Sam Druckerman

[Elan Gunos]

Wow! That looks incredible!

I've been having so much fun, running around with my friends, playing with the camera!!! Such a treat...

It's basically been a great party, with good friends, both old and new.... I want to thank these guys for making my Epic celebration off the hook!

I'm going start with Bruce Allen, whose skills are ridiculous.... Bruce has been my right hand man this last week, and we have been smiling the entire time. Matt Uhry, who stepped up with his incredible talent, and as if that wasn't enough..... he threw his plane into the ring! I said it before, I'm very lucky guy.

Matt Garrett, Ruben Russ, jumped on the party bus today, sharing their talent as well.

Everyone has been taking turns at the wheel, and in the future look for more bit's of fun from the rest of the gang....

But tonight, Matt Uhry pulled the rabbit out of the hat, as he drove tonight's 1st offering! Just a quick run through RedCineX... we'll do a DaVinci grade later.



Jarred, this one's for you..... Enjoy

http://www.boacinema.com/projects/2011/red_epic/ruben-hembredelfuego2.mov

 

[Roberto Lequeux]

This is such a great example Bruce, Matt, and Sam!

* note to self - get 256GB SSD cards - turn HDRx™™™™ on for ALL EXT day full sun = or < 48fps

it seems to composite so damn well

This is what I keep thinking of. Thing is you still need to test motion really hard before committing and continue to analyze it's motion qualities for a while after as we get to know HDRx blending. But other than what may or may not happen with shaky-cam/fast moving objects through the frame + really contrasty edges, everything about HDRx seems to be done right. Wonder what I can do with curve automation and so much DR! Wonder what I can do with so much properly exposed. And thank goodness this is all happening RAW.

 

[Mark Mannschreck]

Right Roberto!

But really no harm in leaving it on if you've got the SSD capacity and don't need the higher framerates (and you're not relying on it)

It'll also be interesting to see some GS mattes pulled from the HDRX stream

This is what I keep thinking of. Thing is you still need to test motion really hard before committing and continue to analyze it's motion qualities for a while after as we get to know HDRx™ blending. But other than what may or may not happen with shaky-cam/fast moving objects through the frame + really contrasty edges, everything about HDRx™ seems to be done right. Wonder what I can do with curve automation and so much DR! Wonder what I can do with so much properly exposed. And thank goodness this is all happening RAW.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

Nice stuff Sam

 

[Sam Druckerman]

Sam flatters me! Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com

Ahhhhhhhh, .......no I don't.....

But if you don't want to believe me?.............

ah man! i LOVE it! Very cool footage!

LOVE IT... great job guys.

That footage in stunning.

awesome! that was so fascinating to watch.

BOOM.

What an awesome piece of test footy! Looks great! Love it! Thanks so much for sharing and congrats!

This is so amazing.. The detail! Well done

f#cking gorgeous!!

Really looks amazing, and yet I know this party is just getting started!

Sam, Matt, Bruce, you guys kick ass. Incredible!!

Great job guys

Sam this is awesome!!! You guys have done a great job!!!

You guys and HDRx™™™™™™™™™™ kick ass!

Gorgeous B&W cityscape by the way!

This is such a great example Bruce, Matt, and Sam!

Wow! That looks incredible!

Nice stuff Sam

hehehehehe I'm going to make Matt blush.

THANKS TO EVERYONE, for all the cheers! We really were thinking about you guy's when we hit the streets. And its great to share, and celebrate the EPIC together!

 

[Casey Green]

Rock on, Sam!

 

[Matt Uhry]

I've been thinking about HDRx a bit in the last few days since I got to play with Sam's Epic.

When Red first announced HDRx, I have to admit that I thought that it sounded like a gimmick - for lazy people who don't want to light, or it was going to be a creative crutch - Examples abound:

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&...=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1199&bih=857.

Now that I've used it and had a chance to play with my own footage and do my own tests I don't think that any more. You'll still want to light a bit, but the lights can be smaller and used in a more artful manner.

1. It will completely save your ass when shooting moving day car interiors.

Immediate benefit here. Those extra stops will let you expose for the car interior - you can control how much detail you read through the window. Much smaller lights can be used to light inside the car. Safer / Faster / Better / More realistic Vehicle shooting will result.

