Blackmagic Design Singapore installs Autodesk Flint System
ConvergenceAsia staff
21/01/2008

Post-production house Blackmagic Design Singapore has installed and deployed Autodesk Flint as part of its strategic thrust to grow into new segments and further penetrate Asia’s growing markets for television commercials (TVCs) and feature films.

“The post-production industry throughout Asia continues to expand,” says Paul Stevens, Executive Producer, Business Development, Blackmagic Design Singapore. “With the economic development we are seeing in many regional countries, especially China, the demand for TV commercials, documentaries and feature film entertainment will continue to grow.”

To better tap these markets, the company is upgrading its facilities with leading edge technologies, and has found Autodesk Flint to be an ideal, cost-effective, all-around solution.

Based on Autodesk Flame visual-effects technology, Autodesk Flint systems provide leading digital artists with an interactive design environment and real-time high-definition (HD) and video capabilities. With a 64-bit system architecture, Flint runs on the 2X dual-core Opteron processor workstation and Linux operating system.

“Our Flint systems are fast, stable and capable of handling all the compositing and visual effects tasks that you would expect when doing TV commercials. While Flint is optimised for TV, Blackmagic also uses it for feature film digital intermediate work as well as work in 2K,” he says.

Blackmagic Design Singapore initially bought two Flint systems in mid 2007 then added another two more recently. “By networking our four Flint suites together and having shared media libraries we can achieve a truly collaborative workflow,” Stevens explains.

“We can share set ups between suites and work on scenes simultaneously in different locations around the facility. Of course, this enables us to manage complex VFX projects smoothly and efficiently, and dramatically reduces the time required to complete them.”

Autodesk Asia Senior Director Paresh Khara says Flint is designed to meet the needs of a wide range of post-production facilities, as well as provide an excellent complementary solution to other Autodesk visual effects and finishing solutions. With its comprehensive toolsets and advanced features, as well as ability to work with other Autodesk solutions, Flint is particularly well suited for Asian companies on the fast track to growing their business and the quality of their work.

“Virtually all serious international broadcasters are demanding HD for their new content,” says Stevens. “I would say about 95 per cent of our long form work is now HD. For Blackmagic Design, posting in HD is as simple as in standard definition. All our suites work in HD and we have every format of HD for ingesting rushes, mastering and dubbing. We also have the capability to do HD standards conversions and cross conversions so we have no problem providing dubs for multiple international markets.”

Blackmagic Design is behind some of the highly popular and entertaining Hands TVCs for Hewlett-Packard. The company is also currently working on the international feature film Dance of the Dragon. “All the dailies were scanned at 2K, enabling the DOP and Director to instantly see the full quality and potential of the images they had shot. For film digital intermediate work we find the Flint system running on Linux provides a powerful and stable environment for high resolution visual effects work,” Stevens explains.

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