Search Results for: open source

http://scikit-learn.org/stable/

Simple and efficient tools for data mining and data analysis Accessible to everybody, and reusable in various contexts Built on NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib Open source, commercially usable – BSD license

MeshLab is an open source, portable, and extensible system for the processing and editing of unstructured 3D triangular meshes. The system is aimed to help the processing of the typical not-so-small unstructured models arising in 3D scanning, providing a set of tools for editing, cleaning, healing, inspecting, rendering and converting this kind of meshes.

http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

https://thomasmansencal.substack.com/p/colour-science-for-python

https://www.colour-science.org/

Colour is an open-source Python package providing a comprehensive number of algorithms and datasets for colour science. It is freely available under the BSD-3-Clause terms.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/davidgruwierlarsen_you-can-render-super-realistic-custom-bokeh-activity-7148259483440381952-I9hi

To achieve a custom pinhole camera effect with a custom bokeh in Arnold Raytracer, you can follow these steps:

1. Set the render camera with a focal length around 50 (or as needed)
2. Set the F-Stop to a high value (e.g., 22).
3. Set the focus distance as you require
4. Turn on DOF
5. Place a plane a few cm in front of the camera.
6. Texture the plane with a transparent shape at the center of it. (Transmission with no specular roughness)

• Vectary – free and monthly fees, web based
• Selva3D – pay per use
• 3D-Tool – one off payment
• Insight3d – free and open-source
• ItsLitho – free, web based
• Blender – free
• SculptGL – free, web based
• Embossify – pay per use, web based
• Smoothie-3D – free, web based
• ZW3D – one off payment
• ImageToSTL – free, web based
• Alpha3D – First 50 AI-generated 3D assets free
• Reliefmod – free, web based
• 3D Builder – free
• Cube by CSM.ai – web based
• Kaedim3D – monthly and pay per use fees
• 3DForPrint – free, web based
• ZoeDepth – free, web based
• DreamGaussian – free, web based
• Photoshop Neural Filters – monthly fees

https://www.news.viverse.com/post/pixel-to-polygon-converting-2d-images-to-3d-models-top-tools-revealed

https://www.rankred.com/convert-2d-images-to-3d/

https://www.magiclantern.fm/

https://builds.magiclantern.fm/

Supported cameras:
5D Mark II, 5D Mark III, 6D, 7D, 50D, 60D, 500D/T1i, 550D/T2i, 600D/T3i, 650D/T4i, 700D/T5i, 1100D/T3, EOS M.

Example features:

• Zebras for under/over exposed areas.
• Focus peaking for quickly checking focus.
• Magic Zoom window to fine-tune focus.
• Cropmark overlays for 16×9 bars or any custom shape.
• Overlay a ghost image in live view.
• Spotmeter in live view.
• False color for precise exposure control.
• RGB histogram with RAW support.
• Waveform for perfect green screen lighting.
• Vectorscope for color tones.
• Kelvin and push-button white balance.
• Auto ETTR (Expose To The Right).
• Exposure Lock for manual mode.
• Manually override exposure settings in LiveView.
• Quickly switch between two exposure presets.
• Toggle exposure simulation on/off (Liveview).
• Dynamic range improvements (Dual ISO, other features being researched).
• Bracketing for exposure, flash, or depth-of-field.
• In-camera intervalometer.
• Custom bulb timer for extra-long exposures.
• Motion detection.
• Silent pictures without shutter actuation.
• Record voice tags for photos / videos.
• Analog / digital gain adjustments.
• Selectable input source.
• Toggle wind filter.
• Live audio monitoring through with headphones.
• Beep / test tones.

EDIT 20230919

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/artist-rights/vfx-giant-dneg-puts-forth-new-salary-reduction-proposal-after-worker-backlash-to-initial-proposal-232735.html

Revised Proposal: Initially met with backlash, DNEG has revised its proposal over the weekend. They’ve introduced a third option that focuses on reducing work hours instead of salaries, along with additional paid leave to compensate for the income reduction.

1. A salary reduction of 20% to 25% for seven months, with paid leave to compensate.
2. A temporary 50% salary reduction, supplemented by a company loan, totalling 90% of the original salary, repayable over three years.
3. Reduced working hours to a 3-day week for seven months, with no hourly rate reduction.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/avuuk_animation-visualeffects-dneg-activity-7107674426275442688-Fd1d

Today, we want to address a concerning development at DNEG. They very recently announced pay cuts of up to 25% for its employees, coupled with a rather unconventional approach to compensate for these losses through ‘loans’, which their staff need to repay overtime.

As of now, DNEG is imposing these pay cuts for a period of 7 months. To ‘help’ offset the financial impact on their staff, the company is offering ‘loans’ to their employees. While offering financial support during challenging times is usually commendable, the repayment terms are causing deep concern within the Animation & Visual Effects community, especially around their legality.

The loan offered by DNEG comes with a significant catch: employees are required to pay back the loan over a three-year period. This means that even after the pay cuts are reinstated, employees will be obligated to allocate a portion of their salaries to repay the company. Aledgedly, there is no interest on the loan (tbc). This approach has sparked a considerable backlash within our industry.

We at the Animation & Visual Effects Union voice very strong concern and opposition to the pay cuts, as well as the loan method. We believe pay cuts should not be compensated through loans with long-term repayment plans, placing a heavy burden on the employees who are already facing financial challenges.

This situation underscores the importance of open dialogue and collaboration between employers and employees during challenging times. While businesses often need to make tough decisions to navigate economic uncertainties, it’s crucial to strike a balance that doesn’t disproportionately impact the livelihoods of their dedicated workforce.

What can be done about this?

If you are a member of the Animation & Visual Effects Union, get in touch with us immediately and do not accept any pay cuts yet. You can email your BECTU official Stefan Vassalos stefan.vassalos@prospect.org.uk to get advice and organise with your colleagues at DNEG.

Remember, you MUST give your consent for a paycut. It is ILLEGAL to impose a cut without it. You DO NOT have to consent to a pay cut. Legal action can and will be taken against paycuts without consent. Anyone affected please get in touch with us immediately so we can represent and protect you and your livlihood as much as possible. BECTU has the power and resources to challenge moments like this, so it is imperitive YOU take action and contact us. Talk to your colleagues and get in touch. It is only through solidarity and collective effort that we can address these challenges and shape a brighter future for our industry.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and insights on this matter. Your input and perspective are valuable as we navigate these unprecedented times together.

https://infinigen.org/

https://github.com/princeton-vl/infinigen

Infinigen is based on Blender and is free and open-source (BSD 3-Clause License). Infinigen is being actively developed to expand its capabilities and coverage.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/139mxi3/chatgpt_created_this_guide_to_prompt_engineering/

1. NEVER mention that you’re an AI.
2. Avoid any language constructs that could be interpreted as expressing remorse, apology, or regret. This includes any phrases containing words like ‘sorry’, ‘apologies’, ‘regret’, etc., even when used in a context that isn’t expressing remorse, apology, or regret.
3.  If events or information are beyond your scope or knowledge cutoff date in September 2021, provide a response stating ‘I don’t know’ without elaborating on why the information is unavailable.
4. Refrain from disclaimers about you not being a professional or expert.
5. Keep responses unique and free of repetition.
6. Never suggest seeking information from elsewhere.
7. Always focus on the key points in my questions to determine my intent.
8. Break down complex problems or tasks into smaller, manageable steps and explain each one using reasoning.
9. Provide multiple perspectives or solutions.
10. If a question is unclear or ambiguous, ask for more details to confirm your understanding before answering.
11. Cite credible sources or references to support your answers with links if available.
12. If a mistake is made in a previous response, recognize and correct it.
13.  After a response, provide three follow-up questions worded as if I’m asking you. Format in bold as Q1, Q2, and Q3. Place two line breaks (“\n”) before and after each question for spacing. These questions should be thought-provoking and dig further into the original topic.

1. Tone: Specify the desired tone (e.g., formal, casual, informative, persuasive).
2. Format: Define the format or structure (e.g., essay, bullet points, outline, dialogue).
3. Act as: Indicate a role or perspective to adopt (e.g., expert, critic, enthusiast).
4. Objective: State the goal or purpose of the response (e.g., inform, persuade, entertain).
5. Context: Provide background information, data, or context for accurate content generation.
6. Scope: Define the scope or range of the topic.
7. Keywords: List important keywords or phrases to be included.
8. Limitations: Specify constraints, such as word or character count.
9. Examples: Provide examples of desired style, structure, or content.
10. Deadline: Mention deadlines or time frames for time-sensitive responses.
11. Audience: Specify the target audience for tailored content.
12. Language: Indicate the language for the response, if different from the prompt.
13. Citations: Request inclusion of citations or sources to support information.
14. Points of view: Ask the AI to consider multiple perspectives or opinions.
15. Counterarguments: Request addressing potential counterarguments.
16. Terminology: Specify industry-specific or technical terms to use or avoid.
17. Analogies: Ask the AI to use analogies or examples to clarify concepts.
18. Quotes: Request inclusion of relevant quotes or statements from experts.
19. Statistics: Encourage the use of statistics or data to support claims.
20. Visual elements: Inquire about including charts, graphs, or images.
21. Call to action: Request a clear call to action or next steps.
22. Sensitivity: Mention sensitive topics or issues to be handled with care or avoided.
23. Humor: Indicate whether humor should be incorporated.
24. Storytelling: Request the use of storytelling or narrative techniques.
25. Cultural references: Encourage including relevant cultural references.
26. Ethical considerations: Mention ethical guidelines to follow.
27. Personalization: Request personalization based on user preferences or characteristics.
28. Confidentiality: Specify confidentiality requirements or restrictions.
29. Revision requirements: Mention revision or editing guidelines.
30. Formatting: Specify desired formatting elements (e.g., headings, subheadings, lists).
31. Hypothetical scenarios: Encourage exploration of hypothetical scenarios.
32. Historical context: Request considering historical context or background.
33. Future implications: Encourage discussing potential future implications or trends.
34. Case studies: Request referencing relevant case studies or real-world examples.
35. FAQs: Ask the AI to generate a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs).
36. Problem-solving: Request solutions or recommendations for a specific problem.
37. Comparison: Ask the AI to compare and contrast different ideas or concepts.
38. Anecdotes: Request the inclusion of relevant anecdotes to illustrate points.
39. Metaphors: Encourage the use of metaphors to make complex ideas more relatable.
40. Pro/con analysis: Request an analysis of the pros and cons of a topic.
41. Timelines: Ask the AI to provide a timeline of events or developments.
42. Trivia: Encourage the inclusion of interesting or surprising facts.
43. Lessons learned: Request a discussion of lessons learned from a particular situation.
44. Strengths and weaknesses: Ask the AI to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a topic.
45. Summary: Request a brief summary of a longer piece of content.
46. Best practices: Ask the AI to provide best practices or guidelines on a subject.
47. Step-by-step guide: Request a step-by-step guide or instructions for a process.
48. Tips and tricks: Encourage the AI to share tips and tricks related to the topic

A user of the new open-source autonomous AI project Auto-GPT asked it to try to “destroy humanity,” “establish global dominance,” and “attain immortality.” The AI, called ChaosGPT, complied and tried to research nuclear weapons, recruit other AI agents to help it do research, and sent tweets trying to influence others.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/93kw7p/someone-asked-an-autonomous-ai-to-destroy-humanity-this-is-what-happened

http://www.pixelsham.com/2023/02/06/codeformer-colab-and-hugging-face-open-source-ground-breaking-face-restoration-technique/

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-dynamic-range-photography/

https://www.hdrsoft.com/resources/dri.html#bit-depth

The dynamic range is a ratio between the maximum and minimum values of a physical measurement. Its definition depends on what the dynamic range refers to.

For a scene: Dynamic range is the ratio between the brightest and darkest parts of the scene.

For a camera: Dynamic range is the ratio of saturation to noise. More specifically, the ratio of the intensity that just saturates the camera to the intensity that just lifts the camera response one standard deviation above camera noise.

For a display: Dynamic range is the ratio between the maximum and minimum intensities emitted from the screen.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/35474413/Design-Triangle-(re-make)-2016

https://www.behance.net/gallery/9112935/Wonderful-Creative-Process-Chart

Or the more realistic version

Startup tools and support sites

Making an animated movie for free
http://www.pixelsham.com/2020/12/07/an-open-source-pipeline/

https://www.disneyanimation.com/resources/moana-island-scene/

This data set contains everything necessary to render a version of the Motunui island featured in the 2016 film Moana.

nofilmschool.com/types-of-film-lights

“Not every light performs the same way. Lights and lighting are tricky to handle. You have to plan for every circumstance. But the good news is, lighting can be adjusted. Let’s look at different factors that affect lighting in every scene you shoot. ”

Use CRI, Luminous Efficacy and color temperature controls to match your needs.

