6 (June) - Facultatea de Textile Pielarie si Management

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T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R D I G I TA L C O N T E N T C R E AT I O N A N D P R O D U C T I O N
Computer
June 2006
www.cgw.com
WORLD
On CG Location
Setting the virtual scene
in prime-time shows
Young Again
Digital artists reverse the
aging process for X-Men
CSI: CGI
Uncovering the clues
for an immersive
game experience
The
Wheel Deal
Team Disney/Pixar shifts into high gear
to create cars with character
$4.95 USA
Contents
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$6.50 Canada
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Zoom In Zoom Out Front Cover Search Issue Next Page EMaGS
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Previous Page Contents Zoom In Zoom Out Front Cover Search Issue Next Page EMaGS
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June 2006 • Volume 29 • Number 6
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T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R D I G I TA L C O N T E N T C R E AT I O N A N D P R O D U C T I O N
Also see www.cgw.com for computer graphics news,
special surveys and reports, and the online gallery.
Computer
WORLD
10
Features
Departmen ts
Cover story
Car Talk 10
CHARACTER ANIMATION | Team
Disney/Pixar builds the ultimate
concept cars for the newly released
vehicle-centric film.
Editor’s Note 2
The Ticket to Summer Fun
Will this year’s anticipated summer
blockbusters shine or fizzle?
Spotlight 4
By Barbara Robertson
Products
18
On Virtual Location 18
DIGITAL SETS | All is not what it seems
nowadays on TV, as more and more
city-specific locales are built digitally.
Luxology’s Modo 201
AMD’s energy-efficient processors
NewTek’s SpeedEdit, 3D Arsenal
News
By Martin McEachern
CAD/CAM/CAE mergers
and acquisitions
Portfolio 34
Face-off 28
MODELING TECHNIQUES | A studio
specializing in digital cosmetic
enhancements for music video stars
applies its craft to mutants on the big
screen by reversing the aging process
for a flashback sequence.
SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater
Products 38
CSI in 3D 32
INTERACTIVITY | Game artists use
mocap to bring crime-solving,
CSI style, into a full 3D world.
Investment group purchases
Digital Domain
User Focus
FIRST Robotics Competition
Seeing the effects of global warming
Backdrop 42
28
Living a Nightmare
Compositors integrate live actors into
the eerie digital world of Silent Hill.
By Karen Moltenbrey
On the cover:
Pixar’s model shop shifted into overdrive
crafting the unique characters and their
motions (and emotions) for the CGI
feature Cars. See pg. 10.
32
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Computer Graphics World | 1
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editor’snote
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Karen
Moltenbrey
Chief Editor
The Ticket to Summer Fun
KAREN MOLTENBREY : Chief Editor
[email protected]
_______
36 East Nashua Road
Windham, NH 03087
(603) 432-7568
According to the calendar, summer doesn’t actually begin until June 21, but
for children and adults, the Memorial Day weekend is the “real” start of the
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS:
Jenny Donelan, Audrey Doyle,
Evan Marc Hirsch, George Maestri,
season. That is when many open their swimming pools, uncover their grills,
and head to the beach. It is a time for parades, barbecues, and backyard fun.
It is also when studios kick off their summer box-office bonanza.
Years ago, a summer night at the movies meant packing up the pajama-clad children
Martin McEachern,
Stephen Porter, Barbara Robertson
KATH CUNNINGHAM: Production Director
[email protected]
__________
(818) 291-1113
in the family station wagon and heading to the local drive-in for a double feature that
CHRIS SALCIDO: Account Representative
usually included less-than-stellar titles, since major studios avoided summer releases on
[email protected]
_________
the premise that moviegoers would rather occupy themselves with outdoor activities.
(818) 291-1144
However, the whole concept of the summer movie changed in 1975, evolving into what
COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD
we call the summer blockbuster and transforming Hollywood in the process. The phe-
620 West Elk Avenue
nomenon surfaced in June 1975 when Jaws took a giant bite out of box-office revenues by
becoming the first to reel in $100 million in domestic sales (today’s definition of a block-
Editorial Office:
Glendale, CA 91204
(800) 280-6446, x1105
buster), slaughtering then-ruler The Godfather, with $85 million, and turning all subse-
SALES
quent releases that year—including the classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest—into
TIM MATTESON : Publisher/West Coast Sales
mere fish food. With its big thrills and chills, most of which were accomplished by an
[email protected]
________
(310) 836-4064
animatronic great white shark and suspenseful camera shots, the film kept people out of
the water and in the theaters as they returned for a second, third, and fourth viewing.
Soon after, the summer film lineups began shining as bright-
JEFF VICTOR : Midwest/East Coast Sales
[email protected]
_______
(847) 367-4073
A typical summer
ly as the summer sun, thanks in no small part to the use of
blockbuster film
spectacular effects. Just as Jaws redefined the summer film
620 West Elk Avenue
and made a fairly unknown director, Steven Spielberg, a house-
Glendale, CA 91204
is heavy on
hold name, so, too, did a science-fiction flick called Star Wars,
action, light on
which made Spielberg’s friend George Lucas a movie legend. Star
plot, and big on
Wars remains the highest grossing summer movie and the sec-
cutting-edge
digital effects.
domestic box office). Lucas further capitalized on the season,
and continued to kick off a sequel and prequel of summer hits,
The typical summer blockbuster formula is simple: heavy on action, light on plot and
character development, and big on digital effects—eye candy that may be sweet enough
to recoup today’s huge budgets...or not, as was the case with June 2004’s Around the
World in 80 Days (produced for $110 million; lost $115 million) and July 2001’s Final
Fantasy (produced for $137 million; lost $124 million). Yet, year after year, studios continue to stream big bucks into projects, hoping that with enough spectacular effects and
edge-of-your-seat action, any property can be turned into a huge financial success.
Last year saw a weak crop of summer films, no doubt contributing to the year’s 7
percent drop in movie attendance. While the 2006 summer premiere is only beginning, the lineup thus far looks promising, with mutant superheroes, pirates with
panache, talking animals, cars with personality, and daring spies on impossible missions—all containing cutting-edge CGI. Indeed, the new digital techniques are spectacular enough to warrant coverage within the pages of Computer Graphics World.
But, will the films themselves attract lines of moviegoers that snake around the block
(a telltale sign of a true blockbuster)? If the Memorial Day weekend was any indication, then it should indeed be a summer of hot hits. Do you have your ticket?
| Computer Graphics World
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(800) 280-6446
ond highest grossing movie of all time (nearly $460 million in
particularly with the VFX-packed trio Episodes I, II, and III.
2
LA Sales Office:
JUNE 2006
WILLIAM R. RITTWAGE
President and Chief Executive Officer
Computer Graphics World Magazine is published
by Computer Graphics World, a
COP Communications company.
Computer Graphics World does not verify any claims or
other information appearing in any of the advertisements
contained in the publication, and cannot take any
responsibility for any losses or other damages incurred
by readers in reliance on such content.
Computer Graphics World cannot be held responsible for
the safekeeping or return of unsolicited articles,
manuscripts, photographs, illustrations or other materials.
Subscriptions: Address all subscription correspondence to
Computer Graphics World, 620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale,
CA 91204. Subscribers June also contact customer service at
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the old and new address information, and if possible, include an address label from a recent issue. Subscriptions are
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spotlight
Your resource for products, user applications, news, and market research
PRODUCTS
3D MODELING
Luxology Delivers Modo 201
Luxology rolled out Modo 201, its unique 3D
ment. “Modo provides a fused work flow
modeling, painting, and rendering software
so artists can spend less time focusing
built on the Modo code base. Modo 201 com-
on the mechanics of 3D content creation
bines significant modeling advancements
and more time on realizing their artis-
with cutting-edge 3D painting and rendering
tic vision,” says Brad Peebler, Luxology
technologies in a work flow customized to
president. “It also offers an enhanced 3D
enhance productivity for 3D artists working in
creation experience by combining mod-
game development, film effects, video produc-
eling, painting, and rendering technologies in a unique and complementary way.”
tion, graphic arts, and design visualization.
Designed to fit easily into existing tool pipelines and work
Among the new features are: advanced modeling, integrat-
smoothly with other leading 2D and 3D software applica-
ed paint tools, accelerated rendering/baking technology, and
tions, Modo 201 accelerates the creation of models, associat-
work flow accelerators.
ed color and normal maps, and ultra high-quality renderings,
while providing a comfortable and intuitive working environ-
Modo 201 is available now for $895. Current Modo users
can upgrade to the new version for $395.
PRODUCTS
PROCESSORS
4
AMD Unfolds Energy-Efficient Roadmap
AMD unveiled a top-to-bottom ener-
seek to reduce operating costs, says Bob
gy-efficient desktop processor road-
Brewer, corporate vice president of the
map that will satisfy the requests by
company’s Desktop Business.
power AMD desktop processors.
The introduction of the roadmap
further demonstrates AMD’s commitment to an improved global envi-
consumers and businesses for small-
Building on the company’s success
er, more elegant PCs that aesthetically
in the blade and general-purpose server
ronment; the new line will comple-
complement office and home environ-
markets with the AMD Opteron proces-
ment AMD’s Cool‘n’Quiet technology.
ments, yet deliver the same perfor-
sor, energy-efficient AMD desktop pro-
The processors are available now and
mance as larger systems.
cessors can deliver greater performance-
range in scale. At the high end, the
To that end, energy-efficient AMD
per-watt over standard-power AMD
AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core pro-
Athlon 64 X2 dual-core, AMD Athlon
desktop processors and can reduce over-
cessors costs $671 for the 4800; the
64, and AMD Sempron processors,
all power consumption. For instance,
AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core proces-
based on the upcoming socket AM2,
AMD purports that these desktop pro-
sor 3800+ costs $364, and the AMD
are configured for new freedoms in PC
cessors can provide up to 37 percent
Sempron processor 3400+ costs $145.
form-factor design by offering signifi-
greater performance-per-watt than stan-
cant performance-per-watt advantages
dard-power AMD processors, while
over standard processors for commer-
energy-efficient small form-factor AMD
cial and consumer markets. Energy-effi-
Athlon 64 X2 dual-core desktop proces-
cient computing is a crucial step for the
sors can provide up to 154 percent great-
computing industry as large businesses
er performance-per-watt than standard-
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ACQUISITION
NEWS
PRODUCTS
VIDEO • 3D
NewTek Unveils New
Video Editor, 3D Offering
SpeedEdit, a resolution-independent video editor that works quickly and
Design
Companies
on Buying Spree
efficiently on any video project, from Web streams to HD. The company
Following the close of first-quarter finan-
NewTek, manufacturer of video and 3D animation products, announced
also beefed up its 3D product line with the addition of 3D Arsenal, a col-
cials, a number of CAD/CAM/CAE com-
lection of 3D content, plug-ins, and training material.
panies announced mergers and acquisitions of various companies in an attempt
Rather than emulating the old-school film-cutting work flow found in
most nonlinear editors, SpeedEdit streamlines the process by eliminat-
to create economies of scale and to reach
ing a number of unnecessary steps. For instance, it enables all editing
a broader audience with their tools and
functions to be performed directly within its timeline and storyboard
technologies.
Computer-aided
interface, so users can
bypass
the
design
software
industry giant PTC announced its
intermedi-
ate steps of transcoding
intention to buy Mathsoft, developer of
or pre-trimming content.
