OpenEXR import Spark

[loops]

I figure most people using Flame in an OpenEXR pipeline have figured out their own ways to convert footage back and forth, but I’ve always been curious about the format… so I snapped my fingers and clicked my heels aaannnnd, when no fairy godmother bearing Flame 10 with a full float pipeline appeared, I wrote a Spark 🙂
.

It works for importing to clips on the reels, or just like a FileIn node in Batch, or in Smoke on the editdesk. You choose which channels get mapped to what, so you can import Z or alpha or even object IDs or whatever the hell happens to be in the file. There are exposure and gamma knobs for each channel which work in float space to select which bits of the massive floating point dynamic range you want. Works in 8, 10 or 12 bit.

Get it for 32/64bit Irix here or 32-bit Linux here… I haven’t been able to compile it for 64-bit Linux, I don’t have any Opterons around, but the source is in there so if anyone feels the need do go ahead.

It’s probably got some rough edges (if you’re allergic to crashes maybe don’t hammer it in Batch too hard) but it basically looks to work. I haven’t tested the Linux or 32-bit Irix builds at all but I shouldn’t think they’re any different. Hope it’s useful to someone and doesn’t break things 🙂

Oooh a couple of caveats. It’s fine for single images and for entire directories of images as a sequence, but choosing only a few images from a folder doesn’t work right. You need to have the Spark output resolution set up to match the OpenEXR files, you’ll get warned if it’s wrong. And it will only read the first twenty channels in each image. All due to limitations in the Sparks API I’m afraid.

Hell… I know more about EXR than any sane person needs to now…

[Anonymous]

Good, You can make one version for the Combustion 😈 😆 ( don´t support any extra channel, only RGBA). To make this plugins you use only the documentation found in the openEXR website?

[bnw]

Combustion doesn’t support even Z from EXR? Dang! Does the Orphange’s EXR plugin for AfterEffects?

I used the docs from the EXR source and I also dived into the source itself, since the PDFs they include aren’t exactly what you’d call detailed…

[Anonymous]

loops wrote:

Combustion doesn’t support even Z from EXR? Dang! Does the Orphange’s EXR plugin for AfterEffects?

I used the docs from the EXR source and I also dived into the source itself, since the PDFs they include aren’t exactly what you’d call detailed…

Doesn´t know this plugin,have a link? Only know the Elin:D

[bnw]

http://www.theorphanage.com/tech/OrphEXR/

I’ve never tried it, not even sure if it works in Combustion at all.

[Anonymous]

Very very cool — thanks so much for sharing with us here on fxguide. I’ve added a link to the downloads page on fxguide as well so that it comes up in the database.

John (for Mike and Jeff)

loops wrote:

I figure most people using Flame in an OpenEXR pipeline have figured out their own ways to convert footage back and forth, but I’ve always been curious about the format… so I snapped my fingers and clicked my heels aaannnnd, when no fairy godmother bearing Flame 10 with a full float pipeline appeared, I wrote a Spark 🙂

Quote:

[pixelmonk]

Does this only work with Flame 10 (Inferno6)?, We have Inferno 5.5.6 and I can’t seem to install it.

Paul

[Anonymous]

Excellent Loops, thanks for that…

Let’s give it a whirl… want us to submit feedback here?

Ok, only looks like a compiled 64bit spark is included.
Any chance in compiling a version for the 32bit systems? (Getting all the cc stuff configured/installed and the OpenEXR sources sorted is more than a mission for some of us)

C.

[Kenzo]

loops wrote:

Get it for 32/64bit Irix here or 32-bit Linux here… I haven’t been able to compile it for 64-bit Linux, I don’t have any Opterons around, but the source is in there so if anyone feels the need do go ahead.

I’ll have a dual Opteron box in-house soon if you can lead me through what I need to do to compile it. Also, which version of flame is this compatible with?

[kingcoon]

first of all, thanks a lot for sharing.

and now the question. Is the 32bit Irix version missing in the .tar file as i can only see a .spark_64 (and pthreads and .cpp) file?

or do I have to compile it myself to make it work on the good old 4.7.4 Inferno. Would love to do the compilation, but I am probably too incompetent for anything of higher programming than typing “make”.
I read the cpp file, but as said before, I am not enough of a programmer.

Tom

[bnw]

Okay, some confusion 🙂 The 32-bit version is sparkOpenEXR.spark_pthreads. The weird extension is what Discreet recommends, what can I say 😉 At some point they switched from .spark to .spark_pthreads… what extension do the other sparks in y’all’s collective folders have?

I did notice that the newest Spark API docs say that the non-64 bit Irix versions aren’t supported any more but as far as I can see nothing’s changed, it should work… I don’t have a 32-bit system installed to test with any more, sorry 🙁

[bnw]

patdawg wrote:

I’ll have a dual Opteron box in-house soon if you can lead me through what I need to do to compile it.

Happy to, give me a bell when you have it under your fingers.

Quote:

Also, which version of flame is this compatible with?

Hard to say 😉 Should be okay with 7 and up, maybe even 6, but it’s all a little confusing. Try it 🙂

[Anonymous]

Hi Loops,

Loading this spark in the 8.3x/5.3x Versions of Flint results in a crash and the system hangs. The following error msg is printed in the shell…

27177:/usr/discreet/flint_8.3.4/bin/flint_IRIX_6.5_ip30: rld: Fatal Error: attem
pted access to unresolvable symbol in /usr/discreet/sparks/links/__sparks0: sparkFileBrowserDisplayLoadSequence

And the same goes for Inferno 5.35 and Flame 8.34

Hope you can help out…

c.

[bnw]

Oh no 🙁 I checked the older docs and it seems anything before Flame 9/Inferno 6/Smoke 6.5 doesn’t let you choose an image sequence in a file browser from a Spark 🙁 So the version above is only going to work on Flint/Flame 9, Inferno 6, Smoke/Fire 6.5 and up 🙁

I might be able to make one which works for older versions by making it read all files from a folder as a sequence, if people want… thanks for the bug report 🙂

[kingcoon]

version Inferno 4.7.4

after renaming .spark_pthreads to .spark:
I can load the spark, but when I press “open” to load any picture I have the same problem as Cerberos:
system hangs and shell says
8793:/usr/discreet/inferno_4.7.4_IR/bin/inferno_IRIX_6.5_ip25: rld: Fatal Error: attempted access to unresolvable symbol in /usr/discreet/sparks/links/__sparks0: sparkFileBrowserDisplayLoadSequence

It seems like something is missing.
I just copied the sparkOpenEXR to /usr/discreet/sparks/ – perhaps something is missing… do I have to install anything from the sparkAPI ?

again, many thanks
Tom

Cerebros wrote:

Hi Loops,

Loading this spark in the 8.3x/5.3x Versions of Flint results in a crash and the system hangs. The following error msg is printed in the shell…

27177:/usr/discreet/flint_8.3.4/bin/flint_IRIX_6.5_ip30: rld: Fatal Error: attem
pted access to unresolvable symbol in /usr/discreet/sparks/links/__sparks0: sparkFileBrowserDisplayLoadSequence

And the same goes for Inferno 5.35 and Flame 8.34

Hope you can help out…

c.

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