Cgw.Com WORLD Music for the Eyes Animated Shorts Hit a High Note with Viewers

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® February 2006 www.cgw.com WORLD Music for the Eyes Animated shorts hit a high note with viewers

At Your Service Service providers bring 3D scanning to studios The Race Is On Project Gotham Racing 3 revs up gaming Hanging A Shingle The ‘hidden costs’ of opening your own shop

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Maya® 7, the latest release of the award-winning 3D software, is packed with innovative new features allowing you to realize your creative vision faster and more easily than ever before. Capitalizing on Alias MotionBuilder® technology, Maya 7 makes character animation easier and more accurate. Other improvements such as advanced render layering and new modeling, texturing and effects tools help you achieve more with Maya. To find out how the new and innovative features of Maya are changing the face of 3D, visit www.alias.com/maya7.

Image created by Meats Meier (www.3dartspace.com) © Copyright 2005 Alias Systems Corp. All rights reserved. Alias, the swirl logo, Maya and MotionBuilder are registered trademarks and the Maya logo is a trademark of Alias Systems Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. ______

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February 2006 • Volume 29 • Number 2 THE MAGAZINE FOR DIGITAL CONTENT CREATION AND PRODUCTION

Also see www.cgw.com for computer graphics news, special surveys and reports, and the online gallery. Computer WORLD

10 30 20 Departments 26 Editor’s Note 2 Features French Inspiration France has always been known for art, Cover story and today, the country has carried over Short and Sweet 10 that tradition to the CG realm, teaching ANIMATION | Artists and fi lmmakers test and inspiring digital artists to pursue new styles, equipment, and ideas with their passions and dreams. animated short fi lms, some of which may end up on this year’s Oscar short list. Spotlight 4 By Barbara Robertson Products Silhouette FX’s Silhouette Paint Point Person 20 NEW@ cgw.com SCANNING A u t o d e s k ’ s D i s c r e e t C o m b u s t i o n 4 | 3D scanning technology Web story exclusives: for the Mac is proving itself as an important studio The French Student Dosch Design’s Viz-Image series modeling tool, and service providers are helping the facilities get this job done. Revolution Video Viewpoint 6 E-Magiciens in Valenciennes, France, By Debra Kaufman Adobe’s Suite Production showcases animation from some of the most creative students in the country. As video turns digital, a host of new The Fast Track 26 See the winning entries from this applications are becoming available. GAMING | Bizarre Creations revs up annual event. With its Production Suite, Adobe is its Project Gotham Racing 3 franchise, ready to help users migrate to these injecting the title with fi lm-like effects Integration is Key new markets. running on the new Xbox 360 engine. At Autodesk University in Orlando, Florida, Portfolio 34 By Karen Moltenbrey the crowds were big, but the emphasis Jiri Adamec on “keeping it digital throughout the Starting a Small Studio 30 production pipeline” was even bigger. Digital Training 36 BUSINESS TRENDS | Ready to hang A wide range of virtual tutoring Iomega’s REV Drive your own shingle? Don’t forget the Backs It Up and training options allow artists to importance of location. Some other Check out this fi rsthand look at the master software at their own pace. things to consider: planning for expenses, Iomega REV 35GB/90GB drive, a low-cost, fi nding clients, and pricing your work. Reviews 38 portable backup device that redefi nes Bauhaus’s Mirage 1.5 By William “Proton” Vaughan the way data is archived and shared.

See www.cgw.com for a more On the cover: in-depth version of this article. Pixar’s “music men” told the story of the studio’s animated short ﬁ lm “One Man Band” with music, not words. See pg. 10. © 2006 Pixar.

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Kelly Dove Editor-in-Chief note

KELLY DOVE: Editor-in-Chief French Inspiration [email protected] KAREN MOLTENBREY: Executive Editor [email protected]

Lively, captivating, and often dark, French animation continues to inspire CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: artists worldwide. And, in Valenciennes, France, art is more than pretty pictures; Jenny Donelan, Audrey Doyle, Evan Marc Hirsch, George Maestri, it is a way of life—even for the local government. Martin McEachern, Stephen Porter, Barbara Robertson editor’s On a recent trip to Lille and Valenciennes, two cosmopolitan towns near Paris, I was introduced to a new way of teaching and inspiring artists to pur- SUZANNE HEISER: Art Director [email protected] sue their passions while helping them to “achieve the dream.” DAN RODD: Senior Illustrator It all starts in the schools, where artists are put through rigorous testing to prove their [email protected] talents long before they are accepted into an art program. One such school, Supinfocom, BARBARA ANN BURGESS: Production Manager which I visited in Valenciennes, requires students to work on a project, such as a brand [email protected]

identifi er for a mock company, creating a unique artistic treatment based on a strict list CHRISTINE WARD: Ad Traffi c Manager of criteria. This type of project is a pre-qualifi er for admittance, and only a handful of [email protected] students will make the cut—space is limited, and only the crème de la crème students SUSAN HUGHES: Marketing Communications Manager [email protected] will be fortunate enough to add the school to their resume. While it would certainly be easy for the school to expand and admit students who have more promise (and money) MICHELLE BLAKE: Circulation Manager michelleb@pennwell than talent, it’s pretty obvious the school’s leaders value a solid reputation more than a MARK FINKELSTEIN: Vice President, hefty bank account. Also at Supinfocom is SupinfoGames, which offers similarly struc- Computers & Electronics Group tured admittance requirements, but with a focus on game creation and development. [email protected] During the fi rst and second year, students at Supinfocom focus on design and ani- COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD Executive and Editorial Offi ces: mation using programs such as After Effects. Teamwork becomes vital in the third year 98 Spit Brook Rd. as groups of three and four students are challenged to use the latest 3D modeling and Nashua, NH 03062-5737 (603)891-0123; FAX:(603)891-0539 animation software to create animated projects. Team-based learning is certainly not a CGW ONLINE: www.cgw.com new concept. The challenge for the small team of students is to work together to create For customer service and subscription inquiries only: an animated short—from start to fi nish—and compete against other classmates and stu- [email protected] TEL: (847) 559-7500 FAX: (847) 291-4816 POSTMASTER: Send change of address form to Computer dents from other schools at E-Magiciens, a small trade show and conference similar to Graphics World, P.O. Box 3296, Northbrook, IL 60065

SIGGRAPH in the early days, only with an enormous animation festival/competition. We make portions of our subscriber list available to While there are certainly many training facilities in the US that offer team-based learn- carefully screened companies that offer products and services that may be important for your work. If you do ing, most are focused on instructor-driven projects and ideas that utilize large groups of not want to receive those offers and/or information, please let us know by contacting us at List Services, students to produce an animated project. At Supinfocom, the average team size is three Computer Graphics World, 98 Spit Brook Road, students, and everyone is involved in each phase of the production Nashua, NH 03062. Pretty pictures pipeline—from modeling and animation to compositing and editing of the fi nal project. Clearly, as the teams establish a rhythm, the help launch individual strengths of the team members are identifi ed, and the ROBERT F. BIOLCHINI President and Chief Executive Offi cer small business team divides and conquers to meet their deadline. The ultimate ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY DIVISION in France. goal for the students is to be on the winning team at E-Magiciens; winners are quickly recruited to join top studios. GLORIA S. ADAMS Vice President Audience Development Perhaps the most inspirational part of my trip was realized while visiting with The ATD PUBLISHING DEPARTMENTS Valenciennes Chamber of Commerce, and seeing fi rsthand its commitment to the DCC MEG FUSCHETTI community. The Chamber funds a business incubator with self-contained offi ces, where ATD Art Director content creators can move right in and get right to business, utilizing their talent with- MARI RODRIGUEZ ATD Production Director out worrying about overhead, business equipment, etc. The incubator has everything you need—a boardroom, a small television studio, and even a cafeteria—to get business PRINTED IN THE USA GST No. 126813153 off the ground. But the gravy train doesn’t last forever. There is a three-year time limit to Publications Mail Agreement No. 40052420 get established, and once companies are successful, they must move on to allow for new businesses to incubate. It’s a commitment to the DCC community that cities in the States should consider adopting to help more small studio owners “achieve the dream.”

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EFFECTS TOOLS Silhouette FX Introduces Nondestructive Painting

Silhouette Paint from Silhouette FX erase, blemish, mosaic, and grain matically matchmoved. Blemishes, for offers a nondestructive motion-sta- brushes to 8-bit, 16-bit, and fl oating- example, can be automatically erased PRODUCTS bilized paint tool for image resto- point clips. To match a foreground ele- over time. Silhouette Paint is priced at ration, dust busting, and wire and ment, paint sources can be transformed $495 and Silhouette Roto sells for $595. rig removal that the company says on the fl y by rotation, corner pinning, can handle the demands of motion- and scaling in addition to being offset picture and television visual effects. in time or XY space. Four independent The product is available as an add-on clone sources are maintained simulta- to Silhouette’s Roto application, a stand- neously for added fl exibility. alone tool, or a plug-in for Adobe’s Final Silhouette Paint can be integrated Cut Pro and After Effects. with Silhouette Roto’s Shape tool for In addition to multi-layered match- motion tracking, variable-edge soft- moving capabilities, Silhouette Paint ness, and realistic motion blur. Brushes can nondestructively apply color, tint, can be applied to shape layers and auto-

VISUAL EFFECTS IMAGE LIBRARIES Ready for Combustion See the Forest, the 4 on the Mac? Trees, and the Signs PRODUCTS Autodesk Media and Entertainment’s Discreet Combus- PRODUCTS Dosch Design has introduced ﬁ ve new collections in tion 4 visual effects software is now available for the its Dosch Viz-Images series, offering everything from Mac OS. The latest release offers vector paint, particles, road signs and streetlamps to plants and trees. Three effects animation, and 3D compositing for use in the cre- new Road Sign libraries each have 500 images that ation of motion include hazard, right-of-way, speed limit, construc- pictures, episodic tion and tour- television shows, ism signs and and commercials. symbols in New features in JPEG format. Combustion 4 in - The Forest clude a diamond Trees collec- keyer, time warp, tion features B-spline vector 100 trees, and the Urban Features collection includes shapes and group benches, hydrants, streetlamps, mailboxes, and more. pointing, custom The images in these two collections are supplied in capsules, an optimized Gaussian Blur, merge operator, uncompressed TIFF, PSD, and JPEG formats. All col- and enhanced paint tools. Combustion 4 for the Mac is lections support CAD, 3D design, and image-process- priced at $995. ing programs, and are priced at $79 each.

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A CW Previous Page Contents Zoom In Zoom Out Front Cover Search Issue Next Page BEF MaGS A CW Previous Page Contents Zoom In Zoom Out Front Cover Search Issue Next Page BEF MaGS Inspire You are the creator. You look for inspiration everywhere. You want your work to inspire others. You constantly desire something that will take your designs to the next level, keep you competitive. Productive. You want to lead, not follow. Something great is here now.

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The Powerful, Approachable, Complete 3D Solution experience it at eovia.com

A CW Previous Page Contents Zoom In Zoom Out Front Cover Search Issue Next Page BEF MaGS C C at Apple. takes aim products and its video revamps Adobe [email protected]. She canbereachedat JPR’s “TechWatch.” and editorinchiefof in graphicsandmultimedia, consultancy specializing a Tiburon,CA-based Jon Peddie Research, is asenioranalystat Kathleen Maher And, as video goes digital, it becomes a itbecomes digital, goes video as And, 6 more ﬂ more latest lineup of video tools and utilities utilities and tools ofvideo lineup latest Adobe’s accordingly. have toshape-shift to the PC, to handheld devices. And it will itwill And devices. tohandheld PC, to the

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Video Yet, Adobe is exploiting Yet, exploiting is Adobe Adobe appears to be aim- to be appears Adobe (the de facto standard standard defacto (the widely in phones and and phones in widely video and to simplify the the tosimplify and video for applications new with Macromedia’s Flash, a Flash, Macromedia’s and its acquisition of acquisition its and and Illustrator (which are are (which Illustrator and and a swarm of upstarts ofupstarts aswarm and Avid’s including als, form animation used used animation form exchange), for document Pinnacle line of products, ofproducts, line Pinnacle ubiquitous in the indus- the in ubiquitous leading format for small forsmall format leading led by Sonic and Ulead, Ulead, and Sonic by led lives ofAdobe’s custom- lives ing directly at Apple. atApple. directly ing imagination. up tokeep designed is try), its possession of PDF possession its try), tools such as Photoshop as such tools tion of video profession- ofvideo tion task by any stretch of the ofthe stretch byany task Sony’s Vegas+ suite DVD on the Web.on the ownership of creative ofcreative ownership contenders for the atten- forthe contenders ers, which is not a simple notasimple is which ers, several advantages—its There are plenty of plenty are There video might replace replace might video rvosPage Previous rvosPage Previous Adobe’s SuitePr FEBRUARY 2006 cant Contents Contents Adobe’s newest release of Production Studio is available in two versions: Standard, Standard, versions: two in available is Studio ofProduction Adobe’s release newest ware and, in piling it all into one box, the company is trying to give its customers what what customers its togive trying is company the onebox, into itall piling in and, ware which includes After Effects 7.0, Premiere Pro 2.0, and Photoshop CS2 ($1199) PhotoshopCS2 2.0, 7.0, and Pro and Premiere Effects After includes which with Adobe’s video products to create corporate videos for the area’s universities area’s universities forthe videos corporate tocreate products Adobe’s video with The Pieces of the Production and Illustrator is almost universal among creative professionals, making back-and- making professionals, creative among universal almost is Illustrator and and museums. He notes that the freedom of working interchangeably with Premiere Premiere with interchangeably ofworking freedom the that Henotes museums. and the Production Suitemodules. capabili Production Studio’s Bridgecomponentisacentralized ﬁ forth compatibility a built-in advantage for Production Studio users right from the the from right users Studio forProduction advantage abuilt-in compatibility forth Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Audition. and Effects, After Pro, Premiere ($1,699). CS2 Illustrator 2.0, DVD and 2.0, Encore Audition adds which Premium, using the Production Suite as beta testers for Adobe and they universally tipped their their tipped universally they and for Adobe testers beta as Suite Production the using hat to the power of Dynamic Link. ofDynamic power tothe hat with- modules within towork smoothly users enables which Link, Dynamic added has One of the guiding principles for Adobe’s development is that the use ofPhotoshop use the that forAdobe’s is development principles guiding ofthe One better tools for collaboration, new presets for After Effects, more and better templates, templates, better and more Effects, forAfter presets new forcollaboration, tools better they want—true compatibility between the different modules of the Production Studio, Studio, Production ofthe modules different the between compatibility want—true they out having to perform intermediate rendering. I talked to people who were already already whowere topeople Italked rendering. intermediate toperform out having enhanced ease of use for DVD creation, and fundamental improvements in Audition. in improvements fundamental and creation, forDVD ofuse ease enhanced start. Expanding on this, Adobe has created consistently similar environments for environments similar consistently created has Adobe onthis, Expanding start. Adobe has a long history in digital video with its Premiere and After Effects soft- Effects After and Premiere its with video digital in history along has Adobe Taking intercommunication between the software programs even further, Adobe Adobe further, even programs software the between intercommunication Taking For example, example, For

