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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Nice Shoes R3D form

Eric Ulbrich

Eric Ulbrich

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http://www.niceshoes.com/nice-shoes-revolutionizes-red-file-conversion-with-new-software/

Nice Shoes Revolutionizes Red File Conversion With New Software

The advent of new digital cameras has left DPs and post-production producers juggling an ever-increasing number of unique file formats required for various stages of the filmmaking process. To speed up and simplify this new reality of file conversion, New York-based creative studio Nice Shoes has created R3Dform, a software program that converts Red Cam files (.R3D) to any standard file format, including H264, ProRES, DNX, MXF, XDCAM, iPhone, web media streaming and many others.

Unlike the alternative, an expensive hardware purchase, R3Dform will work on any computer workstation (OSX) and converts files faster than real-time. For example, if a DP shoots 12 hours of footage at 24 frames per second (fps), R3Dform can convert them to any number of file formats as fast as your system can write, saving time and helping the company deliver a higher ROI. Moreover, the software can be used on multiple machines simultaneously, effectively turning them into a high-performance processing engine.

Nice Shoes recently used R3Dform to convert four terabytes of data, or two days-worth of footage, to DPS and QuickTime ProRes formats in a single night.

The software was developed in the company’s engineering lab, headed up by Chief Technology Officer Robert Keske, who has been developing software and hardware solutions for the film industry for the past decade. Prior to joining Nice Shoes in 2007, Keske worked for Autodesk®, leading their Media and Entertainment division, designing solutions for the majority of motion pictures and commercials produced in the last decade.

“My job is to develop tools and solutions so the artist can be more creative and have a better experience,” he says. “It’s also important in today’s world that you prove ROI fast and efficiently. Tools like R3Dform allow you to do that.”

What do we think? Is this a cheaper alternative to the Rocket for simple transcoding? Anyone played with this software yet?
 
I downloaded a trial but the trail license key cannot work. Just want to know if it is better than RedCineX with Red Rocket or the good old RocketCine. Lim
 
Just got the trial. Looks to me like all it does is dpx out....still playing w it.
 
We must get more technical info on this product! What is the method by which the software is debayering / transcoding the R3Ds into QuickTimes? How do the results look? Are the renders actually useable for finishing, or just this strictly for generating 'offline' files?

- Jordan
 
Try entering the code in the window, not via the popup and then click online activation. Worked for me.
 
What is REALLY revolutionary is not converting files - it's working with RAW files. Faster. More dynamic range. Smaller files.

Now with Trim R3D - we can get crazy efficient.

Every new color app supports R3D RAW files.

Just sayin' -
 
I'm wondering how the conversion is happening faster than real time without an accelerator card. To my understanding, the SDK simply provides an RGB framebuffer, which would make everyone's access speed exactly the same.

Did they gain access to the raw data and are using openCL or CUDA or something? Doesn't seem like they say so, and they specifically say no expensive hardware. Hmm, maybe I'm misreading what they are saying, but I thought it said faster than real-time. Only way I can figure that is if it's not full res?

I guess we'll find out more in time.
 
Mark L. Pederson said:
What is REALLY revolutionary is not converting files - it's working with RAW files. Faster. More dynamic range. Smaller files.

Now with Trim R3D - we can get crazy efficient.

Every new color app supports R3D RAW files.

Just sayin' -
Click to expand...

I agree to Mark. Converting is yesterday's technology.
 
I have downloaded this and will be testing later.
Looking at the manual and the other software products they make it looks like a network rendering tool that interfaces with Apple Compressor - perhaps distributed across enough nodes you get faster than real time?

So perhaps not the lovely multithreaded CPU+GPU OpenCL/CUDA decoder I was hoping for to give me realtime performance on any mac. More testing will tell. I had been hoping the Foundry would give us that with Storm. Perhaps RED are holding back too much of their R3D format for them to implement it.
 
Mark L. Pederson said:
What is REALLY revolutionary is not converting files - it's working with RAW files. Faster. More dynamic range. Smaller files.