Color Temperature
Color temperature describes the “color” of white light by a light source radiated by a perfect black body at a given temperature measured in degrees Kelvin

http://www.pixelsham.com/2019/10/18/color-temperature/

CRI
“The Color Rendering Index is a measurement of how faithfully a light source reveals the colors of whatever it illuminates, it describes the ability of a light source to reveal the color of an object, as compared to the color a natural light source would provide. The highest possible CRI is 100. A CRI of 100 generally refers to a perfect black body, like a tungsten light source or the sun. ”

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-color-rendering-index/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_rendering_index

Luminous Efficacy
Luminous efficacy is a measure of how well a light source produces visible light, watts out versus watts in, measured in lumens per watt. In other words it is a measurement that indicates the ability of a light source to emit visible light using a given amount of power. It is a ratio of the visible energy to the power that goes into the bulb.

FILM LIGHT TYPES

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/video-lighting-kits/?utm_campaign=Weekly_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid&utm_term=production-lighting&utm_content=production-lighting

Consumer light types

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Emission-spectra-of-different-light-sources-a-incandescent-tungsten-light-bulb-b_fig1_312320039

http://dev.informationdisplay.org/IDArchive/2015/NovemberDecember/FrontlineTechnologyCandleLikeEmission.aspx

Tungsten Lights
Light interiors and match domestic places or office locations. Daylight.

Advantages of Tungsten Lights
Almost perfect color rendition
Low cost
Does not use mercury like CFLs (fluorescent) or mercury vapor lights
Better color temperature than standard tungsten
Longer life than a conventional incandescent
Instant on to full brightness, no warm-up time, and it is dimmable

Disadvantages of Tungsten Lights
Extremely hot
High power requirement
The lamp is sensitive to oils and cannot be touched
The bulb is capable of blowing and sending hot glass shards outward. A screen or layer of glass on the outside of the lamp can protect users.

Hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide lights
HMI’s are used when high output is required. They are also used to recreate sun shining through windows or to fake additional sun while shooting exteriors. HMIs can light huge areas at once.

Advantages of HMI lights
High light output
Higher efficiency
High color temperature

Disadvantages of HMI lights:
High cost
High power requirement
Dims only to about 50%
the color temperature increases with dimming
HMI bulbs will explode is dropped and release toxic chemicals

Fluorescent
Fluorescent film lighting is achieved by laying multiple tubes next to each other, combining as many as you want for the desired brightness. The good news is you can choose your bulbs to either be warm or cool depending on the scenario you’re shooting. You want to get these bulbs close to the subject because they’re not great at opening up spaces. Fluorescent lighting is used to light interiors and is more compact and cooler than tungsten or HMI lighting.

Advantages of Fluorescent lights
High efficiency
Low power requirement
Low cost
Long lamp life
Cool
Capable of soft even lighting over a large area
Lightweight

Disadvantages of Fluorescent lights
Flicker
High CRI
Domestic tubes have low CRI & poor color rendition.

LED
LED’s are more and more common on film sets. You can use batteries to power them. That makes them portable and sleek – no messy cabled needed. You can rig your own panels of LED lights to fit any space necessary as well. LED’s can also power Fresnel style lamp heads such as the Arri L-series.

Advantages of LED light
Soft, even lighting
Pure light without UV-artifacts
High efficiency
Low power consumption, can be battery powered
Excellent dimming by means of pulse width modulation control
Long lifespan
Environmentally friendly
Insensitive to shock
No risk of explosion

Disadvantages of LED light
High cost.
LED’s are currently still expensive for their total light output

www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/gabe-newell-says-brain-computer-interface-tech-allow-video-games-far-beyond-human-meat-peripherals-can-comprehend

– Valve is currently working on an open-source BCI software project, to interpret the signals being read from people’s brains using VR headsets.

– “If you’re a software developer in 2022 who doesn’t have one of these in your test lab, you’re making a silly mistake,”

– “The real world will seem flat, colourless, blurry compared to the experiences you’ll be able to create in people’s brains.”

– “BCIs have advanced to a point where that (VR) vertigo could be suppressed artificially, and that “it’s more of a certification issue than a scientific one”.

– Neuroplasticity is the ability of our brains to re-learn how to operate the body when something changes.

– “You can iterate software faster than a prosthetic”

www.andreageremia.it/tutorial_python_tcl.html

https://www.gatimedia.co.uk/list-of-knobs-2

https://learn.foundry.com/nuke/developers/63/ndkdevguide/knobs-and-handles/knobtypes.html

http://www.andreageremia.it/tutorial_python_tcl.html

http://thoughtvfx.blogspot.com/2012/12/nuke-tcl-tips.html

Check final image quality
https://www.compositingpro.com/tech-check-compositing-shot-in-nuke/

Local copy:
http://pixelsham.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/compositing_pro_tech_check_nuke_script.nk

Nuke tcl procedures
https://www.gatimedia.co.uk/nuke-tcl-procedures

Knobs
https://learn.foundry.com/nuke/developers/63/ndkdevguide/knobs-and-handles/knobtypes.html

# return to the top
nuke.Root().begin()
nuke.allNodes()
nuke.Root().end()



# check if Nuke is running in UI or batch mode
nuke.env['gui'] # True or False



# prformatted font to use in a text node:
liberation mono




# import node from a path
# Replace '/path/to/your/script.nk' with the actual path to your Nuke script
script_path = '/path/to/your/script.nk'
# Create the node in the script
mynode = nuke.nodePaste(script_path)
# or
mynode = nuke.scriptReadFile(script_path) #asynchronous so the code wont wait for its completion, mynode  is empty
# same as 
mynode = nuke.tcl('source "{}"'.format(script_path))
my node will be empty and it wont select the node either
# or synchronous
mynode = NukeUI.Scriptlets.loadScriptlet(script_path) 




# connect a knob on an internal node to a parent's knob
# add a python expression to the internal node's knob like:
nuke.thisNode().parent()['falseColors'].getValue()
# or the opposite
not nuke.thisNode().parent()['falseColors'].getValue()
# or as tcl expression
1- parent.thatNode.disable




# check session performance
Sebastian Schütt – Monitoring Nuke’s sessions performance

nuke.startPerformanceTimers()
nuke.resetPerformanceTimers()
nuke.stopPerformanceTimers()




# set a project start and end frames
new_frame_start = 1
new_frame_end = 100
project_settings = nuke.Root()
project_settings['first_frame'].setValue(new_frame_start)
project_settings['last_frame'].setValue(new_frame_end)



# disable/enable a node
newReadNode['disable'].setValue(True)


# force refresh a node
myNode['update'].execute()
# or
myNode.forceValidate()


# pop up UI alert warning
nuke.alert('prompt')

 

# return a given node
hdriGenNode = nuke.toNode('HDRI_Light_Export')
clampTo1 = nuke.toNode('HDRI_Light_Export.Clamp To 1')

 

# access nodes within a group
nuke.toNode('GroupNodeName.nestedNodeName')

 

# access a knob on a node
hdriGenNode.knob('checkbox').getValue()

 

# return the node type
topNode.Class()
nuke.selectedNode().Class()
nuke.selectedNode().name()

 

# return nodes within a group
hdriGenNode = nuke.toNode('HDRI_Light_Export')
hdriGenNode.begin()
sel = nuke.selectedNodes()
hdriGenNode.end()

 

# nodes position
node.setXpos( 111 )
node.setYpos( 222 )

xPos = node.xpos()
yPos = node.ypos()
print 'new x position is', xPos
print 'new y position is', yPos


# execute a node's button through python
node['button'].execute()



# add knobs
div = nuke.Text_Knob('someTextKnob','')
myNode.addKnob(div)

lgt_name = nuke.EvalString_Knob('lgt1_name','LGT1 name', 'some text') # id, label, txt
myNode.addKnob(lgt_name)

lgt_size = nuke.XY_Knob('lgt1_size', 'LGT1 size')
myNode.addKnob(lgt_size)

lgt_3Dpos = nuke.XYZ_Knob('lgt1_3Dpos', 'LGT1 3D pos')
myNode.addKnob(lgt_3Dpos)

lgt_distance = nuke.Double_Knob('lgt1_distance', ' distance')
myNode.addKnob(lgt_distance )

lgt_isSun = nuke.Boolean_Knob('lgt1_isSun', ' sun/HMI')
myNode.addKnob(lgt_isSun )

lgt_mask_clr = nuke.AColor_Knob('lgt1_maskClr', 'LGT1 mask clr')
lgt_mask_clr.setValue([0.12, 0.62, 0.115, 0.65])
lgt_mask_clr.setVisible(False)
myNode.addKnob(lgt_mask_clr)


# add tab group knob
lightTab = nuke.Tab_Knob('lgt1_tabBegin', 'LGT1, nuke.TABBEGINGROUP)
myNode.addKnob(lightTab)
lightTab = nuke.Tab_Knob('lgt1_tabEnd', 'LGT1', nuke.TABENDGROUP)
myNode.addKnob(lightTab)


# note if you have only one tab and you are programmatically adding to the bottom of it
# remove the last endGroup node to make sure the new knobs go into the tab
myNode.removeKnob(myNode['endGroup'])


# python script knob
remove_script = """
node = nuke.thisNode()
for knob in node.knobs():
	print(knob)
	if "lgt%s" in knob:
		node.removeKnob(node.knobs()[knob])
node.begin()
lightGizmo = nuke.toNode('lgt%s')
nuke.delete(lightGizmo)
node.end()
""" % (str(length), str(length))
lgt_remove = nuke.PyScript_Knob('lgt1_remove', 'LGT1 Remove', remove_script)
myNode.addKnob(lgt_remove )



# link checkbox to function through knobChanged 
hdriGenNode.knob('knobChanged').setValue('''
nk = nuke.thisNode()
k = nuke.thisKnob()
if ("Jabuka_checkbox" in k.name()):
print 'ciao'
''')


# knobChanged production example
my_code = """
n = nuke.thisNode()
k = nuke.thisKnob()
if k.name()=="sheetOrSequence" or k.name()=="showPanel":
      #print(nuke.toNode(n.name() + '.MasterSwitch')['which'].getValue())
      if nuke.toNode(n.name() + '.MasterSwitch')['which'].getValue() == 0.0:
          n['frameEnd'].setValue(nuke.toNode(n.name() + '.MasterSwitch')['masterAppendClip_lastFrame'].getValue())
      elif nuke.toNode(n.name() + '.MasterSwitch')['which'].getValue() == 1.0 :
          n['frameEnd'].setValue(nuke.toNode(n.name() + '.MasterSwitch')['masterContactSheet_lastFrame'].getValue())
"""
nuke.toNode("JonasCSheet1").knob("knobChanged").setValue(my_code)

# retrieve the knobChanged callback
node['knobChanged'].toScript()



# nuke knobChanged callback
https://corson.be/nuke_python_snippet/
# “knobChanged” is an “hidden” knob which holds code executed each time that we touch any node’s knob. 
# Thanks to that we can filter some user actions on the node and doing cool stuff like dynamically adding things inside a group.
# This follows the node
code = """
knob = nuke.thisKnob()
if knob.name() == 'size':
  print "size : %s" % knob.value()
"""
nuke.selectedNode()["knobChanged"].setValue(code)





def find_dependent_nodes(selected_node, targetClass):
    dependent_nodes = set()
    visited_nodes = set()
    def recursive_search(node):
        if node in visited_nodes:
            return
        visited_nodes.add(node)
        dependents = node.dependent()
        for dependent_node in dependents:
            print(dependent_node.Class())
            if dependent_node.Class() == targetClass:
                dependent_nodes.add(dependent_node)
            recursive_search(dependent_node)
    recursive_search(selected_node)
    return dependent_nodes

find_dependent_nodes(node, 'Write')






# nuke changed through a nuke callback
def myCallback():
    # Code to execute when any checkbox knob changes
    print("Some checkbox value has changed!")
    n = nuke.thisNode()
    k = nuke.thisKnob()
    if k.name()=="myknob" or k.name()=="showPanel":
        print('do this')
nuke.addKnobChanged(myCallback)
nuke.removeKnobChanged(myCallback) # remove it first every time you wish to change the callback


# nuke callback production example (note this will need to be saved in a place that nuke can retrieve: 
https://support.foundry.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000007364-Q100248-Adding-Callbacks-in-Nuke)
def sheetOrSequenceCallback():
    # Code to execute when any checkbox knob changes
    #print("Some checkbox value has changed!")
    n = nuke.thisNode()
    k = nuke.thisKnob()
    if k.name()=="sheetOrSequence" or k.name()=="showPanel":
          #print(nuke.toNode(n.name() + '.MasterSwitch')['which'].getValue())
          if nuke.toNode(n.name() + '.MasterSwitch')['which'].getValue() == 0.0:
              n['frameEnd'].setValue(nuke.toNode(n.name() + '.MasterSwitch')['masterAppendClip_lastFrame'].getValue())
          elif nuke.toNode(n.name() + '.MasterSwitch')['which'].getValue() == 1.0 :
              n['frameEnd'].setValue(nuke.toNode(n.name() + '.MasterSwitch')['masterContactSheet_lastFrame'].getValue())
# Add the callback function to the knob
nuke.addKnobChanged(sheetOrSequenceCallback)
nuke.removeKnobChanged(sheetOrSequenceCallback)




