The New Digital Production Is Here!

Archive translation. Specifications, services and availability reflect the original publication date in 2022. Verify current compatibility before production use.

A Star Trek focus is heading your way at warp speed. Three substantial stories take us into Gene Roddenberry’s science-fiction universe. Compositing specialist and Trekkie Christoph Zapletal guides us through the history of the Enterprise’s visual effects. We speak with Paolo Tamburrino, Pixomondo executive producer responsible for virtual production and VFX on recent Star Trek series, about Strange New Worlds. With Espen Nordahl, VFX supervisor at Storm Studios, we beam aboard Star Trek: Discovery and visit the spacecraft builders of Strange New Worlds.

Seite 10: Strange New Virtual Production Worlds – Das Holodeck in echt, ein Traum. Wobei: Pixomondo hat etwas sehr Ähnliches in Toronto gebaut – und erzählt, wie man sich durchs weltgrößte LED Volume bewegt.

Seite 28: Strange New Worlds in Norway — Norwegians have always been ship builders – and it is only fair that spaceships are build there as well. Storm Studios built the most iconic of them all: The Enterprise.

Seite 34: Die visuellen Effekte von Star Trek — Eine Retrospektive der relevanten VFX- und SFX-Stationen der Föderationsgeschichte – und ein Interview mit dem Producer des gelungensten Remasters aller Zeiten!

Mental health is our second, slightly smaller focus, but no less important. We spoke with Florian Schmid-Hoehne, a qualified psychologist and burnout coach, about the loosely defined condition of burnout and how it differs from the well-researched illness of depression. In a second article, medical specialist Dr Ursula Marschall from Barmer explains how burnout is defined medically, which groups are at risk and which treatment methods are available.

Seite 6: Fangen wir an… — Was ist ein Burnout, und wen erwischt es? Wir fragen bei einem spezialisierten Coach nach, wo es herkommt, wie es doch weiter geht, und was man dazwischen tun kann.

Seite 9: Nachgefragt bei der Barmer — Wenn es um den „großen Überblick“ geht, weiß keiner mehr als Krankenkassen – deswegen fragten wir nach, wo man Hilfe und Infos findet.

Hardware tests cover the 3D input device from 3Dconnexion and the Razer Seiren V2 Pro USB microphone. A 3D controller is not only for engineers: real-time artists working in Unreal and similar engines may find constant mouse navigation inefficient, making 3Dconnexion’s device worth closer inspection. The Seiren V2 Pro, the upper-tier model in Razer’s Seiren V2 microphone range, promises accessible USB audio recording for podcasting. Our test examines whether its recording quality and frequency response support that ambition.

Seite 51: Fliegen im Unreal Editor — Warum sollte nur Ingenieure 3D-Eingabegeräte bekommen? 3D Connexion stellt ein Mapping für die Unreal Engine vor – und erklärt, was man als Realtimer davon hat.

Seite 76: Plug and Play and Palaver — In der großen Serie zum perfekten Arbeitsplatz fangen wir an zu brüllen – diesmal in das Razer Seiren Pro V2 Mikrofon.

Production and project reports examine the superhero film Black Adam, season two of The Witcher and the HFF project Vertagt. Nikos Kalaitzidis of Digital Domain discusses the visual effects that brought Dwayne Johnson into the DC cinematic universe as Black Adam. With season three of The Witcher already in pre-production at Netflix, we interview Platige Image art director Michael Niewiara and VFX supervisor Mateusz Tokarz about season two’s opening sequences, magical effects and the adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s books for Netflix. The dystopian project Vertagt, made by HFF Munich students under Professor Jürgen Schopper, asks what culture might look like in a post-apocalyptic age.

Seite 62: Black Adam! Digital Domain’s Nikos Kalaitzidis on the joys of working with a darker hero, melting mercenarys and the pitfalls of lighting in a dark scene.

Seite 78: The Wild Wild Witcher — With Season 3 almost ready, we couldn’t help but pester Platige about their work on Season 2 – and how they developed the witcher’s world.

Seite 104: Vertagt: VFX für eine dystopische Satire — Gute Ausbildung denkt weiter – und das zweite Jahr der VFX Studenten der HFF München fragt, wie Kultur aussieht, nachdem alles den Bach runtergegangen ist.

We also explore recent software releases, including Adobe Creative Cloud, Xpresso for Cinema 4D and Cartoon Animator 5. DP author Nils Calles reviews Adobe’s latest tools and techniques, looking at the direction of Premiere, After Effects and Photoshop and the growing role of AI tools. Daniel Mozbäuchel builds a road generator with Xpresso for quickly producing driveable terrain in Cinema 4D. Reallusion’s Cartoon Animator 5 offers a comparatively accessible route into 2D animation.

Seite 54: Cartoon Animator 5 — Cartoon Dynamics und Vektor-Animation für alle? Wir schauen unter die Haube des neuesten Reallusion-Toolkits für Cutout Animation und bonebasierte Zappelbilder.

Seite 86: Xpresso in Cinema 4D — Schaltungsbasierte Modeling-Systeme klingen erstmal trocken – saftig wird es, wenn sie Artists viel Arbeit abnehmen! Daniel Mozbäuchel stellt den Road Generator vor.

Seite 138: What‘s new in Creative Cloud 2023? — Von der Beta zum Release: Nils Calles schaut sich die neuesten Tools und Tricks in Premiere, After Effects und Photoshop an.

Elsewhere, Uli Plank puts Topaz Video AI through a practical test, scenes are populated with volumetrically scanned 4D People, and Patrick Poti talks with Andrew Overtoom about the past and present of SpongeBob SquarePants. These topics and more await in DP 01:2023. Enjoy the issue, and have a smooth holiday season and New Year.