Da Vinci Shows Off New Threesome

by News Editor
Published on May 17, 2004 12:00 AM



2K Soft is designed to provide real-time grading for digital film labs, special effects houses, prosumer workstations, and other environments where the images are pre-digitized. Just like the da Vinci 2K Plus and revival products, 2K Soft reads DPX and RGB files of any resolution and is capable of direct intergration with products from Discreet, Quantel, and Thomson for a streamlined workflow.

The system includes a Joyball Panel, similar to that used in the 2K Plus color corrector, for operator comfort and efficiency. The software will operate on an Intel platform with the da Vinci Powerhouse render farm and off-the-shelf storage.

‘’The 2K Soft is engineered to fill gaps in the digital workspace, bridging film lab timers, colorists and editors with a complete set of color enhancement tools packaged as a flexible, software-based solution that opens up the production workflow.’’ said Matthew Straeb, vice president of marketing and product management for da Vinci Systems.

Then there’s firstlight, an option for 2K and 2K Plus systems that is said to calibrate a telecine at the push of a button. The press release from da Vinci says the process will optimize telecine controls to achieve a target profile, such as that used by the Kodak Telecine Calibration System.

The way firstlight works is by analyzing minimum and maximum film density, as well as gamma, to achieve a repeatable setup for a given test film. This is said to make the system accurate over time, and even from telecine to telecine because of its ability to interpret and react to changes at the 2K input. In addition to the Kodak TCS application, firstlight is ideal for technical best light and data transfers, which can now be achieved with a single automated setting. Final grades can be applied to the tape or data master later, without compromise.

Another da Vinci package is revival Color Restoration Software Module which is a software-based option that includes the company’s primary color controls, a preset ‘’Look’’ library and automated toolsets (auto-white and auto-black). The module is said to be able to import and export da Vinci-compatible color decision lists (CDL) that also contain selected scene information and a "restored by revival" indicator. revival color restoration is the first of a range of 2K-compatible software solutions.