Sonalysts Develops High Definition Virtual Set Production Using
NVIDIA Quadro® FX4000 SDI Graphics Board from PNY Technologies
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Sonalysts, Inc., working with filmmaker Douglas Trumbull and visual effects director Barnaby Jackson, has developed what it believes is the first high definition virtual set production capability in the Northeast US. Sonalysts' virtual set system was the first collaboration with Vizrt and the first time the NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 4000 SDI graphics board by PNY Technologies® was used to render virtual sets in High Definition in real time.
The virtual set system designed by Sonalysts was created to place actors into virtual worlds as filmed composites with moving cameras. HDTV cameras are used to "draw a virtual set around them in real time. Wherever the camera looks the viewer sees a complete virtual set, and a real actor seamlessly superimposed into the virtual world. Sonalysts' animators worked with Vizrt to bring the 3D Maya models into the system, and Sonalysts' Movie Engineering crane and head supplied tracking data to the system. The NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 SDI graphics board enables Sonalysts to composite and output the live video and graphics to true, uncompressed 10-bit SDI in HD resolutions in real-time and output it to a broadcast monitor. The director can now visualize the complete scene, the actors, the real and the digitally created elements.
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When Bill Mileski, engineering lead, was looking for a professional graphics board he needed a solution that could provide him with the highest performance, and stable, real-time rendering of complex model geometry and textures. In addition, the board needed to provide him with a configurable, high quality High Definition video output. The NVIDIA Quadro® FX 4000 SDI Graphics Board by PNY Technologies solved both problems at once.
"Using the high throughput of NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 SDI board we can render very heavy scenes with high resolution textures at frame rates up to sixty frames per second, to create a real-time composite on set." -Bill Mileski
This allows our artists to produce more realistic and complex HD graphics which we can composite and view in real time. We previously had to simplify models a lot when on set, which translates into an animator's time and cost. The uncompressed 10-bit SDI output of the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 SDI means that a separate and usually very expensive scan converter can be avoided. Not only does this save a significant expense, but it increases the HD video quality, because the digital frame buffer goes straight to HD, internal to the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 SDI. "
"The NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 SDI also offers Full-Scene Antialiasing, significantly increasing color accuracy and visual quality for edges and lines, with enough performance headroom to allow its use in these complex models in real time. Its support for new, film-centric real-time shaders including defocusing and motion blur is a big benefit. It allows Sonalysts to deliver sophisticated effects in HD and view them in real-time. In addition, it was painless for us to work with PNY as a provider, which is always a plus, for a user on a fast-paced development schedule," concluded Mileski.
Sonalysts is developing an array of entertainment products including feature films and other projects that take advantage of the virtual set technology, as well as offer virtual set capability to a wide range of clients, from television commercials to corporate video, games and the Internet.
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About Sonalysts
Founded in 1973 as a defense research and development firm, Sonalysts today is a 450 person, integrated multidisciplinary company with expertise in a wide range of advanced technology, strategic consulting and creative disciplines. Sonalysts produces video games, animation, film, and television products, e-Business solutions, as well as training and high technology products for the military, government, and industry. For more information please visit and virtualset.sonalysts.net.
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About PNY Technologies, Inc.
Established in 1985, PNY Technologies, Inc. is a leading manufacturer and supplier of its Verto®-brand consumer graphics cards and NVIDIA Quadro® by PNY professional workstation graphics boards. The company also offers a full line of high-end memory upgrade modules, flash memory, flash peripherals, USB drives and digital entertainment products. Its memory products currently account for a majority share of all retail sales in the U.S. Headquartered in Parsippany, N.J., PNY maintains facilities in North America (Santa Clara, Calif. and Parsippany, N.J.), Europe (France, United Kingdom, Germany) and Asia (Taiwan). For additional information, please visit the company's Web site at http://www.pny.com.
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The PNY logo is a registered trademark of PNY Technologies, Inc. All registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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