The visual effects color pipeline starts in the real world, of course. The light from surfaces and light sources are captured by cameras and travels a data path through several “spaces” to the movie screen. The challenge for visual effects is that the real world presents color and light in a totally different way that far exceeds the capacity of our display devices so a degraded version of the original scene must be carefully managed in order to deliver the most realistic version of the original scene to the audience. The real world is not a “color space” in the color science sense, but instead is presented here as the “World Space” where our entire VFX pipeline begins.
Color Spaces of the VFX Pipeline
The way to think of the VFX color pipeline is as a sequence of operations where the data is depleted at each step, but by starting with high quality data and properly managing the VFX pipeline you can ensure that your VFX not only look great on the intended display device, but will also be future-proofed to look good on display devices of the future.
Create Job Winning Demo Reels with ShotKits™
We VFX artists live in a catch-22 situation when it comes to demo reels. We need to make demo reels to show our work, but the studios won’t let us have the plates. We are forced to rip DVD’s and simply add notes when what we really need to do is show shot breakdowns with […]
Google Stadia – The Total Game Changer
I actually started entertaining people with pixels in the early 80’s when I worked at Atari as a video game programmer. Even though I now work in feature film visual effects, I have always watched with fatherly pride as the video game industry grew up, intermarried with the visual effects industry, and reached astonishing heights […]
Why, Oh Why, Premultiply?
In all my travels to conduct Nuke training around the world, one of the most vexing topics I am asked to clarify is premultiply and unpremultiply. Amazingly, the confusion actually starts with the name – premultiply. At least if a more descriptive name had been chosen we would find the subject less confusing. So how […]
It’s All About Workflow
Whether I am visiting a visual effects studio for staff training or talking to students about their previous education I hear the same general comment; the educational institutions teach them how to operate the software, but not much about workflow – how to get things done. They know how to degrain or regrain a shot, […]