CG World Dec 07 4Meg pdf

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I N N O VAT I O N S I N V I S U A L C O M P U T I N G F O R T H E G L O B A L D C C C O M M U N I T Y
Computer
WORLD
December 2007 www.cgw.com
Monkeyshine
A menagerie of realistic
CG animals co-stars in
The Golden Compass
$6.00 USA
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A new option for working directly on screen
STARTING AT $999
Thin and light, the new Cintiq 12WX gives you the flexibility to work directly on screen
the way you want. Rotate the 12.1” display when working flat on your desktop, stand
it upright or even use it on your lap.
At just 4.4 pounds, the Cintiq 12WX combines a wide-format LCD monitor with
Wacom’s patented, professional pen technology to give you the perfect companion
for your Mac or PC. Add pen-on-screen control to any computer and even use it to
control other displays.
The Cintiq 12WX delivers a highly-sensitive pen-on-screen experience so you can
work directly on your images and applications in the most natural way possible.
For more information, visit:
www.Cintiq.com/CGW
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December 2007 • Volume 30 • Number 12
www.postmagazine.com
____________
See it in Post
Also see www.cgw.com for computer graphics news,
special surveys and reports, and the online gallery.
» Strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats
in the post industry.
» Director Julian Schnabel
on his latest film.
» Holiday commercials for
the Mexican market.
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I N N O VAT I O N S I N V I S U A L C O M P U T I N G F O R T H E G L O B A L D C C C O M M U N I T Y
Computer
WORLD
WORLD
Features
Dep art men ts
Cover story
Animal Control 10
Editor’s Note 2
2007: A Retrospective
Looking back on some of the industry’s
highlights from this past year.
VISUAL EFFECTS | VFX studios place 3D
animal actors next to humans in CG
environments to create a parallel
universe for The Golden Compass.
Spotlight 4
By Barbara Robertson
Products
10
AMD FireStream 9170 and SDK
RealViz’s Movimento
GAMING | In part 2 of this series on
next-generation titles, Bungie polishes
its graphics techniques to create this
state-of-the-art game.
Wacom’s Cintiq 12WX
By Martin McEachern
AJA’s Io HD
HP’s xw6600, xw8600
AMD’s x86 Quad-Core Opteron processor
Softimage’s XSI 6 Mod Tool
War Movies 26
VFX•MOCAP | Visual effects artists
use mocap and CGI to bring the Halo
struggle into the live-action realm.
Havok’s Havok 5
18
Masters of the Game:
Making Halo 3 Shine 18
Portfolio 38
By Karen Moltenbrey
Ryan Drue
Open Before Christmas 29
Knowledge & Career 40
Education Assessment
Experts from the education and training realms weigh in on the strengths
and weaknesses facing their industries,
along with their outlook for 2008.
A Silver Lining 36
CAD | A look at how AutoCAD,
released 25 years ago, helped
revolutionize the computer-aided
design industry.
News 45
26
CG MODELING | Enchanted, Fred Claus,
and I am Legend feature unique but
realistic digital creatures.
Products 46
On the cover:
Rhythm & Hues snatches a golden
opportunity to push its technology to
new levels, creating this character and a
number of other animal daemons for the
film The Golden Compass, pg. 10.
29
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DECEMBER 2007
Computer Graphics World | 1
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editor’snote
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Karen
Moltenbrey
Chief Editor
2007: A Retrospective
Just about now, everyone is ready to kick back and enjoy the holidays. With
a new year looming, it seems like a good time to look back on the CG industry happenings from 2007. For instance, CPU/GPU makers continue to build
on Tesla, Cuda, Quadro, and the FireGL series. And, expect them to ring in
the New Year on a similar high note. In fact, during the first quarter of 2008,
AMD plans to deliver the FireStream 9170, the first Stream GPU with double-precision
floating-point technology. The workstation market, meanwhile, treated us to machines
utilizing quad-core technology. HP, Dell, Boxx, and others are providing the power;
it’s up to the users to harness it. Working hand-in-hand with the workstation vendors
are the chipmakers, who are now looking beyond PCI Express and quad-core technology. So while the user community is just starting to discover the wonders of four cores,
these vendors are looking to increase that number to eight, 16, 64, and beyond.
The year also proved big for motion capture, as vendors began offering solutions
that ran the gamut from extremely high-end applications to those at the lower end of
the spectrum. And, a number of vendors, including Vicon, began offering value solu-
KAREN MOLTENBREY : Chief Editor
[email protected]
______
36 East Nashua Road
Windham, NH 03087
(603) 432-7568
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS:
Courtney Howard, Jenny Donelan,
Audrey Doyle, Evan Marc Hirsch,
George Maestri, Martin McEachern,
Stephen Porter, Barbara Robertson
WILLIAM R. RITTWAGE
Publisher
President and CEO, COP Communications
SALES
JEFF VICTOR: West Coast Sales Manager
[email protected]
_________
(847) 367-4073 fax: (847) 920-9206
LISA QUINTANILLA : East Coast Sales
Classifieds • Education • Recruitment
[email protected]
________
(877) CGW-POST [249-7678] fax: (214) 260-1127
MARI KOHN : Strategic/Corporate Sales
[email protected]
_________
(818) 291-1153 fax: (818) 547-4607
Editorial Office / LA Sales Office:
620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale, CA 91204
(800) 280-6446
tions, making motion capture more viable to the masses. Another hot topic, particularly at SIGGRAPH 2007, was rendering. After all, who wants to waste valuable time wait-
PRODUCTION
ing and waiting and waiting. Look for some further relief in this area to come in 2008.
KATH CUNNINGHAM: Production Director
[email protected]
__________
(818) 291-1113
Enough about the hardware. Let’s get to the good stuff, the applications. Without
question, 2007 brought us a new level of realism for digital characters. Museum-qual-
MICHAEL VIGGIANO: Art Director
ity lions, zebras, elephants, and even a skeletal T. rex came to life in Night at the
[email protected]
___________
Museum, a delight during last year’s holiday season. In the fifth Harry Potter movie,
CHRIS SALCIDO: Account Representative
[email protected]
_________
(818) 291-1144
Order of the Phoenix, digital effects wizards showed, for the first time, the previously invisible Threstrals, along with fiercer looking Dementors. Elsewhere in the VFX
realm, CG was used to establish a new look for feature films, as two ancient tales—300
and Beowulf—made CG history with their novel, high-tech approaches. Plus, the highly anticipated Transformers, in which actors come in direct contact with the 3D robots,
blew audiences away with stunning models and character animation.
Also, 2007 was the year when good things came in threes: Shrek the Third, SpiderMan 3, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, all of which broke new ground in
CGI. Besides Shrek the Third, other cutting-edge CG films from 2007 include Surf’s Up,
which added a new documentary style to the medium. Another CG treat was Ratatouille,
which served up 3D imagery in a delicious way. And, comedian Jerry Seinfeld lent his
sense of humor to the digital stage with Bee Movie, whose size relationship among the
characters challenged modelers’ take on scope and scale.
Computer games took a giant leap forward, too, as developers began rolling out true
next-generation games that leverage the power of the consoles that were on everyone’s
wish list last season. Even rivals Sony and 2K Sports teamed up for the sake of technology; both forged an agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association to
use state-of-the-art scanning technology for digitizing the MLB players, thus adding a
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
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Computer Graphics World cannot be held responsible for
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Address all subscription correspondence to: Computer
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new level of realism to their titles. As the year closes, a handful of games—among them,
Stranglehold, Halo 3, Assassin’s Creed—are in a tight battle for the crown of true nextgen game. However, that title will be short-lived, as others show they’ve got game, too.
Postmaster: Send Address Changes to
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What do think are some of the year’s biggest industry events? Share them on a blog
at www.cgw.com.
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DECEMBER 2007
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spotlight
Your resource for products, user applications, news, and market research
PRODUCTS
PROCESSORS
AMD Readies First Stream Processor with
Double-Precision Floating-Point Technology
AMD leveraged its collective expertise in both GPUs and
2GB of onboard GDDR3 memory to compute large datas-
CPUs to deliver the first integrated hardware and software
ets without CPU traffic. The asynchronous direct memory
development solution that meets the needs of the high-
access (DMA) ensures that data can flow freely without
performance computing (HPC) market. To this end, AMD
interrupting the Stream processor or CPU.
plans to deliver the FireStream 9170 and supporting SDK
The AMD FireStream SDK, mean-
to market in the first quarter of 2008.
while, uses an open plat-
The AMD FireStream 9170 will be the first Stream
form approach to allow
GPU with double-precision floating-point technolo-
developers to access key
gy tailored for scientific and engineering calcu-
APIs and specifications,
lations. Priced at $1999, it features up to
enabling performance tun-
500 GFLOPS of compute power, rival-
ing at the lowest level and devel-
ing many of today’s supercom-
opment of third-party tools. Building
puters and providing dramatic
on AMD’s Close to the Metal interface
acceleration for critical
introduced in 2006, the Compute Abstraction
algorithms. This sec-
Layer provides low-level access to the GPU for
ond-generation Stream
development and performance tuning, along with
processor is built with
forward compatibility to future GPUs.
55nm process technolo-
For high-level development, AMD is announcing
gy and consumes less than 150 watts
Brook+, a tool providing C extensions for Stream comput-
of power. In addition, the reduced heat dis-
ing based on the Brook project from Stanford University.
sipation allows the processor to function in dense design
configurations.
In addition, AMD plans to support the AMD Core Math
Library to provide GPU-accelerated math functions and
The FireStream 9170 is a single-card solution with
the COBRA video library for accelerating video transcode.
PRODUCTS
VIDEO
4
AJA Ships Io HD
AJA Video began shipping Io HD, deliv-
similar feature set to AJA’s KONA line-
ble chassis, Io HD offers SD/HD ana-
ering HD editing to the MacBook Pro
up: 10-bit hardware-based up-conver-
log inputs and outputs, SD/HD digital
and Mac Pro via its FireWire 800 inter-
sion, cross-conversion, and down-con-
I/O, including HD-SDI and HDMI, as
face. Io HD is the first device to natively
version, all performed in real time. Io
well as RS-422, genlock, balanced ana-
support Apple’s ProRes 422 video for-
HD runs on a new AJA-built driver,
log, and AES audio, in addition to LTC
mat in hardware. Along with video and
supporting features such as core audio
time-code connections. Io HD is avail-
audio connectivity, Io HD includes a
and very low latency. Within its porta-
able now for $3495.
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DECEMBER 2007
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Intensity Pro introduces professional HDMI
and analog editing in HD and SD for $349
Intensity Pro is the only capture and playback
card for Windows™ and Mac OS X™ with HDMI
and analog connections. Intensity Pro allows
you to upgrade to Hollywood production quality
with uncompressed or compressed video capture
and playback using large screen HDTVs.
Connect to Anything!
Intensity Pro includes HDMI and component
analog, NTSC/PAL and S-video connections
in a low cost plug-in card. Capture from HDMI
cameras, VHS and Video8 decks, gaming consoles, set-top boxes
and more. Playback to large screen televisions and video projectors.
Beyond the Limits of HDV
Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS X
HDV’s heavy compression and limited 1440 x 1080 resolution can
cause problems with quality and editing. Intensity Pro eliminates these
problems and lets you choose from uncompressed video, Online
JPEG and Apple ProRes 422 for full 1920 x 1080 HDTV resolution.
Now you can capture in 1080i HD, 720p HD or NTSC/PAL video.
Intensity Pro is fully compatible with both Adobe Premiere Pro
on Windows™ and Apple Final Cut Pro on Mac OS X™, as well
as Motion™, Color™, DVD Studio Pro™, After Effects™, Photoshop™,
Encore DVD™, Combustion™, Fusion™ and many more.
Playback to your Big Screen HDTV
Use Intensity Pro’s HDMI or analog output for
incredible big screen video monitoring. Unlike
FireWire™ based solutions, Intensity uses an
uncompressed video connection direct to Final
Cut Pro’s real time effects renderer. No FireWire compression means
all CPU processing is dedicated to more effects and video layers!
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Intensity Pro
$349
Learn more today at www.blackmagic-design.com
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MOTION CAPTURE
PRODUCTS
PRODUCTS
WORKSTATIONS
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HP Uncovers Two
Quad-Core Models
RealViz Rolls Out
Movimento Mocap
One year after delivering its first workstations based on
RealViz unveiled an eight-camera solution bundle,
Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, HP continued along
geared for motion-capture professionals, that captures
this path by unveiling two upcoming eight-core work-
facial, hand, arm, and full-body movement without the
stations—the HP xw6600 and xw8600—both powered
need for a mocap studio.
by next-gen Quad-Core (Intel 5400 series) and Dual-
At the heart of the offering is Movimento, the company’s video-based motion-capture software. Movimento
is powered by Smart, RealViz’s automatic 3D tracking
engine, and offers the unique capability to capture the
motion of any non-rigid object (humans, animals) in
postproduction from synchronized image sequences.
Users can start with just two cameras (of different rates)
that can be fixed or moving. The mocap results can
then be used within a range of applications from special effects and games to biomechanical research and
sports science.
The kit is available now for $39,000.
Core Intel Xeon (5200 series) processors. The workstations, available this month starting at $1200, are
designed to meet the needs of compute-intensive industries, including software design, DCC, architecture,
high-def video, game development, scientific imaging,
PRODUCTS
TABLET PC
and oil exploration.
Wacom Technology rolled out the Cintiq 12WX, aimed
The workstations also feature dual, full-perfor-
at professional digital content creators, that combines all
mance PCI Express Gen2 x16 graphics slots, a memory
the advantages and power of direct pen-on-screen input
capacity of up to 128GB in the 8600, and storage capac-
with a new low-profile, lightweight, and flexible design.
ity of up to 5TB. Moreover, the systems are 90 percent
Ideal for storyboarding 2D or 3D animations, com-
recyclable and ship standard with 80 percent power-
positing, graphic design, and photo retouching, the
efficient supplies.
Cintiq 12WX is suitable in a variety of computer envi-
Designed for areas where space is at a premium,
ronments, especially those where users wish to work
the xw6600 offers maximum computing power in a
across displays. It is ideal as a companion monitor for
small form factor, making it one of the smallest dual-
a primary display, alongside other displays in a multi-
processor socket workstations available. Delivering up
monitor environment, or even by itself. Moreover, the
to twice the graphics performance of the previous sys-
12WX works seamlessly with more than 100 software
tems, the xw6600 also supports up to four 3D displays
applications. The Cintiq 12WX features a 12.1-inch TFT
or eight 2D displays.
LCD display for direct pen-on-screen drawing, painting,
The xw8600, meanwhile, is geared for extreme com-
sketching, navigating, and collaborating. Users can work
putational applications, delivering four times the graph-
with the pressure-sensitive pen directly on screen, pro-
ics processing throughput of previous-generation sys-
viding WXGA resolution of 1280x800 pixels with 24-bit
tems. Like the xw6600, it can support multiple displays.
color depth and a wide viewing angle of 170 degrees.
And with its tool-less chassis, the xw8600 can be ser-
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DECEMBER 2007
With an estimated price of $999, the Cintiq 12WX is
available now.
viced easily and managed remotely.
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Cintiq 12WX Interactive
Pen Display Available
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Only DeckLink HD Extreme has SDI and analog
connections in HD and SD for only $995!
The new DeckLink HD Extreme features both
SDI and analog I/O connections that instantly
switch between HD and SD. Use with the latest
PCI Express Mac and Windows computers
for the world’s highest quality editing, effects
and broadcast paint solution.
World’s Highest Quality
DeckLink HD Extreme works natively in 10 bit
4:2:2 and features the industry’s only true 14 bit
analog conversion with uncompressed video
capture/playback. With uncompressed 10 bit capture and playback,
you’ll always retain that pristine film look.
Connect to any Deck, Camera or Monitor
Compatible with Popular Video Software
DeckLink HD Extreme supports standard and high definition SDI
4:2:2 and analog YUV, as well as NTSC/PAL and S-Video in and out.