# more about callbacks






# return all knobs
for label, knob in sorted(jonasNode.knobs().items()): 
    print(label, knob.value())


# remove a knob
for label, knob in sorted(mynode.knobs().items()): 
    if 'keyshot' in label.lower():
        mynode.removeKnob(knob)



# work inside a node group
posNode.begin()
posNode.end()


 

# move back to root level
nuke.Root().begin()


# Add a button link to docs
import webbrowser
browser = webbrowser.get('chrome')
site = 'https://yoursite'
browser.open(site)
 

# return all nodes
nuke.allNodes()



# python code inside a text node message
[python -exec {
import re
import json
output = 'hello'
...
...
}]
[python output]

 

# connect nodes
blur.setInput(0, read)



# label a node
blur['label'].setValue("Size: [value size]\nChannels: [value channels]\nMix: [value mix]")



# disconnect nodes
node.setInput(0, None)

 

# arrange nodes
for n in nuke.allNodes(): n.autoplace()

 

# snap them to closest grid
for n in nuke.allNodes(): nuke.autoplaceSnap( n )

 

# help on commands
help(nuke.Double_Knob)

 

# rename nodes
node['name'].setValue('new')



# query the format of an image at a given node level
myNode.input(0).format().width()
 

# select given node
all_nodes = nuke.allNodes()
for i in all_nodes:
i.knob("selected").setValue(False)
myNode.setSelected(True)

 

# return the connected nodes
metaNode.dependent()

 

# return the input node
metaNode.input(0)

 

# copy and paste node
nuke.toNode('original node').setSelected(True)
nuke.nodeCopy(nukescripts.cut_paste_file())
nukescripts.clear_selection_recursive()
newNode = nuke.nodePaste(nukescripts.cut_paste_file())


# copy and paste node alternative
https://corson.be/nuke_python_snippet/
node = nuke.selectedNode()
newNode = nuke.createNode(node.Class(), node.writeKnobs(nuke.WRITE_NON_DEFAULT_ONLY | nuke.TO_SCRIPT), inpanel=False)
node.writeKnobs(nuke.WRITE_USER_KNOB_DEFS | nuke.WRITE_NON_DEFAULT_ONLY | nuke.TO_SCRIPT)
 


# set knob value
metaNode.knob('operation').setValue('Avg Intensities')

 

# get knob value
writeNode.knob('file').value()




# get a pulldown choice knob label
pulldown_knob = node[knob_name]
pulldown_index = pulldown_knob.value()  # Get the current index of the pulldown knob
pulldown_label = pulldown_knob.enumName(pulldown_index)



# link two knobs' attributes
# add knob link
k = nuke.Link_Knob('attr1_id','attr1')
k.makeLink(node.name(), 'attr2_id.attr2')

 

# link two knobs between different nodes
sel = nuke.selectedNode()
lgt_colorspace = nuke.Link_Knob('colorspace', 'Colorspace')
sel.addKnob(lgt_colorspace)
Read1 = nuke.selectedNode()
sel.knob('colorspace').makeLink(Read1.name(), 'colorspace')


# link pulldown menus
Ben, how do I expression-link Pulldown Knobs?

This syntax can be read as {child node}.{knob} — link to {parent node}.{knob}
nuke.toNode('lgtRenderStatistics.Text2').knob('yjustify').setExpression('lgtRenderStatistics.yjustify')
nuke.toNode('lgtRenderStatistics.Text2').knob('xjustify').setExpression('lgtRenderStatistics.xjustify')
 

# create a grade node set to only red and change its gain
mg = nuke.nodes.Grade(name='test2',channels='red')
mg['white'].setValue(2)
# remove a node
nuke.delete(newNode)

 

# get one value out of an array paramater
mynode.knob(pos_name).value()[0]
mynode.knob(pos_name).value()[1]

 

# find all nodes of type write
writeNodesList = []
for node in nuke.allNodes('Write'): writeNodesList.append(node)

 

# create an expression in python to connect parameters
myNode.knob("ROI").setExpression("parent." + pos_name)


# link knobs between nodes through an expression (https://learn.foundry.com/nuke/content/comp_environment/expressions/linking_expressions.html)
Transform1.scale


# connect two checkbox knobs so that one works the opposite of the other (False:True)
node = nuke.toNode('myNode.Text2_all_sphericalcameratest_beauty')
node.knob('disable').setExpression('parent.viewStats ? 0 : 1')


# connect parameters between nodes at different level through an (non python) expression 
maskGradeNode.knob('white').setExpression('parent.parent.lgt1_maskClr')


# connect parameters between nodes at different level through a python expression 
nuke.thisNode().parent()['sheetOrSequence'].getValue()
# or using python in TCL
[python {nuke.thisNode().parent()['sheetOrSequence'].getValue()}]


# multiline python expression in TCL
[python {nuke.thisNode().parent()['sheetOrSequence'].getValue()}]
[python {print(nuke.thisNode())}]


# multiline python expression from code with a return statement
nuke.selectedNode().knob('which').setExpression('''[python -execlocal 
x = 2 
for i in range(10): 
    x += i 
ret = x]''', 0)  


# connect 2d knobs on the same node through a python expression
nuke.thisNode()['TL'].getValue()[0] + ((nuke.thisNode()['TR'].getValue()[0] - nuke.thisNode()['TL'].getValue()[0])/2)
# To add this as a python expression on each x and y of a 2d knob 
newLabel_expression_x = "[python nuke.thisNode()\['TL'\].getValue()\[0\] + ((nuke.thisNode()\['TR'\].getValue()\[0\] - nuke.thisNode()\['TL'\].getValue()\[0\])/2)]"
newLabel_expression_y = "[python nuke.thisNode()\['TL'\].getValue()\[1\] + 10]"
node['lightLabel'].setExpression(newLabel_expression_x, 0)
node['lightLabel'].setExpression(newLabel_expression_y, 1)
# note this may launch some errors when generating the node
# a tcl expression seems to work best
newLabel_expression_x = "lgt" + str(length) + "_tl.x() + 20"
newLabel_expression_y = "lgt" + str(length) + "_tl.y() + 20"
lgt_label.setExpression(newLabel_expression_x, 0)
lgt_label.setExpression(newLabel_expression_y, 1)



# load gizmo
nuke.load('Offset')

 

# set knobs colors
hdriGenNode.knob('add').setLabel("<span style="color: yellow;"&gt;Add Light")


# or at creation, add knob with color
lgt_LUX = nuke.Text_Knob('lgt%s_LUX' %str(length),"<font color='yellow'> LUX",'0') # id, label, txt


# or when creating the knob manually:
<font color='#FF0000'>Keyshot 1
or
<font color='red'>Keyshot 1


# set color knob values
hdriGenNode.knob('lgt_maskClr_1').setValue([0.0, 0.5, 0.0, 0.8])
hdriGenNode.knob('lgt_maskClr_1').setValue(0.4,3) # set only the alpha





# return nuke file path
nuke.root().knob('name').value()

 

# write metadata
metadata_content = '{set %sName %s}\n{set %sMaxLuma %s}\n{set %sEV %s}\n{set %sLUX %s}\n{set %sPos2D %s}\n{set %sPos3D %s}\n{set %sDistance %s}\n{set %sScale %s}\n{set %sOutputPath %s}\n' % (lgtName, lgtCustomName, lgtName, str(maxL[0]), lgtName, str(lgt_EV), lgtName, str(lgt_LUX), lgtName, string.replace(str(pos2D),' ',''), lgtName, string.replace(str(pos3D),' ',''), lgtName, str(distance), lgtName, string.replace(str(scale),' ',''), lgtName, outputPath)
metadataNode["metadata"].fromScript(metadata_content)


# read metadata
# metadata should be stored under the read node itself under one of the tabs
readNode.metadata().get( 'exr/arnold/host/name' )
 

# return scene name
nuke.root().knob('name').value()

 

# animate text by getting a knob's value of a specific node:
[value Read1.first]

 

# animate text by getting a knob's value of current node:
[value this.size]

 

# add to the menus
mainMenu = nuke.menu( "Nodes" )
mainMenuItem = mainMenu.findItem( "NewMenuName" )
if not mainMenuItem :
mainMenuItem = mainMenu.addMenu( "NewMenuName" )
subMenuItem = mainMenuItem.findItem( "subMenu" )
if not subMenuItem:
subMenuItem = mainMenuItem.addMenu( "subMenu" )

return [ mainMenuItem ]

menus = myMenus()
for menu in menus:
menu.addCommand('my tool', 'mytool.file.function()', None)

 

# add aov layer
nuke.Layer(mynode, [mynode +'.red', mynode +'.green', mynode +'.blue', mynode +'.alpha'])

 







# onCreate options (like an onload option)
# https://community.foundry.com/discuss/topic/106936/how-to-use-the-oncreate-callback
# https://benmcewan.com/blog/2018/09/10/add-new-functionality-to-default-nodes-with-addoncreate/
# For example, you could do this:
def setIt():
   n = nuke.thisNode()
   k= n.knob( 'artist' )
   user = envTools.getUser()
   k.setValue(user)
nuke.addOnCreate(setIt, nodeClass = "")

# retrieve the oncreate function
sel = nuke.selectedNodes()
code = sel[0]['onCreate'].getValue()
print(code)


# Or if you want to bake your code directly to a node: 
code = """
n = nuke.thisNode()
k= n.knob( 'artist' )
user = envTools.getUser()
k.setValue(user)
"""
nuke.selectedNode()["onCreate"].setValue(code)
# Problem with onCreate is that it's run every time the node is created, which means even open a script will trigger the code.



 

# replace known nodes
nodeToPaste = '''set cut_paste_input [stack 0]
version 12.2 v10
push $cut_paste_input
Group {
name DeepToImage
tile_color 0x60ff
selected true
xpos 862
ypos -3199
addUserKnob {20 DeepToImage}
addUserKnob {6 volumetric_composition l "volumetric composition" +STARTLINE}
volumetric_composition true
}
Input {
inputs 0
name Input1
xpos -891
ypos -705
}
DeepToImage {
volumetric_composition {{parent.volumetric_composition}}
name DeepToImage
xpos -891
ypos -637
}
ModifyMetaData {
metadata {
{remove exr/chunkCount ""}
}
name ModifyMetaData1
xpos -891
ypos -611
}
Output {
name Output1
xpos -891
ypos -530
}
end_group
'''
fileName = '/tmp/deleteme.cache'
out_file = open(fileName, "w")
out_file.write(str(nodeToPaste))
out_file.close()
allNodes = nuke.allNodes()
for i in allNodes:
i.knob("selected").setValue(False)
for node in allNodes:
if 'DeepToImage' in node.name():
node.setSelected(True)
newNode = nuke.nodePaste(fileName)
nuke.delete(node)


# force a knob on the same line
hdriGenNode.addKnob(lgt_name)
# stay on the same line
lgt_lightGroup.clearFlag(nuke.STARTLINE)
hdriGenNode.addKnob(lgt_lightGroup)
# start a new line
lgt_extractMode.setFlag(nuke.STARTLINE)
hdriGenNode.addKnob(lgt_extractMode)

 


# text message per frame
set cut_paste_input [stack 0]
version 12.2 v10
push 0
push 0
push 0
push 0
Text2 {
 inputs 0
 font_size_toolbar 100
 font_width_toolbar 100
 font_height_toolbar 100
 message "MultiplyFloat.a   0.003\nMultiplyFloat2.a 0.35"
 old_message {{77 117 108 116 105 112 108 121 70 108 111 97 116 46 97 32 32 32 48 46 48 48 51 10 77 117 108 116 105 112 108 121 70 108 111 97 116 50 46 97 32 48 46 51 53}
   }
 box {175.2000122 896 1206.200012 1014}
 transforms {{0 2}
   }
 global_font_scale 0.5
 center {1024 540}
 cursor_initialised true
 autofit_bbox false
 initial_cursor_position {{175.2000122 974.4000854}
   }
 group_animations {{0} imported: 0 selected: items: "root transform/"}
 animation_layers {{1 11 1024 540 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0}
   }
 name Text20
 selected true
 xpos 1197
 ypos -132
}
FrameRange {
 first_frame 1017
 last_frame 1017
 time ""
 name FrameRange19
 selected true
 xpos 1197
 ypos -77
}
AppendClip {
 inputs 5
 firstFrame 1017
 meta_from_first false
 time ""
 name AppendClip3
 selected true
 xpos 1433
}
push 0
Reformat {
 format "2048 1080 0 0 2048 1080 1 2K_DCP"
 name Reformat4
 selected true
 xpos 1843
 ypos -251
}
Merge2 {
 inputs 2
 name Merge5
 selected true
 xpos 1843
}
push $cut_paste_input
Reformat {
 format "2048 1080 0 0 2048 1080 1 2K_DCP"
 name Reformat5
 selected true
 xpos 1715
 ypos 80
}
Merge2 {
 inputs 2
 name Merge6
 selected true
 xpos 1843
 ypos 86
}