Now with Trim R3D - we can get crazy efficient.

Every new color app supports R3D RAW files.

Just sayin' -
Click to expand...

Agree 100%
That's how we work as well.. as IGGY said: RAW POWER!
 
Quentin_B said:
I have downloaded this and will be testing later.
Looking at the manual and the other software products they make it looks like a network rendering tool that interfaces with Apple Compressor - perhaps distributed across enough nodes you get faster than real time?

So perhaps not the lovely multithreaded CPU+GPU OpenCL/CUDA decoder I was hoping for to give me realtime performance on any mac. More testing will tell. I had been hoping the Foundry would give us that with Storm. Perhaps RED are holding back too much of their R3D format for them to implement it.
Click to expand...

I had hell of time with compressor network rendering. I wasted more time than actual rendering outcome. On the contrary, I've done some impossibly challenging converting job with Red Rocket many many times.
 
...From a production point of view, I have no interest in this tool what so ever. Conversions are so 2009. RAW FTW, baby!

As for their speed claims, I'm going to either say they're misleading about the number of systems used for their examples or it's outright BS. For starters, even if you can pull off a software debayer at 100X real-time and feed 4K frames right into the ProRes codec, you'll be lucky to get better than about 75% of real-time on the encode because ProRes is a huge bottleneck. Other than that, proper multithreading on a good 8 or even 6 core system can give you real-time debayer at full resolution for a 4K R3D source. But you still need proper LUT application, transform and scaling, which is where a good GPU would be handy. Same principal of how Premiere CS5 and now a few others are chewing through multiple streams of REDCODE in real-time or even a single stream at full quality on a decent system.

So given that, I don't doubt the application can grind through the REDCODE if properly coded, I just question what they do with it after the fact.

The advantage to having a RED Rocket is that it handles the debayer processing, LUTs and transformations/scaling and keeps the rest of the system free to do other things. We will see its advantage more and more as applications on the market increase their support for the Rocket.
 
Tom.Wong said:
look in your email, there is a code where you put in for your serial, then activate and you're in trial.
Click to expand...

No the app asks me for a product key, when i copy paste what i got in the mail it says key invalid. When I do the online activation it says successful but the app dont open and show me the serial dialog.....
 
It is surprising as to how little information they have on their site about what exactly this app does and how it does it. I've been a little put off and I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to test it.

For me, when working on low budget productions off a laptop I would love to see an app that just gave me reliable realtime playback at 1/4 rez or higher for the full length of a clip or edit (currently it just keeps up at 1/8th on 4K material). Many productions like to do transcodes for the offline just for performance whilst editing especially when people are often editing in FCP on a laptop. I fully understand and agree with the idea of working with native or the now available (YAY!!) trimmed R3D's when finishing/doing final grades etc.
When we finally get Light Peak in macs (light peak now delayed till 2011) I hope I can combine super fast external storage arrays and my new 2011 macbook pro laptop and 64bit multithreaded CPU/GPU processing updated QuicktimeX to get realtime playback at higher quality debayer settings without the need for extra hardware. Between now and then I'll be hard at work on set trying to earn the money to pay for it and possibly pay for a Red rocket card along the way too.
 
Okay - this program seems like it's on the right path - debayering r3d's in real time without a red rocket card.

Maybe they should take a look at how Rarevision does it and Hire Thomas Worth as consultant. His interface is just as effective (if not moreso) and I can make sense of outputting DPX or prores from its console.

My issue with R3Dform at this time is its dependence on compressor.

I hate the compressor interface.

I probably need to get a lesson from some post production genius in order to make this a useful tool for what I need it for, and that is generating ProRes files onset for productions that don't want to or know how to take R3D's from cradle to grave.

I'd love to be a R3D, Raw Workflow evangelist like so many here - but I'm a camera centric, paycheck centric, NON-POST centric technician. Happy to take a lesson on setting up a compressor node since Post is the other side of the world for me.
 
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