DeckLink HD Extreme also features 2 channel AES audio and
professional analog stereo XLR audio in and out. An RS-422 port
is included for controlling broadcast decks and a genlock/HD
tri-sync input for connecting to large broadcast systems.
DeckLink HD Extreme gives you the freedom to move between
platforms with drivers for PCI Express Apple Mac OS X ™ and
Microsoft Windows™ systems. Use your favorite video software
such as Final Cut Pro™, Premiere Pro™, After Effects™, Photoshop™,
Combustion™, Fusion™ and many more.
High Definition and Standard Definition
If you’re moving between SD and HD, DeckLink
HD Extreme’s SDI and analog component YUV
connections will switch standards instantly.
Work with the widest range of equipment, such as Betacam SP,
HD set top boxes, HDV cameras, Digital Betacam, HDCAM, D5,
HDCAM SR 4:2:2 and more.
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DeckLink HD Extreme
$995
Learn more today at www.blackmagic-design.com
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PRODUCTS
PROCESSORS
AMD Introduces x86 Quad-Core Microprocessor
AMD announced the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor,
global OEM and system-builder partners began shipping last
the first native x86 quad-core microprocessor, geared for
month. AMD Phenom processor solutions, which will lever-
demanding data centers.
age many of the same benefits of this next-generation archi-
Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors with AMD’s Direct
Connect Architecture introduce innovations beyond four x86
tecture, are expected to be available for the desktop market
in December.
processing cores on a single die of silicon in the areas of
As part of the same announcement, AMD unveiled the
energy efficiency, with a 50 percent increase in integer and
Average CPU Power (ACP) metric, which represents proces-
floating-point performance, as well as enhanced virtualiza-
sor power usage, including cores, integrated memory con-
tion performance. The company is also offering investment
troller, and HyperTransport technology links, while running
protection, enabling non-disruptive transitions from dual to
a suite of commercially useful high-utilization workloads
quad core within the same power and thermal envelopes to
indicative of the industry. ACP is a useful metric for data-
help keep infrastructure costs down.
center operators when estimating power budgets to size their
Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based systems from
data centers.
GAMING
Softimage Goes Mod
PRODUCTS
PRODUCTS
GAMING
Havok Launches
Integrated Character/
Physics Solution
Havok, known for its interactive software, made available Havok 5, which offers new features across the company’s modular suite of run-time technology and artists
tools for accelerating the development of cross-platform
games and special effects in films.
Havok 5 offers major enhancements in its core products, Havok Physics and Havok Animation, as well as
introduces new features for Havok Behavior, the system
For a while now, Softimage has been offering its XSI
for developing event-driven character behaviors in a
6 Mod Tool, free 3D modeling and animation software
game. Havok Physics 5 provides memory and CPU per-
for non-commercial game content creation and modi-
formance improvements that can dramatically acceler-
fication. The product enables aspiring game develop-
ate interactive destruction sequences in games. Havok
ers to create compelling 3D characters, levels, and con-
Animation 5’s new run-time mirroring feature allows
tent designed for use with Microsoft XNA Game Studio.
character animations to be reflected interactively from
Integrating natively with the XNA Framework Content
left to right—cutting content creation and memory
Pipeline, the XSI Mod Tool comes with an enhanced user
requirements in half for directional animation assets.
interface and training videos from Noesis Interactive.
Softimage XSI 6 Mod Tool is restricted to non-com-
8
Havok Behavior 5 establishes the first unified authoring environment and SDK that intuitively combines
mercial usage. XSI 6 Mod Tool files cannot be opened
physics with procedural animation and traditional ani-
using commercial XSI packages. Furthermore, models
mation assets. This system can accelerate production up
created in the tool are limited to 64,000 triangles at the
to tenfold, and opens the door to novel hybrid character
time of export for each mesh in the scene, and the assets
performances. Pricing for Havok 5 varies according to
cannot be rendered outside a game engine.
customer needs.
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Freedom of movement
With Moven, our new mocap studio is the entire Earth
PJ Putnam - Vice president of Gearbox Software, LCC
Moven is the only inertial motion capture system that
does capture jumps
Peter Karlsson - CEO of CG Sweden
Moven provides our 3D character with lifelike
movements in real-time. It’s incredible
Dirk Callaerts - President of Eyetronics
No cameras, no data cleaning. See for yourself
Live demonstrations at GDC ’08, booth #6539
20-22 February 2008, San Francisco
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Visual Effects
Animal
Control
Chris Weitz almost didn’t make
New Line’s The Golden Compass. After finishing the script in
Studio, and Rainmaker to help. “My challenge was to make
everybody’s work look like everybody else’s work,” Fink says.
2004, he removed himself as director, citing technical chal-
Most of the visual effects centered on photorealistic animals,
lenges that were more than he could undertake. In May 2006,
some of which had speaking roles, and on digital environments
after his replacement resigned, he changed his mind. But not
because there were fewer technical challenges. When production wrapped in November 2007, Weitz’s adaptation of the first
novel in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy contained
approximately 1100 visual effects shots, and that number barely
hints at the volume of work.
“[The shot count] grew to more than 1400,” says visual
effects supervisor Mike Fink, “and then it went back down
again.” It went down because in October, about two months
before the release date, Weitz moved the original ending, the
final three chapters of the book, to the beginning of what will
be the second film.
“Even the 1100 shot total is deceiving because a great number
of the shots, probably a third, were shared between facilities,”
Fink says. “And for a few shots, three, four, even five facilities
Lyra’s animal spirit Pantalaimon, one of several CG daemons in the
film with speaking roles, reflects her impish nature.
were involved. In one sequence, we had wolves from four facilities: Tippett, Rhythm & Hues, Cinesite, and Framestore CFC.”
Fink’s initial plan had called for Rhythm & Hues, Framestore
and fantastical vehicles. The conceit in The Golden Compass,
which takes place in a parallel universe, is that everyone has a
CFC, and Cinesite to create the shots, and these three studios
personal daemon, a manifestation of his or her soul in the form
did produce the majority of the effects. But as the shot count
of an animal. The aristocratic Lord Asriel’s (Daniel Craig) dae-
grew and shots changed, he brought in Digital Domain, Tippett
mon, for example, is Stelmaria, a snow leopard. Mrs. Coulter
10 | Computer Graphics World
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(Nicole Kidman), the leader of the oppressive General Oblation
Board (the “Gobblers”), has a clever and curious golden monkey daemon that sometimes reveals the duplicitous human’s
true thoughts.
The daemon for the film’s young primary character, Lyra
Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards), however, is still taking shape.
Like those for all children, Pantalaimon (Pan), Lyra’s daemon,
reflects her evolving nature. Sometimes he’s a moth, sometimes
a ferret, sometimes a cat, sometimes another animal, but he
always talks with Freddie Highmore’s voice.
When the General Oblation Board kidnaps Lyra’s friend
Roger Parslow and takes him to the prison at Bolvanger to
remove his daemon, Lyra’s epic quest to free Roger and other
children held by the Gobblers begins. She enlists the help of
a sky captain, Lee Scoresby (whose daemon is Hester, a hare
voiced by Kathy Bates), and Scoresby’s friend Iorek Byrnison, a
warrior bear voiced by Ian McKellen.
All these animals and nearly all the additional animals in the
film are digital. However, in a short sequence at Bolvanger and
in Mrs. Coulter’s house, some severed daemons are real dogs,
and another sequence features a real snake and real owl. “We
©2007 New Line Cinema.
The CG daemon Stelmaria stands by
her man, the aristocratic Lord Asriel.
Rhythm & Hues created this snow
leopard and all the daemons with
speaking roles.
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Visual Effects
had more than 60 unique daemon mod-
To help with that interaction, Rhythm
studios worked on the daemons, creating
els,” Fink says. He lists, among others,
& Hues employed a variety of gadgets on
animals that closely matched real ones.
warthogs, jackals, cats, several types of
set. “The challenging thing is that the
As the group had done for Narnia, it kept
birds and snakes, ferrets, rabbits, wolves,
daemons are always by their humans and
animation controls consistent from one
and foxes.
often touching,” says Bill Westenhofer,
animal to the next.
Of all the animals, Mrs. Coulter’s
Rhythm & Hues produced the primary
who received an Oscar nomination for
daemons, including all those that talk, and
leading Rhythm & Hues’ work on Narnia.
golden monkey was the most techni-
the evil mechanical spy flies. Framestore
Sometimes they gave Dakota a green
cally challenging. “Usually, we can let
CFC created all the bears, including the
beanbag to hold. And, for a shot during
the hair dynamics do their thing,” says
stars, Iorek and his enemy Ragnar Stur-
which Pan (in the form of a cat) runs up
Westenhofer, “but the monkey had a lot
lusson (Ian McShane), as well as a few
into Lyra’s arms, Westenhofer put the
of hair that needed to be fairly stiff, so
hundred armored guard bears, and
beanbag on a fishing pole and swung
when he jumped up and down, it couldn’t
placed the white bears into snowy digi-
it across the room. For interaction with
move very much, and it had to compress
tal environments. And, Cinesite created a
the environment, the studio created CG
correctly.” To control the hair, the simu-
supporting cast of daemons, most of the
duvets and clothes on which to imprint
lation team put, in effect, a digital hairnet
environments, and vehicles.
animal paws and claws.
over monkey’s fur, ran a simulation on
the hairnet, and those dynamics told the
hair how to behave. “It was still expensive to calculate the collisions for every
hair,” Westenhofer notes.
The golden monkey’s design was critical because it doesn’t exist in nature,
yet it had to look real. But equally difficult, the character had to be evil without
speaking. “I think [the golden monkey]
is the best character Rhythm & Hues has
done,” Fink says. “He doesn’t have any
dialog. He has to act.”
The number of people with daemons
provided a second challenge. In theory,
because every person has a daemon, every
shot in the film could easily have included
Mrs. Coulter’s golden monkey doesn’t talk, so animators used only his body language and
facial expressions to explore his evil nature.
a CG animal. “To keep to the budget, we
Rhythm & Hues: Daemons
camera, but it was a bit of a challenge on
carefully considered when you could see
the daemons and when they could be off
Because the daemons are an exter-
Although Rhythm & Hues has created
nal representation of the person, their
numerous animals for films, including
actions often needed to reflect the actor’s
the acclaimed Chronicles of Narnia (see
performance.
the set,” Westenhofer says.
When the crew on set knew where
daemons would be, they left a space,
“Animal Magnetism,” December 2005),
“Sam Elliott, who plays Lee Scoresby,
but when they didn’t, Rhythm & Hues
the daemons in The Golden Compass
has a habit of cocking his head to one
had to squeeze them in. For a battle
pushed the studio to new levels.
side,” Westenhofer says. “So we had his
sequence at Bolvanger, effects artists
“We have an extraordinary level of
rabbit do that, as if they are parts of the
put Massive software into action to ani-
human and animated character interac-
same being. In the past, we might have
mate several hundred daemons in the
background.
tion,” Fink says. “Lyra’s daemon sits on
spent most of our effort getting the ani-
her, crawls on her, goes into her pock-
mals’ hair and muscles right, but we’ve
Rhythm & Hues uses proprietary soft-
ets and under the covers of her bed. She
done this enough now that we could
ware for animation, rendering, and com-
holds it and they cuddle. And in one 40-
spend 30 percent of our time on the tech-
positing. When they rendered the dae-
second shot, Mrs. Coulter picks up the
nical challenges and 70 percent on the
mons, they added a rainbow-like sheen, a
golden monkey, holds it to her shoulder,
performances.”
little iridescence. “We wanted to show that
and promises to find Lyra, so we have the
interaction of monkey hair and real hair.”
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A staff of 400 people in Rhythm &
they aren’t animals,” Westenhofer says.
Hues’ Los Angeles and Mumbai, India, “They’re physical manifestations of spirits.”
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Framestore CFC created all the bears, including Iorek, shown above
with Lyra and her daemon Pan, this time in the form of a cat created by
Rhythm & Hues. At right, Dakota Blue Richards rode a motion-control rig
so that Lyra could ride on Iorek’s back.
When a person dies in this parallel
that would have been
universe, his or her daemon dies, too,
in the finale. “This was
and turns into a kind of intelligent dust.
great work,” Westenhofer says. “We love
and Weitz. Once the models were rigged,
That dust becomes visible in this film
working on good stories. As with Narnia,
animators began working on walk and
during a scene in which a daemon is
I am a big fan of the book.”
run cycles. “You can say, ‘Yes, that’s a
about to be separated from his human.
good walk,’ ” Einarsson says. “But, charFramestore CFC: Bears
acter development is more subjective.”
with keyframes into a fluid simulation so
Two of the leading actors in this film are
The character they developed for Iorek
the particles have momentum from the
the Panzerbjorn warrior bears Iorek and
was more bear than human. “We under-
animation and flow around the charac-
Ragnar. Both have speaking roles. “Iorek
played the animation and tried to imag-
ter,” Westenhofer says.
is a digital co-star,” says Ben Morris,
ine how a bear would talk.”
“We moved a character that we animated
Often, Rhythm & Hues’ daemons
Framestore CFC visual effects supervi-
Once the animators had created the
needed to fit into shots with elements from
sor. “And Ragnar, the bad guy, is a sec-
performance, procedural secondary ani-
other studios. “We tried to do everything
ond main character.”
with pre-composites,” says Westenhofer.
mation moved the bears’ skin. “We had
Lyra meets Iorek about half way
a crew of creature TDs that made sure
For example: “Cinesite would give us a
through the film, when he is a drunken,
the skin jiggle was right,” says Laurent
background and a subset of the daemons,
down-and-out bear who has lost his armor.
Hugueniot, CG supervisor.
we’d composite our daemons into the shot, “We have to experience him on two levels,”
The skin moved according to texture
Framestore CFC would add the bears and
says Dadi Einarsson, animation supervi-
maps that specified the thickness of a fat
layer; the thicker the fat, the bigger the
send it back to us for more daemons. We
sor. “He’s a real bear, but also he has to
did very little sharing of animation files or
talk and act, and people have to connect
jiggle. And, when the skin moved, the
models. Using the pre-composites made
with him on an emotional level.”
fur reacted. Framestore CFC bases its
To create the bears, modelers started
pipeline on Autodesk’s Maya with 2d3’s
All told, the studio created 500 shots
with maquettes, sculpted by Neal Scan-
Boujou for tracking and matchmoving,
that appear in the film, plus many more
lon’s crew under the direction of Fink
sends RIB files to Pixar’s RenderMan
the interactions more feasible.”
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Above, all the people in the film have
daemons, so hiding background characters’
daemons reduced the load on effects houses.
At right, Rhythm & Hues’ “spy fly” causes
feline concern.
using Liquid, an open-source Maya plug-
to tell the story, then we figured out how
working, but more importantly, Dakota
in written by Colin Doncaster, simulates
to shoot it,” Einarsson says.
[Richards] was excited to see them,”
cloth with Syflex software, and uses in-
For that sequence, Richards rode a
Moran says. The composites gave the
motion rig powered by animation data.
young actor environmental cues that were
“No matter how many times you do it, fur
Morris had originally designed the rig
unavailable on the greenscreen stage.
is really hard,” Hugueniot says. Moreover,
for Dinotopia, used it for the Hippogriff
To provide reference and photographic
all the bears in the film, including Iorek,
sequence in Harry Potter, and then
plates for Lyra’s journey north, Fink
eventually wore armor that covered much
revamped it for The Golden Compass. “On
directed a crew, led by Eric Pascarelli, that
of their backs and bellies, and the fur had
previous projects, we used fairly rigid
shot HD footage from a helicopter flying
to move out of the way of the armor.
body sections, but for this we milled a per-
over the Svalbard archipelago between
fect form of the bear’s body,” Morris says.
Norway and the North Pole. “The whole
house tools for skin and fur dynamics.
