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Computer Piracy ILM’s new mocap tech brings a digital crew to life Super CG The Man of Steel’s virtual alter ego Art of Design Can CAD and art co-exist in today’s 3D world? Re-building Project Artists re-create an ancient church for The Da Vinci Code House Haunting Sony Imageworks creates an unusual home life by putting a new spin on graphics

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July 2006 • Volume 29 • Number 7 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

Features 16 Departments Yo Ho Ho! 16 Editor’s Note 2 MOTION CAPTURE | Innovative mocap Classics New and Old and simulation enable ILM to create CG has movie presence. Recently, CG pirates, a menacing sea monster, the medium gave screen life to and more in this treasurable sequel. the book The Da Vinci Code and, By Barbara Robertson once again, to the theme-park attraction Pirates of the Caribbean. Cover story 28 This Old House 28 Spotlight 4 CHARACTER ANIMATION | Performance capture and hand animation help Products artists construct Monster House. AutoDesSys’s FormZ E-frontier’s Virtual Fashion Basic By Martin McEachern RealViz’s VTour Leaps Tall Orders 52 Side Effects’ Houdini 8.1 DIGITAL DOUBLES | CG artists help the Eyeon’s Fusion 5.02 52 Man of Steel when the action became News too intense even for the superhero. ArtVPS, Mental Ray team on a new raytracing solution By Barbara Robertson

User Focus When Worlds Collide 56 Finishing Extreme Makeover: CAD/ART | How digital design and CG Home Edition art co-exist in a changing world. 56 Target commercial brings CG characters to life in CG backgrounds By Kathleen Maher

Viewpoint 14 On Holy Ground 62 Animation 2.0 SCENE RE-CREATION | Artists rebuild Portfolio 72 an ancient church for The Da Vinci Code using 3D geometry and photos. SIGGRAPH Animation Theater By Karen Moltenbrey Products 76

Backdrop 82 Roundball 68 MODELING/ANIMATION | Creating a Fur Fun theater-in-the round game experience. Creating and grooming the fat cat 62 Garﬁ eld for his sequel appearance. By Karen Moltenbrey

On the cover: An animated house springs to life in the uniquely handcrafted world of Monster House, created by a Hollywood newcomer and Sony Pictures Imageworks, pg. 28.

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Karen Moltenbrey Chief Editor note

KAREN MOLTENBREY: Chief Editor [email protected]______Classics New and Old 36 East Nashua Road Windham, NH 03087 (603) 432-7568

After all these years, I am still amazed when it comes to the power of computer CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: graphics. It has the ability to educate, to make our lives more effi cient and safe, Courtney Howard, Jenny Donelan, Audrey Doyle, Evan Marc Hirsch, and much more. Above all, it has the ability to entertain. The medium can turn the George Maestri, Martin McEachern, Stephen Porter, Barbara Robertson editor’s pages of a book into a cultural phenomenon, as was the case with The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the popular Harry Potter series. KATH CUNNINGHAM: Production Director [email protected]______Indeed, Hollywood has used many a novel—some best-sellers, some obscure titles— (818) 291-1113 as the basis for feature fi lms. This summer, author Dan Brown’s phenomena, The Da CHRIS SALCIDO: Account Representative Vinci Code, fi nally made its long-awaited fi lm debut. Some critics loved it; others did not. [email protected]______And some readers expressed their disappointment, as well. Most of the less favorable (818) 291-1144 comments were reserved for the actors and their dry performances. Yet, fans of this book COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD Editorial Offi ce: turned out in droves to see the novel’s intriguing plot unfold on the big screen. 620 West Elk Avenue While making the fi lm, director Ron Howard’s goal was to stay true to the book. At Glendale, CA 91204 (800) 280-6446, x1105 times, though, this was extremely diffi cult to do. One of the more challenging scenes took

place inside the ancient Saint-Sulpice Church in Paris. As Rainmaker VFX supervisor Mark SALES

Breakspear notes, Saint-Sulpice is both atypical and well known, and as a result, no other TIM MATTESON: Publisher/West Coast Sales church could have been substituted for this scene without audiences raising an eyebrow. [email protected]______(310) 836-4064 But, the Vatican would not allow fi lm crews into the actual church. So, under VFX supervisor Angus Bickerton’s guidance, Breakspear and his group of digital artists re-created JEFF VICTOR: Midwest/East Coast Sales [email protected] this magnifi cent structure in 3D splendor by building on a (847) 367-4073 relatively standard method of mapping photographic textures CG can turn a book LA Sales Offi ce: onto 3D geometry (see “On Holy Ground,” pg. 62). The proce- 620 West Elk Avenue into a fi lm classic, dure worked so well that, according to Breakspear, audiences Glendale, CA 91204 (800) 280-6446 and it can transform will think the scenes were fi lmed rather than created virtually—as Howard did when shown early tests. a cultural icon into Not only can CG turn a book into a fi lm classic, but it one of even bigger also has the ability to transform what is already a cultur- proportions. al icon into one of even bigger proportions for the theater. This summer, Buena Vista/Disney used the medium to

once again bring the ﬁ ctional pirate Jack Sparrow to life WILLIAM R. RITTWAGE in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, a sequel to the 2003 blockbuster The President and Chief Executive Ofﬁ cer

Curse of the Black Pearl. Both movies, in addition to a third in production, are adapta- Computer Graphics World Magazine is published by Computer Graphics World, a tions of the popular Disney theme-park attraction Pirates of the Caribbean. When the COP Communications company.

ride opened in 1967, it marked a high point in the development of audio-animatron- Computer Graphics World does not verify any claims or ics technology. Similarly, in Dead Man’s Chest, a novel technique involving the ability other information appearing in any of the advertisements contained in the publication, and cannot take any to capture the performances of several actors on location during principal photogra- responsibility for any losses or other damages incurred by readers in reliance on such content. phy rather than during a separate motion-capture session sets a new watermark for Computer Graphics World cannot be held responsible for motion capture (see “Yo Ho Ho!,” pg. 16). With this treasure trove of new technology the safekeeping or return of unsolicited articles, manuscripts, photographs, illustrations or other materials. from ILM, animators can create far more believable CG character performances, and Subscriptions: Address all subscription correspondence to fi lmmakers can look beyond the previous limitations of physical location and time Computer Graphics World, 620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale, CA 91204. Subscribers can also contact customer service at restraints when employing motion capture. [email protected].______For change of address please include the old and new address information, and if possible, CG turned this animated property (by way of animatronics) into another smash, include an address label from a recent issue. Subscriptions as it surpassed the weekend-opening box-offi ce record previously set by Spider-Man. are available free to qualifi ed individuals within the United States. Non-qualifi ed 1 year rates: USA $4.95. Disney, anticipating this reception, just updated its classic theme-park attraction to Canada & Mexico $6.50. All Airmail Delivery is available for an additional $75.00 annually. include Sparrow as the new hero of its high-seas ride. These are but two of the recent Postmaster: Send address changes to “novel” effects of CG. Computer Graphics World, 620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale, CA 91204.

2 | Computer Graphics World JULY 2006 www.cgw.com______

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EVEN SHOWN AT 65% OF THE ACTUAL NEW BUILD SIZE, IT’S STILL OUR BIGGEST FAN.

INTRODUCING THE NEW DIMENSION 3D PRINTERS WITH A BIGGER 10x10x12" BUILD SIZE. STARTING AT JUST Now, no matter how big your idea is, you can bring it to life in no time flat. Our new $ * line of Dimension 3D Printers let you create tough, over-sized ABS plastic 21,900 working models right in your office. What a colossal way to significantly shorten design time, slash production costs, increase productivity and get a really fast ROI. Get all the details, a free working sample and the location of your nearest dealer #1 IN 3D PRINTERS at www.dimensionprinting.com/cg. *Manufacturer’s worldwide price.Additional options,shipping, applicable taxes, not included. ©2006 Dimension.

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MODELING/ANIMATION AutoDesSys Improves its FormZ

Enhanced with a number of new features and functional- objects. FormZ 6.0 also offers a seamlessly integrated ani- ity, FormZ 6.0 will be released this month at SIGGRAPH by mation environment, where objects, lights, and cameras PRODUCT maker AutoDesSys. Some of the new features include ani- can be animated and transformed over time. mation, 3D printing with color and textures, and a number In addition, AutoDesSys offers a venue to prototype its of others that extend the software’s modeling power. objects not only in color but with textures, as well, through The release will Z Corp.’s new ZPR ﬁ le format, which is optimized to sup- have object-centric ani- port geometry and color capabilities of current 3DP systems, mation, meaning the providing an option for those needing a tangible example of object retains its integ- their project in color and with textures. FormZ also sports a rity during the anima- new 3D print preparation tool. tion process. FormZ Also, the new release contains a number of new model- animates well-deﬁ ned ing capabilities, including a morphing ability that allows objects complete with users to pick two objects, the source, and the destination, their parameters and and have the shape of the former change to the shape of the attributes, which can also be freely animated. This poten- other by a certain percent. The operation can be executed tially makes the animation process a modeling venue that dynamically or in one step, and can be used as part of an can generate forms beyond what is possible through con- animation or by itself. ventional means. At any stage during the animation pro- FormZ 6.0 will be priced at $1495. Updates from previ- cess, models can even be captured as different types of ous versions are available for a reduced cost.

CONTENT CREATION The New Virtual Fashion Basic E-frontier has accessorized its product selected and simulated in the Fitting line with the new release of Virtual Room module. In PhotoStudio, lights PRODUCT Fashion Basic for Poser, easy-to-learn and camera angles are set, and print- design software for the creation of ready images are produced in a vir- dresses, jackets, skirts, shoes, and tual photo shoot. The last step uses other 3D design garments. Originally the Material Editor module to adjust developed for high-end designers such materials and change fabric colors. as Gucci, Prada, and La Perla, Virtual Poser users export garments cre- Fashion Basic for Poser was modifi ed ated in Virtual Fashion in the native to incorporate Poser characters and Poser fi le format. The program cre- export “dynamic clothing” directly work fl ow-based interface moves users ates its own runtime folders in Poser into Poser libraries. through a series of steps to quickly and automatically uploads every new Virtual Fashion has an intuitive user create almost any garment. After the garment into the Poser library. interface that makes creating garments garment is designed, fabric choices Virtual Fashion Basic for Poser sells for Poser fi gures easier than ever. The such as silk, cotton, denim, or fur are for $99.99.

4 | Computer Graphics World JULY 2006 www.cgw.com______

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eyeon continues its tour de force.

From acclaimed feature film finishing...

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SCENE CREATION RealViz Offers a VTour

Image-processing software developer nology of RealViz’s Stitcher and Image such as Spi-V3d (based on Shockwave). RealViz has unveiled VTour, the latest Modeler products, offering users a solu- VTour is ideal for a range of applica- PRODUCT addition to the company’s content cre- tion for creating photorealistic 3D envi- tions such as virtual walkthroughs of ation offerings. VTour draws on the tech- ronments from 2D photos or panoramas. buildings and monuments, 3D simula- Starting directly from digital tion, virtual reality, urban planning, and photographs or full 360-degree pan- video games. It can also be used for the CATEGORY ormas (crafted, for example, using creation of digital sets in ﬁ lm and tele- Stitcher), VTour facilitates the cre- vision. In this way, the product comple- ation of 3D scenes such as interi- ments RealViz’s StoryViz, 3D previz and ors or urban areas using polygo- storyboard software for creating photore- nal photo-textured primitives. The al backdrops for previsualized projects. results can then be exported and VTour is available for Windows 2000/ published as a 3D movie or an inter- XP for $499. A Mac version will be avail- active application using 3D viewers able in September.

MODELING/ANIMATION COMPOSITING Houdini 8.1 Appears in Eyeon Fuses 3D for Animators Together Updates PRODUCT PRODUCT Side Effects Software has released Houdini 8.1, featuring Eyeon Software continues to build momentum with the an animator-friendly Auto Rig, Muscle System, Character release of Fusion 5.02 by adding approximately 100 new Picker, and Pose Library, as well as other enhancements to features and enhancements to the compositing soft- the Rigid Body and Wire dynamic solvers. The new version ware’s core architecture. Fusion 5.02’s OpenGL accel- also supports the importation of Collada fi les, an open digi- eration with display views makes interactive viewing tal asset exchange schema for interactive 3D applications. more fl exible, while the new GPU-accelerated plug- A new Biped Auto Rig tools lets artists quickly posi- in architecture and tion their character’s joints and generate production- LUT system make ready rigs at the touch of a button. It creates both an ani- for easy transitions mation rig with built-in proxy geometry for blocking and between multiple- a separate capture rig for deforming geometry. These rigs display LUTs. are created as Houdini Tailoring and im - Digital Assets and form proving the prod uct the backbone of the char- based on demand acter pipeline. Moreover, and ongoing artist technical directors can feedback, Eyeon has added a plethora of cutting-edge customize the anima- innovations, such as format improvements, to give tion team’s rig to con- Fusion the ability to read DV OMF and 32-bit fl oat form to their preferred PSDs from Photoshop CS2. OpenEXR format options way of working. now display a drop-down list that shows available For capturing and binding geometry, Houdini 8.1 channels. The product also has new enhanced optimi- includes a new approach that is ideal for setting up fully zation tools that affect all blur-based tools and func- functional muscle system using a system of metaball- tions, resulting in as much as a 30 percent increase based muscles that can be used in place of bones for in performance. And, the company has added more capturing the geometry. than 20 new scripting functions. Houdini 8.1 is priced at $17,000; through September, Fusion 5.02 pricing starts at $1295 for the DFX+ users also can save up to 40 percent on Houdini Master. video version, and $2995 to $4995 for the fi lm versions.

6 | Computer Graphics World JULY 2006 ______www.cgw.com

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BRAINSTORMS… IMPOSSIBLE TO PREDICT. EASY TO CAPTURE.

Dell 19" 1907 Flat Panel Display, add $309 FINALLY, A RANGE OF TOTAL SOLUTIONS FOR YOUR LIMITLESS IDEAS. Now you can bring your most complex design ideas to life with help from Dell and Adobe. Dell Precision™ workstations Dell™ recommends Windows® XP Professional are high-performing systems. Many are powered by the next generation of 64-bit capable Intel® processors and ™ ™ customizable with advanced graphics, RAID hard drive NEW DELL PRECISION 490 NEW DELL PRECISION M90 support, and dual-monitor capability. Dell has partnered WORKSTATION MOBILE WORKSTATION with Adobe to deliver powerful video post-production $ $ solutions that combine the high performance of Dell 3939 2369 Lease as low as $105/mo., (48 pmts.*) Lease as low as $63/mo., (48 pmts.*) workstations with the comprehensive post-production E-VALUE Code: 08098-s40716m E-VALUE Code: 08098-S40718m tools of Adobe Production Studio. Together they give you Scalable, Dual-Processor Capable Workstation Maximum Widescreen Mobile Workstation Performance exceptional quality at an affordable price, and the ability • Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor (3.2GHz, 2x2MB L2 Cache, • Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2300 (1.67GHz, 2MB Cache, 667MHz to tell your story with the freedom and control offered by 1066MHz FSB) FSB); Intel® PRO/Wireless 802.11a/g Dual-band Mini-Card • Genuine Windows® XP Professional • Genuine Windows® XP Professional Adobe’s world-class video and graphics software. These • 4GB* Quad Channel* DDR2 Fully Buffered DIMM Memory • Windows® Vista™ Capable* systems offer optimal performance and the added assurance • 500GB* (7200 RPM) SATA Hard Drive and 160GB* (7200 RPM) • 17" Dell UltraSharp™ WXGA+ Active Matrix Display of compatibility between many hardware and software SATA Hard Drive • 512MB SDRAM; 60GB* (5400 RPM) Hard Drive • 256MB PCIe x16 NVIDIA Quadro FX3500 Graphics Card • NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500M 256MB (dedicated memory) (OpenGL graphics) components. So just like your creativity, the sky’s the limit. • 16x DVD+/-RW* Drive • 8x DVD+/-RW Drive • 3-Yr Economy Service Plan (Next Business Day On-Site Service,* • 3-Yr On-Site Economy Service Plan (Next Business Day On-Site Hardware Warranty Support) Service,* Hardware Warranty Support) • Windows® Vista™ Capable* • System Not Pictured • Monitor Not Included Recommended Upgrade: Recommended Upgrade: • 3-Yr Business Standard Service Plan (On-Site Service,* Adobe Production • 3-Yr Business Essential Service Plan (24x7 Same-Day On-Site CompleteCare™ Accidental Damage Service,* Studio Standard Service,* advanced Hardware Warranty Support), add $408 advanced Hardware Warranty Support), add $278 Software, documentation or packaging may vary from retail version. Dell™ recommends Adobe® software with Dell Precision™ Workstations.

Adobe® Production Studio Standard Adobe® Production Studio Premium Adobe offers the essential post-production toolset. Adobe offers a complete post-production solution.

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Learn more at dell.com/DCCsolutions______

call 877.378.DELL 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. 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. Quad-Channel Memory: Quad-channel memory requires 4 each of the same capacity memory DIMMs. Dell Precision™ 4GB Memory: The total amount of usable memory available will be less depending on the actual system configuration. Windows® Vista™ Capable: Microsoft requires that a PC have a modern processor and 512MB RAM to be included in the Windows Vista Capable PC program. Since the operating system and drivers are not final, Windows Vista has not been tested on all user configurations. Microsoft does not require that the Windows Vista Capable PCs enable the Aero user experience; therefore, unless configured with the appropriate level of memory and graphics, some systems may run the basic user experience. 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: For hard drives, GB means 1 billion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating environment and will be less. DVD+/-RW: Discs burned with this drive may not be compatible with some existing drives and players; using DVD+R media provides maximum compatibility. Trademark/Copyright Notices: Dell, the stylized E logo, E-Value, UltraSharp, CompleteCare and Dell Precision are trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel, Intel logo, Intel Inside, Intel Inside logo, Xeon, Xeon Inside, Intel Core, Core Inside 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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RENDERING ArtVPS, Mental Ray Team on New Raytracing Solution NEWS Two of the industry’s largest commer- to its sub-licensing. In turn, ArtVPS will and applications from Mental Images. cial forces in rendering—ArtVPS and become an OEM partner of Mental Images According to a Mental Images Mental Images—have formed a part- for the integration of Mental Ray into spokesman, the partnership will allow nership that will result in an integra- future 64-bit versions of its RenderDrive the duo to explore the use of dedi- tion of their respective products, which cated graphics processing hardware will cater to the increasing demand for architectures for the acceleration of photorealistic visualization of 3D data raytracing algorithms within Mental within the design sector. Ray and RealityServer without com- ArtVPS, developer of a unique graph- promising on image quality. The col- ics processor for photorealistic raytracing, laboration will cater speciﬁ cally to and Mental Images, developer of the high- the demand for photorealistic visual- end Mental Ray rendering software, will ization in product marketing, design, further the evolution of advanced raytrac- products. Also, the company will become architecture, and the automotive seg- ing solutions. As part of the deal, Mental a system integrator for RealityServer, a ment, where photorealism and real- Images will license intellectual proper- unique software platform for the develop- world lighting is a requirement for that ty from ArtVPS with the exclusive right ment and deployment of 3D Web services market’s 3D imagery.