Mathcad, which is engineering calcula-
It further accelerates the
tion software for manufacturing, archi-
process by dynamically
tecture, engineering, construction, and
linking Storyboard and
education. Meanwhile, Adobe completed
Timeline, which allows
a deal that now gives the company con-
the performance of many
trol of France-based TTF, which focus-
common functions in
es on CAD data and multi-CAD digital
fewer steps. As a result, ripple edits, clip replacement, segment reposi-
mock-up. Also, Dassault Systems com-
tioning, 3D video rotation, color correction, animated titles, and Targa
pleted the mandatory waiting time and
sequence playback are just a few of the tasks that can be done faster.
has been given approval by the German
SpeedEdit will ship this summer for $495.
government to purchase MatrixOne, a
Meanwhile, 3D Arsenal and the 3D Arsenal suite simplifies the cre-
PDM company.
ation of custom motion graphics and logo animations for video editors.
In other moves, CAE vendor Ansys
Based on NewTek’s LightWave 3D software, 3D Arsenal ships with more
is buying Fluent, which offers compu-
than 750 pre-created scenes and templates. A content-only version is
tational fluid dynamics solutions. And,
available to current LightWave owners.
Autodesk
purchased
Constructware,
which manufactures collaborative tech-
3D Arsenal is available now for $495. LightWave users can purchase
nology for the construction industry.
it for $295.
NEWS
ACQUISITION
Investment Group Purchases Digital Domain
Digital Domain, the Academy Award-
Holdings, has been elected chief execu-
tunities in the entertainment business.
winning digital studio and produc-
tive officer and a member of the board
Rapidly evolving digital visual effects
tion company responsible for visual
of directors at Digital Domain, replac-
technology is going to allow motion-pic-
sequences in such fi lms as Titanic, The
ing Scott Ross, who is stepping down as
ture directors to tell even more compel-
Day After Tomorrow, and I, Robot, has
CEO and remaining a consultant to the
ling and visually stunning stories in
been acquired by South Florida-based
company. C. Bradley Call will remain
the future, and Wyndcrest believes that
Wyndcrest Holdings, LLC, a group led
as president and chief operating officer.
Digital Domain is uniquely positioned
by director Michael Bay and investor
Bay and Textor will co-chair the board
to take advantage of these new technol-
of directors. According to Stork, the
ogies, as well as new distribution chan-
Carl Stork, a long-time senior Micro-
acquisition will allow Digital Domain
nels and platforms, a spokesman for the
soft executive and principal of Wyndcrest
to capitalize on the expanding oppor-
investment firm says.
John Textor.
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spotlight
USER FOCUS
CAD DESIGN • VIZ
Student Engineers Aim High
in Robotics Competition
High school students from across the globe spent six weeks
to achieve a common goal are elements for success both in
designing and then building a robot that had to perform
engineering and in life.”
a set of designated tasks as part of a national engineering
As Rob Hoffman, senior entertainment product marketing
contest. In the end, a team from Rolling Meadows High
manager for Autodesk, points out, “Every year these students
School and Wheeling High School in Schaumberg, Illinois,
are recruited and given scholarships to prestigious schools
along with professional mentor Motorola, took home the top
such as MIT and Virginia Tech, so participating in the competition really does open doors. Plus, the life skills they take
Chairman’s Award for their invention.
Backed by a host of corporations and educational institutions, including official championship sponsor Autodesk,
away—teamwork, leadership—will enable them to pursue
any career they want, be it science-related or not.”
the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and
Technology) Robotics Competition challenges future engi-
Design Intent
neers to push the boundaries of innovation with leading-
This year, 1130 teams from seven countries designed
edge 3D tools. This year’s challenge theme, “Aim High,”
and constructed robots using Autodesk’s Inventor (3D
tested the students’ and their robots’ abilities to fire foam
mechanical design software) and 3ds Max (3D modeling, animation, and rendering software). Using a standard “kit of parts” and a common set of rules, the teams,
with help from their mentors, solved a common problem
during a six-week timeframe by building robots from the
parts. Then the teams put their projects to the test in 33
regional competitions, where they entered the inventions
in a series of competitions designed by Kamen and a committee of engineers and industry professionals. The game
“rules” vary yearly, so students are constantly challenged
to come up with new, inventive ideas.
Students are judged on various criteria that correspond to a
number of awards. Yet, teams are also rewarded for excellence
and maturity, and the ability to overcome obstacles.
balls through hoops, plow the balls into floor goals, and
contests: the Autodesk Inventor Award and the Autodesk
program a robotic vision system to navigate the robot.
Visualization Award. The Inventor Award, this year presented
As part of the competition, Autodesk sponsors two design
This year’s FIRST competition marks the 15th anniver-
to Team Cybersonics from Palisades High School (Kintersville,
sary of the event, founded by inventor/entrepeneur Dean
PA), is given to the team that best understands, documents,
Kamen in 1989 to inspire and foster an appreciation of sci-
and communicates the distinct phases of the design process,
ence and technology in young people through accessible,
from concept to production, using Inventor software. The team
innovative programs that build self-confidence, knowledge,
used a combination of AutoCAD and Inventor for its submis-
and life skills. To this end, Autodesk has been working with
sion. The group’s robot was a sophisticated machine that was
the FIRST Robotics Competition since 1992, providing stu-
built on the success of last year’s entry, which depended on
dents with donations of high-end engineering and visual-
speed and maneuverability of the robot chassis.
ization software to use in the competition.
6
in design, demonstrated team spirit, gracious professionalism
During competition, students cheer on their respective inventions
that they designed using Autodesk software.
Honorable mention in this category went to the Burning
“Autodesk continues to encourage students to learn
Magnetos team from Summerville High School, Fort
about these disciplines and inspires the inventors and
Dorchester High School, and Dorchester Country Career
engineers of tomorrow,” says Kamen. “Partnering with
School (North Charleston, SC). Receiving the Rising Star
mentors, developing relationships, and working as a team
(rookie) award was the NASA Fresta Valley Robotics Team
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from Fresta Valley Christian School (Marshall, VA).
Meanwhile, the Visualization Award recognizes excellence in animation that illustrates the
concept of “Ideas Realized.” Student teams used
3ds Max to create a 30-second animation about
how the FIRST Robotics Competition has helped
Receiving Inventor Awards were these designs from Team Burning Magnetos (left;
second place) and the NASA Fresto Valley Robotics Team (right; third place).
power of team strategy, and the collaboration and determination
them realize their ideas. The Grand Prize winner in this category
was Gunn Robotics Team from Henry M. Gunn High School (Palo
of students. In the contests, entrants played short games with their
Alto, CA), for its 3ds Max animation “Building a Better Future.”
remote-controlled robots by piloting them on a course.
More than 85 percent of the high schools and their company
Honorable mention was given to the Eagle Strike Team from Los
Altos High School (Los Altos, CA), which used Max and Inventor
mentors have stayed involved with the competition year after
for “Dreams to Design.” The Rising Star winner was Team Argos
year. Longer term, a Boston research firm in 2000 found that the
from Peoria Area High School (Peoria, IL), which used 3ds Max
students had an improved attitude toward science, math, team-
and Inventor for the animation “How to Create a FIRST Robot.”
work, and the working world, while a Brandeis University evaluation found that participants were nearly twice as likely to major
Teams are formed in the fall at the beginning of each school
in science or engineering as their peers. —Karen Moltenbrey
year, and Autodesk provides the software that students can use for
the robot design, engineering, and animation. In January, FIRST
announces the competition theme, after which students have six
weeks to complete their projects. Then, the robots are packed into
crates until the regional competitions are held.
In April, the regional winners gathered at the Atlanta Georgia
Dome for head-to-head competition among 340 teams (comprising 15 to 25 students each), for a total of 8500 students. As Kamen
points out, that number is outstanding when compared to the 1992
FIRST championship that involved just 28 teams gathered in a New
Hampshire high school gym near where FIRST is located. Teams
earned their invitations to this year’s championship by excelling in
competitive play, sportsmanship, and various awards, including
Autodesk’s two design accolades. The competitions involve highintensity events that measure the effectiveness of each robot, the
Through 3D tools, hands-on work, and mentors, high schoolers
are introduced to science, math, and engineering at a high level.
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spotlight
USER FOCUS
ATMOSPHERIC EFFECTS
Effects of Global Warming
When executive producer and environ-
To help visually depict the
mental activist Laurie David teamed with
complexities of global warming,
HBO and Lovett Productions on a docu-
Vincent MacTiernan, animator
mentary showing the devastating effects
and founder of Extreme Digital
of global warming, they needed to illus-
Productions, created climatic and
trate their point with CGI that blended
atmospheric visual effects using
seamlessly into the live action for a real-
Wondertouch’s
istic, rather than exaggerated, look.
software,
The documentary, titled Too Hot Not
to Handle: A Global Warming Premier,
ParticleIllusion
which
ran
along-
side Adobe’s After Effects and Using a range of digital tools, Extreme Digital
NewTek’s LightWave in his stu- Productions created CG imagery to illustrate the
featured in-depth descriptive discus-
dio’s pipeline. The majority of the
sions with some of the nation’s top sci-
effects sequences involved the
effects of global warming for a documentary.
entists and explored the immediate
Earth spinning, with plumes of green-
of the Earth that included their
planetary effects of global warming; it
house gas rising from the surface. It also
request for photorealistic smoke and
also focused on positive actions by busi-
featured digital smog, water evaporation,
smog elements.”
nesses, local governments, and individ-
air pollution, and more.
uals to counter the growing threat.
Impressed with the results, the
The fact that MacTiernan was
HBO team brought Extreme Digital
awarded
Elements onboard in a graphics and
this
proj-
ect occurred by happenstance. He had
been visiting a facil-
ing greenhouse gas emission, Extreme
Digital Production created a 3D model
does work when he
of the Earth slowing spinning with real-
encountered the HBO
istic plumes, representing toxic carbon
production staff as
dioxide that gradually increased in vol-
they were reviewing
ume and rose from the Earth’s surface.
graphic shots for the
“We started out by selecting basic
documentary. When
ParticleIllusion smoke presets. With
it
just a few changes to the color and
appeared
that
the elements were
size, we were able to easily customize
not quite what the
the plume effects without having to go
group had in mind,
back to square one or to a new 3D scene,”
MacTiernan offered
explains MacTiernan. “Next, we showed
to provide samples of
the client real-time, full-resolution pre-
atmospheric effects.
views of just how the plumes would
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JUNE 2006
look. The client appreciated being able
immediacy required
to approve the look of the effect right
to turn around the
away without having to wait hours or
samples, using a 3D
even days to see a render.”
particle program was
8
In a particular sequence involv-
ity for which he often
“Because of the
Digital artists were challenged to generate visual
effects that illustrated the conceptual issue of global
warming only in a realistic way. To accomplish the effects,
they used ParticleIllusion software from Wondertouch.
animation capacity.
The approved plumes were then
out of the question,”
rendered out with an alpha channel
MacTiernan says. “But
and imported into After Effects. This
with ParticleIllusion, I
gave the group better control while
knew I could quickly
manipulating the effects with the 3D
generate a 3D image
backplate. —Karen Moltenbrey
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© 2006 AJA Video Systems
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
WORK AND WORK OF ART
A S PA SSIONATE A S YOU ARE
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE OUR
DESKTOP VIDEO SOLUTIONS CAN MAKE,
VISIT US AT WWW.AJA.COM.
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VIDEO SYSTEMS
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Character Animation
car talk
P i xar ’s seven th feature a nimation se n d s a st o ck ca r r a ci n g d o w n R o u t e 6 6
10 | Computer Graphics World
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From day one, Pixar has put CG anima-
ward as he takes a trip to the big Piston
was ‘truth to material,’” Clark says. “So,
tion on Hollywood’s fast-track. Now, the
Cup Championship in California. On the
on the one side is realism—we knew we
multiple-Oscar-winning studio puts pedal
way, he crashes just outside Radiator
could animate a car that looked believ-
to the metal with Cars, a Walt Disney
Springs, a desert town along Route 66 in
able. But, the car had to emote.”
Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios feature
Carburetor County where he must spend
So, the Cars characters couldn’t be as
film that stars an ensemble cast of hot rods,
time repairing a little damage. There, he
caricatured as, say, Disney’s short anima-
stock cars, sports cars, and rust buckets.
learns that while achievements are fine,
tion “Susie the Little Blue Coupe,” but they
the journey in life is the reward.
had to come alive. “We do exaggerate,”
The drama begins at a fast and flashy
Clark says. “But because the medium has
NASCAR night race on the East Coast, and
Cars was directed by John Lasseter,
then follows one participant, Lightning
the driving force behind Toy Story and
such dimensionality, a car doesn’t get on its
McQueen (actor Owen Wilson), after-
Toy Story 2 who has overseen all Pixar’s
back tires and gesture with its front tires.”
creative endeavors, and co-directed by
To turn the cars into characters, Pixar
the late Joe Ranft, who also served as
made the front of each car the head and put
story supervisor for the film and voiced
eyes on the windshield. Any yet, although
several incidental characters.
the eyes have an iris, sclera, and dimen-
The ambitions of the character McQueen
sionality, they still look like they’re made
center on beating his main racing competi-
of plastic and glass. The metal above the
tors: The King, a 1970 Plymouth Superbird
windshield acted as a mix between an eye-
voiced by Richard Petty, and Chick Hicks,
lid and an eyebrow, and provided a hint of
voiced by Michael Keaton. McQueen’s
a furrowed brow. The mouth, where a grill
epiphany arrives via Radiator Springs’
might be, became the most plastic facial
notable citizens. Doc (Paul Newman), a
feature. The cars pivot from their back
1951 Hudson Hornet, is a quiet country
axels and steer with the front. “So the
doctor (mechanic) with a secret past. Sally,
back became the hips,” Clark says, “and
a 2002 Porsche 911 (Bonnie Hunt), is a
the front tires became hands. By steering
California refugee now operating the Cozy
or tipping, the tires became gestural, and
Cone (traffic cone) Motel. Fillmore (George
then, by pivoting the car’s front from the
Carlin), a 1960 VW Bus, is the resident hip-
back axel, the whole car became a head.”
pie. Sarge (Paul Dooley) is a 1942 Army
Male cars had angular shapes; female
Jeep, and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) is a
cars had softer curves. Sally, the Porsche,
good ol’ boy tow truck. These are but a few
for example, has a small, cute mouth.
of the town’s four-wheeled residents. There
“Humans are the hardest characters to
are no human characters in this film. In
animate because there are so many lay-
fact, with the exception of a few bugs (fly-
ers of believability,” says Clark. “We had
ing VWs with wings), the only characters
to strip away the noise and find the sim-
in the film are cars.
plest and most elegant way to get across
All images © 2006 Disney Enterprises, Inc. and Pixar Animation Studios.
Any other studio given a “car” theme for
that this is a car, but it’s alive, and this is
an animated feature might have created a
a male or female car. It was almost a Zen-
car-toon. Not Pixar. To the animators, the
like way of animating.”
Cars stars aren’t cartoon characters.
“John [Lasseter] wanted a story in
Body Shop
which the cars are humans,” says Scott
A team of between 35 and 40 animators
Clark, supervising animator. “The doors
worked on the ensemble cast, each per-
don’t open; you don’t look inside their
son animating all the characters in a scene.
heads. They become humans; a human
All the cars used the same basic rig. “We
drama unfolds in front of you.” At the
didn’t want to spend forever creating varia-
same time, Lasseter had another require-
tions,” says Eben Ostby, supervising tech-
ment, one born of the 3D medium in
nical director. “We needed to produce large
which they’d be working. “John’s edict
numbers of different models from one kind
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Character Animation
of rig. We could take the facial rig for one car, move it to another
In the Dust
car, and it would still work. We’d just stretch it to fit.”
The opening stock car race happens on a small track at night. “It
Built into the rig were two systems that helped the cars act
gets the movie off to a rip-roaring start,” says Ostby. “As the cars
like real cars. By using a path-based driving system installed in
pass through all the light sources around the track, we see tiny
every car, animators could create a line through space, and the
shadows. It looks almost like the light is strobing. It helps make
character would follow it. While the car was moving down the
the start of the film energetic.” By contrast, the middle act in
road, ground maps showed the road’s elevation. So, whether the
quiet Radiator Springs is relaxed. And then the last act puts us
roads were curvy, hilly, or bumpy, the system locked the wheels
back at the track—this time, in California. The California race-
to the ground and handled the physics. Tires squished and the
track has a different feel,” adds Ostby. “Accidents happen. We
cars bounced as they drove over bumps; they swayed around cor-
have smoke and dust, and McQueen races through the smoke.”
ners, and behaved like real cars when they screeched to a stop. “It
To create the smoke and dust, Pixar developed a new ren-
would have been impossible for animators to look at that in every
dering model for the aerosol fluids. “That wasn’t the key thing,
frame,” says Clark. “But we had the choice to use it or not. We
though,” says Ostby. “The key thing was that we used a lot of it,
could even run the simulation and adjust the animation later.”
and we art-directed it.”
As with a real car, the suspension system could be changed
Effects supervisor Steve May led the teams that created these
by the animators to suit the character. Thus, Sarge lumbers
effects and others. “The main effects were dust,” he says. “John
and rolls, while racy McQueen stays low to the ground and
[Lasseter] gave us reference footage from rally racing in Europe,
grips the road.
with cars on large expanses raising huge clouds of dust that could
A spatial weighting system for various car parts provided the
performance controls. “By and large, many of the controls have
analogs in creatures,” says Ostby. For example, the crew rigged
the cars’ facial animation system using controls similar to those
they might devise for animating a creature’s face. “The cars have
a jaw and cheeks,” he says. “But there are also differences. For
example, the eyelids are on a sliding panel on the windshield.”
To animate the stadium crowds for the races at the beginning
and end, Pixar used Softimage XSI’s Behavior software and a
proprietary system. Behavior handled cars with such particular
actions as queuing up in line. The proprietary system managed
the massive crowds and allowed the animators to give individual
cars specific actions that they would perform on cue. “Making a
crowd look alive and not planned is an art in and of itself,” says
Clark. “The crowd has a personality. We didn’t just create a bunch
Thousands of tiny Maya particles rendered with PRMan point
primitives kicked up dust behind the 1951 Hudson Hornet, Doc. Large
particles rendered volumetrically formed distant, billowing dust clouds.
be hundreds of meters long, but at the same time, had this complex
of cycles and hit the random button.” The animators discovered,
for example, that if they multiplied an eye-blink cycle and applied
behavior in them.” With that footage in mind, the effects team cre-
it to the stadium cars, thousands of cars all blinked at the same
ated giant dust trails for the cars racing through Cars’ deserts.
time. “The windshields are bigger than people’s eyes,” explains
To do this, the crew tried, at first, putting 3D car models into
Clark. “We couldn’t have that. There was a lot of really carefully
virtual wind tunnels and running full fluid-dynamic simulations,
but the lack of control over the simulations persuaded them to
considered animation done by artists in the art department.”
use two types of particle simulations instead. To create the big
clouds of dust, which would have required too many particles to
produce the fine details in the reference films, the effects team
generated between 20,000 and 40,000 large particles that they
rendered volumetrically. “Some of the particles were as big as
the car, but most were the size of a wheel,” says May. “We used a
sophisticated shader written by Erdem Taylan first for underwater explosions in Finding Nemo, and then for explosions in The
Incredibles. It can add nice details that create a rotational feel.”
For smaller scale dust, the effects crew generated as many
Pixar used custom crowd-simulation software to cue specific actions
within the thousands of cars in the stadium, and Softimage XSI’s
Behavior software to control cars queuing up in line.
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tiny particles in Autodesk’s Maya as they could push through
the system using small point primitives in Pixar’s PRMan to
render them. Disk space, not rendering memory, limited the
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Character Animation
number of particles. The crew produced turbulent particle dynamics for the dust clouds and
for the smoke in the car crash scenes by using
Maya hair dynamics to set up the fluid flow. “We
attached hairs to the bottom of the cars, and they
gave us overlapping dynamics as a basis for generating the particle dynamics,” Ostby points out.
Road Crew
Animators handled the car crash at the begin- The Fiat Luigi, the stock car racer Lightning McQueen, and the Italian forklift Guido
ning of the film without help from a simulation. have the same basic suspension rig, individually adjusted, that helped animators keep
Instead, aptly named animator John Khars mas-
the cars’ tires on the road in the film.
terminded the physics. “We could have hit the
push the pieces away, starting with the smaller pieces near the
‘simulate’ button and gotten something interesting,” says Clark.
center and then the larger pieces later. “It’s like a zipper,” says
“But we wanted to be in control. We wanted caricatured jokes.”
May. “And, it goes on for at least a football length or two, kick-
Procedural animation helped, though, when McQueen crashes
ing up rubble and spray that hits the buildings.”
through Radiator Springs. He’s out of control, runs through a
The effects team also created a waterfall. In a scene that
barbed wire fence, and becomes attached, literally, to a statue of
May describes as particularly majestic, Sally and McQueen
the town’s founder. When that happens, he pulls so hard that the
drive up a mountain and come upon a magnificent waterfall.
statue topples off its pedestal and the post that held up the statue
“John [Lasseter] wanted this to be an awe-inspiring moment,”
lands in front of him. He’s still attached to the statue, but it’s
says May, “one of the most beautiful things McQueen has
night, he’s scared, and he’s not sure what’s going on, so he keeps
ever seen.”
driving. As he heads down Main Street pulling the statue behind
For reference, Lasseter sent the crew photographs that he
him, he wreaks havoc. The statue rips up the road like a knife
had taken in Yosemite of a waterfall that showed the distinctive
pulling through brittle icing on a cake.
strands of water he wanted. By emitting particles from layers
To tear up the street, the effects group used Voronoi tessella-
of maps, technical director Jason Johnston simulated the water
tion to procedurally break the road into little chunks of asphalt.
falling at different speeds in the huge waterfall. “One level of
“Ferdi Scheepers created a clever algorithm that uses McQueen’s
particles became a generator for other levels,” May says. “We
path,” explains May. “The chunks are smaller on the center line,
didn’t want anything viscous. We wanted distinct parts—inde-
and get bigger as they get farther away. Then he placed all the
pendent groups that moved as a group.”
tiles back in an unbroken state and seamed up all the shading
To generate the waterfall, the crew used so many particles
so you can’t tell it’s pre-broken.” As McQueen drives on a long
that the simulation shut down the renderfarm. “It was the net-
path that winds for blocks through the town, animated forces
work traffic,” points out May. “We have an adequate render-
Sally Carrera, a 2002 Porsche 911, drives past a waterfall that used
so many particles the simulation shut down the renderfarm. Particles emitted in layers simulated water falling at different speeds.
farm, but bringing the data to the renderer made the system
grind to a halt.” To reduce the load, the group quarantined the
shot so that only a few frames would render at a time.
In addition to these large particle simulations, the effects team
also modeled individual pieces of
geometry to create a fine layer of
dust in Doc Hudson’s garage. They
distributed the geometry using
shaders,
although
sometimes
Lasseter wanted the individual
bits of dust backlit.
“It’s fun to develop new technology,” says May, “but it’s also
great to focus on artistic aspects.
The dust clouds are beautiful. It’s
not just dirt; it’s like clouds rising
from the cars during the golden
hour of the day.”