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Chris Randall of Edit 1 Media specializes in wedding videos and corporate videos. In fact, he ﬁ nds that one business often feeds the other. Most of the time, Randall and his team will shoot the video while Randall’s wife takes over the editing tasks. Randall favors the new multicam features in Premiere Pro to simultaneously view and work with multiple sources, since the workloads at small production houses can be stagger- ing. In fact, he recently was editing 15 video projects simultaneously. Randall notes anything that helps make his job easier and reduce editing time goes straight to his bottom line. Videographers are also coming to grips with the transition to HD. Interestingly, video producers are ﬁ nding that

Encore DVD’s fl owchart simplifi es organization when creating interactive even their wedding clients are becoming interested in HD menus, multiple audio tracks, subtitle tracks, and more. video because they’re buying high-def large screen TVs and looking ahead. Corporate clients are likewise moving Pro and After Effects is “incalculable.” to HD, and, of course, the broadcast industry is racing to get to HD. But the other Interoperability, notes Kolowich, actually reality of video is that it’s big and demanding. Luckily, hardware manufacturers makes the programs more powerful than are coming to the rescue. To keep up with the trend, Adobe has added support for they would be on their own. For example, the Aja Xena HS and also native support for HDV. In addition, Adobe’s support for he says that one of the aspects of video OpenGL gives hardware graphics boards the ability to accelerate processes. One that separates professionals from amateurs of the most obvious advantages will be support for high dynamic range imagery, is the skillful use of animated titles. He thanks to OpenGL, and also support for effects and plug-ins. has been able to take advantage of Adobe’s Adobe was among the fi rst to spawn a plug-in community with its SDK for Photoshop inclusion of text animation and presets in After Effects since the last introduction of Adobe’s Production Suite, but now feels like it is an embedded utility. “It’s like the Adobe Titler on steroids,” he says. Other work fl ow improvements in the Production Suite include Bridge, Adobe’s name for its centralized fi le browser with media management that helps users fi nd and work with all the fi les related to projects within any of the Production Suite modules. Also, Adobe has added DVD creation to its Premiere Pro program, recognizing that users may need to quickly output a DVD with good-looking menus rather than go to Encore to create a professional-level DVD designed for distribution. Adobe’s attention to work fl ow issues speaks to some of the challenges its customers face. A large part of the video professional market is made up of small ______studios—owners are very often the creative director, the videographer, and the IT person. For the small house, work fl ow and communication can be particularly challenging because it involves the shooting and editing of sound and video, delivery, client input, and so on.

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and, later, for After Effects. It is continu- Kolowich is encour- ing the effort by reaching outto third-party aged by the poten tial partners in video hardware, such as Aja, of the wide-ranging for example, and also audio hardware hosts for video and the partners, third-party software developers, merger between Adobe training program developers, and expert and Macromedia. As a support. The evolution of OpenGL and former executive with Adobe’s enthusiastic exploitation of the Lotus and publisher at API defi nitely opens up new opportunities Ziff-Davis. Kolowich for hardware and software developers. is also a veteran of the Adobe has made several signifi cant vast changes in work improvements to Audition and, as a habits caused by digi- result, believes many customers will be tal technology and the Audition’s Spectral View can be used to apply effects or edits to select frequencies of a particular time span. able to work totally within Audition, and arrival of the Internet. not rely on additional products for audio In his work with college marketing he sees giant change coming as kids who grew work. Features, such as support for ASIO up swimming in digital media reach college and the workplace. “It’s a tsunami,” he (Audio Stream Input/Output) for multi- says of the change in media that’s on the way. As a video producer, he sees that radi- channel hardware, puts Audition more cal new ways of working will have to be developed to create content suitable for HD fi rmly within the realm of professional and content that can be sent to mobile phones, media players, and online. Kids, he audio products, and Frequency Space believes, will treat video just like they treat words, pictures, and music. Editing lets users zero in on a particular With Production Studio, Adobe is concentrating on the professional side of the sound, or frequency, to actually see the equation but with key technologies in video and communications, Adobe is well area that needs work. positioned to ride the wave as it changes our concept of media.

The Bottom Line As always, it’s not about the pieces, it’s about the whole. Much of the Adobe Production Studio has been evolving to this point—some of the features, such as presets, titles, frequency space editing for Audition, and so on, were actually included in earlier versions of the software. Nor are these features unique, but they are necessary. Apple’s Final Cut Pro, for example, has multi-cam features, Apple introduced Motion to compete with After Effects, and Apple has very strong audio editing tools. What’s most important is the way the pieces ﬁ t together and the way in which they enable people to work with each other creatively. Perhaps one of the most revolutionary additions to the Creative Suite Production Studio won’t even be realized until the product is used in the creative community. Adobe has enhanced its Acrobat PDF format to work with video content, allowing collaborators and customers to attach notes for items such as sequence ______ﬁ xes, additions, deletions, etc. And, some of the real changes in the use of video are just taking shape.

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. . . . Animation

lms. Free from the and ShortFor many, the art of animation reaches its highest peak in the smallest ce appeal medium—short and client approvals, animated these ﬁ artists express personal lm festivals and animation festivals. strictures of box-ofﬁ

ideas, test styles, and sometimes simply have fun. Largely invisible to the lm mass branch market, of the the Academy narrows primary venues for these short projects are ﬁ ve nominees in late January. Academy

Each year, though, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honors one short animated ed festival or opened in a theater. The short-ﬁ ﬁ lm with an Oscar and at least three with Oscar nominations. To qualify for the Oscar race, the short must

have won an Academy-qualifi lms into a smaller group, from which’s secret they announcelist of nomination three to ficandidates this year, only two were ani- the qualifying fi ny Lucas’s “The Mysterious Geographic Explorations members vote on the nominees during February, and this year’s Oscar winner will be announced March 5. lms likely to be on the Academy lms Of the fi igious 2005 Annecy Internationalse Film days, Festival, if only and to edit Cédric and

mated solely with 3D computer graphics tools: Pixar’s “One Man Band” and Shane Acker’s “9,” which won Best in lms use computer software the Show at SIGGRAPH 2005. Two other shorts, though—Antho lm “The Moon and the Son.” The other fi of Jasper Morello,” which won the Grand Prix at the prest Babouche’s “Imago,” which has taken honors at several festivals—used a 2D/3D mix: 2D characters in 3D backgrounds. In addition, many advocates of hand-drawn fi composite their scanned images, as did John Canemaker for his fi likely up for nominee consideration are the traditionally animated “Badgered” by Sharon Colman, which received a Student Oscar nomination, “The Fan and the Flower,” a black-and-white hand-drawn ani- lms will be nominated for the Oscar. And through mation by Bill Plympton, and Michael Sporn’s “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers,” which is based on the 2004 Caldecott Medal-winning lms. children’s book. Chances are, three of these fi medium as live-action fi these projects, artists have demonstrated that animation can be as rich a

| 10 Computer Graphics World FEBRUARY 2006 ______www.cgw.com

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Animation. . . .

dictable outcome, one or two characters, and one environment. With this list in mind, they developed three stories: one from Andrews, one from Jimenez, and a third, which became “One Man Band.” “We’re both musicians, so we won- dered what we could do with music,” says Andrews. “That’s how we came up with the image of a one-man band.” Then, they added a second character. “Our idea was to have one character who is good at something (but doesn’t try very hard) challenged by someone younger and better,” says Jimenez. “We showed CG shorts enable digital filmmakers to explore the ideas to John [Lasseter, the executive producer] and he lasered in on this one. novel styles, stories, and techniques He said, ‘I can see Andy in that character [Treble] and Mark in the other one [Bass].” Sweet At fi rst, the directors sketched storyboards that had the musicians perform- ing for a crowd. Eventually, the crowd One Man Band began to shrink until the audience com- Pixar rarely enters its short fi lms in com- fi lms exercise new talents. This fi lm gave prised a mother and a little girl, and then, petition these days. Instead, the Oscar- several artists, from lead animator Angus only the child. One reason for the change winning studio releases a short with each MacLane to the directors, their fi rst supervi- was the budget. “The short-fi lm directors feature fi lm and showcases the fi lms at sory opportunities. “Our biggest gain on this learn to work within creative boundar- festivals, albeit out of competition. To fi lm is that we had new people in every lead- ies,” says Shurer. “There are per-charac- qualify for this Oscar race, the studio qui- ership role,” says producer Osnat Shurer. ter costs and set costs.” etly screened its “One Man Band” in a The fi lm originated as a challenge from Adds Andrews: “We had to focus on commercial theater. The short’s world pre- Ed Catmull, Pixar’s founder and presi- the center and go for that, and work miere, though, was at Annecy, and its US dent, to Andrews and Jimenez. with economies of time and premiere during the December opening The pair had followed emotion.” of the Pixar exhibition of artwork at the direc tor Brad Bird to Once the crowd Museum of Modern Art in New York City. the studio to create shrank, the story Directed by Mark Andrews and Andrew storyboards for The changed. “When we Jimenez, “One Man Band” takes place In credibles . Before got rid of the crowd, in an old-world piazza. There, a peasant that, both had it gave the fi lm child about to toss a coin into a fountain worked on Bird’s heart,” says Jimenez. becomes the focus of a musical sparring The Iron Giant. “Before that, it was

match between a tired, tune-making regu- “He asked if just two guys ﬁ ght-

lar and a charming, ﬂ ashy new performer. we’d like to do a 0 ing.”

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Bass, the piazza’s one-man band regu- short,” says Andrews . Because the “dialog” lar, has his arms fi lled with an accordion, of Catmull’s challenge. in the story is the music drum, tuba, clarinet, cymbals, and a few “So, we did lunch and The character Tinny holds the played by the two per- horns. Treble, the energetic upstart, wields tried to come up with an coin that prompted a battle of formers, the directors bows and piccolos. At fi rst, each upstages idea. But we kept coming the one-man bands in Pixar needed a musical score the other in turn, but soon the compe- up with ideas for features. Animation Studios’ latest short. before they started produc- tition for the little girl’s coin turns into a We had to define the tion. Michael Giacchino, cacophony, with both musicians playing at parameters for a short.” In addition to who scored The Incredibles, composed the same time, one on each side of the girl, length, they listed the following: a single two themes that escalate and then over- until she . . . well, that would be a spoiler. idea that an audience can get in 10 to 15 lap when the one-man bands play simul- Sometimes Pixar creates short fi lms to seconds, variations on that idea which taneously. An orchestra of 38 musicians exercise new technology; sometimes the predict an outcome, a twist on the pre- played the music.

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. . . . Animation

“[Lasseter] said it had to sound like live music,” notes Jimenez, “like real people were playing it. So, we recorded the sounds of ﬁ ngers sliding on metal.” Although the animators sometimes had the characters accurately play the notes from the sound track, the two

one-man bands don’t have enough © 2006 Pixar. fi ngers to match the music through- The “One Man Band” musicians Treble (at left) and Bass (at right) were modeled after directors Andy Jimenez and Mark Andrews, respectively. Each character required several hundred shaders. out the fi lm. Instead, judicious use of close-up shots of fi ngers on strings and cheeks puffed out to “A savvy CG person will see that it’s a parts kit, but the aver- blow horns convince the audience that the characters are creat- age viewer will probably see a city,” says Polson. ing the complex sounds. The crew also used matte paintings in the background and The number of instruments became an interesting challenge in the foreground. “If you see shrubbery, that’s a matte painting,” for the technical team: Each character had many surfaces. “Each says Polson. “Our rule is that if we model a building, that’s how surface needs a shader, a texture map, and application space,” we make a building, and we’ll use it all the way into the back- says Bill Polson, supervising technical director. “You’d open up ground for continuity. If it’s too heavy, we’ll decimate it. We don’t a character, and the list of shaders would scroll up and down have near buildings one way and far ones another way, because the page—10 kinds of brass, the felt on the keys for the trum- then we’d have to worry about matching.” There is one exception: pet plungers, 10 kinds of wood...it goes on and on.” Although The tile roofs on distant buildings were rendered onto cards. the studio has built an infrastructure to handle that complexity For lighting, the directors made a painterly choice. “The for the upcoming feature Cars, that infrastructure didn’t exist for Zen of lighting was that we had light over dark over light over Finding Nemo or for “One Man Band.” dark,” says Polson. That is, they’d place a brightly lit character “Our pipeline at that point hadn’t handled characters with 400 in front of something dark, such as a building, and that building or 500 shaders attached to them—it’s not like a fi sh that has four would be in front of something bright, which would be in front or fi ve,” Lucas says, “so we just carried around big data fi les.” of something dark. To make this lighting seem logical, they cre- To create the city surrounding the piazza, the team began ated a cloudy day, which made it possible to place the characters with six buildings. “If you look at a building from one angle, in pools of light. Haze fi lters softened any brightly lit buildings. you see one arrangement of windows and doors,” says Polson. Pixar uses its own RenderMan for rendering, outputting the “If you turn it 180 degrees, you see a different arrangement.” So, scenes in numerous layers, which were composited in Apple’s Shake. by rotating the six buildings, they created 12 variations. Five “With this fi lm, we had a wonderful opportunity to work different roofs and three types of shutters randomly placed in with an existing, stable pipeline rather than the latest, greatest open and closed positions created additional variations, as did stuff,” says Polson. “I’m becoming a real advocate for that in the a mixture of shaders. studio.” —Barbara Robertson

