EXR

Color Spaces of the VFX Pipeline Part 2: World Space

Bird at sunset

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.

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Color Spaces of the VFX Pipeline

Did you know that a 10 bit log DPX image actually holds the equivalent of 12 to 14 bits of linear data?

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.

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