Managing Color Accuracy Across Borders

Overview

Customer: Milk VFX

Location: London, Barcelona, Dublin and Bordeaux

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Established in 2013 by a dedicated team of VFX supervisors and producers, Milk VFX set out with a visionary mission to push the boundaries of possibility within visual effects. Over a decade, Milk VFX has won multiple awards for its creative work, including three BAFTA Television Craft awards for its outstanding work on BBC productions, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and Doctor Who. The company also earned an Emmy in 2016 for its contributions to the BBC/Hartswood's Sherlock. Notably, co-founder Sara Bennett made history in the same year as the first woman in two decades to win an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, recognized for her work on the film Ex-Machina at the 88th Academy Awards.

The award-winning visual effects studio specializes in creating innovative sequences from effects to creatures and environments for episodic television and feature films. But what also makes this studio different is its commitment to fostering global talent. From its initial base in Clerkenwell, London, the studio has expanded its influence across satellite offices in Barcelona, Dublin, and Bordeaux. This cross-border network of offices enables Milk VFX to bring together a diverse set of creators, each contributing their unique perspectives and skills.

THE CHALLENGE

Operating a network of satellite offices, Milk VFX faces the primary challenge of maintaining a consistent artistic vision and high-quality standards throughout all of its studios. Working on multiple diverse creative projects, the studio is committed to delivering consistent and technically precise high-end images. The appropriate balance in terms of color accuracy and contrast is paramount in every project, and having consistency across the global team cannot be overstated.

  “We need specific equipment that helps us deliver the vision of the director. I want to know that what I see on the screen with these monitors is exactly the same thing that my colleagues in London are looking at,” says Jorge Oliva, Head of Operations at Milk VFX Barcelona.

THE SOLUTION

ProArt Display OLED PA32DC – The accurate final review station
To collaborate across all studios, Milk VFX relies on the ASUS ProArt PA32DC as its primary review station when finishing projects. This gives all artists access to UHD footage, which is the primary delivery specification of most of the projects. Covering 99% DCI-P3 color gamut, this monitor is crucial for color-intensive work, which is especially important considering Milk’s color pipeline operates around ACES. The OLED display has a 1,000,000 to 1 contrast ratio, which plays a vital role when displaying black and white levels. With true 10-bit depth and a rapid 0.1-millisecond response time, it excels in presenting accurate color representations, even in fast-moving and flashy scenes. Having a monitor with a built-in calibrator, the team can be assured they are always working on ultra-accurate color, regardless of their location.

  “The calibration is great and it gives us really deep depth, which means that we know what the client is going to be seeing is what the artists are seeing down here. And that's key,” says Steve MacPherson, CTO of Milk VFX.

ProArt Display PA248CRV – Delivers consistent quality across platforms
Milk VFX uses the compact ProArt Display PA248CRV as a companion monitor. It is a powerful 4K HDR display that showcases 97% DCI-P3 and 100% sRGB color spaces. With the color-accurate display, creators can be assured that their work is consistent across different platforms. To make sure every artist has access to the same hardware setup, all of the monitors come with robust connectivity features such as USB-C, HDMI, and USB 3.0 that not only provide up to 96-watt power supply, but also facilitate the connection of additional tools such as pen display to make sure every artist has the same access to hardware between different studios.

THE OUTCOME

Working with ASUS ProArt displays has proven to be invaluable for Milk VFX. The combination of powerful and affordable monitors has empowered Milk VFX to stay innovative with emerging technologies. The consistency achieved with the ASUS ProArt monitors has given all of the artists a seamless collaboration delivering consistent and high-quality results across all of its satellite offices.

  “Working with ASUS has been great. We are on really tight schedules and tight budgets, and we need to make things move - and they did. For me, it's a great time to be a CTO,” concludes MacPherson.

Product installed