SGO Mistika Post Production System – Common questions
A brief product overview
SGO Mistika is a complete, high-end finishing post production system featuring editing, compositing and colour grading. Each area is seamlessly integrated into a single timeline-based interface, allowing live interaction between all functions. Mistika accepts almost any image resolution from SD to 4K and beyond, in 2D and Stereoscopic 3D. It has what is widely regarded as the best stereoscopic 3D toolset on the market making it the tool of choice for many television and film companies around the world.
Why all the hype about Mistika?
Mistika is currently taking the world by storm as a one-stop shop for your production needs – although its Stereoscopic toolset is what is really catching headlines. Recent additions to the Stereoscopic toolset allow for previously impossible corrections to 3D material which would previously had to be re-shot. Mistika combines any-resolution editing, grading and compositing in one system with no rendering needed whatsoever for many features. Being capable of advanced stereoscopic and data workflows, including real-time RED file handling, it gives post companies more ability, increased efficiency and a competitive advantage that sets them apart from their rivals.
What sets it apart from other systems out there?
No other single system has the breadth of features that Mistika has. Not only that it has strength in depth. Each feature, like grading, stands comparison with the best dedicated system on the market and each feature seamlessly integrates with another without time consuming or destructive importing and exporting. The other great strength is SPEED. Everyone who sees it in operation is wowed by its ability and the fact that for so many, even complex, operations no rendering is required. On top of this, the system is open, allowing storage to be accessed and shared by other applications and customer scripts to be incorporated.
Mistika has been programmed to make maximum use of the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) for some years. The result of this is unrivalled speed with many effects not requiring any processing (rendering) whatsoever. Speed benchmarks include: -
- Full colour grading on 4K DPX files without any rendering required.
- Motion estimated slow motion running in real time at up to 2K resolution.
- Real time, full resolution colour grading and convergence operations on stereoscopic material
at up to 2K per channel.
- Many other real time functions including RED camera based workflows.
Unlike many of its competitors, Mistika employs an open storage policy. Mistika can provide storage for any other product that allows connection to generic file systems. This allows Mistika to be easily integrated into an existing facility, because files of many different formats can be easily exchanged. With Mistika, it is also possible to develop custom scripts to aid integration and automate common functions.
What about stereoscopic 3D then – everyone can do that these days.
Many systems claim to support stereo 3D workflows now, but for most that simply means being able to work on and play out two streams of video. Mistika goes far beyond this with dedicated tools for helping with the specific problems that occur in stereoscopic production. It goes without saying it can grade two streams, either individually or together or both, but then things like being able to alter the interocular distance using advanced optical flow technology take it to another level. Currently this is one of the most active areas of development in Mistika.
Mistika has arguably the most advanced and developed 3D post production tools in the market, which has lead to Sky employing it as their only 3D finishing tool and for facilities companies such as The Framestore to base their 3D strategy upon it. Mistika’s advanced features include optical recognition between left and right cameras to aid the rapid correction of inherent stereo problems, such as camera pairs that are not exactly aligned. Mistika also allows its very strong colour grading functions to be applied to both image streams at the same time, or to just the left or right as needs be. Compositing can also be carried out in 3D. Mistika’s real-time stereo tools including colour grading, convergence adjustments and camera error correction, as well as some very advanced features such as retrospective adjustment of the cameras interocular distance have left the market stunned by its ability.
What’s special about RED workflow? – lots of systems do that too.
Sure – many systems can import the r3d files. But Mistika works directly with RED camera files without any importing or rendering. Working directly on the r3d file preserves all 12 bits of information right through the post process. It can take or conform from the original 4K camera files, rescale them to many desired delivery resolutions and colour grade the result in real time in a single process. Mistika also allows access and alterations to the decisions made by the camera operator on a shot-by-shot basis. As Mistika is so fast it remains responsive and usable even when working with 4k files.
Mistika can decompress and grade from RED camera files in real-time without any importing or cross conversion processes. By working directly from the RED files, Mistika retains access to RED specific meta-data such as exposure, white balance and gamma curve settings, whilst also benefiting from more efficient usage of image storage space. Many other products that claim to support RED files do so by first converting the RED files to their own convenient format. This requires time for cross conversion, more disk space to hold larger files and looses access to the RED meta-data. One of the strongest points of Mistika is its colour correction function that can compete with any stand-alone grading system. Combining this grading power with direct and real-time access to RED files creates an extremely capable and efficient RED based workflow.
What about its history and the company behind it?
Mistika is developed by SGO in Madrid . It has over 15 years of development behind it, having evolved from a previously successful system – Jaleo. It is therefore extremely robust and production proven. SGO, unlike some of its competitors whose development has stagnated in the current climate, is aggressively pushing development forward with new tools and workflows, especially in the areas of data workflow (e.g. with r3d files) and stereoscopic 3D.
