Digital Cinema prints and Film Prints. Prasad has tied up with several international leaders across various domains and technologies to bring the best from around the world to the Indian film makers. Prasad Group is also the only company in India to provide World class solutions for both 3D Shooting and 2D to 3D Conversion.

Many recent big movies including Heroine and Raaz3 have used the digital facilities of Prasad Group in Mumbai to achieve excellent results. With the first of its kind installation of a 4k Projector in the post production environment, Prasad Group offers end-to-end services in the digital grading suite which is calibrated to international DCI standards and also provides complete packaging and QC services. This totally integrated environment enables Prasad Group to cater to all needs of the client under one roof.

As part of the Digital Dailies and Data Lab  department, Prasad Group has recently added  a bank of powerful systems to handle the large volume of work that is getting sourced on digital cameras today.This covers the  end to end  services required to process digital content for various stages of post production.

Sai Prasad, Director Prasad Group adds, “This is an exciting phase in our business as the world of cinema is moving towards 3D. In India there are a number of 3D projects lined up at Prasad to utilize our completely integrated package of 3D movie related services. Our association with International leaders and technology providers has given us an edge over other such service providers in India”.

“Prasad Group in its history spanning over 55 years, has been the first to bring to India the latest technologies and services including Digital Intermediate, Digital Film Restoration, StereoscopicConversion, 3D Movie Making Solutions and 3D Post. We are confident that we will keep innovating in key areas as we move into the future to bring the best from around the world for our valued clientele” concludes Sai.

As many as 9 films including Oass, Filmistan, Katha, Pune 52, Mumbai cha raja, Shahid, ID, Television and Balak Palak which were featured in the recent MAMI and Busan Film festivals put together were post produced at Prasad Group facilities.

Following the acquisition of the Bond back catalogue, Sky Movies HD’s dedicated Bond-channel ‘Sky Movies 007 HD’ launched last week. The launch has been planned to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of the franchise, which started with the film Dr No, released on 5 October 1962.

MPC Creative produced the film with Sky Creative’s John Sunter, who Directed the channel ident.  The piece contains nods to classic Bond imagery and utilised a broad spectrum of VFX techniques including CG, live footage, 2D and 3D and an elements shoot.

The ident opens with a CG gun shooting playing card suits, which transform into a bullet trail, before morphing into smoke.   To create the skull sequence, a glass model was created and shot underwater. High-speed paint and smoke elements were combined with CG fluid to generate the final shot.

The camera pans to a classic Bond Golden Girl, which was shot using a live model painted head to toe in gold paint. After the footage was shot, the girl was re-modelled in 3D to create the effect of her melting away, seamlessly merging into her surroundings.

VFX Supervisor Carsten Keller said, “This was an amazing project to work on – from creating a new Bond ident, to collaborating so closely with such a talented director. John set the bar high by presenting us with some outstanding graphic storyboards from the outset. We’re really pleased with the result.”

John Sunter, Senior Director at Sky Creative Agency, said “Being with MPC was very reassuring. Working with MPC Creative and having such knowledgeable vfx supervisors on the shoot meant that the tricky bits worked and I could focus on the action and ‘graphic look’ of the shots.  The CG team were open to experimentation and the compositors went above and beyond the call of duty in bringing my story boards to life and creating a beautiful piece of work.”

Credits:

Agency: Sky Creative

Director: John Sunter

Producer: Lynn Avser and Sharon Kersely

Production Company: MPC Creative 

Production Company Producer: Jeremy Smith

VFX: MPC

VFX Producer: Paul Branch

VFX Supervisors: Ludo Fealy and Carsten Keller

pigs-tail-still_pigs-escaping

pigs-tail-still_3-pigs-laughing

pigs-tail-still_ginger-looking-at-mural

(Oct. 24, 2012) – The Humane Society of the United States has teamed up with the Academy Award-winning film company Aardman Animationsto produce a four-minute animated children’s film exposing problems with factory farming from the perspective of a piglet named Ginger. The film’s release coincides with Food Day, a national movement for healthy, sustainable food. 

Aardman Animations, creators of “Chicken Run,” “Wallace and Gromit” and other beloved animated feature films, produced the short film under a grant from the Steven C. Leuthold Family Foundation.

