Arri Lusts after Autodesk

Not to be outdone by the Assimilate / Imagica partnership, Autodesk has announced in a press release that it will provide a “seamless end-to-end digital intermediate workflow” using Arri hardware.

Autodesk and ARRI are committed to providing customers with the highest quality open workflows for the mastering of digital film content. The companies plan to continue working together to offer enhanced workflows and capabilities to customers that embrace their industry leading solutions. One area of active research between the two companies is the future use of infrared data from the ARRI scanner to assist in the digital removal of dirt, dust and scratch damage from film scans.

Well to me that doesn’t sound like anything to go nuts over, if anything they may be shooting themselves in the foot by seeming to be abandoning their user base who already use Thomson or Filmlight scanners (but I’m sure that’s not going to be the case).

Full press release follows
13 April 2005 – Autodesk, Inc. and ARRI Digital Systems today announced that film studios and post-production facilities that are using digital film tools from both Autodesk and ARRI will be able to significantly improve the colour fidelity and quality of their digital film workflows. Effective immediately, customers who have either an ARRISCANTM or ARRILASER system and a Discreet® Inferno® visual effects system, Discreet® Fire® editing system or Discreet® Lustre® digital colour grading system can receive custom-generated 3D mesh look-up tables (LUTs) for their specific workflows.

These complimentary 3D mesh LUTs are able to reflect the individual characteristics of each customer’s pipeline, enabling customers with integrated ARRI-Autodesk workflows to view film data in digital environments with higher levels of precision. Autodesk’s Discreet systems and enterprise software all share a common set of film visualisation tools for improved consistency with ARRI’s colour management system. In addition, new innovations in ARRI scanning technology ensures consistency of film scanning across multiple ARRI scanners; such that the same piece of film scanned twice on two different scanners, or even on the same scanner at two different types will produce a matching digital file.

“Quality in digital film pipelines is about being able to accurately profile the subtle nuances of each step of the process and create the correct visualisation tools to see how the digital film files will look when they’re eventually printed back to the distribution medium of film,” said Dr Peter Geissler, head of Image Processing Systems for ARRI. “ARRI is able to not only provide accurate tools to profile our own industry leading ARRISCAN and ARRILASER ingest and output tools, but also to provide accurate analysis of variation in visualisation introduced by different film stocks and the devices used to view the digital film.”

“Digital Intermediate film finishing has grown beyond first-mover status. Post-production professionals want the consistency in quality, reliability, performance and creative innovation that best-of-breed tools bring to every stage of the process,” added Bill Roberts, director of Product Management at Autodesk Media and Entertainment. “ARRI has worked in the medium of film since 1917 and remains an innovator. From the first Kinarri camera to the ARRISCAN, ARRI offers our customers the highest level of expertise in film science.”

Autodesk and ARRI are committed to providing customers with the highest quality open workflows for the mastering of digital film content. The companies plan to continue working together to offer enhanced workflows and capabilities to customers that embrace their industry leading solutions. One area of active research between the two companies is the future use of infrared data from the ARRI scanner to assist in the digital removal of dirt, dust and scratch damage from film scans.

Customers can contact their Autodesk or ARRI partner for further details on the custom-generated 3D mesh LUTs.

About ARRI
ARRI is an international synonym for the world’s best-selling cameras as well as for top quality lighting equipment. ARRI supplies high-end products, like the ARRILASER, the worldwide standard in film recording, ALICE, the interactive preview system, and the Colour Management System for post-production facilities.

The company was awarded 11 scientific and engineering awards from the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences.

ARRI has a number of subsidiaries, in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Italy and Austria. A network of 40 agencies provide professional service and distribution worldwide.

In addition to the R&D design and testing departments, the assembly department and the major service sectors are located in Munich. The headquarters also offer a whole range of services for film and television production. These include the laboratory for the processing of 16mm, Super 16, 35mm, Super 35 and 65mm film as well as the editing facilities.

About Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) is wholly focused on ensuring that great ideas are turned into reality. With six million users, Autodesk is the world’s leading software and services company for the building, manufacturing, infrastructure, media and entertainment, and wireless data services fields. Autodesk’s solutions help customers create, manage, and share their data and digital assets more effectively. As a result, customers turn ideas into competitive advantage by becoming more productive, streamlining project efficiency, and maximising profits.

Founded in 1982, Autodesk is headquartered in San Rafael, California. For additional information about Autodesk, please visit www.autodesk.com.

Autodesk, Discreet, Inferno, Fire and Lustre are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
© 2005, Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted: April 14th, 2005
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