POST FINISHING Working Under Extreme Conditions

West Post Digital, a boutique postproduction facility special- performed the color grading on a da Vinci 2K system. izing in HD and SD online fi nishing and color correction, According to colorist Paul Roman, the ability to color- recently completed work for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition— correct the show in real time on the da Vinci while conform- USER FOCUS After the Storm. The work was for a series of four shows featuring and titling simultaneously on the Symphony played a ing rebuilding projects in Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, and big role in helping the group fi nish the episodes quickly and Texas following major destructive hurricanes. at a high quality. Pre-digitizing fi ne cuts (a show in prog- West Post Digital had been handling online fi nishing for the ress that will change but has a lot of what will end up in the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition reality series since its premiere fi nal version) and digitizing only new shots in the locked in 2003. “We’ve been able to streamline processes to where we picture instead of the whole cut also helped bring the show can completely fi nish in under deadline. an entire show in about “The most challenging aspect is time,” says Fields. 24 hours,” says West “The locked cut is not delivered until the last minute. We Post Digital co-owner pre-digitized with handles, so if slight adjustments were Kenny Fields. made in the off-line, we didn’t have to re-digitize the clips. It was this ability to By pre-digitizing the fi ne cuts with handles, we were able make “Extreme” dead- to relink once the locked cut came in—late in the process— lines that led produc- making the digitizing of the locked cut much faster. So, ers to select the facility instead of digitizing 1500 clips from scratch, we only had

©2006 ABC, Inc. to complete work on to do about 200 to 300 at that point.” the special editions. The group did all the ﬁ nishing process— Each Extreme Makeover: Home Edition features a construc- assembling, conforming, and color-correcting the shots, as tion project that is essentially a race against time. Similarly, well as titling, in standard deﬁ nition. The assembly/con- shooting, editing, and posting it is another race against time— form/titling was done on an Avid Symphony system and a one that West Post Digital has consistently won under these Symphony Nitris running on a Unity. Meanwhile, the group Extreme conditions. —Karen Moltenbrey

8 | Computer Graphics World JULY 2006 www.cgw.com______

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ANIMATION A TV Commercial Hits its Target

The department store Target is Vicon MX 40 camera setup. During known for its whimsical, stylized the process, all the “Product People”

USER FOCUS television commercials that feature characters were shown in real time to men, women, and children—and, of give the director and the actors/danc- course, the signature Target dog— ers the ability to see how each of the moving at a fast pace within a set- characters moved. Real-time video ting dominated by its other signature feeds allowed the client and Radium of red and white colors and bull’s- creative team to approve the perfor- eye. Recently, the store began a new mance prior to animation. “Product People” campaign that con- “There were a lot of character rigs, tains a similar colorful, active, and and they were very complex and While CG played a key role in the earlier Target theatrical look as the previous com- commercials (mainly to generate or augment the needed attention from our technical mercials. But, on the other hand, it is backgrounds), this time the medium not only took directors to ensure that there would a marked departure from the earlier center stage, but was integral to casting, as well. be reliable real-time feedback and design-oriented spots: In place of the a high-quality fi nal product that energetic actors are energetic 3D char- matched exactly what was seen on acters made from everyday items that set,” says Scott Gagain, executive can be purchased at the store. producer at HOM. “It was one of our After completing the design larger commercial productions. The phase, Radium, which crafted the set was packed with dancers and spot, used Autodesk’s Maya to clients, but it was also fun, and it model all the objects that would shows in the fi nal product.” later comprise the characters, from Once the animation data was a “woman” composed of nail pol- delivered, Radium used its lay- ish and cosmetic–related items to ered controls to fi nesse the motion, an “athlete” made from sporting When the different products came together into which Debert says was “90 percent each distinct character, it was important to goods: a football face, tennis ball there.” Next, the group textured the retain visual integrity so the piece made sense. eyes, and a basketball belly. images, and then rendered them Grouping similar products into a background Next, the crew photographed the using Mental Images’ Mental Ray. where they belonged accomplished this. actual products under studio light- “We were modeling, lighting, tex- ing, fi rst to enhance their natural color and texture, and then turing, and rendering so that everything had a real feel. The to give them a photoreal quality and retail appeal that would animation comes to life via motion capture,” he notes. be retained in CG. The lighting pipeline was based on global The biggest challenge, though, resulted not from the illumination techniques to achieve the desired mix between complex motions but from the complexity of the entire photorealism and stylization, notes Aladino Debert, lead CG piece, with 16 3D characters and full CG environments—a artist and head of CG at Radium. kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, hallway, and more, all tex- The group had to design characters that would be not only tured using Target’s signature red-and-white color palette photorealistic, but also fun to watch. Their anthropomorphic throughout for brand recognition. nature dictated that the artists use motion capture for the ani- “The project required that many parallel processes move mation. So, fi rst the artists created simple rigs of each charac- forward in a smooth way. For example, as we were fi n- ter within Maya that mocap facility House of Moves (HOM) ishing the character design, the set designs were moving used during motion-capture sessions. At HOM, the animation ahead, along with the fi nal storyboards and rehearsals was derived by motion-capturing a set of live dance perform- with the dancers,” says Debert. “In the end, though, all ers (seven dancers responsible for a total of 14 actor/charac- those at-times disjointed processes came together to give ter combinations) within a 40x40-foot capture space using a the spot a unique look.” —Karen Moltenbrey

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By Torsten Reil point Animation 2.0

The visual quality of video games has improved dra- matically with the arrival of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and, soon, Sony’s PlayStation 3. In fact, some games—in particu- view lar, racing titles—approach the much- promised goal of photorealism. However, amongst all the talk about HD, new shader models, and lighting, many consumers have come to realize: The animations still look distinctly last gen. The high state of rendering fi delity exposes low-animation quality much more than on previous consoles. Characters look great in screenshots, but they can seem unnatural, clunky, and even robotic when in motion. Torsten Reil And a second prob- is CEO and co-founder of lem has surfaced, as NaturalMotion, the fi rst NaturalMotion’s Euphoria (above) and Endorphin is based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis, company to create 3D well: After playing any which uses adaptive behaviors and AI to simulate the human nervous system. character animation game for a little while, software based on users will notice that frame animation or processed motion-captured clips, and the data is played back Dynamic Motion Synthesis the animations always at, more or less, appropriate times in the game. There are two issues with this (DMS), a technology that look the same. This approach. First, animators have little creative control over the last section of the utilizes adaptive behaviors and artifi cial intelligence didn’t matter so much pipeline (that is, what their animations look like in-game). Second, played-back to simulate the human when simple rendering data can never be truly interactive. nervous system. signaled that we were merely playing a com- Animation Solutions puter game. However, The manifestation of the fi rst problem usually results when animators walk over to The high when a photorealistic the game’s animation programmer and complain that their carefully crafted anima- Kobe Bryant repeats a tions look totally wrong in-game. The way to solve this, and to get in-game anima- fi delity of move for the hundredth tion to the quality that the raw material already supports, is to provide animators time with digital preci- with intuitive tools to perform the tasks currently carried out by animation program- new consoles sion, something seems mers. Those include the determination of the transitions between animations, the very wrong. nature and timing of blends, the distribution and weighting of different animations exposes low- The reason for across the character’s body, and even the responsiveness of the animation to user or these two problems is AI input. All of these are creative tasks and, therefore, should be under the full con- animation that our game anima- trol of the animator, and this should result in very quick turnaround times. tion pipelines have not The solution to the second problem (that is, non-interactivity and repetitiveness) quality. changed very much lies in the CPU power available on next-generation hardware. Rather than pre-pro- since the 16-bit days. ducing every clip beforehand, we can use the console’s processing power to syn- Animators create key- thesize animation on the fl y, as the game unfolds. This, of course, is not straight-

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forward, as it requires a full (and real-time) simulation of the 3D character (including body, muscles, and motor/nervous system), but it is now possible on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Not only does this approach increase the visual quality of the game, but it also enables unique moments that have never happened before, and will never happen again: every tackle is your tackle; every haymaker is your haymaker. Crucially, animators require full control over synthesis, too. In this case, rather than creating baked animation, they determine the style and parameter of adaptive behaviors. They, therefore, work at a higher level, akin to a director. The upshot of all of this is that animation will become the pre- The rendering quality in the new generation of console games, dominant quality determinant of next-gen game visuals and expe- particularly racing titles such as Project Gotham Racing 3, is riences. The role of the animator will grow signiﬁ cantly, from key- close to photorealism, but game animation hasn’t kept pace. framing to controlling in-game blends, to directing motion synthesis. There’s never been a better time to be in this industry. synthesizes 3D character animation in real time on the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC, creat- Torsten Reil graduated with a degree in biology from Oxford University and holds a master’s ing unique game moments and previously degree in evolutionary and adaptive systems from Sussex University. Prior to founding Natu- unachievable interactivity. NaturalMotion’s ralMotion, he was researching for a PhD in complex systems at Oxford University, and in 2003, other DMS product, Endorphin, creates off- was named as one of the world’s top 100 innovators by MIT’s Technology Review. Along with line animation an order of magnitude faster CTO and co-founder Colm Massey, he developed NaturalMotion’s core technoIogy. Based on than with traditional techniques, and is used Oxford University research on the control of body movements, NaturalMotion’s Euphoria in the ﬁ lm and gaming industry. MAKE MORE ENEMIES and take your

share of $50,000 Game Design at VFS VFS is offering $50,000 in bursaries to students who are passionate about video games and want to make their own. To apply, visit www.vfs.com/games

Join us at Siggraph in Boston and discover why Vancouver Film School is the place to be for everything you see, hear, and experience in the entertainment industry.

Booth 2204 Boston Convention Center August 1–3, 2006 415 Summer Street Vancouver Film School Special Presentation: “Tech Talk: Training for Careers in Animation” Where Results Matter Wednesday, August 2 at 1pm on the trade show ﬂ oor

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. . . . Motion Capture

ILM creates a sea monster and

15 lead characters in Pirates of the

Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest using

innovative mocap and simulation Yo Ho Ho!

By Barbara Robertson

After you’ve seen Davy Jones’ beard Episode III—Revenge of the Sith. ILM han- “This was a very simulation-heavy show,” writhe like a sea creature. After you dled all the shots except approximately Sullivan says. “You’ll see that in Davy Jones learn that Industrial Light & Magic dis- 60 composites that the facility farmed and other characters. The rendering moved covered a way to motion-capture the per- out, under Roger Guyett’s supervision, to forward, not just in the aspects of the look, formances of multiple actors during prin- Tippett Studio and Evil Eye Pictures. but also in making the characters tractable cipal photography without using one Knoll divides the work into three cat- to render. And, the new motion-capture piece of motion-capture equipment. After egories: Davy Jones and his crew, Kraken, system made a big difference.” all that sinks in, it’s the details in Walt and shots that establish time and place. Disney Pictures’ Pirates of the Caribbean: Davy Jones and all but one of his crew are Cod Is in the Details Dead Man’s Chest that will amaze you. CG creatures played by actors whose per- Thirteen modelers led by creature super- Gore Verbinski returned to direct this formances were captured on location: ILM visor Geoff Campbell sculpted the fi shy sequel to the popular action/adventure/ recorded motion data during principal characters. Gentle Giant’s body scans and comedy Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse photography in a variety of lighting con- face scans from ILM’s own Clonecam sys- of the Black Pearl, as did actors Johnny ditions and environments without restric- tem—a photographic technique that pro- Depp, Keira Knightley, and Orlando Bloom, tion. Kraken is a giant sea monster per- vides 3D geometry and textures—gave visual effects supervisor John Knoll, and formed by animators using a sophisticated modelers the actors’ proportions, but they ILM. The sequel has 1100 visual effects new rigging system. The “time and place” built the CG characters entirely from con- shots, of which 600 are animation shots. shots included turning Dominica, a lush cept art. Art director Aaron McBride drew Digital pirate Davy Jones stars in 200 shots; island in the Caribbean, into Cannibal many of the cursed, crustacean-encrusted he’s on screen for 15 minutes of the fi lm. Island with fully CG environments. To sea phantoms based on sketches by Mark “It was a lot to push through this facil- do these shots, Steve Sullivan, director of “Crash” McCreery, and added three of his ity in a short period of time,” says Knoll, R&D at ILM, cites three areas in which the own mutants—Angler, Wheelback, and who rolled onto the show immediately fi lm pushed technology at ILM: simula- Ratlin. “We have 18 hero characters that after fi nishing last summer’s Star Wars: tion, rendering, and motion capture. hold up close to the camera and 32 vari-

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Motion Capture. . . .

ations,” says McBride, who followed the we’ve been using since Terminator, to sub- tures—the painters got the Z-brush maps.” ©2006 Disney Enterprises, Inc. and Jerry Bruckheimer, Inc. All rights reserved. Photo credits: ILM. credits: Photo reserved. rights All Inc. Bruckheimer, Jerry and Inc. Enterprises, Disney ©2006 artistic development of the characters division surfaces. And, we used Z-brush The creatures had so much detail that through production. “The only non-digi- for displacements. We couldn’t have cre- sometimes there were more vertices, more tal character is Bootstrap Bill.” ated these characters in any other way geometry to render, than there were pixels Working in Autodesk’s Maya, the because of their complexity.” Pixologic’s available. “It meant that anything that was modelers spent close to 10 months of pre- Z-brush helped the modelers cover the raytraced, occlusion passes, or even subsur- production time building polygonal mod- surfaces with barnacles, mussels, coral, face scattering, was much slower because els of the characters’ bodies and, work- and other briny details. the raytracer ran for all the geometry, all the ing in ILM’s proprietary software Zeno, “Pat Meyers, one of our TDs, created CVs inside a pixel,” says Christophe Hery, creating the face shapes. Then, many of a sea-life picker,” says David Meny, digi- lead R&D engineer. “It summed everything them carried on for the next eight months tal production supervisor. “We could pick up for one pixel at the end, but we were sculpting face shapes during production, one creature and instance it on the sur- wasting a lot of time for not a lot of result.” as animators needed them. “We moved face and adjust the scale. The Z-brushed Because ILM decided to use Render- in a whole new direction,” says Campbell. components added organic variety to the Man for the entire ﬁ lm, Hery contacted “We went from B-spline models, which whole. And then we also had painted tex- Pixar. An exchange of ideas resulted in

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. . . . Motion Capture

Pixar adding a solution derived from a game technique docu- CG environment from the triangulated views. Then, later, once mented in Nvidia’s GPU Gems 2 to RenderMan. The technique, he had plate photography, he could lay those images on the 3D which approximates raytracing, cut the render times by around world that he built to create a photorealistic environment. 75 percent—from 12 to 13 hours to three or four. John Knoll supervised the motion capture on location. On the fi rst Pirates, the skeletal CG pirates also appeared as Imocap real people who were fi lmed in costume. To substitute the Meanwhile, ILM crewmembers working on set with Verbinski skeletal people, the crew used “matchimation”: Artists lined began acquiring data. They built digital representations of the up a CG model with an actor’s image on the scanned fi lm environment so that later they could easily lock the digital charac- plate and copied the actor’s motions onto the 3D model. The ters to scans of the live-action plates. And, they captured the per- same technique helped ILM blend a CG terminator into half formances of the 15 actors playing the hero characters. Later, this of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body in Terminator 3. But for the motion-captured data would drive the character animation for the second Pirates fi lm, animation director Hal Hickel, who had creatures that would replace the actors in the live-action plates. also supervised animation for Black Pearl, asked for a way to make the matchimation artists’ lives easier. “He asked if we could put some kind of tracking lights on the actors,” Knoll says. Knoll never considered setting up a traditional motion-capture system on location in the Caribbean—not with 15 actors to capture, sometimes working in 2 feet of water, and not without completely disrupting principal photography, which could not happen. And yet, he wanted to gather the same high-quality data produced on a

ILM captured data from actors in gray costumes during principal photography (at left, below), applied the data to “manikins” (middle, below), and then fi tted the manikins to specifi ed creatures (at right, below) to create a fi nal performance (at left).

Jason Snell, layout supervisor for the show and matchmove motion-capture stage. “That was the challenge we threw down supervisor, built the digital representation of the set and loca- to R&D, and they came up with a technique we call Imocap,” he tion environments using photographs. “My job was to collect says. The “I” stands for “image.” data for where the creatures were in the environment,” he says. On set, actors playing Davy’s crew wore gray suits provided “Most data collectors make diagrams and take measurements. by the costume department with tracking balls and bands from At ILM, we build the environments on a laptop, while we’re ILM. ILM had printed the bands with black and white dots in on location.” To do this, Snell took photographs with a digital black and white squares, and positioned them at the joints—knees, still camera of the entire environment from multiple angles and ankles, wrists, waist, and so forth. “The dots help us see how the matchmoved each frame. Then, he looked for common points in suit moves,” says Kevin Wooley, motion-capture engineer. “We’re several pictures. “If I have three pictures of a house and ﬁ nd one not tracking dots in space.” point in common, the system can triangulate those points and Because ILM’s character animation pipeline works with ﬁ nd a point in space,” he explains. By using multiple points in joints organized into skeletal animation rigs, Imocap puts the multiple images and Zeno’s tracking system, Snell could build a captured data onto skeletons. To an animator, the result looks

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MAKING THE GRADE HP WORKSTATIONS WITH ATI FIREGL GRAPHICS In the world of digital content creation—and SERVE UP HIGH-END POWER, PERFORMANCE, perhaps more so than in any other industry— many of us define ourselves by our work. How AND GRAPHICS AT ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF ART. many times have you described yourself by citing the work you’ve done on a particular film, game, or novel design? And why shouldn’t you? You infuse projects with your ideas, creativity, imagination, and personality. You often put your heart and soul into your work—and they shine through. Your work is, in many ways, tied to your identity; and through your hard work and talent, you’ve made a name for yourself. As a result, you cannot entrust your reputation, your legacy, and your future to sub-par equipment. You need your graphics workstation to work as hard, as reliably, and as well as you do.

Above: HP xw8400 Workstation Left: ATI FireGL V3300

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It all begins in school, as you train intently to hone your of which are driven by ATI FireGL graphics accelerators. craft and, in doing so, master the latest technologies and Before doing so, Aubry and his colleagues regularly skills related to the career you seek. Students on path to tested computer systems from various manufacturers, a career in digital content creation are unique. Just as they considering the availability, reliability, and compatibility push the bounds of their imagination and creativity, they of each. too push the limits of their software and hardware. Design decision “The students are always looking to achieve more,” admits “On the graphics side, HP can’t be touched,” says Jim Aubry, director of technology at the Illinois Institute of Aubry. “That’s why we’ve gone with HP and ATI. Their Art in Chicago. As a result, they daily test the workstations’ products give us the best performance for the suite of ability to handle really complex compositions. software products that we need to provide our students.

MAKING THE GRADE The Illinois Institute of Art, part of The Art Institutes, offers a graphics-rich curriculum with programs in media

arts and animation, visual effects and motion graphics, We have a very creative student body; the tougher ones and game art and design, among other applied arts. are the 3D animators. The 3D and animation programs And, with roughly 2500 students working on more than require significantly more powerful systems than, say, 600 workstations, the Institute is a perfect environment the fashion programs.” for testing the performance and reliability of myriad solutions, including leading-edge technologies employed Power isn’t an issue for the HP workstations with ATI in workstations for graphics-intensive work. FireGL graphics. In fact, the memory offered by the next- generation FireGL cards enable users to work interactively As the director of technology for the school and its many with extremely large datasets—an important and recent programs, Aubry makes certain the school’s hardware innovation for digital artists and animators. At the same and software offer a host of core competencies, such time, the cards’ expanded bit depth extends the color as high-end graphics performance, to meet the demands palette to include more than 1 billion colors, helping and objectives of the education department. foster further creativity and artistic expression, whereas its support of ultra-high-resolution and widescreen “Because we’re so heavily focused on the applied arts, displays enable a larger workspace, contributing to we require computer systems that can run a variety of increased productivity. graphics programs,” notes Aubry. “The systems have to be able to handle a good collection of design software, The Institute configures the HP Workstations with ATI not be focused on just one product. We require systems graphics with Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office that not only are reliable, but also have the speed and as a base, upon which various solutions are loaded, including ability to handle high-end graphics programs.” Autodesk’s 3ds Max, MotionBuilder, Maya, and AutoCAD. Whereas an average desktop PC would likely buckle under For this and other reasons, the Institute standardized six the strain of supporting these complex, graphically years ago on Hewlett-Packard workstations, the majority demanding software programs, the HP workstation and

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ATI FireGL deliver high performance, rapid response rates, quickly I outline things and modify designs. It helps me and the ability to multitask with several applications and create the things I want to create.” complex data sets running simultaneously. Johnson, a self-proclaimed Macintosh user, admits, “I trust “We know that the graphics programs are going to work HP workstations because I haven’t had problems with on them,” offers Aubry. “We have a vast assortment of them—they don’t freeze on me and I haven’t had one crash programs, and we’re very comfortable that HP or slow down so that I can’t work on it. HP workstations workstations with ATI FireGL are tested for these with ATI FireGL graphics keep up with me. I’m able to paint programs, so we know that they are going to work for and change things, and I don’t have to spend all my time our environment. The students are finding that these waiting for it to do something. I rely on the HP workstations systems work reliability. It provides them the opportunity, at school.” the power they need to create their designs.” Innovation, reliability, and support In the trenches From a business standpoint, Aubry and others at the A senior in the Design track at the Illinois Institute of Art, Institute have never regretted standardizing on HP Randy Johnson knows well the value of a reliable, high- workstations with ATI FireGL. The HP workstations on performance workstation with a high-end graphics card. campus are configured with some of the latest He is intricately involved with the school’s technology, technological innovations in processing power, such as

“Because we’re so heavily focused on the applied arts, we require computer systems that can run a variety of graphics programs. The systems have to be able to handle a good collection of design software, not be focused on just one product.” —Jim Aubry, Illinois Institute of Art

as he works with incoming students, showing them how Intel’s new CPU. At the same time, the HP workstations to use the computers and software programs. at the school that take advantage of ATI FireGL graphics cards provide users powerful graphics processing, “When it comes to the PC, I am picky,” notes Johnson. memory, and functionality. In fact, the high-performance “It has to keep up with me.” HP workstation configurations have required little maintenance. Johnson considers HP workstations to be the best Windows-based computer systems on which he has ever “HP workstations last,” notes Aubry. “They have given worked. Many systems could not keep pace with the speed us good performance over time, so the total cost of at which he worked. For this and many other reasons, it is ownership is lower. The workstations also have been critical to choose a workstation designed specifically for very reliable over time, and we have not spent a lot of your work, opposed to an average desktop PC. time or had the need to upgrade them.”

