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ENTERTAINMENTENGINEERING

TE C H N OLOG Y | C R E AT I V IT Y | F U N

Volume 10 Issue 6

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Software used to conquer CG dragons for Dracon in just six weeks

Fiber solutions help streamline workflow for public broadcaster

GE satisfies Texassized lighting expectations at football stadium

Brooklyn high school overhauls outdated audio system in its auditorium

VISUAL EFFECTS SOFTWARE

SINGLE FIBER ROUTING

Publishers/Editors:

FOREFRONT OF LIGHTING

TURNKEY AUDIO SYSTEM

Editorial Board:

Terry Persun | 360-379-6885 E: terry@entertainmentengineering.com Bruce Wiebusch | 440-503-3013 E: bruce@entertainmentengineering.com

Greg Hale, VP Advanced Technology Disney Parks and Resorts Kevin Russelburg, Sr. Project Engineer, ITW Pancon John Lewis, Sr. Writer, Cognex Corp.

Design & Production:

Sales

Editorial Contributors:

Vice President, Media Solutions & Sales markw@entertainmentengineering.com

Verv Creative | www.vervcreative.com Dan Cook, Ph.D.,

Program Coordinator, Entertainment Engineering and Design, UNLV

Joe Gillard, Gerald Braude, S. Korobeinik Richard Mandel, Mark Persun

Mark Wiebusch | 440-835-9733

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VIDEO GAME SOFTWARE Rogue State turns to LightWave 11.5 3D software to conquer CG dragons for Dracano in just six weeks. In Dracano, a volcanic eruption in the Pacific Northwest spews lava, steam and fire—along with eggs that hatch ancient, menacing, winged dragons that prey on man. Since similar volcanic eruptions in Russia, Japan, and other “Ring of Fire” regions are also releasing these menacing creatures into the world, scientists fear they are witnessing the start of a global dragon apocalypse. Set in contemporary times, this ambitious plotline depends upon the credibility of the dragon creatures and their appearance, movement, and interaction with people from a nearby U.S. military base who fight back. Three visual effects animators completed the movie’s 220 visual effects shots using LightWave 11.5, which advances the features, capabilities, and efficiency of the popular LightWave 3D modeling and animation system. “There is no other 3D animation software out there with the breadth of features and ease of use to allow us to handle all of these visual effects shots for Dracano, given the tight time and budget constraints,” said Scott Wheeler, visual effects supervisor for Dracano and president of Rogue State, a visual effects and post pro-

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duction boutique in Burbank, CA. In the fall of 2012, Rogue State worked closely with Los Angeles-based Remember Dreaming Productions to realize this fantasy/ action adventure movie for Odyssey Entertainment in Australia. LightWave 11.5 was used to create all of the CG dragons, military vehicles, helicopters, and jets, as well as volcanic smoke, steam, and lava. It was also the primary tool for creating the 220 live action visual effects composites. LightWave 11.5 features like Genoma for character rigging, Soft Body Bullet Dynamics, and Motion Blur added to the Viewport Preview Renderer (VPR) system, and sped up the process and streamlined the workflow on complex effects shots by a factor of ten.

The Genoma Potential

Genoma is an intuitive character rigging system that jump-starts the 3D modeling process by providing instant rigging of legs, arms, fingers, wings, spines, and other body parts for biped, quadrupeds, and even exotic creatures, like dragons. While Genoma provides a


head start in creating 3D rigs, animators can modify the rigs, such as making a tail longer, or any other creative changes they need. “You’re basically just putting pre-programmed pieces together almost like an erector set to build your character. There isn’t a lot of trial and error because once you set-up your creature in Modeler and export it to Layout, it just works exactly the way you’d expect it to,” Wheeler said. “With Genoma, an animator can rig a creature without having to understand the underpinnings of the process.”

The Flesh of Dragons

Most of the CG dragons in Dracano are six to eight feet tall with a massive wingspan and sharp teeth. The dragons have soft flesh covering their bodies and wings that move in relation to the rigid skeletal structure underneath. Soft hanging flesh can even jiggle as the creature moves for greater realism. In LightWave 11.5, Genoma works in conjunction with another new feature, Soft Body Bullet Dynamics to produce this effect. LightWave 11.5 extends LightWave 11’s Bullet dynamics for rigid models to encompass flesh, cloth, rubber, and other soft materials that deform. A dress can blow in the breeze even if the underlying model remains rigid because Genoma and Soft Body Bullet Dynamics understand the distinction between the two materials. “Bullet knows which surfaces to deform based on the weight maps and other parameters you set. These values are not the weight of the creature, they are values you set that define the degree of deformation you want to achieve,” Wheeler said. “It’s like mapping an object by making different areas different colors. One color denotes a rigid structure while another color means that area needs to deform and move in relation to the rigid framework underneath. Genoma works with Bullet’s hard and soft body dynamics to figure out how much each object or surface should bend, collide, flop, wiggle, wave, stretch, or any movement based on how you set it up.”