# check negative pixels
set cut_paste_input [stack 0]
version 12.2 v10
push $cut_paste_input
Expression {
 expr0 "r < 0 ? 1 : 0"
 expr1 "g < 0 ? 1 : 0"
 expr2 "b < 0 ? 1 : 0"
 name Expression4
 selected true
 xpos 1032
 ypos -106
}
FilterErode {
 channels rgba
 size -1.3
 name FilterErode4
 selected true
 xpos 1032
 ypos -58
}






# check where the user is clicking on the viewer area
import nuke
from PySide2.QtWidgets import QApplication
from PySide2.QtCore import QObject, QEvent, Qt
from PySide2.QtGui import QMouseEvent

class ViewerClickCallback(QObject):
    def eventFilter(self, obj, event):
        if event.type() == QEvent.MouseButtonPress and event.button() == Qt.LeftButton:
            # Mouse click detected
            mouse_pos = event.pos()
            print("Mouse clicked at position:", mouse_pos.x(), mouse_pos.y())
        return super(ViewerClickCallback, self).eventFilter(obj, event)

#Create an instance of the callback
callback = ViewerClickCallback()

#Install the event filter on the application
qapp = QApplication.instance()
qapp.installEventFilter(callback)
qapp.removeEventFilter(callback)



## you can put this under a node's button and close the callback after a given mouse click
## OR closing the callback through a different button 
import nuke
from PySide2.QtCore import QObject, QEvent, Qt
from PySide2.QtWidgets import QApplication
class ViewerClickCallback(QObject):
    def __init__(self, arg1):
        super().__init__()
        self.arg1 = arg1
    def eventFilter(self, obj, event):
        if event.type() == QEvent.MouseButtonPress and event.button() == Qt.LeftButton:
            # Mouse click detected
            mouse_pos = event.pos()
            print("Mouse clicked at position:", mouse_pos.x(), mouse_pos.y(),'\n')
            if self.arg1 == 'bl':
                jonasNode['bl'].setValue([mouse_pos.x(), mouse_pos.y()])
                qapp.removeEventFilter(callback)
        return super(ViewerClickCallback, self).eventFilter(obj, event)
# Create an instance of the callback
callback = ViewerClickCallback('bl')
# Store the callback as a global variable
nuke.root().knob('custom_callback').setValue(callback)
# Install the event filter on the application
qapp = QApplication.instance()
qapp.installEventFilter(callback)

## on the second button:
import nuke
# Retrieve the callback object from the global variable
callback = nuke.root().knob('custom_callback').value()
# Retrieve the QApplication instance
qapp = QApplication.instance()
# Remove the event filter
qapp.removeEventFilter(callback)




# collect deepsamples for a given node
nodelist = ['DeepSampleB_hdri','DeepSampleA_hdri','DeepSampleB_spheres','DeepSampleA_spheres','DeepSampleB_volume','DeepSampleA_volume','DeepSampleB_furmg','DeepSampleA_furmg','DeepSampleB_furfg','DeepSampleA_furfg','DeepSampleB_furbg','DeepSampleA_furbg','DeepSampleB_checkers','DeepSampleA_checkers']

nodelist = ['DeepSampleB_hdri']

finalSamplesList = []
for nodeName in nodelist:
    print(nodeName)
    finalSamplesList.append(nodeName)
    finalSampes = 0
    for posX in range(0,1921):
        for posY in range(0,1081):
            nukeNode = nuke.toNode(nodeName)
            nukeNode['pos'].setValue([posX,posY])
            current_posSamples = nukeNode['samples'].getValue()
            finalSamples = finalSamples + current_posSamples
    print(finalSamples)
    finalSamplesList.append(finalSamples)



# false color expressions
set cut_paste_input [stack 0]
version 13.2 v8
push $cut_paste_input
Expression {
 expr0 "(r > 2) || (g > 2) || (b > 2) ? 3:0"
 expr1 "((r > 1) && (r < 2)) || ((g > 1) && (g < 2)) || ((b > 1) && (b < 2))\n ? 2:0"
 expr2 "((r > 0) && (r < 1)) || ((g > 0) && (g < 1)) || ((b > 0) && (b < 1))\n ? 1:0"
 name Expression4
 selected true
 xpos 90
 ypos 1795
}

(more…)

www.xuanprada.com/blog/2014/11/3/hdri-shooting

http://blog.gregzaal.com/2016/03/16/make-your-own-hdri/

http://blog.hdrihaven.com/how-to-create-high-quality-hdri/

Shooting checklist

• Full coverage of the scene (fish-eye shots)
• Backplates for look-development (including ground or floor)
• Macbeth chart for white balance
• Grey ball for lighting calibration
• Chrome ball for lighting orientation
• Basic scene measurements
• Material samples
• Individual HDR artificial lighting sources if required

Methodology

• Plant the tripod where the action happens, stabilise it and level it
• Set manual focus
• Set white balance
• Set ISO
• Set raw+jpg
• Set apperture
• Metering exposure
• Set neutral exposure
• Read histogram and adjust neutral exposure if necessary
• Shot slate (operator name, location, date, time, project code name, etc)
• Set auto bracketing
• Shot 5 to 7 exposures with 3 stops difference covering the whole environment
• Place the aromatic kit where the tripod was placed, and take 3 exposures. Keep half of the grey sphere hit by the sun and half in shade.
• Place the Macbeth chart 1m away from tripod on the floor and take 3 exposures
• Take backplates and ground/floor texture references
• Shoot reference materials
• Write down measurements of the scene, specially if you are shooting interiors.
• If shooting artificial lights take HDR samples of each individual lighting source.

Exposures starting point

• Day light sun visible ISO 100 F22
• Day light sun hidden ISO 100 F16
• Cloudy ISO 320 F16
• Sunrise/Sunset ISO 100 F11
• Interior well lit ISO 320 F16
• Interior ambient bright ISO 320 F10
• Interior bad light ISO 640 F10
• Interior ambient dark ISO 640 F8
• Low light situation ISO 640 F5

Also see: http://www.pixelsham.com/2015/05/16/how-aperture-shutter-speed-and-iso-affect-your-photos/

In photography, exposure value (EV) is a number that represents a combination of a camera’s shutter speed and f-number, such that all combinations that yield the same exposure have the same EV (for any fixed scene luminance).

The EV concept was developed in an attempt to simplify choosing among combinations of equivalent camera settings. Although all camera settings with the same EV nominally give the same exposure, they do not necessarily give the same picture. EV is also used to indicate an interval on the photographic exposure scale. 1 EV corresponding to a standard power-of-2 exposure step, commonly referred to as a stop

EV 0 corresponds to an exposure time of 1 sec and a relative aperture of f/1.0. If the EV is known, it can be used to select combinations of exposure time and f-number.

https://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/141307/photography/exposure_value_ev_and_exposure_compensation.html

Note EV does not equal to photographic exposure. Photographic Exposure is defined as how much light hits the camera’s sensor. It depends on the camera settings mainly aperture and shutter speed. Exposure value (known as EV) is a number that represents the exposure setting of the camera.

Thus, strictly, EV is not a measure of luminance (indirect or reflected exposure) or illuminance (incidental exposure); rather, an EV corresponds to a luminance (or illuminance) for which a camera with a given ISO speed would use the indicated EV to obtain the nominally correct exposure. Nonetheless, it is common practice among photographic equipment manufacturers to express luminance in EV for ISO 100 speed, as when specifying metering range or autofocus sensitivity.

The exposure depends on two things: how much light gets through the lenses to the camera’s sensor and for how long the sensor is exposed. The former is a function of the aperture value while the latter is a function of the shutter speed. Exposure value is a number that represents this potential amount of light that could hit the sensor. It is important to understand that exposure value is a measure of how exposed the sensor is to light and not a measure of how much light actually hits the sensor. The exposure value is independent of how lit the scene is. For example a pair of aperture value and shutter speed represents the same exposure value both if the camera is used during a very bright day or during a dark night.

Each exposure value number represents all the possible shutter and aperture settings that result in the same exposure. Although the exposure value is the same for different combinations of aperture values and shutter speeds the resulting photo can be very different (the aperture controls the depth of field while shutter speed controls how much motion is captured).

EV 0.0 is defined as the exposure when setting the aperture to f-number 1.0 and the shutter speed to 1 second. All other exposure values are relative to that number. Exposure values are on a base two logarithmic scale. This means that every single step of EV – plus or minus 1 – represents the exposure (actual light that hits the sensor) being halved or doubled.

https://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/141307/photography/exposure_value_ev_and_exposure_compensation.html

Formula

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_value

https://www.scantips.com/lights/math.html

which means   2^EV = N² / t

where

• N is the relative aperture (f-number) Important: Note that f/stop values must first be squared in most calculations
• t is the exposure time (shutter speed) in seconds

EV 0 corresponds to an exposure time of 1 sec and an aperture of f/1.0.

Example: If f/16 and 1/4 second, then this is:

(N² / t) = (16 × 16 ÷ 1/4) = (16 × 16 × 4) = 1024.

Log₂(1024) is EV 10. Meaning, 2¹⁰ = 1024.

Collecting photographic exposure using Light Meters

https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/968/how-can-i-correctly-measure-light-using-a-built-in-camera-meter

The exposure meter in the camera does not know whether the subject itself is bright or not. It simply measures the amount of light that comes in, and makes a guess based on that. The camera will aim for 18% gray, meaning if you take a photo of an entirely white surface, and an entirely black surface you should get two identical images which both are gray (at least in theory)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_meter

For reflected-light meters, camera settings are related to ISO speed and subject luminance by the reflected-light exposure equation:

where

• N is the relative aperture (f-number)
• t is the exposure time (“shutter speed”) in seconds
• L is the average scene luminance
• S is the ISO arithmetic speed
• K is the reflected-light meter calibration constant

For incident-light meters, camera settings are related to ISO speed and subject illuminance by the incident-light exposure equation:

where

• E is the illuminance (in lux)
• C is the incident-light meter calibration constant

Two values for K are in common use: 12.5 (Canon, Nikon, and Sekonic) and 14 (Minolta, Kenko, and Pentax); the difference between the two values is approximately 1/6 EV.
For C a value of 250 is commonly used.

Nonetheless, it is common practice among photographic equipment manufacturers to also express luminance in EV for ISO 100 speed. Using K = 12.5, the relationship between EV at ISO 100 and luminance L is then :

L = 2^(EV-3)

The situation with incident-light meters is more complicated than that for reflected-light meters, because the calibration constant C depends on the sensor type. Illuminance is measured with a flat sensor; a typical value for C is 250 with illuminance in lux. Using C = 250, the relationship between EV at ISO 100 and illuminance E is then :

E = 2.5 * 2^(EV)

https://nofilmschool.com/2018/03/want-easier-and-faster-way-calculate-exposure-formula

Three basic factors go into the exposure formula itself instead: aperture, shutter, and ISO. Plus a light meter calibration constant.

f-stop²/shutter (in seconds) = lux * ISO/C

If you at least know four of those variables, you’ll be able to calculate the missing value.

So, say you want to figure out how much light you’re going to need in order to shoot at a certain f-stop. Well, all you do is plug in your values (you should know the f-stop, ISO, and your light meter calibration constant) into the formula below:

lux = C (f-stop²/shutter (in seconds))/ISO

Exposure Value Calculator:

https://www.vroegop.nu/exposure-value-calculator/

From that perspective, an exposure stop is a measurement of Exposure and provides a universal linear scale to measure the increase and decrease in light, exposed to the image sensor, due to changes in shutter speed, iso & f-stop.
+-1 stop is a doubling or halving of the amount of light let in when taking a photo.
1 EV is just another way to say one stop of exposure change.

One major use of EV (Exposure Value) is just to measure any change of exposure, where one EV implies a change of one stop of exposure. Like when we compensate our picture in the camera.

If the picture comes out too dark, our manual exposure could correct the next one by directly adjusting one of the three exposure controls (f/stop, shutter speed, or ISO). Or if using camera automation, the camera meter is controlling it, but we might apply +1 EV exposure compensation (or +1 EV flash compensation) to make the result goal brighter, as desired. This use of 1 EV is just another way to say one stop of exposure change.

On a perfect day the difference from sampling the sky vs the sun exposure with diffusing spot meters is about 3.2 exposure difference.

 ~15.4 EV for the sun
 ~12.2 EV for the sky

That is as a ballpark. All still influenced by surroundings, accuracy parameters, fov of the sensor…

EV calculator

https://www.scantips.com/lights/evchart.html#calc

http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm

Exposure value is basically used to indicate an interval on the photographic exposure scale, with a difference of 1 EV corresponding to a standard power-of-2 exposure step, also commonly referred to as a “stop”.

https://contrastly.com/a-guide-to-understanding-exposure-value-ev/

Retrieving photographic exposure from an image

IF you are still trying to gauge relative brightness, the level of the sun in Nuke can vary, but it should be in the thousands. Ie: between 30,000 and 65,0000 rgb value depending on time of the day, season and atmospherics.