“I would have to wait for the system to catch up with Aubry admits that the one component he has had cause me, or it would just freeze and I would lose my work,” to upgrade on the HP workstations is main system Johnson recalls. “A slow system is such a pain. I haven’t memory. The process was a smooth one, given that HP’s had any problems with HP workstations. It has been innovative tool-less chassis enables technicians at the able to keep up with the speed that I work and how school to make any necessary internal changes quickly,

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easily, and without the need for tools. Yet, this is not to “Many high-school students looking at our school are very say that Aubry doesn’t encounter situations that call for savvy,” admits Aubry. “They know technology. They generally technical support, such as when a student succeeds in have an idea of the field that they want to get into, and fully tapping a system’s resources. they know the software programs that are being used out there. So they appreciate that we have the most current “With 600 machines, you’re always going to have one or systems and we can support their goals and career two challenges,” recognizes Aubry. “HP has given us a objectives. Technology is one of the top things that they very strong support network. We deal directly with HP look for in a school of our nature.” support, and the company is very good in terms of supporting the product—if we need parts, getting us the At the same time, the Institute’s technology—including its parts; if we need technical support, giving us tech support.” hundreds of HP workstations with ATI graphics and Intel processors—is a critical component of its mission. MAKING THE GRADE Users such as Aubry and the Illinois Institute of Art likewise appreciate that HP partners with leading technology “We’re very much geared toward the students knowing companies, such as Intel, ATI, and various independent their profession, and meeting their career goals,” says software vendors. These relationships ensure not only that Aubry. “all the tools associated with the software and the

“That’s why we’ve gone with HP and ATI. Their products give us the best performance for the suite of software products that we need to provide our students.”—Jim Aubry

HP xw4400 Workstation

HP workstations feature and benefit from the latest and hardware are critical to the students achieving the success greatest in processing and graphics technologies, but also they are setting out for. Those items are very important for that all of the components have been adequately tested the success of the students, and they realize that.” and assured to work together seamlessly and without fail. Selecting a workstation for your education and your career “It adds another level of reliability to our systems,” says is a personal decision. It, like your graphics education, Aubry. “It is very important that we have a degree of should meet your needs, help you realize your creative knowledge that they have been certified to work with these visions, and support the goals you have set for yourself, software applications—that they have been tested, and your art, and your business. It’s a purchase decision that they work with the configuration.” cannot be made lightly or on an impersonal website or online storefront. Contact people who know how you work HP and its partners further aid the school not only in and who understand your specific needs. Contact Hewlett- competing for incoming students, but also in delivering Packard Company and ATI, and tell them about you and students precisely what they need to succeed. the fantastic places your imagination, education, and career— as well as the latest technologies—are going to take you.

If you are attending Siggraph in Boston August 1—3, please stop by the HP booth #1203 to experience the latest HP workstations and the ATI booth #1513 to experience the newewst FireGL workstation graphics accelerators.

Find more information about HP workstations designed for the DCC market at: www.hp.com/go/dcc______Find more information about ATI workstation graphics accelerators at: www.ati.com/FireGL______

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Motion Capture. . . .

the same as if a motion-capture crew had acquired the performance using a traditional system. “We calibrated an animation rig (skeleton),” says Michael Sanders, digital supervisor in charge of data acquisition. Then, to calculate the motion for the skeleton, the Imocap system inferred the skeleton’s movement from the image of the body. “The skeleton and the images lock together,” he says, “and we get a per- frame motion solution from a sequence of images. It’s like the inverse of a motion- capture system, but with the same fi del- Hadras, performed by Ho Kwan Tse, loses his head in a chase scene. Modelers sculpted the ity. Normal mocap is constrained by creatures in Maya, created face shapes in Zeno, and added such detail as barnacles in Z-brush. hardware, controlled lighting, and a calibrated environment. The inverse is no hardware constraints, no cal- the Imocap solver, they retargeted the performance of each actor ibrated equipment, and full freedom to shoot in any location, under onto his corresponding CG creature. It sounds a little like matchi- any lighting conditions, and in any environment.” mation, but it’s leaps and bounds beyond. “I think of Imocap as a To help capture those images, while Verbinsky directed and blend between match animation and motion capture that produces his camera operators fi lmed the dot-banded, gray-suited actors, motion-capture data, a hybrid of techniques,” says Snell. “It sets a Knoll and the ILM crew also shot the action using prosumer HD new bar for visual effects. Wait ’til you see these guys.” camcorders for reference. The extra coverage helped verify the 3D performance for Imocap; however, the technique worked even Sneering Tentacles when all they had was the fi lm image. “The technique, by design, It may be revolutionary, but, like traditional motion capture, it had to be very forgiving,” says Knoll. wasn’t perfect—an actor might cover another’s face, for exam- Once ILM had the footage, Snell oversaw a group of 16 people ple. Animators cleaned up the Imocap movement, animated who matched the camera from the principal photography to the special appendages like crab claws sticking out of a character’s digital environment he had created from photos on set. Then, using back, and gave the faces expressions. “We gave all the charac-

Davy Jones’ performance by Bill Nighy wearing a gray suit with tracking markers and bands at left, top, was captured using ILM’s proprietary Imocap system and then applied to the cursed creature at left, bottom. Keyframe animators and simulation artists performed the tentacles. A new articulating rigid-body system controlled internal motors that bent the organist’s 46 tentacles forward and backward in different dimensions and at various speeds.

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. . . . Motion Capture

tacles get angry.” They also added something they called “sticktion,” which caused the tentacles to stick a bit to Davy as they swished—like wet spaghetti on a leather jacket, as Knoll puts it—rather than slide. Each of the 46 tentacles could have as many as 40 moving parts. Karin Derlich, lead creature TD, developed a “super controller” system to manage the complexity. With the super controller, TDs could adjust parameters to specify the speed that the motors moved the joints. To create the sine waves that caused a tentacle to curl like an octopus tentacle as it The complex detail in such all-CG characters as Davy Jones caused ILM’s R&D department to moved up, down, sideways, and twisted derive a new rendering solution based on a game technique to save time. in three dimensions, they selected which ters facial shapes, even Ogilvey, whose head is made of coral motors would go forward and which would go backward. and looks like he doesn’t have a mouth, and Crash, who is so eaten away he has sea anemones for a mouth,” says Campbell. Monster Effects “The tricky thing was translating Bill Nighy’s emotion to Davy Kraken, the sea monster that Davy invokes, has enormously larger Jones’ character. He’s a lip-synched main character.” tentacles. We fi rst see the squid-like creature’s giant tentacles ris- A custom analysis tool called Compare helped animators ing from the sea to overtake the trading ship Edinburgh. “Most with that process. “Animators can quickly bounce back and of the time the tentacles are fl ailing around causing destruction, forth between Bill Nighy’s performance and the CG character,” picking up sailors, and smashing things,” says Hickel. Animators says Knoll. “They could look at the timing of an eye blink, how worked with main controllers spaced along the length of the ten- high the corner of his mouth goes on a sneer. It was our job to tacle, and with smaller subsets of controllers, to add wobbles and copy Nighy, not interpret what he was doing.” shocks without disturbing the larger animation. In some shots, Because Davy has no nose, the modelers had to fi nd ways they used shape animation for individual suckers on the under- for the animators to reproduce Nighy’s contemptuous sneers side of the tentacles to bring the suckers alive. through his facial tentacles. Although animators created the “We had 16 base suckers that animation TDs could instance sneers, usually Davy Jones’ 46 tentacles moved procedurally with random variations,” says Meny. “They could change the thanks to an evolution of ILM’s rigid-body dynamics system. look on a per-shot basis.” Each tentacle was made of cylinders connected with joints— Creature modeler Frank Gravatt built the Kraken tentacles in imagine soup cans one below the next. ILM’s previous rigid-body three sizes: a small, noodly arm for snatching people, a medium- dynamics could spin the soup cans relative to one another and sized tentacle for wrapping the mast, and a crusher that smashed rotate them in various directions, which was fi ne for battle droids in Star Wars that crashed to the fl oor and landed like rag dolls. But Davy’s tentacles needed to bend, curl, sway, and writhe. To make that possible, the simulation team put motors between the joints and created an articulating rigid-body dynamics system. “We can feed the motors mathemati- cal expressions or keyframe motion, and they’ll try to move on their own,” says James Tooley, senior technical director (TD) and animation supervisor. “They seek out and try to perform, and we can change that performance. You’ll notice that in some shots, they swish back and forth, The hardest compositing shots in the fi lm were during Kraken destruction scenes, which but when Davy Jones gets angry, the ten- included CG water, real water and mist, real smoke, live-action actors, and the CG Kraken.

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. . . . Motion Capture

Animators could stretch or shrink the tentacle and move any part using a Technical directors added detail in some shots to other- non-ballistic procedural posing system on an inverse-kinematics control system. wise instanced tentacle suckers with random variations.

the ship. In addition, a full-body Kraken, with its gruesome maw, Kraken picks up sailors with one tentacle while using another appears in a few shots. To animate the beast, ILM developed a to smash onto the deck, and a third to wrap around a mast new system. “Tentacles, snakes, ropes, things like that are, by their and rip it out. The ships are sometimes CG, sometimes models, nature, very diffi cult to animate,” says Tooley, “especially when and sometimes combinations of the two. There’s smoke, fl ying you need to pull on one end and have the whole thing follow.” debris, and water spray—all photographed on set because Knoll To solve that problem, Tooley’s team of 36 TDs developed believes in having the environmental effects shot in-camera. a non-ballistic posing system on top of an inverse-kinematics “It just looks more real,” Knoll says. “But it makes these shots control system. The result allowed animators to move the ten- the most horrible compositing nightmare you could imagine.” tacles around as if they were pieces of rope. “We also added Rather than trying to extract smoke and water splashes from extra control systems to the underlying inverse-kinematics the plates, compositors laid the tentacles on top of the plate control structure,” Tooley says. “Animators could move any atmosphere and then layered smoke or water elements on the part of the tentacle where they wanted at any time. They could tentacles. A 100-layer shot, of a tentacle crashing through the grow it, make it stretch, shrink it, or make it fatter, and, as it middle of a ship, took two and a half months to composite. changed length, it also changed volume.” Compositors also handled Turkish prison digimattes, a On top of that, they sometimes added a fl esh simulator, bone cage fi lled with Black Pearl crewmembers that dangled which also ran on Davy Jones’ tentacles and a few other faces, from simulated CG ropes across a canyon, backgrounds that to add jiggle and to preserve the volume. “There’s a really cool turned Dominica into Cannibal Island, and many other shots. shot I like of a tentacle moving past a cannon port,” Tooley says. Given the technical challenges, technical fi rsts, and sophis- “We used the fl esh system, this tetrahedral volumetric system, ticated artistry, the work on this fi lm should easily put the so as the suction cups on the tentacle pass the cannon and the crew in the running for a visual effects Oscar. “As much as I cannon port, you can see that they really get pushed around by know people like to mention technical things, what I was most this collision object and vibrate a little bit.” pleased about was the quality of artistic talent on this show,” says Campbell. Mayhem and Magic The fi rst Pirates captured a box-offi ce treasure chest of Kraken’s attack causes some of the most diffi cult composites in $653 million as it sailed into the top 25 all-time box-offi ce hits a fi lm fi lled with diffi cult composites. Compositing supervisor domestically and internationally. With Johnny Depp, several Eddie Pasquarello led a team that averaged around 65 composi- totally gross characters, and the same outrageous humor as in tors and peaked at 80. The compositors used ILM’s Comptime, the original, the sequel is likely to capture enthusiastic audi- Apple’s Shake, and ILM’s Sabre system, which is based on ences as well. Autodesk Discreet’s Inferno. “It’s pretty neat and kind of disgusting, but not so much you “We had to integrate CG characters with live characters wear- can’t enjoy the fun of it,” says Hickel. ing makeup,” he says, referring to Davy and his crew, which includes Bootstrap Bill (Stellan Skarsgard), the only non-CG char- Barbara Robertson is an award-winning writer and a contributing acter. “And we had water integration. Ship rigging. Backgrounds editor for Computer Graphics World. She can be reached at

behind. Bluescreen people. There were no easy shots.” [email protected].______

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. . . . Character Animation

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Character Animation. . . .

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By Martin McEachern F

ny animator who has spent Monster House in question could only be comes its way. DJ and Chowder do their months sculpting blendshapes brought to life through animation. And best to alert those living nearby, but their Aor posing IK handles will tell you that the they needed a director who could handle warnings fall on deaf ears, namely those of phrase “computer animation” is not only a the challenges of animation and direct- Zee (Maggie Gyllenhaal), the world’s worst misnomer for the person’s art, but a border- ing the partially motion-captured per- baby-sitter, her apathetic headbanger boy- line insult. Computers don’t animate any- formances of the CG characters. Kenan’s friend Bones (Jason Lee), and two witless thing; people do. One of the reasons for “The Lark,” which featured a stop-motion police offi cers. It’s up to DJ, Chowder, and the misconception is that digital charac- bird and rotoscoped live actors performing a prep-schooler named Jenny (Spencer ters usually lack the hands-on tangibility against 2D animated backgrounds made in Locke) to save the neighborhood. that makes stop-motion puppets feel hand- Adobe’s After Effects, earned him the job. crafted and unique. It’s this handmade Not bad for a fi lm shot on DV and edited in Stop-Motion CGI charm and tactile reality of stop motion Apple’s Final Cut for a mere $400. In an era when CG characters can boast that fi rst-time director Gil Kenan, backed Monster House utilizes the same per- millions of volumetric hairs and scenes by executive producers Steven Spielberg formance-capture system pioneered for can be rendered with hundreds of lights, and Robert Zemeckis, wanted to intro- 2004’s The Polar Express (see “Locomotion,” Kenan’s plan to never let the comput- duce to the CG medium in Sony Pictures December 2004, pg. 16), which lent itself er’s “inhuman” ability to process data Imageworks’ latest feature, Monster House. perfectly to capturing the weight and phys- defeat the human connection to the fi lm Kenan wanted the digital characters to icality of the characters. Unlike The Polar was bold and audacious, and had reper- feel as though human hands had labored Express, however, Monster House’s world is cussions throughout the production. “In on them, even if it meant preserving the far more stylized, blending the childlike my fi rst conversation with my visual fi ngerprints the sculptor left in the clay elements of Rankin/Bass with the stop- effects supervisor, Jay Redd, we decided maquettes from which they were scanned. motion work of Ray Harryhausen (Clash to remove motion blur from the entire “I wanted the audience to feel like it could of the Titans) to forge a kind of “dollhouse” movie,” says Kenan. “Motion blur has relate to every character in every environ- realism in which characters feel more doll- been used as a crutch in CG animation for ment by reaching out and touching them, like than CG creations. so long, and what you lose is that amazing so that meant devising an entirely new The story follows a boy named DJ Harryhausen staccato effect, where things approach to putting together a computer- (played by Mitchel Musso) who is obsessed have a real connection to the ground, and generated movie,” says the 29-year-old with a mysterious house across the street a real weight and gravity to them. I want director, who has spent the last four years that is owned by the meanest old man in everything to feel planted and tangible living every aspiring fi lmmaker’s dream the neighborhood, Horace Nebbercracker and connected to the world.” (see “Building a Career, pg. 46). (Steve Buscemi). When DJ and his friend In fact, the choice to turn off motion Kenan was fresh out of fi lm school at Chowder (Sam Lerner) try to recover their blur was a direct nod to stop motion, UCLA when his short movie “The Lark” basketball from Nebbercracker’s lawn, the notes Redd. “When you’re seeing every was noticed by Zemeckis; along with old man goes berserk, lifting DJ off the frame sharp, when your brain is regis- Spielberg, Zemeckis had opted against ground before collapsing dead on top of tering every pose, every eye shape, every developing Monster House as a live-action him. That’s when the house comes alive, dart of an eye or fi nger movement, it fi lm because the anthropomorphizing devouring anyone and anything that makes the fi lm feel handmade.” xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.cgw.com______JULY 2006 Computer Graphics World | 29

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LEFT BRAIN

COMPUTER ARTS–NEW MEDIA ANIMATION & VISUAL EFFECTS ILLUSTRATION INDUSTRIAL DESIGN ARCHITECTURE GRAPHIC DESIGN

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RIGHT BRAIN

We help bring them together.

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. . . . Character Animation

Carrying fl ashlights and armed with Super Soakers, DJ, fl anked by other side,” says animation supervisor Troy Saliba. “Each side his friends Jenny and Chowder, explore the strange happenings had to be rigged independently.” inside the Monster House. The characters and everything else in the To ensure that the character models manifested the slight- fi lm look handmade rather than CG-perfect. est nuances of an actor’s facial performance during the motion- Forging the fi lm’s hand-labored look began during the model- capture process, modelers infused the models with the unique ing phase, where sculptor Leo Rijin fashioned clay maquettes of facial structure of each actor. For instance, artists gave Mr. each character, ranging in size from 12 to 16 inches. Under normal Nebbercracker big, walnut shell eyelids, and tailored the eye- circumstances, a modeler would then work from scans to build brows to match those of Steve Buscemi. They also accentuated one half of the character, duplicate it to the other side, and stitch the nasolabial furrow so Buscemi’s frequent sneering translated the halves together. Not here. “That drove me crazy when I fi rst perfectly during motion capture. found out that’s how they did it,” says Kenan. “I insisted that both Continuing with this stripped-down aesthetic, the fi lmmak- halves of the original clay maquettes be modeled. It was really cru- ers also avoided hyper-realistic cloth and hair simulation, rely- cial that all the characters had distinct features and weren’t per- ing instead on simple geometry for hair and tubular geometry for fectly symmetrical. If you look closely at DJ, you’ll see that one of clothes. “[Redd] and his team came up with simplifi ed hair. It his nostrils is a little wonky, and that’s just because [Rijin] had a doesn’t move, and you don’t think about it; you shouldn’t think little accident in sculpting his nose, but it constitutes what we iden- about it. You don’t think about an actor’s hair in a feature; if you tify as a particular characteristic, and it makes a big difference.” are, you aren’t watching the movie,” says Kenan. In the same vein, Modeled with polygons, subdivision surfaces, and bits of the team kept the eyes simple and graphic. Adds Redd: “When the NURBS, the asymmetrical character geometry also demanded eyes become complex, you tend to want more, and then you start asymmetrical rigging. “We couldn’t just rig one side and fl op to get into shiny skin, subsurface scattering shaders, and all these it over to the other side because the model was different on the photoreal qualities we weren’t interested in doing.”

Actors and Animators United The biggest revision to the performance-capture process used for The Polar Express occurred with facial animation. Unlike The Polar Express, where the character rigs were geared almost exclusively for motion capture, Saliba made sure Monster House’s rigs were equally capable of responding to motion capture and hand animation. As a result, the animation is always a blend between actor and animator. In The Polar Express, the motion-captured data from the 150-plus markers on each continued on page 37

Modelers gave characters the unique facial structures of the actors voicing them, so the artists could more easily incorporate nuanced facial expressions.

32 | Computer Graphics World JULY 2006 ______www.cgw.com

Success is in the Cards

Making the right workstation and graphics choices can help you achieve greatness

As a graphics professional in the entertainment industry, you don’t compromise when it comes to your work—always striving for the highest Software vendors, such as Autodesk, Softimage quality, greatest realism, or most eye-catching and NewTek, continue to infuse applications effect. You push your creativity, imagination, with greater functionality to enable creatives to talents, and even your time to the limit. You do more at a faster pace. With the increased should expect no less from the solutions you needs of users and expanded software use to get the job done. capabilities comes the necessity for hardware solutions capable of supporting more complex Industry projects—whether involving character projects and applications. animation, a novel visual effect, or a photorealistic gaming environment—are The workstation market has responded, becoming increasingly complex. Because of delivering such leading technologies as multi- the nature of what you are trying to core processing and 64-bit architectures. Multi- accomplish, you continuously push the core technology involves having more than one envelope and, in turn, drive greater processor core packaged in a single chip, thereby performance. Answering the call for more boosting performance and enabling application robust tools, software and hardware vendors threads (instructions) to run in parallel. The are refining applications, workstations, and result is increased system performance and user components to put more powerful, high- productivity. The newer workstations now offer performance, and reliable solutions in the up to two dual-core processors designed to hands of graphic design customers. simultaneously handle eight software instructions at the same time—four physical and

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Success is in the cards

four virtual. This technology, known as hyper- Workstation technologies might be complex, but threading, is becoming more and more prevalent the selection process needn’t be. in the industry, as leading software developers, such as Adobe, Autodesk, Softimage and NewTek Computer considerations unveil applications capable of running on more Three components should be considered when than one processor, or core, simultaneously. selecting a workstation for graphics-intensive applications. Of significant importance are a Another industry trend driving greater graphics workstation’s memory, processor, and graphics performance is 64-bit computing, which is card. particularly beneficial to digital content creators given the necessity to work with large, complex As the complexity of graphics projects increases, files. 64-bit technology answers the need for larger so too do corresponding file sizes. The more addressable physical and virtual memory, impressive an animation or effect, the more scalability, and faster processing and response memory and processing power required. times. Desktop-class systems do not, as a general Workstation-class systems generally provide rule, offer 64-bit computing; rather, it is typically greater main system memory, often at faster found only on enterprise-level servers and speeds, when compared to desktop PCs. workstations, which support both 32- and 64-bit applications. Newer graphics workstations offer From a processing perspective, workstation-class up to 64GB of physical memory—incredible. systems employ the latest technologies from leading vendors. Dell’s Precision™ workstations, for example, take advantage of the latest Intel® Xeon® dual-core processors, whereas its consumer

product lines use Intel® P4 processing. Workstations are designed and Workstation class vs. desktop class built to provide a higher capacity for calculation Your workstation is an integral part of your job, and processing because the applications and your success. If you’ve ever worked with an demand it. unresponsive computer system—one that takes considerable time to complete a task or respond Memory capacity and processing power contribute to a command, one that crashes without warning, to the overall performance of a workstation, but or one that refuses to multitask—you have a keen no component is as critical to your workflow as understanding of this fact. the graphics card. A system tailored to meet the needs of digital content creators employs a high- It might be tempting to save money on an initial end OpenGL graphics card, such as ATI’s FireGL hardware purchase by opting for a more affordable, line, designed to support today’s advanced run-of-the-mill desktop PC or building your own applications and their expanding feature sets. system. Yet, the hardware and software tools you select to do your job are an investment in your Graphics power and memory career, and your future. You want a system The graphics card is a powerful part of the designed for your work, with your needs in mind. workstation, thanks in large part to the graphics Your needs are unique, so your system should be processing unit, or GPU. The GPU is similar to a in sync with you. computer processing unit, or CPU, but is focused on displaying pixels on the screen. Whereas the It is tremendously important, then, to understand CPU is responsible for running the software the latest hardware technology to configure the application and performing some calculations optimal system to meet your exacting needs. required by that program, anything involved in

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rendering graphics to a display is handled by the Integrated outputs GPU. GPUs, such as those from ATI, take advantage By selecting a card with the latest output of more than 350 million transistors, far more than technologies, such as digital video interface (DVI), CPUs, and are roughly 10 times more powerful in as well as support for dual link and 10- and 16-bit terms of raw computational power. displays, you are ensuring the viability of your workstation in the future, or future-proofing. Cards With all that processing power behind you, you such as the ATI FireGL series provide two DVI need sufficient memory to store the impressive connectors, expanding the digital content creator’s graphics on your monitor. Memory on the graphics workspace by driving two displays off a single card is used, in part, for the frame buffer, which card. Users can start with one display and add stores information displayed on the screen. another as their needs grow. Graphics cards today offer up to one gigabyte of memory on board, and ATI offers a range of Another desirable technology, dual link uses solutions with different amounts of memory and more of the pins on a DVI connector to processing power to meet the needs of a wide essentially double the bandwidth and drive more range of customers. data throughput. Dual link aids users in taking advantage of ultra-wide, high-resolution displays, Graphics memory requirements continue to such as Dell’s 30-inch 3007WFP with 2560x1600 increase, with the growing popularity of double, resolution. Those seeking an ultra-wide visual triple, and quad buffering. Double buffering workspace need the right graphics card to drive involves the use of a front buffer and a back buffer, displays at full resolution. In fact, a single ATI translating to a need for twice the memory. As FireGL V7200 sports two dual-link DVI outputs, you animate, for example, the computer displays suitable for driving two widescreen monitors one buffer while the graphics card renders to the side-by-side for a workspace measuring more second buffer; then, in a sixtieth of a second or than 5000 pixels wide.

