The Pixel Farm Launch PFPipe at Siggraph 2009

The Pixel Farm announced today the first showing of its latest software technology – PFPipe, a workflow enhancement tool. Designed to greatly improve workflow efficiency by integrating PFTrack and the data it generates into 3rd party applications, PFPipe follows The Pixel Farm’s philosophy of finding simple solutions to workaday production problems. This workflow enhancement creates a consistency of data throughout the production pipeline saving time, reducing the risk of human error and beefing up workflow efficiency.
PFPipe is a C API for reading PFTrack projects and obtaining the data contained therein, this will allow people to establish direct integration of PFTrack data into 3rd party applications and in-house pipelines and technologies. The first release of PFPipe will provide access to both PFTrack’s camera data and renowned distortion models, as well as providing all project links to footage and clips used in the project file itself.

To provide a working example of how PFPipe could provide useful tools, developers at The Pixel Farm have ported PFBarrel, PFCameraImport and PFDataCombiner to a plug-in set for shake 4.1. The API includes sample C code for applications and a PFTrack project to enable developers and TD’s to quickly develop tools based on this new and unique technology.

Michael Lancaster, Product Director, The Pixel Farm comments: “As with all of our products our aim is to create tools that make production easier and more cost-effective. PFPipe was developed after spending time with our customers, seeing their workflows and thus creating a tool that they needed.”

A new website, www.pfpipe.com will soon be available to enable which will provide a forum for developers and vfx artists to share tips and ideas, as well as providing a pedestal for developers to show of and distribute any technology examples that use PFPipe to the vfx community.

PFPipe is available free of charge to PFTrack 5.0 customers on an active support contract. The shake plug-ins are available free to any PFTrack 5 customers from The Pixel Farm website.