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From acclaimed
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Character Animation
Detailing
For the first time, Pixar rendered with
raytracing throughout the film—the cars
demanded it for the reflections. “We used
ambient occlusions to help bring out the
shapes and crevices in diffusely lit objects,”
explains Ostby. “And, we used raytracing
for diffuse radiance—to spill colored light
from one object to another.”
The studio renders with the commercially available RenderMan software,
PRMan, although Ostby points out that
they tend to be early adopters. “The trickiest thing for us was in using these techniques in a film with as much stuff as
in this one,” he says. “We used a multipronged approach to get our renders to be
reasonably cheap.”
Stochastic pruning reduced the amount of geometric complexity in the sagebrush-littered
desert. Note the tail fin-shaped mountains rising from the plains behind Lightning McQueen.
The studio calls one of those approaches “shrink-wrapping,”
cal, lighting also helped tell the town’s story. “We contrast the town
which is a texture-mapping technique that reduced the complexity
from the way it used to be in its heyday to how run down it is now
of rendering fully detailed cars in a scene. “We bake information
through the use of neon lighting,” says Ostby. To do that, the crew
onto the surface of the cube so the process becomes, essentially,
used new area light sources for particular neon tubes, along with
the process of rendering the cube,” Ostby says. Displacement maps
RenderMan light shaders. “It was a lot of work making the neon
made the cubes render as if they were a fully detailed cars.
lights look right and cast the right light on the set,” Ostby says.
The rendering team also helped speed rendering, particularly
of raytraced reflections, by becoming early adopters of PRMan’s
Motoring Down Route 66
brick maps. “We baked out whatever we could into brick maps,”
In 2001, the two directors, producer Darla Anderson, and other
says Ostby. “We baked raytraced reflections, occlusions. You
members of the production team drove a caravan of four white
compute the reflections only once, but you can filter them when
Cadillacs on a nine-day trip along Route 66 from Oklahoma to
you read the map in. So you can add an extra layering of fil-
California. “When John went on the road with the story guys,
tering.” That helped them more easily repair any aliasing and
they went to meet the people on Route 66,” says Clark. “They
noise problems that occurred.
knew the story they wanted to tell about the cars. They didn’t
To reduce the amount of complexity in the desert, with its
know the through-line. There’s a lot of Joe Ranft in this movie,
miles and miles of sagebrush, the crew used what it calls “sto-
and he felt there was something really human about how the
chastic pruning.” “We wanted to build the sagebrush accurately,
towns were forgotten when the interstate system was built in
with thousands of leaves on each,” says Ostby, “but we also
the ’50s. Route 66 is a physical representation of American cul-
wanted hundreds of thousands of plants in the desert valley.”
With stochastic pruning, the sagebrush plants didn’t lose vol-
ture, and one of the stories is about the town. It’s kind of an
appropriate story to tell.”
ume; they became less complex. “As the object becomes small
With Cars, Pixar took a risk by sticking to John Lasseter’s man-
on the screen, we drop off leaves, but we compensate,” Ostby
date “truth to materials.” Turning the cars into cartoon characters
explains. “We dropped them off stochastically across the sur-
might have been easier, but the crew believes the result wouldn’t
face so we didn’t have bald spots, then we compensated the size
have been as engaging; people wouldn’t have become as immersed
of the leaves, the amount of surface area, and the shader, which
in the world. In any animated feature, the technical sophistication
needed a different response to light as the leaves changed size.”
and animation skill all goes to waste if the story doesn’t capture
For Cars, the R&D group wrote a new lighting tool dubbed
people’s hearts, but Pixar always has a story to tell. That’s why
Lumos that allowed the lighters to manipulate much of the light-
the studio’s films have been box-office hits, Oscar contenders, and
ing interactively. “We could change light directions and shad-
Oscar winners. And that’s likely to be true for Cars, as well.
ows, all those good things, but not the final touches,” says Ostby.
Let the races begin.
The crew rendered out a small number of passes—usually three
or four, sometimes as many as 10. Using Apple’s Shake, the com-
Barbara Robertson is an award-winning writer and a contribut-
positors could dial the intensity of reflections up or down.
In addition to making the cars look real and the landscape magi16 | Computer Graphics World
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ing editor for Computer Graphics World. She can be reached at
[email protected].
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To learn more, visit: www.lightwave3d.com
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Digital Sets
On Virtual
E p i so d i c t e l e v i si o n o pe n s
a n e w f ro n t i e r f o r e ff ec t s
a r t i st s se t t i n g a sce n e
By Martin McEachern
A revolution is under way, and it is being
ers and production designers while still
parking lot to the parking lot of the US
Capitol, the crew sprung into action
televised. Only, no one has noticed—even as
reducing costs. With that goal, they’ve
it unfolds before millions of eyes each week
turned to facilities such as Zoic Studios,
on multiple fronts, sending an artist to
on such hit shows as Crossing Jordan, CSI,
Look Effects, and Stargate Digital.
Washington, DC to gather reference photos
and Las Vegas. And, it’s happening, quite lit-
As these companies rise to the chal-
for texture mapping, another to the LA set
lenge, a new and potentially lucrative
to gather lighting and camera data, while
Look closely at the detectives on Fox’s
frontier for the industry hangs in the bal-
the rest of the team began the modeling
prime-time drama Bones as they pass
ance. At stake is a future where digital set
process using LightWave and Autodesk
through Arlington National Cemetery or
asset libraries become a valuable com-
Media and Entertainment’s Maya.
at the military officers on NBC’s E-Ring
modity, and digital set design and pro-
For Zoic, which also does virtual sets
as they stride through the parking lot of
duction design become intertwined. But
for CSI: Miami and Battlestar Galactica,
the Capitol Building, for example. In fact,
changing the channel on the future will
E-Ring was a golden opportunity to show-
wherever you find your favorite characters
not be easy. Artists must learn to work
case its talents because the production was
erally, in the background of every show.
each week—be it near Boston Harbor, the
much faster than their counterparts in
severely limited in its travel budget, making
Las Vegas strip, Central Park, the Lincoln
film, who often labor for months, some-
virtual locations a necessity. “Usually, set
Memorial, even in Afghanistan—chances
times years, on a single shot.
dressing would furnish the live-action sets
are they were filmed in a backlot, parking
They also must learn to use simple,
with foreground elements or anything else
lot, or studio in Los Angeles. The worlds
all-purpose software packages. NewTek’s
interacting with the actors,” says visual
they inhabit are increasingly virtual.
LightWave, for example, shines on the
effects supervisor Andrew Orloff. “But for
Overwhelmed by shrinking budgets,
episodic stage; rarefied and highly spe-
the Capitol shot, there was no dressing at
narrowing production schedules, and
cialized tool sets do not. And because
all, not even cars in the lot. We had to cre-
rising viewer expectations, TV produc-
there’s no time to fix mistakes on an epi-
ate everything in 3D because the director
ers are in desperate need of a new pro-
sodic schedule, the artists are invested
planned to shoot the action with moving,
duction paradigm—one that can trans-
with a level of trust and creative respon-
panning, tilting, and craning cameras—
port actors each week through virtual
sibility found nowhere else in the indus-
not lock-offs. We couldn’t just put a matte
sets and set extensions created within a
try. Moreover, they must learn to collabo-
painting back there and track it in [Adobe]
matter of days, not weeks. But with larger
rate with directors, production designers,
After Effects or [Autodesk Discreet] Com-
effects companies tailored to handle long-
actors, and cinematographers, assuming
bustion; it wouldn’t look real. We needed
term, high-budget effects, these produc-
a far more active and integrated role.
the parallax to sell the shots.”
Capitol-izing on Zoic
posite, the team arrived on set with a 360-
ers are pinning their hopes on smaller,
“boutique” houses to fulfill the prom-
With only a week to complete the com-
ise of a brave, new virtual world—com-
When producers for NBC’s E-Ring (about
degree camera to gather high dynamic
panies with production pipelines that
the top-secret missions of two Pentagon
range imagery for reflection mapping. As it
emphasize speed and simplicity, which
military officers) asked Zoic Studios to
rotates on a special tripod mount, the cam-
can unshackle the imaginations of writ-
transport the actors from a Los Angeles
era takes a picture every 20 degrees along
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Images © Bruckheimer Television, Warner Bros.
lLocation
With a limited travel
budget, E-Ring relied
on Zoic to dress a
sparse greenscreen
set (left) using 3D
elements, resulting in
this final shot (right).
the x and y axis, allowing artists to stitch
make certain suggestions as to what was
to camera and particle data from Maya—
into LightWave. “LightWave has this tool
the exposures together to form a spherical
needed, such as a 50 mm lens and so forth.
image of the location. The entire process
Once the director and director of pho-
called background radiosity, which does
takes about 15 minutes, and when done,
tography execute the shots, the group
image-based radiosity lighting,” says
the resulting image is mapped to a sphere
works closely with the assistant camera
Orloff. “It’s fast, and looks great.”
in Maya. Zoic uses proprietary tools and
crew to gather precise information about
HDR Shop’s free Lightgen plug-in for Maya
the camera lens. This data is then fed into
Crime-Scene Work
to “read” the sphere and place directional
2d3’s Boujou. The goal on set, accord-
The Capitol shots were completed in just
lights across the virtual sky dome that
ing to Orloff, is to be minimally invasive,
under a week, but for the crew at Zoic,
approximate the on-set lighting. Artists
never imposing restrictions on the cam-
there was no time to rest on their lau-
then use these lights to create reflection
era work that could undermine the signa-
rels. For in the episodic world, where jobs
maps and shadows for the scene.
ture visual style of a show. “When you see
are short and fast, juggling multiple proj-
The studio constructed the Capitol as a
the shot, you want it to feel like they shot
ects is key. So at the same time, the team
light, polygonal mesh in Maya. Using the
the Capitol, not like they made a hundred
played musical chairs with other projects,
reference photos, the artists refined the
concessions to composite the Capitol into
including regular work for CSI, E-Ring, and
textures in Adobe’s Photoshop, and pro-
the scene,” says Orloff. “Our effects have to
Battlestar Galactica.
jection-mapped them to the building in
conform to the visual style of the show.”
According to Orloff, Mental Images’
LightWave. For UV mapping, or stretching
Using Boujou and artistic finesse, the
Mental Ray, Maya’s Fluid Effects, and
a texture map across a piece of geometry,
team allows both the cameraman and
Next Limit’s Real Flow are crucial tools
the team also used Maya. To enhance the
director to work unfettered, tracking the
for the group’s work on CSI—in all its
lighting and detail of the concrete surfaces,
camera movements and applying them to
incarnations—especially when the camera whooshes through a body, down hair
the artists used Pixologic’s Zbrush to paint
the 3D camera in Maya. This same cam-
normal maps, which encode information
era is used by the compositors in After
shafts, pushing through capillaries, con-
for all three axes. “With Zbrush, we’re
Effects and Combustion to add clouds,
nective tissues, and bodily fluids. CSI not
able to create normal maps very quickly,
trees, telephone poles, flocks of birds,
only relies heavily on Zoic’s previz work
getting a massive amount of detail with-
and other set dressings in 2D. Allowing
for staging virtual set shots, but for doing
out upping the geometry, which can crip-
the 3D and 2D artists to work in parallel
motion-control shots as well. “We handle
ple work flow and protract rendering
with a synced-up camera is crucial to fin-
the motion-control shooting for CSI, so
times,” says Orloff.
ishing shots on an episodic schedule.
we’ll swap data from the laptop and actu-
Prior to arriving on set, Zoic will create
Once the modeling, camera tracking,
ally program the motion-control rig using
a previz in Maya to block out shots, creat-
and texturing are finished, Zoic uses a
the data from the 3D file,” explains Orloff.
ing virtual dollies, cranes, and other rigs
proprietary system to export the Maya
In addition, the producers of CSI: Las
for the CG camera, and constraining it to
scenes to LightWave for rendering. The
Vegas depend so heavily on virtual set
the speeds and motions of the real camera.
in-house software translates everything—
extensions that, at the beginning of every
Taking the previz to the set, the team could
from rigged characters and hair dynamics,
season, they send Zoic to that city to shoot
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Images © CBS Productions, Bruckheimer Television, Alliance Atlantis.
