Hardware supported by eStudio

eStudio

The industry’s most flexible real–time 3D graphics and virtual studio engine

Brainstorm eStudio is a powerful and flexible tool that provides solutions for any kind of real-time graphics. The eStudio is unique in the market due to its sophistication, open architecture and versatility, enabling both design and real-time playout of virtual studios and 3D graphics as well as the easy creation of customized applications. It provides excellent results for applications such as News & Sports, channel branding, weather, entertainment, charts and graphics, interactive corporate presentations or film pre-visualization.

Brainstorm has been pushing the boundaries of virtual set production and development for over 25 years. Brainstorm pioneered the application of camera tracking to 3D real-time virtual set, and eStudio interfaces with practically all current tracking systems, making integration with any production hardware an out-of-the-box feature.

Advanced rendering and modelling

The advanced modelling toolset of eStudio includes built-in geometries and primitives, imported models, hyerarchy of objects, material and textures, built-in text effects and particle systems and much more. eStudio also allows texturizing objects using pictures and movies.

eStudio features advanced rendering options with fully OpenGL power with shaders, bumpmaps, shadows and impostors. Multi-texturing and multi-pass per material and customized filter shaders and 2D effects (distortion, bloom…) are also available. eStudio shaders support up to 32 inputs.

Support for PBR shaders

Supports PBR (Physically Based Rendering) shaders as materials, which can also be imported from external shader editing applications like Substance.

Reflector objects

Real Render Object Reflection over flat surfaces via additional internal rendering from a reflected camera position.

Soft shadows algorithm

eStudio renders real-time soft shadows from 3D lights parameters using a dedicated algorithm.

Playlist textures

eStudio can run a playlist of pictures and clips with multiple start, end and looping points.

Selective defocus algorithm

Using the real camera’s parameters, eStudio applies selective defocus on the virtual scene.

Real-time ray tracing

eStudio takes full advantage of the latest hardware developments found in NVIDIA RTX GPU technology. By using NVIDIA Quadro RTX GPUs, eStudio can deliver real-time ray tracing, which provides a much more accurate rendering, especially with complex light conditions.

PBR and HDR

eStudio fully supports PBR shaders as materials, which can also be imported from external shader editing software like Substance and other material editors.

HDR allows for rendering wide-gamma pictures. The eStudio can render floating 16 bit per channel/component, supporting for P2020 gamma correction output. This allows for post-rendering exposure control and extended-range filtering.

Unreal Engine workflow

eStudio fully supports Unreal Engine, taking advantage of the benefits of what such game engine provides in terms of rendering quality. The added value of this configuration is the multitude of benefits of including more than 25 years of Brainstorm’s experience in broadcast and film graphics, virtual set and augmented reality production, including data management, playout workflows, virtual camera detach, multiple simultaneous renders and much more.

With eStudio, UE projects can indistinctively be background or foreground, and with 100%-pixel accuracy guaranteed. This opens up the door to easily create AR with Unreal Engine, in addition to virtual set production.

Beyond game engines: Combined Render Engine

What Brainstorm offers goes far beyond what a game engine can do by itself. Broadcast graphics workflows have specific requirements, like database connections, statistics, tickers, social media or lower-thirds, a variety of hardware and software elements that are alien to the game engine framework but essential for broadcast operation.

Brainstorm’s approach to external render engine support is unique in the industry, as it provides alternatives for using different render engines so users can achieve anything they might require. Brainstorm’s initial approach to using game render engines combined the eStudio render engine with the Unreal Engine in a single machine, that is the Combined Render Engine.

In addition to the new developments and the improved UE compatibility and UE-native workflows, the Combined Render Engine approach allows users to select the alternative that fits best with their requirements or workflows.

TrackFree™ technology allows for using tracked, fixed cameras or any combination of them to shoot the talent on the set, indistinctly using internal or external chroma keyers.

2D and 3D object creation and management

From stills, lower-thirds or OTS to full screen graphics and animations, virtually any kind of 2D or 3D graphic can be accomplished with eStudio. It also supports StormLogic and SmartTemplates which can automatically look up data and redraw graphics accordingly, allowing for manual or automatic data input from other applications, databases, spreadsheets or real-time feeds.

eStudio imports and manipulates graphic files and 3D models from a variety of 2D and 3D software packages in a variety of 3D formats such as .fbx, .dae, .obj and.3ds, to name a few. Also, virtually any kind of 2D image and video format is accepted.

