News

Panasonic has announced the immediate availability of Barry Green's A Guide to the Panasonic AG-DVX200 Camera, a comprehensive reference e-book for customers and users of the new AG-DVX200PJ, 4K large-sensor, 4/3” handheld camcorder. The book can be downloaded free at http://info.panasonic.com/dvx200-ebook.html.

A Guide to the Panasonic AG-DVX200 Camera is an interactive digital book examining all the DVX200PJ's features, settings and modes, as well as tutorials on some of the most common situations users will face. The book demystifies the functionality of all the DVX200PJ's features, and explains when and why to use specific settings for best results. An extensive section of tutorials and essays covers a range of subjects from the simple to the advanced, including explanations on the benefits of 4K, working with the camcorder's variable frame rates, using its VLOG-L mode, and how to use the waveform monitor and vectorscope. The full-color, 260+-page book has an abundance of photos, screen-shots and video examples of menu functions.

Barry Green is an Emmy-award-winning producer with four Emmy nominations for writing and producing television commercials and public service announcements. His technical background includes 13 years as a professional computer programmer and producer for Westwood Studios, creating some of the most popular video games in history. Green writes and produces award-winning corporate and industrial films, commercials, screenplays and films for Fiercely Independent Films Inc. and tours extensively as a public speaker and instructor. He also serves as partner and moderator for www.DVXUser.com, one of the world’s largest online communities for filmmakers, shooters, and content producers of all types.

Ever since we added the younger sister of the PXW-FS7 (PXW-FS5

) to the SYNTEX lineup, questions like "What's the difference between the FS7 and FS5?" have been abounding We have therefore decided to describe the most significant differences in the following article.

SCARLET-W represents RED Digital Cinema's passion and dedication to carrying on the legacy started by RED ONE -- disrupting the industry and delivering a camera of unparalleled quality and acessibility to content creators everywhere. And now RED has changed the industry again, with the SCARLET-W, powered by a RED DRAGON sensor and featuring interchangeable lens mounts and OLPFs.

SCARLET-W combines RED's intuitive camera design -- including integrated mounting points, interchangeable lens mounts, simultaneous REDCODE RAW and Apple ProRes recording formats, intelligent OLPF system, and in-camera 3D LUT outputs -- with a RED DRAGON sensor to provide a solution that blends flexibility and accessibility with high-end performance.

Coupling RED's wide dynamic range and renowned color science with simultaneously recording capabilities in REDCODE RAW and Apple ProRes, SCARLET-W provides shooters with the best image quality possible in any format. Professionals are empowered to capture their vision exactly as they see it with recording frame rates of 5K at 60 frames per second, 4K at 150 fps, or 2K at 300 fps when shooting REDCODE RAW.

Estimated to begin shipping in February 2016. You can place a deposit of 955 EUR ex. VAT to reserve your spot in the allocation queue. The deposit will be applied towards the total price when you are invoiced at the time of shipment.

Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced that BAFTA award winning animation company Axis Animation has used Fusion Studio to complete compositing work on the opening cinematic for Microsoft’s new “Halo 5: Guardians” Xbox game in collaboration with 343 Industries.

 

Founded in 2000, Axis Animation has grown into an internationally renowned animation studio, which now boasts a multi talented team of more than 110 artists and spans two UK locations. Fusion Studio has been an integral part of the studio’s VFX pipeline for many years now. The team has worked on a wide variety of games projects for high end titles including League of Legends, Call of Duty, Alien Isolation, and more.

 

This latest cinematic for 343 Industries is the studio’s most ambitious project to date according to Sergio Caires, CG supervisor at Axis Animation. “Throughout the entire project, Fusion Studio ensured we were able us to finesse the final picture to perfection,” he begins. “It did what Fusion always does for every project we’ve worked on with it over the past fifteen years, helping us pull together all of our passes and giving us a fast, interactive compositing environment regardless of what we ask of it.”

 

Boasting more than four million views on YouTube, Axis Animation’s latest action packed “Halo 5: Guardians” cinematic introduces the main characters of Halo’s Fireteam Osiris, delivering a mission briefing before launching viewers into a preview of the gameplay world. In one continuous take, the team jumps out of a Pelican dropship to join a massive battle, which features hundreds of characters, vehicles and ships on a snowy mountain landscape.

 

To complete the project, a team of between 15 and 20 Axis Animation artists worked for six months, modeling, rigging, animating, lighting and rendering the final assets. Fusion Studio was then used for all of the compositing work, bringing together the hundreds of elements and render passes needed for the game cinematic to come to life.

 

“I approached compositing the sequence in a way that meant a lot of the elements, and all the main passes, actually lived in a single scene file,” explains Sergio. “This was a big challenge, especially when you consider the fact that the Halo 5 project included such a long, uninterrupted opening sequence, but was driven by the way we had planned to work on these shots. It was far easier to have a small number of artists focus on one difficult scene than to let many different artists start working on it, which would have been counterproductive.”

 

“I think the biggest success is the visual impact of the opening cinematic,” he concludes. “This is a perfect blend of the amazing choreography created by the team at 343 Industries, and the insane levels of detail, subtlety and action that our team added via the lighting and FX work.”

Press Photography

Product photos for Fusion Studio and all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com.

 

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced that Tokyo Laboratory LTD (Togen), a film laboratory with 60 years of history, has installed Blackmagic’s new Cintel Film Scanner, where it will be used to provide real time, Ultra HD digital film scanning and keycode telecine.

 

Togen provides a wide range of services including telecine, editing, color grading and the latest DCP mastering, as well as traditional film service such as developing, timing and printing.

 

“We were looking for a successor to our current telecine system,” said Naoki Moriizumi, manager in the Digital Process Group of Togen. “Cintel is capable of scanning in real time, as well as capturing both images and audio so we can use it like a telecine system. Furthermore, we use DaVinci Resolve Studio as a grading system, so we know that we will be able to work efficiently using both Cintel and Resolve.”

 

“It is good that Cintel supports three perforations,” said Togen colorist Yasuhiro Matsumoto. “These days filming with three perforations is widely used for DI and TV commercials. Regular film uses four perforation shooting, with those shot on film but delivered digitally using three perforations shooting. And it is a great that Cintel can be synchronized to flash a light source in the center of a frame, even though it keeps running while scanning. Also, there is no distortion as films are kept as flat at scanning. It is great to be able to get 4K30P scanning in real time with this price range.”

 

“It is also easy to scan using Cintel. It’s safely designed, so that even if you make mistake in loading a film, you get an error and the film doesn't get any tension so you don't have to worry about damaging your negatives,” said Matsumoto.

 

“One of our film services is developing negatives,” said Katsuji Nishino, general manager in the Image Media Department at Togen. “We use an HD telecine system to check developed films. Usually films are brought in at night, and we deliver developed films the following evening. In the past, we’ve had to stop telecine jobs for film checks, which is not efficient. So we began looking for equipment with HD quality for checking negatives, and saw the Cintel Film Scanner at Inter BEE last year. With Cintel, we can check images with the HD monitor while scanning.”

 

Also, the team at Togen appreciate the keycode telecine, which they use to create video with keycode burnt in for offline material. "Currently we capture tape which we did with HD telecine, and burn in keycode using Resolve, and then export it as QT file for offline editing. The workflow will be improved drastically using Cintel Film Scanner, as we can capture images into Resolve directly," concluded Nishino.

Press Photography

Product photos of Cintel Film Scanner are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.