Post-Production Facilities Expand Their Businesses with Autodesk Lustre Digital Color Grading System . Industry Leading Creative Toolset, Concurrent Workflow and Multi-Format Handling Fuel Lustre Adoption for Film and TV Projects
Autodesk, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: ADSK) Autodesk Lustre digital color grading system is gaining strong recognition among post-production facilities in Asia, with more than a dozen recent key installations. Autodesk’s digital intermediate (DI) solution has been adopted by the top players in the market; including The Post Bangkok, Oasis Post, Prasad EFX, Pixion, Ocher Studios, Seven Crest and Taipei Motion Picture Corp. These have now added high-value color grading to their creative services offerings.
“Lustre’s leading-edge creative tools, cost-effective GPU-accelerated performance, and efficient workflow is particularly important to the Asian movie and TV industry; with the increasing demand for high quality and real-time grading, and its requirement for rapid turnaround”, and said Paresh Khara, Autodesk Asia Pacific Media & Entertainment Senior Director.
Thailand’s The Post Bangkok has evolved from a commercial post-production house into a comprehensive facility handling short- and long-form TV projects, as well as feature films. Its pipeline includes Lustre as well as five Autodesk Inferno and Flame visual effects suites. "Lustre, almost by itself, has allowed The Post Bangkok to make the transition from a TV commercial post-house to a full-on DI grading facility. We couldn't handle even half of our current volume of film jobs without it," said Richard Downing, director of Post Production. The company gets a steady stream of projects from Thailand, Hong Kong, and the US.
Adelaide, Australia-based Oasis Post is using Lustre alongside its Flame and Smoke systems. Building on its international reputation for delivering high-quality post-production services, the company recently employed its Autodesk solutions to deliver 2K DI work on the feature film No Reservations, directed by Scott Hicks and starring Catherine Zeta-Jones. Hicks is now working with Oasis Post on a two-hour documentary titled Glass -- A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts, which celebrates the life and works of composer Philip Glass. "Lustre has given us far more speed, accuracy and performance," said Marty Pepper, head of Digital Film at Oasis Post. "Lustre sits perfectly in our pipeline. We had an easy learning curve because of our familiarly with the Autodesk user interface. The really nice thing about it is that I can literally work on one 2K project and switch to another HD project within a minute, so we can efficiently handle several projects at once."
Prasad EFX, a division of Prasad Corporation Ltd of India, is a pre- and post-production house that has delivered stunning visual effects for more than 200 feature films, and converted over 25 digitally shot Indian and foreign language motion pictures to film. At the heart of the division’s streamlined workflow are four Lustre systems together with one Flame, three Smoke and several seats of Autodesk 3ds Max. This allows them to provide a digital pipeline that can accommodate everything from 2D and 3D animation, compositing, digital opticals and high-end visual effects through to creation of a high-quality universal digital elements, and DI. "The digital intermediate process is gaining acceptance with Indian movie makers, as it provides them with greater control while enhancing creativity and reducing costs. We’ve been working with an Autodesk digital film pipeline for a while now. For Sivaji, one of the latest films we are working on, we used Lustre to create the required look and mood,” said Mohan Krishnan, Head of Corporate Communications at Prasad EFX.
Mumbai-based Pixion, with a 15,000 square-foot facility in Bandra, the centre of Bollywood, is the first company in India to provide a complete 4K DI pipeline. It is outfitted with a slate of Autodesk Media & Entertainment products, including seven Smoke, two Flame and three Lustre systems. “DI in India has been adopted by the commercial film industry at a fast pace and today it has become an essential – rather than an aspirational – technology. Lustre is pioneering the DI adoption allowing the cinematographer vision to come alive real-time on the big screen.” said Naresh Malik, CEO of Pixion. With a dedicated film-focused studio, Pixion caters to some of Bollywood’s biggest producers.
Chennai-based Ocher studio, a post-production studio in the South started operations in Feb 2005 and has already become a much sought after destination for visual effects and DI in feature films for, ad films, music videos and TV shows. “Autodesk Lustre is one of the best creative grading architecture. It is easy to use and produces stunning results,” said Soundarya Rajnikanth, CEO & MD Ocher Studios
Seven Crest Communications which started out as an offline facility, has grown into a complete DI facility. The company decided to invest in Autodesk Lustre to build their grading pipeline to meet increasing demand. “What attracted us most to the Autodesk Lustre solution was its scalability and the ability to match the needs of smaller facilities as powerfully as that of a complex DI pipe,” said Managing Director S. Kumar.
Since its establishment in 1979, Taipei Motion Picture Corp (TMPC) has become the only facility integrating professional film laboratory and comprehensive video post-production in Taiwan. They provide services for customers in cinema, TVC, TV drama, MTV and documentaries. “We are continually investing in the latest technology and equipment to provide the best quality and services to our customers” said Charles Hu, chairman of TMPC. “The adoption of Autodesk Lustre 2007 digital color grading system has been a huge improvement to the DI workflow in our facility”.
Besides these professional commercial houses, Autodesk Lustre has also been adopted by the Beijing Film Academy, the most influential school for motion picture and television programming in China. Established in 1950, the school has invested in several systems including Inferno, Smoke, Flame and Lustre. “It is very important to catch up with the international standard in talent fostering,” says HongHai Wang, director of Beijing Film Academy Fine Arts Department. “Having high end post production systems such as Lustre, Inferno, Smoke and Flame, which are well accepted worldwide, is the key to cultivate first class post-production talent.