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xRez Studio PR Content

7/17/07 EH

xRez Studio Mission Statement:

xRez Studio, Inc. offers the highest resolution photography currently available. Using digital techniques derived from feature film visual effects, images can be created at resolutions of up to 150,000 pixels wide, far surpassing any large format film standards used in photography. The use of this gigapixel imagery can be far-ranging, from use in producing visual effects in feature films, to helping educate the public in national parks. Taking gigapixel photography beyond an academic exercise to a real production methodology, xRez Studio can provide location shooting expertise, efficient post-production of the images, and 3d animation derived from the image. Delivery options range from interactive web or kiosk displays allowing deep exploration of the images, to large exhibition prints containg detail rarely seen at a large scale. Gigapixel photography is a new, highly immersive medium, where the viewer can locate a myriad of life moments within a single image, yielding a deeper interaction with a single image than previously seen.Creative possibilites will emerge with this new form of photography in film, advertising, and art. xRez Studio is positioned at the creative leading edge of this development.

Case Studies:

1. MOVE.COM:

xRez Studio was contracted to shoot 170 gigapixel images of 34 major metropolitan US cities. The images will appear interactively on a revised Move.com website in late August, as an attraction and means of familiarizing viewers to regional neighborhoods across the US. This should be a landmark for gigapixel imagery, with the largest display of gigapixel images online to date.

Typical urban image:

2. WRIGHT BROS FILM VFX:

xRez Studio acted as the prime VFX vendor for "On Great White Wings", a recent documentary on the Wright Brothers development of their aircraft. xRez provided VFX supervision and delivery of over 70 shots for the film, which was shot on location in Dayton, Ohio and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Spherical panoramic acquisition techniques were used as an efficient and cost-effective method of creating the 3d aerial environments for CG aircraft to fly within, as well as a viable alternative to live-action background shooting. Green screen was used in conjunction with a full size flying replica of the 1905 Flyer. The same aircraft actually flew in the same field that the Wrights did, a historic event in it's own sense. Five versions of the Wright designs were rigorously modeled, with historic accuracy guided by Tom Crouch of the Smithsonian Institute. Visual effects shots were created to place the viewer alongside and within the Wright aircraft as they tested their limits.

Images:

CG glider w/ live-action background plate

CG aircraft and pilot w/ panoramic captured background

Re-creation of historic photograph, CG aircraft with live-action background

Full CG scene derived from panoramic background

Green-screen live-action foreground with CG background

Green-screen shoot

3. MAGNIFICENT DESOLATION IMAX:

xRez Studio acted as subcontractor to Sassoon Film Design for a VFX shot on Tom Hank's Magnificent Desolation IMAX feature on the Apollo moon program. xRez Studio re-created flying through a deep trench called the Hadley Rile which was shot originally as a series of photographs taken by the Apollo 15 astronauts. A panoramic stitch of the images was made, then rigorous photogrammetry was employed to model the surface faithfully from the photographs. 24 separate, layered matte paintings based on the photographs were then used to texture the canyon as the camera flew down it's path. The shot illustrates the power and versatility of panoramic imagery and photogrammetry for visual effects work.

Images:

Rough assemblage of Apollo 15 photography

3D model created from photogrammetry

Final 3d render showing matte painting texuring

4. VISUAL EFFECTS DEMOS:

xRez Studio's partners have extensive experience in the visual effects field, and have developed unique techniques to integrate 3d modeling with the gigapixel images, thus creating a unique hybrid 2.5D photograph. The 2.5D image contains both the image content but also an underlying 3d geometry perfectly aligned and draped into the image. If the panoramic image is used as a basis of virtual cinematography using a 3d application, then tremendous opportunites present themselves. The image can now have the basis for dimensional camera moves into the image, allowing deep zooms due to the gigapixel resolution, but allowing some degree of parallax to occur. The 3d model can be generated from a process called photogrammetry in which the geometry is derived from the image itself. Further, natural terrain can be generated by the use of USGS DEM's, which are large scans of the Earth's surface taken from the Space Shuttle. Once integrated into the gigapixel image, natural processes can be aniamted, such as weather alteration, flooding, or geologic transformation. This offers tremendous use for fantasy-based visual effects work to real-world visualization of natural processes.

Images:

Gigapixel image w/ DEM terrain, CG cloud integration

Gigapixel image with DEM terrain, CG water integration

Gigapixel image integrated in Maya applicaion

DEM terrain geometry modeling from displacement in Mental Ray

5. LARGE EXHIBITION PRINTS:

One opportunity from gigapixel resolution is to create large exhibition prints, which can range up to 50' in length before showing any degradation of resolution. Prints of this size are more commonly associated with low-quality ourdoor advertisement, but when created at a fine art print quality, can create an impressive reaction from viewers, who can take up to 20 minutes just surveying the detail in a single print. xRez Studio has created a custom framing solution for prints of this size, and has created one at 18 feet in length. Ideal for visitor center interpretation or fine art installation, this bekons towards a new media experience for the artist and viewer.

Image:

6' by 18' exhibition print

6. MISC PR EVENTS:

7/15/07: Greg Downing Interview in High Resolution online publication.

7/10/07: Greg Downing interview on Imaging Insider website.

6/21/07- International Virtual Reality Photographers Association (IVRPA) 2007 Conference: xRez gave a lecture entitled "xRez Studio: Gigapixels in Production", Berkeley CA.

5/12/07- "Digital Fiction: Innovation in Film", co-organized VFX event in Oslo, Norway. Gave lecture entitled "Innovation and Economy in VFX". Held 2 day workshop for local VFX artists on photogrammetry, panoramic techniques. Sponsored by Hasselblad/ Espen to shoot Prekestolen in the Lysefjord in attempt to set world record resoultion panoramic image.

3/10/07- Displayed as exhibitor at APPL conference in Sacramento.

11/15/07- Displayed as exhibitor at NAI conference in Albuquerque.

7. UPCOMING EVENTS

10/07- Exhibitor at ASTC conference, Los Angeles (Assoc of Science Technology Centers, i.e. science museums)

8. MISC PR IMAGES:

xRez Studio motion control camera rig

xRez on location

Resolution Comparision