Tim Bowman – Compositing best practices
/ production

https://hellothisistim.com/blog/comp-rules/

 

    • Rule 1: Keep it simple.
    • Rule 2: Faster is better.
    • Rule 3: Build trust.
    • Rule 4: You won’t be the last person to work on it.
    • Rule 5: Check your work.
    • Rule 6: Every rule has an exception.
    • Rule 7: Facilitate changes.
Alan Friedman Takes Stunning Hi-Res Photographs of the Sun in His Backyard
/ photography

https://www.boredpanda.com/high-resolution-sun-pictures-alan-friedman/

 

https://avertedimagination.squarespace.com/

 

He uses a small (3 ½” aperture) telescope with a Hydrogen Alpha filter and an industrial webcam to capture the surface of the Sun, which looks surprisingly calm and fluffy in the incredible photos.

 

Elon Musk on the universe being the answer
/ quotes

“The real problem is trying to formulate a question for something we do not know already”

 

CupiX Vista – reconstruct environments from off the shelf 360 cameras
/ photogrammetry, software

https://www.cupixvista.com/

CupixVista is a new Al that can convert 360° video footage into the 3D map and virtual tour.

 

 

 

The Hollywood VFX Jobs Most At-Risk From AI
/ A.I., ves

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/ai-hollywood-workers-job-cuts-1235811009/

 

Over the next three years, it estimates that nearly 204,000 positions will be adversely affected.

 

In November, former Dreamworks founder Jeffrey Katzenberg said the tech will replace 90 percent of jobs on animated films.

 

Roughly a third of respondents surveyed predicted that AI will displace sound editors, 3D modelers, re-recording mixers and audio and video technicians within three years, while a quarter said that sound designers, compositors and graphic designers are likely to be affected.

 

Roughly a third of respondents surveyed predicted that AI will displace sound editors, 3D modelers, re-recording mixers and audio and video technicians within three years, while a quarter said that sound designers, compositors and graphic designers are likely to be affected.

 

AI tools may increasingly be used to help create images that can streamline character design and storyboarding process, lowering demand for concept artists, illustrators and animators.

 

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-01-30/ai-artificial-intelligence-impact-report-entertainment-industry

 

According to the study, the job tasks most likely to be impacted by AI in the film and TV industry are 3-D modeling, character and environment design, voice generation and cloning and compositing, followed by sound design, tools programming, script writing, animation and rigging, concept art/visual development and light/texture generation.

 

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/artist-rights/union-study-says-generative-ai-will-disrupt-204000-jobs-three-years-237495.html

THOMAS MANSENCAL – The Apparent Simplicity of RGB Rendering
/ colour

 

https://thomasmansencal.substack.com/p/the-apparent-simplicity-of-rgb-rendering

 

The primary goal of physically-based rendering (PBR) is to create a simulation that accurately reproduces the imaging process of electro-magnetic spectrum radiation incident to an observer. This simulation should be indistinguishable from reality for a similar observer.

 

Because a camera is not sensitive to incident light the same way than a human observer, the images it captures are transformed to be colorimetric. A project might require infrared imaging simulation, a portion of the electro-magnetic spectrum that is invisible to us. Radically different observers might image the same scene but the act of observing does not change the intrinsic properties of the objects being imaged. Consequently, the physical modelling of the virtual scene should be independent of the observer.

THE THEORY THAT CONSCIOUSNESS IS A QUANTUM SYSTEM
/ quotes

https://mindmatters.ai/2024/01/the-theory-that-consciousness-is-a-quantum-system-gains-support/

 

In short, it says that consciousness arises when gravitational instabilities in the fundamental structure of space-time collapse quantum wave functions in tiny structures called microtubules that are found inside neurons – and, in fact, in all complex cells.

 

In quantum theory, a particle does not really exist as a tiny bit of matter located somewhere but rather as a cloud of probabilities. If observed, it collapses into the state in which it was observed. Penrose has postulated that “each time a quantum wave function collapses in this way in the brain, it gives rise to a moment of conscious experience.”

 

Hameroff has been studying proteins known as tubulins inside the microtubules of neurons. He postulates that “microtubules inside neurons could be exploiting quantum effects, somehow translating gravitationally induced wave function collapse into consciousness, as Penrose had suggested.” Thus was born a collaboration, though their seminal 1996 paper failed to gain much traction.

May I see you id, Sir
/ jokes

Jamie Shields – Equality by Shoe Types
/ quotes

Rafael Perez – RIFE, an interpolation retimer for Nuke
/ production, software

This project implements RIFE – Real-Time Intermediate Flow Estimation for Video Frame Interpolation for The Foundry’s Nuke.

RIFE is a powerful frame interpolation neural network, capable of high-quality retimes and optical flow estimation.

This implementation allows RIFE to be used natively inside Nuke without any external dependencies or complex installations. It wraps the network in an easy-to-use Gizmo with controls similar to those in OFlow or Kronos.

https://github.com/rafaelperez/RIFE-for-Nuke

Thomas Mansencal – Colour Science for Python
/ colour, python, software

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.

 

The anatomy of the perfect pitch
/ A.I., jokes, production, quotes

Paul d’Herbermont – Nuke HDRI model detection with TorchScript
/ photography, production, software

A tool that detects, crops, and presents reference & cg spheres

 

https://www.patreon.com/posts/nuke-auto-ai-96524139