“The first thing we noticed was that
we couldn’t move the character with- “To get bear’s shoulder-blade and front-arm
last half of the movie is virtual environ-
movement and the lolloping motion of the
ments,” Fink says. “And, with the exception
armor,” Hugueniot says. “It was quite a
bear, we built in a rocker.” The actuators,
of some environments created by Cinesite
design challenge. Their bodies are very
which Fink requested, provided the up and
for Bolvanger and a few shots shared with
flexible.” A custom dynamics program
down motion inherent in a running bear
Digital Domain where the bear is in the
managed the fur-to-fur, fur-to-armor, and
and made sure Lyra’s hands moved cor-
background, Framestore CFC put their
fur-to-skin collisions. To simulate the
rectly as she held onto the bear’s shoulders.
bears in their own environments.”
interaction between Lyra and the bear,
Compositing supervisor Ivan Moran
“We have moonlit sequences in gla-
the team collided a 3D proxy for Dakota
worked on set with video feed from the
cial valleys, warm late-morning sun rak-
Blue Richards with the fur.
camera to composite shots of Richards
ing over blue ice,” says Morris. “As they
In one sequence, Lyra hugs the bear,
(riding the motion-control rig) onto rough
go farther north, it gets more forebod-
but the bigger challenge was a sequence
CG renders of the bear and the environ-
ing, but there’s enough light to see what’s
out breaking the physical limits of the
during which Lyra rides on Iorek’s back.
ment. “We could show the shots to the
going on.” The effects team built the
“We basically animated what we needed
director and crew so they knew what was
environments first, added the characters
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to get the right feeling, lit the sequences,
studio created many of the digital envi-
at first that maybe we could have used
and then sent separate render passes for
ronments, their work often became the
a simpler option, but we could have
never done the shots with a simple matte-
all the elements to the compositing team.
starting point for elements added by oth-
“Working on this film was almost like
ers. Cinesite, in effect, provided the vir-
painted approach,” says Thrain Shadbolt,
working on a photoreal CG movie, where
tual background plate. “We’d supply our
CG supervisor.
the only element in the shot is a little girl
3D environments as our backgrounds,
Once the 3D artists had finished the
shot on a greenscreen stage,” he says.
then Rhythm & Hues would animate to
snowy environment, compositors layered
Approximately 40 compositors worked
the layouts we had done,” says Sue Rowe,
in the actors and their CG daemons and
on Framestore CFC’s 260 shots. “The big-
visual effects supervisor. “The same goes
digital witches. “There are a number of
gest challenge was comp’ing a white bear
for Framestore CFC with the bears.”
shots during the battle sequence where
in a white environment,” Moran says. “For
For the most familiar part of the parallel
you see our daemons running between the
the environments, we didn’t use beauty
universe, Cinesite built stylized versions of
legs of the children,” Rowe says. “Cinesite
passes. It’s almost impossible to ren-
London and Oxford using a mix of 3D, 2.5D
has been well recognized for environment
der one pass in which the ice looks right
projections on geometry, and matte paint-
work, so we were really keen to get into
everywhere. For the hero bears, we had a
ings in the background to adapt footage of
character work. The daemons gave us that
raw beauty pass, but added a lot of top-end
existing locations. For the Bolvanger bat-
step into character animation.”
detail.” Compositors layered in eye high-
tle, however, they built a completely digital
Modelers worked in Maya and Mudbox
lights and reflections, specularity, wet-
environment. This battle takes place inside
to create the daemons and approximately
ness in the bears’ mouths, and iridescence
a cirque, an icy amphitheatre-like semicir-
70 wolves. As part of the studio’s evolution
in the fur. In addition, the compositors
cle formed at the head of a glacier.
....
into character animation, a team of techni-
tweaked the lighting on the armor. “Every
To create the Bolvanger environment,
cal directors developed a new feather sys-
shot becomes a picture of its own,” Moran
Cinesite started with helicopter footage
tem for the raven under the supervision
says. “We get everything right, except the
in HD shot by Fink in Svalbard, and with
of 3D supervisor Ivor Middleton. Cinesite
left toenail might be too bright or the blue
live-action elements of actors filmed on
bases its pipeline on Maya; its fur and
shadow on the eye is too strong.”
The compositors worked from back to
front, layering in the multiple environment
passes and then the bears. In one sequence,
they surrounded an arena with 120 guard
bears and then put Iorek and Ragnar inside.
“I remember when we were bidding this
show with Ben [Morris], thinking how difficult it would be,” Moran says. “Everyone
would be looking at the 11-foot-tall bears
wearing armor and talking.”
Morris knew the team was successful when the producer and director began
talking about Iorek as if he were an actor.
“They weren’t talking about how many millions of hairs he had or what color his teeth
were. I knew we’d cracked it. We’d given
them another actor in the film,” he says.
Lee Scoresby’s daemon is Hester, a hare voiced by Kathy Bates and shown here cocking his
head like actor Sam Elliott. Because the daemons represent the humans’ spirit, animators at
Rhythm & Hues often used actors’ mannerisms in the animals’ performances.
Cinesite: Environments, More
Daemons, Vehicles
a greenscreen stage. “We created geome-
Cinesite added verisimilitude to the
try for the mountains, and then projected
The feather system grew the raven’s
film by providing 15 daemons, includ-
the footage that Mike [Fink] brought
feathers from curves placed on the bird’s
ing panthers, raccoons, praying man-
back onto the surfaces to create an inhos-
surface, using parameters to control the
tis, rats, and a beetle for the supporting
pitable, frozen environment,” Rowe says.
length, size, and density. Painted texture
cast of humans, and a raven for the mas-
The artists then placed a 3D Art Deco
maps specified direction, inclination, cur-
feather systems are plug-ins to Maya.
ter of Jordan College (which parallels
building made from glass and steel in
vature, twist, bend, and other settings,
Exeter College in Oxford). Because the
the center of the cirque. “We thought
and a rig controlled main flight feathers
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that automatically drove corresponding
than cloth simulation.
works, so when we went into the fantas-
feathers. To fix any collision problems
“The challenge for us was that we had
tical world, we had a connection to the
caused by automatic interpolation, the
so many different kinds of scenes,” says
mechanical material,” says Grill. Once in
effects artists used keyframe animation.
Shadbolt, “the creatures, complex vehicles
the vision world, particle dust based on
Ten randomly selected texture maps pro-
that had to match set pieces, and environ-
the images repeated the theme of “dust”
vided the look of the feathers, with a pro-
ments. We tried to push the technology as
that connects people and their daemons.
cedural displacement shader adding barbs
far as we could within each. It was huge.”
and other elements to alter the shapes.
In addition, Digital Domain created
the environment for a scene during which
Tippett, Rainmaker, Digital
Lyra and Iorek cross an ice bridge. For
mons, Cinesite also built a 147-foot-long
Domain: The Finishing Touches
this, they used Maya for modeling and
lighting, Houdini’s rigid-body dynamics
In addition to environments and daesky ferry that lands in Lyra’s Oxford.
Working from Rhythm & Hues’ reference
“Because we see the sky ferry in a nor-
wolves, Tippett Studio built wolves with
to break the bridge, the studio’s Storm
mal environment, we worked on mak-
four color variations, using its proprie-
software for volumetric particle effects,
ing sure the surfaces had small details
tary Furocious to render their coats, and
RenderMan and Houdini’s VMantra for
like dirt, rivets, and dents,” Rowe says.
then added the wolves to the Bolvanger
rendering, and The Foundry’s Nuke for
Bigger challenges, perhaps, were the
battle. Rainmaker helped by provid-
compositing.
Noordelicht, a CG sailing ship, and Lee
ing backgrounds and matte paintings
“It was tough,” Grill says. “We had
Scoresby’s balloon.
for the Gyptian Encampment sequence,
some shots from Framestore CFC that
gave us a look to match to, but we had
“We built a CG version of a complete
and created an animated spirit projector
boat with paddle wheels, funnels for the
that Lord Asriel uses to show 3D mov-
to build our own shader from scratch
engine, sails, and rigging,” says Shadbolt.
ing images to the scholars at Oxford. But,
and use a lot of 2D techniques. The compositor could change the look of the ice
by changing textures or moving them
deeper, which affects the bounced light
in subsurface scattering.”
Also, during the Bolvanger battle,
Digital Domain did pre-comps for 65
shots that had to match perfectly with
the surrounding Cinesite shots.
Because so many facilities shared
shots, Fink had people on his crew who
did nothing but coordinate data between
London, Los Angeles, and Berkeley,
Cinesite created most of the virtual backgrounds and vehicles in the film, including this sky
ferry landing in a stylized version of Oxford.
California. “It wasn’t something we had
planned,” Fink says. “It grew out of the
nature of the film.”
“We had to do simulations for the water
of the three studios that picked up shots,
That the visual effects in the film
and paddle-wheel effects, cloth simula-
Digital Domain had the largest chunk of
have an internal consistency is a tribute
tion, and a heck of a lot of work in model-
the work—approximately 150 shots.
ing, texturing, and lighting.”
Bryan Grill supervised a team that
to Fink and to all the visual effects studios that found ways to cooperate and
For cloth dynamics, the simulation
created the golden alethiometer, which is
blend their work with that of their com-
team used Syflex software controlled
not a compass, although it resembles one,
petitors. It seems somehow appropriate
by a complex rig that used proprietary
that appears in 60 shots. “The studio had
for a coming-of-age fantasy about which
scripts and plug-ins to manipulate the
a prop that people interacted with, but
Philip Pullman quotes Sir Philip Sidney:
sails, rope ladders, and rigs. In one shot,
it didn’t have any effects,” says Grill. So, “Everyone is welcome, and no one is shut
a digital double, animated with motion-
the artists at Digital Domain made the
out, and I hope each reader will find a
captured data, climbed CG ropes. Particle
alethiometer magical by color-correct-
tale worth spending time with.”
simulations in Side Effects’ Houdini sent
ing the prop to look golden, giving it ani-
water through the paddle wheel as the
mated glints and, using 3D and 2D, slid-
Barbara Robertson is an award-winning
boat moved through real water elements.
ing particulate imagery (visions) inside.
writer and a contributing editor for Com-
For the balloon-powered vehicle, how-
“A lot of our 3D work was creating the
ever, the crew used a complex rig rather
cogs, sprockets, and mechanical clock-
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DECEMBER 2007
puter Graphics World. She can be reached
at _______________
[email protected].
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Gaming
Last month, we kicked off this series on true next-generation titles by
highlighting Midway’s Stranglehold. In this issue, we detail the cutting-edge
graphics in Halo 3, and we will end this three-part feature with a look at the
stunning visuals in Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed.
CW
The war between
the humans and
the Covenant continues in Halo 3.
Like its predecessors in the series,
the title incorporates current
state-of-the-art
graphics and AI.
©2007 Bungie Studios.
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It seems like yesterday when Bungie’s Halo became the must-have title when Microsoft released its
original Xbox console. Winning all kinds of game awards, Halo also topped all the video game bestseller charts for nearly two years. In November 2004, Bungie’s Halo 2 was released,
igniting a firestorm among the gaming community as rabid fans waited overnight in long lines to be the first to continue the saga of Master Chief.
Halo 3, the final game in the Halo trilogy, puts players back into the green
gunmetal armor of Master Chief, as he returns to Earth to save mankind
from destruction at the hands of the Covenant, the evil alien coalition. This
as the baddies are still trying to activate the deadly Halo array while under
the influence of an even more dangerous enemy called The Flood, a sentient
parasite that makes monstrous puppets of its victims.
Production on the game began in the wake of a flood of criticism over Halo
2’s ending, which many thought was too much of a cliffhanger (see “The Halo Effect,”
January 2005). “It was on our minds, of course, but the events of Halo 3 were in a significant way decided before Halo 2 ever hit stores,” says writing lead Frank O’Connor. “We
knew there was more story to tell, and we knew that we had shipped a cliff-hanger ending that would have to be resolved in a third part. We were careful to try and ensure a
satisfactory conclusion.”
For the third installment, Bungie remained true to the protocol of “guns, grenades, and
melee attack” that make Halo feel like Halo, but also tried to evolve the gameplay to keep
the combat fresh and interesting. “That was done is subtle ways with timing and balance,
but also in less discreet ways, including new weapons, vehicles, and, of course, equipment,”
says O’Connor.
In addition, in the four-player cooperative mode, rather than assuming the roles of identical Spartans, players can now take control of Master Chief, the Arbiter, N’Tho ’Sroam,
and Usze ’Taham. “This decision was made to create real personalities for the coop mode, so that you weren’t all simply using clones of the Chief, but without
impacting the core fiction in any meaningful way. Multiplayer tends to take
giant liberties with canon, but we wanted to make that less jarring in
Campaign [mode],” says O’Connor.
To create the immersive environments, Bungie once again
used Havok Physics to drive the behavior of objects and characters in the game. Bodies fly through the air using ragdoll physics,
vehicles explode, showering debris onto their surroundings, and new additions such as the portable gravity lift and the “man cannon” propel
players through the world. Havok is also used for special effects,
including plants swaying in a jungle and Flood tentacles hanging from a ceiling.
While Halo 3’s graphics engine is tied very closely to the
Xbox’s HDR model, O’Connor says the most important factor
in delivering the game’s immersive sense of “place” is the unification of all the elements. “The HDR, the apparent and actual
scale, the Mie and Rayleigh scattering (for simulating clouds,
gases, solids, and liquids on light) in the atmosphere are
all designed to immerse the player in our vision of the Halo
worlds,” he says. “Each individual aspect of the game, from the
PRT (precomputed radiance transfer) lighting to the types of shaders
we use in explosions and other effects are built to match an evolution of our art
style. Initially, we saw a lot of criticism based around the idea that we never
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all the holes were filled.”
In order for the player to see the damage being inflicted upon the enemy, it was
more important to model damage permutations into the foes rather than “friends.”
Hence, the Covenant’s soldiers have damage effects modeled into their geometry.
On the other hand, artists chose to “bloody
up” the Marines using a simple texture
swap. “That was because they would fight
at your side, not against you, so a gradual change in destruction isn’t necessary,”
Wang explains. “The only indicators you
need to know for your Marines is whether
The Halo vehicles were modeled within 3ds Max and hand-painted in Photoshop.
they’re alive or dead, and with a texture
swap, that worked perfectly. The Chief
shot for photorealism or to ape the art
same level but in different lighting situ-
and ODSTs (akin to Special Forces) were
style of games like Gears. In the end, the
ations (such as indoors versus outdoors),
not broken down because we didn’t want
choices we made were right for Halo.”
