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OpenEXR is a high dynamic range imaging image file format, released as an open standard along with a set of software tools created by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), released under a free software license similar to the BSD license.

It is notable for supporting 16-bits-per-channel floating point values (half precision), with a sign bit, five bits of exponent, and a ten-bit mantissa. This allows a dynamic range of over thirty stops of exposure.

Both lossless and lossy compression of high dynamic range data is also supported.^[1]

OpenEXR Overview[link]

For a full technical introduction of OpenEXR, see the Technical Introduction available on the OpenEXR.org website.^[1]

OpenEXR, or simply EXR for short, is a deep raster format developed by ILM and very broadly used in the computer-graphics industry, both visual effects and animation.

OpenEXR's multi-resolution and arbitrary channel format makes it appealing for compositing. OpenEXR alleviates several painful elements of the compositing process. Since it can store arbitrary channels, specular, diffuse, alpha, RGB, normals, and various other types of channels in one file, it takes away the need to store this information in separate files. The multi-channel concept also reduces the necessity to "bake" in the aforementioned data to the final image. If a compositer is not happy with the current level of specularity, he or she can adjust that specific channel.

OpenEXR's API makes tools development a relative ease for developers. Since there are almost never two production pipelines that are the same, custom tools always need to be developed to address problems in the production process, e. g. to address image manipulation issue. OpenEXR's library allows quick and easy access to the image's attributes such as tiles and channels.

History[link]

OpenEXR was created by ILM in 1999 and released to the public in 2003.

OpenEXR is directly supported by Baselight, DaVinci Resolve, 3Delight, HDR PhotoStudio, Artizen HDR, Assimilate Scratch, Combustion, Cerebro, Flame 2008, Smoke 2008, Blender, 3dsmax, Softimage, Image Systems/Nucoda grading and mastering solutions, LuxRender, YafaRay, Indigo, CinePaint, Cinelerra, Houdini, Lightwave, modo, After Effects 7 Professional, V-Ray, Mental Ray, PRMan, Rendition, Digital Fusion, Nuke, Sony Vegas Pro, IRIDAS FrameCycler, IRIDAS SpeedGrade, Toxik, Shake, Pixie, Photoshop CS2, CINEMA 4D, Animation:Master, Pixel Image Editor, Tweak RV, SquidNet Render Manager, Bryce, Terragen 2 and Synfig. Others, like SView5 do support it by means of external tools like exrtoppm. It is also supported by the Cg programming language and Mac OS X since version 10.4.

Compression methods[link]

There are 3 general types of lossless compression built into OpenEXR, with two different methods of Zip compressing. For most images without a lot of grain, the two Zip compression methods seem to work best, while the PIZ compression algorithm is better suited to grainy images. The following options are available:

None

Disables all compression.

Run Length Encoding (RLE)

This is a basic form of compression that is comparable to that used by standard Targa files.

Zip (per scanline)

Zip style compression applied to individual scanlines.

Zip (16 scanline blocks)

Zip style compression applied to blocks of 16 scanlines at time. This tends to be the most effective style of compression to use with rendered images that do not have film grain applied.

PIZ (wavelet compression)

This uses a new combined wavelet / Huffman compression. This form of compression is quite effective when dealing with grainy images, and will often surpass any of the other options under grainy conditions.

PXR24 (24 bit data conversion then zipped compression)

This form of compression from Pixar converts data to 24 bit then uses Zip compression. It is lossless for half and 32bit integer data and slightly lossy for 32bit float data.

B44

This form of compression is lossy for half data and stores 32bit data uncompressed.

B44A

An extension to B44 where areas of flat color are further compressed. Regular B44 compresses uniformly regardless of image content.

Credits[link]

From OpenEXR.org's Technical Introduction:

The ILM OpenEXR file format was designed and implemented by Florian Kainz, Wojciech Jarosz, and Rod Bogart. The PIZ compression scheme is based on an algorithm by Christian Rouet. Josh Pines helped extend the PIZ algorithm for 16-bit and found optimizations for the float-to-half conversions. Drew Hess packaged and adapted ILM's internal source code for public release and maintains the OpenEXR software distribution. The PXR24 compression method is based on an algorithm written by Loren Carpenter at Pixar Animation Studios.

Developing with OpenEXR[link]

The OpenEXR library is developed in C++ and is available in source format as well as compiled format for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Python bindings for the library are also available.

As of version 1.3.0, released on June 8, 2006, support for multithreaded reading and writing was added to OpenEXR. Multithreaded reading and writing offers a higher performance gain for systems that have multiple cores or CPUs. OpenEXR handles reading and writing by a means of a thread pool.

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} Technical introduction: Data Compression

External links[link]

• OpenEXR.com
• OpenEXR Documentation
• OpenEXR Samples
• OpenEXR in Python
• exrtools incl. exrtoppm exe
• (PDF) Technical Introduction to OpenEXR
• (PDF) Reading and Writing Image Files
• exrtoppm exe/src for Windows

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Leon Max (born 1954 in Saint Petersburg, Russia^{[citation needed]}) is a Russian-born American fashion designer and retailer.

Early life[link]

Leon was born Leonid Maxovich Rodovinski^{[citation needed]} born in 1954 in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia).^{[citation needed]} The son of a playwright, he attended an English school and read the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald.^{[citation needed]} On leaving school he became an apprentice in costume and set design with the Kirov Ballet aged 16, by 18 realised that the only way he could improve his lot was to flee Soviet Russia.^{[citation needed]}

Changing his name to Leon Max by taking his fathers first name as his surname, Max enrolled at the New York Fashion Institute of Technology.^{[citation needed]} He worked for New York fashion house Tahari, and then Los Angeles-based Bis, a women’s sportswear firm.^{[citation needed]}

Max Studio[link]

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This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2011)

Max started Max Studio in 1979, and has over 7,000 points of sale.^{[citation needed]}

An upmarket fashion chain, Max Studio sells through department stores.^{[citation needed]} It also has 46 of its own retail stores in the U.S and another 50 in the Far East.^{[citation needed]}

In the boom years of the mid-1980s, Max commissioned avant-garde architecture firm Morphosis — then known for sharp edged constructionist compositions — to design a showroom in LA.^{[citation needed]} The eventual stores employed an evolved version of this aesthetic developed by LA architecture firm Design Office.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2011 Katia Elizarova was announced as Max Studio's new face and ambassador,^[1][2] replacing past faces of the brand Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Lily Cole.^[3][4][5]

Personal life[link]

Max is married to American model Ame Austin (born 1976).^{[citation needed]}

The couple are regarded as architectural connoisseurs,^[6] and have previously lived in a Greene and Greene house, as well as one designed by modernist American architect Richard Neutra.^{[citation needed]} They are currently awaiting the planning permission on a 11,500 sq ft (1,070 m²) futuristic cliff side home at Malibu.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005, the couple bought Easton Neston in Northamptonshire, England from Lord Hesketh for £15 million.^[7][8] They converted the 10,000 sq ft (1,000 m²) of the fire damaged Wren wing of the house (mistakeny attributed to Christopher Wren^[8]), plus the out buildings which were the home of defunct Formula One team Hesketh Racing into their European business base.^[8] The remaining main house become their English country home for six months of the year,^[9] where they had been welcomed by a gift from Lord Hesketh — a bottle of vodka.^[8]

References[link]

External links[link]

• MaxStudio.com
• Leon Max designer profile at Fashion Model Directory
• Times article on purchase of Easton Neston