"From automotive to aerospace, visual effects production to oil & gas exploration, today's industries rely on powerful workstations from Dell with ATI FireGL graphics inside." — Joe Chien, General Manager, Workstation Products, ATI Technologies

less, the buffers are swapped to prevent screens With more pixels on the screen, artists and from flickering. Double buffering enables smooth designers gain greater flexibility, accuracy, and animation, which is further expanded with triple productivity. Visual professionals benefit from a and quad buffering. large workspace and the ability to run multiple programs, boosting productivity and improving High-end graphics cards enable stereo 3D, a unique overall workflow. At the same time, it’s important capability involving left and right views that are to choose technology that affords you growth, each double-buffered, using four buffers. The ATI for your work today and in the future, as peripherals FireGL V7200, for example, offers a stereoscopic quickly become more capable. 3D connector through which alternating left and right 3D representations are displayed and Added value synchronized with 3D glasses. Demand for this Workstations, as compared to desktop PCs, offer stereoscopic view is growing, as it provides greater a newer system bus architecture. The bus, the detail when working with very intricate models. bandwidth that data travels between the processor or the hard drive and the memory, should use the Those using sophisticated rendering and shading latest technology and offer adequate bandwidth. techniques require adequate memory. Texture Today’s best graphics cards provide 16 lanes of mapping is improved by the ability to load textures PCI Express native. in the graphics card’s memory. Today’s popular pixel-shader programs also can be loaded into Look for algorithms and technologies in the GPU graphics memory to aid users in simulating water, that enhance the visual experience, like Avivo (ATI metal, and myriad other effects. video in video out). Avivo extends the traditional 8-bit color space, with 16.7 million total colors, to These latest industry and software innovations 10-bit color with more than 1 billion colors in all. put an emphasis on the GPU and graphics memory, The expanded color spectrum lends to more but the graphics card’s outputs also should not compelling, realistic, and crisp visuals, as well as be overlooked.

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Success is in the cards

brings about an increase in image detail, especially it is crucial to factor a system’s reputation, in highlights and shadows. certification, and support into the selection process.

Ten-bit color is significant for digital content Now, and in the future creation markets, like Hollywood, that require the The design industry is changing and innovating, best possible image with the best color quality. just as you are always perfecting your craft and ATI’s FireGL cards offer 10-bit color throughout expanding your knowledge. You need a system the graphics pipeline, enabling users to take that will serve you well into the future, as your advantage of high dynamic range imaging (HDRI). work increases in quality, complexity, and quantity. ATI cards also output 16-bit color, lending to more than 1 trillion color combinations and significantly In a studio or workgroup environment, invest in more detail. workstations with a scalable architecture that can support users in the organization now, and grow Behind the scenes with them in the future. A junior animator working You work nights and weekends, whatever is on a character’s hand may not need the highest- necessary to get the job done well and on time. The last thing you need is an unreliable, unresponsive computer system thwarting your efforts, and contributing to lost time, money, and clientele. For this reason, it is important “Aside from the speed and to ensure that your system is certified to work in tandem with your software and performance benefits peripherals, and that a support structure brought about by Dell is in place should you need it. Precision technologies, ATI, as an example, works directly with leading software vendors to ensure that its graphics cards our 24/7 support and drivers are optimized and validated for use really works for us.” with character animation software. Dell Precision takes it a step further, subjecting the entire — Marc Bourbonnais workstation—the graphics card, system bus, BIOS, 3D Technical Director, memory, hard drive, and more—to a thorough testing and certification process, so users can be confident Hybride Technologies the configuration will work in their environment.

Forced downtime can be both infuriating and costly. When was the last time you experienced a system that didn’t work in some way? Chances are you remember, considering it may have cost you time, money, and patience. Certification affords performing graphics configuration, but the senior you peace of mind, stability, and if a problem should animator who is animating the hands, feet, body, arise, accountability. and head wants the best solution available.

The quality of technical support is as important Selecting the optimal workstation for your digital as certification. When you are calling about your content creation career is an important decision. Dell Precision, for example, you have a direct Consider a system’s memory capacity, processing line to workstation-class tech support and power, and, above all else, its graphics card, before technicians familiar with running high-end committing to a purchase, and ensure that the applications. And a Dell Precision with an ATI manufacturer stands behind its products, offering FireGL graphics card provides access to another the appropriate certifications, assurances, and resource, ATI tech support. support. For more information about Dell Precision workstations and ATI FireGL graphics cards, visit

Don't forget that the cost of owning a computer www.dell.com/workstations______and www.ati.com/firegl.______doesn't end with the initial purchase, rather it Once you are armed with your optimal workstation, extends over its lifetime and may be affected by go have fun, be imaginative, and create some of maintenance, downtime, and more. For this reason, the greatest art the world will ever see.

For more information visit For more information visit www.dell.com/workstations ______www.ati.com/FireGL______or contact your Dell sales person or contact your ATI sales person

Dell cannot be responsible for errors in typography or photography. Dell, the Dell logo, and Dell Precision are trademarks of Dell Inc. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. © 2006 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell is strictly forbidden.

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Character Animation. . . .

continued from page 32 actor’s face was applied directly to the ues on them, it didn’t touch the CFS rig, giving artists two layers corresponding patches of facial geometry on the character, actu- of control over the motion-captured performances. (They could ally shifting the mesh around without any intermediary enhance- also keyframe the FACS poses manually if a performance failed ment. For Monster House, however, the team processed the same to capture properly or the director wanted something different.) motion-captured data from the facial markers through a new pro- “We can use these FACS poses as a foundation to build our anima- prietary Facial Action Coding System (FACS) muscle system, also tion on. For instance, instead of trying to combine 11 or 12 differ- used in Superman (see “Leaps Tall Orders,” pg. 52). Developed by ent muscle blendshapes to create a smile [with our CFS], we can Mark Sagar, now with Weta Digital, the system uses Paul Ekman go into the FACS poses and fi nd the smile shape and start with and WV Friesen’s cataloging of facial expressions based on muscle that, using the CFS to make it more organic,” explains Saliba. movements to solve motion-captured face data. While the animators were aiming for a puppet-like feel in the “Imagine it is a library of over 100 facial poses, such as ‘inner animation, they utilized proprietary sculpt deformers, known as eyebrow up’ or ‘outer eyebrow up.’ It harnesses the complete Tweak Clusters, to give the body animation a touch of squash and facial range of a person and divides it into individually num- stretch, and a more graphic look. In all, animators had 11 types of bered poses, so that it can choose any number of them, such as tweak clusters in their arsenal: Some of them would incorporate 4, 36, 37, and 94, and combine them in different percentages to lattice deformers, others would add or subtract volume, giving create a complete facial shape,” explains Saliba. the portly offi cer Landers, for example, a wobbling belly. To set up the system, the team videotaped each person act- ing out the 100-plus FACS poses, and then hand-keyed a blend- Motion Capture shape for each pose to create a FACS library for each actor. Using Using 200 Vicon mocap cameras, Imageworks captured the faces the motion-captured data, the FACS solver then selects the cor- and bodies of the actors as they performed on a 20x20x16-foot rect poses and combines them in various percentages to create stage—nearly double the stage volume used for The Polar Express. an expression on a frame-by-frame basis. Once the FACS solver “We had only one stage this time [as opposed to the three used for has created these expressions, animators use Imageworks’ pro- The Polar Express], and one of our goals was to capture within a prietary Character Facial System (CFS) to fi ne-tune them with larger space both face and body data simultaneously for a longer blendshape controls. amount of time, so we didn’t have to break up the motion. To do “Simplicity was my mandate going in because I knew we that, we needed a larger stage, because characters are always run- were doing a lot of editing and animation to the motion cap- ning across the street or climbing stairs in our fi lm,” says Redd. ture. I wanted to have rigs that were geared toward animation The body performances were analyzed and mapped to the and not set up so that they would only work with motion cap- character skeletons using Autodesk’s MotionBuilder, and output as ture,” says Saliba. “That was one of the problems they ran into an Autodesk Maya fi le for animation. Kenan also used six video on The Polar Express, and I didn’t want to be in that position cameras to record the scenes, which he edited together to create

because I knew our ﬁ lm was more stylized, meaning the anima- Breaking with standard practice, artists sculpted both sides of tion department was going to be leaving an indelible ﬁ ngerprint the maquette, rather than only half and replicating the image for on top of the motion capture.” the other side. This gave the characters distinctive features, but As the FACS solver accessed the various poses and set val- required separate rigging for each side of the character, as well.

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. . . . Character Animation

a live-action previz to make sure the across the 20x20-foot volume, and then story was working on a purely charac- edit them together. Capturing scenes ter level. Animators also used the video involving four or fi ve characters in the footage as reference as they shaped volume was also challenging. When the and sculpted the motion-captured data. cops show up and the kids crowd around Unlike The Polar Express, Kenan says the car, those are the hardest to deal with the fi nished performances for Monster because the actors are all in close prox- House were a completely organic collab- imity, and the cameras can’t see through oration between actor and animator. “It them because they’re optical-based. Most became such a stew between keyframed times we’d employ [keyframe] animation and motion-captured animation that it’s to solve it.” almost impossible to discern between the Once possessed, Nebbercracker’s two while watching the fi lm,” he says. house becomes a character in itself, On the mocap stage, wire mesh and and had to be every bit as emotive and foam-core props, which were invisible expressive as the humans. The crew to the infrared camera, represented the videotaped Kathleen Turner, who plays various sets, including the exteriors and the house, rampaging through foam- interiors of DJ’s home and the Monster House. Of course, the core props on the stage. While the animators took cues from her greatest challenge with the motion-capture process itself lies in performance, the entire house was keyframed. Artists rigged correcting eyeline problems and other proportional discrepancies the house with more than 40,000 controls (mostly IK), including between the actors and their digital characters. “We were very base controls that could torque the overall shape of the house, conscious at the beginning about casting actors with similar pro- and fi ner controls for moving, rotating, stretching, and break- portions as their digital characters,” says Redd. “So we cast kids ing every plank, shingle, stairway, railing, siding, brick, fl oor- as the kids. Maggie Gyllenhaal is very similar in height to Zee, board, and even the trees on the front lawn. The house has four Jason Lee is the same size as Bones, and so a lot of our eyelines specifi cally rigged states: calm, slightly broken down, articulate, usually worked very well.” According to Redd, the kids running across the street tended to be the hardest animations to capture because it was diffi cult endowing their stride with a believable sense of weighting. “We would capture fi ve or six volumes at a time of the kids running

The set of images at the top of the page depict a model of the Monster House (ﬁ rst) in its pristine condition and (second) during a stage of disruption. The image to the right shows the hundreds of controls on the house that allowed the animators access to every little detail. Below is that same model that appeared in the ﬁ lm.

38 | Computer Graphics World JULY 2006 www.cgw.com______

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______

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Image created by: Morph Studios (Maya), Caroline Delen (3ds Max). Autodesk and Alias are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. ©2006 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Idea: Greater creative freedom. Realized: Join us in celebrating the beautiful new relationship between Autodesk and Alias. Whether you’re looking for robust out-of-the-box power, a highly customizable solution or premier character-animation tools, this pair is ready to help you push creative boundaries for years to come. To learn more about this power couple, visit autodesk.com/animation

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. . . . Character Animation

and uprooted with tree arms. “We had to plan out how the house tion to being a very scary fi lm, so we needed a handheld camera would perform, the faces it could make, the emotions it needed to add tension to its movement,” says Redd. “It all goes back to to convey,” says Redd. “This resulted in many meetings and story our mandate of making the fi lm feel handmade. We wanted the sessions, determining exactly which boards had to break, which camera to have the little quirks and pops that humans give it.” could bend, where the joints were, how the windows would twist, The autumnal atmosphere of Halloween was also a cru- how the gutters, steps, and bricks would react, and so forth.” cial character in the fi lm, with the pale sky of day, the blazing orange sun at dusk, the deep blue shadows of night, the naked, Autumn in the Air skeletal trees that grasp like talons for the kids, and the fl urry of After the animations were completed and the camera move- leaves swirling across the ground. “From a dramatic storytell- ments were blocked out in Maya, Kenan, director of photography ing point of view, we look for what creates the best mood. The Xavier Perez Grobet, and camera operator Paul Babin then shot sky is very blue in the fall, the sun never gets very high, and the the scenes virtually using Wheels, a virtual camera system devel- shadows are always very long, so those are the cues people will oped at Imageworks for The Polar Express. Standing on the mocap pick up on,” says Redd. “The fi lm unfolds over a day and a half, stage, the fi lmmakers shot the scenes as if they were fi lming live jumping from 2 pm to 7 pm in successive scenes. Using angle of light and color of shadow, we could tell the audience what time it was without throwing up subtitles.” To make sure the characters and environments refl ected this atmospheric lighting, Imageworks developed new global illumination, radiosity, and raytracing software to light the movie as if it were shot on a practical, live-action stage. The software combines refraction, refl ection, indirect diffusion schemes, fl ags, and complex bounce lighting to produce the kind of photorealism a doll- Autumn is more than just a season in the movie; it played a crucial house might have, even without being completely “real.” role in setting a mood, with its subdued sunlight and the nearly bare “Bounce light is perhaps the single most important visual trees that look as if they could reach out and grab someone. component, next to control of shadow color and length,” action, using a camera head as an input device to control the vir- explains Redd. “After all, we are making a scary movie. It tual camera in MotionBuilder. Turning the wheel on the camera was the key to super-blue shadows, and making this fi lm feel head, they could control the pitch, roll, and tilt just like they could handmade. It’s important to show how the color of the carpet with a real camera. or the wall in DJ’s room affects his skin color in order to get Because so much of the fi lm involves children running that tangible feeling.” across streets and through houses, Imageworks also developed Artists also strategically placed lights in Maya so they would a shoulder-mounted steadicam for Monster House. This allowed only cast shadows from certain objects. For instance, really long the fi lmmakers to add a more human, handheld feel to the cam- For the characters in Monster House, Imageworks used its proprietary era movements, better capturing the urgency and emotional FACS muscle system that utilizes a category of facial expressions charge of a scene. “Monster House has tons of action, in addi- based on muscle movements to solve mocap face data.

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. . . . Character Animation

shadows are cast by the trees but not by the kids, so that they loom ominously over the children as if they’re about to attack. Astonishingly, the team used only one light in most scenes—the sun—and then arranged bounce cards around the characters, mimicking the way a live-action movie is shot. “I took my lighters down to a small stage, brought in a couple of grips and a camera When the kids make their way inside the Monster House, they use volumetric fl ashlights to illuminate operator, and through lights their way. The fi lmmakers, however, took care not to allow the lights to reveal too much so as to not on miniature sets, fogged the give away any “secrets.” scene, and got them thinking about how to transcend a cliché night or day look,” says Redd. “I footfalls that thickened the light inside the creaky old house, the wanted them to tell the story with color, time of day, angles of sun artists used Imageworks’ proprietary sprite renderer, called SPLAT and shadow, atmosphere, and bounce cards.” (Sony Pictures Layered Art Technology). As the kids proceed inside Once the kids infi ltrate the house, the children wield volumetric armed with Super Soakers, SPLAT also generated the fl uid effects. fl ashlights to illuminate the structure’s interior. Because the story All the particle simulations were fi rst done in Side Effects demanded tight control over what was revealed to the audience, Software’s Houdini or Maya, and then rendered by SPLAT using the artists used dust clouds, cuculoris, and barn doors to block specifi c sprites. Because the fi lm is teeming with destruction parts of the set from view. For the plumes of dust cast up by their effects, the fi lmmakers needed a way to generate massive dust

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THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WORK AND WORK OF ART

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. . . . Character Animation

Strategically are many variables that placed lights we can tweak to get a inside Maya cast specifi c ‘look’ for Monster shadows from House’s dust clouds, fi re, specifi c objects— and so forth.” the tall, leafl ess Aside from the trees extend long destruction clouds, shadows while the another big effects chal- children do not lenge was the ubiquitous cause shadows— ‘Pigpen’ dust that set- providing an ominous feel. tles around the Monster House. Each cloud had clouds and volumetric effects, yet maintain fi ne control over their to be individually sculpted for every shot in order to hide or scale and detail. “SPLAT allows us to dial in looks and styles reveal the particular action of the house. “I worked with our quickly and see the results rapidly, without having to calculate effects team to plot out the location, speed, height, and width tons of volumetric information,” says Redd. “We can create ‘vol- of the dust clouds from shot to shot,” says Redd. Continuity umes’ with the types and number of sprites that we use. There was very important.”

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from another, a porch from the next, and kind of Building a Career built the face, an ideal facade for this house. The fi rst In an interview with contributing editor How did you imbue the characters night I read the script, I just drew like crazy, making a Martin McEachern, Monster House director with that tangible feel? bunch of drawings to show Zemeckis what I wanted Gil Kenan shares his fairy-tale journey from In my fi rst conversation with effects supervisor Jay the house to look like, and those original drawings a $400 student fi lm to a multimillion-dollar Redd (who’s a master at texturing), we talked about remained very similar to the fi nished look of the house. feature fi lm with two of the industry’s wanting to feel the fi ngerprints of the sculptor on all biggest names: Robert Zemeckis and our characters’ faces. And that’s all there, sometimes The houses seem to have the arti- Steven Spielberg. preserved right from the source scans. Individually, fi ciality of a studio backlot. Is that you wouldn’t notice all those human ‘touches,’ but something you were aiming for? How did you become the the point is when you add them all together, it makes Yeah. I really wanted this movie to take place in an director of Monster House? a human connection between the fi lm and the audi- idealized movie suburban reality. I was always a I won an award at UCLA with my student fi lm “The ence, and that for me is what’s been lacking in CG big fan of the studio backlot suburbs. For me, that Lark,” so it was screened at the Director’s Guild fi lms. It’s the idea that it’s not all computer-pro- always defi ned a certain feeling and emotion. In of America. It was my fi rst screening outside of cessed; it took humans to make every model, every fact, on my second house hunt with Ed, we com- my apartment! One fateful day, my movie made it environment, and every character. And because the mandeered a golf cart and let loose on the Universal onto the desk of Robert Zemeckis. He saw it, liked movie stars humans, I wanted that sense of humanity backlot. We drove down that street from every awe- it, and told me about Monster House, which he’d to exude out of every frame. some suburban movie ever made, taking pictures and been developing with Steven Spielberg for about just getting the feeling of it. eight years. How did you anthropomorphize the house? Is that where The ‘Burbs was shot? Were you aiming for a stop-motion I started out by casting the house just like I cast the Absolutely! It’s also Wisteria Lane on Desperate aesthetic from the outset? kids. I went to my production designer, Ed Verreaux Housewives. I think there’s something magical about That’s defi nitely something I was going for, mostly (who was Spielberg’s storyboard artist at the begin- it. We also ended up at the Psycho house. I jumped out because traditional CG work is not really appealing to ning of his career, and the fi rst person to draw ET of the golf cart, took a chance at trying the door, and me as a fi lmmaker. I’ve had a really diffi cult time with and design Elliot’s bedroom), and together we drove found it miraculously unlocked. I went inside, started CG. That’s why for my student fi lms, I avoided Maya around Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Glendale, tak- goofi ng about and rolling around on the fl oors. I like the plague, because you can fancy things up all ing pictures of houses that would fi t the charac- couldn’t believe I was actually in the Psycho house! you want, but at the end of the day, it all ends up ter of our house. Then, we reassembled them on a The funniest part is when I came out: There was a feeling similar. It doesn’t have a tangible feel. desk, and took one window from one house, a door tour group driving by in a tram, and they freaked out xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Character Animation. . . .

