Milestones in the postproduction industry are often measured by the release of cutting-edge technology that transforms the creative process seemingly "overnight." These additions to the creative arsenal bring new capabilities as well as new looks to the commercialmaking arena.
Discreet Logic’s Flame, when launched in ’93, sparked a revolution on the post and visual effects fronts. Now, SynaFlex, a software system that converts 2-D film and video into 3-D, has the potential to reinvent how all stages of production are visualized.
Introduced by Lowell, Mass.-based SynaPix at NAB ’98, SynaFlex captured the interest and imagination of the post industry almost immediately. At this year’s NAB, a more refined version of the software was introduced, again to a great reception. The original version of SynaFlex ran on the SGI Octane Platform, while the version presented at NAB this year runs on an NT operating system. Today the product is in beta testing at eight locations and is scheduled for release at the end of the year. The beta sites include Click 3X, New York; Toy Box/Command Post, Toronto; 525 Studios, Santa Monica; Rushes, London; Western Images, San Francisco; and Crazy Horse Editorial, Santa Monica.
What’s all the fuss about? SynaFlex provides 3-D workspace to combine computer graphic imagery and real images, allowing the artist to work with camera movement and lighting within a 3-D structure. This reduces, if not eliminates, the need for rotoscoping, matting and layering. SynaFlex could also one day be used in production—for example, a director could conceivably use the technology to visualize how a computer generated element of a commercial will interact with recorded elements. "The product is a visual effects tool," says Paul Weiser, the Los Angeles-based director of sales and marketing at SynaPix. "Most visual effects tools work in layers. [When working with conventional visual effects tools] you are going to create a background plate, add some 3-D computer graphic images and render them down to 2-D. [SynaFlex is] taking the opposite approach. We will take 2-D information from film transfer to video and run it through our software, which is a series of algorithms. What those algorithms allow you to do is take 2-D and turn it into 3-D.
"So now, instead of a flat 2-D background plate, I’ve got geometry," Weiser continues. "Then when I create a synthetic image to insert, I know where it goes because it’s a real 3-D scene. I can go behind things, and the occlusions happen naturally. Perspective [and] lighting fall naturally around the 3-D object. The ultimate goal is to create a visual effect, but the way [SynaFlex] approaches it is much faster, and allows for far more creativity than the traditional way of working in layers [does]."
Testing It Out
525 Studios has been enthralled with SynaFlex from the get-go. "We were really excited about the possibilities and where it was going, so we kept in touch with Curt Rawley [president/ CEO of SynaPix]," says Eric Bonniot, president/CEO of 525 Studios. "When they got ready to introduce the beta software, we expressed interest. We basically said, ‘When you’re ready, we’re ready.’"
Both 525 Studios and sister company Rushes, London, have SynaFlex online. (Rushes and 525 are owned by Virgin Digital Studios, an arm of the U.K.-based Virgin Group.) "To be honest with you, we only used it a few times, and it’s not yet something that we are offering to our clients," Bonniot says. "Our [current] interest is in being involved as the product develops and gets stronger. We did something similar at both of our sites with Discreet Logic’s Flame years ago. Rushes had the first online system in the world, and 525 had one of the first in Los Angeles."
525 Studios has yet to create any commercial work with SynaFlex, but Bonniot has no doubt about its spot potential. "I remember one of first jobs [we did] on Flame; it took a week to [complete] something. Today, that [same project] would take a couple of hours," he says. "We see [SynaFlex] as a visual-effects tool, possibly negating the need for blue screening. The ability to extrapolate a 3-D wireframe from a 2-D image is a phenomenal concept. It really affords the ability to create a 3-D environment out of reality. You can replace, move or introduce new elements into an environment that wasn’t really shot for a green screen possibility. You can take actual live-action environments and introduce elements. It’s a long way away from being a full production tool, but we are trying to use it in the background to help with mattes and rotoscoping. That’s a use we can find for SynaFlex right away." Steward Burris, a 3-D artist at 525, is the current operator of the system.
"From our focus on visual effects, the creative potential is in not having to shoot blue or green screen elements, but instead to combine wire frame extrapolation of a real environment with the creation of artificial objects in 3-D," Bonniot explains. "You are seeing car spots [created that way] more and more these days. There are lots of possibilities with not only cars, but all kinds of products. SynaFlex is going to provide the ability to meld these so that there is a seamlessness between them. We are close to it now, but it’s a fairly tedious process."
For manipulation of real live-action environments, the potential is endless. With a list price of $225,000, SynaFlex is a turnkey system including hardware and software. It runs on a dual-processor Windows NT-based Intergraph system with Ciprico disk array and 1.5Gb of RAM. The product is not yet available as just a software component. "We’re pushing the edge so far of what people are doing with image manipulation," Weiser says. "We have developed our own hardware acceleration for the algorithms, which is [also] bundled in with the system. If we didn’t control the environment it’s running in, we couldn’t guarantee it right now."
SynaPix is currently working on fine-tuning the user interface based on input from SynaFlex beta sites, and has sped up the process of going from 2-D to 3-D by use of its own hardware acceleration. "We’re at the tail-end of the game," Weiser says. "The beta sites have not worked with the hardware acceleration [yet]. The user interface is being adjusted to incorporate what the beta sites are telling us. The hardware acceleration is being implemented. We are refining the final list of features of Version One [and are] trying to squash bugs."
Bonniot says there are a number of non-technical issues that need to be addressed before SynaFlex becomes a full-fledged production tool. "The rendering speed issue is being addressed, so now it’s just an educational process. We have to educate … [artists and] our clients of its capabilities and what kinds of jobs are appropriate. In the next year, it will be used regularly to integrate 2-D and 3-D. It will be a real bridge between those two environments and [will] bring them closer together in one application."
