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To celebrate, Toon Boom Animation is giving away free software and goodies on a different day each month for the remainder of the year! More here.

V-Ray 3.0 is a comprehensive physically-based lighting, shading, and rendering toolkit built to meet the creative demands of CG artists and designers. Speed, control, and quality are key reasons so many artists and studios rely on V-Ray time and time again. V-Ray 3.0 delivers a powerful new set of features focused on artist productivity and modern CG workflows.

Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced that big budget thriller “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” has been finished on DaVinci Resolve by Company 3 London. Kenneth Branagh has directed Paramount Pictures’ reboot of the spy film franchise, based on bestselling author Tom Clancy’s ‘Jack Ryan’ character.

“Shadow Recruit” is a sharp, fast paced thriller set in the present day. Producers have created an origin story, taking audiences back to the early days of the character. “Shadow Recruit” focuses on the time after Ryan has joined the CIA and in the process comes across a possible terrorist attack that would cripple the United States’ financial system.

Company 3 colorist Rob Pizzey first met with director Kenneth Branagh and cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos at Pinewood Studios London in the early part of 2013. There the trio watched the first assembly edit of “Shadow Recruit”, which had been shot in anamorphic 35mm.

“This was my first opportunity to get an idea of what I would have to grade,” explains Pizzey. “I was blown away! So many fast moving action scenes and a great storyline. The images we were watching were from the one light dailies transfer, so a lot of the shots didn’t match and some scenes were a bit off color due to the transfer.”

The starting point for Pizzey was to create a quick preview grade in DaVinci Resolve to aide the editing process. “We all sat down to run through each scene and discussed what needed to be done. It was all straight forward enough; good skin tones, bring out the characters’ eyes and make the faces stand out., nothing forced. This first preview grade would set the basis for the main DI grade,” he reveals.

“I spent several weeks with the cinematographer on the DI grade. He’d done a fantastic job lighting the whole film. It made my job a lot easier. Once we’d completed our first pass setting the mood for each scene I concentrated on the smaller details such as eyes. During the fast cut action scenes this was tougher due to the camera or actor moving around. However, Resolve’s auto tracking saved the day yet again! After we were happy with the grade, Kenneth came in to give notes before we delivered the finished film.”

Press Photography

Product photos of Davinci Resolve 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 film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, 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 stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced that alternative rock band Elbow has released exclusive first look footage of tracks from its forthcoming album shot on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera by Salford based production company Soup Co.

‘Fly Boy Blue / Lunette’ is the first new music from Elbow's next studio album, 'The Take Off and Landing of Everything’, due for general release in March. The promo features footage from early sessions at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios near Bath and more recent material filmed at Blueprint Studios in Manchester where the vocals were laid down by lead vocalist Guy Garvey.

“Elbow has a tradition of releasing one song early. Typically, that’s a song which they feel captures the spirit of the album without necessarily fitting the mould of a single. On the last album, Build a Rocket Boys, that song was Lippy Kids,” reveals Mark Thomas of Soup Co.

Mark, who’s been involved with the band for more than a decade now, has been self shooting and, at times, working alongside director of photography Percy Dean to document the band’s work on a sixth studio album.

"I've been shooting on the Pocket Cinema Camera for some time now, documenting Elbow as they work on album number six. It’s always essential to be low key in this setting, and for that the Pocket Cinema Camera has been just amazing. To think that we’ve also been able to step up our production value, without increasing our equipment or crew foot print, is astonishing. Working across three rooms inside Blueprint Studios, I maintained two camera setups. In the recording studio I had a track and dolly set up for performance elements and everything else was shot handheld.”

“The magic for me is that the camera allows you to shoot documentary style while still producing slick, promo performance results from it, astounding really when you consider the cost of this small camera. I like the fact you’ve got so much latitude with the 13 stops of dynamic range. It lets me try out new things during a shoot without restricting my options in post.”

For example, there is one scene in particular where we are filming out of a window that looks over Salford, with all of the band’s track titles on the adjacent wall. In that shot we had to contend with underexposed elements outside and overexposed elements on the wall. However, because of the range of data captured by the Pocket Cinema Camera, we were able to address both of these areas in post without compromising on image quality.”

Press Photography

Product photos of Pocket Cinema Camera 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 film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, 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 stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced the release of DaVinci Resolve 10.1 software which adds new editing and 3D stereoscopic features as well as support for Final Cut Pro X 10.1. DaVinci Resolve 10.1 is available now for download free of charge for all existing DaVinci Resolve customers from the Blackmagic Design website.

The new DaVinci Resolve 10.1 update adds innovative editing features that includes allowing users to preview and align multiple camera takes while editing, so they can quickly switch between takes to show their clients shot options live from the timeline. Editors can now copy individual clips in the editing timeline with a simple drag and drop, making it easier to use the same footage in different parts of the edit.

The enhanced editing tools also include support for trimming frame based clips such as DNG and DPX that reduces time in transferring clips for even faster workflows, as well as Rich Text title support which allows every character’s size, position and color to be adjusted individually directly from the Edit page.

Also featured in DaVinci Resolve 10.1 are XML import enhancements for both FCP X 10.1 and FCP 7 customers. Compound clips from FCP X 10.1 with separate A/V elements are now split into individual clips and imported FCP 7 XML’s include font properties and timeline markers as well as being able to bring across sizing, cropping and composition parameters. Now shot reframing adjustments made during Final Cut Pro editing will translate even more accurately into the DaVinci Resolve timeline.

Customers with the full software license of DaVinci Resolve will get enhanced 3D stereoscopic tools including a full stereoscopic multi track editing timeline, enhanced convergence adjustments and automatic alignment.

“We are really excited to be adding even more advanced editing features so quickly after the release of DaVinci Resolve 10” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “Resolve 10 has been a massive update with over 50 new features including temporal processing, Open FX Plug-ins and powerful onset tools. The additional editing tools we are releasing today give customers more precise control over their projects from within the DaVinci Resolve timeline and improves integration with popular editing and visual effects software so that customers get the best workflow possible.”

Press Photography

Product photos of DaVinci Resolve 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 film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, 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 stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com.