Landscaping The ﬁ lm climaxes with the emergence of the “Constance Ghost,” an elegant and graceful apparition—encircled dra- matically in a 360-degree camera move—that had to be recognizable as a person. To this end, the artists created keyframed animations as a guide for the simulations, producing dozens of wisps, tendrils, and ringlets of spectral smoke that were rendered and lit, and ultimately coalesce, into the ﬁ nished apparition via Imageworks’ proprietary compositing software, Bonzai. In addition to Bonzai, the artists also used Adobe’s Photoshop and Maxon Computer’s Cinema 4D to create the many digital matte paintings that furnish the shots with back- The house, once it is possessed, transforms from a structure to a main character, ground trees, the sky, and deep vistas. Nevertheless, there are and is every bit as emotive and expressive as DJ and the other CG actors. almost no static backgrounds in Monster House. The environment is perpetually alive with gently blowing leaves, moving Imageworks used Houdini and exported the surfaces into the stu- bushes, and scattering leaves. For leaves, grass, rocks, and bricks, dio’s internal geometry format for dynamic simulation or effects.

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because just as they were passing by, there was this He came in without knowing anything about Wheels Yeah, Lars Von Trier. And that’s the perfect anal- weirdo with big eyebrows jumping out of the door. or mocap; all he knew was traditional fi lmmaking. It ogy. It’s like black-box theater. Focusing on charac- was a really good marriage between us because I felt ter helped me a lot in bridging the gap between the Did Wheels, Imageworks’ virtual comfortable in 3D space, and so together we could mocap performance and the fi nished animation. I camera system, help you capture fulfi ll our goal of shooting the fi lm with a real sense worked with all the actors to get a sense of height- the emotion of a scene better of weight and gravity. We had four camera operators ened physicality in the performances and mannerisms, than you could by animating the at Imageworks who worked with us for fi ve months making sure they were a bit broader than normal camera in Maya? to place the cameras and get all the coverage. I then because I knew it would take that extra 5 to 10 per- Well, there’s one huge fl aw with traditional CG anima- went back to my cutting room and edited all that cov- cent to translate to the digital characters. tion, and it has driven me crazy since the early days, and erage into the fi nished cut. that’s the weightlessness of the camera. As a fi lmmaker, What advancements would you it has always been the most frustrating thing, because I Are there differences between like to see in the motion-captured feel like the weight of the camera is not just an aesthetic directing actors for live action than fi lmmaking process? thing, it has an emotional thing; there’s a gravity to it for motion-captured performances? As these movies become technologically advanced, and a connection to the actors and the scene and the You have to work harder to help them imagine the there’s this strange kind of show-off race that’s story. It was really important that I shoot this fi lm with world, but as soon as the actors were able to embrace been happening, and most of it is about how many the philosophy of a live-action fi lm, which is the philoso- the theatrical nature of mocap performance, they were lights they can fi t into a scene, how many amazing phy of narrative fi lmmaking as it’s been learned during able to imagine themselves purely in character. I fi nd hair simulations they can stick on a character, and I the last 100 years—but still not forgetting that when that when you strip away a lot of the stuff—take away feel that’s wrong. Every movie should create its own it’s absolutely necessary for the story, I can go nuts and costumes, wigs, sets, and props—the fi rst couple of technology. For instance, global illumination was break all those laws of narrative fi lmmaking. days can be scary because you’ve taken away their extremely important to our fi lm, to give our [delib- safety net, but shortly thereafter, a kind of transforma- erately artifi cial world] a real sense of existence, How did you give the camera this tion takes place where the actors become purely con- so we developed new technology for that. A fi lm connection to the actors? centrated on character. And in many ways, you get a should defi ne its own technology and not vice versa. The fi rst thing I did was hire the least technical, the really heightened sense of character. That’s where you get into trouble. I feel like mocap least computer-knowledgeable cinematographer I is a tool to serve the story on this fi lm and nothing could fi nd, someone who made fi lms purely emo- Have you heard of a Danish director who more. That’s where I want to see it go, to become tionally without any artifi ce, and that was Xavier made a fi lm called Dogville by doing that something that’s not talked about and just appreci- Perez Grobet, who shot Before Nightfall. That fi lm exact same thing—stripping his actors of ated by an audience for facilitating a great, commu- is purely emotional fi lmmaking and cinematography. sets and elaborate costumes? nicating performance. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

______www.cgw.com JULY 2006 Computer Graphics World | 47

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Eji ndjg jhZg ^ciZg[VXZ dc hiZgd^Yh#

The CG artists avoided giving the characters hyper-realistic hair and clothing, and instead used simplistic geometry for the hair and tubular geometry for the clothing. This worked well with the movie’s stripped-down aesthetic.

For surfacing the characters and environments, texture lead Dennis Bredow and his team used Maxon’s BodyPaint. “We used it for almost everything on the movie, including the myriad layers of dirt, decay, color fade, scratches, dents, dings, scrapes, and so forth,” says Redd. “We spent a lot of time on the character makeup; we coordinated costumes with the color of each character’s face, the rosy qualities of their cheeks, freckles, marks, bumps, and more. [The texturing process] even involved reveal- ing fi ngerprints on the characters’ skin. It adds another layer of doll-like realism to the whole world without trying to create real, living fl esh. Our characters get beat up and dirty over time, so we had to map out when, where, and how each character would become dirtier and dirtier. Lots of tricks were used with alpha channels and layered shaders to control the continuity.” To give depth and realism to surfaces for extreme close-ups, the I?==H7F> artists added procedural bump and displacement maps to some of the painted textures. Finally, to replace the perfections of CGI with 7ddi]'(%+ the living chemistry of fi lm stock, the team added fi lm grain to L_i_jjem_d every shot and created a diffusion fi lter to soften the highlights. Monster House represents a signifi cant step forward in the evolution of the motion-capture process pioneered on The Polar Express, primarily by giving animators far greater control over 7ddhindjgldg`Ådl the actors’ performances. “It is turning into a new kind of hybrid medium,” says Redd. “Motion capture is really an immaculate IB lî]HeVXZIgVkZaZg! reference for the animators. The analogy I use is to Disney’s use i]ZedgiVWaZcVk^\Vi^dc of fi lmed reference for the dances in Snow White. No one would say Snow White is a terribly animated fi lm. For us, the motion YZk^XZ[dgbdYZa^c\ capture is the DNA, the substance of a performance.” In a summer fl ooded with CG features, each competing for Vc^bVi^dc# technical supremacy, Monster House also steps out of the beaten digital path to assert, not hide, the authorship of the human LZ¼gZgV[Å^c\d[[VHeVXZIgVkZaZg hands behind it. “I wanted to make a fi lm that didn’t have the ZkZgn]djgYjg^c\H><

______lll#(Ym#Xdb$\Y Martin McEachern is an award-winning journalist and contributing editor for Computer Graphics World. He can be reached at

[email protected].______

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. . . . Digital Doubles

hen Superman soared above Lois swings around the chair. The lights strobe, Lane’s house in Warner Bros’ the arm moves, and cameras positioned Sony Pictures W Superman Returns, he fl ew on the around the chair photograph the actor’s wings of computer graphics technology and face to produce images in various lighting Imageworks visual effects expertise that has taken super- conditions. heroes and digital humans to new heights. For Spider-Man 2, Imageworks used creates a digital Andy Jones, animation supervisor at four synchronized cameras, but later dis- Sony Pictures Imageworks and Oscar covered they had missed part of Molino’s Superman for nominee for I, Robot, led the team that neck. For Superman Returns, they cap- created the digital stunt double’s perfor- tured Routh’s face and the back of his close encounters mance. Richard Hoover, Oscar nominee head using six ARRI Group Arrifl ex fi lm for Armageddon, supervised Imageworks’ cameras snapping images at the rate 300 visual effects shots. Mark Stetson, of 60 frames per second. At the end of who won a visual effects Oscar for The the session, Imageworks had 480 sets By Barbara Robertson Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the of six images. Each set of images, when Ring, supervised the work of 11 visual blended, could surround a 3D model of effects studios that created the fi lm’s Routh’s head with a seamless photo of his 1400 shots. And, Bryan Singer of X-Men face. Some image sets captured specifi c and X-Men 2 fame directed the fi lm. expressions—eyes open, eyes closed, and Digital stunt doubles have accelerated mouth open, mouth closed, for example; the actions of superheroes since Batman others captured a neutral expression. took a 60-foot tumble in 1995’s Batman “We have several shots where the digital Forever, and with each, the camera has Superman fl ies right by the lens, and we get moved closer to the digital double’s face. a really good look at his face,” says Hoover. “We got much closer than we ever thought “We get close enough to see his expression.” we’d be,” says Jones of Superman. “In A technical crew led by John Monos one shot in particular, his head is about removed highlights from the images, used a third, maybe half, the screen space. custom algorithms to extract refl ective There were only a few shots like that, but data, and ended up with 480 refl ectance they were extremely challenging.” maps that could wrap like a rubber sheet Jones should know. As animation around the 3D model of the actor’s head director for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and I, Robot, digital stunt sequence supervisor for Titanic, and director of The Animatrix and Final Flight of the Osiris, he’s spent much of his career leading teams that have put photorealistic (and stylized) digital humans on screen. “The techniques for face shots have changed quite a bit from Final Fantasy,” he says, “and also what we can do with animation, skin dynamics, and muscles.” To reproduce the face of Brandon Routh, who plays the role of the Man of Steel, In some shots, Superman is actor Brandon Imageworks used the same Light Stage 2 Routh “fl ying” on wires against a green- system developed by Paul Debevec and screen with puppeteers maneuvering his his team at USC’s Institute for Creative cape, as shown in the photograph above. Technology that had captured Alfred Compositors then blended the greenscreen Molino’s face to create Doc Ock in Spider- footage into background plates and digital Man 2. With the Light Stage 2 system, an environments. However, Superman is often actor sits unmoving in a chair while a Routh’s digital double created at Sony mechanical arm fastened with strobe lights Pictures Imageworks, as in the image at right.

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Digital Doubles. . . .

and on which technical directors could aim CG lights. “Our TDs just position lights, and based on that, the map comes in,” explains Monos. A custom algorithm helped the TDs dial in reﬂ ectance data as the face moved, and the image-based rendering (IBR) system handled potential problems with double shadows. “With IBR, shadows are baked in, like the shadows from the nose onto the cheek,” Monos says. “We didn’t want a double shadow if maybe an arm crossed the faces, so we resolved that internally as part of the program.” Although the crew captured Routh’s hands with the Light Stage 2 system, his hands moved so much that it became easier to use painted Images © 2006 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved. reserved. rights All Inc. Entertainment Bros. Warner © 2006 Images texture maps and traditional rendering with subsurface scattering.

Faster than a Speeding Bullet To create Superman’s performance, animators worked with motion-capture data and greenscreen reference. They captured Routh in basic ﬂ ying poses and, because the crew thought it would need to have the digital

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. . . . Digital Doubles

double deliver dialog, it motion-captured facial expressions based on Imageworks’ proprietary application of the Facial Action Coding System, also used in Monster House (see “This Old House,” pg. 28). “It was extremely challenging trying to make a superhero look real and still look like a superhero,” says Jones. “The instinct is to go for comic book poses and fun, big styles of motion. But Bryan [Singer] wanted us to pull back and make Digital Superman fl ew 1200 mph in Autodesk’s Maya, using his arms aerodynamically and his him look real, with a cool factor.” knees to turn and create wind resistance. The fl ying shots were a mixture of all digital double, all green- tion, ripple in another, look like it was going fast, but moving with screen images of Routh on wires, and Routh’s head on a digital a certain amount of amplitude that was acceptable to us,” says body. “We had close-up shots where they couldn’t use his face for Hoover. Simulations based on physics do what they do, but the one reason or another, so we had to get the essence of Brandon end result wasn’t always what we liked, so we used sims to do [Routh] in there,” says Jones. Some were especially demanding. the physics and other controls to manipulate it. We had dozens of “In a few, we went from the CG human into a live-action green- shots where we replaced the real cape with the digital cape.” screen, which was complicated because we had to match lighting, Animators blocked out, roughly, how they wanted the body pose, everything.” cape positioned, and then Jones worked with technical direc- In one shot, for example, the digital Superman fl ies through tor Takashi Kuribayashi to set wind direction, speed, and other a tunnel of fl ames, and right after he lands, as he parameters. “We tried layering small, fast simu- starts to stand, the camera pulls into a close-up and To read a Q&A with lations onto larger ones, but it felt like the cape Routh’s image replaces the double. “We had very Superman Returns was fi ghting itself,” Jones says. “We ended up particular things worked out about how he fl ew,” director Bryan Singer, simulating the cape at low resolution for fast says Hoover. “We used his arms aerodynamically see the story shots and higher resolution for slower shots to get and his knees to turn and create wind resistance in our sister more wrinkles and folds.” like a rudder on a plane.” publication, Post. Kuribayashi also helped the animators How fast does he fl y? Although it might not be with hair simulation, for which the crew used apparent in the shots, the animators could see in Autodesk’s Maya Imageworks’ in-house system to help preserve Superman’s that he fl ew over 1200 miles per hour. “That made it diffi cult for famous curl in the middle of his forehead. “If his hair blew back, the cloth simulation,” says Hoover. “The physics don’t work.” he looked less like Superman, but more like Brandon,” says Superman’s cape had to look like Superman was fl ying faster Jones. “But if that’s what it did on the greenscreen, that’s what than a speeding bullet, but it also needed to look pleasing. For cloth we did, too.” simulation, the crew used Syfl ex software and devised techniques In addition to its own shots, most particularly the sequence to sculpt the shape using parameters and forces. To replicate the early in the fi lm in which Superman stops a plane nose-div- patterns on the real cape, CG artists used Pixar RenderMan shading into a baseball stadium, Imageworks provided its digital ers, which scattered light in specifi c ways. Superman to other studios for close-ups. “Our mandate was to “It was very complex to get the material to fold in one direc- make him ready for anything,” Hoover says. “If Bryan [Singer] needed him in any shot, we could come to his aid.” In doing so, the studio pushed digital stunt doubles out of the background and into the limelight. “One thing I wanted to do was give the majestic fl ying sequences to Imageworks,” says Stetson, “in particular, the ‘lis- tening post’ sequence, where he sees Lois in her family situation and realizes what he’s lost and fl ies to a point in space and hov- ers. It’s beautiful. Also, Superman’s fl ight in the end sequence is graceful and almost playful.”

Imageworks used the Light Stage 2 system to capture photographic Barbara Robertson is an award-winning writer and a contribut- textures of actor Brandon Routh’s face that they applied to a 3D ing editor for Computer Graphics World. She can be reached at

model for close-up shots of Superman ﬂ ying. [email protected].

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. . . . CAD / Art When Worlds Collide

Image courtesy Cenveo Armstrong-White.

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CAD / Art. . . .

he premise is an obvious once known, at least partially to enhance The CAD revolution means that data one: All the work that goes its capabilities in CAD. More recently, is digital and, thus, it can be reused, T into creating a design for a the company acquired Alias Technology, repurposed, and mined…at least in the- product can be reused to create art for a which gives Autodesk both industrial ory. In practice—even at this late stage of video, documentation, or a slick maga- design tools and digital content creation the game—CAD and engineering depart- zine ad. But is the theory more attractive tools for the entertainment industry. ments often exist in their own isolated than the actual application? Likewise, Dassault has acquired Virtools, worlds, and it is diffi cult to get models In the last three years, there has been a company actively involved in the game and even images out of the design and remarkable progress in hardware and soft- development industry. engineering departments for use by other ware technology to make the process of New 3D exchange formats—such groups such as marketing, service, main- creating art from computer-aided design as U3D, DWF, 3DXML from Dassault, tenance, and so forth. (CAD) much easier. For example, graphics and the Web3D consortium’s X3D—are processing units (GPU), thanks to the evo- appearing, as well, and are designed to Who Is the Artist? lution of common APIs such as DirectX 9 improve the ability of artists and design- The dirty little secret about art and CAD s and OpenGL 2, provide hardware acceler- ers to collaborate and output art for use is this: Artists called on to create artwork ation of shader programs. The new GPUs, on the Web, in print, or in animation. for products frequently start from scratch in turn, have given software vendors good Also, companies such as Okino, Right to create artwork, even when CAD mod- reason to support DirectX and OpenGL, Hemisphere, Immersive Design, and els are available. Why? Artists will tell and to offer their own shader programs. Lattice 3D have emerged to sit in the mid- you that the complexity of CAD models CAD vendors have long anticipated the and their data sometimes gets lost in the blending of art and CAD, and were way fi le exchange, making it easier to just ahead of the curve in this area. Much of the start at the beginning. Also, of course, e early work in rendering software was done What really happens the art department might be attached to to enable the rendering of CAD models. an outside marketing fi rm rather than Countless rendering products were devel- when CAD models are the designing company, so it’s not always oped to enable architectural walk-throughs, easy for the group to communicate with and CAD products took on more and more transformed into art? the CAD and engineering group. Even rendering capabilities. In fact, Autodesk internal art departments might fi nd acquired 3D Studio Max, as 3ds Max was themselves challenged by the need to By Kathleen Maher negotiate with engineering or to work with CAD models in a variety of formats. And often, the engineering department is loath to relinquish precious CAD data. dle and mediate as fi les are Yet, the problem is not necessarily a exchanged for creating art technical one. Rather, it’s more of a human and documentation. More resources issue. Where does the process than simple fi le exchange, begin? Who is in charge? What is the out- these companies’ prod- put? The truth of the matter is there indeed ucts facilitate collabora- exists a gap between the CAD model and tion and documentation. In the art output, and there is no well-defi ned fact, many of these compa- job description that covers it. nies were born of the chaos For example, Greg Smith, CEO of that surrounded the early Immersive Design, says that as CAD data CAD wars and the need to moves out of the engineering department exchange CAD data; oth- and into publishing, CAD professionals are The ability to use CAD models in marketing materials means ers came along to accom- being asked to change the way they work. that photographers may now just shoot backgrounds rather than the entire ad using real cars or prototypes. On the modate large companies Immersive Design is one of those compa- other hand, the whole shot can be created in the computer, that are collaborating and nies that sit between the CAD model and allowing for a wealth of options. creating documentation. the output format—in this case, Acrobat

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. . . . CAD / Art

3D. The company’s product, IPA, lets users employ 3D models lored to Asian customers who expect a very high level of service from solid modelers—such as SolidWorks’ SolidWorks, UGS’s and designed to accommodate car dealerships with limited fl oor Solid Edge and I-deas, and PTC’s Pro/Engineer—add animation, space. Lexus offers customers luxurious rooms at dealerships in text, and so forth, and create an interactive Web page that can be Taiwan, Korea, and Singapore, where they can look at beautifully used for collaboration, documentation (for manuals, maintenance, rendered models of cars and specify colors and interiors. They and such), supply chain management, and marketing purposes. can also look at cars in different environments and times of day. Smith notes that as people work with 3D CAD models for an According to Ishibashi, the rooms have been big successes, interactive document, they often fi nd themselves wishing that and Lexus is exploring the idea of bringing them to the US. the model had been created differently so that it would be eas- “People come back again and again,” he says, noting that cus- ier to animate. The most common example is a model that will tomers often visit their cars before they get delivered. When be used to create an exploded view. And certainly, it helps if the customers fi nally make their choices, the e-Catalogue system parts are created in the right sequence. The same can be said for can print out a glossy brochure for them to take home. creating materials, adding lighting, and so on. Smith notes that The company uses Toyota’s CAD models and Initial Graphics Exchange Specifi cation (IGES) as a neutral exchange format. Next, the group brings them into Robert McNeel & Associates’ Rhino to clean up the IGES data, and then into 3ds Max. From there, Works Zebra puts its own technology to the task, including the company’s proprietary normal-mapping routing tool, ZSurfacing. The fi rm built quite a few custom shaders for the car, in addition to using its own high dynamic range (HDR) environment mapping and dynamic cube mapping technology. Works Zebra renders out the imagery in Splutterfi sh’s Brazil and authors interactive videos in Adobe’s Macromedia Director. Works Zebra has also developed its own engine, called Zeany, based on Microsoft’s ActiveX for the interactive application.

