Visual Effects workflow

[Joe Riggs]

[FONT=&quot]First time handing off VFX to a VFX artist and trying to figure out the best workflow.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Shot 4K RED footage [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Edited with pro res proxies in FCP [/FONT]

1. [FONT=&quot]I initially wanted to send the R3D files for maximum flexibility but she told me she would just need the size of the final output, in prores 4444. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Is this the best route? Should I be adamant about using the R3D files? My concern is the grade hasn’t been done and we will lose the grading flexibility by going prores. [/FONT]

Also, I see lot of people go DPX, is there an advantage to this format?

[FONT=&quot]2. There’s only about 10 vfx shots, so what is going to be the most painless way to link up to the R3D’s and export the section used in the edit? [/FONT]

Thank you

 

[Eric Santiago]

Depends on your workflow.

Which NLE?

What app/platform is the VFX on?

I can see the headache of not working on R3Ds but thats how we do it mostly using After Effects.

If we need a plate in Maya, we just export TIFFs from AE.

 

[Darren Orange]

I would go full blown DPX. I would not trust anything else. If you are using resolve or any other software to color with, I'd always use DPX. Most likely your final product will end up a DPX sequence anyway and then converted to whatever format you need from their. You're not going to archive just a old project file and R3Ds...you'll want to archive a DPX sequence.

 

[Joe Riggs]

I'm working in FCP and the effects will done in AE.

 

[Stefan Scherperel]

If editing in After effects, there is no reason the VFX artist should not be able to handle native R3D files, unless their system is outdated. If there are shots that have lots of layers of R3D's, your VFX artist should be able to create their own offline files, but should replace them with online files before final output. Do know that your final output will most likely be DPX, so you will need to lock in a pre grade before that.

 

[Marc Wielage]

One method is to use uncompressed DPX files, then come up with a viewing LUT that will change the final image on the RAW file so that it's at least in the ballpark of where it finally needs to be. When the original image and the VFX composite are both viewed with the LUT, then you know they'll work in the right color space.

This is where you need an experienced post supervisor and an experienced VFX supervisor to take each shot all the way through the process. I have worked on projects where individual scenes and shots were done at 7 or 8 different post houses, and because of lack of time and supervision, every shot came in looking totally different, which drove us nuts in color correction. In some cases, we were able to get them redone by giving the VFX house plates of the shots before and after their scene, and that at least allowed them to get their work done much closer. God help you if you're doing this on a tight schedule.

 

[paulherrin]

use dpx, tif, or exr sequences. you could probably do prores as well for most shots. you're not going to get an r3d back, so there's no point in worrying about it - give your artist what they're comfortable with - all the information will be there. if you can get it in range before exporting with a quick pass that dials in at least the white balance and ISO that you want to start with that's good, but just make sure the artist knows they're looking at an ungraded scene. if there's only 10 shots, i'd just plop them in. no reason to freak out about anything if you follow those guidelines, so you can focus on getting good images...

 

[Mondo Ghulam]

Hey Joe,

I recently did some simple matte work in AE with native r3ds, 2 layers, and a few mattes.

it was great to work with and the detail was fantastic. When it came to outputting the final render, it was achingly slow. In the end I had to go back to 4k quicktimes as time was a factor

I had tried lower quality de-bayering but it seemed to make little difference.

This was on a 8core, 3yo Mac Pro with 64gb ram and no rocket - ymmv.

-M