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The first image is from raw footage shot for the show CSI: Las
Vegas. The team at Zoic digitally removed some trees to the left and
added the top of a Las Vegas hotel, as seen in the second image.
360-degree panoramic plates. This way, the studio remains upto-date with the ever-changing sprawl of hotels. “They give us
our own camera crew and location manager. We go to the top of
buildings with a miniature version of a 360-degree rig and shoot
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from the east, west, north, and south stitched together on multiple moving film plates,” says Orloff. “You can seen these plates
in the backgrounds of panning shots, especially when the buildings are in the far distance.”
Over the years, Zoic has witnessed the tides of change in TV
land. “Somehow, in the last few seasons, VFX shots have gotten
really long,” muses Orloff. “For a typical TV show, we used to do
60 90-frame shots; if we got a 200-frame shot, we’d look sideways
and say, Wow! Now, we’re doing 1500 900-frame shots as a matter of course. Every single pilot this season had multiple shots
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points that demand close attention and expanded screen time.
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In one such pivotal plot point for an episode of Fox’s Bones, the
detectives discover the charred remains of a body lying against
a headstone in Arlington National Cemetery. The studio could
not get permission from the government to shoot on the hallowed grounds. So, they turned instead to Look Effects, whose
credits include Criminal Minds, CSI: NY, Malcolm in the Middle,
and The OC. “Because they didn’t just want to put something
identifiable in the image, like the Chrysler Building, to ‘tag’ it,
they needed all of Arlington Cemetery so they could have total
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freedom in blocking the shots,” says visual effects supervisor
Surviving Pilot Season
Max Ivims.
Zoic worked on a slew of pilots for this season, including The Way, Ultra, and
With just under two weeks to complete the shot (which Ivims
Eureka, a sci-fi original series airing on the Sci-Fi channel July 18. In one com-
concedes is much longer than usual), the crew arrived at the
plex shot for Eureka, in which the camera descends from the clouds into a town
arboretum in Arcadia, California, where set dressers had impro-
skirted by tree-topped mountains, artists created the entire geography virtually,
vised a small military cemetery using 100 Styrofoam headstones
using Maya’s Paint Effects for close-up plant life, such as trees and grass, and
and a fake fountain. The cemetery had to be digitally expanded
LightWave’s Vue 5 Infinite (from E-on Software) as a terrain generator for the
to 5000 headstones for various day and night shots. In the 900-
sweeping expanses of mountains and densely treed forests.
frame opening shot, which was completely greenscreened, the
“Unlike feature work, where you tend to use one specific functionality of a soft-
camera moves with the main characters as the entire cemetery
ware package, in episodic work, where you’re doing everything under the sun, you
fills the background. To keep rendering times low, artists con-
need a flexible package that can handle the full gamut of effects very rapidly,” notes
structed a simple polygonal model of Arlington in Maya. Because
VFX supe Andrew Orloff. That includes particle effects. So to generate the clouds
there was nothing in the shot to enable matchmoving, the art-
for the shot, the artists used the new Dynamite hypervoxel engine for LightWave, a
ists used a combination of eye-matching the 3D and doing 2D
third-party particle and dynamics volumetric renderer. “Since the clouds were rela-
adjustments in Apple’s Shake and After Effects. For panning
tively static, we could just move the texture around inside them to generate some
and craning shots, the crew used Boujou and The Pixel Farm’s
internal motion.” LightWave’s volumetric rendering power is also behind the fire,
PFTrack to synchronize their virtual cameras.
smoke, explosions, and other particle effects of Battlestar Galactica.
For texture mapping and re-creating the on-set lighting in its
For another pilot next season, called October Road, the company used Paint
virtual cemetery, the team did extensive photography of the area,
Effects to dress all the bare trees lining a road with bright orange leaves, employing
including the fake headstones, trees, grass, and other plant life
Maya’s Dynamic Fields to make all the branches and leaves shudder in the wind with
in the arboretum. However, the group did not go to Arlington;
varying turbulence. For simple shots like these, involving one, discreet image created
Ivims says it was more important for the textures to be consistent
in Maya, the team uses Mental Images’ Mental Ray for rendering. —MM
with the faux cemetery than the real one. Unfortunately, the team
could not use the texture maps derived from the Styrofoam headstones. “The set-dressing headstones looked fine when we were
patches of greener grass interspersed with swaths of burnt and
on set and in practical photography, but when we took photos of
dying grass. The more little details you add, the less your brain
them and tried to map them to the virtual ones, it just registers
recognizes it as a synthetic environment.” The artists prepared
in your subconscious that something is wrong. Real headstones
all the texture maps in Photoshop. While the crew normally
have a little stain on the bottom from rain splashing up from the
uses Maya’s Paint Effects to generate foreground trees, because
ground. The fake ones don’t have that.”
most of the trees were confined to the far background, it was
easier to project the tree images onto cards.
To solve the problem, Look Effects took photographs of
gravestones at a local cemetery. The secret to virtual environ-
Later, the team adds as much depth of field as possible in
ments, argues Ivims, lies in the little details that take the “curse”
Maya before rendering the scenes in Mental Ray and sometimes
off it. Those details include color depth, texture-map complex-
in LightWave. According to Ivims, prodigious use of depth of
ity, and, in the case of the gravestones, undoing the perfect geo-
field is integral to the extreme micro close-ups in CSI:NY. When
metric order in which the digital ones had been arrayed across
the shot shows a substance being absorbed through the skin,
the virtual field. “When we had them all lined up, they looked
the camera quickly zooms in to a real arm, then Zoic uses a
mechanical, so we had to angle them just slightly, so they’re not
motion blur to dissolve into a CG arm. After applying a photo-
in perfect rows and not perfectly vertical,” explains Ivims. “For
real texture map, artists composite multiple renders using trans-
the grass, we didn’t use repeated texture maps, and we added
parency to give the illusion of subsurface scattering.
Images courtesy Look Effects.
For this scene from the new hit show Bones, the team from Look Effects filmed at an arboretum, where set dressers had added Styrofoam
headstones, which were digitally multiplied, to simulate Arlington Cemetery. CG elements and greenscreened actors were also added later.
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After Look Effects proved it could reproduce Arlington
likens it to shooting a movie without actors. “By shooting those
Cemetery, the producers of Bones returned with an even big-
images at extremely high resolutions (8000 lines), the directors
ger challenge: re-create Washington, DC for an elaborate aerial
and DP can visit the environments from the positions we’ve shot
pullout from the Washington Monument that lands in the lap
them and go in much further if they want to,” he says. “They can
of the Lincoln Memorial. The nighttime aerial originates from
plan their own camera moves within the environment, and no two
a polygonal model of the Washington Monument sculpted in
people would create the same sequence with the same footage.”
Maya, and then flies over an entire virtual set of Washington
Nicholson estimates it takes about two hours of footage to create a
toward the Lincoln Memorial. “We built everything, including
variable-resolution, 360-degree environment.
the Memorial, the malls on either side, and the reflecting pool,”
Rather than dollying around a circular set surrounded by a
says Ivims. The water was a simple polygonal mesh to which
greenscreen, which Nicholson says creates too much bounce-
the artists applied a sine wave to make the surface ebb and flow.
back lighting, the team places the actors on a rotating turntable
It was then mapped with a highly reflective shader and ray-
as the lighting grid above turns with them. Using the Virtual
....
Backlot and nested 3D geometry, Stargate has built virtual sets
traced in Mental Ray to create reflections of the world above.
and set extensions for ER, Las Vegas, CSI, and Steven Spielberg’s
Stargate to the Virtual Backlot
Into the West. “Crossing Jordan also uses them a lot because it’s
While Zoic Studios and Look Effects have become adept at assem-
easier to re-create Boston on a greenscreen than it is for the
bling digital sets in a matter of days, the ability to offer clients a
actors to fly there,” says Nicholson. “Moreover, time stands still
library of ready-made virtual sets is what many experts argue will
in the Virtual Backlot. Because magic hour lasts forever, you can
become the next big step in streamlining episodic production. And
afford to perfect a background and add CG foreground elements
that’s exactly what’s being tried at Stargate Digital, where founder/
and put actors and partial set work in between.”
CEO Sam Nicholson and his crew have been building 360-degree,
Stargate’s most recent Virtual Backlots were created for the TNT
high-resolution mega-mattes of every conceivable environment a
original film Battleground, starring William Hurt. For the movie,
director could want. It’s called a Virtual Backlot, and Nicholson
Stargate created scores of digital characters using a combination of
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greenscreened live actors and virtual people created in Maya and
mapped with motion-captured data. All the shots were composed
on the circular turntable at Stargate’s Van Nuys, California, stage.
For creating and lighting nested 3D geometry, such as the massive digital layout of ancient Rome for the miniseries Spartacus,
modelers rely primarily on Maya and occasionally on LightWave;
compositors use After Effects and Shake; texturers and matte
painters work with Photoshop exclusively; and matchmovers
track shots in Boujou. “With Boujou, we don’t have to waste time
on set gathering lens information,” says Nicholson. “Indeed, no
two lenses are the same, so it’s better to let Boujou determine the
[focal length] of the lens. Instead of 24 mm, it will say 23.75, and
it processes it—and it’s pixel perfect.”
Images courtesy Stargate Digital.
Stargate’s renderfarm houses approximately 200 processors
running primarily in Boxx computers and some Dell machines.
The studio also maintains about 100TB of storage to efficiently run
its proprietary VOS (Visual Operating System) software, which
organizes visual information and disseminates it to a number of
artists in various countries. “Transparently tracking all our effects
shots, VOS provides real-time access to, and playback of, an extensive stock-footage library as well as every rendered effects shot
from any desktop in our facility,” adds Nicholson.
These images are from Stargate Digital’s Virtual Backlot Russia location, for a project the group completed last year. The first image is a
greenscreen shot, with the digital set applied to the final (below).
assets. Surprisingly, such a system is missing in most of the large
companies doing million-dollar digital set shots. Sometimes they
The Digital Road Ahead
end up re-inventing the wheel for every new project. To make a
Looking to the future, the three companies are widely optimistic,
comparison, modern architecture today is an assembly process
not only about the prospects for small effects houses tailored for
based on huge catalogs of ready-made construction components
episodic work, but the ability for virtual sets to expand the creative
that are assembled according to a design grammar. An archi-
horizons of television and completely redefine the role of the digi-
tect works with custom elements only sporadically; most of the
tal effects artist. “With the absence of sci-fi shows, visual effects
design vocabulary is based on a library of tried and trusted com-
artists have to change from a bunch of guys who can render space-
ponents. I see the same thing happening in the future, to some
ships to heads of departments who interface with TV production
extent, for virtual sets.”
and collaborate on set,” says Look Effects’ Ivims. “We get to be
And Bina’s vision of the future gets even brighter. With z-
more creatively involved with all the other departments.”
depth cameras and crossover technologies from advanced ren-
Moreover, television’s reliance on virtual sets could serve as a
dering engines for games and video card chips, real-time virtual
seedbed for change in the film world, as well. Vlad Bina, a digi-
set compositing could be only 10 years away, he says. Indeed, a
tal set designer from xyBlue Design, whose credits include the
primitive system has already been successfully tried on Disney’s
Matrix films, agrees:
The Book of Pooh TV series. Stargate’s Nicholson also empha-
“Stargate’s
Virtual
sizes the importance of standardized, workhorse software like
Backlot is one of the
Maya and LightWave, which can deliver the “good, fast, and
first attempts to cre-
cheap” triangle, and shorten the learning curve for new artists.
ate a system and pipe-
And, it’s the artists themselves who will profit the most from the
line for acquiring and
growing market, says Orloff.