Motion Blur for a Better View

The Viewport Preview Renderer (VPR) that was introduced in LightWave 10 has also been extended in LightWave 11.5, making the rendering process much more efficient. Instead of seeing the animation as frame

to frame to frame, like a stop motion animation, motion blur gives a better, clearer sense of the animated motion and depth of field without having to go through the full rendering process. Motion blur on the VPR is not a visual effect, it’s a way to preview how the animation will actually look and integrate within the scene. With motion blur inside the VPR, the user can get a feel for the speed of something that’s moving very fast, such as a dragon swooping by, which offers a quick, accurate view of incremental creative enhancements without rendering and saves a lot of time previously devoted to trial and error interspersed with rendering. “LightWave has had motion blur available at the wireframe stage, but now its addition in the VPR makes this valuable tool even more indispensable,” said Wheeler. In the same way that Genoma and Bullet dynamics work together throughout the modeling, layout, and animation process, the VPR is also readily available at every stage of the process. VIDEO » For More Information Click Below:

LightWave 3D Home »

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ROUTING SYSTEM SELECTED FOR VAN Fiber solutions help to streamline workflow for state-owned public broadcaster in Norway.

BroaMan, a German manufacturer of professional digital video, audio, and data network solutions for routing, format conversion, and management has announced that German media and broadcast specialists Studio Hamburg MCI recently outfitted a BroaMan automatic routing system into an OB van, owned by NRK, a public broadcast station in Norway. According to MCI Project Manager, Götz Ahlert, “The task was to set up a reliable connection between up to four TV cameras and an OB van—which in turn connected via satellite to the broadcast center in Oslo— quickly and with minimal cabling. The BroaMan fiber units are located in a stage box on the camera side and on the corresponding side inside the OB truck.” BroaMan supplied a unique solution for NRK, a small custom box with an SDI input and fiber output to house a single camera on one side, mechanically connected to a camera battery on the other. “Designed that way, the fiber connection is made directly with the camera unit, without any additional cables or separate boxes, providing maximum flexibility to the operator,” explains Ahlert. In addition, BroaMan’s V3R-FX-IC444-SDI, a 4LI/4LO board with four GPIOs (general purpose input/ output), enables four camera signals to be routed via a 6

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“The task was to set up a reliable connection between up to four TV cameras and an OB van—which in turn connected via satellite to the broadcast center in Oslo—quickly and with minimal cabling single fiber connection to the vehicle and then uplinked to the broadcast center. Transmitted in the opposite direction, a monitor picture can be sent to the camera set, which is required if a speaker is communicating with the studio. “NRK’s aim was to have a simple and easy-tooperate connection between camera and OB van for distances in excess of 100m. This is not possible with coax cables,” says Ahlert. “BroaMan provided us with a small, cost-effective solution with the ability to transport video, audio, data, and GPIOs on one fiber cable.”

For More Information Click Below »

BroaMan Home »


COWBOYS STADIUM

AT FOREFRONT OF LIGHTING GE satisfies Texas-sized lighting expectations of the Dallas Cowboys football organization

As the largest NFL venue ever built, the Dallas Cowboys’ new billion–dollar stadium is an engineering marvel. GE’s contribution to the project includes costeffective and energy-efficient lighting and electrical distribution equipment.For GE Appliances & Lighting, the charge was to go on offense, developing and delivering stadium lighting that provides uniform and maintained light across the field, while eliminating glare and shadows for fans in the stands and at home. “Our stadium has capacity for as many as 100,000 people and our football games are some of the most watched in the NFL, so making sure our field has effective lighting is imperative to our business,” says Jack Hill, general manager, Cowboys Stadium. “We needed a proven and robust solution that could enhance and sustain the viewers’experience and GE delivered.” At the onset of the project, GE laid out a photometric design that took into account the complex problem of maintaining uniform lighting and light levels on the field that would eliminate shadows and glare for fans, as well as the multitude of HDTV (High Definition TV) cameras positioned throughout the stadium. “This is a complex process that takes substantial design time to render an optimal solution that works within the consulting engineer and architect’s requirements,” says Jack Bohner, GE’s commercial director – sports and entertainment. “This crucial step serves as the roadmap