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello Australian animator Anthony Lucas of “It’s a ‘steampunk adventure,’” says stop-motion characters, the stars of this 3-D Films turned 2D cutouts, stop- Lucas. “William Gibson did a steam- fi lm are silhouettes: 2D cutouts. “The motion animation, and 3D backgrounds punk book set within an alternate uni- adventure takes place in an alternate uni- into a 28-minute Gothic horror/mystery/ verse in Victorian times. It doesn’t come verse where light doesn’t refl ect,” Lucas adventure that has taken the festivals by from that, but having fi nished the fi lm, explains. “That’s why the characters are storm. It’s a science-fi ction fi lm set in I fi nd myself in that genre.” Instead, silhouettes. Also, I like the look of it. I the past and fi lled with Victorian Rube Lucas was inspired by writers Edgar guess I worked out a reason for why this Goldberg machines—steam-powered Allan Poe and Jules Verne. world is like it is.” computers and iron airships. Although Lucas typically works with The fi lm is set in the clouds; there is

| 12 Computer Graphics World FEBRUARY 2006 www.cgw.com______

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. . . . Animation

no ground. The star, Jasper Morello, is an junk, like car engines and hubcaps, and Maya particles. Compositors then com- aerial navigator who embarks on a dan- made the backgrounds out of that in bined all these images in Autodesk’s gerous voyage and, along the way, must [Adobe’s] Photoshop,” says Lucas. “Then Discreet Combustion, and added glows take desperate measures to save his wife. we put proxies of our characters over these and color tints to the scene. “We put a tint Lucas started with a script and story- backgrounds to create new storyboards. throughout the fi lm, and the tint changes,” boards—600 drawings by storyboard As the scenes came up, I’d print the pages says Lucas. “Because this is an alternate artist David Cook. From those, the crew and throw them in front of the animators.” universe that echoes Victorian times, or created animatics. Then, they redid the The animators used those poses—cre- maybe even longer ago because there’s storyboards. “We photographed bits of ated for about every 12 frames—to com- still a plague, we wanted a sepia look all plete the animation. Animators worked the way through. But, we changed the tint For “Jasper Morello,” director Anthony Lucas created an environment using photographs with CelAction’s CelAction2D software to echo locations.” Jungles are green, for and 3D clouds, made 3D machines, and then to create the characters, animating them example; ice is cool blue. placed animated 2D “cutout” characters into on white backgrounds as if they were live- The characters, however, are always the environment. action actors on greenscreen stages. “You black. “I didn’t want the characters to look make a fi gure as a 2D object, and hinge like normal CG things,” Lucas says. “I it like a puppet,” explains Lucas. “It’s adore Pixar fi lms. As a short fi lmmaker, I classic cutout animation. We give it a 3D loved ‘Boundin’.’ My kid loved ‘Boundin’.’ spin—they look 3D when they turn their Anything with hope in that abundance heads, but they’re not.” should be promoted. But we aren’t Pixar. Because the characters are always sil- This is an independent fi lm. We were houetted, they’re always jet-black, although going for a graphic style. If you do cheap, the fl at planes have a bit of texture to cre- low-level 3D, it’s not very sexy.” ate such detail as buttons. The posed sil- At 28 minutes, Lucas’s short anima- houettes are output as Photoshop fi les. “We tion is rather long, yet its cinematic quality slide the Photoshop fi les on top of each has caused reviewers to ask for more. And, other to make it look like the characters Lucas has begun working on ways to con- turn around,” explains Lucas. tinue the story—with more half-hour seg- To create the iron fl yingships that fl oat ments and, perhaps, as a feature. through the sky, the crew used Autodesk It certainly sounds like hope has Media and Entertainment’s 3ds Max; to found its way to this animation studio in

The Moon and the Son Film historian, author, teacher, animator, and director of the Canemaker’s “most personal work ever—and his most brilliant.” animation program at New York University’s Tisch School of Canemaker writes, “I made this fi lm to resolve long-stand- the Arts, John Canemaker created a 28-minute animated imagi- ing emotional issues I have with my late father. I wanted to fi nd nary conversation with his father that recently won the Fabrizio answers to our diffi cult relationship, to understand the reasons Bellocchio Prize for Best Social Content at the I Castelli Animati he was always a feared fi gure in my childhood, why he was animation festival in Genzano, Italy. Film historian Leonard always angry and defensive, verbally and physically abusive, Maltin calls the animation, titled “The Moon and the Son,” and often in trouble with the law.” Animator John “The Moon and the Son,” which features the voices of actors Canemaker uses Eli Wallach and John Turturro as father and son, respectively, drawings to per- was traditionally drawn. sonify emotions Even so, the fi lm was cut and sound effects were added on the screen and with an Avid system; the composure used Apple’s Logic Pro make what’s in to compose, print, and mix the music, and Adobe’s Photoshop the mind become to scan and edit three of the scenes. Apple’s Final Cut Pro alive in his fi lm.

Images courtesy John Canemaker. John courtesy Images helped the team put it all together. —Barbara Robertson

14 | Computer Graphics World FEBRUARY 2006 www.cgw.com______

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. . . . Animation Imago

Created by Cédric Babouche of Sacrebleu The fi lmmaker started with a hand- Productions in Paris, “Imago” tells the drawn storyboard, which he scanned story of Antoine, who lost his father in a into Photoshop to work on the lighting. plane crash. “He loved his father so much,” “It’s really important for me to show what says Babouche, “that he created his own the light will look like as soon as I can,” world to share secret moments with him. he says. Because he is a child, his perception of Babouche also created nearly 100 reality comes from fairy tales. So, he backgrounds by hand. He started with transforms the special moments he spent a 2B pencil on paper, colored the draw- with his father into metaphorical dreams. ings with watercolors and ink, and then Because they spent a lot of time near a scanned them into Photoshop. He compos- tree at the seaside, the tree became a sym- ited the sequences in Combustion using Image courtesy Cédric Babouche. courtesy Cédric Image bol, and when it disappears in a storm, he For “Imago,” French animator Cédric that software program’s Particle Illusions understands that he has to grow up.” Babouche placed hand-drawn animated for effects. “Compositing was the most The inspiration for this fi lm came from characters on 3D and painted backgrounds. important step because of the mix of 2D Hayao Miyazaki’s fi lm Porco Rosso, in and 3D,” says Babouche. “I didn’t want to which a plane crashes into a tree. “When I saw that beautiful pic- use any 3D lighting, which is colder than 2D lights, so I drew all ture of the plane crash, I said I would like to use the spirit of that the shadows and lights with masks in After Effects.” image for a project,” Babouche says. “Also, my father is a very Babouche began working on the script in October 2003, and special person who I don’t see a lot and don’t really know. So this began production in July 2004. He fi nished the following April. fi lm talks about the feeling of missing somebody and the way we He now plans to use the same process to create a feature fi lm for can create our own world to fi ll loneliness.” which he’s nearly completed a script. The characters in “Imago” are 2D; the backgrounds, 3D. “I don’t want to use only 3D because I like the freedom water- Babouche used Crater Software’s CTP software for the 2D ani- color offers,” Babouche says. “I want my future projects to look mation line tests, Adobe’s Photoshop for painting the scanned like illustrations.” drawings, Cambridge Animation Systems’ Animo for timing, Autodesk Media and Entertainment’s 3ds Max and the com- Barbara Robertson is an award-winning journalist and a contrib- pany’s Maya for 3D, and Adobe’s After Effects and Autodesk’s uting editor for Computer Graphics World. She can be reached at Discreet Combustion for compositing. [email protected].

9 The junkyard world inhabited by the lit- “9” numerous awards—including Best in Workshop. He started out with a bit of a tle burlap-covered characters of Shane Show at SIGGRAPH’s 2005 Electronic handicap, however: His background was Acker’s short fi lm, “9,” is a large and scary Theater—making it eligible as an Oscar in drawing and 2D animation, and “9” one. Though it offers the characters plenty contender in the short-fi lm category. The marked his fi rst exposure to 3D. Thus, it of opportunities for scavenging—which nine-minute CG fi lm has attracted so was a case of baptism by fi re. seems to be their principal occupation— much attention, in fact, that it is going “I bit off more than I could chew with it’s also home to a malevolent predator to be developed into a feature fi lm, with ‘9,’” Acker admits. In fact, the fi lm proved that hunts them relentlessly. How the main Acker directing and Tim Burton and oth- so diffi cult and time-consuming that character, 9, responds to this challenge is a ers aboard as producers. Acker ended up taking periodic breaks triumph of reason over instinct, or brain over Success of this magnitude seemed from it (including a stint working on The brawn. Or, just possibly, good over evil. worlds away during the four and a half Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King for A thoughtful plot, with edge-of-your- years that Acker spent working on “9.” Weta Digital) in order to earn a living. seat action and richly detailed and origi- He began the fi lm as his thesis project One thing that kept Acker going over nal modeling and animation have earned while a student at UCLA’s Animation the years was the strength of his original

| 16 Computer Graphics World FEBRUARY 2006 www.cgw.com______

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. . . . Animation

concept. “I had the idea of these little rag anchor for the fi lm: Since he had to work was somewhat painterly. In fact, there are doll creatures that would pick through on it between paying gigs, it was good for quite a few large matte paintings used in their environment,” he explains. That him to be able to have the animatic as a the fi lm. To composite the imagery, the environment would be more or less post- guide so he wouldn’t lose focus. fi lmmaker used Adobe’s After Effects. apocalyptic, and the rag dolls would rep- Acker employed keyframing for all the Since “9” has no dialog, the characters’ resent the beginning of a new civilization. animation in the fi lm. The cat-beast and its actions must tell the story. And though In a rough parallel to the way life might movements are among the achievements the main plot is simple enough in scope, have been for our primitive hunter-gath- in the fi lm of which Acker is proudest. The the fi lm is full of many small and telling erer ancestors, the rag doll characters look character is made of cat bones, including a details—actions that seem random at the fairly helpless, but they get by using their cat skull, that are interlaced with a metal time but turn out to have great signifi cance wits. “They’re diminutive in scale,” says armature. The cat-beast moves with a cat’s later on. Moreover, there are some little Acker, “and they’re living in an oppressive sense of purpose, but there is something a jokes throughout the fi lm. The cat-beast, world, yet they’re sort of good-natured.” Another source of inspiration for Acker was stop-motion animation, especially the surreal and sometimes downright creepy works of artists such as the Brothers Quay, Jan Svankmajer, and the Lauenstein brothers. Acker admired their style, but viewed it as a jumping-off point. Acker began work on “9” with the story itself—an 18-panel storyboard that started

with the main action scene, in which 9 is Acker. Shane courtesy Image pursued by the fi lm’s villain, a mechani- cal cat-beast. At that point, Acker decided that a lot more setup was required in order to invest viewers in the action, so he added another character—a mentor, called 5— Like the characters he created for “9,” fi lmmaker Shane Acker himself became a scavenger of sorts, collecting various textures for the bleak setting of his animated short. and also a fl ashback scene that would help explain the challenges and motivations of bit reptilian about it as well. Like the rag for example, hunts for nine characters, or the fi lm’s hero, 9. doll creatures, the beast is a scavenger, but nine lives. And there is the almost requisite Then, Acker created an animatic that also collects living things, and has a grue- Pixar-type lamp, albeit a rusty version. was so highly detailed, “it was almost a some way of using them literally to add All in all, though, says Acker, he is true 2D fi lm—or something in between a onto itself. Whatever the creature’s moti- happy with the decayed, down-and-out traditional animatic and a 2D fi lm.” vations, it clearly wants something that the look and feel of the fi lm. “It’s hyper- The next step was learning to use 3D rag dolls have. “It recognizes their souls detailed, but it’s also stylized and paint- modeling and animation tools—albeit while in them, and is attempting to become like erly,” he says. Certainly his attention to he was creating the fi lm. Acker maintains them,” explains Acker. the grit and grime of urban decay has paid that “drawing is at the heart” of his fi lm, In order to create the variety of tex- off in that despite its bleakness, there’s a though he very much wanted to make use tures that are an important part of lot to see in this junkyard world. of CG animation to suggest the stop-motion Acker’s artistic achievement, he became In the end, the hero’s brains, and his look he admired. The fi lmmaker estimates a scavenger himself. He collected items use of tools, win the day. The 9 character that he spent about two and a half years with interesting textures that he could rescues the souls of his predecessors, and in the preproduction phase of the movie, photograph, scan, and then manipu- in the fi nal scene, seems to be leaving his doing modeling, rigging, matte paintings, late in Adobe’s Photoshop. He also pho- bleak world, traveling alone. It’s a hope- and so forth, all the while learning to use tographed broken-down parts of Los ful scene, and it also sets him up for fur- Autodesk Media and Entertainment’s Maya. Angeles that would add interest to his CG ther adventures that just could happen in When it was fi nally time for anima- environment of urban decay. the forthcoming feature fi lm. tion, that original animatic proved invalu- Acker employed Maya for lighting and able. Acker used it as a kind of road map, rendering. “I didn’t use a lot of raytrac- Jenny Donelan is a contributing editor replacing the 2D animation with 3D. In ing,” he says, explaining that he was aim- for Computer Graphics World. She can be fact, he notes, the animatic was a kind of ing at a less-than-real environment that reached at [email protected].

