Autodesk to acquire Shotgun Software
SAN FRANCISCO–Autodesk Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Shotgun Software, a developer of scalable, cloud-based production tracking, review and asset management software for the film, television and games industries. Shotgun’s tools for production management are used by some of the world’s leading production studios and are tightly integrated with many of the most widely used tools in the industry including Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Maya software. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“Shotgun and Autodesk share a vision of an industry-wide, cloud-based production management system,” said Don Parker, Shotgun co-founder and chief executive officer. “Autodesk’s broad global network and development resources will speed up the pace of innovation and development of our global platform. Together, we will extend our tools deeper into the production process, and develop new solutions that best support the studios of the future.”
Since the launch of the Shotgun solution in 2006, it has become widely adopted across the industry, providing business tools for managers and visual collaboration tools for artists and supervisors, who are often working globally with distributed teams. More than 500 customers, including a number of leading studios, are using Shotgun’s customizable system and contribute to the ongoing development of its growing ecosystem of applications. The existing Shotgun team will continue to support current and new customers, and lead future product development.
“The acquisition of Shotgun will accelerate Autodesk’s efforts to deliver solutions that help our creative customers solve the critical problem of operating more efficiently by collaborating globally to deliver increasingly complex productions on time and budget,” said Chris Bradshaw, senior VP, Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “Shotgun brings deep expertise and industry-leading technology in cloud products and production management, so we welcome the team, customers and community to Autodesk.”
Grass Valley’s EDIUS 7 Selected for the 3D Film “Our Restless Planet”
MONTREAL–Bruce Austin of Bruce Austin Productions Inc. (BAPI) and Dan Harris of Eight Ball Pictures and Stereoscope LLC, have turned to Grass Valley’s EDIUS 7 multiformat nonlinear editing software for the film “Our Restless Planet,” for the JPL Earth Science Visitor Center. The film highlights the effects of hurricanes, earthquakes and fresh water supplies on our planet.
“We’re so proud of this film, which is being seen by thousands of visitors to JPL each year,” said Bruce Austin, freelance 3D director of photography, BAPI. “With EDIUS at our fingertips, editing this film was an absolute breeze. We were able to bring multiple formats, resolutions and clips together and were able to edit in real-time without rendering, which made the entire process quick and painless. We’re very excited with the outcome of this project, and I don’t think it could have been done on any other editing system.”
“Our Restless Planet” was assembled with footage from JPL consisting of Red Digital 3D files, 2D-to-3D converted archival footage and a number of other 3D file formats. In addition, Austin shot original footage on a number of 3D cameras, including Sony’s TD300 and Panasonic’s 3DP1 and Z10000. CG animations of the earth with multiple layers of compositing and chroma keying were accomplished with EDIUS.
“The real-time 3D playback feature of EDIUS made all the difference,” said Austin. “The client could make instant quality judgments based upon the effect 3D has on the pacing and mood of the project. The ability to color correct and do stereo alignment while the client watched was invaluable.”
“EDIUS allowed me to make editing decisions in real-time while viewing in 3D,” said Dan Harris, director and editor, Eight Ball Productions and Stereoscope LLC. “Past experience with other NLE’s transcoding slowed the creative process down. With EDIUS, the final delivery was performed in weeks instead of months. Whether editing in 2D or 3D, EDIUS stands out as one of the top editing tools available today.”
Encore puts Baselight to work on “House of Cards”
LONDON–The second season of House of Cards, Netflix’s hugely popular political drama, was released on February 14 and made available to subscribers in 4k Ultra HD. Encore, a Deluxe Entertainment Services company, handled the show’s post production, with lead colorist Laura Jans-Fazio grading in uncompressed 4k at the postproduction and VFX company’s Los Angeles location. To achieve the desired results, she leveraged a Baselight TWO system and Blackboard control surface.
The drama was captured on RED cameras, some using the HDR functionality for extended contrast and color dynamic range. The floating-point processing in Baselight gave Jans-Fazio new creative options. Windows that appeared blown out, for example, could be graded to show detail then composited into the rest of the scene. The power of Baselight meant that this sophisticated color and composite control could be done in real time so the clients could see the final results immediately.
Co-producer Peter Mavromates and post supervisor Hameed Shaukat worked directly with Jans-Fazio on the grade, with director David Fincher and DP Igor Martinovic providing feedback via using the PIX digital collaboration tool.
