Roto ramping up

April 2, 2012

I’ve identified the Essential tasks and have assembled a core roto team – this week is the shakedown cruise. I’ve got two interns and two contractors and am interested to see how much progress we make this week. My plan is to roto a couple of scenes myself just to be sure the workflow makes sense, while revisiting the editorial polish. By the end of the week I should have some idea of how quickly the core team is moving and whether or not more artists are needed.

One contractor wants to use Nuke but figuring out a vector based Nuke to AE workflow seems to be holding her back. Based on The Foundry forums, there ought to be a way – scripts or whatever. Seems like an obvious contractor workflow, someone must have figured it out. Nuke appears to be extensible (Python?) so that particular wheel must have been reinvented repeatedly – one would imagine. Of course, I could have no idea what the hell I’m talking about. :)

Naively assumed contractors would have such seemingly basic issues already sussed out.  After wasting time with much back and forth, I realized it was up to me to address this before inviting more Nuke artists to the team.

Here’s what Nuke support had to say…

Hello Dan,
We dont have any scripts at hand that can roundtrip roto shapes to any other
host(software) but the best place to learn how to write your own script or to
see if one is already written is our forums
http://forums.thefoundry.co.uk/phpBB2/index.php?sid=91287e4bfec35efe1b67106d8cc0b519
There is a section called Nuke-Python and Nuke-Dev. People who post in there
are very helpful and may already know of one to save you time. Also check out
http://www.nukepedia.com/ This is a site that has a lot of written nuke
scripts.
Hope this is useful info,
Dan Knittle
The Foundry Support
Dan Kelly <doorbell@tricksterpictures.com> wrote:
Hi Dan,
As I am not familiar with Nuke, I don’t know how much work it would be to
write my own script. It also seems to me that this would be a fairly useful
workflow, (Nuke contractors providing services to AE based clients) and
perhaps this script has been already written many times. I have legacy After
Effects projects and am currently doing roto with Mocha. I might be interested
in migrating to Nuke if I could get *some* idea of how much trouble writing
this script would be. Can you give me any more information that would help me
make a purchasing decision?
Dan Kelly
231 882-0460
On Apr 2, 2012, at 4:57 PM, The Foundry Support wrote:
Hello Dan,
Currently there aren’t any tools to convert the rotopaint node to other
formats. You would need to write your own exporter. The option is to render
out your alpha channels and import them into AE as masks
Regards,
Dan Knittle
The Foundry Support
Dan Kelly <doorbell@tricksterpictures.com> wrote:
I just got called by Melody from sales. She’s also following up for me on the
following…
Can vector based roto shapes from Nuke be exported into AE as masks? If so,
how?

X
April 6, 2012

Roto team output is not robust. Nuke contractor is in holding pattern and local folks seem to have other priorities. Have to keep hiring until we’re getting results.

To this end, I’ve decided to anonymize and expand the contractor list on the clock. Aside from pure logistics of growing the team, it’s a signal to erratic contractors that this train is leaving the station whether they are on board or no – there has got to be competent folks who will jump on for $15 an hour and actually do the work.

Results from Matthew from Trace should be coming in today. Excited to see what they can do. In any case I’m going to continue the roto on my own and reach out to more contractors. Be great if Trace could accelerate the schedule. We’ll be searching for the next wave of artists after I finish calibrating myself, post weekend.

April 8, 2012

Trace did a presentable job but they didn’t follow direction. ‘Just roto the guy, ignore the gal. They rotoed the gal. There’s about 100 frames of rough roto and 50 frames of finished roto for $100 or $50/second.

Matthew,
Based on Trace’s sleek website and your professional emails I had high expectations, that’s why I gave you so much material. Turns out your rate is comparable to other Indian studios – $50/second. The results were decent. Big problem? You didn’t follow my direction…
April 3, 2012 11:51:02 AM EDT
Scenes 44, 46 and 48. There’s a guy facing the camera wearing a hat. I need roto for his entire body – hat, head, arms, torso. Don’t worry about the door or where the woman occludes him.
Valuable time wasted on her. There wasn’t any effort made to clarify with me either. Your artist could have completed this scene and gotten far into the next.
I’ve got a significant amount of roto ahead. I already have a core team of local artists working with me. If I am going to hire outside of my locale, I expect a lot – rates, results and stellar communication. Based on your presentation I gave Trace a chance… Oh well.
What’s your PayPal address?

X
Meanwhile back on the home front, Jonathan is offline indefinitely and Jeff and I continue to miscommune. Our terms need to be careful defined and agreed upon. I’m also concerned about imprecise technique, minimal availability, and delayed response to documents / emails.

Hey Jeff,
Ok, here’s the skinny.
I was expecting you to finish the scene you started – with the door opening, scene 40. The scene you just sent me – 42… I did it last week.
doh!
Did you see this?
March 31, 2012 11:35:53 AM EDT
Finish that one shot if you can this weekend and then upload. When the results are solid I’ll give you more to do.
I am assuming you thought that “one shot” meant the series of shots from that one camera angle…
Along with new footage files, I also sent out the new protocol…
March 31, 2012 11:35:53 AM EDT
http://www.holyboners.com/2012/03/31/artist-reference/
What I should have said was this – from now on use the AE file “tasks”. Move all your masks over and sync them. The shot of the door opening is now indicated by marker 40 on the comp “34-52”. Give me a solid roto on that shot and then I’ll give you more to do.
the latest…
April 6, 2012 6:12:49 AM EDT
http://holyboners.com/2012/04/06/artist-reference-version-1-1
You are using one mask with a lot of control points… and it’s not holding together over time. The quick and dirty approach is ok for tests, but not for this project. I believe I can achieve both high quality VFX and timely completion – that’s what I am striving for.
It’s cool that you keyed out the gal but it only matters where she occludes the hall, not over him… (yet – if there’s time and money left we’ll do more with her).
Let’s not move forward until we’re sure we understand each other. I need contractors to 1) pay careful attention to my direction, 2) deliver high quality results and 3) use the clock meticulously.
If you want to make a commitment to my project, *call me*. If not we’ll collaborate on something else in the future… it’s all good!
Email me a signed contract and your PayPal address and I’ll pay you for 5.5 hours, $82.50.

X
I’ll stretch more for locals than for remote artists because I believe in building my community. The project is the first priority tho – so if the locals aren’t down then c’est la vie.

Based on performance, I’ve gotta assume Jeff and Matthew from Trace are scratched. After offering payment I’ve basically showed them the door – but left it open in case they decide to actually commit.

With all this attrition, I’m pretty much running solo – again. I’ve got to reach out on Monday and start from scratch with new contractors. The criteria – can they deliver as AE masks, pay attention / follow direction, dedicate significant hours, work for reasonable rates? How can I communicate VERY clearly? Is phone time essential? Am I just an asshole? Is this the DOG effect?

The other approach is bidding, how does that work? I suppose I put the work out there with a description and see who bites?

I’ve also got to edit as much I roto. Had an interesting feedback session with the interns. They were fairly confused with Joe and bored in Gerry’s cabin – the pacing needs more sine wave action there. Merciless slashing is indicated, I’m not afraid.

 

 

 

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