Exclusive typographic features

eStudio has taken advantage of the development of character generation in Aston, which lead to the implementation of many text and font features usually available only in high end character generators.

New Text Editor allows to apply effects such as color, font, size and style effects (bold, italic, underline) by simple selection.

eStudio provides full support for complex languages and alphabets (Thay, Devanagari, Vertical Japanese, etc.)

Advanced Font decoration:

Three-border configuration
Each layer can have different colors and textures
Emboss effects for layers and borders
Configurable shadow layers for color, size, blur, transparency, etc.
Font Families for Normal, Bold, Italic and Bold-Italic

Data-driven graphics

For applications like Elections, Sports or Entertainment, data–driven graphics are essential to display large amount of data in a visually attractive manner. Displaying complex data is extremely easy with eStudio. Data can be easily linked to template forms and can be input manually or automatically from external sources such as databases, spreadsheets, RSS feeds, etc., and allowing for unlimited input sources per production and data cross-references.

SmartTemplates: Modular Graphic Creation

eStudio’s graphics are based on SmartTemplates that vastly outperform the traditional page-based creation. Graphics, of course, can be animated, allowing their internal elements to interact, being built on screen or use a particular behaviour to display the data as required.

SmartTemplates can feature unlimited animations, and as complex as required, which can be triggered at any time. SmartTemplates also allow their elements to change dynamically as data changes, as they can automatically look up data and redraw graphics accordingly. Data can be edited manually or linked to databases, spreadsheets or real-time feeds for automatic retrieval, and scripting can be included, if required.

On top of that, objects can interact with other objects within the template of screen. And as a graphic can be made out of other graphics, the final structure is contained in a project, which holds all the graphics, templates, data pages and the StormLogic which defines the templates’ interaction.

StormLogic: scalable animation logic

To add flexibility to graphics creation and playout, Brainstorm developed StormLogic, an approach to intuitive template interaction with an advanced object-based animation. It is a tree structure of templates, and groups of templates, that defines the logic between them. The object structure of the StormLogic defines the animation logic and hierarchy, and all the templates contained within it will follow those rules.

StormLogic allows building complex animations and interactions between elements with no need of scripting or complex animation matrixes.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality requires the interaction between sets, talents and virtual objects, often created out of external data sources such as statistics, charts, bars, and many other. These in-context data driven objects allow for visually engaging and better explained representations of the data.

During election nights, news, sports or entertainment programs, data bars and other statistics can interact with the talents creating an attractive augmented reality environment for the audience.

eStudio can seamlessly integrate real-time graphics and virtual studio projects, including the graphics’ animation logic and structure which enhances the creation, management and use of graphics content for Augmented and Mixed Reality. Of course, graphics can use in-context data coming from external sources, linked to the graphics behaviour, and updating them automatically, even when using AR with Unreal Engine.

Custom interface creation

eStudio support FORMS, which enable the easy drag-and-drop creation of customized interfaces for simple and intuitive control. The user can have just a few buttons for basic animations or detailed control panels for complex tasks. Simple drag-and-drop controls allow for full control any element in the eStudio software to build their own applications.

The custom interfaces capabilities of eStudio have been developed up to the point of being able to create individual products based on it, such as Aston or InfinitySet. New options include multi–splitters for interface panners or IconTrees allowing to insert portions of interface in the folder.

FORMS are effectively custom interfaces created for a project, that control whatever is required in such project, and allowing for customizing the resulting graphics as required.

TrackFree™

TrackFree is a patented camera-tracking independent technology that provides just what its name claims: the total freedom for operators to use any tracking system, trackless or fixed cameras, or a combination of these at the same time.

Combined Chroma Keying

TrackFree ™ allows users to choose the keying method of their choice, by using eStudio’s internal chroma keyer, an external chroma key hardware or a combination of both, even within the same production.

