Fremont, CA - November 10, 2016 - Blackmagic Design today announced that Barcelona based post production house, Moonlight Cinema, has completed both the digital intermediate and finishing of the new children’s animated film “Ozzy” on DaVinci Resolve Studio.

Post production director Alejandro Matus and colorist Ignasi González produced more than 40 different deliveries of the animation over a two week period, using Moonlight Cinema’s three DaVinci Resolve color grading suites to cater for everything from different aspect ratios and frame rates through to multiple language versions.

“We had never taken on an animated film before, so there was an added layer of pressure to deliver a high quality finish,” explains Matus. “Resolve was an enormous help throughout all aspects of the project, particularly with its new editing tools. Not only did we use it to conform and master the project, but we also were able to make changes to the edit during the grade without having to leave Resolve.”

Starting with 2K DPX files transferred to them by Tangent Animation in Canada, the Moonlight Cinema team applied a LUT to act as a base for the film’s overall look. “For many in the industry, it may seem natural to think that animation projects don’t require any real color correct, but in fact, the complete opposite is true,” says González. “Unlike a live action feature, a CG animation’s whole universe will have been created by many different people on many different machines. Homogenizing this content and giving greater depth to the animation through tools like light and blur is a daunting task.”

To ensure that every shot in a sequence matched uniformly, Matus and González decided to separate key elements from each scene through their respective alpha channels using mattes. This allowed for more control to modify individual assets, such as character faces, throughout the final grade. The next step was to give “Ozzy” its own unique aesthetic.

“Ozzy is a children’s film, so we wanted to maintain a bright, friendly feel even in scenes that were tense or sad,” González continues. “The great thing about being a colorist on an animation like this was that I had way more creative freedom when grading. For some night scenes, for instance, I could push the blues of the sky to a point where a live action sky would never go. The same happened with sunsets.”

“The best thing about using DaVinci Resolve for this was the Color Management system. What impressed me on this feature was Resolve’s ability to handle all of the different color space conversions that we needed to output. It was quick and pain free. We also had a lot of shot replacements coming in throughout the grading process. With Resolve, I could simply save a still from a grade that I was happy with to the stills gallery, and it would include all the keyframe and tracking information, which made it stress free to update to a new shot.”

Press Photography

Product photos of DaVinci Resolve Studio and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/images.

About Ozzy

Ozzy, a friendly, peaceful beagle has his idyllic life turned upside down when the Martins leave on a long and distant trip. There's only one problem: no dogs allowed! Unable to bring their beloved Ozzy along for the ride, they settle on the next best thing, a top-of-the-line canine spa called Blue Creek. This picture perfect place turns out to be a facade constructed by its villainous owner to capture dogs. Ozzy will soon end up in the real Blue Creek, a prison for dogs, run by dogs. Ozzy will have to avoid danger and find strength in his new friends, Chester, Fronky and Doc to escape the prison and return home safely.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.