“The Humane Society of the United States is thrilled to celebrate Food Day with the release of this endearing and educational short film,” said Joe Maxwell, vice president of outreach and engagement at The HSUS. “We hope ‘A Pig’s Tail’ will launch a conversation about how food gets to the table and help end inhumane practices in the pork industry.”

Sarah Cox, director at Aardman Animations added, “I was very proud to direct this film for The Humane Society of the United States because it is about an issue I passionately believe in. It is so important that children understand where their food really comes from, particularly the connection between meat products and the treatment of the animals that they are made from. I wanted the campaign to be positive and optimistic so I created a strong and likeable lead character – a little piglet called Ginger, and gave the story a happy ending because that is ultimately what we are trying to achieve.”

The film features voices from actress Catherine Taber and voice actorJames Arnold Taylorof the animated series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.” Original music was produced by singer and songwriter Steven Delopoulos. 

The film, intended for children ages 7 to 10 and accessible to all audiences, follows Ginger and her mother as they experience life on a typical industrial factory farm. After Ginger is taken from her mother, she is determined to escape. The film follows her journey, and the evolution of a farmer who opens his eyes to a more humane and sustainable way of farming.

The film centers on industrial pig farming where most breeding pigs are confined day and night during their four-month pregnancy in gestation crates, cages roughly the same size as the animals’ bodies, preventing them from even turning around. The pigs are then placed into another crate to give birth, re-impregnated, and put back into a gestation crate. This happens pregnancy after pregnancy for their entire lives, adding up to years of virtual immobilization.

Recently, leading food companies like McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, Cracker Barrel, Oscar Mayer, Costco, ConAgra and Kroger have agreed to eliminate gestation crates from their pork supply chains. This corporate shift away from crates comes on the heels of nine U.S. state laws banning the crates.

FLAME, first demoed at NAB in a discreet suite, was officially launched at Siggraph in 1992. Innovations like 3D compositing were invented via 3D Effects module soon after, which enabled artists for the first time, to composite one layer in 3D that includes lights, displacement mapping, 3D camera and more. FLAME has been the product responsible for landmark visual effects motion pictures like ‘Transformers-Dark Side of the moon’ and has also been key to Autodesk winning 17 Academy Awards consecutively in the Best Visual effects category.

The 2013 version of the Autodesk Flame Premium software, combines high-end visual effects and finishing tools with real-time color grading in a single solution. The 2013 version features:

More creative and technical tools for advanced compositing and 3D relighting

Interactivity enhancements in Action for an even more fluid creative experience

Improved 3D tracking workflow for greater flexibility and control when positioning compositing elements in a scene

The Autodesk booth number B202 will conduct a host of special screenings and demos around key ‘FLAME’ moments apart from their regular demos of other industry leading software solutions in their stables including the latest SMOKE for MAC 2013 as well as its Entertainment Creation Suites 2013, during the exhibition days.

Commenting on Autodesk’s participation at Broadcast India, Arun D’Souza, Head – M&E, Autodesk India & SAARC said, “Autodesk software continues to meet the audience expectations and customer needs of more sophisticated content. Autodesk is working closely with leading Post-production studios in the industry and the integrated suites portfolio fully supports their creative imagination. This is a very significant year within the Autodesk family as Flame Premium completes twenty years. Today, Flame Premium not only provides a wide range of powerful tools, but unparalleled flexibility throughout the production pipeline. Flame Premium, a unified solution for 3D visual effects and look development with innovative tools for interactive 3D compositing and color grading, has been adopted by a widely  in the post-production industry — from startups to industry leaders.”

He also added, “We are keen to showcase Flame’s excellence and capabilities in the visual effects space to our valued customers, partners and audiences. Autodesk’s Flame community worldwide has been steadily expanding over the years and we would like to use this twenty year benchmark to showcase some of the exemplary work that our software has achieved.”