Character Modeling
Bungie overhauled all the character mod-
the reflection mapping would shift,” says
to make them look weak once they were
Wang. “The Xbox 360 gave us a bigger
killed. We all thought the feel for these
bucket to fill our creative assets.”
main characters worked best when their
While artists modeled and animated
bodies were intact.”
els from Halo 2, pushing their polygon
the characters in Autodesk’s Maya,
For each of the main characters,
counts from 3000 to around 6000. The
each of them drew from a raft of pack-
the shader system is like a thousand-
Chief clocked in at approximately 6000
ages—Autodesk’s 3ds Max and Mudbox,
layer cake, made primarily in Adobe
polygons, the highest density the team
Pixologic’s ZBrush, and Softimage XSI, as
Photoshop. Artists, however, sculpted
could afford to maintain within the
well as Maya—to incorporate the projec-
normal maps and bump maps in 3D using
expansive and chaotic nature of the war,
tion mapping into the game. “The most
ZBrush and Mudbox, which were then
which could have “an army” of charac-
significant modeling challenge was add-
either imported into Photoshop
ters on screen at a given time. More impor-
ing all those different systems and mak-
for painting in the details of the
tantly, the game marked the first time
ing it work with our proprietary engine
height maps or touched up with
Bungie was able to utilize the projection-
tools.” Of all the characters, the marine
Nvidia’s Normal filter.
mapping method of taking higher-resolu-
proved to be the most difficult, Wang
tion geometry and mapping it onto a lower-
adds, because he was the first to undergo
comprises the following
resolution poly character. “This allowed
this procedure.
maps: base, detail, bump,
us to get fine details and more realistic
During the making of Halo 2, when
The face, for example,
bump
detail,
specu-
features on faces and organic surfaces,”
the armored characters assumed extreme
lar, occlusion param-
says 3D art lead Shi Kai (Shiek) Wang.
poses, modelers often ran into “joint
eter, subsurface, and
The real-time reflection mapping now
rotation pinching” problems around T-
transparency.
present on Master Chief’s armor proved a
junctions or some of the more difficult
metallic shaders for
double-edged sword, adding detail at an
seams, such as the shoulder. To solve
Master Chief were a lot sim-
enormous rendering cost. “First off, [it]
the problem for Halo 3, Bungie hired a
pler; nevertheless, the shader
was extremely expensive, so it would
rigging artist solely dedicated to solving
system culled the functions
be used mainly in the cinematics. How-
these problems. “The problem is two-
depending on the needs of
The
ever, [to handle the in-game reflection
fold: One is rigging, and the other is
the material. Generally, the
mapping] the programmers figured out
animation,” explains Wang. “This rig-
size of the maps was set at
a way to project environment maps in
ging artist ensured that the animators
768x768 for bump and nor-
each level, store it in the game, and have
and other rigging artists were constantly
mal maps, 512x512 for the
it blend dynamically on the Chief’s visor
talking about what changes were being
base map, and 256x256 for
in-game and between different levels. We
made and what animations were being
the detail map.
were able to break it down into different
authored. Unfortunately, there weren’t
areas, so even when the Chief is in the
any magic solutions except to make sure
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“Once we were ripping
maps from higher-res
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geometries, we would rip them at 2048s
Walpole continues: “Custom rigs for
1000 animations in Maya for Master Chief
or 1024s and let Photoshop’s scaling do
the Flood Pureform characters got a bit
and his allies, the Elites, not including
the job of sizing details down,” notes
more complex, but nothing truly out of
cinematics or story-moment animations.
Wang. “This ensured that more detail
the FK/IK standard. What we did break
The game boasts upwards of 10,000 ani-
would be captured at higher res first,
ground on was the inclusion of cinematic
mations for gameplay alone; all the ani-
then properly scaled down to fit the size
and rigging tools within Maya to speed
mations were done by hand without the
our engine can handle.”
and solidify production.” The animator
use of mocap or other similar tools.
points out that Bungie’s tools are likely to
Walpole says one of the greatest chal-
Character Animation
become a discussion topic at the upcom-
lenges of animating game characters is
When rigging Master Chief’s sectional
ing Game Developers Conference (GDC)
finding each one’s soul, or “motion hook.”
body armor to deform realistically with
in February, much like its cinematics
One of the best motion hooks was found
the more pliant undersuit, animator
pipeline and tools were at the fall ADAPT
for the evil alien Brutes. “Having a charac-
Nathan Walpole says the first objective
conference in Montreal.
ter like the Brute show deliberate attitude
when armored, then a different persona
was achieving dynamic posing. “We
Bungie also made significant improve-
focus on hitting the silhouettes and the
ments to Halo 2’s animation and blending
when unarmored, led to some creative
poses we desire; if two pieces of armor
systems, specifically to handle the wildly
animations and a well-rounded charac-
slide over each other or mildly intersect,
mutable Flood Pureforms and the more
ter,” says Walpole. The Brute’s “motion
but the pose and motion on the charac-
dynamic Brutes. “For the Flood trans-
hook” ultimately ended up driving many
gameplay decisions and trickled down
to other difficult-to-solve characters, like
the transforming Flood Pureforms.
Halo 3 also adds a new type of
weapon to Master Chief’s arsenal: the
heavy, two-handed plasma turret, which
weighs heavily on the Chief’s movements.
“These turrets broke all the rules of our
traditional first-person animation system
because the character was now being
viewed closely in third person. All of a
sudden, in third-person view, we could
see small errors and idiosyncrasies in our
animations,” says Walpole. As a result,
The artists used real-time reflection mapping on Master Chief’s armor for the cinematics;
in game, they blended projected environment maps onto his visor for a similar effect.
the team had to revisit code and develop
smoother interpolation methods between
the animations to make Master Chief and
his Elite counterpart look weighted when
ter are fantastic, we feel we did our job,”
forms, we [implemented the capacity
he says. “‘Passion before pixels’ is what
for] uniform scaling within our engine.
carrying the removable plasma turret.
makes our animation shine.”
Pulsating bits and boils would scale
The “weight” was completed by hand-
The entire Halo 3 cast is outfitted with
and writhe while the characters trans-
keying the animations while viewing
standard FK/IK controls built in Maya.
formed,” describes Walpole. Using joint
video reference. “Without reference, your
Bones are the foundation of the base
scaling and translation tricks, the engine
animation is lost,” Walpole adds.
skeleton, while helper joints aid in the
could also simulate two characters fusing
deformation of the character and maxi-
and dividing as the same transformable
Commander Keyes all return with a facial
mizing a character’s flexibility. “We did
entity. “When we wanted to change the
animation system based on 50 bones for
Cortana, Sergeant Major Johnson, and
not break the mold with regard to rigging.
Flood Pureform creature into the Flood
controlling more than 17 phonemes and
Instead, we focused on the core structure
tank, we worked our magic within the
eight emotive states, ranging from happy
of the character and more robust custom
engine to mask the swap of two separate
to sad, angry to pensive. “Multiple ani-
tools within Maya to help our anima-
models and skeletons at one shared pose,”
mations would play and blend over one
tors focus on the art of animation rather
he adds. “The pliable rigs and scaling in
another to create the final result,” says
than fighting with the latest gimmicky
the engine aided this seemingly impos-
Walpole. “Managing 50 bones is not an
spline IK solution or other rigging fads,”
sible task.”
easy or time-productive task for any ani-
In total, animators created more than
Walpole says.
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of OC3, an automatic speech system for
game content, to drive the speech portion
of the animation for each language that
is supported. Animators then layered
the emotive states over that procedural
speech animation to enhance the lines
of the English dialog using a custom tool
that allowed the animation team to work
with 50 nodes with relative ease.
Battlefields
Halo 3’s epic story unfolds across environments that are larger and more detailed
than any of its predecessors. There are
ocean-size waterfalls, a scorched African
savannah, barren otherworldly plains of
All the characters contain standard FK/IK controls. Helper joints within the bone structure
give the characters more flexibility in their movements.
sand and rock, lush jungles intercut with
rocky cliffs—all leading to the dark, glow-
couldn’t believe it. You could fly the
antigravity, and flying. Interestingly, the
ing corridors of alien ships. To this end,
camera through the girders and struc-
Brute Chopper, the enemy’s transport
the team was faced with the challenge of
tural beams, see giant sentinels hovering
vehicle, is a hybrid of all the vehicle phys-
creating an entirely different visual lan-
above the surface constructing the Halo.
ics primitives and uses a custom version
guage from one mission to the next.
Sometimes I think our artists are insane,”
of the friction-point physics for the front
“We chose to begin the adventure in
end and antigravity physics for the back.
he jokes.
“It makes sense because Brute technology
a dense jungle on Earth to start players
Once again, Havok Physics powers
out in a familiar, intimate environment
the almost-universal destructibility of
tends to be a hybrid of Covenant technol-
so we can both refamiliarize the player
the environmental elements, including
ogy and gritty mechanical things,” adds
with the game and set the stage for the
glass windows, fusion coils, pieces of
McKenzie.
impending siege of Earth,” says environ-
electronics, and metal crates and tables.
Using Havok Physics, art-
ment art lead Christopher Barrett. “As we
“We tried to put more dynamic objects in
ists rigged the abundant plant
move through the campaign, we slowly
Halo 3 than we did in the previous Halo
life just like ragdolls. McKenzie
open up the world to the player by show-
games, as they help bring the world alive
explains: “The plants are
ing the war-torn planet and what they are
and make it feel real,” says Barrett.
a set of rigid bodies
fighting for. Setting the first part of the
game in familiar surroundings allows
connected by physPhysics and Effects
continuous
ically
physics
technol-
driven
con-
us to pull the rug out from under the
Havok’s
player when we put the person on the
ogy allowed Bungie to introduce the
that makes plants dif-
completely alien, barren wasteland of the
Mongoose human transport vehicle for
ferent from other objects
Ark.” In addition to the music, the group
the first time. “Because the Mongoose
is that they live in what we
straints. One thing
used various color palettes and types of
moves so fast relative to its size, it wasn’t
call the proxy world. They exist in
spaces to evoke entirely different moods
possible to simulate before Havok 3
a separate instance of Havok from
during different parts of the game that
and continuous physics,” says Eamon
everything else. The player has a
complemented the narrative.
McKenzie, physics engineer. “We tried to
parallel rigid body in the proxy
One of the greatest challenges was
implement the Mongoose in Halo 2, but it
world that is soft keyframed
establishing an immense, epic scale for
wasn’t possible with Havok 2’s time-step
to the player’s real-world
the environments, especially the Halo
locked physics update. Also, because
position. This parallel rigid
ring. “Texturing a structure the size of
continuous physics enables stable simu-
body in the proxy world
a small planet is no easy task. In the
lation of fast-moving, small objects, we
interacts with plants with-
past, we might have used a matte paint-
were able to simulate our weapons as
out any feedback; actions in
ing of some of those immense elements,
rigid bodies this time, instead of with
the regular Havok world can
but in Halo 3, we actually built them,”
point physics as we did in Halo 2.”
affect things in the proxy world,
says Barrett. “The first time I saw the
All the vehicles fall into one of three
model for the half-constructed Halo, I
physics simulation categories: friction,
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ulation.” This was important, he notes,
because the group wanted to be able to
place plants throughout the environment
without worrying about impeding the
motion of AI and the players.
From scorching blasts of flamethrower
fire, plasma bursts, fog, smoke, snow, and
splashing water, the game is filled with
hundreds of unique particle effects, all of
which were produced by a custom particle
engine developed in-house. “Particle sim-
Artists modeled “damage” permutations into the geometry of the enemy characters.
ulations are based on randomness, so our
tools are designed to control and shape
the effects work well in the context of
combined with the off-line generated rip-
particle systems while retaining that ele-
the game. Iteration is a critical part of
ples for final rendering.
ment of chaos that makes them feel realis-
the process.”
According to Scott, after the particle
tic,” says Steve Scott, effects art lead.
AI
Scott describes the process. “The
effect is “right,” decals, lighting, and
The main thrust of the AI programming
effects artists start by painting textures
exposure controls are all linked in to
for the final Halo chapter focused pri-
for particles in Photoshop. Those bitmaps
complete the effect. The team can spend
marily on conveying a hierarchy among
are applied to 2D cards that are spawned
days crafting an effect that only lasts a
the Covenant forces, so that a high-rank-
in a particle system,” he says. “Working
fraction of a second, which is another
ing Brute is seen leading the ferocious
with the particle tool, we tweak param-
reason why the new Saved Films feature,
Jackals and the mindless Grunts by
eters such as spawn rate, gravity, air fric-
which allows players to rewatch their
arraying them in combat and instilling
tion, and scale to make the particles look
games, is valuable. “You can slow down
courage. “To do this, we introduced the
and behave the way we want. Usually,
time and see all of the details that we put
concept of rank within the AI characters,
we add more particle systems to flesh out
into it,” he says.
so simply adding a high-ranking Brute
As vehicles and soldiers thrash through
such as a Chieftain or a Captain—each
For complex effects, like the plasma
the mud and water, artists also used par-
denoted by different armor permutations
grenade explosion, many different lay-
ticles to simulate the splashing and spray-
and actions—to an encounter would
ers of particles must all be coordinated
ing. While the particles update accord-
automatically create the desired behav-
to look like a cohesive whole. “Of course,
ing to simple water physics, displacement
ior,” says AI engineer Max Dyckhoff.
all those flashy particle effects are
maps are computed from the particles as
To convey the concept of the hierar-
worthless if they don’t support the
they propagate through the water body,
chy, Bungie employed three factors: posi-
simulating the rippling surface.
tioning in combat, group behavior, and
the effect.”
gameplay,” Scott notes, “so we
solicit a lot of feedback from
“The repeating water ripples are gen-
broken behavior. “When it comes to posi-
the designers to
erated off-line using a custom authoring
tioning, the Grunts, Jackals, and lower-
ensure
that
tool. The artist can specify direction of
level Brutes will position themselves
flow, speed, shape of wave profile, ampli-
between their leader and the player,
tude, and a variety of other param-
defending him from enemy fire,” says
eters that control the appear-
Dyckhoff. “To show solidarity inside the
ance of the water body,” says
Covenant squad, we introduced group
graphic art lead Hao Chen.
behaviors, whereby the lead character
The resulting normal and dis-
will shout out an order for all his follow-
placement maps are then
applied to a water mesh
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ers to do such things as throw a grenade
at a certain location.”
that is tessellated in
Finally, when a Covenant leader is
real time depending
killed, programmers wanted to both
on the distance from
reward the player and intensify the
the eye. The interac-
pack mentality. To do so, Bungie intro-
tion of water and object
duced “broken” behaviors that are trig-
is simulated using wave
gered when the leader of a pack is killed.
particles before the dynamic ripples are
Grunts will flee from their targets or
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go insane, pulling out two plasma gre-
ery onboard the spaceships, Halo 3’s
medium, is used in subtle ways to add
nades and run kamikaze-style straight at
lighting is generated via global illumi-
mood and depth. According to Chen, the
the player; Jackals will huddle together
nation and photon mapping. Unlike tra-
artists also used a fair share of cheats,
behind their shields; Brutes will become
ditional light mapping, the game stores
such as placed cards and billboards, to
a lot more cautious and take cover.
incoming lighting at every surface point
add visual interest and contribute to the
Aside from developing the enemy hier-
and encoded as a spherical harmonics
overall visual sophistication of the game.
archical behaviors, Bungie also wanted to
(SH) vector. Static geometry is rendered
give some context to the enemy encoun-
directly from the SH light map. Dynamic
Fight to the Death
ters in Halo 3 by giving the enemies “activ-
objects sample from the underlying SH
As the war rages on between developers
ities” and “vignettes,” which would play
light map, so that their lighting is consis-
for the coveted crown of the first true next-
out before the player comes upon them.
tent with the surrounding environment.
generation game, studios are exploiting all
Such activities included characters smok-
The lighting system is fully integrated
types of new digital tools and techniques.
ing or playing cards. Vignettes are rather
with the Halo material system, which is
Aside from advanced AI, such an experi-
more complicated, and are often used to
capable of rendering a variety of diffuse
ence demands thousands of unique char-
tell small stories before encounters begin.
and glossy material realistically under
acters, entailing thousands of unique tex-
Examples include scenarios like Brutes tor-
different lighting conditions. Shadows
tures, meshes, animations and behaviors,
turing Marines, a group of marines intro-
from the objects are computed using a
potentially creating an asset management
ducing the player to a situation, and so on.
combination of PRT for blurry, low-fre-
nightmare—which many developers are
The designers scripted as many vignettes
quency shadow) and shadow maps. The
now encountering. Nevertheless, in the
as time would allow, as they really added
cut-scenes are rendered using exactly the
race to break the mold and exploit these
flavor and realism to the world.
same technology as the main gameplay.
new possibilities, all developers might
“Halo’s AI has been the topic of many
“The Jungle scene (Sierra 117) is a
do well to remember Bungie’s maxim
papers at GDC, and other studios are begin-
good showcase of various elements of
ning to use the ‘behavior tree’ system for
our graphics engine working in harmony,
their games, including Maxis, which is
while the Tsavo Highway level is a good
Martin McEachern is an award-winning
using it in the development of Spore,” says
demonstration of outdoor lighting, where
writer and contributing editor for Com-
Dyckhoff.
the dominant light sources are the sun
puter Graphics World. He can be reached
at _____________
[email protected].
of the Storm level showcases the indoor
Unlike the characters, the artists built
lighting and the material system well,
and rigged Halo 3’s vehicles in 3ds Max,
with light pouring in from the opening in
where modeling rigid objects is easier
the ceiling getting combined with artifi-
and more precise, according to Wang.
cial lights in the interior and a variety of
“[Max] allowed us to be more flexible
with the destruction states, if we wanted
to change one of them,” he points out.