2. There will be better ways to blend the two HDRx streams.

Redcine 416 just dissolves between the two picture tracks and then lets you do curves on the combined track. There's a lot of potential for cleverer ways to blend the two tracks than a simple additive dissolve.

3. For it to help you, you'll have to expose for the shadow areas

Leap of faith here. You need to actually have a scene with more dynamic range than the camera can already capture to see much benefit from HDRx - you'll see the low-light track on the EVF / Monitor. If you want to preview the HDRx high-light track crank the shutter closed 2-6 stops and that's exactly what the high-light track is going to look like.

4. Motion Artifacts.

Magic Motion ? HDRx works by taking a second exposure with a shorter shutter speed following the primary exposure and combining the two tracks. On a still of a shot with a high degree of movement this looks like a double image - especially at an edge where there is high contrast. In motion it looks pretty good. It might be able to look better if the high-light track used some predictive motion blur ( based on the preceding frame ). This would be computationally expensive and may not be needed, but could be done if you wanted to.

5. VFX benefits

The HDRx track could be of great benefit in motion analysis - Tracking markers could be used that were LED point sources, accurate and precise tracks could result.

I'm way more excited about the possibilities of HDRx now that I've used it and had a few days to parse the tests that Sam, Bruce, Ruben, Matty and I did last week. At least some aspects of it are likely to revolutionize your style of shooting.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com

 

[Roberto Lequeux]

Redcine 416 just dissolves between the two picture tracks and then lets you do curves on the combined track.

Curves on all of the information are already available? That's great. Jim said several times there will be more ways to blend the frames, but curves were a big one. Glad that's in the bag.

I don't think a lot of people take it seriously or even know about it, but sometimes I really enjoy the "Highlights & Shadows" image adjustment in PS. I bet that can spawn some good ideas for a new tool.

 

[Justin O'Neill]

Totally agree Matt, HDRx is going to be huge for all of the points you mention.

Just a heads up, I think you have this bit switched up. From playing with HDRx it appears the short shutter exposure happens first immediately followed by the normal exposure. This is why in an HDRx still frame the motion blur is actually in front of the moving object, giving it a unique look ( magic motion).

HDRx works by taking a second exposure with a shorter shutter speed following the primary exposure and combining the two tracks.
www.mattuhry.com

 

[Matt Uhry]

Totally agree Matt, HDRx™ is going to be huge for all of the points you mention.

Just a heads up, I think you have this bit switched up. From playing with HDRx™ it appears the short shutter exposure happens first immediately followed by the normal exposure. This is why in an HDRx™ still frame the motion blur is actually in front of the moving object, giving it a unique look ( magic motion).

You may be right... Those were some late nights when we posted this stuff. Bruce ? you want to weigh in ?

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com

 

[Matt Uhry]

Curves on all of the information are already available? That's great. Jim said several times there will be more ways to blend the frames. But curves were a big one, glad that's in the bag.

I don't think a lot of people use it or even know about it, but sometimes I really enjoy the "Highlights & Shadows" image adjustment in PS. I bet that can spawn some good ideas for a new tool.

It's curves on the combined image, you choose the degree of combination. Not yet curves on both tracks - but you can do that in AFX if you like.

Does that make sense ?

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com

 

[Lee Saxon]

I don't think a lot of people take it seriously or even know about it, but sometimes I really enjoy the "Highlights & Shadows" image adjustment in PS.

Only if it's used verrrrrrrrrrrry conservatively, which is very often isn't.

 

[Bruce Allen]

You may be right... Those were some late nights when we posted this stuff. Bruce ? you want to weigh in ?

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com

Matt - that was my fault for misinforming you. Yes it was late and I was confused - but I am also often confused during the middle of the day so it's not saying much.

It happens the opposite way to the bike trails in Akira. So yes, it does the short exposure first, then the long one. Would be fun if we could swap it and see which one looks better.

Will try to post some HQ versions of your footage this evening in order to recompense.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

 

[jake blackstone]

Foundry been working on reducing visual differences between A and X frames for a while. They have wealth of knowledge on motion estimation and they are planning to use a lot of it for that very purpose. I had been told, that the result,s so far, are quite impressive. Not that the strobing of X is that noticeable right now.