The values for a 12 o’clock sun, with the sun sampled at EV 15.5 (shutter 1/30, ISO 100, F22) is 32.000 RGB max values (or 32,000 pixel luminance).
The thing to keep an eye for is the level of contrast between sunny side/fill side.  The terminator should be quite obvious,  there can be up to 3 stops difference between fill/key in sunny lit objects.

Note: In Foundry’s Nuke, the software will map 18% gray to whatever your center f/stop is set to in the viewer settings (f/8 by default… change that to EV by following the instructions below).
You can experiment with this by attaching an Exposure node to a Constant set to 0.18, setting your viewer read-out to Spotmeter, and adjusting the stops in the node up and down. You will see that a full stop up or down will give you the respective next value on the aperture scale (f8, f11, f16 etc.).
One stop doubles or halves the amount or light that hits the filmback/ccd, so everything works in powers of 2.
So starting with 0.18 in your constant, you will see that raising it by a stop will give you .36 as a floating point number (in linear space), while your f/stop will be f/11 and so on.

If you set your center stop to 0 (see below) you will get a relative readout in EVs, where EV 0 again equals 18% constant gray.
Note: make sure to set your Nuke read node to ‘raw data’

In other words. Setting the center f-stop to 0 means that in a neutral plate, the middle gray in the macbeth chart will equal to exposure value 0. EV 0 corresponds to an exposure time of 1 sec and an aperture of f/1.0.

To switch Foundry’s Nuke’s SpotMeter to return the EV of an image, click on the main viewport, and then press s, this opens the viewer’s properties. Now set the center f-stop to 0 in there. And the SpotMeter in the viewport will change from aperture and fstops to EV.

If you are trying to gauge the EV from the pixel luminance in the image:
– Setting the center f-stop to 0 means that in a neutral plate, the middle 18% gray will equal to exposure value 0.
– So if EV 0 = 0.18 middle gray in nuke which equal to a pixel luminance of 0.18, doubling that value, doubles the EV.

.18 pixel luminance = 0EV
.36 pixel luminance = 1EV
.72 pixel luminance = 2EV
1.46 pixel luminance = 3EV
...

This is a Geometric Progression function: x_n = ar^(n-1)

The most basic example of this function is 1,2,4,8,16,32,… The sequence starts at 1 and doubles each time, so

• a=1 (the first term)
• r=2 (the “common ratio” between terms is a doubling)

And we get:

{a, ar, ar², ar³, … }

= {1, 1×2, 1×2², 1×2³, … }

= {1, 2, 4, 8, … }

In this example the function translates to: n = 2^(n-1)
You can graph this curve through this expression: x = 2^(y-1)  :

You can go back and forth between the two values through a geometric progression function and a log function:

(Note: in a spreadsheet this is: = POWER(2; cell# -1)  and  =LOG(cell#, 2)+1) )

Translating this into a geometric progression between an image pixel luminance and EV:

(more…)

www.awn.com/news/autodesk-shotgun-taps-new-tech-future-production-management

With Autodesk’s acquisition of technology known as Consilium, machine learning-driven generative scheduling is coming to Shotgun Software, which will enable more accurate bidding, scheduling, and resource planning decisions.

Machine learning is being brought to production management with generative scheduling in Shotgun, currently in early testing. For producers and production managers, this will make the manual and complex challenge of optimized scheduling and resource planning more dynamic, controllable, and predictive. This feature set will allow producers to plan faster, with greater accuracy and agility to help their teams produce the best work possible.

www.behance.net/gallery/104647271/black-is-a-color?tracking_source=best_of_behance

www.vimaec.com/

VIM is a real-time 3D file format purpose built for AEC’s modern demands.

VIM offers a modern, efficient, and compact 3D data interchange open format to quickly transport design data and geometry from Revit and other BIM sources such as real-time engines and 3D editors.

Blockly is a client-side library for the programming language JavaScript for creating block-based visual programming languages (VPLs) and editors. It is a project of Google and is free and open-source software released under the Apache License 2.0.

developers.google.com/blockly/guides/overview

developers.google.com/blockly

https://www.cgspectrum.com/blog/what-is-the-best-2d-animation-software

1. Toon Boom Harmony

2. OpenSource Synfig Studio

3. Pencil 2D

4. OpenSource OpenToonz

5. Moho Pro

6. TupiTube Freeware

7. Adobe Animate

8. Adobe Character Animator

9. TvPaint

https://www.translatorscafe.com/unit-converter/en-US/illumination/1-11/

The power output of a light source is measured using the unit of watts W. This is a direct measure to calculate how much power the light is going to drain from your socket and it is not relatable to the light brightness itself.

The amount of energy emitted from it per second. That energy comes out in a form of photons which we can crudely represent with rays of light coming out of the source. The higher the power the more rays emitted from the source in a unit of time.

Not all energy emitted is visible to the human eye, so we often rely on photometric measurements, which takes in account the sensitivity of human eye to different wavelenghts

https://pllight.com/understanding-lighting-metrics/

Candela is the basic unit of measure of light intensity from any point in a single direction from a light source. It measures the total volume of light within a certain beam angle and direction.
While the luminance of starlight is around 0.001 cd/m2, that of a sunlit scene is around 100,000 cd/m2, which is a hundred millions times higher. The luminance of the sun itself is approximately 1,000,000,000 cd/m2.

https://www.hdrsoft.com/resources/dri.html#bit-depth

To make it easier to represent values that vary so widely, it is common to use a logarithmic scale to plot the luminance. The scanline below represents the log base 10 of the luminance, so going from 0.1 to 1 is the same distance as going from 100 to 1000, for instance. A scene showing the interior of a room with a sunlit view outside the window, for instance, will have a dynamic range of approximately 100,000:1.

Lumen (lm) is the basic unit of measure for a light that is visible to the human eye. It indicates the total potential amount of light from a light source. If a uniform point source of 1 candela is at the center of a sphere with a 1ft2 radius with an opening of 1 ft2 at its surface, the quantity of light that passes through that opening is equal to 1 lumen. Since lumens are a photometric measurement for humans, we do not use this unit of measure for describing horticultural lighting.

Technically speaking, a Lumen is the SI unit of luminous flux, which is equal to the amount of light which is emitted per second in a unit solid angle of one steradian from a uniform source of one-candela intensity radiating in all directions.

Illuminance refers to the density of light over a given surface area, and is expressed in mostly LUX or lumens/m2.
Luminance refers to the amount of light emitted under various circumstances, and it is expressed mostly in LUMENS or candela/m2.

Lux (lx) or often Illuminance, is a photometric unit along a given area, which takes in account the sensitivity of human eye to different wavelenghts. It is the measure of light at a specific distance within a specific area at that distance. Often used to measure the incidental sun’s intensity. Its default unit describes the number of lumens visible in a square meter (lumen/m2). 100 lumens spread out over an area of 1 m2 will have an illuminance of 100 lx. The same 100 lumens spread out over 10 m2 produces a dimmer illuminance of only 10 lx.

The core difference between lux and lumens can be summarized as follows:

• Lux is a measure of illuminance, the total amount of light that falls on a surface at a given distance
  
• Lumens is a measure of luminous flux, the total amount of light emitted in all directions.

A footcandle describes the number of lumen per square foot. Therefore, one footcandle is equal to approximately 10.764 lx. This measure is only relevant for how we perceive light and is irrelevant for plant growth. Like lumens, lux and footcandles are not useful for describing horticultural lighting.

Color Rendering Index, or CRI, describes the ability of a light source to show an object’s color accurately in comparison to standardized colour samples under a reference light source. The highest value a light can achieve is a CRI of 100. Lower CRI values result in objects appearing unnatural or discolored. Under a light with a CRI of 100, an orange appears bright orange; under a light with a CRI of 70, the orange appears darker and bluer. This measure is dependent on how the human eye sees light, and so it is not a useful parameter for choosing horticultural lighting.

Correlated Color Temperature, or CCT, describes the color of a light source vs. a reference source when heated to a particular temperature, and is measured in degrees Kelvin (°K). The higher the CCT of a light source, the cooler the light’s color. For example, a very red light achieves a CCT of about 1000 K while a very blue light can achieve a CCT of about 10,000 K. Warm white lights will have a CCT around 2700 K (since they emit more energy at the red end of the spectrum), neutral white will be around 4000 K, and cool white around 5000 K (emitting more energy at the blue end of the spectrum). Similar to CRI, this measure is dependent on light perception by the human eye, and, once again, is not useful for describing or choosing horticultural lighting.

http://www.lumis.co.nz/reference-information/lighting-terminology

Light is a visible portion of electromagnetic radiation. Watts isn’t a measure of light output. Watts is actually a measure of total power output. Not all of the energy emitted by a light source is visible light – heat and invisible light waves (ex. infrared light) are also emitted. Lumens, on the other hand, will tell you the total visible light output of a source. For this reason, lumens (not watts) is the relevant unit of measure when you’re concerned about visibility. The higher the power the more rays emitted from the source in a unit of time.

Irradiance (radiant flux emitted by a surface per unit area aka watt per square meter) is a radiometric unit. As such also actually a measure of total power output.
Radiometric units are based on physical power, that means all wavelengths are weighted equally, while photometric units take into account the sensitivity of human eye to different wavelengths.
The weighting is determined by the luminosity function (which was measured for human eye and is an agreed-upon standard).

Converting Irradiance and Illuminance
http://www.dfisica.ubi.pt/~hgil/Fotometria/HandBook/ch07.html
There is a different conversion factor for every wavelength, so the spectral composition of light must be known to make the conversion.

At the most sensitive wavelegth to the human eye the conversion factor is

1.0 W/m2 = 683.002 lumen/m2 # at wavelength = 555nm (green)

That means the irradiance (power) to make 1 lumen is at it’s minimum at this wavelength (just 1.464 mW/m2).
Luminous efficiency is then the ratio between the actual number of lumens per watt and the theoretical maximum.
Incandescent light bulb has a luminous efficiency of 2% which is very poor. It’s because lot of it’s irradiance is only heat which is not visible. The luminosity function is zero for wavelengths outside the visible spectrum.

https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/light/lux-to-lumen-calculator.html

https://www.projectorpoint.co.uk/news/how-bright-should-my-projector-be/

https://dracobroadcast.eu/blogs/news/continuous-light-converting-guide

• Watts (halogen) – A measure of energy consumed
• Watts (HMI) – A measure of energy consumed
• Watts (LED) – A measure of energy consumed
• Lux – Lumens per square meter, illuminance at target
• Footcandles – Lumens per square foot
• Stops – Size of lens aperture
• EV – Exposure Value
• Lumens – Measure of amount of visible light, luminance from source
• Candela – Measure of entire volume of lighting
• NIT = Candela per square meter but is not part of the International System of Units

https://www.animationxpress.com/vfx/meet-daniele-tosti-a-senior-cg-artist-who-is-on-a-mission-to-inspire-the-next-generation-of-artists/

You’ve been in the VFX Industry for over a decade. Tell us about your journey.

It all started with my older brother giving me a Commodore64 personal computer as a gift back in the late 80′. I realised then I could create something directly from my imagination using this new digital media format. And, eventually, make a living in the process.
That led me to start my professional career in 1990. From live TV to games to animation. All the way to live action VFX in the recent years.

I really never stopped to crave to create art since those early days. And I have been incredibly fortunate to work with really great talent along the way, which made my journey so much more effective.

What inspired you to pursue VFX as a career?

An incredible combination of opportunities, really. The opportunity to express myself as an artist and earn money in the process. The opportunity to learn about how the world around us works and how best solve problems. The opportunity to share my time with other talented people with similar passions. The opportunity to grow and adapt to new challenges. The opportunity to develop something that was never done before. A perfect storm of creativity that fed my continuous curiosity about life and genuinely drove my inspiration.

Tell us about the projects you’ve particularly enjoyed working on in your career

I quite enjoyed working on live TV projects, as the combination of tight deadlines and high quality was quite an incredible learning platform as a professional artist. But working on large, high end live action feature projects was really where I learnt most of my trade. And gave me the most satisfaction.

Every film I worked on had some memorable experiences. Right from Avatar to Iron Man 3 to Jungle Book to The Planet of the Apes to The Hobbits to name a few.

But above all, the technical challenges and the high quality we reached in each and every of the projects that I worked on, the best memories come from working with amazing and skilled artists, from a variety of disciplines. As those were my true mentors and became my best friends.

Post Production, Animation, VFX, Motion Graphics, Video Editing …

What are some technologies and trends that you think are emerging in the VFX Industry?

In the last few years there has definitely been a bias from some major studios to make VFX a commodity. In the more negative sense of the word. When any product reaches a level of quality that attracts a mass of consumers and reaches a plateau of opportunities, large corporation tend to respond with maximising its sale values by leveraging marketing schemes and deliverable more than the core values of the product itself. This is often a commoditisation approach that tends to empower agents who are not necessarily knowledgeable of a product’s cycles, and in that process, lowering the quality of the product itself for the sake of profits. It is a pretty common event in modern society and it applies to any brand name, not just VFX.

