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Taking a deep dive into Blackmagic Cloud

Furiosa Previz, Impossible Objects Studio

In partnership with

Welcome to VP Land!

We’ve got a bit of a case study today from our own personal experience - remote editing using DaVinci Resolve’s new cloud storage and collaboration tools.

We’ve also got:

  • The tool Geroge Miller used to previz Furiosa

  • New studio in Culver City

  • Upcoming training and workshops

Let’s jump into it!

Hands-on with Blackmagic Cloud’s Remote Editing Tools

We do a lot of documentary & commercial work (and YouTube, obviously).

We’ve got a fully remote team. I've long been interested in figuring out a streamlined remote editing workflow.

After years of patching together different cloud storage and collaboration options, I’ve found the best solution yet: DaVinci Resolve and their new cloud storage offerings.

Switching to Resolve has been on my mind since my conversation with Greg Olliver about his PostHero service/workflow.

I just created a deep dive video covering everything to know about DaVinci Resolve’s remote collaboration features, their cloud storage options, their new organizations feature, and where their cloud hardware fits into all of this.

Here's the TL;DW breakdown:

  • Cloud Project Libraries are the easiest way to start. A Project Library can contain many Resolve projects. Collaborators join a project library and have access to all projects in the library. This is how multiple people can be on the same project at the same time, but everyone is responsible for managing their copies of the media.

  • Project collaboration is first come, first served. The first person to open a timeline or bin has edit access. Everyone else can only open it as read-only. However, there are tools to merge timelines together based on changes.

  • BMD recently launched cloud storage—this is their own cloud storage service that can automatically render and upload proxies of imported footage (or original media) and download them to all users. This is where seamless collaboration has really kicked in—the proxies just sync, and everyone in the project can edit offline. This is also where camera-to-cloud footage gets synced from cloud-connected BMD cameras.

  • Everything we covered is separate from BMD’s cloud hardware. The only use cases I can see are if you have multiple editors in the same physical space and you want an easy to use NAS. Or - and this wasn’t in the video - I believe it can use one of its cloud intermediaries (Google Drive or Dropbox) as intermediary storage and you could potentially sync original media across multiple units remotely without paying costly cloud storage fees to do the same thing.

Read more on our full article, including Presentations, pricing, and workflows.

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PROXi: Previz for Furiosa

PROXi Virtual Production, founded by stuntman Guy Norris and his sons Harrison and Harlon, is a powerful previz tool that uses Reallusion's Character Creator and iClone with Unreal Engine to create adjustable 3D sequences before filming.

Behind the Scenes

  • This virtual sandbox approach allows key creatives to collaborate and refine sequences before production begins, saving time and money.

  • Character Creator 3's Headshot tool uses AI to produce digital likenesses of cast members from a single photo, rapidly populating scenes with characters.

  • PROXi has worked on notable projects such as The Suicide Squad, Mad Max: Fury Road, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Netflix's Triple Frontier, and Disney+ The Mandalorian.

Here’s George Miller talking about how they used it to plan out the action sequences in Furiosa:

@letterboxd

As Furiosa arrives in theaters, director George Miller opens up about his approach to shooting action for the Mad Max saga 🔥 #furiosa #mad... See more

Impossible Objects Opens LED Volume in Culver City

World-building lab and creative studio Impossible Objects has opened a new Culver City facility featuring a cutting-edge LED wall, aiming to make virtual production more accessible to filmmakers.

Behind the Scenes

  • The 30' W x 10' H LED wall is built with AOTO 2.3mm pixel pitch panels, Brompton SX40 Tessera processors, and a five-degree curve for showcasing massive blended practical and virtual sets.

  • The stage can accommodate a car, leveraging Impossible Objects' expertise in virtual production for automotive advertising clients like Toyota, Honda, Polestar, and Cadillac.

  • State-of-the-art render nodes (provided by Catalyst Virtual) and operator carts feature NVIDIA A6000 ADA GPUs, while a "Mobile Cine" cart encourages directors and cinematographers to modify virtual worlds on-screen.

We have been at the forefront of real-time production and LED volume capture since day one, but to date, the technology has not been accessible to smaller productions.

Joe Sill, Co-Founder of Impossible Objects.

🔀 Hedge's OffShoot 24.2 update offers improved control over source handling, preset application, and file movement within the app

🇸🇬 The S$8 million refurbishment of an old power station into X3D Studio, a state-of-the-art virtual production facility, signals Singapore's commitment to becoming a market leader in this evolving filmmaking sector

👥 Netflix partners with Taiwan's Golden Horse to host a VFX and virtual production workshop in Korea, sharing expertise and insights with nearly 30 Taiwanese creative professionals

👨🏻‍💻 Blackmagic Design provides a comprehensive schedule of free DaVinci Resolve training, including multi-day certification courses and single-day specialized workshops, from July to September 2024

🥽 Alo Moves partners with Magnopus to create the first volumetric 3D classes for Meta Quest 3

👔 Virtual Production Gigs

📆 Upcoming Events

July 28-August 1
SIGGRAPH 2024

September 8-13
SoCal Deep Tech Week

View the full event calendar and submit your own events here.

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