Current Events > VFX studio rediscovers lost technology that's more advanced than green screen

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQuIVsNzqDk

I would hope so given how ancient the concept of green screen is.

tl:dw

Corridor Digital is not a VFX studio. They never worked on Hollywood movies and none of their employees individually worked on movies.

tbh the green screen was pretty good too.

Rotoscope?

Someone give the answer

I'm not watching a 12 minute video for a 5 second answer. What is it?

Jagr_68 posted...

Rotoscope?

Someone give the answer

"White screen" backlit using sodium vapor lights which emit only an extremely specific wavelength. You can then filter the sodium vapor light or filter everything EXCEPT the sodium vapor light to create the mask. Then you can delete the mask from the composite and splice in the color filter and you get near perfect transparency, color addition, and have access to a much wider range of colors.

The reason it was "lost" is because it required custom cameras with a custom splitter prism behind the lens to record the film into two reels at once, one with the filter and one with the mask. There was no way to just "buy more"

A guy managed to recreate the prism but not the camera so he just used two cameras instead.

This is very cool!

Tyranthraxus posted...

"White screen" backlit using sodium vapor lights which emit only an extremely specific wavelength. You can then filter the sodium vapor light or filter everything EXCEPT the sodium vapor light to create the mask. Then you can delete the mask from the composite and splice in the color filter and you get near perfect transparency, color addition, and have access to a much wider range of colors.

The reason it was "lost" is because it required custom cameras with a custom splitter prism behind the lens to record the film into two reels at once, one with the filter and one with the mask. There was no way to just "buy more"

A guy managed to recreate the prism but not the camera so he just used two cameras instead.

So a special kind of photography using refractive Inception-style logic with lenses. Thanks, you're awesome!

btw NOW I actually feel interested in watching another time.

Jagr_68 posted...

So a special kind of photography using refractive Inception-style logic with lenses. Thanks, you're awesome!

btw NOW I actually feel interested in watching another time.

You should watch the video my description doesn't really cover everything. It's probably not going see widespread use because we have tech even better than green screen now and it's cost prohibitive to get the equipment to do it but it's pretty cool tech regardless.

Bumping this since I finally watched it from my subscriptions. This video was fascinating, I wonder now if studios will end up using something similar now that we know a much cheaper version can be done.

Don't they have an even better solution now where they just put giant screens surrounding the set?

1337toothbrush posted...

Don't they have an even better solution now where they just put giant screens surrounding the set?

You're thinking of The Volume, which is a pretty nifty piece of technology but when it's used as a crutch the whole project suffers as a result

1337toothbrush posted...

Don't they have an even better solution now where they just put giant screens surrounding the set?

Yes they have even better things now so it's unlikely this will get used. We've been on green screen for so long we made it stupid cheap and the prism is not going to be accessible to most people so amateurs won't be able to afford it and big studios have better tech.

MAYBE someone like Peter Jackson might be interested in it but it's mostly just a cool little novelty.

The Volume is the future. It's photo-realistic, the actors can see it, and it accurately lights the scene.

Tag

Cool video, but they are being really clickbaity with the title and some of the info. The original prism(s) Disney used aren't some super special missing thing. One is apparently sitting in a museum.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Corridor/comments/1asojqw/the_mary_poppins_sodium_vapor_camera_in_the_walt/

"The thing on the right is the prism assembly. I haven't been to the museum in a few years, but I remember the prism being on display."

Euripides posted...

The Volume is the future. It's photo-realistic, the actors can see it, and it accurately lights the scene.

Except it limits blocking and camera movement in most cases unless you have gigantic set ups. Look at the Avatar tv show for a prime example of this

Smashingpmkns posted...

Except it limits blocking and camera movement in most cases unless you have gigantic set ups. Look at the Avatar tv show for a prime example of this

the Obi Wan show is another good example of this. Despite scenes taking place in supposedly wide open areas, the blocking resembles a stage play at points and it's really distracting