18 | Computer Graphics World FEBRUARY 2006 ______www.cgw.com

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. . . . Scanning Point Person

Service providers give studios

Ima easy access to 3D scanning

cou

rtesy

Gen

tle Giant. By Debra Kaufman

A lthough modeling and anima- sculpting machine that measured the The US Air Force was one of the ﬁ rst tion software—and the images human face accurately and quickly,” says groups to identify the value of digital scan- they create—tend to be the Cyberware vice president Steve Addleman, ning outside the entertainment realm. The stars of the computer graphics industry, another son of the inventor. “The device Air Force worked with physical anthropol- 3D scanning plays a quiet but integral was hooked to a computer-controlled mill- ogists to achieve precise measurements of role in the origin of many digital mod- ing machine that would carve an image the human body, to arrive at standards els, from props and maquettes to celeb- of what was scanned.” A head scan took for helmets and suits. To achieve this goal, rities and stunt actors. Initially, the CG 17 seconds, and the resulting carved foam the military branch provided the money industry had been fairly slow to embrace bust could be completed in a few hours. for Cyberware to develop a full-body scan- the technology. Today, however, the use What started as a small venture aimed ner that could get the job done quickly— of 3D scanning is prevalent throughout at artists and sculptors took a huge leap “a person can only stand still for 15 to 20 the entertainment realm, and new appli- forward thanks to powerful Silicon seconds,” Addleman points out. cations continue to emerge. Graphics computers, which, for the ﬁ rst The resulting full-body scanner com- Cyber-scanning technology was devel- time, enabled the scanned data to be ren- prised a precise motion system and four oped over two decades ago by Cyberware dered as a surface. “You could actually see scan heads mounted onto horizontal (Monterrey, CA) as a family hobby, the data,” recalls Addleman. Soon after, arms on tall towers. The new device also the brainchild of a retired aero- Hollywood came knocking—in the form of scanned color and, per the Air Force’s

Service space engineer, his artist Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in 1986. For requirement, was “portable” (large trucks provider Gen- wife, and their computer a special effects scene in which the heads could transport it). tle Giant used its programmer son. of the bridge crew rolled out of the fog, a With its focus on designing new 3D Cyberware systems “My dad wanted seamless look required computer graphics, scanners, Cyberware transitioned from to acquire scanned data to make a and the project began with scans of the a service provider to a scanning equip- of actor Michael Caine (top kind of Star Trek crew’s heads. After that success- ment manufacturer; the company of page) for the effects in the ful experience, Hollywood became a fairly continues to sell customized Austin Powers movie Goldmember. frequent client of 3D scanning. scanners for a wide range

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Scanning. . . .

of uses, from archaeology to industrial point,” explains Addleman. “Now, high- often sculpt a perfect likeness [of an design and the military. The company’s res systems have 16 times the number of object], take it into the studio for approval, products include the original head scan- color values, and they’re located on and and they’d say, ‘Great, but it needs to be 10 ners, small- and large-object scanners, in between every X, Y, Z location, which percent larger,’’’ recalls Steve Chapman, and the whole-body scanner, all priced enables the image to bear much closer vice president of technology. “And we’d between $20,000 and $400,000. inspection. But it’s still not enough.” have to resculpt the entire thing by hand. While Cyberware proved the initial Then it occurred to us that if we could Dedicated to Service value of 3D scanning, other companies digitally scan [the model] and then out- According to Addleman, there is a rea- in recent years have fostered the technol- put it on a 3D printer (rapid-prototyping son why Hollywood fi lm-production ogy’s growth and usage, particularly in machine), that problem would be solved.” companies and computer game devel- the entertainment industry, by offering In 1997, Gentle Giant bought a Cyber- opers utilize scanning services, rather scanning services. ware scanner, and soon after, started than purchasing scanners themselves. Upping the ante is researcher Paul investing in more 3D scanners and more “The scanners are very productive, so it’s Debevec at the Institute for Creative Tech- printers. And, business boomed. more effi cient for clients to buy the time nologies in Marina del Rey, California, Whereas many scanning service rather than the scanner,” he says. A fi lm, where an image-based lighting technique bureaus serve several industries, 99 per- game, or TV commercial can take advan- is being applied to the human face. This cent of Gentle Giant’s business is from tage of the specialized skills of a service process enables the capture of the human visual effects facilities serving the motion- bureau’s experienced staff without incur- face from every direction that light can picture industry. According to Chapman, ring the cost of the equipment. They can pass, which results in a perfect-fi delity Gentle Giant’s work sometimes begins in also benefi t from the latest technology image of the face. Debevec’s latest appli- the preproduction phase of a project, with developments and customized solutions. cation enables the capture of the human the creation of designs and sculptures Some of the recent advancements in face from arbitrary camera viewpoints for characters; other times, the group the technology include increased reso- and in performance, which Sony Pictures becomes involved in the production phase, lution and higher-quality texture maps. Imageworks used to generate digital faces scanning actors and props on set. Increasing the measured points on a sur- in Spider-Man 2 and Weta Digital used for How the team provides the resulting face provides more detail—for instance, Naomi Watts’s face in King Kong. datasets to the VFX companies depends the valley of a wrinkle or the break of a Debevec says that although typical 3D on the client. “[Industrial Light & Magic], lip. Visual effects clients also want high- scanning does indeed result in texture for example, has an intrinsic work fl ow quality texture maps with a full range maps for the face and body, it imposes lim- for dealing with scanned data, so we give of colors. “The original systems had one itations. “If you map a person’s face onto them raw data,” says Chapman. “Other color value for every X, Y, Z location, or nicely scanned geometry, you’ve wrapped companies may not have the employees to Below shows actress a photo around the face,” he process the data from raw points to some- Jessica Vallot while she says. “You can only change thing animatable, so we’ll do it for them.” is scanned in “Light that by editing out the Rhythm & Hues recently had Gentle Stage 2” at USC’s effects of lighting and then Giant scan actors, maquettes, and props Institute for Creative resimulating them, which is for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Technologies. Right is diffi cult. This method cap- Witch and the Wardrobe. “We probably did the virtual image of tures shading that tells us 100 cyber scans for the fi lm,” recounts Bill Vallot’s face. how the face responds to Westenhofer, the studio’s visual effects light, independent of supervisor. “They did a lot of the polygon the illumination cleanup, and we got a high-res scan. Then it’s captured in.” we created a low-res model that’s specifi c to our needs for animation. Gentle Giant Processing the data is a simple mat- Founded in 1995, ter of taking a random triangle layout and Gentle Giant (Bur- turning it into ordered polygons. “You ide- bank, CA) got its ally want to keep everything,” Chapman bevec. start sculpting physi- says, “but there are ways to make it more cal maquettes for ani- manageable, such as using displacement

rtesy Paul De

u o mation studios and toy maps instead of polygons to deﬁ ne

es c r

ictu P manufacturers. “We’d texture and bump maps.”

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. . . . Scanning

According to Chapman, the beneﬁ ts of a production studio using 3D scanning go far beyond those of the ﬁ lm’s basic completion. “When Warner Bros. creates a Harry Potter, it’s not just creating a movie, but a marketing franchise that includes other ancillary products,” he says. “The same data used to animate Harry for the movie is also used for the

video game as well as for the related toys and products.” For a VFX Pic

facility, though, the focus is on the job at hand. So it’s hardly surpris- tures

ing then, that even though Rhythm & Hues is a major effects studio, courtesyEyetronics. the company has no interest in bringing high-res scanning in-house, comments Westenhofer. “The meat of our work is effects,” he says. “There isn’t enough scanning [needs] for us to amortize the costs.” Eyetronics used its ShapeCam device (inset) to capture the digital Sony has also relied on Gentle Giant for scans the studio used data of a pelican for the talking-animal fi lm Racing Stripes. Other while creating effects in Spider-Man, The Polar Express, Spider-Man 2, recent work includes scans for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. and, now, Spider-Man 3. Digital effects supervisor Peter Nofz reports that Gentle Giant usually delivers the data as high-res polygonal tries as disparate as games and medical, providing systems rather meshes in three formats, “to make sure that whomever needs it will than services. Eyetronics sold its software, which calibrated the have it.” He also requests the raw scan for cross-reference. X, Y, Z positioning of a projected grid, while users bought their Nofz is enthused about what he calls “the next leap” in 3D scan- own camera and slide projector. But the number of different cam- ning: instant photographic scans. “These photographic scanners eras made that business model diffi cult to support, and the com- will get the information and provide much more accurate meshes pany subsequently switched to providing 3D scanning services. instantaneously,” he says. “I hoped we would see it for Spider-Man 3 In 2001, Eyetronics built a housing for the actual grid that but now it’s [likely we’ll have it for] Spider-Man 4.” contained just one camera—currently an 8.3 megapixel Canon EOS 20D that uses a fl ash that gives a 12-in. depth of fi eld; a Eyetronics secondary fl ash provides a texture map. “It’s not a black box,” Like Cyberware, Belgium-based Eyetronics—founded in 1998— explains Tesi. “The hardware is an open system that allows us manufactures digital scanners. Infrascan, a body-scanning to bring in new technology as it becomes available.” solution, derives a 3D model from a single image. To accom- According to most vendors and users, the biggest challenge plish this, a person is placed in the da Vinci pose (standing with to using digital scanning is the postprocessing of the data. In the legs and arms fully spread), and a pattern is projected onto the case of Eyetronics, it uses computers sporting 3 GHz processors, subject while a camera takes a snapshot. Meanwhile, software Nvidia Quadro FX cards, and 2GB of RAM. The end result is pro- automatically calculates polygonal data based on the pattern vided to a client as a fi le in any chosen 3D animation software, deformations on the person. The total scanning process takes such as Autodesk Media and Entertainment’s 3ds Max or Maya less than fi ve seconds, and measurements are calculated within format. Delivering a 3D model that has a 4K color map and is ready 30 seconds. With the company’s Facesnatcher, designed for cap- for animation makes the technology an easy sell to movie studios turing face and hair details, two cameras take images while a and game developers. beam projects multiple patterns onto the subject’s face. The three markets that Eyetronics serves are fi lms, games, When Eyetronics opened its Redondo Beach, California, offi ce and broadcast. Recent fi lm work includes Batman Begins, Racing in 2000, vice president of operations Nick Tesi pursued indus- Stripes, and The Legend of Zorro. Tesi notes that Eyetronics has recently seen an increase in business on the computer gaming side as a result of the increased quality demands of next-gen gaming. Continuing to raise the bar in digital scanning and the technology’s profi le in the marketplace, Eyetronics has developed a system for facial performance capture, which was used by Café FX to create the Invisible Man in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and by VFX supervisor Jeff Okun to generate a digital stunt double of Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai. Also, the Motion Picture Company utilized the system to create multiples of actor Deep Roy for the oompa loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (see “Eye Candy,” August 2005, pg. 16). Spider-Man character ® and © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. Image courtesy Sony Pictures. © 2005 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. Gentle Giant provided Sony Pictures Imageworks with digital scans At Café FX, technical animation supervisor Domenic Di for the studio’s effects work on Spider-Man 2. Giorgio recalls that, to create the Invisible Man, the group fi rst

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. . . . Scanning

tested marker-based face-capture techniques but found

they didn’t give the level of detail needed to faithfully Image© 2

portray the actors’ mannerisms. “After testing with a 0

marker-based facial capture system, they ran the same 05

ni v test with an Eyetronics scan, and we saw the level of ersalSt

detail they could achieve,” he says. “It was our only udi os. alternative, and Eyetronics worked closely with us to XYZ RGB provides scanned data in a number of formats and resolutions, refi ne its technology to meet our needs.” including 2K, which is ideal for its work on fi lms like King Kong. Since then, Café FX has used Eyetronics-scanned assets for work on Zathura and Blade: Trinity. “The pg. 16). The fi rst model of the ape contained six million poly- meshes are clean,” says Di Giorgio. “And they can dial the reso- gons; the last one, for Weta Digital, had 28 million polygons (split lution up or down, which is handy for rigging and animation.” into four chunks of seven million polys, perfectly registered and Another new Eyetronics device captures full-body, low-res spaced). Additional fi lm work includes the hero creatures for scans of real actors to create a large number of digital back- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, a CG Halle Berry ground actors. Tesi notes that the rotating device takes 1.5 min- for Catwoman, and other virtual characters for Aeon Flux and utes to scan each character, complete with texture maps. “We’re Batman Begins. Movie projects currently in the pipeline for XYZ constantly looking for ways to make the technology better and RGB are Skinwalkers, Super Ex-Girlfriend, and 300. faster, and the results more realistic,” says Tesi. XYZ RGB’s 3D scanning output can be generated as NURBS, polygons, subdivision surfaces, or solids, and at resolutions from XYZ RGB video to 2K with what Kongl describes as “near-microscopic resolu- Fifteen years ago, the National Research Council of Canada devel- tion.” Though VFX companies were the fi rst clients, more recently, oped 3D scanning based on auto-synchronous laser technology. says Kongl, gaming companies have shown stronger interest; work Originally created for museums and scientifi c applications, the in that genre includes Fight Night Round 3 from Electronic Arts, technology also fell into the hands of Helmut Kongl who, in 2001, in addition to titles from Sony and Psygnosis. At Electronic Arts’s founded XYZ RGB in Ottawa, Canada. And like many scanning Worldwide Visualization Group, Borshukov has contracted XYZ companies, it, too, focused on the entertainment industry. RGB to scan R&D prototypes for advanced gaming techniques. The company’s fi rst scanning job was for ESC Entertainment’s “We get the raw data and then extract normal and displacement The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, but it has only maps,” he says, explaining that the iterative R&D process makes been recently that computer power has reached a point where it raw data imperative. But take scanning in-house? No way, says can support the newer scanning capabilities. George Borshukov, Borshukov. “It makes a lot of sense for us to keep this expertise out now a computer graphics supervisor at Electronic Arts, worked of house so we can focus on day-to-day operations,” he says. Indeed, the gaming industry was slow to pick up on the technology, but with the next-generation consoles, you’ll be able to Imagescourtesy Electronic Arts World push so much data and detail through a pipeline that the developers won’t be able to create that kind of detail by hand any- more, Kongl maintains. Kongl has also seen an increased use of scanning for TV commercials and music videos. XYZ RGB now uses nine different scanners, such as the very

wideVisualizations Gr high resolution model, which, at 10 tons, is the in-house system for maquettes and inanimate objects. For off-site work, the company uses a lower-resolution, structured light scanner, which

oup. projects a pattern of light (from a 50-watt halogen source) onto the face that is recorded from two points of view and resolved Electronic Arts, with the help of XYZ RGB scans, generated these CG into a 3D shape. PixelLock is the company’s proprietary system models for the computer game Fight Night Round 3. for achieving accurate pixel-to-object registration. with XYZ RGB on the two Matrix movies. “At the time, we got Yet, choosing the proper scanner is only part of the solution. high-res scans of maquettes, and it was really novel—you take “I’ve seen people do exceptional work with medium to low-end risks when you’re doing innovative work,” he says. “Yet, we scanners because they know the limitations of the technology and knew that without detail in our facial scan, we wouldn’t have get the most out of it,” he says. “I’ve also seen people do the exact been able to produce the necessary images.” opposite. Even the best scanner technology will only get you 70 Three years ago, XYZ RGB began work on King Kong, which percent of the way there, and you can make or break any project in features a digital gorilla (see “Long Live the King,” January 2006, that last 30 percent. It’s about process, software, and experience.”