Advanced TrackFreee™ features

TeleTransporter
3D Presenter
Virtual shadows and selective defocus
Virtual Camera detaching
MagicWindows: VideoGate & VideoCAVE
Dynamic Light Control

Enhanced Internal Chroma Keyer

eStudio features an advanced internal, resolution independent Chroma Keyer, supporting controls for main key, spill correction, detail recovering and colour correction.

eStudio automatically creates a secondary key for feet tracking, independent from the main one. This key permits the calculation of the talent’s feet position for the FreeWalking feature and for creating virtual shadows and reflections.

TeleTransporter

TeleTransporter seamlessly combines virtual sets with live or pre-recorded video feeds of the presenters and 3D objects from remote locations, all moving accordingly with precise perspective matching. TeleTransporter allows a remote talent to enter any scenario at any time, while seamlessly mixing real and virtual elements.

Tracking data coming from real cameras or third-party tracking software can be included as metadata in live feeds or pre-recorded videos, and immediately be transferred and applied to the virtual camera’s parameters.

3D Presenter

Converts the live feed of the talent into a true 3D representation of the talent from a video feed. The presenter becomes an actual 3D object embedded within the virtual set, casting real shadows and reflections of the talent over virtual and real objects and interacting with volumetric lights.

HandsTracking

HandsTracking allows presenters to trigger animations, graphics or data with a simple movement of the hands and without the need for any additional costly and complex tracking devices. eStudio features an optimized usability and also supports StormLogic from Aston graphics.

FreeWalking

FreeWalking enables talents to move freely around the green screen theatre matching their movements within the 3D space. Presenters are allowed to move forward, backwards and sideways with precise perspective matching even though the real camera is in a fixed position.

Real Set Virtualization

eStudio can use real, live or pre-recorded footage as the background set for the chroma keyed talent. This allows for enhancing the corporate image of a large broadcaster, as it can reuse a single real set to be the background scenario for smaller stations in the network.

Virtual Camera detaching

Set space restrictions are no longer a problem. Regardless the camera used is fixed, manned, tracked or robotized, eStudio can seamlessly detach the camera feed while maintaining the correct position and perspective of the talent within the virtual scene.

Virtual shadows and selective defocus

The eStudio can create virtual shadows in addition to the real keyed shadows and apply then to virtual surfaces. Using the real camera’s parameters, eStudio is able to create a selective defocus and bokeh effects on the virtual scene adding an even more realistic effect to the final rendered composition.

MagicWindows: VideoGate

VideoGate allows to integrate the presenter not only in the virtual set but also inside additional content, meaning we can make the presenter travel between real worlds, virtual worlds or between real and virtual scenes.

VideoGate extends the virtual scenario beyond the virtual set and creates an infinite combination of worlds for the presenters to be in, allowing for better real-time content creation possibilities.

MagicWindows: VideoCAVE

VideoCAVE feature is a Mixed Reality application which make monitors on a real or virtual set to behave as a window, with virtual elements seen with the perspective of the camera, as if the screens were windows to the outside world.

Also, VideoCAVE allows for including additional features such as a Touch Screen for interactivity, and can be combined with the VideoGate feature, with objects coming in/out of the screens.

Dynamic Light Control

eStudio can remotely control and adjust in real-time external light panels via DMX, and external Chroma Keyer settings, allowing for changing the lighting conditions of the real set to match those of the virtual set.

Real-time post-production

Although chroma keying technology and virtual sets have been around for a long time, the latter have sometimes been criticized for the relative lack of realism compared to other non-real-time applications such as composition and VFX technologies.

The ability of eStudio to work as a preview hub, allows for substantial savings in the costs of filming and post-production, ensuring the different shots are adjusted (chroma, camera movements, tracking, etc) prior to enter in post-production, and even directly delivering the final production master.

Open hardware interfaces

Brainstorm works closely with many hardware and software manufacturesrs such as NVIDIA, AJA, Bluefish, Epic Games, Blackmagic, FOR-A, Panasonic and many other. The eStudio also interfaces with most camera tracking systems.

See the partner list

Hardware Recommendations

This is an orientative guide of the hardware supported by eStudio 14. However, we encourage you to contact your sales representative in order to ensure the following configurations fit your needs.