“As episodes were completed, they were uploaded to PIX, which allowed the producer, director and DP to view content on calibrated Sony OLED monitors,” explained Morgan Strauss, Encore SVP, Operations. “They returned their feedback, which we could extract directly into Baselight, and Jans-Fazio finalised the look and delivered the files to Netflix. It was essential to maximise this asynchronous collaborative process and, along with Baselight’s sophisticated toolset, it meant we could fully realise the creative needs of the producers and DP.”
The overall look of the series has a slightly moody cast, reflecting the tense, internal political intrigues of the story. The grade avoids over-saturated colors, maintaining the palette throughout—which was Fincher’s vision for the show.
“Baselight has so many features and the fact that it works in floating-point processing gives me image quality for a pristine picture every time,” said Jans-Fazio. “We often used multiple shapes in a single shot, and being able to do that in one layer in Baselight was a real time-saver. We could also composite through VFX mattes, and do monitor replacements, in real time.”
“Baselight has been developed to be really intuitive,” she added. “The development and support team at FilmLight are awesome—they really get what is needed.”
“Television episodics are always a real challenge for grading, because you have very little time to finesse the grade despite the length of the material,” explained Wolfgang Lempp, co-Founder of FilmLight. “The challenges were compounded on House of Cards because of the need to work at 4k uncompressed. We built huge processing power into Baselight just to meet this sort of everyday challenge—so customers like Laura Jans-Fazio and the production and postproduction team at Encore are not wasting time.
Kevin Ancelin joins Artel Video Systems as VP of sales & biz development
WESTFORD, Mass.–Artel Video Systems announced the appointment of Kevin Ancelin to the newly created position of VP of sales and business development. Based in Jacksonville, Florida, Ancelin brings a wealth of knowledge and leadership skills to Artel, with more than 28 years of experience in the broadcast industry.
In his new role at Artel, Ancelin will be responsible for growing domestic and international sales of Artel’s flagship DigiLink media transport platform, and for providing leadership in new product development and strategic business decisions.
Prior to joining Artel, Ancelin was at Adtec Digital, where he held various executive roles including serving as president from 2003-2010. As one of the founders of Adtec, Ancelin was instrumental in growing the company from a start-up to a worldwide leader in the MPEG based contribution market, with numerous TV Technology STAR award-winning products. He attended the University of Central Florida and holds a Bachelor of Engineering Technology degree. Ancelin is active in the broadcast community through his membership and/or involvement with industry associations such as the NAB, SMPTE, Sports Video Group, and CableLabs, and has participated in many industry discussion panels and speaking engagements.
Ancelin said, “I was drawn to Artel because of the innovative and highly resilient multipurpose DigiLink transport platform. Additionally, Artel’s recent entry into the JPEG 2000 transport market, most specifically the leadership role Artel has taken in the Video Services Forum and its VSF-TR-01 interoperability standard, is something I am especially excited about. I am looking forward to directing the sales team and being involved in developing the product roadmap and business strategy as Artel looks at new regions, markets, and technologies.”
Canon launches optics microsite
MELVILLE, NY–Canon U.S.A. Inc., a leader in digital imagig solutions, has introduced a microsite devoted to helping people understand the incredible power they can access when they look at the world through the right lens. While a DSLR camera body is a very important creative tool, lenses help photographers of all levels realize their artistic vision. This microsite will help consumers grow creatively and expand their photographic tools beyond kit lenses.
Visitors will be enlightened about the possibilities unlocked through the many different kind of lenses available to them: macro, zoom, telephoto, prime, wide-angle, STM, tilt-shift and fisheye. They'll find that each type of lens unlocks a different power and helps tell a unique story–for example, through a macro lens a ladybug can become a monster. Through informative videos, sample imagery, and educational video content, photographers and videographers from entry level to advanced amateur status will learn how to determine which Canon EF or EF-S Lenses will best help them create more powerful images with their EOS Digital SLR camera. Additionally, visitors will find helpful quick tips for shooting with each category of lens, from fisheye to telephoto.
Canon lenses are a culmination of more than 75 years of optical innovation, with a heritage this is more than 100 milliion lenses strong. This new microsite will continue this heritage and help consumers use the power of Canon lenses.
To view the microsite and learn more about Canon optics, please visit explore-lenses.usa.canon.com.