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Scanning. . . .

Cyber F/X Since we have this kind of technology available, there’s no need Cyber F/X established its scanning business in Burbank during to model the human form in the likeness of an actor; we could 1992, fi rst with a head scanner and later with a model scanner for have spent six to 10 weeks just coming up with the textures.” reverse engineering. The original idea behind the business, which Other recent jobs include animal digital doubles for Underdog was fi rst called Cyberscan, was the creation of miniature bride and Air Buddies, Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ Déjà vu and National and groom dolls for atop wedding cakes, says president/founder Treasure, FOX Television’s American Idol, and work for Nintendo Dick Cavdek. When the fi rm’s scanner provider, Cyberware, said and Midway Games, recently scanning Dwayne “The Rock” it would send Hollywood clients Cyber F/X’s way, Cavdek was Johnson for the upcoming SpyHunter: Nowhere To Run title, skeptical. “Lo and behold, they were serious,” he says. using its RealCapture System. When the producers of Batman & Robin came calling, Cavdek was ready: He had just designed a milling machine that could Scanning the Horizon hold a block of polyurethane big enough to cut an object the size Scanning has certainly developed over the last 10 years from an of a human being. Cyberware scanned Arnold Schwarzenegger exotic and not-always reliable service to a commodity business. (Mr. Freeze), and Cyber F/X created the resulting lifecast model Now, with a range of high-quality scanners to choose from, ser- used to design the character’s costumes without the actor hav- vice bureaus distinguish themselves by their quality of service ing to be present at all the fi ttings. “Now I scan actors weekly,” as well as by the quality of their scans. Cavdek says. “We’ve worked on hundreds of movies.” One area of Cyber F/X’s business is to create mannequins for a movie’s wardrobe department, such as those representing Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The rest of the work is for visual effects facilities, including Digital Domain, ILM, and Pixar, among others. According to Cavdek, nearly every feature fi lm needs some actor or prop scanned. “People should scan actors as insurance for bond completion,” he says. “Just imagine how much a dataset of Marilyn Monroe or Elvis would be worth today.” Recently, Cyber F/X purchased an ATOS II from German company GOM for high-resolution and highly textured/colored scan-

ning of static objects. More generally used for industrial applica- 3D.

an an tions, the ATOS II uses a 64-bit computer to process the data and lsc can be operated with a notebook computer via FireWire.

ge courtesyge Rea

Ima Realscan 3D Using its proprietary structured light scanning solution, Realscan 3D Founded in 2004, Realscan 3D relies on a blend of proprietary generated this CG model of its signature Samurai Girl. pipeline and hardware and software developments for its own structured light 3D scanning solution. Founders Joel Thornton So, what does the future hold for 3D scanning? At Gentle Giant, and Frank De Marco came from a background in structured Chapman predicts it will be a meld of scanning and motion cap- light scanning and wanted to create their own solution. ture. “A lot of new VFX-driven movies are having the actors do To this end, the Los Angeles-based company offers a por- their performance statically, standing still so just their faces are table Realscan bundle that can be assembled in 20 minutes captured, and then applying that to a moving 3D model,” he says. and broken down in 15 minutes, for fast work on a television or “The key difference is that you’re not just getting key points of movie set. An 8 megapixel color capture system and high-reso- data to drive the model; you’re getting a 3D model for every frame lution geometry enables accurate data and texture-map acquisi- of fi lm with the actor’s precise expression.” tion. The Realscan scanning hardware and pipeline eliminates And everyone is looking down the pike to see how to make baked-in specular highlights for better capture of diffi cult mate- their services better and faster. Whereas visual effects-driven rials such as metals and other refl ective surfaces. movies have always propelled scanning services forward, that Recent work using Realscan’s solution includes 11 digitized might change with the next-generation game platforms, as every- models for Asylum VFX’s work on Sky High, including those of one in the scanning service industry knows that the Xbox 360 actors Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston. All the actors and props and PlayStation 3 may create a powerful new trend of 3D scan- were captured on set. ning for games—a prospect the companies are ready for. “We saved a lot of time in texturing and modeling,” says Asylum VFX visual effects supervisor Mitch Drain. “We not only Debra Kaufman is a freelance writer in the entertainment industry. got an animation-ready model, but full-surface textures as well. She can be reached at [email protected].

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A CW Previous Page Contents Zoom In Zoom Out Front Cover Search Issue Next Page BEF MaGS A CW Previous Page Contents Zoom In Zoom Out Front Cover Search Issue Next Page BEF MaGS THE By Karen Moltenbrey Bizarre Creations revs up

gaming while test-driving FAST the Xbox 360 console TRACK PART 2

In Part 1 of this two-part When Bizarre Creations got behind the world—London, Tokyo, New York, and Las wheel of Microsoft’s new Xbox develop- Vegas—as well as the world-famous race series, we examined the ment kit, the developer did an abrupt circuit, the Nurburgring in Germany. “360,” which put the group on the road to According to Roe, when it comes to technology behind more exciting computerized gaming. PGR3’s road rules, it’s as much about Two years ago, when Bizarre entered how the player drives as it is winning the Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 Microsoft’s Xbox 360 race to deliver a races. “You are awarded kudos for racing release-day title for the console, it chose in impressive and skillful ways, with your game console. In Part 2, we the road less traveled; in fact, the road driving prowess helping you to progress look at how one developer, didn’t yet exist. And although the soft- in the game,” he explains. “You can play ware developer experienced its share of how you want—online or offl ine—with Bizarre Creations, utilized bumps en route to next-generation gam- user-defi ned gaming modes. And through ing, the trip—which ended with the the unique Gotham TV feature, you can this new horsepower to release of its Project Gotham Racing 3 tune in online to ‘spectate’ or challenge (PGR3) title—appears to have been worth others as the world watches.” deliver a breakthrough title. going the extra mile to produce. PGR3, the latest entry in the award- Focus on Detailing winning franchise, expands the features Without question, the Xbox 360 packs an and gameplay that race fans experienced unprecedented amount of horsepower Utilizing the powerful technology on the second-generation gaming system. under the console hood. And Bizarre set within the Xbox 360, Bizarre The title allows players to create a ros- out to harness that power within a break- Creations developed a high-octane ter of the hottest supercars in existence, through game by redefi ning the level of game, Project Gotham Racing 3, introduces them to the high-defi nition detail and realism for the cities and the cars injecting the title with Hollywood- style effects. era, and drops them into in the racing series. To this end, the artists a racing world where focused on increasing the texture detail and style rules the road. the multiple texture layers, particularly for “PGR3 takes all areas the cities, where every building is unique. of the game a big step for- In fact, just streaming in this type of detail ward, making the most of has been a technical leap over anything the the new Xbox 360 tech- group had done previously. nology,” says Peter Roe, “The biggest technical hurdle we faced technical artist at Bizarre. on the art side was getting all of the data “In this iteration, you can for each city to stream in as the player race the fastest and most races through the city,” Roe says. “We have exotic vehicles in four something like 15,000 unique textures in landmark cities across the Tokyo alone, with around 10 million poly- Images © 2005 Bizarre Creations.

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Gaming. . . .

gons (with the instance mesh included) in Model Shop the city scenes were extremely large, and the city, and they all have to stream into In PGR3, the car models comprise between the group was frequently exceeding the the memory from a DVD. To put that into 80,000 and 120,000 polygons, with approx- 2GB limit allowed by a 32-bit application. perspective, in PGR2, we only had around imately 40,000 of those used on the fully To overcome this issue, the tools team at 1500 textures in Yokohama, and 700,000 functioning dashboard and lavish interi- Bizarre created codes that made the data polys for the whole city.” ors, which are featured in the in-car view. management easier to handle and control. Yet, the group knew that raw polygon In comparison, the cars for PGR2 sported To build the virtual cityscapes, the art- pushing alone wasn’t going to make the only 8000 to 10,000 polygons. ists fi rst blocked in each building with PGR3 gaming world look believable. “We Similarly, the city buildings contain the correct dimensions but no detail, this didn’t just want to throw more polygons far more detail than those in PGR2. And, based on reference photographs the group at the screen, and it wasn’t just about the city sizes are expanded: Las Vegas took during its many research trips. Once increased detail,” says Roe. “Rather, we is 2.4 miles long, which is nearly three the city artists placed all the objects, they set out to create a greater sense of immer- times the size of Sydney, one of the larg- began turning the many thousands of pho- sion, and that meant improving the qual- est areas in the previous title. “I dare not tographs into diffuse, specular, and bump- ity of the render, the little nuances that think about the actual data size,” says mapped textures, which they applied to make players believe that they are really Roe. “We have one server that is used the simple objects. Then, they textured driving around the cities.” just for the texture photos—20,000 pho- the objects and added windows and col- The team of artists focused on the tos and about 10 hours of video per city.” umns, slowing fl eshing out each location. quality of those polygons and As this construction was textures, and that meant look- happening, other artists were ing at how light interacts with making and placing lamp- objects, how materials for posts, phone boxes, traffi c items like wood, metal, con- lights, and other extraneous crete, and paint are defi ned, “city” objects. The team also how the world gets exposed modeled and textured the road through camera lenses, and surface, adding cracks, dirt, how natural phenomena that oil stains, and road markings lenses create—depth of fi eld, for added realism. After the vignetting, motion blur, expo- road surface was in place, the sure—are introduced. And, barriers for each route were according to Roe, the artists The quality of the car and city models and textures, as well as the added, along with the crowds, were able to achieve all of lighting, was a prime focus of the artists while creating the graphics. grandstands, and other “raci- those effects with the Xbox fi cation” details. “It was a long 360 and still have the imagery running For modeling the majority of the vehi- and labor-intensive process, but it was a in real time. cles, the artists used blueprints and CAD real pleasure when we saw the fi nal cit- “Now that we’re on the Xbox 360, reference models provided by the car ies in the game,” says Roe. we’ve been able to develop a dynamic ren- manufacturers. The group also incor- derer for PGR3, allowing us to accomplish porated detailed and specifi c photo ref- X-ceptional Capabilities things like per-pixel motion blur, high erences, gathered by the group or by Without question, the group was able dynamic range lighting and refl ections, Microsoft, the game’s publisher. All this to shift PGR3 into high gear by taking simulated lens exposure, vignetting, and extra detail, however, was expensive: An advantage of the new graphics capabili- other cool post effects such as glows and artist spent between six and eight weeks ties enabled by the Xbox 360. For example, color grading,” says Roe of game’s techni- modeling and texturing each car. This the new pixel shaders allowed the artists cal innovations. “The motion blur is the task was done using Softimage’s XSI soft- to create complex and realistic materials most realistic to ever appear in a game, ware, while texturing for the vehicles, as for all the in-game objects. Each build- mainly because we don’t use any cheap well as for the crowds and cityscape, was ing is affected not only by diffuse, bump, tricks that other titles have employed done within Adobe’s Photoshop program. specular, and refl ection maps, but also by while running on previous hardware. To model and animate the crowds, the textures that defi ne (in the pixel shader) Each pixel has 2D motion vector infor- artists employed XSI; for the cities, they the type of material used to construct mation that correctly blurs the image used Autodesk Media and Entertain ment’s each building. Wood, metal, brick, plas- depending on angle and depth. It makes Maya and in-house tools. Roe notes that tic, and glass are all rendered with their the game look natural and realistic.” toward the end of the game’s development, own distinct material properties that

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. . . . Gaming

affect the sun, horizon, and environment speculars, as well as Going The Distance the refl ective and specular fresnel falloff, roughness, and gloss. So, how does PGR3 push game graphics to a new level? According What this means to the game is that the cities in PGR3 react real- to Roe, the realistic motion blur especially stands out. “I think it’s istically to the sun and the camera viewing angle. the fi rst game to do it so realistically,” he says. “The HDR exposure “The lighting tool that we developed for the Xbox 360, with control is unique too, with only Valve’s Half-Life 2: Lost Coast demo fully occluded bounce light maps, gives amazing depth and vol- using similar technology.” He also points to the detail in the cars ume to the cities,” explains Roe. The lighting tool, which was and cities, plus the amount of textures, as other graphic highlights. multi-threaded, utilized most of the offi ce computers at night to “We’ve done things with this game that are usually associated with churn out a whole city in just over two hours. In comparison, it Hollywood-style effects: large crowds that react dynamically to in- took 14 hours to process the lighting for a city in PGR2, and that game events, complex lighting and materials, and extremely high- involved just vertex-based lighting. resolution geometry on the cars and cities,” Roe notes. Bizarre did, however, make good use of some of the powerful Roe says the team tried to take all the best elements of PGR2 vertex shaders for the Xbox 360 in the imagery and effects. “The and build on them. “The fast cars, beautiful cities, well-adjusted crowds are all fully animated, with two bones per weighted vertex [vehicle] handling, and the compelling single and online experi- and with thousands of animated crowd characters—which are indi- ence are all present and correct in PGR3,” he says. Also, the crew vidually made from our ‘mix-n-match’ modeling system,” he says. added new features such as improved integration of the Xbox Moreover, the group created all the barriers in PGR3 as deform- Live feature into the single-player experience and a custom route- PGR3 Project Gotham Racing 3 able instances that use bones to deform creation tool that adds to the longevity of the experience. features some of the world’s their shape. As a result, the artists applied “The three cores of the Xbox 360 have allowed us to develop fastest cars, which were sections of barrier fence and instanced and enhance the racing genre with more intense sound effects, realistically re-created. To them all around the track, using bones graphics, and physics. The level of immersion afforded by this accomplish this, the artists used to deform the barriers around the cor- extra detail can’t be underestimated; you really start to feel like manufacturers’ blueprints and ners. According to Roe, this saved lots of you’re at a real racing event in a real city with real cars and com- CAD models as references, and vertex data memory; this was key, since petitors,” says Roe. “And with the possibility of tens of thousands added photographic textures to there are roughly 7.8 million triangles in of spectators watching [Xbox] Live games, the gameplay will be their Softimage XSI imagery. the barriers within Tokyo alone. so much more intense. It will be interesting to see how players react to it all.” The game also sports a freeform camera/picture Photo Mode that can be accessed at any time in any race. “We have made a lot of the effects available for the player to adjust for themselves in Photo Mode,” says Roe. By controlling the camera like any real camera, the player can alter the shutter speed, aper- ture, focal length, and exposure, as well as other post effects like color, brightness, contrast, and sepia tinting, to take photos of the cars and the cities. Photo Mode shows the length we’ve gone to in making the game look and feel as real as possible.” This realism becomes especially clear, as the game—as are all 360 titles—is in high defi nition. “Rendering those extra pixels lets players see all the detail that we put into the game, but it also shows fl aws,” says Roe. “So we spent a long time bug-fi x- ing the cities and the cars, because errors like gaps in the mesh or texture stretching issues that weren’t apparent on standard-defi nition TVs became glar- ingly obvious on large LCD displays in HD.” So, buckle up. It appears that next-gen gaming is going to be an amazing ride.