“passion before pixels.”
and the sky,” says Chen. “The interior
Vehicle Modeling
....
metal and other surface materials.”
Halo 3’s sky serves both as a backdrop to a level and the main HDR
“Surprisingly, none of our vehicles used
light source. Physically correct sky
projection mapping; they were all hand-
and sun models form the basis of
painted [in Photoshop], which gave them
the HDR sky. The atmosphere sys-
a more earthy feel, dirtier and with less
tem uses Mie and Rayleigh scat-
of an ‘assembly-line machine feel.’ It was
tering computation to account
a conscious decision even after we intro-
for everything from simple haze,
duced the projection-mapping methods
to the blue color in the sky, to
to our characters.” Artists modeled most
aerial perspective of distance
vehicles in four levels of destruction:
scenery. With the HDR lighting
minor, medium, major, and destroyed.
and global illumination at the foundation, the material system allows
Lighting
the group to render a variety of
From the dazzling god rays pouring
realistic material, from wet rock,
through the jungle canopy and scatter-
to moss, to tree barks and leaves.
ing through the leaves, to the pools of
The atmosphere system, which han-
shadow and artificial light from machin-
dles the scattering of light through a
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In 2001, a war erupted in the virtual world
between a band of human soldiers, led by
the cybernetically enhanced super-soldier
Master Chief, and an alliance of alien races
known as the Covenant. For six years
hence, millions of battles between the
two sides have been fought in 3D, starting with Halo: Combat Evolved and continuing with the sequel game releases.
During this time, mini skirmishes have
surfaced in many forms, including a
number of planned game titles (including Halo: Chronicles and Halo Wars), novels, graphic novels, toys and games, alternate reality games, machinima, music,
and a much-debated feature film.
Recently, the struggle between Humanity and the Covenant has evolved from the
digital to the live-action world within a
trio of visual effects-laden, live-action
video shorts. The videos, shown on the
Web and on TV, were created to whet the
appetites of Halo players as they prepared
for the final showdown in Halo 3, the
final title in the three-game series (see
Envisioning the CG world of
Halo 3 in live-action mini-movies
“Making Halo 3 Shine,” pg. 19).
Microsoft and Bungie Studios commissioned the videos, which were directed by
Neill Blomkamp (Alive in Joburg, Yellow,
Tetra Vaal, and currently District 9), to pro-
By Karen Moltenbrey
mote Bungie’s Halo 3. Origami Digital provided the visual effects and post work.
According to Oliver Hotz, VFX supervisor and founder of Origami Digital, the
videos are not meant to be representational of a feature film if one were to be
made. (Blomkamp even was tapped to
direct the on-again/off-again Halo film.)
Rather, they are more of a side story
within the Halo fiction. “The movies don’t
replicate the environments and scenarios of the games. You really can’t identify where you are in the movie settings,”
he says. “Instead, they show the struggle of the characters in the game and how
that struggle would translate into the liveaction world.”
Director Neill Blomkamp, with the help
of Origami Digital, transports the virtual
characters and concepts from the Halo
game world into a trio of live-action
short video promos.
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DECEMBER 2007
All three pieces run between two and
three minutes in length—too short to tell
a full story but long enough to set a scenario. All are filmed with live actors in
costumes, though at times the creatures
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and some soldiers are CG. As for the envi-
Rendering was done in
ronments, sometimes they are real, some-
LightWave and Worley
times not. The same goes for the props.
“Using CG was the director’s choice,
....
Laboratories’ FPrime. The
CG was then composited
though the movies were always meant to
into the live action using
be live action,” says Hotz. “[The director]
Eyeon’s Fusion.
chose to do some shots all in CG because
it was easier and faster.”
Moving and Tracking
All the video animation
Battle Scenes
was motion-captured at
The first piece, called Arms Race, con-
Origami
tains the most CGI. According to Hotz,
mocap studio. The mocap
approximately 70 percent of that video
facility is unique in that it is located
is computer-generated. It begins with a
inside Hotz’s home. It comprises a 20x30-
Digital’s
own
request from a battle group for repair and
foot volume (expandable to 40x40 feet)
resupply, and features production of var-
and a 48-camera PhaseSpace active LED-
ious weaponry. Here, the soldiers walk-
based system that provides data direct
ing through the armory are real, but the
from the markers. Acquisition is faster
armory itself is digitally constructed, as
and the system more affordable than tra-
are the ships and the hangar in the end
ditional mocap offerings (see “Moving On
shot. The shots of the helmets on the pro-
Up” Part 1 and 2, October and November
duction line are also CG.
2007, respectively).
“The armory [in the short] has no relationship to what is in the game,” says
On the software side,
Origami Digital used its
Hotz, iterating where the mini-movies
proprietary real-time Loco
fit within the Halo landscape. Still, the
solution, which the com-
Origami Digital group still had to make
pany developed a year
the live-action scenes visually fit within
ago but only made public
the Halo world.
with this project.
In the second and third pieces, called
“When shooting the
Halo Combat, Part 1 and Halo Combat, Part
mocap, we don’t look at
2, respectively, the CGI is less prominent,
the data or dots on the
but present nonetheless. The pieces show
screen,” says Hotz, refer-
gritty urban fighting by actors in Halo-
ring to the typical “dotted”
like futuristic military garb. The uniforms,
stick figure many motion-
as well as a good portion of the weaponry,
capture facilities look at as a reference
were made by WETA Workshop.
“Originally, the creatures in these two
for their animation data. “We look at the
actual character model moving around
segments were to be shot live, but there
the environment in real time. We use
was more flexibility if we did them in CG,”
Loco to drive that.”
says Hotz. So, Origami Digital provided a
The system integrates a rudimentary
digital assist, creating the alien creatures
version of the performer and the envi-
and the Covenant Brutes in 3D. “There
ronment, so the technicians and anima-
are a lot of digital characters, especially
tors, as well as the director, can see the
in the third one,” Hotz notes.
action unfold in context while the mocap
The modelers created the creatures,
is being shot. In this instance, Blomkamp,
as well as the other models, within
who was in New Zealand, could view the
NewTek’s LightWave. The bullet hits
same screen as the Origami Digital crew,
were made using Autodesk’s 3ds Max.
which was in California, during the cap-
“Bungie was very forthcoming with all
ture. As a result, Blomkamp could make
the assets we requested; we used them
immediate judgment calls during the ses-
for size relation and concept,” says Hotz.
sion, avoiding the need for a re-shoot.
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Even though the short videos are live action,
CG plays a major role in them. Most of the
soldiers are actors, while the creatures are
digital. For the most part, the models were
created in NewTek’s LightWave, while all
the CG character animation was motioncaptured using PhaseSpace and Loco.
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Files are then saved and opened
To achieve the handheld
within a 3D application—in this case,
camera effect for the CG shots,
the group again used Loco.
LightWave.
For this project, Origami Digital used
The software allows the cine-
the motion-capture system in 35 to 40
matographer to hold a device
shots across all three minis; no keyframe
resembling a real-world cam-
animation was used. Furthermore, the
era, which, when you look
data comes out rather clean, requiring
through its viewfinder, shows
little touch-up. “Approximately 90 per-
the digital environment and
cent of the motions were never touched
characters rather than the real-
after the capture,” says Hotz of the Halo
world representations, explains Hotz.
video animation.
The mocapped actors can wear goggles,
Besides the creatures and Brutes, the
team also created digital set extensions
allowing them also to be immersed in
the digital environment.
In this scene above, the environment (the
hangar) is computer generated, as is the
helicopter. The artists re-created the handheld camera look of the live-action videos
in the virtual world using Loco, Origami Digital’s proprietary software.
to the physical structures, including
At the end of a take, Loco then auto-
CG walls and bullet marks. Also, they
matically writes out a Maya or LightWave
some new ground, particularly in terms
crafted a 3D environment, vehicle, and
scene, with the entire content of the cap-
of methodology.
passengers for a car-chase sequence in
ture. “It provides live-action people the
“Normally such creature work takes a
the last piece.
ability to work in a completely digital
lot of people, but with our mocap pipe-
According to Hotz, the most technically
world, using the tools and devices that
line, we were able to approach it differ-
challenging aspect of the project was the
they already know, without having to
ently,” Hotz says. “We were able to make
tracking (accomplished with Andersson
get accustomed to a digital workflow,”
the creatures do specific tasks by shoot-
Technologies’ SynthEyes), since most of
adds Hotz.
the filming was done in a handheld style
with no locked-off shots.
“When you look at some of the shots
In all, Origami Digital worked on 140
ing and integrating the animation in 10
minutes because we do not have to go
shots during a 2.5-month period. However,
through all the steps that typical motion
work on the first release was fast-tracked;
capture and larger facilities require.”
from a technical perspective, they are
the group had just two weeks for that
While the war between the humans
very difficult to track,” says Hotz. “The
video. “That was our concentration
and the Covenant has ended for Hotz and
director cares about the creative, and we
point,” says Hotz. Afterward, the group—
his crew, for many gamers, the third bat-
are always thinking about that and not
comprising five artists—worked on the
tle has just begun.
necessarily about the technical aspect at
second and third shorts in parallel.
the time of the shoot. If we need to, we’ll
In terms of the limited staff and
figure out a way around a problem later.”
time, Hotz believes the group broke
Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor of
Computer Graphics World.
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Open Before
Christmas
A trio of year-end tales
features lifelike CG
creatures and a realistic
digital environment
The winter holidays bring nearly as much festive cheer to movie-theater box offices as do
the summer blockbusters, and this year
is no exception. In addition to the two big
visual effects films—Beowulf and The Golden
Compass—a trio of smaller movies is also vying
for a share of the season’s good ticket sales.
I Am Legend, Fred Claus, and Enchanted,
three films produced in three different styles, have
one thing in common: photorealistic CG animals. In
Enchanted, a little CG chipmunk nearly steals the show, CG
reindeer pull a sleigh for Santa’s big brother in Fred Claus, and CG
deer and lions roam the streets of a post-apocalyptic New York City
in I Am Legend.
From stylized digital humans, to polar bears that talk, to chipmunks that pantomime, the CG elements in this season’s films
carry story points, create emotions, and, most of all, entertain
us. As movie critic Roger Ebert puts it: “First we get animation
based on reality (Beowulf), and now reality based on animation
(Enchanted).” And without computer graphics, none of it would
have been possible. Enjoy!
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D
isney’s Enchanted begins as a
[Amy Adams], the almost-princess, and
mators stayed true to his animal nature.
classic 2D animated fairy tale,
her handsome prince [James Marsden],
When he needs to communicate, they ani-
but the handsome prince’s
are two different things, as Pip discov-
mated him with human characteristics.
wicked mother pushes his beautiful
ers. Once he lands in the real world, the
And, in one breakout scene, he becomes
bride into a well just before the wedding,
cartoon chipmunk loses his command-
a furry cartoon character. In that scene,
and that begins the story. When Giselle
ing speaking voice and has to resort to
he uses body language to warn Prince
emerges, she’s actress Amy Adams and
squeaks and pantomime.
Edward about the bad guys. “He changes
she’s in Times Square. Giselle doesn’t
“The kind of work Pip needs to do
his form to mimic the characters he cha-
know she’s no longer a cartoon, so when
is not standard visual effects work,”
rades,” Gibbons says. “We incorporated
she leans out an apartment window
Schelesny says. “We really needed to
everything we know into his rig.”
and sings her “happy working song,” it
study how a traditional Disney anima-
makes sense for rats, pigeons, and cock-
tor would approach the character.”
As animators working in Autodesk’s
Maya squashed and stretched Pip into
©2007 Disney Enterprises, Inc.
roaches to show up and merrily whistle
while they work.
Kevin Lima, who directed Disney’s
animated feature Tarzan and liveaction feature 102 Dalmations, masterminded Enchanted’s blend of animation and live action. Tippett Studio
created the photorealistic CG animals
and insects for the “happy working
song” and other scenes, the wicked
mother (Susan Sarandon) who turns
into a dragon for the film’s finale, and
Pip, a disarmingly charming chipmunk
that nearly steals the show.
Tippett Studio’s CG chipmunk, Pip, dances a fine line between reality and cartoon
animation. He moves like a chipmunk, communicates with human characteristics, and
performs a cartoony pantomime.
In addition, CIS Hollywood contribvarious shapes, an internal muscle sys-
uted 36 of the 320 visual effects shots
A crew of approximately 12 anima-
in the film, primarily wire removals and
tors, led by Tom Gibbons, worked on
tem maintained the integrity of his vol-
composites, WETA Digital created the
the show at Tippett Studio, and every
ume. For facial animation, the anima-
first and last shots with the Disney cas-
animator performed Pip. “We got a fla-
tors used blendshapes and widgets that
tle and storybook, and Reel FX worked
vor for Pip starting from drawings by
ride outside the rig to move dozens of
on two of the storybook shots.
John Baxter, who did the 2D animation,”
controllers that pushed around clusters
of the mesh.
“Pip was probably the biggest chal-
Gibbons says. “We took those tidbits
lenge for the entire project,” says
and information from Kevin [Lima] and
To view the animal’s silhouette with-
Thomas Schelesny, visual effects super-
Tom [Schelesny] and had a huge Disney
out waiting for final renders, the anima-
visor. “He was unique. He’s the only
history lesson. We watched all the films.
tion team could output frames with low-
guy in the movie who knows what’s
We knew that Pip would be an homage
resolution fur to check poses. Tippett’s
going on.” However, knowing what’s
to the early Disney films.”
proprietary Furocious software pro-
going on and explaining that to Giselle
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When Pip is on the move, the ani-
DECEMBER 2007
duced the final fur renders that moved
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ou might be able to buy the premise of the film
Fred Claus, that Santa has a scallywag of an older
brother named Fred (Vince Vaughn), but no
Christmas comedy would be complete without reindeer,
Santa’s sleigh, and elves.
A crew of approximately 35 people at Cinesite spent
about a year helping Santa’s reindeer pull a sleigh from
Chicago to the North Pole and applying visual effects
For the “Happy Working Song,” Tippett created CG pigeons and
cockroaches (at top), and mixed them into scenes with real and
CG rats, pigeons, and Amy Adams (above).
wizardry to one of his elves. Originally, seven real
reindeer on the set were going to pull the sleigh, but it
was too heavy. “It was the size of an SUV,” says visual
effects supervisor Simon Stanley-Clamp. “And the base
role in the process.
On set, Schelesny used a variety of techniques to give the
actors Pip’s eye line: laser pointers, stuffies, sticks, and wires.
©2007 Warner Bros.
on to the compositors. But, the compositors also had an earlier
Later, matchmovers provided a virtual camera for the animators’ 3D world that matched the live-action camera. The places
the camera pointed and the directions the actors looked dictated where the animators needed to position Pip. But when
the camera moves in the live-action plate limited the animators too much, the compositors retimed the plates using
Twixtor (from RE:Vision Effects) within Apple’s Shake to add
frames. Sometimes they even changed the camera moves. “If
Pip looked up, we tilted the camera up,” says Chris Morley,
CG reindeer created at Cinesite pull Santa’s heavy sleigh in
the feature Fred Claus.
was made from cast iron so it was strong enough to be
thrown around on a gimbal. It took 10 of us to move it
compositing supervisor.
The compositors also added the last touches to Pip’s fur to
around the set.”
integrate him into the plate. “The TDs did a great job lighting
Those real reindeer, however, provided great ref-
him, and then we took the renders and created two mattes—
erence for modelers working in Autodesk’s Maya and
one based on z depth, one based on the depth away from the
Mudbox to build their digital clones. Groomers clumped
the reindeer’s matted fur in the front and folded the hair
camera in y—from the ground up,” says Morley.