Successful adoption of Flame Premium in India

The London Summer Olympics 2012, was important not only for Indian athletes but several brands that were associated with it this year. Amul, India’s leading dairy products brand and the official sponsor of the Indian contingent decided to leverage this association through an innovative and completely outstanding marketing campaign, connecting the positive attributes of milk to the development of world beating athletes. Famous, the post production studio, got the opportunity to create a TVC that not only created hype around the Olympics but also resonates with the brand and its product very well. So, Famous came up with the idea to create the Amul Milk Girl through thick liquid simulation, one of the most difficult animated special effects and a one of its kind attempt in the Indian context. For this purpose, Famous decided to use two most popular softwares from Autodesk’s stable – Autodesk Maya for 3D animation and Autodesk Flame for main compositing. The results were truly incredible.

Commenting on their association with Autodesk, Anant Roongta – Director – Famous Studios  said “We are using Autodesk Maya for a couple of years now and Autodesk Flame Premium since its launch as these are the most credible, comprehensive and widely used animation and VFX software globally. The Amul campaign would not have been successful without these two products. I do not see a better substitute to these products in the market, globally”

“Despite all the long hours, it is so much fun to work on our projects and we couldn’t have done them so successfully without Autodesk Flame Premium. Flame really is the best compositing software to work on – it’s literally the backbone of our operation.” Said Mr. Shyam Salgoankar, Director Business Development at After

Besides celebrating 20 years of FLAME, Autodesk will also be exhibiting it’s another popular product Smoke for Mac. Since launchingAutodesk Smoke for Mac OS X in December 2009, Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), has seen widespread adoption of this all-in-one editorial finishing solution for Mac-based creative workflows.

Autodesk’s Entertainment Creation Suites are used by leading artists working in visual effects, game development and other 3D animation production. The 2013 versions greatly improve consistency and interoperability between applications, making it even easier for artists to take advantage of powerful new and enhanced creative features.

Enhanced Interoperability Provides Greater Flexibility

Building on the existing data exchange workflows, the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suites 2013 offer a variety of new features to further enhance interoperability between Autodesk products:

 Live character streaming between MotionBuilder and Maya.

More consistent hotkeys make it easier for Maya artists to navigate viewports in all 3D suite applications

The enhanced, consistent F-Curve Editor within 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage and MotionBuilder now offers consistent functionality, helping animators transition between applications more smoothly.

Autodesk HumanIK Interoperability with CAT (Character Animation Toolkit).

Enhanced interoperability between Maya and 3ds Max enables artists to move 3D data between the applications in a single step.

Autodesk 2013 Software Helps Power Creativity, Enable Collaboration and Manage Data Complexity

Products contained within the Entertainment Creation Suites 2013 have also been updated to offer new creative toolsets; more interactive viewports and workflow enhancements that help artists collaborate, manage complexity and move data through their pipeline more efficiently:

Autodesk Maya 2013 software delivers powerful new toolsets for dynamic simulation, animation and rendering that offer new levels of creativity, while everyday productivity enhancements help    artists work faster.

Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 software delivers ActiveShade support in the NVIDIA iray renderer apart from new tools for motion graphics, 3D animation, and simulation.

Autodesk Softimage 2013 software delivers a new high-fidelity interactive environment and powerful new creative toolsets

Autodesk MotionBuilder 2013 software helps production teams more reliably acquire, aggregate and refine data, and offers a new nonlinear editing paradigm for Virtual Production.

Autodesk Mudbox 2013 software helps artists create complex production-ready scenes with greater ease.

The prestigious Primetime Engineering Emmy award honors outstanding achievements in engineering development. It is presented annually to an individual, company or organization, for engineering developments that are so significant an improvement on existing methods, or so innovative in nature, that they materially affect the transmission, recording or reception of television.

According to the Academy, Colorfront On-Set Dailies has "allowed high-end episodic television shows, that switched to digital file-based workflows, to process and deliver multiple hours of footage each day, so that dailies requirements could remain unchanged, and deliver color-graded, sound-sync images with burn-ins in multiple file formats for editorial, production review, DVD's, viewing copies etc."

Within the past two years the entire high-end HD episodic television industry has experienced a seismic shift, moving from shooting 35mm film negative to digital. A new generation of digital cameras raised the quality bar, allowing productions to jump from 35mm film – skipping tape – and adopt file-based digital workflows. This has eliminated the need for negative stock, photochemical development, telecine and video transfer, offering great savings to productions while achieving exceptional production value and quality.

