Artists use Adobe After Effects to create the
opening title sequence for "The Talented Mr. Ripley"

Click image for larger view TM & Copyright 1999 by Paramount Pictures. All Rightst Reserved

Cineon Space: Thinking Different

When Deborah approached CyberMotion to animate her design, they were actually taking a break from production, ironically to write a book about After Effects. However, this job was just too intriguing to pass up.

The Ripley sequence presented two particular technical challenges (beyond the obvious one of managing 130 gigabytes of source material): Re-creating the detailed opening sequence being edited by Walter Murch at the Saul Zaentz Film Center, and keeping colors straight while working in the special Cineon log color space.

Video tapes and printed edit decision lists (EDLs) of the offline sources and title edit were sent to CyberMotion in Los Angeles, where they were recreated inside After Effects. First, a video resolution version was produced, with the treatments and text overlaid on top. Once the client signed off, the actual film was scanned at Cinesite in Los Angeles and delivered to CyberMotion on DLT tapes. Since After Effects is resolution independent, it was an easy matter to re-size its internal chain of compositions from video to film resolution to use this new material. All the text was created as Postscript outlines in Adobe Illustrator, which is also resolution independent.

Click images for larger views TM & Copyright 1999 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved

The Cineon file format was designed to mimic the range and response of actual film. Unfortunately, the result is a color space description that does not match what desktop computers normally use. While After Effects can translate to a normal linear color space using the Cineon Converter plug-in, to preserve the integrity of the original film, frames were kept in their Cineon log color space throughout production. The titles and additional colored treatments were then translated by After Effects from the computer's linear color space into Cineon's log space, and then composited with the film.

"Two features in After Effects version 4 made this job much easier," notes Trish Meyer of CyberMotion. "One was the RAM previews: I could play back screen-resolution proofs for Deborah at film speed, without the need for any special hardware. Second was the addition of Photoshop-style Adjustment Layers. This allowed me to temporarily view compositions back in linear color space, for on-screen and video proofs, without altering the original Cineon files."

Aside from the immense amount of disk space (a trio of 78 gig Medéa LVD arrays), the computer itself was nothing exotic: a 300 MHz Apple G3 with 512 MB of RAM. This is in stark contrast to the high-end graphics workstations, costing significantly more, usually used for digital film compositing. It actually took more time to write the finished frames to DLT tape than it did to render them. CyberMotion's Trish Meyer concludes: "The reason we base our business around After Effects, is that the same workstation can be used for anything from the web to film. And the quality is beyond reproach."

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