
Encore Post is a global post-production studio headquartered in Hollywood recognized with Emmy and Visual Effects Society awards. From episodic television, feature films, to branding spots. Having first set up shop in 1985, Encore quickly established itself as an industry leader in the post market, and is now a division of Deluxe Entertainment.
Over the last several years the Encore team has worked on feature films such as Maps to the Stars and Forsaken, while also providing high-class visuals for television straddling sci-fi, drama and comedy in award-winning projects such as The Newsroom, Orange is the New Black, Falling Skies, The Flash and Extant.
For its latest work, a new approach was required. Encore was hired by Cineplex Entertainment - one of North America's largest movie theatre operators - to create a 35-second spot in stereoscopic 3D.
It was a different kind of project for sure, begins Michael Kowalski, Director of VFX at Encore Toronto. Often, given the time and budgets, working in high-quality visual effects means taking a lot of creative approaches and methodologies to make stuff really work. The Cineplex brand spot for its UltraAVX theatre experience was a prime example of that - and Zync Render proved to be just the kind of creative methodology we needed to get the job done.
Zync Render is Google's cloud rendering solution for the creative industries. Built on Google Cloud Platform, it allows studios and freelancers the ability to quickly and cost effectively send rendering-intensive jobs up to Google's cloud infrastructure with a turnkey solution that is easy to use.
A transformative process
The Cineplex spot may have been just 35 seconds in total, but those 35 seconds needed to contain an epic story along with a great deal of rendering-intensive detail - all in stereoscopic 3D.
The intention of the spot was to illustrate that when you watch a movie in an UltraAVX theatre the experience is bigger, better, and more vibrant, explains Kowalski. We show that by demonstrating the difference to audiences through a fully CG metaphor: The spot starts with a dragonfly on the macro level, then the camera follows him as he flies across a CG backdrop and through a portal, and comes out transformed into a CG dragon breathing spirals of flame. The message is clear - UltraAVX transforms your viewing experience.
With the outro card not taken into consideration, Encore had just 25 seconds to tell the transformative story, hitting each narrative beat without making the whole experience feel rushed.
Another big challenge was that, artistically, we had to carry all of the colours and the characteristics of the dragonfly over to the dragon, while ensuring it still felt absolutely majestic, explains Kowalski. That meant using the same bright, iridescent blues and yellows of the dragonfly and applying that to the dragon, without straying too far into the cartoon side of things.
The challenges went beyond the artistic and into the technical - not only did the high-resolutions textures and stunning CG backdrop need to be rendered with the utmost quality, it needed to be done so twice, given the project's stereoscopic requirements.
Considering that we were working with assets like the dragon and the portal, and a landscape with elements ranging from tree and fog to mountains and planets, the renders were very heavy, and that meant using more CPUs and taking more time to process.
Although Encore had several months to design the characters, create the environment and carry out the animation, they knew the last 5 weeks of the project would be key. Encore knew it would need to turn around multiple iterations of the project each week - and that's when the studio turned to Google's Zync Render.
Raw speed
With renders on the Cineplex short taking three-four days to render, Kowalski knew the team needed a new solution.
Previously, Encore had been able to run projects using its in-house render farm, as they mostly involved the integration of invisible VFX or CG elements into live action environments. With a full CG project, however, a greater degree of power was required.
When rendering using our in-house environment we would have to launch renders on a Friday and leave the hardware chugging away over the weekend, he explains. We knew that ultimately we would need to work faster than this, and that this would require more horsepower than our setup would allow. That was when we turned to Zync - suddenly we were able to turn things around in a night, instead of a weekend!
Zync really gave us that extra capacity - and it was really easy to use, beams Kowalski. We could just upload our data onto the cloud, let it render, and then have it all download back to our servers - it was just like rendering in-house.
Zync integrates natively with a variety of industry-standard applications and renderers. The team at Encore were using Maya, NUKE and V-Ray on this project.
This streamlined workflow, empowered by efficiency and performance of Zync, meant that the Encore artists could get even more creative than usual: One of the big problems with rendering locally is that it can take literally days to see the result, and if you don't like it and want to make changes, you're then waiting another couple of days to see those alterations, explains Kowalski. Thankfully, with Zync you have that flexibility to start the render, go home, then come in in the morning and start making changes right away. That means more iterations, which in turn means greater scope for creativity.
For example, at one point we were getting close to finals, and the client was giving us notes on the changes they wanted us to make on the spot, he continues. We only had one or two days to make them and show the results. Using Zync we could do that. We could accelerate our arti
Most recent headlines
13/03/2025
WASHINGTON FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency has launched a massive, new deregulatory initiative that could potentially subject virtually all ...
13/03/2025
SUNNYVALE, Calif. SDVI has announced that it has integrated its Rally media supply chain management platform with the Spectra Vail multi-cloud data management s...
13/03/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to permit Gray Media to acqu...
13/03/2025
TV Tech: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2025 NAB Show?...
13/03/2025
Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice The songwriting major sang Stars by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals during the blind auditions.
...
13/03/2025
Bundle up - GeForce NOW is bringing a flurry of Blizzard titles to its ever-expanding library.
Prepare to weather epic gameplay in the cloud, tackling the genr...
13/03/2025
AI is leveling up the world's most beloved games, as the latest advancements...
13/03/2025
PC game modding is massive, with over 5 billion mods downloaded annually. Mods p...
