[Tig] where.. neutral review RED?

[throb - Robert Nederhorst]

replies below...

throb | vfx | speedshape | la | http://throb.net


On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 11:58 AM, Bob Friesenhahn
<bfriesen at simple.dallas.tx.us> wrote:

> The notion that most of the world uses mac/windows is flawed.  It is flawed
> since the DI industry often uses Linux and other unix type systems.

there are plenty of people using lustre, scratch, etc on windows.

>
> Mac and Windows are expensive to purchase and maintain, and don't scale
> well.  They are best for end-user stations and not so much for "crunching".

also untrue.  i have 200 machines at the office, all running windows
for a renderfarm. they crunch a TON of data every day.  file sizes are
anywhere from 60mb to 500mb in size.
for 3d rendering and 2d compositing, we have experienced little
problems other than the ones that everyone experiences when setting up
a somewhat large computing cluster.

>
> to a standard DI format.  This makes a RED workflow a lot slower than a
> traditional film based process. Postproduction therefore becomes more
> expensive.

yep.  you are right.  i imagine that when the sdk is out that people
will re-engineer the decoding systems and create faster workflows.
however, creating offlines thru compressor is very fast.  it pulls
proxy bayer data and is very usable for offlines.


> much cheaper and easier to maintain if it is based on non-proprietary or
> free systems (e.g. Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris) which can be easily duplicated
> whatever number of times is necessary to satisfy throughput requirements.

that's debatable as well.  we don't have problems on our machines that
are not uncommon to workstations and farms in general.
our maintenance scrips work magic on the entire farm.
mac is BSD based (as you know of course) so you can do significant
scripting in that world easily.

>
> It seems that RED favors Scratch and Final Cut Studio.  Users of other
> sytems will be at a disadvantage.
>

very much agree here.  this is a problem that the SDK will fix.
however, transcoding thru compressor to another codec allows the avid
to be part of the workflow again.

we did a commercial with the red recently and being able to watch the
dailies right after we shot was awesome.  being able to pull frames
and grade on set was also very valuable.  this can of course be done
with the viper/f23/etc thru s.two but the red stuff in this world is a
bit easier.

there are broken things with the red workflow but over time they are
fixing them.  build 16 of the firmware, along with the software that
works with it, is definitely a step towards a more polished product.

rob