Karen Moltenbrey is the executive editor at Computer Graphics World.

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Produced in Partnership with YOUR FUTURE STARTS HERE. Future Media Concepts, the nation’s premier digital media training center, has partnered with NAB, to deliver what you can’t get anywhere else. Sharpen your competitive standing in the global marketplace with cutting-edge tools and smart ideas designed to inspire and innovate. An elite team of instructors, industry power users and celebrity digital artists Platinum Sponsor will provide the largest, one-of-a-kind resource for post-production education in the world. This year’s conference offers more than 200 sessions on the hottest topics designed to expand your professional expertise. When it happens in the World of Electronic Media, it happens here first.

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. . . . Business Trends

[]Part Two of a Two-Part Series

In Part One of this two-part series concerning starting a small studio, we covered making the commitment, fi nding the partners, and creating a business plan. The next course of action is fi nding a location. It may seem straightforward, but picking a place to do business, without going bankrupt, is where many small companies You’ve put the business plan in fail to plan. You could easily rent the fi nest offi ce space in town to impress your clients, but doing so could lock you into high place, and are ready to go. overhead and devour your profi ts long before your business gets off the ground. The alternative is to keep it at home—many suc- Before you pull the trigger, don’t cessful studios have been launched from a kitchen table or inside a garage. In the beginning, it’s about desire, not geography. forget location, expenses, finding Kurt Larsen, co-founder of Six Foot Studios in Houston, Texas launched his company from a spare bedroom in his home, where clients, and pricing your work. he also landed the company’s fi rst major account, Halliburton. Once the business was under way, Six Foot moved the production component to Austin, working out of an offi ce attached to By William “Proton” Vaughan horse stables. As strange as the location may seem, Larsen says it got the company closer to new accounts in Austin, was rent- free, and clients actually seemed to enjoy making the trip through the Texas Hill Country. However, Six Foot Studios didn’t stay by the stables for long. Six months later, business was booming, and the production facility moved into an offi ce space that fi t within its budget. By carefully charting a course, and not getting buried with overhead, Larsen says no one on the staff missed a paycheck. “It was important to me that our staff could depend on us to cover their salaries even during slow months,” explains Larsen. “Not rushing into choosing an offi ce space allowed us to take our time and fi nd the perfect location.” Soho VFX, a visual effects facility in Toronto, now in its fourth year of operation, has approximately 35 employees and a staff that fl uctuates in size during peak production cycles. After acquiring the visual effects division from a studio in Toronto, where all the owners previously worked, the newcompany © William© Vaughan and Alejandro Parrilla.

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Business Trends. . . .

and its staff of four set up shop in a decom- the offi ce space in New York City. However, you keep an open mind. By keeping your missioned elevator shaft. Now the team once he had an established client list, Zeff offi ce costs and overhead to a minimum, works in a hip loft-type studio, which is said good-bye to the late nights in the city your dream studio will be within reach large enough to accommodate the addi- and two-hour commutes, and moved his much sooner. However, make sure that the tional freelancers and contractors during business to a fi ve-room studio less than a location will not be a detrimental factor to heavy workloads. mile from his house. the type of clients you are working with. Yet, sometimes the most prominent Many studio owners warn of the addresses in the world aren’t enticing major pitfalls that come with working out What’s In Your Wallet? enough to keep you from starting your of your home. You have to be extremely So now you’ve got partners, a business own business. Joe Zeff, of Joe Zeff Design disciplined and treat it like you are in an plan, and the kitchen table, but where do in Montclair, New Jersey, spent the fi rst offi ce, otherwise, you can easily get dis- you fi nd the cash to operate? Whether you decade of his career as a newspaper- tracted. “Separating work from your home plan to apply for a small business loan, man, starting as a reporter in Surf City, life becomes close to impossible at times,” borrow money from family, max out your New Jersey, and altering his career path credit cards, or pull from your own per- to that of presentation editor at The New sonal savings, be aware that money will York Times. When he made the switch need to change hands in the beginning— from words to graphics, he brought with there are “hidden” costs. him the storytelling craft that initially Your staff/contractor salaries and over- launched his career in journalism. Zeff head will be your number one priority made the switch in 1996, joining Time each month. Bear in mind that most cli- magazine as an art director, where he was ents take 30 to 60 days to pay an invoice, eventually promoted to graphics director, and the occasional deadbeat doesn’t pay at supervising a staff of artists and research- all. “What if the phone just doesn’t ring?” ers, and producing some of the best infor- prompts Zeff. “Opening your own studio mation graphics in the industry. is a gamble, plain and simple. Minimize “As my own work became more the risks by getting assurances from pro- dynamic, the phone began to ring with spective clients before leaving your job. freelance assignments,” explains Zeff. Seek out contract work that ensures some “Before long, I was working 50 hours a guaranteed income. And make sure you week at Time and the entire weekend have enough start-up capital to withstand at home, creating cover illustrations for several months of struggle.” magazines like Sports Illustrated and What about equipment? Something Entertainment Weekly. I found the hands- as simple as Adobe Photoshop on three on creativity of digital illustration more warns Larsen. “One solution is to make systems can get costly. Before you race invigorating than the daily routines of sure you get dressed for work, drive down out and splurge on hardware and soft- managing a department.” the road for coffee or juice, and then drive ware, remember that your fi rst big con- In 2000, Zeff traded his comfortable back ready to work.” tract will pay for a lot of the equipment. offi ce in Rockefeller Center and his art But what if you don’t have a spare Do as much as you can initially without director title at Time for the attic in his room in your house, generous friends spending money; hardware and software New Jersey home and a career as a free- with horse stables, or inexpensive decom- are constantly evolving, and you can fi nd lance illustrator. Since then, not much has missioned elevator shafts in your area? yourself perpetually upgrading your sys- changed other than his work address. “I Instead, try fi nding a company with spare tems. Animation studios also need to fac- lasted six months in my attic before claus- offi ce space that you could rent or sub- tor in equipment expenses for render- trophobia set in,” says Zeff. “So I moved lease, a solution that may also provide ing, and everyone will need high-speed the studio into Manhattan, squeezing access to a conference room, kitchen, and Internet access to transfer fi les back and several computers and cameras into a other large-offi ce extras. It can also create forth to clients. “You can’t do this type of ‘shoe box’ near Central Park.” the illusion that your company is larger work on a dial-up AOL account,” remarks Zeff agrees that being in Manhattan and more established than it really is, Deuce Bennet, co-founder of Creative helped give his business credibility to which can be good for business. Imagineering, near Dallas, founded by potential clients. For two years, he kept Any location can become an offi ce if a father-and-son team to create special

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. . . . Business Trends

effects for fi lms in the late ’60s. Their shift to CGI happened numerous contacts, which could eventually lead to clients. Many slowly over two years—during the time they were doing physi- studios do “pro-bono” work for high-profi le, non profi t organiza- cal effects on Walker, Texas Ranger. The CGI was “on-screen” tions to help introduce their work to larger companies in the area. graphics as well as a few CGI VFX shots. From there, legal When starting out, be open to all types of work—yes, even fl ying graphics and some re-enactments for lawyer usage started. “We logos and corporate presentations. These types of jobs may not be found that as our hardware and software needs grew, so did glamorous, but they could be the steady work your studio needs. our electric bill,” comments Bennet. “This was something we Remember, it’s imperative that you distinguish your studio didn’t plan for.” from the competition. All studios have similar capabilities; you Moreover, don’t forget about the ancillary expenses like need to fi nd a way to be different or more appealing to prospec- business cards, stationery, pens, and so on. “When we started tive clients. “Based on your strengths, defi ne your niche in the our studio, reality slapped us in the face when we started look- marketplace. Know your competition, and determine how you ing for a stapler, copy machine, or even when we had to send differ. Identify your potential clients, and let them know how to our fi rst fax,” remarks Six Foot’s Larsen. “You grow accustomed fi nd you,” explains Zeff. to those items just being there when you work for someone else.” You won’t always have to go looking for clients, however, if And, not all your clients will end up being “down the road,” so you make it easy for them to fi nd you. “I get my work by advertis- plan for FedEx and traveling expenses. Want to wine and dine ing in as many places as possible,” says Henk Dawson, co-owner potential clients? That can get very pricey, but at the same time, of Dawson 3D near Seattle. “A great Web presence, e-mail news- it is a very good way to keep clientele happy. letters, and commercial portfolio sites are some of the things that And, don’t forget about your good friend Uncle Sam. The gov- I do to get work. It is an ongoing thing.” ernment will be knocking on your door, wanting its share of the Developing and maintaining a solid reputation is critical. Most pie as you start making money. If you’re not working closely with companies don’t like to work with an unknown studio; it’s just too an accountant, make sure you are saving enough for quarterly risky. “Word of mouth is very powerful, more so than the post- or yearly federal taxes. Also, keep all your receipts and research cards and e-mails that I’ve sent out through the years,” comments expenses—these may qualify as a business expenses. Zeff. “Every completed assignment is a marketing opportunity—a Staying organized and spending wisely can help keep your major magazine cover lands on the desk of hundreds of art direc- studio alive. Thorough fi nancial records are a necessity for any tors who could potentially call with your next assignment.” successful studio, and Uncle Sam likes them, too. Once you have a healthy list of clients, keep them satisfi ed, deliver on time and on budget, and chances are good you will Hunting for Clients have a repeat customer. Maintain contact with clients through A studio needs a healthy client list to be periodic correspondence such as phone calls, e-mails, and mail- successful. Therefore, it is wise to fi nd and ings—the more creative, the better. “Earlier keep several clients in your pipeline on a this year, I sent bobble- head dolls consistent basis. “Don’t put all your eggs in to many of my clients, just to keep one basket,” warns Larsen. “If you have one my name fresh in their minds,” client who is keeping you afl oat, the day may notes Zeff. come when the person pulls out, and you’re Allan Magled, co-founder of left with no support to keep your doors open.” Soho VFX in Toronto, understands So where are these “good clients?” It’s really that going the extra mile pays off. hard to start a business without an existing net- “Take good care of your staff and work or previous work in your portfolio to show clients. Everything else falls into prospective clients. It truly is a mixture of place,” he advises. luck, timing, karma, voodoo, and accident. “I remember lamenting several times, ‘if The Price is Right! we could just get someone to give us Strangely, one of the biggest obsta- a shot, we could show what we can cles you will face in business is pricing do.’ It’s the ‘getting that chance to your work. Learning how to estimate shine’ that is the hardest part about and price a project can be challenging. starting a studio,” adds Bennet. “We tried to fi nd out what other studios Get out there and network, net- and individuals charged for their work work, network. Joining local orga- and found that it’s easier to get secrets nizations such as the Chamber of out of the Pentagon than to have some- Commerce, can open the door to one tell you what they charge,” explains

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Business Trends. . . . Out of Our Minds Studio

The epitome of a successful small studio, Out of Our them. The agencies were hesitant at fi rst to believe an ongoing problem—clients believing the tools make Minds has created some terrifi c animated short fi lms that we were no longer competing with them for busi- the project and not the talent. Turnaround times are such as “Dear Sweet Emma,” “Joyride,” and “Fly ness. But, eventually, many of the agencies we were also shrinking—clients need projects completed on Away.” I caught up with founder Danny Oakley to get competing with before started hiring us for their illus- tight timelines. I liked it back when you had to think his feedback on what it takes to start a small studio. tration and animation work. Sometimes their corpo- about if a change in the project was actually worth mak-

How did your company get started and how rate clients would contact us directly, and we would ing. Now you tend to see 20 versions of something just many people did you have on staff? just tell them we would work with them through their because you can, not because you should. We began as a graphic design/ad agency consisting of agency. That helped solidify the trust the others agen- What are your top three suggestions to some- six people. We were different from most agencies in cies had, and business really started to soar. one wanting to start a small studio? that we did all our own illustration and photography. What are the top three challenges for Look for your own path. Just because that’s how some- Before long, we started playing around with Topaz, an anyone ready to make the leap? one else did it doesn’t mean that’s how you should do old 3D program that ran on DOS and one of the ﬁ rst Setting yourself apart from the competition can be it. Also, don’t pigeonhole yourself into one type of versions of Animation Master, and we started doing extremely challenging, but vital to success. Sell a client work. Offer a broad range of work—not all custom- more with these programs for illustration and anima- on your services. Help them understand that 3D mod- ers are going to want spaceships or hyper real spokes- tion. We eventually migrated to Newtek’s LightWave eling and animation, for example, is not limited to car- models. Finally, really listen to your clients—some- 3D back in the 5.0 days. Slowly, the animation work toons and movies. Always try to think of different solu- times they actually have good ideas. It ultimately started taking hold over the print work. tions to help your clients. If they know you are going the takes patience and knowing it’s deﬁ nitely

When you started as Out of Our Minds Studio, extra mile, they will keep coming back. going to be a bumpy ride along the path to how did you go about getting your clients? How long has your company been in busi- success. In our arena, there are a lot of small ad and design ness? What has changed over the years? agencies. In 2000, we dropped all the corporate cli- We’ve been in business as Out of Our Minds Studio ents we had and let everyone know that we were no since 2000. Before that, our group operated as a design longer their competition, but wanted to work with agency for 15 years. We found that, over time, we faced

Bennet. “And we’re not telling [how we found out] either.” someone else fi rst—get a job in a working studio. This will pro- You really have to research the market, your customers, and vide you with experience, a body of work to serve as a portfolio, your competition to determine your own pricing structure. Some and a possible network of people and clients. Going into busi- clients will be open with their budgets; however, it is more com- ness armed with the knowledge and insight of others who have mon for them to keep their actual budget a mystery. If you price already made the journey can help prevent unnecessary worry too high, you could quickly fi nd yourself out of the running. But if about whether or not you made the right decision. you price the job too low, you stand to lose a lot of money. “It’s the Remember don’t get hung up on the location of your stu- hardest part of the job. But at times, it’s best to turn down a paying dio—be open to alternative locations. Watch your budget, and gig if it just doesn’t pay enough to cover your expenses,” explains offer your services at a competitive rate; it will keep you funded Zeff. “When saying ‘no,’ explain your reasons in a straightforward longer and your clients coming back for more. Most importantly, way. Oftentimes, fees can be negotiated upward.” research the market and your competition. Determine how you Dawson suggests that you make two lists. The fi rst list should will compete, and differentiate your studio from the others. have everything that you enjoy doing and are good at; the sec- Thousands of studios are currently thriving and profi table, ond should include all the profi table services that relate to your and they all had to start somewhere. Bookstores have an end- skills. In a perfect world, you would pursue things that are on less array of reference materials to help you start, market, and both lists. The reality is that the lists will probably never cross maintain a successful studio. But sometimes, it’s stepping into over, but it is a good way to ensure that your passion for art and the shoes of the people who have walked down the path already business remains profi table. that will offer the most valuable knowledge. Dawson says it best, “Aim high, and work hard. But don’t work too much. One of the All Wrapped Up biggest reasons for businesses going under is burnout.” As mentioned earlier, starting your own studio can be a very challenging and rewarding endeavor. “When your name is on William “Proton” Vaughan inspires and motivates students at The the door, your reputation rides on every job, and [when] you DAVE School in Orlando, Fla., where he continues to push the succeed, there is no sensation nearly as sweet,” notes Zeff. limits of 3D art and animation. He can be reached by e-mail at Many successful studio owners suggest that you go work for [email protected].

