Film GIMP at Rhythm & Hues

The GIMP probably leads any list of killer applications for Linux. This Photoshop-like graphics package is very popular for retouching still images. However, fewer people are aware of its motion picture cousin called Film GIMP, intended for working on a series of images.

Linux is now being adopted in motion picture production at DreamWorks, Pixar, ILM and many other major studios. Most of this Linux effort involves commercial tools such as the popular 3-D animation package Maya (see the article “Alias|Wavefront Maya 4” in the October 2001 issue of Linux Journal) or obscure internal tools representing an investment of millions of lines of code created by the studios themselves (see “DreamWorks Features Linux and Animation”, August 2001 Linux Journal). Today there is just one significant open-source Linux tool being used in major motion pictures. Let's take a look at Film GIMP and its use at Los Angeles film and television commercial postproduction studio Rhythm & Hues.

R&H programmer Caroline Dahllöf is a lead developer and maintainer of Film GIMP. “We use Film GIMP on all talking animal jobs”, says Dahllöf. “Film GIMP is in use in production by various studios but probably is used most by R&H. Other studios say that they think GIMP is a great idea, but we seem to be the only production house currently developing and supporting it.” Dahllöf would like to see other studios become more involved in development. At R&H, Film GIMP has been used in Harry Potter, Cats & Dogs, Dr. Dolittle 2, Little Nicky, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The 6th Day, Stuart Little and Planet of the Apes. R&H also creates commercials, such as the familiar Coca-Cola bear commercial. Dahllöf says:

Stretching has to be fixed with textures. The mouth interior is all CG. Some projects, such as the Coke commercial, are all CG. That's a different technique than making live-action animals talk.

As is typical with production studios, R&H uses not just one tool but a pipeline of tools for 3-D animation and live-action special effects. Before looking at Film GIMP, let's examine some of the proprietary tools in the production pipeline that Film GIMP must seamlessly interact with.

Film GIMP Screenshot—Working on

Film GIMP Screenshot—Visa Commercial

For 3-D modeling, R&H uses an in-house modeling tool called And and Maya. Modeler/TD Yeen-shi Chen explains:

Technical Director Jeff McLean explains how R&H uses IC (Interactive Compositing), their internally developed compositor: “A typical task is removing the arms of a skateboarder from a scene in Scooby Doo to be replaced by Scooby in a barrel.” (Scooby Doo is due for release June, 2002.) When McLean replaces a live actor with an animated figure like Scooby, he must not just cover up the actor but handle situations where the actor's movements extend beyond what the animated figure will cover. “I have to do a background replace and repair the missing pieces of the background when I remove an object from a scene”, says McLean.

ICY Screenshot—Canon Commercial