Case study / Legend3D
Rebuilding a pipeline for 100+ artists.
Helped fix a broken project pipeline, enabling a large team to deliver a massive project on time and saving the project.
Context
Legend3D converted films to stereoscopic 3D for theatrical re-release. I was the Compositing Lead from December 2009 to October 2010, and that included process work on Shrek 3D. This process was built and run together with developers and artists, and I was one part of that team.
The problem
To make a flat film stereoscopic, every frame is shifted a little for the left eye and the right eye. Objects close to the camera move the most. That shift is what creates the 3D effect.
But when a foreground object moves, it leaves a gap behind it, a strip where the original picture never had any information. The software stretches the pixels to cover it, and you see smeared, distorted edges. Those are artifacts.
- On a very large project, artifacts were showing up in the final deliverables.
- The pipeline couldn’t keep up, which meant heavy rework and overtime.
- The deadline was coming in hot.
The fix
You can’t stretch your way out of missing information. It has to be created. So we built a process to do exactly that:
- Find the gaps. Locate every place an object moved and uncovered empty picture.
- Cut a hole. Use alpha to cut the gap out, so the stretched pixels are gone.
- Paint the clean plate. Divide the artists into teams to rebuild the missing background behind each hole.
- Run it back through. Put the clean plate underneath and render again. The gap fills with real picture and the stereo image comes out clean.
How it works
Simplified illustration of the technique. No client frames or proprietary software shown.
My part
- Investigated how our proprietary software worked and where the artifacts were being introduced.
- Helped design the new process, along with changes to the software.
- Presented the approach to DreamWorks SKG. They responded well.
- Worked with the developers to build the changes.
- Set the artist teams on the new process.
Outcome
A team of 100+ artists finished a very large project on time, at DreamWorks quality. The process became how the company worked from then on.
The new pipeline let a large group of artists work faster with better results, and the impact reached the whole company. It rescued a critical delivery, and it helped the studio grow from a small film conversion shop into a major player in the space, winning many more projects.
This was a team effort with developers and artists, and I’m proud to have been part of getting a hard project back on track.
What it shows about how I lead
Find the root cause, design the fix with the people who build it, sell it, and get a large team to adopt it.