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Clockwise from top left: Most digital fi ne artists begin crafting their artwork within the traditional realm, and later Peugot 307 Using 3ds Max, the artist re-created this image of his apply those concepts to a virtual canvas. However, for Jiri Adamec of the Czech Republic, family’s car as a technical exercise. his fi rst foray into the art world—which occurred fi ve years ago—involved a computer and Cernoch Final Adamec created this image more than two years software, not paints and brushes. In another unusual twist, Adamec didn’t take this step ago within 3ds Max and Shag:Hair. As the artist points out, this was one of his fi rst “proper” (realistic) human characters, and he has with typical 3D digital content-creation software; instead, his fi rst modeling/painting tool documented the creation process in a tutorial that can be found on was Quake 3 Radiant, a mainstream editor for Quake 3 Arena technology games. his Web page (www.a-stil.com). “[The tool] inspired me, but it was not any easy way to work,” says Adamec. “So, soon there- Fantasy Life Inspired by a 2D illustration by Stephen Hickman, Adamec created this landscape in 3ds Max. after, I turned to [Autodesk’s] 3ds Max and began applying universal procedures of art creation.” Shade Adamec used 3ds Max to craft this image, to help him A quick study, Adamec honed his artistic skills for two years as a hobbyist before fi nding a perfect lighting and shading techniques. job as a professional 3D graphic designer. Currently, he works as a freelancer, with a specialty

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in generating real-time characters, although he also crafts cartoons, cars, and architecture. So Clockwise from top left: what makes Adamec’s digital art unique? “It’s mainly my characters,” he says. “I am still at Dowager Using 3ds Max, Softimage XSI, and Shag:Hair, the artist recently spent four days creating this human fi gure depicting a wealthy the beginning of the learning experience, and I like to learn by studying Old Masters to under- widow. He spent a good deal of time trying to capture the proper stand the refl ectivity of light in productions, the temper of an image, its style, color, and more. expression that would characterize her in just the right way. The image is simple, pure, and exquisite, and the character nearly comes alive in But I also believe I have my own style, and I plan to continue to evolve it.” the digital portrait. Currently, Adamec uses 3ds Max, Softimage XSI, and Pixologic’s ZBrush as his 3D soft- Luky So many human CG fi gures are of women, so the artist decided ware packages of choice, along with Adobe’s Photoshop and Right Hemisphere’s Deep Paint. to create a 3D image of a man. Thus, he generated this portrait of his Some of Adamec’s art has appeared on Web galleries, and a number of his images best friend, using 3ds Max, Softimage XSI, and Ornatrix. have been featured in coffee-table art books. Some examples of Adamec’s work are high- Skretdite Generated in 3ds Max, Softimage XSI, and Shag:Hair, this image originated as a test image of a child with the character Skret. lighted on these two pages. —Karen Moltenbrey The artist spent approximately four hours completing the piece.

FEBRUARY 2006 Computer Graphics World | 35

A CW Previous Page Contents Zoom In Zoom Out Front Cover Search Issue Next Page BEF MaGS A CW Previous Page Contents Zoom In Zoom Out Front Cover Search Issue Next Page BEF MaGS Digital Training to Challenge the Brain

Everyone loves a challenge, but sometimes learning the intricacies of a software program can stymie even the most talented artists. Digital tutors and training solutions can help remove the learning roadblocks with detailed instructions from the industry’s most notable artists. These programs are designed to help you master your CG software, at a pace that fi ts your lifestyle. The companies below offer a variety of training alter- natives for all types of software, from 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, Houdini, Fields ($56), Fundamentals of Maya Dynamics: DV Garage and LightWave 3D, to After Effects, Soft/Rigid Bodies ($56), Essentials: Character www.dvgarage.com Binding and Skinning in Maya ($30), Essentials: Shake, Nuke, Zbrush, and RealFlow. Character Rigging in Maya ($30), Maya The DV Garage series of DVDs focus on Character Animation Bundle ($48), Maya the intricate details of creating CG and 3D Garage Unlimited Bundle ($180), RealFlow and compositing video. Maya Integration ($70), Photorealistic Car Brain Dump Series www.3dgarage.com Modeling ($70), Female Android Kit ($70), RealViz Stitcher ($39), Photogrammetry ($59), 3D Garage’s courseware focuses on basic and Maya Production Series Vol.1: Pre-Production QuickTime Pro ($29) advanced modeling and animation techniques ($56), Maya Production Series Vol. 2 ($56), for LightWave 3D. Maya Production Series Vol. 3: Advanced 3D Development Texturing ($56), Maya Production Series Vol. 3D Toolkit 2.5 ($99), Maya Lab 1 and 2 ($59 LightWave 3D 4: Advanced Rigging ($56), Maya Production each), Camera Mapping Lab ($99), Multi-Pass LightWave 8 Signature ($189), LightWave 7.5 Series Vol. 5: Fundamentals of Animation Rendering Lab ($79) ($189), LightWave 7.5 Advanced ($189) ($56), Building Advanced Shading Networks Compositing ($60), Ultimate Fluids ($60) Digital-Tutors DVMatte Blast ($99), DVMatte Pro: FCP/FCE Softimage XSI ($199), DVMatte Pro AE ($199), Composite www.digitaltutors.com XSI Extreme Bundle ($200), Introduction to Toolkit ($199), CTK Companion ($39) Digital-Tutors offers training videos for Maya, XSI 4.2 ($46), Introduction to XSI Render Tree Surfacing Softimage XSI, ZBrush, RealFlow, and Apple, ($46), Fundamentals of Mental Ray in XSI The Surface Suite ($279), Surface Toolkit and Adobe products, focusing on digital ($56), Fundamentals of Soft and Rigid Bodies ($99), Refl ection Toolkit ($129), Graffi ti content creation, 3D graphics and animation, in XSI ($56), Particles and Forces in XSI ($56) Collection ($99), Aircraft Parts ($99), Water game development, visual effects, and more. ZBrush Damage ($99), Terrain Toolkit ($129) Maya ZBrush Basics ($46) Maya Beginner Bundle ($320), Introduction to Maya, Second Edition ($46), Introduction to RealFlow The Gnomon Workshop Maya: Hypershade Basics ($46), Introduction Introduction to RealFlow ($46), RealFlow and www.thegnomonworkshop.com Maya Integration ($70) to 3D MEL Basics ($46), Maya Basics ($46), Offering a library of more than 125 videos, Maya Basics: Introduction to Paint Effects Adobe the Gnomon digital tutorials cover design, ($46), Fundamentals of Maya: Polygon and Photoshop Basics ($46), Fundamentals modeling, effects, animation, storytelling, Sub-D Modeling ($56), Fundamentals of Maya: of Photoshop/Maya: 3D Texturing ($56), and matte painting. The company’s newest Mastering Render Nodes ($56), Fundamentals Principles of Photoshop CS ($20), Essentials: training offerings include: of Maya: UV Layout ($56), Fundamentals After Effects ($40) of Mental Ray ($56), Fundamentals of Maya Modeling, Work Flow, Photoshop/Maya: 3D Texturing ($56), Apple Texturing, Rendering Fundamentals of Maya Dynamics: Particles/ Fundamentals of Apple Motion ($46) Introduction to Maya ($25), Head Modeling

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for Games ($59), Body Modeling for Games ($69), Detailing Characters: ZBrush Alpha Photoshop, ZBrush, Silo, and Fusion. Kurv also ($59), UV Mapping for Games ($59), NURBS Library ($69), ZBrush for Illustrators ($69) offers virtual one-on-one training, phone Modeling 1: Basics ($49), NURBS Modeling training, and custom videos. RealViz 2: Surfacing ($49), NURBS Modeling 3: GTP Spherical Panoramic Photography ($59), LightWave 3D Racecar ($59), Polygon Modeling 101 ($49), Image-Based Modeling Essentials ($59), Vehicle Modeling ($34.95), IK Booster Creature Head Modeling ($59), Humanoid Image-Based Modeling: Advanced ($69) ($24.95), Bone Tools ($24.95), Sasquatch Modeling ($59), Organic Modeling 101: Head Lite ($29.95), 3D Print and Illustration for 2D Surfacing ($59), Organic Modeling 2: Head Softimage XSI Artists: Volume I ($39.95), Dynamics Training Patching ($59), Design, Modeling, and Camera Creature Design with Aaron Sims: Volume ($39.95), Lighting and Shading ($39.95), Tips ($69), Lighting and Texturing ($69), Rendering 1 ($59), Creature Design with Aaron Sims: and Tricks Series ($24.95 to $44.95), Spline and Compositing ($69), 3D Image-Based Volume 2 ($59) Modeling ($34.95), Displacements and Terrain ($69), Digital Environment Work Flow Shake Endomorphs ($34.95), Sasquatch ($34.95), ($69), Texture Painting: Fundamentals ($59), Visual Effects Compositing Fundamentals From the Beginning ($39.95) Texture Painting: Weathered Surfaces ($59), UV ($49), Shake 101: Interface and Work Flow Mapping 101 ($49), Character UV Mapping 3ds Max ($49), Shake: Expressions, Scripting, and ($59), Mental Ray: Fundamentals ($59), Mental Get Into 3ds Max ($34.95), Procedural Macros ($59), Shake: Color Correction Ray Lighting and Shaders ($59), Mental Texturing in 3ds Max ($44.95) and Layers ($59), Shake: Effective Keying Ray: Global Illumination ($59), Rendering 2: Techniques ($59), Shake: Tracking and Body Paint 3D 2 Shadows ($49), Rendering 3: Light Effects Transforms ($59), Shake Bundle ($300) Get Into Body Paint 3D 2 ($34.95) ($49), Rendering 4: Light Fog ($49) Nuke Photoshop Maya Animation, Paint Effects, Introduction to Nuke Compositing ($49), Photoshop CS Advanced Texturing ($39.95), Character Rigging Nuke Compositing in Production ($59) Photoshop Fundamentals ($29.95), Get into Deformers 1: Clusters, Blendshape ($49), Photoshop ($29.95) Deformers 2: Lattice, Sculpt, Wrap ($49), Houdini Deformers 3: Wire, Jiggle ($49), Paint Houdini 101: Interface and Workfl ow ($49) ZBrush 2 Effects 101 ($49), Paint Effects: Polygons Get into ZBrush 2 ($39.95) 3ds Max and Dynamics ($59), Kinematics 1: Skeleton Global Illumination: Exteriors ($59), Global Silo ($49), Kinematics 2: Forward Kinematics Illumination: Interiors ($59) Get into Silo ($39.95), Silo II: Modeling a ($49), Kinematics 3: Inverse Kinematics Head ($44.95) ($49), Kinematics 4: Arms and Legs ($49), Photoshop Skinning 1: Smooth Skinning ($49), Skinning Adobe Photoshop for Digital Production ($59) 2: Weighting ($49), Skinning 3: Head ($49), Skinning 4: Infl uence Objects ($49), Character Online Training Animation 1: Fundamentals ($59), Character Hollywood Camera Work Academy of Art University Animation 2: Animating Bipeds ($59), www.hollywoodcamerawork.us School of Computer Arts, New Media Character Animation 3: Your First Scene ($59), The Master Course in High-End www.academyart.edu Constraints 1: Object Interaction ($49) Blocking and Staging ($479) Online courses in advertising, animation, Maya Effects, Fluids, and MEL This course is designed to teach effective block- visual effects, computer arts, fi ne arts, Expressions 1: Intro ($59), Expressions 2: In ing of shots with high production value. It fea- fashion, foundations, graphic design, Depth ($59), Dynamics 1: Create Emitter ($49), tures network-quality directing, master block- interior design and architecture, industrial Dynamics 2: Emit from Object ($49), Dynamics ing techniques, camera and actor movement, design, illustration, 2D illustration, motion 4: Rigid Bodies ($49), Dynamics 5: Fields ($49), effective and cohesive blocking with fewer pictures and television, and photography. Dynamics 6: Goals ($49), Dynamics 7: Instancer steps, how to get better production value, Graduate courses are also offered. ($49), Dynamics 8: Intro to Softbodies ($49), using the dolly and crane, blocking scenes from Dynamics 9: Softbody Effects ($49), Dynamics scratch, creating complex scenes without line 10: Lattices and Curves ($49), Dynamics 11: issues and editing problems, and more. 3DTraining.com Spring Effects ($49), Dynamics 12: Hardware www.3dtraining.com Visual Effects for Directors Rendering ($49), Dynamics 13: Sprite Currently in development, this series will cover A 12-week course where students assume the Rendering ($59), Dynamics 14: Advanced what directors should know about visual role of junior animator and the instructor plays Sprites ($59), Maya Fluid Effects: Fundamentals effects, with a focus on how to direct other the role of animation director. Mock clients ($49), Maya Particle Integration ($59), Maya people creating visual effects, and using them assign projects for the class to complete as a Pyrotechnics ($59), MEL 101: Fundamentals creatively in a movie. team under the guidance of the instructor. The ($69), MEL for Character Animators ($69), MEL course consists of three assignments covering for Effects Artists ($69) motion graphics, 3D product modeling, and ZBrush Kurv Studios character animation using popular 3D anima- www.kurvstudios.com Intro to ZBrush ($49), ZBrush Production tion programs. In the online sessions, students Pipeline ($59), Digital Sculpting: Human Kurv Studios offers training solutions for are engaged in one-on-one sessions with the Anatomy ($59), Head Sculpting and Texturing LightWave 3D, 3ds Max, Body Paint 3D 2, instructor to accomplish the course work.

