News Stories

TOSHIBA IS NOW A SUPPORTER OF ONLY PASSIVE STEREO 3D

2.2.2012

[3DTV]

…

A recent ConsumerReport story, notes that Toshiba will only be supporting passive 3D from now on.

“It’s [Toshiba] dropping active 3D by moving all its 3D models to passive technology.”

You may be asking yourself what the actual differences are between these methods, so let me elaborate. Active stereo 3D relies on more expensive and battery-charged 3D glasses and viewers experience more flickering per each eye than with passive glasses.

However, passive 3D sometimes gets criticised for supporting a lower image quality due to resolution constraints.

The bottom line is it all comes to comfort vs image quality. Can you settle for less clarity in exchange for getting to wear a much less pricey and more comfortable pair of glasses? This is the question you may ask when choosing a passive 3D TV set over an active 3D one.

However, passive stereo 3D is advancing in image quality and catching up to active 3D. With most TV sets today though you won’t be getting HD image quality from passive glasses.  …

Read the full article here: http://www.3dtv.com/news/Toshiba-is-Now-a-Supporter-of-Only-Passive-Stereo-3D

How Martin Scorsese Pulls Off Hugo's Nostalgia

2.1.2012

[The New Republic]

…

The trouble I have with most of the retro-tech material in the contemporary art galleries is that it ends up feeling desiccated, with inventions that were never really meant to be contemplated as freestanding works of art now isolated from the history that gave them their meaning. What might originally have been a technological marvel—a figure that moves, a machine that speaks—becomes at best a historical specimen, now experienced only as a Dadaist object, a variation on one of Duchamp’s Readymades. The secret of Scorsese’s success in Hugo has everything to do with the inherently impure and unstable nature of the movies, where art can be precipitated by—can maybe even be a by-product of—technological innovation. Say what you will, that’s not possible in an art gallery, where purity and stability are the standard and traditions have to be transformed gradually, from within.

Working in a medium that is nothing if not forward looking, Scorsese can afford to indulge in a nostalgia that from the very different perspective of the art gallery amounts to little more than tradition reduced to kitsch. With Hugo, Scorsese has reintegrated the technological exhilaration of times past into a work of cinematic art we accept as absolutely alive in the present. We see everything—the automaton’s clockwork body, Méliès elaborately hand-colored movies, the spectacle of 1930s Paris—through Asa Butterfield’s young, avid eyes.

Read the full essay here: http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/100220/hugo-scorsese-oscars-art-melies-film-history

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Specification for Naming VFX Image Sequences Released

ETC’s VFX Working Group has published a specification for best practices naming image sequences such as plates and comps. File naming is an essential tool for organizing the multitude of frames that are inputs and outputs from the VFX process. Prior to the publication of this specification, each organization had its own naming scheme, requiring custom processes for each partner, which often resulted in confusion and miscommunication.

The new ETC@USC specification focuses primarily on sequences of individual images. The initial use case was VFX plates, typically delivered as OpenEXR or DPX files. However, the team soon realized that the same naming conventions can apply to virtually any image sequence. Consequently, the specification was written to handle a wide array of assets and use cases.

To ensure all requirements are represented, the working group included over 2 dozen participants representing studios, VFX houses, tool creators, creatives and others.  The ETC@USC also worked closely with MovieLabs to ensure that the specification could be integrated as part of their 2030 Vision.

A key design criteria for this specification is compatibility with existing practices.  Chair of the VFX working group, Horst Sarubin of Universal Pictures, said: “Our studio is committed to being at the forefront of designing best industry practices to modernize and simplify workflows, and we believe this white paper succeeded in building a new foundation for tools to transfer files in the most efficient manner.”

This specification is compatible with other initiatives such as the Visual Effects Society (VES) Transfer Specifications. “We wanted to make it as seamless as possible for everyone to adopt this specification,” said working group co-chair and ETC@USC’s Erik Weaver. “To ensure all perspectives were represented we created a team of industry experts familiar with the handling of these materials and collaborated with a number of industry groups.”

“Collaboration between MovieLabs and important industry groups like the ETC is critical to implementing the 2030 Vision,” said Craig Seidel, SVP of MovieLabs. “This specification is a key step in defining the foundations for better software-defined workflows. We look forward to continued partnership with the ETC on implementing other critical elements of the 2030 Vision.”

The specification is available online for anyone to use.

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