Using the y mattes, they added gradients that, for example,
darkened Pip from the ground up to integrate him into shad-
around their leather harness straps by using painted
weight maps.
ows, and with the z mattes, they would sometimes defocus
For rigging and animation reference, the crew trav-
Pip the farther he was from camera. “We’ve done a lot of furry
eled to a reindeer farm to see the animals on the hoof.
animals, so it’s second nature for us to composite them in a
But, to fly digital reindeer past Chicago rooftops, they
realistic fashion,” Morley says. But never in a film quite like
watched videotapes of swimming horses. “The horses
pull themselves through the water by stretching out their
this one.
“I’ve worked on a bunch of films during my 12 years at
legs,” Stanley-Clamp says. As a result, riggers devised a
Tippett and three years at studios in Canada before that,”
system that allowed the digital reindeer to overextend
Schelesny says. “This film was special.”
their front and rear legs.
—Barbara Robertson
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To complete the illusion that Fred
the hitching gear appropriately.
Once the CG reindeer and sleigh take
Special rigs managed the reins for Santa’s
CG reindeer (at top), and because these
reindeer really know how to fly, Cinesite
also created virtual clouds and the CG
landscape (below).
is in the sleigh, compositors layered
off from a rooftop in Chicago, they fly
in live-action elements for the errant
past buildings and then zoom into the
brother and Santa’s elf Willy, the driver,
clouds and over hundreds of miles of
when the camera is close. For those
terrain. “The sleigh is moving 999 miles
shots, Willy himself is a composite
per hour,” says Stanley-Clamp. “David
played by Jorge Rodero (body) and John
[Dobkin, the director] wanted the cities
Michael Higgins (head). “During the
to whiz by.” Because the sleigh covers so
live-action shoot, Jorge did the perfor-
much ground, the crew built the terrain
mance while John Michael delivered the
as digital environments in Side Effects’
lines,” explains Stanley-Clamp. Later,
Houdini using 3D models and projection
Higgins delivered the same lines while
maps. “One reason we used Houdini
being filmed on a bluescreen stage, and
was to procedurally link repeated envi-
Cinesite switched the actors’ heads. For
ronments as we travel through layers
most flying sequences, however, the
and layers of clouds. Sometimes you
studio created a digital double for Fred
see cities through the clouds, some-
and Willy from cyber scans and photo
times gaps with no twinkling lights. The
textures. “We did cyberscans of John
gaps created the illusion of speed.” For a
Michael’s head to put onto Jorge’s body
sequence at the end, the sleigh moves so
to create the CG double of Willy,” he
fast that it becomes a streak.
says. “In many respects, that was easier
than the 2D solution.”
ple splines to get a sign-off on direction
“We created the streak with motion blur
and speed,” Stanley-Clamp says. “Then
and by generating paint trails from the 3D
In addition to Maya, Mudbox, and
we roughed-up the animation so it
sleigh,” Stanley-Clamp says. “The cuts are
Houdini, the Cinesite crew used Adobe’s
wouldn’t look like they were on a roller
really rapid.”
Photoshop, Apple’s Shake, Autodesk’s
coaster. As well as moving the sleigh,
For the clouds, modelers built organic
Inferno, and three proprietary tools:
they needed to have their own move-
shapes in Houdini that the crew placed
CSfur, CSclouds, and CANI, an anima-
ment.” Riggers arranged the gear that
onto a grid. Using in-house tools, they
tion interface tool. By applying these
hitched the reindeer to each other and
derived a point cloud from the surface and
tools, the talented crew at Cinesite con-
to the sleigh so that the animals could
interior of the cloud shapes. Then, they
vinced every mother’s child that rein-
bank and turn while staying in forma-
attached sprites to the points and rendered
deer really know how to fly.
tion, and procedural animation moved
the clouds using subsurface scattering.
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—Barbara Robertson
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I
n the film I Am Legend, when
working in Adobe’s Photoshop turned
lations. Houdini dynamics set the stage
Neville
moves
out the lights, tattered awnings, aged
for destruction by simulating the col-
(Will
Smith)
through Times Square, he doesn’t
and weathered surfaces, added proce-
lapse of the large structure; proprietary
see streets filled with people, neon signs,
dural bird poop to photographs taken on
tools provided fine details. “We drove
or yellow taxis. He sees a lion stalking
location, and more, and projected those
the crinkling, bending, and snapping of
a herd of deer. Three years after a ram-
textures onto low-res representations of
smaller pieces from the low-resolution
pant virus has caused the evacuation
the buildings in 3D geometry.
simulation of bigger pieces,” Smith says.
Modelers built the structures using
Growing weeds through cracked
survey data and LIDAR scans, the latter
sidewalks and streets proved to be
Of course, when director Francis
for a virtual background surrounding
more difficult, however. First, rotoscopers lifted people and buildings from the
of Manhattan and its ensuing isolation,
the island has returned to nature.
Lawrence shot the Warner Bros. film
Times Square for scenes shot on a blue-
on location, the city was as raucous as
screen stage. “We surveyed every loca-
plates, and matchmovers provided a
always. Sony Pictures Imageworks emp-
tion,” says Dave Smith, digital effects
virtual camera. Then, texture painters
tied the streets and did the dirty work
supervisor. “When we needed higher-
worked on pre-made street and sidewalk
that made the city look abandoned.
resolution, we used the LIDAR scans.”
“We shot all over Manhattan,” says
In addition to re-creating plates, the
tiles in various sizes, painting cracks
and potholes that layout artists could fit
into the plates.
Jim Berney, visual effects supervisor at
Imageworks crew also built all-digital
Imageworks. “So, we had to paint out
environments for a seaport sequence
Dave Stephens, visual effects ani-
all signs of life. The streets are cracked.
during which they destroyed a 3D ver-
mation supervisor, led the plant-grow-
Buildings are crumbling. There are
sion of the Brooklyn Bridge. Imageworks
ing team. “We had to populate large
weeds everywhere. The wildlife is back
uses Autodesk’s Maya for modeling and
sections of New York with plant life,”
in town.”
a combination of Side Effects’ Houdini
he says. A hair system put grass in the
and proprietary tools for dynamic simu-
painted cracks and potholes, and a plant-
For the buildings, Imageworks artists
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For the final image (top), Sony Pictures Imageworks removed
signs of life from plates shot in Manhattan and tracked the camera (bottom, right), and then grew grass with a hair system and
weeds with a proprietary plant-growing program (top, right).
growing program developed within Houdini added a variety
of weeds. “The plants grew in each frame as they were rendered,” he says. “We had algorithms for each plant type, and
every time the plant was instanced, it generated a unique
variant within a predefined range. We could layer in premodeled flowers, buds, and leaves procedurally.” Particle trails
placed behind characters or cars moving through a scene
influenced a procedural engine that caused the plants
to flutter as if they were reacting to those objects.
In addition to planting the streets with weeds,
Imageworks filled the air with flocks of birds and
swarms of insects. “We have birds, gnats, and insects
flying around in every frame,” says Berney. “They’re
in the soundtrack, so we needed to add a visual cue.”
For a herd of deer, which Neville and the lions both
hunt, the crew produced 15 variations of male and female
deer from two models, changing their size, nose color,
and antlers procedurally. “If we didn’t like one set of antlers, we could flip a switch to another set,” Smith says.
But the crew’s most intense creature work went
into producing a variety of wildlife and creating the
“infecteds,” people who survived the virus and became
vampires—all created by Imageworks. For these creatures, the modeling team worked from designs by
Patrick Tatopoulos and cadaver reference to create athletic monsters with bodies wasted away by the virus.
Texture painters gave them a sickly look.
“I think the creatures really push the state of the art,”
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says Berney, who watched the shot count grow from 400
to 800 during postproduction. “They’re a good blend of
new technologies, but they’re still handcrafted.”
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DECEMBER 2007
Barbara Robertson is an award-winning writer and a contributing editor for Computer Graphics World. She can be
reached at [email protected].
______________
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CAD
t’s been 25 years since Autodesk first
efit from the same capabilities as larger
and engineering productivity, which cus-
introduced its AutoCAD software,
firms. The program also created a sys-
tomers or other companies could extend
forever changing the way engineers
tem of value-added resellers and develop-
to solve specific problems. This allowed
and designers do their work. Amar
ers that helped customers take advantage
a robust community of developers and
Hanspal, senior vice president of Platform
of the open architecture and APIs of the
CAD managers to be formed around
Solutions and Emerging Business at Auto-
early AutoCAD versions.
AutoCAD, and that community continues
desk, looks at how this software revolu-
Q
A
tionized an industry.
Q
A
With this year marking 25 years
for Autodesk and its flagship
product, AutoCAD, can you pro-
to grow today. Our customers have cusHow
did
the
industry
ini-
tomized or extended AutoCAD to build
tially respond when Autodesk
some very unique applications.
launched AutoCAD?
Q
A
The traditional CAD industry’s
fi rst response to the introduc-
vide us with a snapshot of the
tion of AutoCAD was that the early PC
industry back in 1982?
CAD products were toys. The theory
What has given AutoCAD its
staying power?
In short, we have kept up with the
needs of our customers. AutoCAD
is Autodesk’s flagship product,
The CAD industry consisted mainly of
was that the CAD programs could only
very high end systems that cost tens of
be run on a very sophisticated machine.
and it has delivered solid, useful func-
thousands of dollars and required expen-
However, when it launched at COMDEX
tionality and ongoing innovation to the
A Silver Li
sive software and training, along with an
1982, AutoCAD garnered a great amount
customers; it addresses the demands of
IT staff to set up and run. (Imagine run-
of interest, not only from CAD custom-
various industry segments, including
ning SAP for a one-person firm.) Only the
ers, but also from the PC industry as a
architecture, engineering, construction,
larger companies could afford the expen-
whole. The software was a proof point
manufacturing, power and process, gov-
sive CAD systems and training that was
in support of the viability of the democ-
ernment, and telco and utility organiza-
available then. With the advent of the PC,
ratizing power of the PC. At that time, it
tions. AutoCAD has the largest commu-
an opportunity to build applications that
was already apparent that CAD would
nity of users. And because customers
were more affordable and less IT-intensive
be a serious productivity tool for the
have provided us with valuable feedback
became viable. Unlike a spreadsheet or
industry.
over the years, we have been able to make
up to take advantage of the new PC revo-
Q
A
product improvements that better suit the
lution. It offered a graphics system that
decision: to build a customizable and
could be run and supported without
extensible architecture for AutoCAD.
requiring an IT professional, so small
This let the founders focus on building
tracked the evolution of the PC itself. In
to midsize businesses could now ben-
a broad horizontal platform for design
the 1990s, the advent of Windows as an
word-processing program, running CAD
on a personal computer was very computationally intense. At that time, there
weren’t any graphical interfaces or graphics cards; these were the days of DOS.
AutoCAD was written from the ground
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AutoCAD has served as the foun-
needs of our customer base, while staying
dation for some of the industry’s
abreast of new industry trends.
innovative products and solu-
Q
A
tions. Was this the expectation
from the start?
From the start, the company made a key
DECEMBER 2007
How has CAD software evolved
over time to meet the growing
demands of designers?
In many ways, the evolution
of PC-based CAD software has
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CAD
operating system enabled us to dramati-
customers want to share designs with
cally improve the usability of CAD appli-
both CAD and non-CAD professionals.
cations. Later, the advent of the Internet
What’s the easiest way to do that? Maybe
provided an infrastructure by which to
the answer is an Autodesk Inventor LT
extend the productivity of CAD applica-
model or a ShareNow application. We say
tions from individuals to teams, adding
to customers, ‘Here’s an idea. Try it out.
Q
A
What do you think is the future
of design?
We’re focused on continuing to
deliver technologies that enable
our customers to increase effi-
ciency and productivity. For example,
collaborative capabilities. More recently,
Does this solution work for you? If so, we
digital prototyping provides tools to
the computing power available on the
can take it and incorporate it into a prod-
virtually explore a complete product
desktop has enabled us to provide more
uct. If it doesn’t work for you, that’s OK.
before it’s built, so you can create, val-
sophisticated design solutions in the
Let us know. We have another option.’
idate, optimize, and manage designs
from the conceptual design phase
form of digital prototyping environments
Before Autodesk Labs, many good
for product design in manufacturing and
product concepts were put on a shelf and
through the manufacturing process.
building, as well as civil design modeling
lost to the public forever. Others may
Whether you work in the industrial
environments in AEC.
have made it into fully released prod-
machinery, consumer goods, or auto-
In the past 25 years, several other
ucts without benefiting from user feed-
motive and transportation industries,
CAD vendors have entered the market,
back in the early stages of development.
digital prototyping can boost design
and we’ve seen a growing number of
Autodesk Labs aims to provide a critical
efficiency, save time, and reduce costs
ning
Celebrating 25 years
of design innovation
by building fewer physical prototypes.
vertical products that have emerged to
bridge from the world of traditional prod-
address designers’ individualized needs.
uct development to a new world of com-
Building information modeling, or
An example of this is AutoCAD P&ID,
munity-driven innovation. The user feed-
BIM, is another trend for the future of
which we launched earlier this year; it is
back from the Labs helps drive future
the building industry. BIM represents a
tailored to the needs of the process engi-
product releases.
new vision for architecture, engineer-
neer. We’ve been able to create a family
While many of the technologies posted
ing, and construction whereby digital
of products that leverage the AutoCAD
here are in their infancy, the intent is to
design tools capture and make avail-
platform, while also providing platforms
gather user community feedback and
able consistent and coordinated infor-
for the next generation of products.
reactions early in the process. We invite
mation from a shared building informa-
Q
A
our customers to join us and try our new
tion model. Because this information is
What does Autodesk do to
technologies. It can be fun, as well as
a reliable digital representation of the
inspire technology innovation
useful and informative. Visit http://labs.
project, it allows designers to experi-
within the CAD industry?
autodesk.com, and check out two of the
ence their ideas before they’re built—in
Earlier this year, Autodesk Labs
Labs’ technologies that have just been
turn, allowing them to visualize, simu-
was launched to get innova-
posted: a Visual Search service that allows
late, and analyze their design early on in
tive ideas out to the CAD community.
you to search for a part using a sketch or
the process. This provides the flexibility
The Labs’ ideas are the kinds that have
image, and a vector-based drawing ser-
to optimize and improve designs before
been “percolating” in the minds of engi-
vice that requires no software download.
they’re actually created, thereby help-
neers trying to solve customer problems.
Both are, in fact, online services free to
ing to foster innovation, improve quality,
Autodesk may know, for instance, that
anyone who visits the Labs Web site.
and save time and money.
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Ryan Drue
Portfolio
Clockwise from top left:
For professional artist Ryan Drue of San Jose, California, the most challenging aspect of
Tubes Marins Métalliques For this image, which was
inspired by sea life and glassblowing, Drue started with the
color scheme, and the piece evolved from that point.
working in the digital realm is keeping pace with his ideas. “Every day I want to create
Future Botany Of this piece, Drue says, “I just woke up one
morning and this image was on my mind. A few hours later,
this is what I came up with. Normally, I obsess over an idea
before I ever start, so this image was a nice change for me.”
something new, and I often find I don’t have time to finish projects,” he says. “Rendering is
the one thing that holds me back. Sometimes I find myself waiting days for a single frame,
and that drives me crazy!”
Nevertheless, Drue works mostly in CG, while also dabbling in digital photography, which
has taught him how to better frame shots and use color while working in CG. “You really can
Openness (middle) For this image, the artist focused on the
artistry rather than the technical process.
create anything you want,” he says about CGI. “If I want to be an architect, I can. If I want to
Lady Fingers This piece was an exploration of form and color.
be a sculptor, I can. If I want to be a glassblower, all I need to do is fire up my computer.”
