OpenEXR

openexr.com

OpenEXR is a high dynamic range imaging image file format, released as an open standard along with a set of software tools created by Industrial Light and Magic, released under a Free software license similar to the BSD license.

It is notable for supporting 16-bits-per-channel floating point values (half precision), with a sign bit, five bits of exponent, and a ten-bit mantissa. This allows a dynamic range of over thirty stops of exposure.

OpenEXR is directly supported by Artizen HDR, Combustion,Smoke 2008, Blender, CinePaint, Cinelerra, Houdini, Lightwave, modo, After Effects 7 Professional, Mental Ray, PRMan, Digital Fusion, Nuke, Toxik, Shake, Photoshop CS2, CINEMA 4D, Pixel Image Editor and Synfig. It is also supported by the Cg programming language and Mac OS X as of version 10.4.

Both lossless and lossy compression of high dynamic range data is also supported.

OpenEXR, or simply EXR for short, is a deep raster format developed by ILM and very broadly used in the CG industry, both visual effects and animation.

OpenEXR's multi-resolution and arbitrary channel format makes it appealing for compositing. OpenEXR alleviates several painful elements of the compositing process. Since it can store arbitrary channels, specular, diffuse, alpha, RGB, normals, and various other types of channels in one file, it takes away the need to store this information in separate files. The multi-channel concept also reduces the necessity to "bake" in the before mentioned data to the final image. If a compositer is not happy with the current level of specularity, he or she can adjust that specific channel.

OpenEXR's straightforward API also makes tools development a relative ease for developers. Since there are almost never two production pipelines that are the same, custom tools always need to be developed to address problems in the production process. Many times these tools are to address some type of image manipulation issue. OpenEXR's library reduces the pain of having to manage bulky header information and allows quick and easy access to the image's attributes such as tiles and channels.

Ryan Church

Ryan Church Official

Ryan Church (born July 18, 1971 in Long Beach, CA) is a concept designer best known for his designs of vehicles, planets, and architectures.

"In the Spring of 2005, I relocated back to Southern California to start the next chapter of my career as a freelance concept artist. I still have strong ties to Industrial Light + Magic and Lucasfilm, and my client list keeps growing and now includes Paramount Studios, Universal Pictures, Mattel, Sony Pictures, Blue Sky Studios, Bay Films, Lightstorm Entertainment, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Dino de Laurentiis Company, and Electronic Arts. I have been lending my skills on many bid projects as well as high profile film projects such as John Carter of Mars, Star Trek (2008), Barbarella (2008), and James Cameron's Avatar (2009)."

Resume

Star Trek (2008) Director: J.J. Abrams, PD: Scott Chambliss, Paramount Pictures
April 2007 - present. Concept Designer

Avatar (2009) Director: James Cameron, PD: Rick Carter, Twentieth Century Fox
June 2006 - present. Concept Designer

unannounced project Director: Stephen Sommers, Paramount Pictures
September- January 2007. Concept Designer

unannounced project Walt Disney Animation Studios
November 2005 - September 2006. Concept Designer

Transformers (2007) Director: Michael Bay, PD: Jeff Mann, Paramount Pictures
December 2005 – March 2006. Concept Artist

John Carter of Mars Director: Jon Favreau, Kerry Conran, Paramount Pictures
December 2004 – March 2006. Concept Artist

Outlander (2007) Director: Howard McCain
June - September 2005. Senior Concept Artist

Hot Wheels, the Movie Columbia Pictures / Mattel, Inc.
January – March 2005. Concept Designer

War of the Worlds (2005) Director: Steven Spielberg, Paramount Pictures
July - October 2004. Creature Designer (Tripods)

INDUSTRIAL LIGHT AND MAGIC June 1998 - April 2005. Senior Art Director

Star Wars Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith (2005) Director: George Lucas, Fox / Lucasfilm
May 2002 - April 2005. Concept Design Supervisor, Senior Visual Effects Art Director (ILM)

Star Wars Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones (2002) Director: George Lucas, Fox / Lucasfilm
December 2000 - May 2002. Concept Design Supervisor, Senior Visual Effects Art Director (ILM)

Transformers and ILM

fxguide - Michael Bay and the Edit of Transformers

Industrial Light & Magic

Transformers uses six Meridian Avids on Unity with about 2 terabytes of storage. A Nitris is used for all screenings including their preview. There are three main edit rooms, a fourth system in a closet, the assistants have two systems, and director Michael Bay has one. There’s a Media Net hook-up used for daily transmissions between ILM and Bay.

“For 3d modeling ILM used mostly Maya, 3ds Max, Zeno and zBrush,” says Farrar. “For lighting and rendering we use Zeno with RenderMan and Mental Ray. For compositing it's all Shake along with our Sabre systems, and editing uses Avids.”

There are about 630 visual effects shots in the film. There are 430 executed at ILM, 91 at Digital Domain, 70 at the Asylum and the rest are 2D clean up and fixes done by CO3, ISolve and Ken Blackwell. Technical advancements were made in environments, lighting, and simulation of physical effects and integration of CG characters in a real environment.