Storyline Studios Installs Baselight

Storyline Studios, a post-production company in Norway, has installed Baselight colour grading systems – in addition to Baselight for NUKE plug-ins – to provide workflow links between effects and finishing.

The company provides an end-to-end technical and creative service, from cameras and directors, to finish and delivery, for projects which range from commercials to feature films. Storyline is also known for its visual effects work, and wanted an efficient way to incorporate VFX into its colour workflow.

The solution was Baselight for NUKE, a software plug-in that provides complete grading capabilities within the VFX environment. A complex grade and associated colour space transforms published in the colour suite can be imported into NUKE, allowing the compositor to see precisely what the colourist sees. The plug-in also provides the user with access to the Baselight user interface to alter the grade to make the effect more seamless, as well as providing colour re-mapping and a final output.

Grading decisions and colour space transforms are maintained in the FilmLight BLG file format and applied accurately at the moment of viewing. This allows BLG files to be shared with other systems where they can be updated and returned to the colourist for final adjustments.

"When it comes to feature films this collaboration is particularly important, because it is easier to do the VFX work from day one, from right after shooting," explained Torulf Henriksen, Storyline's CTO. "In the past we had to decide when to do the grading – should we do VFX before or after? With the BLG workflow that issue is resolved: compositors can work on VFX even after grading, they can keep track of colours along the BLG journey and finesse the work as the look of the film develops. That was the reason the VFX department selected Baselight within NUKE."

Storyline also installed two Baselight ONE grading suites – one with a Blackboard control surface, and one with Slate.

"The response from our customers has been overwhelmingly positive," added Henriksen. "It is powerful, easier and faster, and the DoPs noticed this instantly."

The company also recently placed an order for four Daylight systems for on-set dailies and high-performance transcoding, which additionally provides BLGs from initial grading on or near set, and a Baselight Assist.

www.filmlight.ltd.uk

(JP)