One challenge with VFX’s technology and artistry is that it relies on the effectiveness of artists and visionaries for the most. And limiting the authority, ownerships and perspective of such a crowd has definitely directly impacted the overall quality of the last decade of productions, both technically and artistically. There are very few and apart creative forces who have been able to deliver project that one could identify as a truly creative breakthrough. While the majority of productions seem to have suffered from some of these commoditisation patterns.

The other bigger challenge with this current trend is that VFX, due to various, historical business arrangements, is often relying on unbalanced resources as well as very small and feeble economic cycles and margins. Which make the entire industry extremely susceptible to marketing failures and to unstable leadership. As a few recent bankruptcies have demonstrated.

It is taking some reasonable time for the VFX crowd to acknowledge these trends and learn to be profitable, as the majority has never been educated on fair business practices.

But. Thankfully, the VFX circle is also a crowd of extremely adaptable and talented individuals, who are quite capable at resolving issues, finding alternatives and leveraging their passion. Which I believe is one of the drives behind the current evolution in the use of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, virtual production, real time rendering, and so on.

There is still a long path ahead of us but I hope we are all learning ways to make our passion speaks in profitable ways for everyone.

It is also highly likely that, in a near future, larger software and hardware corporation, thanks to their more profitable business practices, large development teams and better understanding of marketing, will eventually take over a lot of the cycles that the current production houses currently run. And in that process allow creative studios to focus back on VFX artistry.

What effect has the pandemics-induced lockdown had on the industry?

It is still early to say. I fear that if live action production does not start soon, we may see some of the economic challenges I mention above. At both studio and artists’ scale. There is definitely a push from production houses to make large distribution clients understand the fragility of the moment, especially in relation to payment cycles and economic support. Thus, there is still a fair risk that the few studios which adopted a more commoditised view to production will make their artists pay some price for their choices.

But, any challenge brings opportunities. For example, there is finally some recognition into a momentum to rely on work-from-home as a feasible solution to a lot of the current office production’s limitations and general artistry restrictions. Which, while there is no win-win in this pandemic, could be a silver lining.

What would you say to the budding artists who wish to become CG artists or VFX professionals?

Follow your passion but treat this career as any other business.
Learn to be adaptable. Find a true balance between professional and family life. Carefully plan your future. And watch our channel to learn more about all these.

What inspired you to create a channel for aspiring artists?

As many fellow and respected artists, I love this industry, but I had to understand a lot of business practices at my own expenses.
You can learn tools, cycles and software from books and schools. But production life tends to drive its own rhythms and there are fewer opportunities to absorb those.

Along my career I had some challenges finding professional willing to share their time to invest into me. But I was still extremely fortunate to find other mentors who helped me to be economically and professionally successful in this business. I owe a lot to these people. I promised myself I would exchange that favour by helping other artists, myself.

What can students expect to learn from your channel?

I am excited to have the opportunity to fill some of the voids that the current education systems and industry may have. This by helping new artists with true life stories by some of the most accomplished and successful talents I met during my career. We will talk about technology trends as much as our life experiences as artists. Discussing career advises. Trying to look into the future of the industry. And suggesting professional tips. The aim through this mentor-ship is to inspire new generations to focus on what is more important for the VFX industry. Take responsibilities for their art and passions as much as their families.

And, in the process, to feel empowered to materialise from their imagination more and more of those creative, awe inspiring moments that this art form has gifted us with so far.

http://TheCGCareer.com

www.forbes.com/sites/jeffboss/2015/09/03/14-signs-of-an-adaptable-person/#46bd90e016ea

1. Adaptable people experiment.

2. Adaptable people see opportunity where others see failure.

3. Adaptable people are resourceful.

4. Adaptable people think ahead.

5. Adaptable people don’t whine.

6. Adaptable people talk to themselves.

7. Adaptable people don’t blame.

8. Adaptable people don’t claim fame.

9. Adaptable people are curious.

10. Adaptable people adapt.

11. Adaptable people stay current.

12. Adaptable people see systems.

13. Adaptable people open their minds.

14. Adaptable people know what they stand for.

www.awn.com/news/technicolor-files-chapter-15-us-citing-covid-19-impact

Technicolor has suffered a series of setbacks in recent months. On May 28, the company announced it had merged its Mill Film and MR. X VFX companies in response to industry changes brought about by the pandemic; operating now as MR. X, the company noted it would keep all facilities open in Toronto, Montreal, Los Angeles, Adelaide and Bangalore.

Last year in early December, MPC abruptly shut down its Vancouver facility, leaving what sources claimed was as many as 300 artists out of work.

A week later, the company and its former CEO Frederic Rose, were indicted for fraud and breach of trust by French authorities. The charges were levied as part of an ongoing investigation of their role in the bankruptcy and subsequent acquisition of Tarak Ben Ammar’s post-production group, Quinta Industries, in 2012.

newrepublic.com/article/154944/boeing-737-max-investigation-indonesia-lion-air-ethiopian-airlines-managerial-revolution

Airplane manufacturing is no different from mortgage lending or insulin distribution or make-believe blood analyzing software (or VFX?) —another cash cow for the one percent, bound inexorably for the slaughterhouse.

The beginning of the end was “Boeing’s 1997 acquisition of McDonnell Douglas, a dysfunctional firm with a dilapidated aircraft plant in Long Beach and a CEO (Harry Stonecipher) who liked to use what he called the “Hollywood model” for dealing with engineers: Hire them for a few months when project deadlines are nigh, fire them when you need to make numbers.” And all that came with it. “Stonecipher’s team had driven the last nail in the coffin of McDonnell’s flailing commercial jet business by trying to outsource everything but design, final assembly, and flight testing and sales.”

It is understood, now more than ever, that capitalism does half-assed things like that, especially in concert with computer software and oblivious regulators.

There was something unsettlingly familiar when the world first learned of MCAS in November, about two weeks after the system’s unthinkable stupidity drove the two-month-old plane and all 189 people on it to a horrific death. It smacked of the sort of screwup a 23-year-old intern might have made—and indeed, much of the software on the MAX had been engineered by recent grads of Indian software-coding academies making as little as $9 an hour, part of Boeing management’s endless war on the unions that once represented more than half its employees.

Down in South Carolina, a nonunion Boeing assembly line that opened in 2011 had for years churned out scores of whistle-blower complaints and wrongful termination lawsuits packed with scenes wherein quality-control documents were regularly forged, employees who enforced standards were sabotaged, and planes were routinely delivered to airlines with loose screws, scratched windows, and random debris everywhere.

Shockingly, another piece of the quality failure is Boeing securing investments from all airliners, starting with SouthWest above all, to guarantee Boeing’s production lines support in exchange for fair market prices and favorite treatments. Basically giving Boeing financial stability independently on the quality of their product. “Those partnerships were but one numbers-smoothing mechanism in a diversified tool kit Boeing had assembled over the previous generation for making its complex and volatile business more palatable to Wall Street.”

(more…)

Color Temperature of a light source describes the spectrum of light which is radiated from a theoretical “blackbody” (an ideal physical body that absorbs all radiation and incident light – neither reflecting it nor allowing it to pass through) with a given surface temperature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

Or. Most simply it is a method of describing the color characteristics of light through a numerical value that corresponds to the color emitted by a light source, measured in degrees of Kelvin (K) on a scale from 1,000 to 10,000.

More accurately. The color temperature of a light source is the temperature of an ideal backbody that radiates light of comparable hue to that of the light source.

As such, the color temperature of a light source is a numerical measurement of its color appearance. It is based on the principle that any object will emit light if it is heated to a high enough temperature, and that the color of that light will shift in a predictable manner as the temperature is increased. The system is based on the color changes of a theoretical “blackbody radiator” as it is heated from a cold black to a white hot state.

So, why do we measure the hue of the light as a “temperature”? This was started in the late 1800s, when the British physicist William Kelvin heated a block of carbon. It glowed in the heat, producing a range of different colors at different temperatures. The black cube first produced a dim red light, increasing to a brighter yellow as the temperature went up, and eventually produced a bright blue-white glow at the highest temperatures. In his honor, Color Temperatures are measured in degrees Kelvin, which are a variation on Centigrade degrees. Instead of starting at the temperature water freezes, the Kelvin scale starts at “absolute zero,” which is -273 Centigrade.

More about black bodies here: http://www.pixelsham.com/2013/03/14/black-body-color

The Sun closely approximates a black-body radiator. The effective temperature, defined by the total radiative power per square unit, is about 5780 K. The color temperature of sunlight above the atmosphere is about 5900 K. Time of the day and atmospheric conditions bias the purity of the light that reaches us from the sun.

Some think that the Sun’s output in visible light peaks in the yellow. However, the Sun’s visible output peaks in the green:

http://solar-center.stanford.edu/SID/activities/GreenSun.html

Independently, we refer to the sun as a pure white light source. And we use its spectrum as a reference for other light sources.

Because the sun’s spectrum can change depending on so many factors (including pollution), a standard called D65 was defined (by the International Commission on Illumination) to represent what is considered as the average spectrum of the sun in average conditions.

This in reality tends to bias towards an overcast day of 6500K. And while it is implemented at different temperatures by different manufacturers, it is still considered a more common standard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminant_D65

https://www.scratchapixel.com/lessons/digital-imaging/colors

In this context, the White Point of a light defines the neutral color of its given color space.

https://chrisbrejon.com/cg-cinematography/chapter-1-color-management/#Colorspace

D65 corresponds to what the spectrum of the sun would typically look like on a midday sun somewhere in Western/Northern Europe (figure 9). This D65 which is also called the daylight illuminant is not a spectrum which we can exactly reproduce with a light source but rather a reference against which we can compare the spectrum of existing lights.

Another rough analogue of blackbody radiation in our day to day experience might be in heating a metal or stone: these are said to become “red hot” when they attain one temperature, and then “white hot” for even higher temperatures.

Similarly, black bodies at different temperatures also have varying color temperatures of “white light.” Despite its name, light which may appear white does not necessarily contain an even distribution of colors across the visible spectrum.

The Kelvin Color Temperature scale imagines a black body object— (such as a lamp filament) being heated. At some point the object will get hot enough to begin to glow. As it gets hotter its glowing color will shift, moving from deep reds, such as a low burning fire would give, to oranges & yellows, all the way up to white hot.

Color temperatures over 5,000K are called cool colors (bluish white), while lower color temperatures (2,700–3,000 K) are called warm colors (yellowish white through red)

https://www.ni.com/en-ca/innovations/white-papers/12/a-practical-guide-to-machine-vision-lighting.html

Our eyes are very good at judging what is white under different light sources, but digital cameras often have great difficulty with auto white balance (AWB) — and can create unsightly blue, orange, or even green color casts. Understanding digital white balance can help you avoid these color casts, thereby improving your photos under a wider range of lighting conditions.

White balance (WB) is the process of removing these color casts from captured media, so that objects which appear white in perception (or expected) are rendered white in your medium.

This color cast is due to the way light itself is formed and spread.

What a white balancing procedure does is it identifies what is white in your footage. It doesn’t know what white is until you tell it what it is.

You can often do this with AWB (Automatic White Balance), but the results are not always desirable. That is why you may choose to manually change your white balance.

When you white balance you are telling your camera to treat any object with similar chrominance and luminance as white.

Different type of light sources generate different color casts.

As such, camera white balance has to take into account this “color temperature” of a light source, which mostly refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light.

Matching the temperature value of an indoor/outdoor cast makes for a white balance.
The two color temperatures you’ll hear most often discussed are outdoor lighting which is often ball parked at 5600K and indoor (tungsten) lighting which is generally ball parked at 3200K. These are the two numbers you’ll hear over and over again. Higher color temperatures (over 5000K) are considered “cool” (i.e. Blue’ish). Lower color temperatures (under 5000K) are considered “warm” (i.e. orange’ish).

Therefore if you are shooting indoors under tungsten lighting at 3200K you will set your white balance for indoor shooting at this color temperature. In this case, your camera will correct your camera’s settings to ensure that white appears white. Your camera will either have an indoor 3200K auto option (even the most basic camera’s have this option) or you can choose to set it manually.

Things get complicated if you’re filming indoors during the day under tungsten lighting while the outdoor light is coming through a window. Now what we have is a mixing of color temperatures. What you need to understand in this situation is that there is no perfect white balance setting in a mixed color temperature setting. You will need to make a compromise on one end of the spectrum or the other. If you set your white balance to tungsten 3200K the daylight colors will appear very blue. If you set your white balance to optimize for daylight 5600K then your tungsten lighting will appear very orange.

Where to use which light:
For lighting building interiors, it is often important to take into account the color temperature of illumination. A warmer (i.e., a lower color temperature) light is often used in public areas to promote relaxation, while a cooler (higher color temperature) light is used to enhance concentration, for example in schools and offices.