12/03/2025
O Spotify acaba de lan ar o relat rio Loud & Clear deste ano, uma vis o transpar...
12/03/2025
Spotify acaba de presentar el informe Loud & Clear de este a o, una mirada trans...
12/03/2025
Ramadan, a period of profound spiritual significance for Muslims worldwide, is a time for fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Enrich your experience thi...
12/03/2025
Spotify has just unveiled this year's Loud & Clear report, a transparent loo...
12/03/2025
More than 70% of FAST programming has been produced since 2010, according to new Gracenote report
NEW YORK March 12, 2025 Gracenote, the content data busin...
12/03/2025
GEONA, Nev. Independent digital and linear advertising rep firm Viamedia will adopt cloud-based ShowSeeker Pilot as its primary ad campaign and order management...
12/03/2025
BRUSSELS Mediagenix has announced that Wael Yasin has joined the company as sales director Central Europe....
12/03/2025
LONDON A new study highlights opportunities for shoppable TV and the massive impact online consumer spending is having on the economy, with Omdia predicting tha...
12/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. Interra Systems has announced that Comcast Technology Solutions has integrated recent updates to BATON Version 9 into its operations....
12/03/2025
Nevion announces new 400G addition to its eMerge SDN media fabric offering
Brie Clayton March 12, 2025
0 Comments
High-capacity switch enhances existi...
12/03/2025
DaVinci Resolve Studio Delivers Cinematic Sound for Adam Bol
Brie Clayton March 12, 2025
0 Comments
Feature film relies on DaVinci Resolve Studio for ...
12/03/2025
SVT Leverages Ateliere Live to Pioneer 100% Software-Defined Production at Rally...
12/03/2025
Berklee Awards Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant to Four Organizations A total of $17,000 will be distributed among the Boston-based nonprofits.
By
Madd...
12/03/2025
TVBEuropes Jenny Priestley sits down with new SMPTE president Richard Welsh to discuss his aims for the organisation going forward, its efforts to attract a you...
12/03/2025
The new process has significantly enhanced operational efficiencies, with automation freeing up creators to concentrate on higher value tasks
By Matthew Corrig...
12/03/2025
Jellyfish Pictures, which has offices in London and Sheffield, said it has been battling hard in the face of strong headwinds over the last 12 months
By Jenny ...
12/03/2025
Visit Booth #W2213 to Experience the Latest in AI-Driven Content Discovery and Workflow Automation
Bitcentral, a leader in media workflow solutions, is set to ...
12/03/2025
CHICAGO Jeff Lilly has been named WGN-TV director of technology effective March 17, 2025, according to Ric Harris, WGN-TV vice president and general manager....
12/03/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. A new study from LG Ad Solutions indicates that consumers want more features that would allow them to shop for products on the connected T...
12/03/2025
BOTHELL, Wash. The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the Video Services Forum (VSF) will once again present...
12/03/2025
PHILADELPHIA Comcast announced that it has upgraded Xfinity Internet speeds for more than 20 million customers for no additional cost....
12/03/2025
Create with Maxon: Cinema 4D Fundamentals Workshop - March 12-14
Brie Clayton March 11, 2025
0 Comments
Makin' Waffles with Elly Wade
During Marc...
12/03/2025
Ottawa, Canada - March 12, 2025 - Ross Video is pleased to announce the appointment of Aaron Tunnell as Business Development Director, Cloud Solutions, reinforc...
12/03/2025
12 Mar 2025
VEON to release 4Q 2024 trading update on 20 March 2025 Dubai, 12 March 2025 - VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), a global digital operator, today confirms ...
12/03/2025
Getting set for the Winter Olympics: Inside SVT's ongoing software-based pro...
12/03/2025
THE PLAYERS Championship 2025: AI Commentary, Shared-Reality Viewing at COSM, La...
12/03/2025
Seamless SMPTE 2110: A Discussion on Making the Move to IP Less Painful Leaders from Netflix, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, LinkedI, and Megapixel address ...
12/03/2025
Opening Doors of Perception: Meta's Ajit Ninan on Rethinking AR/MR Perceptua...
12/03/2025
With the 2025 Formula 1 season set to begin in Melbourne on March 16, Sky Sports is gearing up to deliver its most comprehensive F1 coverage yet. Following a th...
12/03/2025
Unicanal and Trece TV revolutionize Digital TV in Paraguay with Rohde & Schwarz ...
12/03/2025
Honoring Service, Celebrating Sport: Rohde & Schwarz UK Sponsors NavyFit Rugby D...
12/03/2025
New HVS-Q12 Represents a Quantum Leap in Switcher Design...
12/03/2025
Telespazio and ABS Expand Partnership to Deliver Tailored C-Band Connectivity So...
12/03/2025
ABC conducts independent audits across the TAG programs. In the March 2025 TAG s...
12/03/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Moonlight: ESA program to create a satellite con...
12/03/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
In 2025, Thales ranks among the top 0.01% of the...
12/03/2025
Consumer show back following hugely successful first series
10 March 2025 Following a hugely successful first series, The Complaints Bureau returns to RT ...
11/03/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
11/03/2025
Salsa is making a comeback, captivating new listeners with its infectious energy...
11/03/2025
For many people, music can serve as a reflection of their roots and upbringing. ...
11/03/2025
The solution delivers reliable, scalable and secure connectivity for critical pu...
11/03/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced that Weigel Broadcasting has deployed Harmonics VOS Media Software, which offers playout-to-delivery capabilities, inclu...