Camera to Cloud for Animators | FUJIFILM Exposure Center – USA

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Camera to Cloud for Animators

Animator Natalie Woytko reaps the benefits of Frame.io Camera to Cloud (C2C) when collaborating remotely with a photographer on location

‘If only I’d been there.’ It’s a phrase Natalie Woytko, like many animators, has said to herself more often than she’d like when collaborating remotely.

Without direct input from an animator during production, details can easily be overlooked and, while those may seem small on set, they can cause big problems in post.

“I was once working on a film for a colleague who asked me to do a composite,” recalls Natalie. “It should have been simple – just color correction – but it turned out there was a bright red lamplight behind the actor’s head, which meant I had to mask out this character for 30 seconds going frame by frame at 24fps,” she chuckles.

Issues like this could make a significant difference to a project’s schedule and budget, but thanks to Fujifilm’s new integration with Frame.io Camera to Cloud (C2C)  they can become a thing of the past.

Astronaut standing in blimp hangar, surrounded by animated blue butterflies

Photo 2023 © Karen Jerzyk | FUJIFILM X-H2 and FUJINON XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR, 1/125 sec at F2.8, ISO 1250

Natalie recently completed the first of a fresh form of collaboration – one that allowed her to provide feedback to a photographer on location in Orange County, in real time, from the comfort of her San Diego studio.

Natalie was working with fine art photographer Karen Jerzyk, using her animation skills to add new life to images from Karen’s ongoing project The Lonely Astronaut.

The project imagines a now uninhabitable planet Earth, long abandoned by humans, being explored by a curious astronaut who has returned to learn how people used to live. Creating an atmosphere of such solitude in a busy, modern world invariably requires working in isolated locations at unsociable hours – on this occasion, an abandoned blimp hangar in Tustin, CA.

Despite such a remote location, Karen used FUJIFILM X-H2 with FT-XH File Transmitter and an active internet connection to upload images direct from her camera to Frame.io, allowing Natalie to view and annotate them in real time.

“I communicated my thoughts directly to Karen, raising flags when I saw things that might hinder me. One example was telling her I was losing the subject’s limbs because there’s not a dynamic silhouette, which would limit my ability to add motion,” explains Natalie.

“If I were to catch something like that further down the pipeline, we would simply have to work with what we had. It doesn’t make financial sense to call everybody back and recreate the project just to make my job easier.”

Natalie’s love for this new way of working extended further than simply having the ability to comment. From adding visual markups to easily accessing previous drafts, the freedom Frame.io’s user interface gave her to relay her thoughts only added to the collaborative value of using a C2C-enabled camera on set.

“It’s going to streamline the process and avoid a lot of hurdles that aren’t always caught until well into post,” beams Natalie. “You can make shapes and point out specific things to ensure the team is aware what you’re referring to without affecting the actual file. This made it easy to see what Karen’s ideas were – and effectively communicate my own.

“I also like it because it’s organized,” she continues. “When I upload different versions, I can stack them, so if somebody wants to reference something in version four – and we’re in version 12 – I can easily go back and find the element they want to bring back into the cut.

“It was like bridging production and post without having to wait weeks at a time for assets to get delivered, color correction to happen, and a decision to be made on visuals.”

© Karen Jerzyk / Natalie Woytko 2023

Natalie is a freelancer, so her work is varied and usually remote. As such, she will experience these benefits often in her daily life.

“I get a lot of traffic through social media, so many clients I’ve never actually met in person,” she explains. “It can be anything, from someone trying to start an online stream needing branding guidance, through to adding motion to a musician’s album art.”

Word of mouth is extremely important when acquiring new business, so anything that will make Natalie’s service more efficient and improve overall client experience is welcome. Additionally, she sees C2C as a way for less-established artists to get more easily involved in projects.

“It’s going to open up a lot of opportunity for artists to work together, especially if they can’t afford or don’t have the means to meet up in person.

“Since Frame.io works with Creative Cloud, it will form an effective streaming pipeline, from the moment the raw footage is available to edit, until it’s ready to go out the door for publishing.

“C2C is going to speed up the process – and bring a lot more artists into the field.”

Natalie is excited about how much it will simplify her workflow and prevent potential issues from ever happening in the first place, rather than rushing to remedy them at the eleventh hour.

“It’s just part of the work. You’ll get something that seems simple initially, but when you get into the meat of it, you realize it’s going to be a little trickier than you first thought.

“With C2C, I can easily call out those things that may not have been at the forefront of the set designer or the photographer’s mind because they’re more focused on developing a good shot,” she explains.

“I was floored by this entire process. This is a nifty tool – I really like it,” resolves Natalie. “It’s going to save a lot of time, and obviously a lot of money, and will be a great communication tool between these two teams.”

The world’s first native digital stills camera integration for Frame.io Camera to Cloud is now available for FUJIFILM X-H2 and X-H2S via FT-XH File Transmitter and is fully integrated into FUJIFILM GFX100 II.

Learn more about the integration here.

Want to read more? Hear from the photographer on this project, Karen Jerzyk, who talks about her C2C experience here, or watch C2C in action on location with this exclusive behind-the-scenes video:


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