for delivering uniformity and continuity of light that provides a consistent appearance, style and light quality from any vantage point.” The result of the GE-recommended design required 668 1500-watt PowrSpot® III luminaries with glare control and 96 1500-watt UltraSport™ luminaries with hot re-strike. The combination of these 764 luminaries makes up the main event lighting, or the entire football field’s horizontal surface beyond the sidelines and end zones but not into the stands. GE’s innovative UltraSport offers advanced design light output and efficiency with excellent visibility and color rendering for players, spectators and broadcasters. It features a “hot re-strike” capability that enables the fixture to come back on almost instantaneously during a temporary loss of power. This attribute is critically important during sporting and other large stadium events since standard HID (high intensity discharge) sport lighting requires 11 to 15 minutes to cool down and come back on after a momentary loss of power. “Having thousands of fans sit in the dark for 15 minutes is not acceptable,” Bohner adds. “GE’s technology solves this problem efficiently and really enhances the quality of light in the Cowboys stadium.” GE’s customized lighting solution of UltraSport and PowrSpot luminaries provides 300 foot candles of maintained light level on the field, which is above the www.entertainmentengineering.com

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NFL specification of 250 foot candles. Generally, the higher the foot candle level the better for the viewer, as long as it alleviates glare, hot spots and shadows for fans and cameras. In addition, 60 1500-watt PowrSpot III luminaries (non-event lighting) were supplied for use as house and security lighting. The organization also engaged a lighting design firm, Craig Roberts Associates, Inc., (CRA), to analyze and design the lighting schematic in some of the suites and club space. The result was a more sophisticated and thoughtful lighting design. Stephanie King, principal designer with CRA, worked to design the LED cove lighting. “We installed LEDs wherever an architectural opportunity presented itself,” she notes. CRA integrated coves into dropped soffits, created lighted coffers and incorporated up lighting within suspended decorative elements. Because of the linear footage involved, incandescent lighting was not an option. CRA specified the GE LED Cove Lighting System for its rich color quality, LED color consistency, integral driver and dimming simplicity. “The use of GE LED lighting systems in coves has become an irresistible proposition for many businesses,”

says GE’s Bohner. “Paybacks based on the cost of the product and comparative energy and maintenance costs will invariably show that the GE LED Cove lighting system is preferable to halogen systems. The GE LED system offers a 50,000-hour rated life, so it could run continuously for more than five years.” King adds: “We wanted to make the spaces feel warmer. It imparts a more residential feel while respecting the contemporary design and functionality of the stadium.” Since sustained power in a stadium is imperative, GE developed a robust solution that includes 70 substations, 15 switchboards and a variety of other electrical distribution products to provide emergency power during an outage or surge. GE’s quiet, reliable transformer operation requires no vaults for installation so the transformers can be located right at the load to provide the correct voltage for the stadium’s requirements. This eliminates the need for long, costly, low-voltage feeders.

For More Information Click Below:

GE Home » GE Products »

GE Lighting » GE Contacts »


BROOKLYN TECH GETS TURNKEY AUDIO SYSTEM One of New York’s prestigious high schools overhauled their outdated audio system in its 80-year-old auditorium.

Built in 1933, Brooklyn Tech is home to the third largest auditorium in New York. Featuring seating for 3,100 and two balconies, the auditorium underwent an architectural makeover designed to preserve the hall’s 20th century elegance. They called on Masque Sound, a theatrical sound reinforcement, installation, and design company, for the upgrade. Masque Sound equipped the hall with a range of audio equipment that brought capacity up to 21stcentury, professional-caliber production standards. Sub-contracted by Midland Electric and working with acoustical design firm Criterion Acoustics, the team put together a package comprising of equipment from d&b, Peavey Electronics Corp., Crestron, Blackmagic, and L-ACOUSTICS. “From a functionality standpoint, we provided Brooklyn Tech with a turnkey solution,” says Matt Peskie, systems engineer, Masque Sound. “From the cabling infrastructure to the speakers, and all other audio equipment in between, everything has been replaced.” A significant part of Masque Sound’s involvement in

the project was speaker and sound reinforcement. The existing setup in the auditorium never had speakers that could completely cover underneath the first balcony or the upper balcony. Masque Sound installed two rows of delay speakers under the balcony, and one row in the upper balcony, which significantly improved the clarity of sound for those seated in those areas. Masque Sound also installed a Crestron TPS-6X tilt touch screen to give the end user a straightforward interface with the system. It combines a 5.7-inch activematrix display and powerful Isys engine to produce stunning 16-bit color graphics with extreme versatility and lightning-fast performance. Users control all the technology in the upgraded auditorium with the Crestron TPS-6X interface.

For information Click Below:

Masque Sound Home » Masque Sound Products » Masque Sound—Theater » Masque Sound Installations » www.entertainmentengineering.com

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