DEFINITION October 2019

SMART LENSES | FEATURE

The Lens Data Systemwas built to provide extra information for the focus puller – applying that data to VXF work was a natural evolution

WHY WE NEED IT At first, camera people were reluctant to generate metadata VFX people might not use, while VFX people were reluctant to use metadata that might not be generated. Zellan calls it “a chicken and egg problem”.

“When we introduced it back in 2001/2002, people asked: ‘I don’t even know what it is, what do I need it for?’ – now people know that they need it. I think we’re at critical mass now. We’ve put enough features into it that the VFX community is saying it can be useful,” he says. David Stump, ASC, is a visual effects supervisor and cinematographer with credits on world-famous productions reaching back to the mid-1980s. His interest in lens metadata goes beyond simple focus and focal length information, basic lens data that is handled by Cooke /i and Arri LDS. More advanced information, such as a description of how the lens vignettes and distorts the image, is supported in /i. Stump says: “If you had a [scene] where a CG character had to walk across a real table, you have to unravel what the lens is doing, even out the fall-off of the lens,

we’ve freely given it to all our competitors. We have a lot of /i tech partners that are implementing the system. I think what a lot of people are doing is sitting on the sidelines seeing if [VFX people] are saying, ‘this is the cat’s meow’.”

LEFT A Cooke S7/i lens featuring /i technology

OCTOBER 20 1 9 | DEF I N I T ION 53

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