The Designer as Artist It could be said that the way that Works Zebra pulls in all available technologies and uses a variety of applications refl ects the industry today—with no one way to do anything and a lot of options. In contrast, Autodesk is building an entire ecosystem. The company has long resisted opening up its formats, and instead offers exchange formats that let users take drawings and models into other programs. Most recently, the company has offered its DWF format to let users collaborate, and the com- Images courtesy Works Zebra. Images courtesy pany is revamping its DWF Composer as Design Review. The more signifi cant step along the way to realizing Autodesk’s vision is the acquisition of Alias. Obviously Alias’s Maya is an important tool in digital content creation, especially in fi lm work. And thanks to Alias’s acquisition of Kaydara (and Works Zebra creates visualizations of Lexus car models so that its FilmBox product, now called MotionBuilder), Autodesk customers can see the new cars in action —even before the vehicles has yet another exchange format to offer its users in FBX. FBX roll off the production line. is widely used by game developers and in fi lm and video to it’s more important than ever to think about how a model is going exchange fi les. And, of course, Autodesk now has AliasStudio, to be used downstream before it is ever created in the fi rst place. a product suite long favored by industrial designers. Autodesk JaJa Ishibashi, director of business development at Works has not exactly put all the pieces together yet, and the former Zebra, enthusiastically agrees that job descriptions are changing, StudioTools still seems like a bit of a stepchild (as it did when and his company is capitalizing on that situation. Works Zebra Alias was a separate company). But, it’s clear the vendor wants collaborates with Toyota to create beautifully rendered images to offer companies ways to design and market all of its imagery for print and the Web. Also, Works Zebra has been working with within one happy family. the Lexus division to create e-Catalogues, wide-screen, interac- As an example of how all this might work, Autodesk points tive 3D presentations used as sales tools. The e-Catalogue is tai- to Wild West Motor Company. Founded by mechanical engineer

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CAD / Art. . . .

Paul Seiter in 1995, the company Animation Dynamics, Inc. created crafts custom motorcycles—the a segment for exercise equipment dream of many a mechanical maker Bowfl ex that demonstrated its new product, before it had engineer slaving away on compar- been produced. The scene atively mundane product designs. contained video that The company has its own in-house design ge courtesy ADi. Ima morphed into CG. center and uses AliasStudio to design its motorcycles with the kind of fl uid lines that embody the chures, and even videos made from CAD models fantasies of every boy who ever doodled a motorcy- are the most glamorous side of creating marketing cle in homeroom class. More important, AliasStudio materials from models, there is plenty of other work that enables the company to design parts that are manufac- has to be done as a product goes to market and beyond. turable. The company’s designers draw sketches of a new Documentation may well be the least glamorous side of the design, bring it in to AliasStudio, and they are able to snap curves design, production, sales, and support cycle, but it is vital to the to the orthographic views, giving them something they can surface. long-term success. In the realm of documentation, the writing Afterward, they use a CNC machine to create a physical model. The is on the wall for the technical illustrator. Increasingly, what is team then goes back to AliasStudio to make any additional changes. created digitally stays digital, and there isn’t the time or the will At the same time, the company is able to start developing its to redraw images for manuals. And 3D models enable detailed marketing materials. The company’s industrial designers use assembly views to be pulled directly from the models, embed- the same models in Studio to create photorealistic renderings, ded in documents, and distributed—often digitally via PDF. even before the motorcycle is produced. The company’s Web For example, the Federal Aviation Administration distributes site (www.wildwestmc.com) features both models and photos thousands of pages of manuals to safety experts. By doing it digitally, of the machines, and one would be hard-pressed to pick the real the FAA can keep pace with changes and eliminate the dangerous from the digital. practice of sending pages that have to be replaced by employees. Yet another example is Animation Dynamics, Inc. (ADi) of Likewise, the automotive industry produces manuals for its Portland, Oregon, which creates animations for fi lm, video, and the Web. Increasingly, says Jamie Elmer, ADi’s creative director, “CG is quietly sup- planting traditional photography and video.” He notes that once a designer creates a CAD fi le of a product, a CG artist can create a photoreal image or video for less than a photo or video shoot. ADi created a segment for a Bowfl ex commercial to demonstrate a new product, the Bowfl ex SelecTech, before it had been produced. The scene employed match-cut cinematography to morph from real footage to a photorealistic animation. ADi uses Okino’s Polytrans to translate CAD fi les to Alias Maya. Adobe After Effects was used to achieve the smooth transition to animation.

Revolutions Happen So Simply ______Finally, as was envisioned long ago by software developers and product designers, the CAD model really is becoming the repository of all information about a product, and it is being mined for that information. While photorealistic renderings, beautiful Web pages, bro-

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. . . . CAD / Art

cars and technical documentation for automotive repair. The tent creation software, including, of course, Autodesk 3ds Max data for these products is already coming from the CAD informa- and Maya, or Softimage XSI. The company also offers tools for the tion, and the industry wants to better collaborate and create digi- creation of photorealistic models for brochures and video —decid- tal marketing materials from the CAD data. As a matter of fact, edly right-brain tasks. even as CAD companies stonewalled on the development of open exchange formats, their customers—especially those in the auto- Case in Point motive and aeronautic industries—have been demanding some Right Hemisphere points to all the complicated elements that go way to access models and put them to work. Dassault has offered into creating images for an automotive brochure: background one solution in 3DXML, which has been accepted by IBM and, to photography, lighting effects, reﬂ ections, shading, materials, tex- some degree, Microsoft. (Alternatively, Autodesk offers DWF.) tures, and more. There is also the creation of leather interiors, In an effort originally spearheaded by Intel, interested parties metallic exteriors, and rubber tires. All those elements have to be such as Adobe, Boeing, Hewlett-Packard, Bentley Systems, and created according to rigid parameters—after all, the whole point Right Hemisphere came is that they look exactly like the real thing. together to form the 3D Right Hemisphere claims that its software enables Industry Forum (3DIF) designers to keep track of the proper materials and envi- to develop an exchange ronment components so the scene can be automatically format. Eventually, after rendered and published in a PDF or 3D PDF for review. more sturm und drang At the same time, engineers don’t ever have to let their than one expects from valuable CAD data leave their the CAD community, a department unrestricted. new exchange format, For instance, Cenveo U3D, was born, and it has Armstrong-White works with opened the door to another US car manufacturers to cre- avenue of image creation. ate still images and anima- Adobe has built upon the tions. The company has been U3D format to create Acrobat able to work directly with

3D PDF, and anyone with an Images courtesy Wild West Motors. CAD models to create images Acrobat reader can access a that would be impossible to do 3D model within Acrobat 3D; in the real world. To accom- as a PDF format, it can also plish this, the company uses be output for print publica- Right Hemisphere’s technol- tion or for the Web. ogy to prepare models for ren- Right Hemisphere worked The Gunfi re Motorcycle from Wild West Motors was created using a dering and animation. And with the 3DIF group and combination of artistic and design tools. The company has its own in-house once again, as discovered by design center that uses AliasStudio to achieve the fl uid lines of its bikes. Adobe in the creation of Wild West Motors and Works Photorealistic renders are output before production begins. Acrobat 3D. The company, Zebra, the ability to use the founded in New Zealand, started out building tools for digi- CAD model eliminates the need for expensive prototypes and lets tal content creation, and it still does a lot of business with the the marketing campaign start earlier in the process of readying a New Zealand fi lm industry. Interestingly, the right side and the new car or truck for sale. left side of Right Hemisphere’s corporate culture are coming Interestingly, Acrobat 3D renders all the arguments about together in the evolution of Acrobat 3D. The company’s Deep what tools to use in the creation of CAD, animation, video, and Server product line provides large enterprise companies an photorealistic rendering just about moot. Everyone has Acrobat organized way to move engineering data through the organiza- these days; everyone with the most recent version of Acrobat can tion. It offers fi rms the ability to exchange fi les and collaborate— see and interact with a 3D PDF model. Immersion Design’s Smith a lot of left-brain tasks—and with the introduction of Acrobat says that building Acrobat 3D into his proposals helps assure sign- 3D, can also create interactive documentation. off from IT because Acrobat is a standard. Right Hemisphere offers tools that can automate the docu- Yet, Acrobat 3D has yet to prove itself in a broad range of appli- mentation process so that all the pages of a manual are format- cations—it has just been introduced, and there is more work to ted correctly and models placed consistently. In addition, com- be done. Adobe, with its acquisition of Macromedia, has a big plex CAD models can be transformed into lightweight models for meal to swallow, but it also has Flash to add to the equation. Now, downstream applications such as Web publication. Also, CAD Adobe has in-house all the components to enable its partners and models can be optimized for output to just about any digital con- customers to build interactive 3D applications for a wide range

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CAD / Art. . . .

Often, a company will use DCC software from various of platforms, including PCs, kiosks, and even handhelds. In fact, vendors. Autodesk, however, has an extensive offering depending on how Acrobat puts it all together, all the exam- with CAD, design, collaboration, and CG modeling, ples mentioned in this story could still be authored in the animation, and visualization tools. same ways as discussed, but they could be output to common formats like Flash and Acrobat. neering department, sometimes in marketing, and sometimes that person may be an outside contrac- Where Is the tor; his or her job description requires a fair share of Artist Now? technical ability as well as artistic ability. In this new era, the artist can be The role of industrial designers and engineers anywhere in the equation. is changing, too, as they are being brought in to

. sk e d Ironically, in some instances, to play a more active role in the creation of materi- u A y es rt traditional marketing ﬁ rms ou als for marketing. Their job may be as simple as e c ag have been slow to accept Im building models in ways that enable the images to be digital models. Although reused downstream with less optimization and remodel- these companies use digital tech- ing, or it may be as involved as adding textures, custom shaders, nology in the creation of videos, they are also the ones doing and lighting to take the model halfway to the artists creating mar- photo shoots and producing videos. They are being challenged keting materials and advertising. by a new creation pipeline. And, to be fair, they are adapting. Artists and engineers have always known that they need to According to Works Zebra’s Ishibashi, a prototype for a car work together, now they’re learning new ways to do it. can cost upward of $500,000 to build because it’s a one-off without the economies of scale that come with high-volume produc- Kathleen Maher is a senior analyst at Jon Peddie Research, a Tiburon, tion. What’s worse, the slick car brochure uses several prototypes California-based consultancy specializing in graphics and multimedia, because to create the classic overhead shot of a car’s interior and is also editor in chief of JPR’s “TechWatch.” She can be reached

means that unless it happens to be a convertible, you have to at [email protected].______have a prototype without a roof. And, that’s not going to work for your shot of a lovely car on top of a mountain in the snow or at the seashore in the spray. It’s estimated that US carmakers can use up to 100 prototypes for photo shoots a year. According to Right Hemisphere, a Detroit design agency reported that the creation of photorealistic automotive renderings for customer brochures saved the company more than $10 million. Likewise, Toyota has announced that it will cut back on its prototype ﬂ eet thanks to the ability to do more work in CGI— and US automotive companies are using CGI to create digital models for sales, marketing, technical publica- tions, and training. As a result, the work of photographers is changing. Instead of shooting cars in exotic locales, they may simply shoot the backgrounds. And, as Ishibashi has discovered, there is a new role emerging for

technical artists who may often work ______between the industrial designer, the CAD engineer, and the ad agency. Sometimes that person might exist within the engi-

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. . . . Scene Re-creation

On Holy Ground

Unearthing the mysteries of The Da Vinci Code’s

Saint-Sulpice Church

By Karen Moltenbrey

he Church of Saint-Sulpice, it is said, has the most eccentric history of any building in Paris. Built over the ruins of Tan ancient temple to the Egyptian goddess Isis, the church possesses an architectural footprint matching that of Notre ODame to within inches. The sanctuary has played host to the baptisms of the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire, as well as the marriage of Victor Hugo. The attached seminary has a well-documented history of unorthodoxy and was once the clan-

destine meeting hall for numerous secret societies. ✦ Embedded in the gray granite ﬂ oor, a thin polished strip of brass glistened in

the stone…a golden line slanting across the church’s ﬂ oor. The line bore graduated markings, like a ruler. It was a gnomon, Silas

had been told, a pagan astronomical device like a sundial. Tourists, scientists, historians, and pagans from around the world came

to Saint-Sulpice to gaze upon this famous line. Slowly, Silas let his eyes trace the path of the brass strip as it made its way across the

ﬂ oor from his right to left, slanting in front of him at an awkward angle, entirely at odds with the symmetry of the church…. The

strip ﬁ nally arrived at the base of a most unexpected structure. A colossal Egyptian obelisk. —From The Da Vinci Code

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A CW Previous Page Contents Zoom In Zoom Out Front Cover Search Issue Next Page BEF MaGS S S G G . . . . a a M M F F . E E c, c, B B A A 63 | , using lm inside inside lm , we saw that, we Firewall Next Page Next Page lming the scene,” The Da Vinci Code ce window—as it Firewall Scene Re-creation Scene lm, Angus Bickerton, with an an with Bickerton, Angus lm, Search Issue Search Issue Computer Graphics World World Computer Graphics lmed on location in Vancouver. As Breakspear points out, this tech- this out, points Breakspear As “The director couldn’t swap this director swap church “The couldn’t cupola and was considered the heart the of church…her most sacred and mystical point. should be, especially if were you using says Breakspear. “So many churches look look many churches Breakspear. “So says similar, but this one in Paris is so specifi side high-rise a offi on to another project: correct lens angles using Google Earth, out for any other while fi employed a technique whereby it used objects and geometry. With NewTek’s church would know if a substitute loca- substitute if a know would church eventually, his visual effects supervisor on the fi enormous obstacle, one that was eventu- the transept. The intersection nave of and transept occurred directly beneath the main photographs and applied them to 3D projected textures to create a photore- this giant window,” he explains. he window,” giant this with think “I there, this approach had more possibilities way After thought.” previously been had than the movie was completed, Bickerton moved that information as a reference to deter- textures pulled from thousands of tion had been used in But the get- movie.” fi to approval Vatican’s the ting the church was out of the question, as it the movie. This presented Howard and, action/thriller 2006 the it’s breathtaking.it’s People who visited the CG Building Blocks Building CG intersected by a shorter section, known as had denounced the book and, therefore, nique is has not new—it been used in CG models based on maps, and calculated mine how far some of the buildings LightWave, the team built accurate 3D for years, mostlyfor a quick shot here or free 3D landscape software. “We used landscapefree “We software. 3D a 35mm lensa 35mm and looking down from ally overcome using computer graphics. alisticdigital backdrop of Seattle out- Months before, Bickerton had worked with its 80-foot domed, vaulted ceiling; was fi with Breakspearand Rainmaker on As Breakspear explains, Rainmaker JULY 2006 JULY lm lm Front Cover Front Cover Kneeling in lming was lming ✦ Because fi not permitted inside the actual Saint-Sul- design- pice Church, constructed a par- ers tial set for a scene at Shepperton Studios in Due to space the UK. limitations at the the set was studio, built 15 percent smaller than the space in the actual church. Zoom Out Zoom Out www.cgw.com ______Zoom In Zoom In rst pew, Silasrst pew, pretended as to pray he Such was the case with Saint-Sulpice, case the with was Saint-Sulpice, Such Unlike Notre Dame with its colorful fres- its with Dame Notre Unlike of theof ascetic cathedrals Spain. The of lack more even look interior the made décor of coes, gilded altar-work, and warm wood, central section—the nave—led directly to sets it apart from ancient cathedrals, as other cheaper says Rainmaker solution,” ered when he set out to make movie a that expansive, and as Silas glanced up into the enormous overturned ship. ship. overturned enormous the where main it was altar, transversely the fi they are intertwined with historical facts book.” the in appear that the director faced a lot of actual locations that are integral to the plot. And while there, as director Ron Howard soon discov- soon Howard Ron director as there, budget constraints, it will end up being book. “Inre-creating Dan book, Brown’s ing an almost barren quality reminiscent in the shape a giant of Roman long cross. Its ined he was standing beneath the hull an of had to use the actual locations because like, ‘opens on a beach in due to Hawaii,’ soaring ribbed the vault ceiling, of he imag- scanned the layout the of sanctuary. Saint- Saint-Sulpice was and stark cold, convey- Sulpice, like most churches, had been built many movie scripts start with something Brown accurately describes in the book as Silas enters the building: a church whose unique architectural style accurately depicted the events from the actual locations and quite another to fi with this to tell story, it accurately, you VFX supervisor Mark Breakspear. “But VFX supervisor “But Mark Breakspear. ‘opens on a beach in Vancouver,’ or some ‘opens on a beach in Vancouver,’ - Contents Contents The The ction, no it’s tours, taking fans to Previous Page Previous Page that it becomes diffi becomes it that

, this ancient church was this, was church ancient

oor to a gnomon of white marble, Da Vinci Code Vinci Da

W W In this scene and throughout the book, But, it’s one thingBut, it’s to write about these With such a thin line often separating

so interesting—so much so that several that several so interesting—soso much states. And, indeed, there exists a strange, show that the actual Saint-Sulpice was son on which his to weave tale, and adds an called called cult to separate one from the other. And church ﬂ church during the 13th century, rather than an an than rather century, 13th the during element of mystery or mystique, or builds on current lore, to infuse it with added records historical example, For drama. diately before their deaths hands, at Silas’s Sulpice priest to help determine the equi- the object he desired: beneath the brass the setting a scene for in which the albino brass meridian line that runs through the the through runs that line meridian Saint- brass a by orders on 1727 in added both real-life fact and ﬁ Brown’s industrious individuals have started so- started have individuals industrious in fact built upon another structure—an hiding place of the mysterious keystone noxes (and, hence, Easter). many of the locales detailed in the book. monk Silas believes he has located the Rose Line that ran through Saint-Sulpice. In author popular Dan Brown’s novel for many, thatfor many, is what makes the book Brown uses an actual place, object, or per- ancient Egyptian temple, as the book ancient Romanesque church constructed church Romanesque ancient all had given him this precise location for Da Vinci Code Vinci Da wonder the two blend together so well in

(HolyGrail); after all, the brothers, imme- The Da Vinci Code

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. . . . Scene Re-creation

But when the issue with Saint-Sulpice surfaced, Bickerton asked eventually we got the job,” says Breakspear. “Once we did, all the Breakspear if his solution from Firewall would work for this scene. niggling problems we tossed out during the bidding stage suddenly Subsequently, Breakspear and Rainmaker examined hundreds of had to be solved. And one of those was that in the story, Silas arrives photos that Bickerton had taken at the church (photos are permit- at the church at midnight, when the church is dark.” ted, fi lming is not). They did a test, mapping the photos onto a sim- Rainmaker’s plan was to take photos of the church during the ple digital model they had created of the church based on the pho- day—the only time when it is open. But a church during the day tographic references. is very different from a church at night, Breakspear points out. “We did the test at full 2K resolution so we could see if it would “Like any environment, it is completely different with the refl ec- hold up on fi lm, as though you had a fi lm camera and were walk- tions, the way the light comes in,” he explains. “And here we ing down the church looking at the ceiling, which is the most had candlelight instead of daylight. It presents a whole new chal- amazing part. I did it when I walked in; [Bickerton] did it when he lenge.” This became yet another major hurdle for the artists. walked in. Everyone who goes to this church, the fi rst thing they Beginning their quest, Rainmaker dispatched several of its art- do is look up at the ceiling because it is so spectacular.” The group ists to Paris for a week to take photos inside the church. All told, the sent the test with the 3D camera moves to Bickerton, who liked it group acquired more than 10,000 digital pictures using a Canon 16- immediately. He, in turn, showed it to Ron Howard, who asked the Megapixel camera. “It gave us insane quality,” says Breakspear. “We visual effects supervisor how he got the shot considering the no- bracketed all our shots, and we had complete exposure ranges, like fi lming rule. “When [Bickerton] told him it was all-CG, that was it. HDRIs basically.” Trying to blend in as tourists, which they techni- Suddenly, we were in the running to get the sequence.” cally were, the artists returned to the church every few hours to snap For four months, Rainmaker worked to bid on the sequence for another round of pictures, even once taking photos of a bride and this highly anticipated movie, competing against a handful of other the wedding party. “I had a better camera than the wedding pho- visual effects companies—namely Moving Picture Co., Double tographer, so it made sense to help them out!,” Breakspear says jok- Negative, and The Senate, which were working on other segments ingly. “We had asked if we could take pictures at the church, though. that encompassed the lion’s share of the movie’s VFX shots. “We We had a job to do, but we were trying to be respectful; it is a tourist bid and re-bid, followed by some extra bidding and re-bidding, and location, but many people still go to there to pray.” After returning from the photo session, the group examined the pictures. “We knew that we’d have no problem creating the effects for a daylight sequence,” Breakspear says. “But, how were we going to take these pictures and make them night? You really can’t do day to night using this technique; it doesn’t work that way.” Typically, effects artists accomplish this by a

Computer graphics, photographic textures, and a physical set comprise this scene inside Saint-Sulpice. Left is the ﬁ nal shot that appeared in the movie. Bottom left is a photographic image taken inside the actual church, whose textures were used for the ﬁ nal shot. Bottom right shows the 3D wireframe imagery used to augment the sparse set.