© NBC Studios, Inc. Crossing Jordan Fridays 8 pm, 7 pm Central.
organizing digital set
“TV tends to be dominated by smaller companies because
we’re able to harness the collective talents of a small group of
For Crossing Jordan,
Stargate Digital utilizes
its Virtual Backlot to
re-create a Boston
backdrop, since it is far
easier to generate a
virtual version of the
city than it is to film
the actors there.
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artists better than larger companies can. When we get a project,
I’ll tell four guys to put their heads together and pitch me the
best solution that exploits everybody’s talents,” says Orloff. “On
the episodic stage, everybody gets to shine.”
Martin McEachern is an award-winning writer and a contributing editor for Computer Graphics World. He can be reached at
[email protected].
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Post Magazine
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Modeling Techniques
Face-
off
A rt ist s t ur n bac k the cloc k for ac to r s
Pat r ick St e wart a nd Ia n Mc K e lle n
TM
& © 2006 Twentieth Century Fox. X-Men character likenessesTM and © 2006 M arvel Characters, Inc.
Artists at Lola gave actor Patrick Stewart a digital face-lift for
an opening scene in the newly released X-Men using techniques
sharpened during the past eight years on music video divas.
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X-Men: The Last Stand
opens with a flashback, an event that took
where makeup can’t go. And, that’s the
“We had one or two films the first year,
four or five the next, and have 12 this
exciting aspect of it.”
The studio initially began performing
year,” says Straus. “I can’t give examples,
because most of the work is strictly confi-
place around 25 years in the
digital touch-ups for music videos. “In the
past: The mutants Xavier (actor
mid-’90s, music video directors came up
dential—they don’t want people to know
Patrick Stewart) and Magneto
with the idea to make their singers look
who looked good and who looked bad.
(actor Ian McKellen) meet fellow
better,” Straus says. “We even out skin
That’s why X-Men is so cool. We took a
mutant Jean Gray as a child. Typically,
texture, take out bumps. Now the divas
vanity tool set and applied it to support
such flashback sequences rank low on a
even request people by name to do their
the story.”
director’s list of favorite scenes. To turn
digital makeup as if they were request-
back the clock, a director’s options have
ing makeup artists.” Soon, models in cos-
Digital Skin Grafting
been to plaster their stars’ faces with
metics commercials also wanted digital
Particularly for film, Lola developed a pro-
makeup and prosthetics or, if the age dif-
touch-ups—a bit of blurring here and
prietary technique it calls “digital skin
ference is too great, substitute younger
there to soften flaws and make the actors
grafting.” “The approach we took for music
actors. Neither solution is perfect.
look better. Recently, Lola began market-
videos and commercials—blurring out the
Now, there’s a third choice. Thanks to
a stealth studio called Lola, director Brett
....
ing the flattering techniques to the fea-
skin pores and throwing grain on top—
ture-film world.
makes everyone look younger, but it won’t
Ratner filmed Stewart and McKellen performing the flashback as if it were any
other scene. Later, Lola reversed the
actors’ ages digitally in postproduction.
“We filmed the sequence unhindered,”
says John Bruno, visual effects supervisor. “The opening sequence is a bit of a
groundbreaker.”
Ratner filmed the actors on stage—
an interior set with a greenscreen window—and in exterior shots. “We did
a no-holds-barred process,” says Greg
Straus, co-founder of Lola and its sister
studio, Hydraulx. “We didn’t have tracking marks. We didn’t limit the actors’
motion, blocking, expressions, or anything. The DP [director of photography]
used the lighting he wanted to use. They
did everything in-camera the way they
wanted. And, we ended up with extreme
close-ups: forehead and chin full frame.
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That meant our work had to hold up on a
40-foot screen.”
Lola specializes in what the studio
calls “digital cosmetic enhancements.”
But X-Men pushed the state of its art. “We
had to take 20 to 25 years off these guys,”
Straus says. “We pushed into a realm
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Modeling Techniques
cut it in a feature film,” says Straus. “It makes people look like
and three years working on film, and in having built the skin-
they’re wearing masks.”
graft libraries over the years. In the case of X-Men, the crew also
did extensive research.
Straus describes digital skin grafting as a 2D and 2.5D technique that utilizes a pipeline based on Autodesk Media and
Entertainment’s Discreet Flame and Inferno systems. The pro-
The Years Melt Away
cess, according to Straus, maintains the actor’s expressiveness
It was easy to discover what Stewart and McKellen looked like
and performance, as well as such skin details as pores, lines,
as younger men: Each actor has a large body of television and
and subtle wrinkles. “One thing we’ve learned after working
film work, plus portfolios of numerous photographs, magazine
on a dozen movies or so is that maintaining the texture of the
covers, and so forth. But, in addition to reference photography,
skin is the most important aspect,” he says. Not necessarily,
Lola artists worked with a plastic surgeon. “Looking at a pho-
however, the skin from the actor getting the makeover.
tograph is subjective,” says Straus. “You don’t know if someone
looks younger because of their expression
Lola artists can draw from a proprietary library of skin elements for the
See the July issue of Computer
or a physical change. The plastic surgeon
smooth 2.5D high-resolution skin patches
Graphics World’s sister publica-
helped us understand what happens to faces
that they place on footage of an actor’s
tion, Post Magazine, as X-Men:
as they age.”
face to, for example, fill in deep lines.
The Last Stand director Brett
Although painters might refine individual patches, the age reversal process Lola
used for X-Men does not involve frame-by-
Ratner talks about taking over
a successful franchise as well as
The surgeon also helped the artists avoid
an important mistake that even occurs in
real-world plastic surgery: making a face
look androgynous. “Men and women age
frame hand painting. Rather, artists graft
the editorial and visual effects
differently,” says Straus. “In an early test,
the skin patches and change facial topog-
process for this film.
we had made one of the actors look younger,
but he looked weird. The surgeon taught us
raphy using warping techniques.
it was because we had made a masculine feature feminine. It’s
“It’s parametric,” says Straus. “We didn’t write custom software. We built everything as an Inferno batch setup. We’re able
very easy to make someone look gender-nonspecific.”
Although the artists used photo documentation of the actors,
to make tweaks by moving sliders.”
The trick, Straus believes, is in knowing how to apply the
they didn’t scan the 60-year-olds to create their youthful faces.
Inferno tools in the right order—experience gained from eight
“Using their own skin wasn’t going to get us there,” says Straus.
years of digital touch-ups for commercials and music videos, “We had to go to our library of skin.”
Digital skin grafts drawn from a proprietary library of skin elements
helped smooth actor Ian McKellen’s craggy face, and warping
techniques applied in Inferno changed his facial topography. The
end result is a younger version of the mutant character Magneto.
CW
JUNE 2006
Each actor presented unique challenges. For example,
one trick for making someone look young is to add hair, but
Stewart’s character had to be bald. “We had to go to 30 years
younger to have the audience believe he was 25 years younger,”
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Straus says. McKellen’s craggier face, on the other
hand, required more digital skin grafting.
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Artists applying the digital skin grafting techniques used to make Patrick Stewart
(at left in images) and Ian McKellen (at right in images) look younger consulted
with a plastic surgeon to avoid making the men look androgynous.
Lola artists produced light, medium, and heavy
versions of each actor’s rejuvenated faces, with “heavy” the
shift,” Straus says. “Writers have stayed away from flashbacks
most altered—cheekbones raised higher, nose or ears smaller,
because directors don’t like casting other people. This could
lines erased. “We could ask the director which version he liked
break open a fresh wave of ideas that had been off-limits.”
best,” says Straus. “If we were painting, there’s no way we could
have had as much back and forth.”
Barbara Robertson is an award-winning writer and a contribut-
Then, working with scanned live-action plates, they created full-motion tests for nervous studio executives who were
ing editor for Computer Graphics World. She can be reached at
[email protected].
_______________
ready to cut the sequence if the age reversal
wasn’t convincing.
As the shot begins, the technocrane
booms up over Stewart, who is spinning.
Then, the camera backs up. “Where it gets
tricky is when the guys move their heads in
3D and the lighting responds and moves over
the work we’re doing,” says Straus. “That’s
what separates the men from the boys. In
the opening shot, there is full 3D movement
of patches tracked onto the actors, and the
patches respond to the lighting. That’s the
real trick—obeying the lighting in the scene.
That’s what makes this stuff not easy.”
The quality-control work is exacting;
the work can be tedious. Although the process doesn’t demand unique tools—it’s
based on the clever use of existing tools—
Straus believes that the Lola artists’ wealth
of experience gives his studio a competitive advantage, one they’ll need now that
they’ve opened the door to new possibilities.
Artists using digital tools can deform and
change the shape of actors’ faces; they can
make them look gaunt and thin—something
impossible to do with prosthetics. And, that
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makes new kinds of stories viable.
“I think this could cause a fundamental
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Interactivity
CSI 3D
in
A nim at or s so lve the te chnical my st e r i e s
be h ind CSI: 3 Dimensions of M urd e r
By Karen Moltenbrey
in
in real time, so players can walk around
the top-rated television drama
the crimes, players must visit the scene,
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, the
interview suspects, and collect and ana-
the crime scenes at will, and the game’s
crime-solving team of John Grissom and his
lyze physical evidence using puzzle-solv-
advanced interactivity makes it seem as
group of criminalists use the latest tools and
ing and interrogation skills to establish a
if players are actually using the tools for
methodologies to solve some of Las Vegas’s
relationship among the suspect, the vic-
collection and detection of the evidence.
most perplexing crimes. Similarly, for the
tim, and the crime scene.
As a result, it feels as though players are
Ubisoft/Telltale Games CSI: 3 Dimensions of
With the game’s new 3D graph-
actually solving the case, rather than
Murder PC title, based on the TV show, CG
ics, players can move around the crime
having the computer solve it for them.
artists and animators applied the latest digi-
scene and zoom in for a close-up look at
And, if they are successful, they can then
tal techniques that enabled them to bring
relevant hot spots in the game and are
make an arrest.
the crime story into the interactive space.
not limited to doing so simply within
Although the third interactive itera-
the same axis. However, they will not
It’s the Way that You Move
tion of CSI, this title is the first to bring the
be able to walk around the space freely
Further supporting the game’s realism
gameplay into the full 3D space, and as
in the game space in the style of a first-
are the motions of the characters. To
a result, mimics the television show more
person shooter. Still, all the objects and
accomplish this, Telltale Games teamed
closely than the previous releases for a
scenery are fully modeled and rendered
with mocap studio House of Moves, which
more immersive experience.
recorded approximately 75
In the game, players use the
actual
latest forensic science and
an array of props—knives,
crime-solving equipment—
guns, jars, books, garbage
including Mikrosil casting
bags, and so on—that lent
motions
involving
material, magnetic powder
some authenticity not only
for enhanced fingerprint
to the cinematic sequences,
analysis, and Luminol for
but also to the in-game
detecting traces of blood
play. These movements were
evidence—as they work
acquired via single- and mul-
alongside Grissom and the
tiple-person capture with a
cast to solve five cases
100-camera array of 4 mega-
with deep plot lines. To
discover the truth behind
The game CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder brings the characters from the hit
television drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, including supervisor John
Grissom, into the interactive 3D space, enabling players to solve crimes.