Just Chill’n This image marks the first time Drue spent a good
deal of time sculpting and painting on a 3D mesh.
first at a computer arts school and then professionally. “I can’t even draw a good-looking stick
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Exposed to CGI and video editing while in high school, Drue honed his newfound skills
DECEMBER 2007
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figure, which is funny, because my mother is a very gifted traditional artist. But, for some rea-
Clockwise from top:
son, my artistic side never developed in a traditional medium.”
A Jar Full of Modo Here is an example of the artist trying to
create a photorealistic image in 3D, which he enjoys doing, even
if the object doesn’t exist in reality.
Yet, Drue’s talent is apparent in the 3D arena. When he is not creating digital art as a
hobby, Drue is creating work for the film and video production company Fat Box, where he
spends roughly 75 percent of his time working in 3D and the rest producing motion graphics.
His personal projects, though, are usually the total opposite of what he does at work: “If I am
modeling at work, I try to better my texturing and lighting skills at home,” he says.
Unlike some artists, Drue’s work does not fall into a particular genre. “I strive for a sense
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Random Room This was the result of Drue’s first attempt at
creating an interior shot in 3D. He modeled and textured everything
in Modo in roughly a week’s time.
Le Corbusier Chaise Lounge The artist recalls this about the
piece: “When I first saw this chair, I knew I had to model it. The
flowing lines and simplicity really inspired me.”
of photorealism in my work, no matter the subject,” he says. For all the work appearing here,
Drue used Modo for the 3D and Photoshop for the post. Other times, he uses LightWave,
Maya, and After Effects, along with a Wacom tablet. —Karen Moltenbrey
DECEMBER 2007
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Knowledge&Career
Knowledge&Career
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chools are offering students hands-on learning and the
art and design. These fields of study have exploded because
skills needed to make the transition from student to pro.
of the gained interest and career opportunities. With the
Young, talented, and trained people are a hot commod-
days of the apprenticeship long gone, one has a choice to
ity these days, but competition in the professional fields
enter into the industry without experience and hope for the
is fierce; schools are recognizing this and addressing
best, or attend art school and acquire the necessary skills,
learn to collaborate, network, seek valuable internships, and
that issue in their course work.
Furthermore, training centers know that even working
build a strong portfolio.”
professionals can’t rest on their laurels. As software
changes, the need to learn the tools and all they offer
is imperative. Whether you are just starting a career
or growing it, the need to continue learning is vital
to your future.
In this piece, representatives from educational
institutions and training facilities paint a picture of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and “threats” they perceive that may help, or hinder, budding artists and those looking to expand
their knowledge and succeed in the marketplace.
Students from the Academy of Art University’s School of Motion Pictures
& Television work on a class project.
JONATHAN FUNG
Weaknesses: “Sometimes in education, many of the
Associate director
School of Motion Pictures & Television
same projects are assigned to students, which creates a simi-
Academy of Art University
lar look for their portfolio. It may not distinguish or develop
their style, and the work can look the same when students
San Francisco
The School of Motion Pictures & Television at the Academy
show their reel or portfolio to potential clients. I think it’s
of Art University in San Francisco offers accredited undergradu-
important for the institution to help guide the students to
ate and graduate degree programs that emphasize seven areas
find their voice and personal style that creates a unique look
of production for students to study and gain hands-on experi-
so it does not become cookie-cutter.”
Opportunities: “At art and design universities, the curric-
ence to prepare them for the industry.
Strengths: “A lot of emphasis is being put on education
ulums are very specific in helping students reach their career
in motion pictures and television, visual effects, gaming, and
goal. The curriculum is tailored around specific departments
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....
in the industry. For instance, in a program like
ours, students declare an emphasis or track during their fourth semester. They start to learn
how to become a producer, director, cinematographer, editor, screenwriter, production designer,
or actor. Many classes in the last two years of
the program are focused on creating a competitive reel. Students establish skills that will allow
them to become a specialist in the industry
when they leave the university.
“From my experience, some of the statefunded universities or colleges don’t have that
luxury. Many of the students find that during
the first two years, they are taking liberal arts
Recognizing the burgeoning interactive market, the University of Central Florida’s FIEA
offers a graduate program in video game development.
or theory-based classes and they do not receive
hands-on experience until their fifth semester, junior year. At
Strengths: “The strength we have is ‘demand.’ There is a
the Academy of Art University, from the first semester, students
growing desire for young people to work in creative industries
are getting production experience.”
and make their own products. It has always been there. Once
Threats: “Depending on the curriculum, if the university
we all started watching movies and sports, we longed to work
has more of a liberal arts focus, then I don’t believe the students
in entertainment, but 40, 30, 20 years ago, that was reserved for
will be prepared for career opportunities unless they acquire
Hollywood: the people who lived in Hollywood and the chil-
the skills on their own because the program may be very gen-
dren of people who worked in Hollywood. In today’s world, as
eral. In the industry, everything is specific and focused. You
far as games and movies are concerned, because [the process]
need a specific skill set in order to get hired. They are look-
is done in a digital world now and the cost of the equipment
ing for the best: students who are professional and have strong
and assets is not exorbitant like it used to be, we have a lot of
business practices. The job opportunities are out there, but you
students who would love to make games, movies, and commer-
have to pay your dues and be tenacious.”
cials, and now they can.”
Outlook for 2008: “The industry is unsettled and can go in
Weaknesses: “Usually education isn’t on the forefront of
many directions. I think the independent market—short films—
leading trends. It reacts to trends, so we are in reaction mode
is starting to thrive. There are many venues right now for short
right now. One of the weaknesses is that digital media schools,
films, especially online and at film festivals. Many advertis-
film schools, computer science schools, and game schools are
ers are putting more of their dollars into Internet advertising
just not mature enough and haven’t done the things necessary
instead of network television. Podcasting is very popular, too.
in terms of programs to bring in technology and get up to speed
There are many more alternatives and methods to screening,
quick enough to run with the industry.
selling, and distributing work...getting it out there. There is def-
“I think education will do that. We did that with MBA schools
initely a group of visionaries and entrepreneurs who can dictate
in the ’80s and ’90s. They started to do some real cutting-edge
the market.
stuff and caught up quickly. We need to do the same thing
“[But] I don’t think it’s stable right now. The networks are
in entertainment and digital media. [Also] you have to spend
trying to get a jump on this. Just like with reality TV when it
money on technology, and schools get set in their ways and
started, people were skeptical, but look what happened with
everybody gets their own little budget, but they don’t refocus
that. Everyone is jumping on it. We are going to see a new wave,
their whole programs. That’s one of the beauties of FIEA; we
and we are seeing some of it now in film, media, and the arts.”
were able to start from scratch and create a program, and we
had the funding to do it.”
BEN NOEL
Opportunities: “We have an opportunity to train the next
Executive director
generation of workforce to be higher-wage creative workers. As
University of Central Florida
mentioned before, one of our strengths is a pent-up demand,
Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy
and the opportunity is there: A lot of young people don’t wish
Orlando
to go work for General Motors. They aren’t sure what they want
Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) is a gradu-
to do, but they do know they would like to be their own thinker
ate program in video game development, instructed by industry
working on teams, creating start-up companies, and working in
veterans and focused on developing highly skilled programmers,
different environments.
artists, and producers for the growing interactive industry.
“Globally, the opportunity is here. People are making great
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livings, working in great businesses, and creating great friend-
and applications is creating a high demand for professional
ships and products because they can multitask; they can work
training. Inexpensive, streamlined equipment is leading to
on projects around the world and do things in a lot of different
more accessible, hands-on training. An experienced editor can
ways than before, where traditionally it was go to school and
learn and become certified in a new application in as little as
you were lucky if you got hired and got into a training program
three days. Manufacturer certifications offer a unique bench-
at a bigger company, learned a lot there, and, maybe 10 or 15
mark—they take the guesswork out of an editor’s or designer’s
years later, got out and started your own thing.”
true skill level.
Threats: “The threat we have is time; it’s just taking too
“Ten years ago, training consisted of several trainees hover-
long. We’ll eventually figure this out [though] it might take 100
ing around one system; now they all have their own worksta-
years to figure out the right way to educate our students. Study
tion. As new editing platforms become more prevalent, trainees
after study is coming out saying that we are using 100-year-old
can now practice their skills at home rather than at an on-site
systems to educate our young people. And we all recognize
edit facility.”
that. We don’t have 100-year-old communication devices in our
Weaknesses: “Methods of training can vary widely—from
home, so the threat is timing. The millennials are growing up,
DVDs to books to one-on-one classroom training. This is not to
and they are driving us. They are the customers.
say there is a right or wrong way for teaching an application,
“Many say education can’t change, things won’t change...but
but many people have different ways of learning and require
they do change, and you change because of the customer. The
different time frames. One editor may learn a new application
students today are screaming for stuff that’s more interactive
in three days, whereas it may take another six weeks. The key
and less boring. When we were kids, school was boring, but
is finding the correct balance—it can be difficult for someone
there weren’t a lot of answers out there; now there are, and now
to figure out which method [or combination of methods] works
it’s about how quickly we move to them.
best for him or her. Also, there is a difference in teaching some-
“The threat isn’t really that the bureaucratic systems can’t
one how to use an application and a craft.”
change and won’t change over time; the threat is we don’t do a
good job of corralling that and moving it forward faster.”
Outlook for 2008: “You are still going to see a lot more
casual gaming, people playing the Nintendo Wii, and the broadening of the game market. All of this broadening just helps education, medical, and military agencies broaden. You will see a
lot more of those industries training people in simulations and
interactive methods over the next decade.
“In the entertainment community, you will see more of what
you are already seeing: more software and tools such as the mass
crowd generators, the blending of 2D and 3D, and better ways of
telling a story—trying to tell a story with 2D and 3D animation
or 3D art, and using audio and sound for a more blended experience. We are finally getting to a point at which interactive and
Soho Editors’ Apple Final Cut Studio HD training rooms boast
stations consisting of an Intel MacPro and a 23-inch Cinema Display.
digital tools are maturing so creatives, other than just the tech
gurus, can use them. The millennials are going to have fun.”
Opportunities: “Increased accessibility to equipment will
lead to a larger pool of aspiring editors who will seek out professional training. As technology continues to advance at a rapid
pace, software and tools will become even more intuitive. We
have never seen more applications on the market that do virtually the same thing as we do now.
DAVID GATER
“Industry leaders, such as HBO, are upgrading their editing
CEO
applications and requiring training for their entire department.
Soho Editors
It is a very exciting time right now, as we don’t see the need
New York
for training in the decline—it continues to increase, prompt-
Soho Editors, with offices in New York, London, and Dublin,
ing more people to be trained. These days, we are seeing more
was founded in 2000 as a provider of freelance talent to the global
applications on the market than ever. We have five or six editing
post industry. They have since expanded to provide certified train-
applications that people need to be trained for, so that increases
ing for the industry.
our business tenfold.”
Strengths: “The industry’s rapid shift into new platforms
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Threats: “How simple can an application become? Appli-
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DESIGN,
DIGITAL ARTS,
AND FILM
C
A little professional training
helps a lot of imagination go a long way.
From the fundamental principles of design, to the fundamental changes of the digital age, success in the creative industries
starts with the programs in Design, Digital Arts, and Film at NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS).
Every one of our programs, from graphic design, to animation, to product design—as well as our Master’s in Digital Imaging and Design—provides you with the expert instruction of our award-winning faculty in the dynamic environment of our
advanced digital labs. Best of all, you’ll have access to an unparalleled network of industry professionals who will inspire
your imagination and help you bring it vividly to life.
GRADUATE DEGREES:
3Digital Imaging and Design
3Graphic Communications Management
and Technology
UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE:
3Digital Communications and Media
CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS:
3Animation
3Digital and Graphic Design
3Digital Special Effects
3Film
3Interior Design
3Product Design
CONTINUING EDUCATION:
3Design Fundamentals
3Digital Imaging and Photography
3Film and Digital Video Production
3Motion Design
3Web and Interactive Design
Information Session:
Thursday, January 17, 6-8 p.m.
48 Cooper Square, 1st Floor
Visit our website, or call to receive our new Bulletin.
scps.nyu.edu/x94
_______________
1-800-FIND NYU, ext.94
New York University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution. ©2007 New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies
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Knowledge&Career
Knowledge&Career
cations are now being developed for the consumer rather than
the skilled professional. As a result, everyone thinks they are
an editor and that they do not need training. Also, consumergenerated content—led by YouTube—is on the rise. Are users
drawn more toward low-budget, five-viral videos cut on [Apple]
iMovie than long-form, highly polished documentaries finished
with [Autodesk’s] Flame? It remains to be seen.”
Outlook for 2008: “Technology never stops changing, and
the drive for knowledge of applications is ever increasing. Gone
are the days when an editor could get away with just knowing
one app. For example, [Apple’s] Final Cut Studio 2 is distributed
and packaged with five applications, all of which are powerful
in their own right. Clients are now expecting editors to be fluent not just in Final Cut, but also the programs bundled with it.
Moviola offers individualized, one-on-one, hands-on training for
those working in the film realm.
The future looks bright.”
their skills at a very high level, they can provide a better product to their clients. With the current writers’ strike and the other
RANDY PASKAL
looming strikes, a lot of people see it as an opportunity to use
Managing director
this time to do training, but then there are some who have to
Moviola
think about pulling in the reins and doing very little outside
Hollywood and New York
spending.”
Moviola offers one-on-one, individualized filmmaking train-
Opportunities: “More people continue to turn to profes-
ing for directors, writers, producers, actors, cinematographers...
sional types of media solutions and incorporate those into their
anyone making a career change.
products, not just on the post side with feature films, TV shows,
Strengths: “The obvious strength we see is that, especially
and commercials, but also in the financial sector, corporate
in the postproduction business, technology continues to change.
area (presentations), and other areas where more video will be
And with those software changes—whether they be with Avid,
required. It’s a good opportunity for us to go after those types
Adobe, or Apple products—professionals need to be updated
of clients. Another opportunity is that once people realize how
about the new features and the complexities that exist with
dynamic it is and how many products are involved, they’ll see
those products.
that it’s worth spending a few extra dollars and investment to
“At Moviola, one of our strengths is that our training is taught
train themselves better.”
by professionals for professionals. We are looking at people who
Threats: “The only potential threat is people not valuing
are already experts working in the industry—in order for them
classroom training or one-on-one training. There are people
to maintain their high level of skills and, hopefully, be paid for
who feel as though they can do a lot of training online, and we
that expertise, the more they need to understand how the prod-
are always competing against that format. However, we really
ucts work and what they can actually use out of those products.
do think the hands-on approach and working in a collabora-
So they will continue to need that specialized type of training.
“Another strength is the introduction of the different high-
tive environment is the best way to learn and share ideas with
other students.”
def formats that currently exist and that are promised in the
Outlook for 2008: “We view the market for training as
near future. There is a need to understand the way people
a growing one, and people need to stay up to date with the
are going to utilize the different formats and bring them in to
new software releases. There will certainly be a need for peo-
post. The workflow is different for almost every product that is
ple to learn, and with the continued migration into high defini-
being introduced on the acquisition side, so when it comes to
tion and figuring out the workflows into postproduction, there
post, there is really going to be a greater need for this training.
should be a fair amount of opportunity for us to grow our train-
The question really becomes, how do you bring those high-def
ing services, do seminars, and create some special courseware
acquisitions into post?”
that addresses those unique issues. As for the industry in gen-
Weaknesses: “Training is an expensive proposition, and
making people see the value of training is sometimes a chal-
eral, I just don’t think we are going to see a lot of change in
either direction, unless the strike affects us.”
lenge. Yet, as products change, it’s obvious that you can’t use
the product as it currently exists, and there is a need for that
Randi Altman is the chief editor for Post magazine, Computer
learning process to occur. Another weakness is marketing. We
Graphics World’s sister publication. She can be reached at
need to get people to understand that if they continue to keep
[email protected].