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Scene Re-creation. . . .

common technique of upping the blues, darkening the shot, and, made the fi nal cut. In turn, the CG team returned to Paris to if appropriate, comping a moon and some stars into the back- make sure it had the proper photos to match. A few shots, how- ground, he says. But, that was never going to work on a movie ever, such as those looking downward from the ceiling, were of this scale; the quality would never suffi ce. “So, we had to unattainable and the artists had to paint those using Adobe’s develop a whole new process,” he adds. Photoshop. Later, the artists used Photoshop to import all the Lead compositor Mathew Krentz and lead CG artist Les photos into CG, where they cleaned up the shadows, refl ec- Quinn came up with a plan whereby they would create the envi- tions, and so forth so they could be mapped onto the geometry ronment as if it were daytime but provide all kinds of alpha and virtual models. Then, when they began refi ning the digital channels, maps, and controls to selectively grade and rebuild model of the church, they ran into problems. a nighttime version during compositing with Eyeon Software’s “Our LightWave model is based on the pictures, and the pic- Digital Fusion. Then, they would composite greenscreened tures are based on the real church, which is the true size. The actors on top of the footage. “It looked fantastic, unbelievably set, meanwhile, is 15 percent smaller, but not consistently so—16 believable,” says Breakspear.

Building the Church The scene was fi lmed on a set at Shepperton Studios in the UK during a three-day period, one of which involved extensive previz and calibration of the fi lm lenses to those of the CG cameras, and vice versa. A crew constructed the physical set—complete with 10-foot marble columns, wooden chairs, a replica fl oor made of shiny slabs of stone that looked as though they had been walked on for thousands of years, and more—that would then be augmented with CG set extensions. The dimensions of the set were acquired using a Digital artists took tens of thousands of photographs of the church most unusual measure device: Bickerton’s foot. from 60 different angles; 40 of those angles were incorporated into “Angus [Bickerton] claims his feet are exactly 12 inches long. the movie by the fi lmmakers for the Saint-Sulpice scenes. And because we couldn’t go in there to take precise measure- percent smaller here, 14 percent smaller there,” says Breakspear. ments, he walked the space toe-to-heel as a tourist, to determine “Nothing was quite lining up with the photos. It was a funny the length and width of the environment,” explains Breakspear. moment where we would line up one end of the church and the From those dimensions, the art department drew up a set plan, other end would come unstuck. And we were already deep into from which a 15 percent smaller version was built (to accommo- postproduction when we discovered this.” In the end, Rainmaker date the size of the Shepperton stage). did not use the expanded physical set, but rather a sparse version In one corner of the set, the crew made a wall with frescoes of it, with just the people, the chairs, and the fl oor. In one shot, and statues. It was here where Silas breaks the stone looking for everything but the actors was digitally replaced. the hidden treasure. Because of the way this part of the set was built, and the height of the columns, it was one scene where visual Good Night effects would not be required…in theory. “Because of the angle The artists used 2d3’s Boujou to track the scenes and LightWave they chose, looking upward, we had to step in,” says Breakspear. to map the photographic references onto the CG objects; next, they When fi lming began, the actors, director, producer, and DP rendered them in various passes. As Breakspear stresses, all this were all looking at a big, 360-degree greenscreen. “It is the lon- was done with daylight textures. The group rendered out depth gest running visual effects shot in the movie—at 40 shots span- maps, matte passes for the columns, moonbeam elements coming ning about 3 to 4 minutes—and it was crucial that the actors in from the windows, smoke passes, a chandelier pass, and can- understand their surroundings. Plus, there were no camera lock- dle pass. “Candlelight was crucial because candlelight was present offs; they had to move that camera around,” says Breakspear. throughout the scene, fl ickering off people’s faces and the walls. It “We brought up our digital model so they could see what they had to be extremely accurate, and CG candlelight doesn’t look real; were supposed to be looking at on set. There are so many little it doesn’t react in the same way as the real thing,” he says. things about the church where you just can’t say, ‘Look down To obtain footage of all the candlelight that would be needed the center aisle toward the entrance.’ From the center of the for the scene, Breakspear gathered candles and, aided by a bot- church back toward the entrance there is an enormous wooden tle of wine, positioned a DV camera looking at a candle, zooming organ, and depending on which lens you use and the angle, you into the fl ame full frame as he continued to blow on it to make it are looking at only half of it or all of it in the shot; we needed to fl icker. The artists then mapped that footage onto cards, and placed be sure of what we were looking at.” them in the shots. “Some of the shots with the candles, fl ames, In all, the crew shot nearly 60 different angles, 40 of which and smoke had major camera moves, and we needed proper paral-

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lax added to the elements,” says Krentz. For that, the group used of the most desired because of its length. Adding further appeal Fusion’s new 3D camera to import the Boujou track and apply the was the fact that it presented a great problem for CG and com- camera move to the elements. positing. “It’s a real ‘visual effects’ visual effects sequence,” says But the real challenge came when the group adapted its photo- Breakspear. “These are the types of shots we love to do. They are graphic mapping technique into something more powerful—to turn impossible to shoot, so the CG has to look real and blend in.” day to night. According to Krentz, the group treated each individual In the end, a revolutionary process was born out of a per- shot as a matte painting. Neutralizing the sunlit renders was the plexing issue. “It’s all about using new approaches to techniques fi rst priority; next it determined which direction the moon would we have taken for granted, and thinking about how far they can be coming from to create the beams fi ltering through the windows. be pushed. We used a technique that companies know how to “For most of the shots, we created the do, but we attempted it on something moonbeams in 2D, which were combined big, and along the way, had to solve with the smoke elements for a hazy atmo- problems that arose,” says Breakspear. spheric look,” he says. Currently, Rainmaker is applying the The most important part, Krentz lessons learned from this process to notes, was keeping the actors’ skin tones Dreamworks’ Blades of Glory, creating warm from the fl ickering candles while virtual environments and photoreal CG also keeping the albino monk from look- actors. “Had I attempted this before The ing “dead.” Rather than simply increas- Da Vinci Code, I would have panicked ing the blues and decreasing the satu- and hid under the desk!” ration, the artists actually converted Not only has this novel process the textures to refl ect the evening light opened new doors for Rainmaker, but so the skin would retain its warm tone Breakspear also believes it will open the even in the darkly lit church. “When you doors for producers to feel more confi - go out at night and look at your skin, it dent with CG and integrate it into produc- doesn’t turn blue. You retain the same tion more frequently. “Accomplishing skin tone, a little darker maybe, but not All the photogaphs inside the church were taken something like this strengthens the blue,” says Breakspear. “It’s an obvious during the daylight. The digital artists turned the relationship between what producers thing to say, but to fi x it meant throwing scenes to night using a grading technique. think they can get away with and what away the old technique and having to do it differently.” they can really get away with,” he says. “It allows CG to be taken Using what Breakspear calls a “pretty nifty” approach, the more seriously for the creation of larger environments.” In The compositors used a grade on the fi lm footage that made the tex- Da Vinci Code, the technique was used to virtually construct an tures look as if they were fi lmed at night, albeit in various “types” actual place, but it can also be used to re-construct places that no of night. This grading was accomplished inside Fusion, which ran longer exist, such as long-gone historical sites, Breakspear points on 3DBoxx workstations from Boxx Technologies. Working in out. And, unlike the secrets in the movie, which have been hid- fl oating point, the group used logarithmic fi lm fi les from editorial, den for centuries, Rainmaker has been extremely open about its scanned them, and brought them into Fusion, a process done at work on the fi lm, hoping to open the doors for others to push the Rainmaker’s London offi ce. Although the studio had planned to technique, or CG in general, even further. open a location in London for some time, the decision was has- As he stood and examined his fi nd, he realized he was hold- tened by Sony Pictures’ encouragement to use UK facilities for the ing a rough-hewn stone slab with engraved words. He felt for visual effects work due to tax credits, which turned into a substan- an instant like a modern-day Moses. As Silas read the words tial chunk of change given the number of effects in the fi lm. on the tablet, he felt surprise. He had expected the keystone “A lot of us, myself included, are English or have English to be a map, or a complex series of directions, perhaps even ties, so it was not problem,” says Breakspear. “And, Angus encoded. The keystone, however, bore the simplest of inscrip- [Bickerton] had set up his offi ce nearby, and could walk to any tions. Job 38:11. ✦ Finding verse number eleven, Silas read the of the nearby VFX facilities working on the fi lm, look at the text. It was only seven words. Confused, he read it again, sens- shots, and make comments. It was inspiring to see the great ing something had gone terribly wrong. The verse simply read: work the other studios were doing.” Like Rainmaker, they were Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further. chosen for their roles based on previous work. Unlike the fi ctional character Silas, Rainmaker cracked the code that enabled it to complete the mission at Saint-Sulpice. A New Arc As Breakspear notes, the Saint-Sulpice scene was not the biggest Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor for Computer Graphics overall visual effect in The Da Vinci Code, but it was certainly one World.

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. . . . Modeling / Animation roundball

Artists create a 3D animation,

projected in 360 degrees, to

promote EA’s NBA Live 06

By Karen Moltenbrey

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Modeling / Animation. . . .

electronic arts recently challenged opened last fall. There, the artists used Brickyard was tapped to rework game assets the digital artists at Brickyard VFX to a game assets, motion-capture data, and from EA’s NBA Live 06 for projection onto a game of roundball, only the court, the sophisticated lighting techniques to cre- large 360-degree screen. To accomplish this, Brickyard had to tweak many of the game players—and everything else involved— ate the fi nal animation, which included assets by creating new lighting setups and were completely digital. a digital stadium fi lled with 25,000 fans. advanced shaders. Electronic Arts wanted an animated Brickyard delivered the fi nal animation at piece promoting its EA Sports game title high resolution for 360-degree projection has completed nearly 15 projects before NBA Live 06 that would feature the video on EA’s 2006 Video Wall during E3, the getting tapped for the EA assist. Among game’s characters, realistic virtual ver- world’s largest electronic gaming show. those were high-end commercials that sions of actual professional basketball “We were able to take game models and aired during the Super Bowl and the players from the NBA as they performed assets and, through lighting and shading Olympics, in addition to CG promos for amazing feats on the court in front of a techniques, show the kind of fi lmic qual- the gaming industry. Currently, Brickyard packed arena. And, the presentation had ity and resolution that’s possible with 3D,” is in discussions with several studios per- to play out on a large 360-degree screen says Brickyard artist Yafei Wu. taining to feature-fi lm work. in front of the gaming industry’s most According to Jay Lichtman, executive discriminating eyes. producer at Brickyard, the company estab- In the Game For this project, the name of the game lished its 3D studio to support the ever- NBA Live 06 features photorealistic mod- was realism—NBA Live 06, released sev- demanding and technical requests com- els of basketball superstars that perform, eral months ago, takes character modeling ing from various sectors of the industry: act, and actually look like their real-life and animation to a new level of realism. television commercials, gaming, and fi lm. counterparts. For the promo project, EA Likewise, the promo had to do the same, Previously, the company delivered high- handed off those in-game assets, including and more, since the animation had to play end visual effects scenes through its in- the player models, stadium, textures, and out on a huge circular screen where every house compositors but outsourced the CGI even the motion-capture data used to ani- digital detail (or potential fl aw) would portion. “It made more sense to create an mate the game’s digital basketball players. be clearly visible. In the end, Brickyard in-house 3D studio that worked directly (For an in-depth look at how the game was achieved those goals, as viewers had to with our compositors and graphic art- created, see “The Art of the Deal,” October look closely to determine whether the ists,” he says. “This enables a much more 2005, pg. 15). Because the artists did not action they were seeing was CG or video effi cient internal pipeline and, inevitably, have to create the models from scratch, footage from an actual game. raises the level of quality on any project they were fairly ahead in the game. On the To achieve this, Brickyard passed the with the artists working side by side.” other hand, the data required a great deal project to its in-house 3D division, which Since its formation, the department of work to make it usable for the promo

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. . . . Modeling / Animation

animation, so the fi rst order of business whenever EA delivered on the fl oor, tweaking the way objects and cloth intersected, an asset was to clean it up. Sometimes this was accomplished and producing re-animations to accentuate the original data through the use of scripts that group had created, while the and to accommodate the client’s requests. The artists also remaining assets required basic manpower. Some of the tweaks received the cloth animation (simulated cloth simulations) occurred to the mocap data, while others demanded the develop- from EA that were used for the players’ uniforms. ment and application of advanced shaders and lighting setups so “There were revisions to the animation even through the last the CG players would look realistic on the large screen. week of the schedule,” says Lichtman. “These changes, though, As Lichtman points out, the biggest challenge was the amount were facilitated by the use of a nice control rig that EA had cre- of assets and textures that were needed to create a full CG stadium ated for the players.” fi lled with a cheering crowd and on-court players. So it was vital to the image quality and to make deadline that the group work with Faces in the Crowd those assets in an effi cient and manageable way. “Our R&D phase The game crowd, meanwhile, was driven by motion-capture ani- allowed us to establish an effi cient pipeline, and the subsequent mation recorded by EA using six performers. The team then applied render times were no longer such an issue,” he adds. those actions to six digital characters, and turned the movements Yet, to work with this amount of data, the team had to write into animation cycles. The Brickyard artists also received place- a myriad of scripts to facilitate every process. As a result, the art- ment locators along with a script to place objects where the locators ists were able to focus on the aesthetic aspect and let the pipeline were. Next, they created RIB archives of each animated model so handle the rest. For example, the shaders Brickyard created picked they could use simple proxy boxes in their scenes; at render time, the boxes were automatically switched to a random model with random animation based on predetermined parameters. The artists then replicated, shaded, textured, and rendered the crowd to create a randomized effect. According to Wu, the crew used live- action reference stills to add detail and effi ciently output all the data, including a crowd of thousands, within PRMan. “Of course, each character varied slightly in scale,” notes Lichtman. “Finding the right amount of hue shift proved to be the key factor in ultimately matching the reference images of real crowds supplied by the client. Because we ended up with more than 20,000 proxy boxes in the scene (the amount of people rendered in the crowd), we actually made a RIB archive that included the stadium, as well. So in the end, our fi nal scene only consisted of 10 hero players and one polygon box that, at render time, switched into a fully animated crowd pop- ulating a fully lit stadium.” Brickyard created scripts that cleaned up the game assets, so the For the stadium, Brickyard modeled the space in 3D, and team could work with the complex data more effi ciently. used HDR technology to light the interior building as well as the up the textures from the assets they were attached to, enabling the players and fans. According to Lichtman, the group started by group to handle subsequently fewer shaders. lighting the stadium in the usual way, with spot, point, and area EA originally built the NBA roster using image-based tech- lights, and ambient occlusion. Once the lighters were happy niques and, with its custom Vicon mocap setup and Autodesk’s with the results, they baked the lighting as a “brickmap,” which MotionBuilder software, applied the animation information and is a Pixar RenderMan feature that allows artists to bake infor- cloth simulation to the 3D models. When remodeling tweaks mation as a hierarchical 3D texture. were necessary, Brickyard used Autodesk’s Julya, along with “In this case, we baked all the lighting information and Pixar’s PhotoRealistic RenderMan (PRMan) for all the shading used that in conjunction with a custom shader that multiples and rendering. Compositing for the project was done in Adobe’s the lighting information with our textures,” Lichtman explains. After Effects and Apple’s Shake, while image enhancements “This allowed us to change textures (primarily for logos and were made in Adobe’s Photoshop. such if and when the clients request it) without the overhead of When Brickyard received the EA mocap data, sometimes all the lighting calculations.” it was presented as full Julya scene fi les from which the ani- With the stadium lighting complete, the group created an mation was extracted, and sometimes as animation fi les. HDRI map of the result and used that as its base lighting setup Whenever changes had to be made to the motion-captured for the crowd and players. For the players, the artists used an data, the revisions were minor, such as planting a player’s feet average of six area lights, to beauty-light the players on top of

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the created HDRI image in order to put the rims and speculars Though the players are the main attraction in the animation, the wherever they were needed. The HDRI was used for the main background crowds add some excitement of their own. The fans diffuse and bounce lighting, while the rims and speculars were were created with motion capture and then randomized. more directed to create an artistically appealing look. For rendering, the group used 12 dual-core Boxx render nodes “The shaders we created were fashioned in such a way that with Pixar RenderMan. In the end, the stadium and crowd had an we could reuse as much as possible of what we had received average render time of six minutes per frame with baked lighting from EA,” says Lichtman. “This meant we had to create a cus- and ambient occlusion, motion blur, and depth of fi eld. The play- tom normal map shader that relinked the Julya hypershade tex- ers had an average render time of six minutes per frame, including tures to our custom PRMan shaders. Our shaders for the players ambient occlusion, subsurface scattering, depth of fi eld, motion consisted of one diffuse layer, three different specular/refl ective blur, area lighting, and raytraced refl ections for the fl oor. layers, one rim layer, and a subsurface scattering layer.” Because of the nature of the project, Brickyard tried to Theater in the Round restrict itself to just using the textures from the game. The only The fi nished fi le—three 120-degree fi lms—was joined together textures created in-house were for the subsurface scattering using stitching and dewarping programs for projection in the layer. Brickyard generated those by building a rough skeletal round. As Lichtman explains, the group was tasked with creat- structure inside every player, and using the distance between ing a 12-second, full-CG animated basketball game at 60 frames that and the player to determine the strength of the subsurface per second in 3357x1117 resolution. This was then projected scattering. That was baked out, Lichtman explains, as a texture onto a 360-degree screen to create a buzz at E3. (Brickyard was to accentuate the subsurface scattering calculation. given plug-ins and scripts for Shake and After Effects to warp “We were working with a lot of information, but the real trick and stitch the images together.) was lighting and rendering the piece for high resolution and a The novel animation was an ambitious project, especially for high degree of realism,” says Lichtman. a 3D rookie. But with the work, Brickyard’s 3D division scored a winning shot for the facility, and a slam dunk for EA. To create the 360-degree animation, the artists broke the scenes into three 120-degree fi lms, and then stitched them together and dewarped them using Shake and After Effects plug-ins. Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor for Computer Graphics World.

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Clockwise from top: >> “The setup, payoff, and comic timing make this one of the most humorous fi lms this year.” Flight Patterns This technical image was acquired from a project directed and animated by Aaron Koblin from UCLA >> “Another example of great design, animation, and gag all coming together in a superb, Design Media Arts. technically tight edit. A hilariously funny piece.” Fog (Niebla) This still is from an animated short directed >> “A brilliant, behind-the-scenes demonstration of a mind-boggling and complex sequence.” by Emilio Ramos, and animated/designed by Ramos, along with Maria del Mar Hernandez and Jordi Codina, from the >> “The fresh look of this fi lm, the comic timing, and tight animation make it a very clear favorite.” Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain. Aal im Schädel This compelling student fi lm was directed >> “One of the best examples of character animation in the entire show. Absolutely tight timing by Martin Rahmlow and produced by Anne Hoever from the with wonderfully subtle eye movements, voice talent, staging, character design, lighting, Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction in Germany. set dressing, and much more.” These are but a few of the accolades and observations made by Digital Fauxtography’s Terrence Masson, chair of the 2006 SIGGRAPH Animation Festival, about some of the projects that will be shown at this year’s event later this month. “From across the globe, the word is out that the

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Computer Animation Festival is one of the premier venues for showcasing artistic and techni- Clockwise from top left: cal talent in the fi lm world,” says Masson. “The competition among [submissions] was fi erce.” Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy This image contains digital Nearly 100 animation selections from more than 725 entries were chosen for the Animation imagery created by the effects facility Cinesite for the sci-fi feature fi lm. Production VFX supervisor for the movie was Angus Bickerton. Festival: 34 appearing in the Electronic Theater (see the Portfolio section of the June issue for a The MagicBox A visually unique production, the project’s 3D and detailed look at that venue) and 63 featured in the Animation Theater. Among those are a mix- video production was done by LotusArt and Alexander Beim from ture of 2D and 3D animations from the worlds of feature fi lm, short fi lms, scientifi c visualizations, Germany. game cinematics, television commercials and specials, and more. Some projects were created by Moongirl This animation was written and directed by Henry Selick and produced by Helen Kalafatic of Laika Entertainment in high-profi le special effects facilities such as Digital Domain, Framestore CFC, and Cinesite, while Portland, Oregon. others were crafted by boutique facilities like Psyop and Rhinofx. Others were generated by aca- Delivery An unusual animation, this project was directed and demia at universities such as the University of Alabama and the University of California, Berkeley, produced by Till Nowak from Germany. while a good number of animated shorts and other projects were submitted by students at various schools and animation colleges, including California Institute of the Arts, Savannah College

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© Disney. Courtesy Walt Disney Feature Animation. Front Cover Front Cover Zoom Out Zoom Out A number of selections appearing in the Animation Theater garnered special praise from from praise special garnered Theater Animation the in selections appearing of number A Another particularly exceptional project from the Animation Theater is “Delivery,” from ble. The look, the storytelling, and the facial animation of the main character are all completely lm truly meant to be watchedbrilliant. multiple This is a fi times.” of Art and Design, and Ringling School of Art and Design. “This year’s crop of accepted pieces is diverse, thought-provoking, and technically superb,” says Masson. director Till Nowak of the Framebox in Germany. His piece tells the story of an old man who sonal work that is absolutely beautiful in so many says ways,” Masson of the animation. “The combination of such originality with overall technical excellence makes the piece quite memora- quite piece the makes excellence technical overall originality with such of combination Masson and others on the jury. This includes “Fog (Niebla)” from director Emilio Ramos of the village’s fl ying sheep brought the town a brief moment of prosperity. “An original and very per- and original “An prosperity. of moment brief a town the brought sheep ying fl village’s Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain, about an old man who spins a nostalgic story of how the Zoom In Zoom In Contents Contents JULY 2006 JULY This technical This animation This technical image, technical image, This Previous Page Previous Page