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JUNE 2006
pixel, grayscale Vicon MX 40
motion-capture cameras.
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According to David Felton, production
manager at Telltale Games, using fullbody motion capture enabled the group to
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Body language is often the key to uncovering the truth from suspects (left); for realistic and
subtle character motions, the crew used a great deal of motion capture. Mocap data also
enhanced some of the hand-animated movements of the investigators themselves (right).
record a set of specific, believable actions.
“Especially in our cut-scenes and reconstruction sequences, where you see sce-
be a lot of work for something that would
and cleaned up, it was delivered as Auto-
only be used once,” explains Felton.
desk Media and Entertainment Maya
narios of what happened or might have
As Christopher Bellaci, production
scene files, where marker information
happened, the characters ‘talk’ with their
manager at House of Moves, points out,
was applied to Maya skeletons; the char-
bodies rather than with words,” says
the group captured everything from ges-
acters were modeled in Maya and tex-
Felton. “Using motion capture allowed us
tures and idle motions like leaning on a
tured in Adobe’s Photoshop to look like
to have our 3D characters communicate
table, sitting, and walking. The crew also
the actual actors in the show. This was
through their actions.”
mocapped specific sequences of action
accomplished by “revisions,” says Felton.
As Felton explains, it was important
that were later applied to a character who, “Actually, we used reference photos provided by the show to model all the CSIs.
to capture realistic human motion, espe-
for example, is hit with an object and
cially for the game’s cinematic sequences.
then gets up, or a person wielding a knife
Some of the characters were easier to get
Because motion-capture animations come
in a threatening manner. This was done
[correct] than others. LVPD detective Jim
from real human motion, there is a lot of
within a capture volume of 35 by 40 feet.
Brass, Dr. Al Robbins, and investigator
subtlety in the data that cannot be as easily achieved with hand animation.
In all, Felton estimates that the ani-
Nick Stokes came together very quickly.
mators achieved a 5:1 time-savings using
We revised investigator Warrick Brown
about four times before we were happy.”
All the cinematic sequences in the game
mocap data instead of hand anima-
were almost entirely mocapped. These were
tion. “We captured all the mocap anima-
primarily crime re-enactments accom-
tions that we used for the game in one
the content creation and aesthetics was
panied by a voice-over, so the character’s
day. We then had two animators ‘clean’
achieving a realistic look while at the
Yet, the biggest challenge in terms of
body language had to convey the action.
the data in a little less than a week. This
same time keeping a low minimum spec
The rest of the game used hand-animated
was to adjust the generic character size
(the game does not require a high-end
PC), since the more polygons that are on
suites that were designed to blend with the
of the mocap data to the specific propor-
characters’ idle poses. Yet, the group did
tions of the final character models it was
screen, the lower the game’s performance.
work in some of the mocap data for some
being applied to,” he says. “ It would have
So, the art team had to convey a lot of
of the character idles, as well.
taken two animators about five weeks to
realism without using a lot of details.
Most of the mocap data, however, was
for specific, complicated, full-body char-
“This game was going for gritty real-
accomplish the same thing by hand.
Once the mocap data was acquired
ism, and using motion capture provided
acter acting. “It doesn’t make
a way to add a level of
sense to hand animate this
hyper-realism to the char-
sort of thing because it would
acter animation,” says
take a long time, and you prob-
Bellaci.
ably would not have as much
Like in the television
detail. In addition, it would
show, technology and
teamwork helped solve
Although the game is the third
based on the TV series, it is
the first to bring the gameplay
into the full 3D space, resulting
in a far more realistic and
immersive experience.
the case.
Karen Moltenbrey is the
chief editor for Computer
Graphics World.
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SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater
Portfolio
Clockwise from top:
Considered one of the premiere animation events, the annual SIGGRAPH Computer Animation
458nm (Special Jury Honors winner) Created by Jan Bitzer,
Ilija Brunck, and Tom Weber from the Institute of Animation,
Visual Effects, and Postproduction at Filmakademie
Baden-Wurttemberg in Germany, this project caught the
eye of the judges for its intricate detail and elegance.
Festival showcases the best CG works from students and professionals around the globe. And
Bubble Girl This compelling animation, from Psyop, was created for a television commercial for its client Aero.
Brush Lei Chen, a student at Bournemouth University in the
UK, crafted this highly stylized film for a master’s degree
project in 3D computer animation.
judging from the caliber of the works accepted into this year’s festival, the event surely will
not disappoint audiences. “The SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival is an internationally recognized event that engages and inspires artists and technologists alike,” says Digital
Fauxtography’s Terrence Masson, chair of the 2006 Computer Animation Festival. “Each year,
it serves as a mirror of what is possible today and a window into what can be achieved in the
future. It provides equal merit to films from independent and major studios as well as students.”
The 2006 event is the culmination of nearly two years of planning and preparation by the
festival committee, which comprises industry volunteers who committed thousands of hours to
bring this presentation to the SIGGRAPH audiences and beyond, during special post-SIGGRAPH
screenings at selected locales.
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The committee received a record 726 entries from six continents and 37 countries, including Australia, Germany, Iran, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and Spain, resulting in a 25 percent increase over the number of submissions from last year. Moreover, the entries represent a
range of computer graphics from across many disciplines. In all, 97 pieces were accepted: 34
into the prestigious Electronic Theater and 63 into the Animation Theater. Of those, 51 are animation pieces, five are scientific pieces (including scientific visualization, medical imaging, and
technical submissions), 10 are art pieces, 16 are broadcast pieces, three are computer game
cinematics, 12 are visual effects pieces, and 38 are student works.
Each year, two Electronic Theater submissions are singled out for special recognition. This
year, the animated short film “One Rat Short,” from Alex Weil of Charlex, received the Best of
Show award. This film, which uses computer graphics for a more dramatic and cinematic look
as opposed to a cartoon look, follows a New York City rat from his gritty world to the interior
F
Clockwise from top left:
Dairy Crest “Cityside” In this TV spot, created by artists at
Framestore CFC in the UK for client Dairy Crest, hungry digital
creatures blend into a live backdrop.
Everyone’s Hero This upcoming CG animated feature is from
directors Christopher Reeve, Dan St. Pierre, and Colin Brady of
IDT Entertainment.
Flow Presented by head of R&D Stephan Trojansky from Scanline
Productions, this project features a digital Megalodon jumping
out of water, which was further enhanced with Scanline’s
proprietary fluid-simulation techniques.
Guinness “noitulovE” This fish-out-of-water animation was
created by Framestore CFC for Guinness.
Doll Face This project was done by Andrew Huang from USC.
JUNE 2006
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Portfolio
of a futuristic laboratory (for more on this project, see “Oh, Rats!,” May 2006, pg. 16).
One Rat Short (Best of Show award) An emotional piece,
this film-noirish animated short from Charlex and director Alex
Weil uses CG imagery in a unique way; rather than present
the medium in the typical shiny style, the group used CGI
for a dramatic, cinematic look.
“This piece immediately stood out to the jury for many reasons,” says Masson. “The film’s
emotional tone, cinematography, and technical realization melded wonderfully into a simple yet
touching short film. Repeatedly, the two lead characters transfixed our gaze with extreme closeups, and we instantly wondered what they were thinking. Our ability to clearly empathize with
Into Pieces This stylized selection is from director
Guilherme Marcondes in Brazil.
the main characters’ desires is one of the film’s single greatest achievements.”
Rexona Go Wild This is yet another unique spot from
Framestore CFC for one of its clients.
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Germany, which received Special Jury Honors. The film is a
The Inner Life of the Cell One of the show’s technical presentations, this scientific animator is presented by John Liebler
from XVIVO.
The other award-winning film was “458nm,” by Jan Bitzer, Ilija Brunck, and Tom Weber of
romantic story of two mechanical snails that find each other under the moonlight. “The initial submitted artist’s description in no way prepared us for the stunning impact of this film. The grace, beauty,
and power conveyed with such humble subjects are only more appreciated upon multiple viewings,”
says Masson. “Intricate details and subtle animation build layer upon layer of simple elegance.”
36
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Other notable Animation Theater pieces, as singled out by the jury, include “Robin Hood
Flour,” from Richard Rosenman of Red Rover Studios in Canada. In this animation, it is a holiday evening and the main characters are being interviewed at their dining room table. They are
furiously wrapping gingerbread cookies in gift boxes. The table shows various gift-wrapping
accessories, the freshly baked cookies, a glamorous candle ornament, and a kitchen cloth with
the Robin Hood logo. The cold winter setting outside contrasts with the warm dining room
lighting inside and helps develop a cozy holiday atmosphere.
These projects, along with many others, will be featured in the Electronic Theater, held during the conference in Boston. Evening performances and matinee performances are scheduled
throughout the conference.
A sampling of still images being shown in the Electronic Theater is presented on these
F
Robin Hood Flour—Giving This warm animation from
director Richard Rosenman and Red Rover Studios in Toronto
earned special kudos from the judges.
Tread Softly A unique animation from director Heebok Lee of
Carnegie Mellon University combines multicultural imagery into
one compelling visual.
Warhammer This image, from the opening cinematic of the
computer game Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, was crafted by
director Istvan Zorkoczy of Digic Pictures in Hungary.
Wojna Directed by Agnieszka Kruczek of the Institute of
Animation, Visual Effects, and Postproduction Filmakademie in
Baden-Wurttemberg in Germany, this stylistic presentation
scores for its unique look.
pages. —Karen Moltenbrey
JUNE 2006
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products
For additional product news and information, visit
VISUAL EFFECTS
SOFTWARE
DESIGN
Jahshaka VFX
The Power of N
Win • Mac • Linux The Jahshaka Project has
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The tool is distributed under the GNU General
in for Autodesk’s 3ds Max, for importing large
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code are available for public download at www.
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Jahshaka.org. Designed for editors and other
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Edius Enhances its NLE Software
The Grass Valley business within Thomson
announced Edius Pro Version 4.0, the latest in the company’s real-time, multi-format
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Digital Anarchy announced
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Version 3.0 of its Knoll Spark Pack, offering
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Pro Version 4.0 will also be included in the com-
ing, which used to take days or even weeks
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The new multi-cam feature supports up to
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other lighting effects, including lasers, explo-
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Edius Pro Version 4.0 software is avail-
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ity MPEG-2 4:2:2 I-frame codec so users can
offers long battery life and outstanding perfor-
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Maestro VRX Plays to the Crowd
mance, even when using multiple applications
system’s analog inputs, and mix all types of
Orad Hi Tec Systems demonstrated for the first
simultaneously, including demanding digital
footage on the timeline in real time. Priced at
time its new Maestro VRX system designed to
media applications. AMD also is bringing 64-
$1,995 and including Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0,
provide a high-resolution, multi-channel, scal-
bit computing to the Mobile AMD Sempron
Matrox RT.X2 will be available this month.
able real-time graphics solution for backdrop
processor family. Now AMD delivers the only
Matrox also unveiled Matrox Axio LE,
rear-projection systems. Backdrop rear-projec-
complete mobile product portfolio offering
a real-time HD/SD editing platform. It fea-
tion systems are becoming more popular as
the ability to seamlessly transition between 32-
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video walls or bluescreens.
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Maestro VRX merges between the VRX
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real-time effects, and a full complement of
The AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile technol-
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tem. The Maestro VRX is a template-based 3D
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based on AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile technol-
Photoshop CS2, as well as other animation
ogy should be available in retail stores and
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through commercial distribution channels this
priced at $4495, and is available now.
quarter. AMD Turion 64 X2 models TL-50, TL-
Finally, Matrox unveiled its MXO, a DVI-to-
52, TL-56, and TL-60 are available now. Pricing
audio/video output adapter for the Mac that
for the family ranges from $184 to $354.
