What is a VFX Turnover Package?
The VFX turnover package is one of the export options available for Theatrical quality vubs. It is meant to provide support for taking DeepEditor’s outputs to a traditional VFX package like Nuke, Flame, or AfterEffects to make any necessary modifications.
Prerequisites:
1. Generate a Theatrical vub with your highest resolution media.
2. Complete all refinement work in Refinement tool before exporting the VFX Turnover package and commencing your VFX clean up work.
The VFX package currently contains the following data:
- A multi-layer OpenEXR image sequence with the frames that have been generated in DeepEditor. Each frame contains 3 layers.
- An RGBA image with the final result generated by DeepEditor containing only the pixels that DeepEditor created (currently the lower half of the face). This way, these images can be easily composited on top of the original frames.
- The output of DeepEditor’s neural renderer without any compositing applied, to allow VFX artists to apply their own compositing processes if desired.
- An ST map that can be used to wrap any textures or masks and composite them on the output. The sequence also contains only the frames where a face has been detected and processed in DeepEditor. For example, if a 100-frame shot was provided as an input, but the character only appears in 90 frames, then the VFX package will contain only these 90 frames labelled correctly with their respective frame numbers in the original sequence.
- 2 non-modifiable 3D meshes, one of the face from the original source, and another of the DeepEditor output. Both meshes are in the Alembic file format. This gives a VFX artist even more control allowing them to project masks and textures on the mesh that can then be composited on top of the DeepEditor output.
- A 3D camera representing the camera angle and movements of the original shot.
Note that the camera which is output as part of the alembic package is only used to view/render the face geometry, and is not a full scene tracked camera. In other words, it bears no relation to the actual shot camera.
These are the current contents of the package. Improvements and extra elements are planned in the future.
How to Export the VFX Turnover Package
You can export the VFX package either from the Vubs page in DeepEditor or from the Refinement tool.
- To export from the Vubs page, select the Theatrical vub you would like to export, then click the Create Export button. This will display the export dialog where you can select one or more of the available export formats.
- To export from the Refinement tool, click the Export latest render button to get the same dialog.
Once the package is exported, you will find it in the Exports page.
Like any other export, you will need to get consent before you can download it (unless your project type is Localisation, in which case you will not need to go through the consent process). Once your consent request is approved, you should be able to select the Download No Watermark option which will then show a dialog that takes you to MediaShuttle to complete the download.
NOTE: When you try to download a VFX package for the first time, you might get a message saying that the link is still being generated and you should come back again later. Usually, the link is ready within a couple of minutes, so if you click the Download No Watermark button again, it should work.