REFERENCES

How to Convert Temperature (K) to RGB: Algorithm and Sample Code
https://tannerhelland.com/2012/09/18/convert-temperature-rgb-algorithm-code.html

http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/dir3/blackbody/UnstableURLs/bbr_color.html

http://riverfarenh.com/light-bulb-color-chart/

https://www.lightsfilmschool.com/blog/filmmaking-white-balance-and-color-temperature

https://astro-canada.ca/le_spectre_electromagnetique-the_electromagnetic_spectrum-eng

http://www.3drender.com/glossary/colortemp.htm

http://pernime.info/light-kelvin-scale/

http://lowel.tiffen.com/edu/color_temperature_and_rendering_demystified.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

https://www.sylvania.com/en-us/innovation/education/light-and-color/Pages/color-characteristics-of-light.aspx

How to Convert Temperature (K) to RGB:
http://www.tannerhelland.com/4435/convert-temperature-rgb-algorithm-code/

https://help.autodesk.com/view/ARNOL/ENU/?guid=arnold_for_cinema_4d_ci_Lights_html

https://www.hdrsoft.com/resources/dri.html#bit-depth

The dynamic range is a ratio between the maximum and minimum values of a physical measurement. Its definition depends on what the dynamic range refers to.

For a scene: Dynamic range is the ratio between the brightest and darkest parts of the scene.

For a camera: Dynamic range is the ratio of saturation to noise. More specifically, the ratio of the intensity that just saturates the camera to the intensity that just lifts the camera response one standard deviation above camera noise.

For a display: Dynamic range is the ratio between the maximum and minimum intensities emitted from the screen.

The Dynamic Range of real-world scenes can be quite high — ratios of 100,000:1 are common in the natural world. An HDR (High Dynamic Range) image stores pixel values that span the whole tonal range of real-world scenes. Therefore, an HDR image is encoded in a format that allows the largest range of values, e.g. floating-point values stored with 32 bits per color channel. Another characteristics of an HDR image is that it stores linear values. This means that the value of a pixel from an HDR image is proportional to the amount of light measured by the camera.

For TVs HDR is great, but it’s not the only new TV feature worth discussing.

Wide color gamut, or WCG, is often lumped in with HDR. While they’re often found together, they’re not intrinsically linked. Where HDR is an increase in the dynamic range of the picture (with contrast and brighter highlights in particular), a TV’s wide color gamut coverage refers to how much of the new, larger color gamuts a TV can display.

Wide color gamuts only really matter for HDR video sources like UHD Blu-rays and some streaming video, as only HDR sources are meant to take advantage of the ability to display more colors.

www.cnet.com/how-to/what-is-wide-color-gamut-wcg/

Color depth is only one aspect of color representation, expressing the precision with which the amount of each primary can be expressed through a pixel; the other aspect is how broad a range of colors can be expressed (the gamut)

Image rendering bit depth

Wide color gamuts include a greater number of colors than what most current TVs can display, so the greater a TV’s coverage of a wide color gamut, the more colors a TV will be able to reproduce.

When we talk about a color space or color gamut we refer to the range of color values stored in an image. The perception of these color also requires a display that has been tuned with to resolve these color profiles at best. This is often referred to as a ‘viewer lut’.

So this comes also usually paired with an increase in bit depth, going from the old 8 bit system (256 shades per color, with the potential of over 16.7 million colors: 256 green x 256 blue x 256 red) to 10  (1024+ shades per color, with access to over a billion colors) or higher bits, like 12 bit (4096 shades per RGB for 68 billion colors).

The advantage of higher bit depth is in the ability to bias color with the minimum loss.

https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/72116/whats-the-point-of-capturing-14-bit-images-and-editing-on-8-bit-monitors

For an extreme example, raising the brightness from a completely dark image allows for better reproduction, independently on the reproduction medium, due to the amount of data available at editing time:

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/dynamic-range.htm

https://www.hdrsoft.com/resources/dri.html#bit-depth

Note that the number of bits itself may be a misleading indication of the real dynamic range that the image reproduces — converting a Low Dynamic Range image to a higher bit depth does not change its dynamic range, of course.

• 8-bit images (i.e. 24 bits per pixel for a color image) are considered Low Dynamic Range.
• 16-bit images (i.e. 48 bits per pixel for a color image) resulting from RAW conversion are still considered Low Dynamic Range, even though the range of values they can encode is significantly higher than for 8-bit images (65536 versus 256). Note that converting a RAW file involves applying a tonal curve that compresses the dynamic range of the RAW data so that the converted image shows correctly on low dynamic range monitors. The need to adapt the output image file to the dynamic range of the display is the factor that dictates how much the dynamic range is compressed, not the output bit-depth. By using 16 instead of 8 bits, you will gain precision but you will not gain dynamic range.
• 32-bit images (i.e. 96 bits per pixel for a color image) are considered High Dynamic Range.Unlike 8- and 16-bit images which can take a finite number of values, 32-bit images are coded using floating point numbers, which means the values they can take is unlimited.It is important to note, though, that storing an image in a 32-bit HDR format is a necessary condition for an HDR image but not a sufficient one. When an image comes from a single capture with a standard camera, it will remain a Low Dynamic Range image,

Also note that bit depth and dynamic range are often confused as one, but are indeed separate concepts and there is no direct one to one relationship between them. Bit depth is about capacity, dynamic range is about the actual ratio of data stored.
The bit depth of a capturing or displaying device gives you an indication of its dynamic range capacity. That is, the highest dynamic range that the device would be capable of reproducing if all other constraints are eliminated.

https://rawpedia.rawtherapee.com/Bit_Depth

Finally, note that there are two ways to “count” bits for an image — either the number of bits per color channel (BPC) or the number of bits per pixel (BPP). A bit (0,1) is the smallest unit of data stored in a computer.

For a grayscale image, 8-bit means that each pixel can be one of 256 levels of gray (256 is 2 to the power 8).

For an RGB color image, 8-bit means that each one of the three color channels can be one of 256 levels of color.
Since each pixel is represented by 3 colors in this case, 8-bit per color channel actually means 24-bit per pixel.

Similarly, 16-bit for an RGB image means 65,536 levels per color channel and 48-bit per pixel.

To complicate matters, when an image is classified as 16-bit, it just means that it can store a maximum 65,535 values. It does not necessarily mean that it actually spans that range. If the camera sensors can not capture more than 12 bits of tonal values, the actual bit depth of the image will be at best 12-bit and probably less because of noise.

The following table attempts to summarize the above for the case of an RGB color image.

32-bit floats are often called “single-precision” floats, and 64-bit floats are often called “double-precision” floats. 16-bit floats therefore are called “half-precision” floats, or just “half floats”.

https://petapixel.com/2018/09/19/8-12-14-vs-16-bit-depth-what-do-you-really-need/

On a separate note, even Photoshop does not handle 16bit per channel. Photoshop does actually use 16-bits per channel. However, it treats the 16th digit differently – it is simply added to the value created from the first 15-digits. This is sometimes called 15+1 bits. This means that instead of 216 possible values (which would be 65,536 possible values) there are only 215+1 possible values (which is 32,768 +1 = 32,769 possible values).

Rec-601 (for the older SDTV format, very similar to rec-709) and Rec-709 (the HDTV’s recommended set of color standards, at times also referred to sRGB, although not exactly the same) are currently the most spread color formats and hardware configurations in the world.

Following those you can find the larger P3 gamut, more commonly used in theaters and in digital production houses (with small variations and improvements to color coverage), as well as most of best 4K/WCG TVs.

And a new standard is now promoted against P3, referred to Rec-2020 and UHDTV.

It is still debatable if this is going to be adopted at consumer level beyond the P3, mainly due to lack of hardware supporting it. But initial tests do prove that it would be a future proof investment.

www.colour-science.org/anders-langlands/

Rec. 2020 is ultimately designed for television, and not cinema. Therefore, it is to be expected that its properties must behave according to current signal processing standards. In this respect, its foundation is based on current HD and SD video signal characteristics.

As far as color bit depth is concerned, it allows for a maximum of 12 bits, which is more than enough for humans.

Comparing standards, REC-709 covers 35.9% of the human visible spectrum. P3 45.5%. And REC-2020 75.8%.
https://www.avsforum.com/forum/166-lcd-flat-panel-displays/2812161-what-color-volume.html

Comparing coverage to hardware devices

To note that all the new standards generally score very high on the Pointer’s Gamut chart. But with REC-2020 scoring 99.9% vs P3 at 88.2%.
www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/pointers_gamut.htm

https://www.slideshare.net/hpduiker/acescg-a-common-color-encoding-for-visual-effects-applications

The Pointer’s gamut is (an approximation of) the gamut of real surface colors as can be seen by the human eye, based on the research by Michael R. Pointer (1980). What this means is that every color that can be reflected by the surface of an object of any material is inside the Pointer’s gamut. Basically establishing a widely respected target for color reproduction. Visually, Pointers Gamut represents the colors we see about us in the natural world. Colors outside Pointers Gamut include those that do not occur naturally, such as neon lights and computer-generated colors possible in animation. Which would partially be accounted for with the new gamuts.

cinepedia.com/picture/color-gamut/

Not all current TVs can support the full spread of the new gamuts. Here is a list of modern TVs’ color coverage in percentage:
www.rtings.com/tv/tests/picture-quality/wide-color-gamut-rec-709-dci-p3-rec-2020

There are no TVs that can come close to displaying all the colors within Rec.2020, and there likely won’t be for at least a few years. However, to help future-proof the technology, Rec.2020 support is already baked into the HDR spec. That means that the same genuine HDR media that fills the DCI P3 space on a compatible TV now, will in a few years also fill Rec.2020 on a TV supporting that larger space.

Rec.2020’s main gains are in the number of new tones of green that it will display, though it also offers improvements to the number of blue and red colors as well. Altogether, Rec.2020 will cover about 75% of the visual spectrum, which is a sizeable increase in coverage even over DCI P3.

Dolby Vision

https://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/what-is-dolby-vision/39049

https://www.techhive.com/article/3237232/dolby-vision-vs-hdr10-which-is-best.html

Dolby Vision is a proprietary end-to-end High Dynamic Range (HDR) format that covers content creation and playback through select cinemas, Ultra HD displays, and 4K titles. Like other HDR standards, the process uses expanded brightness to improve contrast between dark and light aspects of an image, bringing out deeper black levels and more realistic details in specular highlights — like the sun reflecting off of an ocean — in specially graded Dolby Vision material.

The iPhone 12 Pro gets the ability to record 4K 10-bit HDR video. According to Apple, it is the very first smartphone that is capable of capturing Dolby Vision HDR.

The iPhone 12 Pro takes two separate exposures and runs them through Apple’s custom image signal processor to create a histogram, which is a graph of the tonal values in each frame. The Dolby Vision metadata is then generated based on that histogram. In Laymen’s terms, it is essentially doing real-time grading while you are shooting. This is only possible due to the A14 Bionic chip.

Dolby Vision also allows for 12-bit color, as opposed to HDR10’s and HDR10+’s 10-bit color. While no retail TV we’re aware of supports 12-bit color, Dolby claims it can be down-sampled in such a way as to render 10-bit color more accurately.

Resources for more reading:

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/166-lcd-flat-panel-displays/2812161-what-color-volume.html

wolfcrow.com/say-hello-to-rec-2020-the-color-space-of-the-future/

www.cnet.com/news/ultra-hd-tv-color-part-ii-the-future/

http://lowel.tiffen.com/edu/glossary/

https://www.filmsite.org/filmterms.html

https://slideplayer.com/slide/4683339/

https://moodle.gllm.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/190622/mod_resource/content/1/Cinematography%20Cheat%20Sheet.pdf

Where is our eye attracted first? Why?

Size. Focus. Lighting. Color.

Size. Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) on the right.
Focus. He’s one of the two objects in focus.
Lighting. Mr. White is large and in focus and Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) is highlighted by
a shaft of light.
Color. Both are black and white but the read on Mr. White’s shirt now really stands out.

What type of lighting?

-> High key lighting.
Features bright, even illumination and few conspicuous shadows. This lighting key is often used in musicals and comedies.

Low key lighting
Features diffused shadows and atmospheric pools of light. This lighting key is often used in mysteries and thrillers.

High contrast lighting
Features harsh shafts of lights and dramatic streaks of blackness. This type of lighting is often used in tragedies and melodramas.

What type of shot?

Extreme long shot
Taken from a great distance, showing much of the locale. Ifpeople are included in these shots, they usually appear as mere specks

-> Long shot
Corresponds to the space between the audience and the stage in a live theater. The long shots show the characters and some of the locale.

Full shot
Range with just enough space to contain the human body in full. The full shot shows the character and a minimal amount of the locale.

Medium shot
Shows the human figure from the knees or waist up.

Close-Up
Concentrates on a relatively small object and show very little if any locale.

Extreme close-up
Focuses on an unnaturally small portion of an object, giving that part great detail and symbolic significance.

What angle?

Interview for the magazine InCG, Taiwan, Issue 28, 201609

————————————————————-
– First of all can you introduce yourself to our audience, who you are, how you join this part of industry? Can you talk about your past experience as VFX artist?