AMD; www.amd.com
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SLI-Powered Mobile Systems
Alienware has introduced two new ultra-powerful mobile systems loaded with dual Nvidia
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Pricing and availability were not announced.
Orad Hi Tec Systems; www.orad.tv
Alienware’s most powerful desktop replacements to date, the Aurora m9700 and Aurora
mALX provide up to twice the graphics perfor-
takes the DVI output from a Mac computer
mance of a single-GPU mobile system and are
or laptop and converts it to broadcast-qual-
the first to feature groundbreaking True MIMO
ity video. Users can preview Apple Final Cut
wireless technology from Airgo Networks for
Pro projects or the output of other QuickTime-
faster, more reliable Wi-Fi performance over
based applications such as Motion, Shake, or
greater distances. Pricing starts at $1999 for the
DVD Studio Pro from Apple, or Adobe After
m9700 and $4499 for the mALX.
Effects, as they will actually appear on TV, and
Alienware; www.alienware.com
then record them, frame accurately, to tape.
EDITING SYSTEM
free video output of the computer desktop
Matrox MXO can be used to provide a flicker-
HARDWARE
with any application, allowing the user to
RT.X2 Gets Premiere
MOBILE
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Win • Mac Matrox Video Products Group
presentations, Web browser sessions, and
announced Matrox RT.X2, a high-perfor-
software application training.
64-bit on the Go
mance, real-time native HDV and DV editing
AMD introduced AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile
platform bundled with Adobe’s Premiere Pro
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technology, a family of 64-bit dual-core pro-
software. Matrox RT.X2 provides high-qual-
Matrox; www.matrox.com
40
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JUNE 2006
Available in June, MXO will be priced
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John Knoll | BA University of Southern California | Visual
Effects Supervisor, Industrial Light & Magic, San Francisco,
California | Co-creator Photoshop | 20-year SIGGRAPH
attendee
F
Tobi Saulnier | PhD Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute |
CEO, 1st Playable Productions, Troy, New York | 3-year
SIGGRAPH attendee
5 days of real-world, real-time
graphic, interactive twingularity
The only conference and exhibition in the world that twingles everybody in computer graphics and
interactive techniques for one deeply intriguing and seriously rewarding week. In Boston, where
thousands of interdisciplinary superstars find the products and concepts they need to create
opportunities and solve problems. Interact with www.siggraph.org/s2006
to discover a selection of registration options that deliver a very attractive
return on investment.
The 33rd International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques
Conference 30 July - 3 August 2006
Boston, Massachusetts USA
Exhibition 1 - 3 August 2006
Boston Convention & Exhibition Center
IMAGE CREDITS: Diamond Age © 2004 Jeff Prentice; Khronos Projector © 2005 Alvaro Cassinelli,
Monica Bressaglia, Ishikawa Masatoshi; Rogue IV © 2004 Eric Heller; John Knoll photo by Tina Mills
CW
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backdrop
Interview by
Chief Editor Karen Moltenbrey
Alain Lachance is the senior
Living a Nightmare
compositor, VFX supervisor, and one
Digital compositors bring the frightening digital world of
includes the recently released Silent
Silent Hill to life in the film adaptation of the game series
Hill from Tri-Star Pictures/Sony Pictures
of the founders of Mokko Studio in
Montreal. His latest accomplishment
Entertainment.
like a movie, with several possible endings, as a person’s choices during play determine
A
which ending is revealed. Recently, Sony Pictures released a film version of this eerie series,
we received from the client was just a charac-
maintaining its visual film-noirish design depicting dark, fog-enshrouded, decaying envi-
ter or a vehicle shot against a greenscreen.
Silent Hill began in 1999 as a survival horror video game from Konami that has since grown
into a lucrative franchise; currently, there are five Silent Hill video games. Each unfolds
sions for many of the shots. We
even created entirely virtual environments for some shots where all
ronments enhanced by chilling (and very sudden) sound effects and thoroughly unnatural, disturbing, and surreal/absurd creature designs. The main storyline, cinematography,
and set designs for the live-action film adaptation follows the original CG game. The plot
centers on Rose Da Silva, a married mother whose life takes the unexpected turn toward
Silent Hill as she tried to discover the source of her adoptive daughter’s nightmares, which
have her crying out “Silent Hill.” Among the facilities that worked on the 619 effects shots
was Mokko Studio, which completed 50 of the shots in two months.
Q
A
How did you achieve that?
With most of the shots, we
began tracking the characters
and cameras. We then used
a combination of 2D matte
paintings, 3D elements from
Autodesk Maya combined with 3D matte
Q
A
What work did you do
ing immediately after receiving the plates.
paintings. We used a lot of Maya fluids
on Silent Hill?
Having all of this work done before we
for the smoke and fog effects, and Maya
I supervised our 3D artists as well
received any initial direction enabled us to
particle systems for ash falling like snow
as the compositing team, and
begin adding elements into the shots the
throughout the film. Most shots had over
also created key composites. The
instant after speaking to the director.
10 layers in the final composite.
most exciting part of my job was
to work hand-in-hand with our artists at
Pertaining to the
Q
A
creating the mood that Christophe [Gans,
the director] was looking for, from the concept all the way to the final composites.
Q
A
How did your experience
help you achieve this?
As an editor and then as a digital compositor, I have worked
on many high-end projects
within both the commercial
Q
A
What other software and
hardware did you use?
Autodesk Maya animation software and Autodesk Toxik collaborative compositing software formed the backbone of
effects, what was the
and film industries. In addition, I have
our pipeline for Silent Hill. We also used
director’s goal?
an extensive background in commercial
[Adobe’s] Photoshop for matte paint-
He was looking for the most
work with clients such as: Coke, Nestlé,
ings, [2d3’s] Boujou for tracking, and
realistic results possible, and
Labatt, Fido, and Budweiser. When I am
some Autodesk Discreet Combustion. Our
I think we did a good job of
not in the studio supervising the digital
hardware is fairly average among other
delivering that, especially considering
team, I’m usually on set to assure that
production facilities. Production work
the time constraints.
we have everything necessary for the
is more about software these days as
team at Mokko Studio to create the most
opposed to a few years ago, where you
breathtaking shots possible.
needed the fastest machines available.
Q
A
What was your directive?
We actually began work on the
shots without any directive. We
focused on rotoscoping the characters and creating all the neces-
Q
sary masks needed for composit-
CW
JUNE 2006
Can you detail some of the
more impressive effects you
did for this film?
We did some massive set exten-
Q
Of the backgrounds,
how many were CG
versus live action?
On most of the shots, the
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live-action background was
only the immediate surroundings of the character. Everything
A
B
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cache the layers for shots overnight so that in the morning,
we could do our dailies and all
other was doing. We showed
A
both designs to the director so
he could choose which look he
else was set extension and matte painting.
the layers for a particular shot would
liked best. In the end, we mixed their ideas
In many shots, we had to zoom out and
play out in real time, even at 2K.
together, creating a composite design from
two artists; the director then approved that.
end with a very wide shot that involved
a combination of tracking, set extension,
roto and compositing of
the characters?
ing a lot of layers to deal with for each
Q
A
Ninety percent of the shots.
shot was daunting.
driving about 10 meters on a greenscreen.
proportion of the background in CGI.
Q
A
What were the biggest
Q
A
matte painting, and, of course, a huge
How many shots required
technical challenges
you ran into?
Our biggest constraint was time.
We also had some concerns
about asset management—hav-
source material, so we matched the camera movement, created a 3D jeep in Maya,
here; due to the collaborative
and then projected the texture of the jeep
nature of the work environment
from the original footage back onto the 3D
in Toxik, we were able to have
model of the jeep. That was an interesting
fog, and ash trailing behind the car. Of
times three compositors
course the bridge that magically appears
working on a shot at the
shot, we had to create a huge dolly out—
the live-action car didn’t work, so we had
from the client was simply a jeep
Again, Toxik was very helpful
to rebuild a 3D car with complex fluid,
rebuilt the road in CGI. For the bridge
shot with a jeep driving across
a bridge where all we received
How did you overcome this?
Q
A
around them. In one shot, we completely
on the film unique?
We had a particularly unique
The shot wasn’t really working with the
Roto was done on most of the
characters to add ash effects
Was any of the work
two and some-
in front of the car was CGI as well as
same time. One artist could
most of the décor surrounding the action.
work on the first section
of the comp while another
worked on the middle or
this film more complex than
final section. The whole
other roto/composites?
sequence was updated
Challenges for this project
instantly on each machine
included a short deadline (50
as the artists worked
shots in two months) as well as
together. There was no
Image courtesy Silent Hill Films, Inc.
Q
A
Why was the work on
Most shots by Mokko entailed rotoscoping and
compositing actors into eerie backdrops.
quickly matching the look of the other stu-
searching for images to add
dios already onboard (fog, ash, ambiance).
into the composite. This
The ash look was quite unusual and was
was very much a time-saving feature.
shot, and in the end, this method offered
us much more control. We added reflection
a cool challenge, especially with very long
shots. The ash was Maya particles with a
Q
A
What were some of the
layers to the jeep and other interactive lay-
biggest creative challenges?
ers like swirling fog with Maya that would
Not particularly; I suppose for
Q
A
Silent Hill, the work was more
also matching the look of the shots from
software-related. This was our
the other studios. The director was look-
unique behavior on each particle.
Did you devise any
special techniques?
first real production experi-
ence using Autodesk Toxik. We certainly
When working with other stu-
have been difficult to simulate in the origi-
dios on a film, the most impor-
nal footage of the jeep against a greenscreen.
tant goal is to achieve the mood
the director is looking for while
ing for an ominous foggy atmosphere and
almost surreal mood for the shots.
learned some good lessons in efficiency
while working on this film.
Q
Can you elaborate?
We implemented some Python
scripts into Toxik to import and
Q
about your work
for this film?
As with any new software on a
production, you are always a bit
nervous because you will have
How did you handle that?
unknown factors to contend, and there is
We initially had two concept art-
not a lot of room for error when you are
ists working on ideas for the
on a tight schedule. With Toxik, we actu-
look independently of each other,
ally saved time by implementing a new
meaning neither artist knew what the
w
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___________
CW
Q
A
Any other highlights
product into the pipeline for Silent Hill.
JUNE 2006
A
B
F
B
F
phone or web
page
@XI Computer
www.xicomputer.com
39
Academy of Art University
www.academyart.edu
23
ACM SIGGRAPH
www.siggraph.org/s2006
41
AJA
www.aja.com
9
Blackmagic Design
www.blackmagic-design.com
3
BOXX Technologies
www.boxxtech.com/apexx4
CV2
Ciara-Tech
www.ciara-tech.com
20-21
DAZ Productions
www.DAZ3.com
CV4
Dell
www.dell.com/DCCsolutions
CV3
e-Frontier
www.e-frontier.com/go/cgwcontest
25
Eyeon
www.eyeonline.com
15
Isilon Systems, Inc.
www.isilon.com
13
NewTek
www.lightwave3d.com
27
Nvidia
www.ibm.com/intellistation
29, 31
Okino Computer Graphics, Inc.
www.okino.com
7
Rorke
www.rorke.com
22
index
indexto
toadvertisers
advertisers
advertiser
A
The ad index is published as a service. The publisher does not assume any liability for errors or omissions.
June 2006, Volume 29, Number 6: COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD (USPS 665-250) (ISSN-0271-4159) is published monthly (12
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JUNE 2006
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6 (June) - Facultatea de Textile Pielarie si Management

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