Animation studio DreamWorks has revealed that the next edition of its popular comedy franchise “Kung Fu Panda 4” will be showcased globally at select premium cinemas in the award-winning TrueCut Motion format.
The latest installment of Kung Fu Panda made its theatrical release on March 8, but DreamWorks’ partnership with Pixelworks and the use of the TrueCut Motion format promises to bring the world of Po, the Dragon Warrior, to life in a way that has never been seen before.
Pixelworks’ TrueCut Motion is an award-winning technology that provides filmmakers with shot-by-shot motion grading tools to deliver next-level visuals for storytelling. The software works by correcting motion anomalies that commonly occur on brighter displays, in order to ensure that creative choices are more precisely mastered into the source material and replicated on screen more accurately, as the filmmaker envisaged.
The technology is somewhat similar to the dynamic metadata that’s used to generate HDR content, only it works for motion rather than colour and contrast. The idea is that viewers will see the motion represented just as the creator intended it to be seen. For instance, a 24 frame-per-second slow-panning shot may well look stuttery on some modern TVs that have much higher frame rates. With TrueCut, directors can render these shots in 48 fps at the source, so it appears much smoother when replicated on supported TVs.
One of the biggest fans of TrueCut Motion technology is the director James Cameron, who previously lauded its capabilities after applying it in Avatar: The Way The Water. Despite this, the technology remains unfamiliar to many movie aficionados and is not widely supported, though some of TCL’s higher-end Mini-LED TVs are compatible with it.
That said, TrueCut Motion has been gaining prominence recently following a deal between Pixelworks and Walt Disney Studios that will see a collection of “TrueCut Motion”-graded titles brought to compatible home entertainment devices later this year.
TrueCut Motion will ensure the high quality visual artistry associated with the Kung Fu Panda franchise is made available in theatres in cinematic high-frame-rates, delivering a new level of crystal clear motion playback on the brightest, highest-contrast 3D and 2D cinema screens, naturally enhancing the look and feel of the movie.
Pixelworks says the main benefit of TrueCut Motion is to ensure that filmmakers can enhance the look of the on-screen action shot-by-shot during post-production, with the technology ensuring that those creative choices are replicated consistently across every cinema display and consumer TV device.