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news
Imagine at Imagina 2008
on a daily basis by creators and designers, right through from the presentation
of the original idea to the validation of
From media and entertainment, to land-
the concept,” Puons notes. “Digital mod-
Puons, Imagina general manager.
scape design, to architecture, to industri-
In fact, the shift from 2D to 3D tech-
els are used by engineers for testing a
al design, Imagina 2008 has something
nology is a global phenomenon and
product before manufacturing and get-
for everyone in the 3D community.
occurring in every sector imaginable,
ting it to market. They are also impor-
This conference and exhibition, which
from those requiring a great deal of art-
tant for sales and marketing teams.
will be held January 30 through February
istry to those where the resulting infor-
Naturally, they are important for the end
1 in Monaco, is attended by DCC profes-
mation, rather than the creation itself,
user, be it for training purposes or learn-
sionals throughout Europe and beyond.
is most critical. For a long time, 3D was
ing how to maximize and maintain the
With its focus on 3D imagery across
perceived as the preserve of a handful
product’s potential.”
a wide range of industries, Imagina’s
of specialists, but now has been adopt-
The bottom line: 3D CG means creativ-
diverse crowd is united by a common
ed by everyone; it is constantly evolving
ity and technologies. But it also means pro-
interest in computer graphics.
and expanding. As such, Imagina tries
ductivity and business, bringing together
Among the many events at Imagina
to introduce different professionals to 3D
buyers and vendors. This is made possible
are conferences paneled by an equal-
technology within an environment where
through the show’s Privileged Information
ly diverse segment of industry experts.
those from all areas of the market can
Meetings, centered around 15 invited buy-
This year, keynotes will be given by Glen
learn and share ideas and technology.
ers with the goal of forging long-term professional relationships.
Entis (EA), John Tarnoff (DreamWorks),
Today more than ever, the evolution
Samuel Windman (Google Earth), and
of 3D software and hardware allows for
Last year, the show had nearly 1400
Alvise Simondetti (Arup), representing
ever-greater seamless continuity between
participants. This year, Puons expects the
the focus of the show’s four main indus-
digital and virtual models, from 3D cal-
participation level to reach 2000, thanks
try segments.
culations through to visual, acousti-
to the addition of new programs and free
In addition, there is an expansive exhi-
cal, and haptic environments. As Puons
access to the exhibition floor.
bition area, a training and demonstration
points out, digital models are now con-
Imagina offers the best of two worlds:
area, and a Job Opportunity Forum for
sidered a major component in the devel-
On a personal level, the beauty of the host
students and job-seekers focused on any
opment process of every new product.
city, Monaco, while professionally, the
of the show’s core areas. The main event,
“They are one of the major tools used
ability to expand your 3D horizons.
though, is the Imagina Awards, which
highlight the use of 3D simulation and
visualization technologies applied to the
artistic, engineering, and industrial professions. Another show spotlight will be
the ability for attendees to preview such
projects as Frederic Forestier and Thomas
Langmann’s Asterix at the Olympic Games
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION (Required by 39 USC 3685)
Publication Title: Computer Graphics World Publication Number: 665-250 Filing Date: 9/28/07
Issue Frequency: monthly Number of Issues Published Annually: 12 Annual Subscription Price:
$72.00 Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: 620 W. Elk Ave., Glendale,
CA 91204 Contact Person: Karen Moltenbrey Telephone: (603) 432-7568 Complete Mailing
Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: 620 W. Elk Ave., Glendale, CA
91204 Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher: Computer Graphics World,
620 W. Elk Ave., Glendale, CA 91204 Editor: Karen Moltenbrey, 620 W. Elk Ave., Glendale, CA
91204 This publication is owned by: Computer Graphics World - William Rittwage Publication
Title: Computer Graphics World Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: 9/28/07
Average No.
Copies Each
Issue During
Preceding 12
Months
No. Copies of
Single Issue
Published
Nearest to
Filing Date
38501
34357
0
37210
34799
0
1346
32
35735
0
0
0
2392
2392
38127
374
38501
93.73%
1278
32
36109
0
0
0
750
750
36859
351
37210
97.97%
the needs of the attendees and match the
Total Number of Copies
Outside County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541
In County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541
Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid or Requested
Distribution Outside USPS®
Requested Copies Distributed by Other Mail Classes Through the USPS
Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation
Outside County Nonrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3541
In County Nonrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3541
Nonrequested Copies Distributed Through the USPS by Other Classes of Mail
Nonrequested Copies Distibuted Outside the Mail
Total Nonrequested Distribution
Total Distribution
Copies Not Distributed
Total
Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation
constant and fast evolution of the com-
Publication required. Will be printed in the November 2007 issue of this publication Name and Title of Editor, Publishers, Business
Manager, or Owner: William Rittwage - owner Date: 9/28/07 I certify that the statements made by me above Are correct and complete.
film, Tim Burton’s latest movie Sweeney
Todd, and more.
Furthermore, Imagina is partnering
with Renault to unveil a state-of-the-art
panorama of a driving simulation, geared
to the scientific and engineering audience.
“It takes more than eight months to
build Imagina conferences in order to suit
puter graphics industry,” says Laurent
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products
For additional product news and information, visit
SOFTWARE
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ww.cgw.com
__________________________
ProEtoMax users can visualize, animate,
and compatibility with the native DWG
and render native Pro/E CAD models
2007 file format and LISP, SDS, COM, and
within the 3ds Max platform, without
ObjectARX code. Bricscad V8 is offered
VIDEO
any intermediate formats or loss of preci-
in Classic and Pro versions; the latter
sion. The native Pro/E translator employs
adds Microsoft’s VBA environment and
Primatte Chromakey Update
Win • Mac Digital Anarchy presents
Primatte Chromakey 3.0 for Photoshop,
a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and
Photoshop Elements. Primatte removes
bluescreen and greenscreen backgrounds
from both still images and footage. The
result is the subject against a transparent background, with details—such as
wisps of hair, translucent materials, and
mesh fabrics—preserved. Features new
to Version 3.0 include one-click auto-mask
functionality, batch processing, improved
blending between subject and backdrop,
an enhanced user interface, and support
for Intel Macs and Photoshop CS3. Primatte
Chromakey 3.0 is priced at $299. Upgrade
pricing is available. Primatte 3.0 supports
Mac OS X and Windows 2000, XP Home,
XP Pro, and Vista 32-bit systems.
IntegrityWare’s precise geometric repre-
full ACIS modeling. The Bricscad V8 All-
sentation to generate renderings free of
In package offered with Bricscad Classic
cracks and polygonal artifacts. Designed
and Bricscad Pro includes a Bricscad V8
Digital Anarchy; www.digitalanarchy.com
to accommodate large data sets, Power
license, one year of professional mail sup-
ProEtoMax provides tools for cleaning,
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preparing, and rendering imported Pro/E
version. Bricscad V8 can be download-
data, as well as control over tessellation
ed from the Bricsys Web site for a 30-day
quality via detail, maximum edge length,
evaluation period.
and arc length settings.
Bricsys; www.bricsys.com
Power ProEtoMax imports CAD data,
automatically sews disconnected surfaces, includes memory management tools,
and provides editing options, such as
flip face normals, trim and un-trim, project curves, sew faces, apply materials to
faces, and snap to imported NURBS surfaces and solids, edges, faces, vertices,
edge midpoint, and end points. Power
ProEtoMax is priced at $2495. A free 30day evaluation copy is available.
nPower Software; www.nPowerSoftware.com/
store.html
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CAD
nPower ProEtoMax
Win Power ProEtoMax, nPower Software’s latest Power Translators plug-in,
enables the native translation of Pro/
Engineer model and assembly files directly in Autodesk’s 3ds Max and Viz. Power
46
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V8 Under the Hood
Bricscad V8 is a revamped
Win • Linux
version of DWG-compatible CAD software from Bricsys. The redesigned graphical user interface sports a new Drawing
Explorer and Properties Bar, for more
intuitive management of Bricscad DWG
files. The Bricscad kernel has been rewritten from the ground up, providing a foundation for continued and rapid development. Development environments have
been reworked and expanded, while a
new Settings Manager provides an overview of system variables and settings.
Additional features include a new LISP
engine, extended raster image support,
DECEMBER 2007
AcceliCAD 2008 V2
Win Autodsys has released AcceliCAD
2008 V2, a CAD software solution offering
compatibility with AutoCAD 2008 DWG
file formats. The original 2008 edition
has been expanded to include: a batchplotting interface for plotting multiple
drawings and layouts in a single step, a
systems variable editor with tool tips and
help strings, EATTEDIT command for
editing attributes, BBLOCK command for
enhanced block creation, and a toolbar
pull-down menu. Based on IntelliCAD
software, AcceliCAD offers support for
industry-standard commands, menu
files, script files, shape files, fonts, hatch
patterns, linetypes, and LISP, SDS/C++,
and VBA programs. AcceliCAD 2008 V2
is now available at a cost of $375.
Autodsys; www.autodsys.com
S I M U L AT I O N
Ansys Airpak 3.0
Ansys released Version
Win • Linux
3.0 of its Ansys Airpak airflow modeling software, with enhancements to productivity, meshing technology, and real-
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THE SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST
FILM CONFERENCE & FESTIVAL
has succeeded in its attempt to blend enthusiastic
crowds with the leaders of the film industry. New
filmmakers and veteran audiences come together
with veteran filmmakers and new audiences, for a
one-of-a-kind festival. Between educational panels
and premiere screenings, SXSW Film has maintained
its vision of celebrating ingenuity. For once, here’s
film independence you can depend on.
See up-to-date lists of panels, panelists, speakers
and accepted films online at www.sxsw.com/film
SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST FILM FESTIVAL
March 7-15, 2008 | Austin, Texas | www.sxsw.com
SXSW INTERACTIVE FESTIVAL:
CONNECT, DISCOVER, INSPIRE
Attracting digital creatives and new media
entrepreneurs, the 15th annual South by Southwest
(SXSW) Interactive Festival gives you both practical
how-to information as well as unparalleled career
inspiration. Attend this legendary gathering of the
tribes to renew your link to the cutting edge.
Opening Remarks by Henry Jenkins
on Saturday, March 8
The Co-Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program
at MIT, Jenkins has also authored numerous books including
"Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide" and
"Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture."
Other confirmed speakers include Jim Coudal (Coudal
Partners), Tim Ferriss (author of "The 4-Hour Workweek:
Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich"), Kelly
Goto (Goto Media), Matt Mullenweg (WordPress) and
Rannie Turingan (photojunkie.ca).
SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST INTERACTIVE FESTIVAL
March 7-11, 2008 | Austin, Texas | www.sxsw.com
REGISTER TO ATTEND
SXSW 2008
Go to sxsw.com now to take advantage of early
registration discounts and the best selection of hotels.
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products
and enhances workflows with its Spec
sion with a weak antenna signal, deliver-
Preview, Spec Render, Commit to Disk,
ing gun offset, distorted edges, image roll,
and Background Render utilities. Nucleo
noise, scan lines, and interference lines.
Pro 2 supports 3D rendering applications
BCC MatchMove, BCC LED, BCC Prism,
via its Background Render Queue and Pre-
BCC Turbulence, BCC Noise Map 2, BCC
Composition Proxies, enabling motion
Color Choker, and BCC Scan Lines round
graphics artists to manage After Effects
out the new offering.
and 3D renders simultaneously. Among
BCC 5.0 for AE supports Adobe Creative
ism. This latest version boasts a new
the 3D rendering applications support-
Suite 3.0, Autodesk Combustion, and
user interface featuring a model manag-
ed are: Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya,
Eyeon Digital Fusion. BCC 5.0 for AE is
er, advanced object wizards, alignment
Maxon Cinema 4D, NewTek LightWave,
now available for $895 to new users, and
tools, and four simultaneous views.
Softimage XSI, and Apple Shake. Nucleo
$299 as an upgrade. Users upgrading to
Airpak 3.0 delivers mixed meshing
Pro 2, priced at $395, supports all versions
BCC 5.0 for AE and BCC 5.0 for FxPlug can
capability with mixed tetrahedral and
of Adobe After Effects and After Effects CS3
do so for $495.
Boris FX; www.borisfx.com
hexahedral meshes, advanced meshing
Professional. Nucleo Pro 1 customers can
algorithms, and an automated hex-domi-
upgrade to Nucleo Pro 2 for $99, whereas
nant mesher with triangular, tetrahedral,
Nucleo users can upgrade for $350.
and pyramidal cells. An embedded opti-
GridIron Software; www.gridironsoftware.com
mization module, gradient-based optimization algorithm, and user-defined postprocessing functions combine to speed
the design process. For the production
of realistic scenes, users are able to visualize models with textured surfaces, set
various degrees of transparency to surfaces, and apply lighting to models. Ansys
Airpak 3.0 is available now.
Ansys; www.ansys.com
VISUAL EFFECTS
GridIron Nucleo Pro 2
Win • Mac GridIron Software’s Nucleo
Pro 2 helps visual effects artists using
Adobe After Effects optimize their workflow. The latest version of the productivity tool harnesses the power of multiprocessor and multicore computers,
BCC 5.0 for AE
Win • Mac Boris FX
is now shipping Boris
Continuum Complete
(BCC) 5.0 for AE, a
suite of more than
180 filters for use
with Adobe’s Creative
Suite 3.0. BCC 5.0 for
AE boasts custom on-screen controls and
several new filters. Optical Flow, Open
GL rendering, Film Process, Motion Key,
and Optical Stabilization extend the feature set in Creative Suite 3.0, whereas BCC
UpRez resizes image clips with minimal
data loss, enabling high-quality SD-to-HD
conversions. BCC Pan and Zoom lends
to the “Ken Burns” effect, providing precise image scaling and re-sampling. BCC
Damaged TV mimics a CRT-style televi-
FxPack Expansion
Mac Noise Industries, and its partners CoreMelt and SugarFx, debuted
FxFactory Expansion FxPacks for Apple
Final Cut Studio 2. Developed using
Noise Industries’ FxFactory Pro plug-in
manager, the new FxPacks provide eyecatching audio visualizations and professional templates for creating broadcast
effects. The CoreMelt FxPack VeeYou is a
collection of four plug-ins used to create
graphic elements that automatically sync
with the audio. The solution helps users
produce Volume Unit level and EQ animations based on the audio in a Final Cut
Studio project. The SugarFx Expansion
FxPack, Portfolio, assists Apple Final Cut
Pro and Motion users in the development
of professional broadcast effects, such as
opens, bumpers, and lower thirds. Now
available, CoreMelt VeeYou is free and
SugarFx Portfolio is priced at $59.
Noise Industries; www.noiseindustries.com
December 2007, Volume 30, Number 12: COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD (USPS 665-250) (ISSN-0271-4159) is published monthly (12 issues) by COP Communications, Inc. Corporate offices: 620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale, CA 91204, Tel: 818-291-1100; FAX: 818-291-1190; Web Address: [email protected].
__________ Periodicals
postage paid at Glendale, CA, 91205 & additional mailing offices. COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD is distributed worldwide. Annual subscription prices are $72,
USA; $98, Canada & Mexico; $150 International airfreight. To order subscriptions, call 847-559-7310.
© 2007 CGW by COP Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without permission. Authorization to photocopy items for internal
or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by Computer Graphics World, ISSN-0271-4159, provided that the appropriate fee
is paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 USA 508-750-8400. Prior to photocopying items for educational
classroom use, please contact Copyright Clearance Center Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 USA 508-750-8400. For further information check
Copyright Clearance Center Inc. online at: www.copyright.com. The COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD fee code for users of the Transactional Reporting Services is
0271-4159/96 $1.00 + .35.
POSTMASTER: Send change of address form to Computer Graphics World, P.O. Box 3296, Northbrook, IL 60065-3296.
48
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DECEMBER 2007
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A n y o n e o f t h e 1 2 m a j o r s ava i l a b l e f r o m t h e A c a d e my o f A r t U n ive r s i t y,
San Francisco will give you more than a degree. They’ll give you the skill, the vision
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on campus, you’ll be ready to pursue the career you’re passionate about.
www.academyart.edu
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A view from your edit suite.
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CG World Dec 07 4Meg pdf

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