Family history platform MyHeritage is releasing a mobile app called Reimagine that enables high-speed scanning of entire album pages to complement the company’s AI tools for restoring — and even facially animating — historical photos. Now users can easily import printed photos stored in albums by snapping page pictures on their iOS or Android device. The app will separate the individual photos, cropping and saving them as standalone images to which metadata can be added for indexing. The app also works with individual photos, or digital uploads from a camera roll. Continue reading Photo App Reimagine Brings Old Images to Life with AI Tools

Blackmagic Design’s release of DaVinci Resolve 15 adds Fusion, a visual effects tool often used in Hollywood films, to its professional-level color correction and audio editor. The full studio release of Resolve 15 is $300, but another, stripped down version that still includes the most important features is free. This compares to Adobe Creative Cloud, which costs more than $50 per month. DaVinci Resolve 15 is platform agnostic, running on macOS, Windows 10 and Linux, and offers four modules in one app. Continue reading Blackmagic Design Debuts DaVinci Resolve 15 with VFX Tools

ACES (the Academy Color Encoding System), which makes certain that the color decisions made early on in production are preserved through to the finished master, has evolved since it first launched in December 2014. At the HPA Tech Retreat, NBCUniversal vice president of creative technologies Annie Chang reported that, in 2015, 15 titles were done in ACES, compared to today’s 49+ titles. “We’ve seen the growth not just in feature and episodic, but in the gaming community and corporate clients like IKEA,” she added. Continue reading HPA 2018: Updates on ACES 1.0, The Evolution to ACESnext

Blackmagic Design has introduced the Blackmagic URSA Broadcast camera, aimed at studio programming and live production. The new camera shoots HD and Ultra HD resolution, sports an interchangeable lens mount and is priced at just under $3,500. The URSA Broadcast, available for sale now, has a B4 lens mount that works with existing HD broadcast lenses, which can be switched to allow PL, F or EF lenses. Footage can be recorded with SD or CFast media, both relatively inexpensive, with two slots for each format. Continue reading Blackmagic Design Debuts Ultra HD URSA Broadcast Camera

A Power Session at this week’s HPA Tech Retreat, organized by Disney post production executive Annie Chang, focused on every nook and cranny of high dynamic range and its application in production, post and even displays. The topic is of such interest to Hollywood engineers and technologists that it drew many of the industry’s top experts to speak on their experiences. The Power Session got a start with a short but important HDR primer presented by OneRiver Media owner Marco Solorio, who defined what HDR is and is not. Continue reading HPA Tech Retreat: Production Experts Talk High Dynamic Range

Fox Searchlight has produced a virtual reality experience to promote the film “Wild” starring Reese Witherspoon. The three-minute, 360-degree sequence features Witherspoon as her character in the film as she takes a break from a hike in the woods. Fox Searchlight is planning on showing “Wild – The Experience” at the Consumer Electronics Show and the Sundance Film Festival next month. The immersive experience is compatible with Samsung’s Gear VR. Continue reading Reese Witherspoon Stars in ‘Wild’ Experience for the Gear VR