Stuttgart, 23.04.07 Blender in the VFX production pipeline of Die Versilberte Eitelkeit

Summary Die Versilberte Eitelkeit - computer animation studio uses Blender since 2004 in the visual effects creation process to achieve a more cost-effective production pipeline.

Background

Die Versilberte Eitelkeit is a Stuttgart / Germany based computer animation studio and was founded in October 1998. Since then we worked as a service and production company in the fields of Visual Effects, 3D Animation and Motion Graphics for Broadcast and Film. Our experience range from industrial visualization over tv spots to visual effects supervision for feature films. D.V.E. has won two Animago Awards in 1998 and 2002 and the Ariel (Mexican Academy Award) in 2004 for best Special Effects in a feature film. Please visit our webpage versilbert.de for further informations.

2004 - 2006 We started to evaluate Blender in 2004. The reason for our interest in Blender was to save cost in the software acquisition. We compared Blender to other Open Source 3D creation tools and found that it was the most complete and competitive tool. Since we are almost always in production, we can't change a grown pipeline from one day to another. So we introduced Blender carefully and step by step. Our first goal was to be able to transfer 3D models between the different tools. We tried a couple of different file formats like 3DS, WRL and OBJ, but only the OBJ file transfer was stable enough and could hold up with our requirements. One constraint we had to face was, that we were not able to transfer camera nor animation data into or out of Blender in a reasonable way. Another problem was the network rendering. We evaluated DrQueue back then, but were not able to get it working in a manner, which one could consider ready for production. We are artists, not system administrators and prefer clear and fast maintainable systems. The role of Blender in our production pipeline was pretty much set as a modelling and mapping tool. From 2004 to 2006 we did about 95% of our modelling and mapping work in Blender, including visualizations, industrial movies, tv commercials and the short movie Cosmic Balance, which we co- produced with our Mexican partner Arroba Films S.A. de C.V.. You can find more information about Cosmic Balance on cosmic-balance.net Nevertheless we followed the fast progression of Blender during the last couple of years very attentive and constantly investigated which of Blender's functionality could be beneficial for us. Finally we did not only use it as a pure modelling tool, but also created some work completely in Blender.

Seite 1 von 7 Stuttgart, 23.04.07 2007 In the beginning of 2007 we started to use the Collada file format and were able to close a big gap through the possibility to transfer cameras and animations between Blender and other 3D applications. We currently use Blender in conjuction with 3D Studio MAX, Syntheyes, VUE, Poser and Fusion for the creation of the Visual Effects in an international feature film production.

What could make Blender even more usefull for us The only little thing, what we are missing in Blender, is an easy way to set up and use network rendering directly in Blender. In older Versions of Blender there was the little Button „Render Daemon“ in the Render Settings panel, which unfortunately never got supported and finally disapeared. Besides this, we are very happy with the software.

Another suggestion is that the node compositor in Blender might support the Open FX standart (openfx.sourceforge.net) one day in the future.

Blender work examples Here are a few examples of the work we did in Blender.

Bacardi Party Visuals modelled, animated, rendered in Blender, 2004 client: Bacardy Deutschland GmbH

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Bacardi Party Visuals modelled, animated, rendered in Blender, composited in Fusion 2004 client: bacardi Deutschland GmbH

GZSZ magazine tv commercial modelled, animated, rendered in Blender, composited in After Effects 2005 client: Schokolade Filmproduktion GmbH

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Bosch image movie modelled in Blender, rendered in 3D Studio MAX client: Schokolade Filmproduktion GmbH

Fissler point of Sale video modelled in Blender, rendered in 3D Studio MAX, composited in Fusion client: Schokolade Filmproduktion GmbH

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Fissler point of Sale video modelled in Blender, rendered in 3D Studio MAX, composited in Fusion client: Schokolade Filmproduktion GmbH

Cosmic Balance short movie modelled, animated and rendered in Blender, composited in Fusion co-production with Arrobafilms S.A. de C.V.

Seite 5 von 7 Stuttgart, 23.04.07

Cosmic Balance short movie modelled, animated and rendered in Blender, composited in Fusion co-production with Arrobafilms S.A. de C.V.

Cosmic Balance short movie modelled and textured in Blender, rendered in 3D Studio MAX, composited in Fusion co-production with Arrobafilms S.A. de C.V.

Cosmic Balance short movie modelled and textured in Blender, rendered in 3D Studio MAX, composited in Fusion co-production with Arrobafilms S.A. de C.V.

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Cosmic Balance short movie modelled and textured in Blender, rendered in 3D Studio MAX, composited in Fusion co-production with Arrobafilms S.A. de C.V.

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