Working Katabatic’s 4K Workflow
Katabatic Goes 4K for Target's Holidays
New York City-based Katabatic Digital recently finished holiday ads for Target employing a 4K workflow, including the RED ONE and Assimilate Scratch Rocket Fuel rig. The fashion district-based company opened its full 4K post suite earlier this year.
I think it's pretty amazing that it was only a couple of years ago that folks were opining that the small amount of 4K post then underway only made sense for those doing high-end compositing. Wow, has that changed fast. Now, an effects company like Katabatic (which also rents out RED camera systems) can nonchalantly post (conform, color grade, and finish) in real-time on camera and post systems that together probably cost around $150,000 fully tricked out--that's just a fraction of what a 4K camera system alone such as the now defunct Dalsa Origin cost only two years ago.
Give credit too to Nvidia's Quadro FX card and the engineers behind the RED Rocket card—these potent graphics engines (both of which are in a Scratch Rocket Fuel rig) enable the real-time debayering of Red's r3d files and their manipulation. (Debayering is a computationally intensive process that demosaics images created by single sensor cameras like the RED ONE).
While this might still seem like something only someone ready to spend a good amount of money on a Scratch Rocket Fuel rig, you should know that Adobe has already shown a startling real-time capability in its CS4 products running Quadro FX cards, with rumors that Creative Suite 5's version of Premiere Pro (expected to be shown in demo at NAB 2010) will also be able to debayer and manipulate RED r3d files in real-time, but without the need for a $5K RED Rocket card.
For a good overview article on 4K RED production and post for commercials, you might check out Ken McGorry's article in Post Magazine earlier this year.
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