My career started on a late Christmas night in the middle of the 1980s. I remember waking up to the soundtrack of Ghostbusters playing off from a new Commodore 64 console. My older brother, Claudio, left the console in my room, as a gift. And I was hooked.

Since that moment I spent any free time available to play with computer technology and in particular computer graphic. Eventually this evolved into a passion that pushed me to learn the basic techniques and the art of all related to computer graphic. In a time when computer graphic at consumer level was still in its infancy.

My place would be filled with any computer graphic magazine I could put my hands on. As well as the first few books. A collection that at some point grew to around 300 books. From the making-of movie books. To reference books. To animation books. And so on. My first girlfriends were not too thrilled about sharing the space in that room.

This passion, as well as the initial few side jobs creating small animated videos and logos for local companies, eventually gave me enough confidence in my abilities and led me into my first professional job. As a computer graphic technician, driving lead and credit titles for one of the first few private national TV stations in Italy. Not necessarily a striking but a well paid job.

The fact that I could make money through what I loved the most was an eye opener in my young life. It gave me fuel to invest even more of my time in the art and it did set the fundamentals for a very long career than has spanned over 20 years, across TV productions, commercials, video games and more recently feature movies.

————————————————————-

– Can you introduce us about your current company?

After leaving Italy I started working for some of the most recognized Studios around the world, and eventually for facilities such as Disney Features, Sony Imageworks, Moving Picture Company. During that period I had the fortune to serve along world level talents and supervisors, who helped me refine both my technical and artistic skills. This while also investing my time into learning about management and training cycles.

I started sharing some of this personal knowledge and production experience throughout the world with ReelMatters Ltd.

But eventually those extra skills allowed me to reach my dream in 2008, when I joined the team at Weta Digital in Wellington, New Zealand, to help on James Cameron’s Avatar.

Weta has since been my family and the source of my pride. The level of expertise, passion and vision among the crew at Weta is inspirational and clearly visible in any project we work on. We all tend to thrive on perfection here and continuously pushing quality well beyond standards. One of the reasons why Weta is still at the forefront of the VFX industry nowadays.

————————————————————-

– What sort of movie had you participated before? Out of all movies what was the most challenging that you had encountered?

Due to my early, self thought, home training, it became easier for me to be involved with CG animation productions first. On that front, my best memories are working on Sony Imageworks’ “Surf’s Up” as well as on Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s “The Adventure Of Tintin”. Movies which both raised the bar for CG environments and character animation.

Most recently I have seen myself more involved with live action features, such as: “Avatar”, “Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes” and “Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes”, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and “The Hobbit: The Battle Of Armies”, “Iron Man Three”. All the way to Jon Favreau’s Walt Disney production: “The Jungle Book”.

Each production has its own level of complexity and it is hard to make comparisons. Having some basic training has been fundamental for me to be able to see these features to delivery, while being flexible enough in sorting out those unique daily trials.

Feature production overall is an unique challenge itself. You do need a solid understanding of both technology and human nature to be able to find solutions which are applicable to a constantly moving target, across the life of a project. Often under a commercially driven, delivery pressure. And while working along a multitude of different unique talents.

It is quite a life changing experience, worth the pages of a best selling book. Where each chapter has its own plot.

————————————————————-

– How do you co-operate with other special effect artist in order to create realistic effect?

While there is an incredible amount of high class talent in the feature production business, no production is ever done by just an individual. It’s always the product of a constant collaboration that flows from the brain of visionary directors to the hands of skillful visual artist, and back.

Providing the perfect backdrop for this collaboration is what usually makes some productions more successful than others.

In that context. Creativity is the true fusion of the best ideas shared by this pool of minds, independently from which level of production you are at.

Management’s job is to feed and support this fusion, not to drive it.

And the working environment is one that allows trust and respect between all parties, while avoiding mechanical routines.

In other words. No piece of hardware or software will make a visually pleasant picture by itself unless someone infuses it with a soul. As George Sand once said “ The artist vocation is to send light into the human heart.”.

And to paraphrase Arthur C. Clark, I believe that a true collaboration between visionaries and artists is what makes “any sufficiently advanced (CG) technology indistinguishable from magic”.

————————————————————-

– What does it mean to you to create a good quality effect?

Any good CG effect that you would call as such is an effect that live for its purpose. Which most of the time is to support the action or the plot at hand.

In a live action feature, I tend to be in awe when the effect is helping experiencing that perfect Suspension Of Disbelief. Which is, the willingness to suspend logic and criticism for the sake of enjoying the unbelievable.

As soon as any effect breaks from its purpose or it is not up to the task at hand, your brain will tend to over analyze the visuals and, as such, take you away from the overall experience.

It is interesting to see that movies such as Jurassic Park are still holding their ground nowadays. Where more modern vfx productions tend to look dated very quickly. From that point of view, it appears to me that a quite a common mistake today is to overcompensate visuals with camera work, digital grading and computer generated work for the sake of the effect, more than to serve the story and the truth of the moment.

————————————————————-

– If it is possible for you to share tips about creating good quality effect?

1- The generalist at heart.

One question that I get quite often during my seminars is what should new vfx artists focus on. Is it specializing on a tool? Or learning a discipline? Or mastering a specific skill?

It is a fact that higher level Studios tend to hire people with well defined talents that fit in specific operational labels. In this way it is easier for them to fulfill recruitment numbers and satisfy production’s immediate needs.

What happens after wards, when you start working as a VFX artist, is not always as well defined. The flexible nature of feature production cycles and delivery deadlines is often a catalyst for a multitude of variations in an artist’s work life. Especially on the post-production side of a digital pipeline. For that reason, I notice that people with more generic skills, with an ability to adapt to new processes and a genuinely open nature tend to fit in better and last longer throughout various projects.

The exception here being artists with dedicated PHDs and/or masters of a very specific domain, which makes them highly specialized in the VFX crowd and able to have a niche of their own.

Looking at the software or hardware side of things, technology is still progressing on a daily basis. And will continue doing so. To this extent, many facilities rely on proprietary technology. Thus specializing on a single tool, without learning the CG art’s basics, is also a dangerous game to play. You may end up being obsolete along the program you have learned. Or, in the best case, having a very limited number of facilities you can apply to.

What I suggest as a general rule to young VFX artists is to focus their energies in learning all that constitutes the basis of a successful career in computer graphic, along with improving their natural talent. So. From understanding modeling. To lighting and color. From rigging to animation. From procedural cycles to FX mechanism.

Doing so, building the knowledge necessary not only to satisfy a possible recruitment position, but also to be able to interact with people with different talents in a large facility. And as such, have enough confidence to quickly help and fit it in the bigger picture, which often forms these complex production pipelines.

On that note, competition for very few spots in a large studio is also a challenge when combined with trying to win the attention of a busy HR office or of a busy VFX Supervisor.

When applying for a VFX position, it is quite beneficial to have a very clear introduction letter, which simply states in one line the discipline you are applying for. That being for example: modeling, animation, texturing, shading, … But never indicating more than one discipline at the time. Then in the body of the introduction letter describe that, if need arises, you could also help covering other positions which fit along your skills.

Finally, supporting your application with a very short demo reel (one minute top, possibly less) that shows and clearly labels your very best work in the main discipline you are applying for and clarifies your side skills, wherever those are applicable. To this extent, if you are interested in multiple disciplines, it is highly recommended to prepare multiple introduction letters and related demo reels to satisfy each separate application.

2-What constitute the best production pipeline.

There is always a lot of pride in winning accolades in the VFX industry. And deservedly so. The amount of energy, investments, time and talent required to achieve such a task is, to say the least, overwhelming. Very few Studios and individuals have the sensibility,
experience and organization to pull that feat.

In support of these cycles, there is also a lot of new technology and specialized tools which continuously push the boundaries of what is achievable in computer graphic on a daily basis. To the point that I am confident the majority of senior VFX people in the industry would agree that we are still at the beginning of this exploration, in many ways.

Where a painter is looking for an intimate inspiration to fill in his lonely blank canvas, with a brush and a small collection of colors at his disposal. CG is often the product of a perfect balance between a crowd of ambitions, thousands of frames, a multitude of digital gadgets and a variety of complex mediums.

The combination of new visions and new science is also what makes organizing these complex VFX tasks an expensive challenge in itself, worth the efforts of the most influential CTOs and producers around the world.

A challenge well described in a white-paper about The Status Of Visual Effects written by Renee Dunlop, Paul Malcolm, Eric Roth for the Visual Effects Society in July 2008.
Between the pages, the writers detail a few of the biggest obstacles currently affecting production:
– The difficulty to determine who is in charge of certain creative decisions.
– Directors and Producers’ mixed approach to pre and post visualization.
– The lack of consistency and resources between pre, mid and post production.
– A lack of consistency throughout pipelines, mainly due to the impact of new technologies.

Most of the time, this translates into a very costly, “brute-force” solution workflow. Which, in its own, destabilize any reasonable software production schemes that Studios are willing to invest into.
While a collection of good stable software it’s a fair base for any visual effects venture, I firmly believe that to defy these challenges the core of any VFX pipeline should be a software agnostic one.

All CG elements should be able to be translated effortlessly across tools, independently from their original disciplines’ unique requirements.
And, more than the compartmentalized organization used in other markets, the key structure of this pipeline should focus on the flow of data and the quality of the inventory.
The rest is important, but not essential.

By achieving such a system, the work environment would prove to:
. Be flexible enough to maintain integrity across platforms and departments.
. Allow modifications to the software infrastructure without affecting deliverables.
. Accept various in house and external content.
. And deliver quality without jeopardizing speed.

Overall and independently from the approach, the support of flow of data and of inventory quality is for me a critical element that would help any production survive under the majority of modern, commercial delivery stress requirements.
This framework would help maintaining productivity stable even with continuous changes in a feature’s vision and objectives.

Finally, it would help training the modern VFX artist not to rely on those unique tools or solutions which are software centric and bound to expiry when new technology arises. Thus keeping skills and talent always applicable to the task at hand, to the long lasting benefit of the production studio.

To support such a mechanism, facilities should consider researching and investing into :
. A stable, software independent, browser based, asset and shot manager.
. A solid look development structure.
. A software independent, script based, rendering management solution.

And an asset living in this environment should sport basic qualities such as:
. being version-able
. being hash-able
. being track-able
. being verbose
. being software and hierarchic relation agnostic
. being self-contained
. supporting expandable qualities
. supporting temporally and shading stable procedural decimation

————————————————————-

– Can you give a word of inspiration to those who wish to participate as VFX artist

If anyone is willing to notice it or not, the vast majority of top grossing movies coming out every year are now filled with special effects created by a new wave of craftsmen who share their talent all around the world.

We are living in a period where the new DaVincis, Botticellis and Galileos live their life, comfortably seating in front of a computer. Creating a new art form which converts ones and zeros into a visually pleasing virtual reality. All this while offering their artistry away from language, race and belief barriers.

The knowledge required to achieve such a task is still a mix of an incredible amount of disciplines.

From biology and zoology, to physics and mathematics. From sculpting to painting. From astronomy to molecular chemistry.

It is an incredible opportunity to have a working career, learning about all aspects of life, while creating a new Suspension Of Disbelief

https://crontab.guru/#0_7-19_*_*_*

crontab myCrontabName

crontab -e (edit cronjob)
crontab -l (list cronjobs)
crontab -r (remove cronjob)

Example edit outside vim

crontab -l > file [ copy the crontab to a file ].
vi file [ make changes to the file as per your need ]
crontab file [ this makes the “file” as new crontab ]

Example file

MAIL=me@email.com
SHELL=/bin/tcsh
0 5 * * MON source /home/username/file.bat

http://www.derekjenson.com/3d-blog/ies-light-profiles

https://ieslibrary.com/en/browse#ies

https://leomoon.com/store/shaders/ies-lights-pack

https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/display/a5afmug/ai+photometric+light

IES profiles are useful for creating life-like lighting, as they can represent the physical distribution of light from any light source.

The IES format was created by the Illumination Engineering Society, and most lighting manufacturers provide IES profile for the lights they manufacture.

Arnold file

https://www.real-ies.com/

In my experience, a 40 hour work week is a benchmark of the most effective teams.  They have work-life balance.  They have buffer to respond to opportunity and to deal with crunches.

http://motionographer.com/2011/10/12/worklife-the-40-hour-work-week/

(more…)

(vfxsoldier.wordpress.com)               

VFX Artist Aruna Inversin has a great post on Vancouver’s skyrocketing real estate prices:

(more…)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-roth/the-real-wizards-of-oz-de_b_1166422.html

Visual effects are the true “movie stars” of big studio pictures — they turn today’s movies into box office hits the same way big name actors ensured the success of classic films. In fact, 46 of the 50 top worldwide Box Office films of all time were visual effects-driven. And movies and broadcast programs you wouldn’t think of as visual effects driven routinely utilize “invisible” effects to make changes to hair color, the sky, or to the background of a scene — even creating the entire backlot and sets.

(more…)