Colorfront On-Set Dailies was introduced in the US at NAB 2011, and quickly became the de-facto standard for leading labs and high-end post-production facilities to process hours of digitally acquired material daily. This changed the way high-end episodic television productions, as well as motion pictures, are created. The majority of high-profile HD episodic TV shows shooting ARRI Alexa ProRes, as well as features using Alexa ARRIRAW and F65RAW workflows, all selected Colorfront On-Set Dailies, resulting in a dominant market position for the product.

Colorfront On-Set Dailies has been used on leading episodic TV shows including CSI:Miami(CBS), Dexter (Showtime), True Blood (HBO),Desperate Housewives (ABC), House (Fox), The Lying Game (ABC), Man Up (ABC), NCIS: LA (CBS), Private Practice (ABC), Scandal (ABC), Sons Of Anarchy (FX), Undercover Boss (CBS), Vampire Diaries (CW), Walking Dead (AMC), Pretty Little Liars(ABC) and Modern Family (ABC).

On-Set Dailies has also been used on the majority of features shooting Alexa ARRIRAW to Codex recorders. These include James Bond 007 Skyfall (MGM/Eon Productions/United Artists), The Avengers (Marvel/Walt Disney), Oblivion (Universal), Rush (Universal), Gravity (Warner Bros.), Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (20^th Century Fox), This Is 40 (Universal), R.I.P.D. (Universal), World War Z (Paramount Pictures), The Campaign (Warner Bros.), Gangster Squad (Warner Bros.), Gambit (CBS/Momentum), Of Men And Mavericks (Walden Media/Fox 2000 Pictures) and The Last Stand (Lionsgate).

Colofront's On-Set Dailies was developed by the same team which won the 2010 Scientific and Engineering Award® from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences®, for the development Autodesk's Lustre® grading system. On-Set Dailies offers an all-embracing approach to digital dailies workflow, integrating production-proven tools for dailies work with state-of-the-art color and image science, and provides simultaneous faster-than-realtime deliverables in all common file formats.

The forthcoming release of On-Set Dailies breaks new ground by delivering high frame-rate (HFR) 4K capabilities. This includes 4K output at 60FPS from all of the major RAW formats, with de-mosaicing and processing on-the-fly. With this new release,TV and motion picture producers can move beyond HD monitoring and review, and work with 3K, 4K and 5K RAW material in post-ready 4K quality.

“We express the greatest thanks to the Academy for this prestigious award,” said Aron Jaszberenyi, managing director of Colorfront. “We’ve achieved this success by maintaining a technology leadership position, having the highest performance and being first to market with features to support efficient file-based workflow. But the industry never stands still, and the next release of On-Set Dailies directly addresses the latest demand for high frame-rate (HFR) 4K capabilities.”

64th Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards will be presented on Wednesday, October 24th, at a ceremony at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, Los Angeles.

DQ Entertainment, the global entertainment company and Foothill Europe Limited announced today that they have agreed to join forces to develop, co-produce and distribute the hilarious animated buddy comedy, Raz & Benny. The multi-faceted agreement covers development, financing, production and distribution of the series as well as exploitation of the ancillary rights such as merchandising. The parties will be launching their efforts at MIPCOM with the debut of a promo produced by DQ.

Created by UK-based director Simon Hodgkiss of Rockkiss DME, the CGI series is filled with dazzling hijinks and laughter filled stunts. It is the tale of two mice whose ambitions are bigger than their brains, but whose good luck is as endless as their friendship. Often inspired by their eccentric pal Lilly, dare-devil Raz and cautious Benny are always off on one adventure or another, which usually starts with a “Big Idea”. Whether posing as international spies, scuba-diving submarine rescuers or expert explorers in the deepest jungle, inseparable Raz and Benny consistently deliver the laughter and come out on top!

Jo Kavanagh-Payne, Managing Director of Foothill Europe commented, “We have long admired DQ’s work and have been seeking just the right project on which to work with them. We are delighted that we finally get the opportunity on Raz & Benny.”

This sentiment was echoed by Chairman and CEO of DQE Group, Tapaas Chakravarti: “Raz & Benny is such a fun project and we are really looking forward to working with Foothill to bring this property to life.”

The two companies plan a series of strategy meetings during MIPCOM to further the financing and co-production arrangements.