First of all, an apology to our readers. We start this issue with a big-hearted “Mea culpa!” because, as our subscribers will have realised: DP 22:02 should have arrived in your letterboxes a fortnight ago. Why the delay? Well, an unplanned and sudden change of printer threw the proverbial spanner in the works. But now everything is back up to operating temperature, and by the time you read this, the hot-off-the-press DP will have already slipped into its envelopes to smile at you from the mail slot – this week or next week at the latest.
What highlights await you in the new issue?
- Two asset management features: the super-practical “Dropbox Replay” and the newly launched “das element”
- New programme versions: Renderman 24, Blender 3.0, ZBrush 2022, Rebelle 5, Krita 5, Look Designer 2 and Vegas Post 365
- Film, workshop and project reports: Neoshin (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg), Matrix: Resurrections (Rotor Film, Volucap), A Speed Racer’s Journey (Mondlicht Studios), Codename: Julia (with VFX supervisor Paul Dreisen), The Edge (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts) or even running shoes in high-resolution action (by The Marmelade)
- And what else? Architectural visualisation from the Klee Collection, an unusual advertising campaign for BMW from Vienna, an interview with the creators behind the successful infotainment format “Kurzgesagt” on YouTube and, and, and…
And here comes the new DP! So, welcome to the first DP of the new year (ignoring the winter edition)!
This time we’re looking at asset management – or to be more precise, two super tools that have flown a little under the radar until now: the super-practical Dropbox Replay and the recently launched das element, which is being developed here in Munich and finally offers a grown-up solution for asset management in VFX studios.
Renderman is becoming more and more popular, isn’t it? We think so! With the release of version 24, we think the time is ripe to take a serious look at Renderman.
The next release, which is already eagerly awaited in many places, is of course Blender 3.0, according to our author Gottfried Hofmann : “Blender 3.0 marks the start of a new release cycle! The highlights include the Asset Manager and the rewrite of the path tracing render engine Cycles as CyclesX, which finally allows RTX cards from Nvidia to be utilised to their full potential.”
In contrast, our author Ralf Gliffe believes that ZBrush 2022 is less about the new programme version and more about “the sale of Pixologic to Maxon.” But what will actually change for users? Ralf Gliffe will inform you competently in his 6-page article.
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How do you get such realistic colour gradients and streaks on the virtual canvas? Read our article Painting tool Rebelle 5!Once again, it ‘s Ralf who takes Rebelle 5 into the test lab for you to take a critical look at whether the fifth version of the hyper-realistic painting tool can impress with new functions, such as physical colour mixing based on traditional pigments, realistic watercolours with granulation, or a recorder for time-lapse recordings of the painting process.
In the detailed test report on the open-source drawing programme Krita, our reviewer Ralf Gliffe looks back on more than three years of development. In the foreword, Ralf says that Krita is currently the most popular, free graphics application, and that the release of version 5 offers many attractive features.
In his article Look Designer 2 – In search of the sacred colour film, DP veteran Uli Plank goes in search of the pros and cons. Is the plug-in for DaVinci Resolve and Adobe’s video programmes convincing? And can you achieve the much-vaunted “film look” with Look Designer 2, or is this a hackneyed phrase for hobbyists anyway?
And what has changed with the Vegas editing tool? Well, it’s best to ask Nils Calles, because he has, as Nils describes it, taken a look at “Wundertüte” to find out what has happened to the editing programme since it was taken over by Magix. So what does the eternal underdog in the editing carousel have to offer? Nils takes a look for you to see whether Vegas Pro really is Pro!
Cyberpunk, study projects and simulations: What the team of just four students from the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg have created with their graduation project Neoshin is at least stylistically confident, transmedial, and also a bit cool.
One of the film series that undoubtedly set the style for a sci-fi project like “Neoshin” is, of course, the Matrix film series by the Wachowski siblings. Far from the question of whether Matrix: Resurrections is a fully-fledged sequel or just a metafictional follow-up, we got in touch with the image and sound post-production experts at Rotor Film, as well as the volumetric recording service provider Volucap, to find out how a mega-production like Matrix can be managed in the midst of a global pandemic.
If, on the other hand, you are more interested in the topic of mobility in all its facets, we have four workshop reports worth reading…
… One is the interview entitled Medicine v Mercedes: A Speed Racer’s Journey, in which Dmitriy Glazyrin, co-founder of Mondlicht Studios, fulfils the heart’s desire of many car enthusiasts by throwing the classic racing car onto the racetrack (and the pipeline) that already provided roaring exhaust pipes in the gaming classic “Mafia”: the Mercedes-Benz W125.
The article Codename: Julia, in which VFX supervisor Paul Dreisen illustrates the charging process of an electric car, is all about horsepower, tyre tread and speedometers.
Fans of stylish animated films with clear lines will enjoy the student project Last und Kraft und Wagen, created at the Lucerne School of Art and Design. The Edge is the name of the animated short film, which was created in 2020 as part of the Master’s programme and tells the story of a somewhat introverted (but nonetheless lovable) lorry driver who sets off on an involuntary journey into the multiverse. A workshop report that is absolutely worth reading and driving!
If you’re less interested in two- or four-wheel drive and prefer to put on running shoes, head to Hamburg and Frankfurt, where the creatives from The Marmelade use highly detailed shots to show how patented sole technology works (and runs) – always on board: camera robots and CGI pipelines.
And what else? For all other topics, including an article on architectural visualisation from the Klee Collection, or an unusual advertising campaign from Vienna for BMW (Born Electric in Vienna), you should plough through the new issue. It’s worth it… at least we hope so! And if you still doubt whether DP 22:02 has anything worth reading in black and white, we invite you to browse through the table of contents .
Oh, we almost forgot: We almost forgot to tell you about an absolute highlight: our in-depth interview In a nutshell : This is our pipeline, with Philip Laibacher (Chief Creative Officer) and Daniela Görzen (Head of Motion) from “in a nutshell – kurzgesagt”, in which we talk about the successful YouTube format Kurzgesagt.
So: We hope you all enjoy ploughing, grazing – and of course browsing through the new DP!