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2D CHARACTER ANIMATION Bauhaus Mirage 1.5

One big step for paperless animation, reviews one giant leap for digital 2D animators

By Mike de la Flor

Animation studios and many for a two-display setup. independent animators have During testing, I found struggled to keep 2D animation the software to be some- alive in the competitive digital world, what quirky. For exam- but unfortunately 2D animation has not ple, each time the appli- had the software variability that 3D ani- cation opened, it asked mation has enjoyed. Digital 2D animators for document specs (I dis- have been largely limited to the vector-look covered at least one docu- Mirage’s set of special effects and fi lters can be applied produced by applications such as Flash and ment must be open at all to a single frame or an entire video. Toon Boom Studio, or had to work in time- times to prevent this from consuming hybrid environments where the happening). However, the Mirage inter- line that supports multiple layers. pipeline starts with traditional drawings face and work fl ow is straightforward and Barring a modest learning curve, and ends with digital painting and compos- customizable. Mirage’s animation tools are readily iting—that is, until now. Mirage’s set of natural-media and ani- accessible to anyone. If you are a tradi- Embracing the adage “If you build it, mated brushes for special effects, and tional 2D animator moving to digital ani- they will come,” San Antonio, Texas-based tools for creating custom brushes are the mation, the transition should be rela- Bauhaus Software has fi lled the digital best features of the software. Mirage’s tively painless. If you are a 3D artist or 2D animation void with its fl agship prod- brush tools are, in many ways, very sim- animator wanting to dabble in 2D ani- uct Mirage, a painting, animation, effects, ilar to the brush features in Photoshop mation you can transfer your 3D anima- and composting suite. Combining many of and Painter, with comparable blending tion experience and begin animating in the tools needed for 2D animation into one modes, effects, and brush controls. But, Mirage with ease (which is the case of application, Mirage provides users with unlike the brushes in Painter or Photo- this reviewer). And if you are new to ani- traditional 2D animation tools in a digital shop, Mirage’s brushes can be fully animation altogether with a bit of patience format, along with a familiar environment mated to produce interesting effects. and effort, you will be animating with in which to create 2D animation without When coupled with a Wacom Intuos Mirage in no time. the need for paper, cels, ink, or paint. or Graphire drawing tablet, Mirage’s Though not included with Mirage, the While the Mirage interface probably brushes can digitally produce the hand- Animator’s Toolbar is a must-have add-on won’t win any awards for usability, if you drawn look of traditional 2D animation, that further facilitates animation work by are experienced in other 2D programs such providing the user with a near-endless providing tools to clean up sketches, man- as Flash, Photoshop, or Final Cut Pro, you assortment of brush styles. age animation, and create special effects. will be able to comprehend the interface. In traditional 2D animation, anima- It is also possible to composite live Mirage suffers from a common problem tors work at a specialized light table to video footage and/or 3D animation found in many animation applications— sketch, draw and register the frames of footage with 2D animation and special numerous windows and palettes that beg an animation or paint the fi nal artwork. effects. So if you ever thought about cre- Mirage’s animation work space ating your own version of Dick Van Dyke Mirage 1.5 is analogous in that the anima- dancing with CG penguins, then Mirage tor works at a virtual light table is the way to go. Mirage can import just Price: $895 to sketch, draw, and paint, and about all standard video formats, and fea- Minimum System Requirements: Windows XP or 2000, Intel P3 or keep everything registered with tures a modest set of video tools. stats higher processor, 256MB RAM (512MB tools such as, digital onionskin- Mirage ships with an extensive array recommended), 2GB hard disk. ning. Mirage has frame-based, of special-effects fi lters which can be Apple OS X 10.3 or higher, G4 processor, 256MB RAM (512MB keyframed, and spline-based applied to a single frame or across an recommended) 2GB hard disk. path animation, which is cho- entire animated sequence. Most notable Bauhaus Software www.bauhaussoftware.com ______reographed in a no-frills time- to this reviewer is Mirage’s particle sys-

| 38 Computer Graphics World FEBRUARY 2006 ______www.cgw.com

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tem, which comes with the program (usually particles are add-ons). With Mirage’s particle system, it’s a snap to create convincing effects such as ﬁ re, sparks, water, and smoke. Mirage’s particle system also allows the use of custom sprites, providing a way to create swarms or crowds. Another favorite is the volumetric light effect, which makes it possible to create mood or animate different types of back- lighting, light cones, light burst, and more. Though not so much a special-effects program as it is a very useful utility for LightWave 3D users, Mirage can paint and map textures for 3D models in real time with the UV texture viewer. It would be nice if this were possible with every 3D application, not just LightWave 3D. So, you may still be wondering what software category Mirage ﬁ ts into. It is a paint program with animation and compositing tools, and it is an animation program with killer paint tools. How- ever, Mirage’s main impact may be in jump-starting digital 2D ani- ______mation. 2D animators now have a powerful, professional-level tool that they can call their own, and they can begin to take back some of the ground lost to the now-ubiquitous 3D animation.

Mike de la Flor is a medical illustrator, CG instructor, and author of The Carrara 5 Pro Handbook published by Charles River Media.

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advertiser phone or web page

Senior VP Korea Alienware www.alienware.com/creative 13 Computer & Paek Kwon

ces Electronics Tel: 82-2-420-1293 Mark Finkelstein Fax: 82-2-420-1294 Autodesk Media & Entertainment www.autodesk.com/ C2 TEL: 603-891-9133 E-MAIL: [email protected] mediaandentertainment______FAX: 603-891-9297 E-MAIL: mark@ Japan Blackmagic Design www.blackmagic-design.com 15 pennwell.com Akiyoshi Kojima TEL: 81-3-3261-4591 Associate Fax: 81-3-3261-6126 Publisher E-MAIL: BOXX Technologies www.boxxtech.com 3 Randy Jeter [email protected] 1150 Lakeway Dr.

index to advertisers Ste. 217 Taiwan Austin, TX 78734 Teresa Fu Dell, Inc. www.dell.com/smb/dccsolutions C3 TEL: 512-261-1998 TEL: 886-2-8771-9388

advertising sales ofﬁ FAX: 512-261-7915 ext. 240 E-MAIL: randyj@ FAX: 886-2-8773-7066 pennwell.com E-MAIL: Teresa_Fu@acertwp. Dimension Printing www.dimensionprinting.com/cg 23 com.tw Reprints PARS International Corp. Hong Kong & China eovia www.eovia.com 5 TEL: 212-221-9595 Adonis Mak Web: www.magreprints.com TEL: 852-2-838-6298 E-MAIL: [email protected] FAX: 852-2-838-2766 E-MAIL: Game Developers Conference www.gdconf.com 8 United Kingdom [email protected] Amanda Loftus TEL: 44-1793-641571 Singapore FAX: 44-1793-610001 Joanna Wong-Monis IBM www.ibm.com 7, 9 E-MAIL: [email protected] Tel: 65-6836 2272 Fax: 65-6735 9653 France E-MAIL: Isilon www.isilon.com 19 Luis Matutano [email protected] TEL: 33-1-39-66-16-87 FAX: 33-1-39-23-84-18 Internet Sales E-MAIL: [email protected] Shaun Shen Metro Orlando Economic Development www.orlandoedc.com 17 TEL: 916-419-1481 Germany FAX: 916-419-1474 Holger Gerisch E-MAIL: [email protected] E-MAIL: [email protected] NAB2006 www.nabshow.com 29 and Director, Johann Bylek Internet Services E-MAIL: [email protected] Tom Cintorino New York University www.scps.nyu.edu/x94 C4 TEL: 49-89-904-80-144 TEL: 603-579-9002 FAX: 49-89-904-80-145 FAX: 603-579-9030 E-MAIL: [email protected]

NVIDIA Corporation www.nvidia.com 7, 9 India List Rental Rajan Sharma Bob Dromgoole TEL: 91-11-2686113/14/ 98 Spit Brook Rd. 26865103/26861758/ Nashua, NH 03062-5737 Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. www.okino.com 39 268617666861113 TEL: 603-891-9128 FAX: 91-11-26861112 FAX: 603-891-9341 E-MAIL: E-MAIL: [email protected] [email protected] SIGGRAPH2006 www.siggraph.org/s2006 39

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The ad index is published as a service. The publisher does not assume any liability for errors or omissions.

February 2006, Volume 29, Number 2: COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD (USPS 665-250) (ISSN-0271-4159) is published monthly (12 issues) by PennWell Corporation. Editorial & Production offi ces at 98 Spit Brook Rd., Nashua, NH 03062-5737. Corporate offi cers are Frank T. Lauinger, Chairman; Robert F. Biolchini, President & CEO; and Mark C. Wilmoth, CFO. Corporate offi ces: 1421 South Sheridan Road, Tulsa, OK 74112, Tel: 918-835-3161; FAX: 918-831-9497; Web Address: http://www.pennwell.com. Periodicals postage paid at Tulsa, OK 74112 & additional other mailing offi ces. COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD is distributed worldwide. Annual subscription prices are $55, USA; $75, Canada & Mexico; $115 International airfreight. To order subscriptions, call 847-559-7500. © 2006 CGW by PennWell Corporation. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without permission. Microfi lm copies are available through University Microfi lms Inc., Ann Arbor, MI 48106, Tel: 313-761-4700. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specifi c 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: http://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. RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO: P.O. Box 122, Niagara Falls, ON L2E 6S4

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Small Business

I’VE ALWAYS HAD A CREATIVE VISION. NOW I HAVE A WORKSTATION THAT CAN BRING IT TO LIFE.

Dell recommends Windows® XP Professional

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call 877.255.3864 toll free Call: M-F 7a-8p Sat 8a-5p, CT *Pricing/Availability: Pricing, specifications, availability, and terms of offer may change without notice. Taxes, fees, shipping, handling and any applicable restocking charges extra, vary and are not subject to discount. Offers may be combined with other select offers or discounts. U.S. Dell Small Business new purchases only. LIMIT 5 DISCOUNTED OR PROMOTIONAL ITEMS PER CUSTOMER. In case of customers leasing under these promotions, please note that items leased will be subject to applicable end-of-lease options or requirements. Dell cannot be responsible for pricing or other errors, and reserves the right to cancel orders arising from such errors. Adobe Video Collection 2.5 Standard Offer: Offer valid only with purchase of Dell Precision™ 380, 470, 670, M20 or M70 system. Offer excludes n-series systems. Limited Warranty: For a copy of our Guarantees or Limited Warranties, write Dell USA L.P., Attn: Warranties, One Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas 78682. For more information, visit http://www.dell.com/warranty. Dual-Channel Memory: Dual-channel memory requires 2 each of the same capacity memory DIMMs. On-Site Service: Service may be provided by third-party. Technician will be dispatched, if necessary, following phone-based troubleshooting. Subject to parts availability, geographical restrictions and terms of service contract. Service timing dependent upon time of day call placed to Dell. Leasing: Monthly payment based on 48-Month Fair Market Value (“FMV”) QuickLease and does not include taxes, fees, shipping and handling charges. Your monthly payment may vary, depending on your creditworthiness. QuickLease arranged by Dell Financial Services L.P. (“DFS”), an independent entity, to qualified Small Business customers. Minimum transaction size of $500 required. At the end of the FMV QuickLease, you can: purchase the equipment for the then FMV, renew the lease or return the equipment to DFS. Please contact your DFS representative for further details. All terms subject to credit approval and availability, and are subject to change without notice. CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service: CompleteCare service excludes theft, loss, and damage due to fire, flood or other acts of nature, or intentional damage. CompleteCare not available in all states. Customer may be required to return unit to Dell. For complete details, visit www.dell.com/servicecontracts. Hard Drive: GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating environment and will be less. Trademark/Copyright Notices: Dell, the stylized E logo, E-Value, UltraSharp, CompleteCare and Dell Precision are trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel, Intel Centrino, Intel Xeon and Pentium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Adobe, the Adobe Logo and Acrobat are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. ©2006 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

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CUTTINGEDGE ART AND BUSINESS MEET HERE. “THAT’S WHY I GO TO NYU.”

Graduate Programs: NYU’s Programs in Design, Digital Arts, and Film Digital Imaging and Design A new world of art and technology has given visual artists a palette without limit. Graphic Communications Management NYU’s Programs in Design, Digital Arts, and Film are “hands on” – from working and Technology on state-of-the-art equipment, to forming professional-level teams with instructors Professional Certifi cates include: and fellow students. Our unique courses and programs in animation, television, and Animation, Modeling fi lm; digital design; graphic design; and much more combine your creativity with Directing, Cinematography real-world experience. Discover why so many of our students and graduates fi nd Motion Graphics and Broadcast Design places at top studios and are on the leading-edge of new opportunities in the fi eld. Video Game Design Visit our website to view a gallery of student work.

Noncredit Courses include: 3-D Modeling and Animation Web Design 1-800-FIND NYU, ext.94 Digital Video Production www.scps.nyu.edu/x94 Flash: Advanced Intensive Digital Medical Illustration

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