Directed and produced by Nobuo

The vibrant imagery of this animation was modeled, Computer Graphics World World Computer Graphics

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Clockwise from top left: top from Clockwise Musashino Plateau Musashino Rama Rama Relighting Human Locomotion Human Relighting Multi-Layered Cloth Simulation Cloth Multi-Layered was done by Paul Debevec from the University of Southern was directed by Anthony LaMolinara and produced by at Nagoya City University in Japan. textured, and lit by Eric Bruneton from France. France. from Bruneton Eric by lit textured, and taken from an animation exploring lighting techniques, California. Craig A. Sost for Walt Disney Animation. 74 Takahashi, this project was completed as part of his education Portfolio

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lives a lonely life under the dark shadows of industrial smog, until one day, the man receives a Clockwise from top left: mysterious package that gives him the ability to change his environment. Praises Masson: “A Reﬂ ect This technical image from an animation set to music was done by Dennis H. Miller from Northeastern University perfect example of the power of storytelling. Using computer graphics to illustrate this simple in Boston. fantasy world is truly the ﬁ lmmaker taking advantage of the medium.” Snakes Inspired by a woodcut by MC Escher, this image is One animation, “Robin Hood Flour,” was so well received that the jury chose to put two from an animation that was directed by Spain’s Cristobal Vila, separate spots from the short into each theater: one appears in the Electronic Theater (“Robin who was also responsible for its production, 3D modeling, texturing, lighting, editing, and animation. Hood Flour—Giving”) and the other in the Animation Theater (“Robin Hood Flour—Memories”). Robin Hood Flour—Giving Directed by Richard Rosenman, “One of the best examples of character animation in the entire show,” says Masson. “Absolutely this animation was done by Red Rover Studios in Toronto. tight timing with wonderfully subtle eye movements, voice talent, staging, character design, lighting, set dressing, and much more.” Some of those pieces, along with other selections from the Animation Theater, are presented on these pages. —Karen Moltenbrey

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HARDWARE other systems that suspend performance in the event of a drive failure, the new Avid line delivers uninterrupted real-time performance, even PROCESSORS during a drive rebuild. The new systems—the VideoRAID RTR320 and RTR320X—are the fi rst AMD’s New Road Map in a series of low-cost parity RAID storage prod- AMD recently unveiled a top-to-bottom ucts that Avid plans to introduce as a result of vides continuous, mirrored data protection energy-effi cient AMD desktop processor road acquiring Medea this past January. and instantaneous failover. Model VM-2 is a map for smaller, more elegant PCs that com- The VideoRAID product line leverages the dual, clustered appliance that provides con- plement home and offi ce environments, yet combined bandwidth of multiple drives—with tinuous, high-availability data access and mir- deliver the same performance as larger systems. capacity of either 250GB or 500GB per drive— rored data protection with twice the data Energy-effi cient AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core, in storage arrays that provide real-time access throughput of VM-1. AMD Athlon 64, and AMD Sempron proces- to SD and HD media assets. The RTR320 and VM-1 is priced at $8950, and VM-2 at sors, based on the upcoming socket AM2, are RTR320X are built around 5- and 10-drive stor- $14,500. Both are available now. designed to provide for new freedoms in PC age arrays, respectively, with one of every fi ve Vicom Systems; www.vicom.com form-factor design by offering signifi cant per- drives functioning as a parity drive to deliver formance-per-watt advantages over standard data protection. Holographic Hardware processors for commercial and consumer mar- The VideoRAID runs on the OS supported InPhase Technologies, manufacturer of holo- kets. The new line of energy-effi cient proces- by the particular editing system. Avid’s Liquid, graphic data storage systems and media, has sors will complement AMD’s Cool’n’Quiet tech- Symphony, and DS work run on PCs only; introduced the fi rst holographic video recorder nology and advance system energy effi ciency. Xpress Pro and Media Composer run on both and accompanying storage media. The new The initial energy-effi cient desktop pro- PCs and Macs. Pricing for the RTR320 begins solution is capable of recording up to 515Gb cessor model numbers include AMD Athlon at $3929 for 1.25TB of total storage; pricing for (or a half a terabit) of data per square inch, 64 X2 dual core, AMD Athlon 64, and AMD the RTR320X begins at $4839 for the same said to be the highest data density of any Sempron processors, available now. AMD also amount of storage. Both are shipping now. commercial technology. Magnetic disk drives, announced pricing for the Energy Effi cient Avid Technology; www.avid.com conversely, achieve roughly 300Gb per square Desktop Processors++: AMD Athlon 64 X2 inch. Moreover, the InPhase drive will boast a dual-core processors 4800+ ($671), 4600+ Vicom Delivers Xserve RAID storage capacity of 300Gb and 20Mb/sec data ($601), 4400+ ($514), 4200+ ($417), 4000+ Mac Vicom Systems announced Vmirror, a transfer rate. Both the drive and its associated ($353), and 3800+ ($323); Energy Effi cient new family of high-availability and data pro- media are scheduled for delivery later this year. Small Form Factor Desktop Processors+++: tection appliances for Apple’s Xserve RAID Following the release of this fi rst half-terabit AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor 3800+ storage systems. Vmirror Fibre Channel appli- device, InPhase Technologies plans to launch ($364), AMD Athlon 64 processors 3500+ ances deliver continuous, high-availability a family of products, ranging in storage capac- ($231), and AMD Sempron processors 3400+ access and mirrored data protection for HD ity from 800Gb to 1.6Tb. The InPhase Tapestry ($145), 3200+ ($119), and 3000+ ($101). video broadcast and postproduction environ- holographic drive for archival purposes cur- AMD; www.amd.com ments. Vmirror routes and transparently mir- rently is priced at $15,000. The company antic- rors data from any number of Apple hosts to ipates selling media storage discs for use with STORAGE Xserve RAID storage systems at Fibre Channel the system at a cost of roughly $120. line speed. The architecture is highly scalable: InPhase; www.inphase-tech.com Avid Unveils VideoRAID Family The Vmirror operates singularly for continuous Win • Mac Avid Technology announced the data protection and in multi-unit clusters with WORKSTATION Avid VideoRAID family of storage systems that instantaneous failover in the event of a stor-

deliver up to 5TB of high-efﬁ ciency storage with age system outage, preventing interruption of Xeon in the Boxx real-time access for multi-stream, high-band- the host system. Boxx Technologies recently announced the new width, and SD and HD work ﬂ ows. Unlike Model VM-1 is a single appliance that pro- 3DBoxx 8300 Performance Series Workstation.

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The 3DBoxx 8300 is a high-performance per- a choice of plug-in packages—either GenArts tained news production system arrives tested sonal workstation that leverages the power of Sapphire or new SpeedSix Monsters. The sys- and proven, and ready to ingest material, view the new Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5100 Series pro- tem is available now for $248. rushes, choose shots, edit stories, review ﬁ n- cessors running in conjunction with the new Intel Quantel also launched Newsbox HD, a cost- ished pieces, and play them out to air. Pricing 5000X chipset. With new performance features effective news system in a box that now offers for the HD model starts at $250,000.

such as a 1333MHz front-side bus, 4MB of cache a risk-free path to HD. The complete, self-con- Other recent Quantel announcements shared between two cores, FB-DIMMs (a cutting- edge memory technology), and powerful I/O, the new 3DBoxx 8300 Series Workstation pro- NEWS vides enhanced work fl ow for today’s VFX professionals. The 3DBoxx 8300 Series Workstation Panasonic, Sony Develop New Recording Format is the latest manifestation of Boxx’s intention to Panasonic and Sony announced specifi cations for AVCHD, a new high-defi nition digital video help the VFX artist benefi t from trends toward camera recorder format that the two companies jointly established. The AVCHD format allows multi-core processing and multi-threaded appli- the recording and playback of high-res, digital HD images using 8cm DVD media. The AVCHD is cations. It will replace the 3DBoxx 8200 Series an HD digital video camera format for recording 1080i and 720p signals onto 8cm DVD media Workstation, which has been a mainstay of the using highly effi cient codec technologies. The format uses MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec for video Boxx workstation lineup. The 3DBoxx 8300 compression, making it possible to develop HD video camera recorders that achieve compact size Series Workstation will be available soon. Base as well as high-quality video, in addition to audio. The MPEG-4/H.264 codec is a promising tech- pricing starts at $2995. nology that is said to be two times more effi cient than MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 codec technologies. Boxx Technologies; www.boxxtech.com Artists Get in the Zone POSTPRODUCTION ArtZone, a focused online destination that brings community to art, is now available and free to artists worldwide at www.ArtZone.com. Backed by Daz Productions, a developer of 3D models Quantel Increases its eQ and software, ArtZone brings a new environment that enables the sharing and growth of each

Boosting its eQ product range, Quantel intro- member’s passion for art. ______ArtZone.com is a community in which artists of every medium can duced eQ FX, a complete high-specifi cation HD join and share examples of their work, whether or not it is computer-generated. It was created system that meets the HD and multi-resolution to be just as inviting to those who simply appreciate art or want to grow in their own skill levels. postproduction needs of post and broadcast Members can present a personal profi le and their own virtual galleries, which are open to mem- users at a reasonable price. According to the ber comments. Through media such as groups, live chats, and message boards, artists may also mingle with one another socially or professionally. ArtZone offers features, including virtual galleries, spotlight images, multimedia links, searchable artist profi les, forums, events, and more.

Pay-As-You-Go PCs Microsoft and AMD announced a pay-as-you-go PC program to drive personal computing in emerging markets. The two companies will jointly support fl exible business models powered by Microsoft FlexGo technology. The initiative refl ects both fi rms’ efforts to bring affordable access to technology, with a pilot program that allows consumers to purchase PCs through a combination of innovative technology and a pay-as-you-go computing model. This represents a key stra- tegic component of AMD’s 50x15 Initiative, which seeks to narrow the global digital divide. company, eQ FX will help ease a studio’s transition into HD by providing all the tools and It’s All a Dream power necessary to speed HD work through Activision plans to open a studio facility on DreamWorks’ campus that will allow the game com- the suite. The system ships with 160 minutes pany and studio to collaborate on upcoming movie-licensed titles such as Bee Movie, Kung Fu of HD work space, built-in TimeMagic no-wait Panda, Rex Havoc, and How to Train Your Dragon. With this move, Activision will be able to hardware, the QColor in-context color-grad- align its game production schedules with those of the fi lms, from preproduction onward. ing package, the latest Eiger 3.5 software, and

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include a new platform and TimeMagic support Power Mac G5, with the capability to bring PARTNER NEWS for Paintbox and the rollout of the Pablo next- in and play back material at 2K. Furthermore, gen real-time 4K color-correction system. Kona 3 V2 supports hardware-based 1080-to- DEV PROGRAMS Quantel; www.quantel.com 720 or 720-to-1080 cross conversion. This fea- Autodesk Makes Sparks ture further streamlines dailies and deliverables MOBILE PHONES creation at true broadcast picture quality in real Autodesk, announced the merger of its time. Kona 3 is available now for $2990; V2 two existing Media & Entertainment de- software can be downloaded for free for exist- veloper programs, Autodesk Sparks and Digital Entertainment ing users of Kona 3. Alias Conductor Programs, under the Goes Mobile Nvidia rolled out the Nvidia GoForce 5500 Meanwhile, the company also announced global Autodesk Developer Network handheld graphics processing unit (GPU), the two additions to its line of SD and HD convert- (ADN). New and existing members will be fi rst handheld GPU to enable true, fl uid dig- ers: the HD10AVA, an HD/SD audio and video joining a full service, worldwide developer ital TV, high-fi delity surround sound, rapid A/D miniature converter, and the RD10MD, a program that has more than 2600 mem- 10-bit, broadcast-quality card for dual down- bers worldwide. The program, titled ADN conversion from HD to SD. The HD10AVA costs Sparks, will align the developer programs $990, while the RD10MD retails at $2390. of the former Discreet and Alias organiza- tions and better serve Autodesk’s media and entertainment customers. SOFTWARE Autodesk acquired Alias in Janu- ary 2006, and has integrated both Alias STORYBOARDING and Discreet into its Media & Entertain- ment Division. ADN Sparks offers a uni- fi ed developer network for all Autodesk Toon Boom Sketches Stories Win • Mac • Linux Toon Boom Animation partners, with increased benefi ts and a multi-shot photography, and console-class announced the release of Toon Boom streamlined process for Autodesk’s devel- 3D graphics. For years, these capabilities have Storyboard, a storyboarding system for visual opment communities. The program gives been the domain of function-specifi c devices storytelling. Storyboard helps users take an third-party developers the opportunity to such as the home entertainment system, digi- idea and translate it into a visual story that will create tools that extend the functionality tal still camera, or Sony PlayStation; today, this become a complete animation. Toon Boom of Autodesk’s media and entertainment new GPU brings all these features and more to Storyboard provides a fl exible layer-based panel technology. Such tools are integrated into mobile phones, the company reports. display with motion-camera capabilities; a com- Autodesk customers’ development pipe- “High-quality multimedia services are a key plete set of drawing tools, including pressure- lines, optimizing workfl ow and increasing revenue growth for the world’s carriers and sensitive brush tool when using a digital graphic their creative capabilities. content providers, and we believe we’ll see sig- tablet and pen; customizable caption fi elds to The pricing structure of the ADN nifi cant update of these services this year,” says insert fully searchable textual content, such as Sparks program aligns with the current Mario Morales, semiconductor analyst for IDC. scene descriptions and comments; advanced pricing and delivery practices of the Au- And, with the introduction of the GoForce 5500 timeline to control timing and automatically todesk Developer Network. The ADN handheld GPU, the functionality of 3G mobile Sparks program cost of membership var- phones will be expanded signifi cantly. Phones ies by the service level required by the based on the GPU will be available from key member and by the number of users: handset manufacturers at the end of the year. ADN Standard, ADN Professional, and Nvidia; www.nvidia.com ADN Premier Partner. The new pricing structure will come into effect for exist- VIDEO CARDS ing Autodesk Sparks and Alias Conduc- tor members on the date of their next Kona 3 2k Support membership renewal. For complete pric- AJA Video recently unveiled 2K-resolution video generate an animatic with sound tracks and ing details, contact your local Autodesk support with the V2 upgrade to Kona 3, the transitions between shots; real-time animatic Developer Network. company’s top-of-the-line uncompressed HD/ creation with dynamic camera moves; and Autodesk; www.autodesk.com SD capture card. Kona 3 now provides cus- extensive export capabilities, including printing, tomers with editing and fi nishing on an Apple image sequences, and Harmony/Opus, EDL,

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SWF, and QuickTime fi le formatting. pipelines. When integrated with Blackmagic’s ENVIRONMENTS Toon Boom Storyboard is now available as Multibridge Extreme, compositors can take an Early Access Program to all animation stu- full advantage of a true 10-bit uncompressed E-on Streams Vue 5 dios using Toon Boom Harmony and Opus. The 4:4:4 RGB work fl ow. Win E-on software, a developer of natural commercial release is scheduled for August 1, Multibridge Extreme also features “true 3D environment solutions, announced the pre- and is priced at $900. 2K” real-time preview for Fusion 5 at 23.98 and release of two new versions of its xStream suite Toon Boom Animation; www.toonboom.com 24 fps. This gives broadcast paint and special of plug-ins: xStream for LightWave and xStream effects professionals the ability to monitor 2K for Cinema 4D. Vue 5 xStream is a suite of plug- VIDEO on Dual-Link DVI-D LCD displays. Also included ins that enables the seamless integration of Vue is 720p/50 support for older-model DeckLink environments into 3D applications. Versions of Blackmagic Materializes Software high-def cards, allowing customers running xStream were already available for Autodesk 3ds Win Blackmagic Design announced the discontinued models of DeckLink high-defi ni- Max and Maya. Versions of xStream for NewTek immediate availability of Version 5.6 software tion cards to add compatibility for the European LightWave and Maxon Cinema 4D are also avail- for all Multibridge and DeckLink products. broadcast industry’s chosen HD standard. able, while xStream for Softimage XSI is still This release includes new support for Eyeon Blackmagic’s latest software driver Version under development. The Vue 5 xStream suite Fusion 5, 720p/50 on DeckLink high-defi ni- 5.6 is available free and can be downloaded of plug-ins lets CG professionals fully integrate tion cards, and new HDV playback support immediately from the Blackmagic Design their 3D projects into Vue environments. Vue 5 in Premiere Pro 2.0 on Windows XP and XP Web site at www.blackmagic-design.com/ xStream for Cinema 4D and LightWave will ship

x64 systems. Fusion 5 is a full-featured, node- support/software.______this summer; the product is priced at $495. based compositing system used for digital ﬁ lm Blackmagic Design; www.blackmagic-design.com E-on Software; www.e-onsoftware.com

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continued from page 82 adjustments to color and in which they were together Compared to the other lighting without having to go A took twice as long to render. Q cat you crafted recently, A through a time-consuming re- Aslan, how does render each time. In addition, we created Now, onto the compositing. Garfi eld’s fur differ? 2D motion blur that signifi cantly reduced Q How did you naturally blend A Garfi eld’s fur is longer and rendering time. In the past, motion blur a CG cartoon character into messier. It’s probably more like would have been applied prior to render- the live action and make it Aslan’s mane than his body fur. ing, but using 2D motion blur allowed look rather seamless, as if the crew to apply it in the comp stage. the characters belonged? How many hairs The HDRI and other data that Q does Garfi eld have? What was the biggest A we collect on set is very impor- There are 3.3 million hairs on Q fur challenge? tant for making sure that the him. The pelt hairs were grown We had a number of shots lighting blends seamlessly. Once the char- A off of Garfi eld’s polygon sur- where substances had to get acter is rendered, quite a bit of work goes face using hand-painted pelt A stuck in the fur. CG lasagna into the integration. Contrast levels, color, maps that determined the length, density, sauce in one scene, and mud and fi lm grain need to match the plate. clump, scruff, etc. The guide hairs were and dirt in another, all had to stick to and Contact shadows and refl ections are ren- also created using the same techniques, fall out of the fur. dered and need to be composited con- but they controlled the direction, fl atness, vincingly. Pieces of the plate are roto’d scruff, and other parameters to give the and comped back on top of the character. overall fl ow and directionality to the fur. What were the biggest How did you challenges you faced in animate the hairs? Q putting the CG characters Q The hairs are not animated by into the live action? hand except in special cases. A Both cats spend quite a bit A Most of the time they move of time on soft surfaces, like according to physical rules, beds and couches. They needed to be similar to a particle system. When other able to push into these surfaces so that objects touch Garfi eld, the guide hairs are we believe that they have real weight. animated to move the fur appropriately. Getting the shadows right in these situa- For the second Garfi eld movie, the tions is tough. We also had several shots What about the lighting? cat has 3.3 million hairs, which where people pick up and carry Garfi eld. The fur is lit the same way any consist of guide hairs and pelt hairs. These are always challenging and require Q other CG object would be lit, quite a bit of frame-by-frame work for using a combination of environ- How did you both the trackers and the compositors. A mental lighting obtained from Q accomplish that? To do this work, they used our in-house HDRI taken on the set and hero First, special grooming and tex- compositing software called Icy. CG lights. The orange color is very sen- tures were created that made sitive to different colored lights, so we A the fur look wet and dirty. Is there anything else you generally toned down the contribution Then, individually modeled Q want to point out about of the environmental lighting. Every shot pieces of mud or sauce were attached the work in this fi lm? needed individual attention to maintain to the hairs. These were also controlled The best part about working on the balance between realistic lighting and with a rules-based system that allowed A sequels is that you’re getting a keeping the orange color as bright and them to interact with the fur, and react second chance. The work we saturated as the director wanted. to gravity and fall out where necessary. did on the fi rst Garfi eld was fantastic, but there are always things you would do dif- What did you Did the fact that you had ferently if you had it to do over. A sequel use for rendering? two cats in the fi lm this time gives you that chance. All the work—ani- Q We render using our in-house Q impact your process and mation, lighting, compositing—was some renderer, Wren. The improved rendering times? of the best CG character work we’ve light/comp pipeline enabled us to make Not really, except that the shots done…’til the next one, of course!

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John Knoll | BA University of Southern California | Visual Tobi Saulnier | PhD Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | Effects Supervisor, Industrial Light & Magic, San Francisco, CEO, 1st Playable Productions, Troy, New York | 3-year California | Co-creator Photoshop | 20-year SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH attendee attendee 5 days of real-world, real-time graphic, interactive twingularity The only conference and exhibition in the world that twingles everybody in computer graphics and interactive techniques for one deeply intriguing and seriously rewarding week. In Boston, where thousands of interdisciplinary superstars ﬁnd the products and concepts they need to create opportunities and solve problems. Interact with www.siggraph.org/s2006 to discover a selection of registration options that deliver a very attractive return on investment.

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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 back Interview by drop Chief editor Karen Moltenbrey Betsy Paterson is Rhythm & Hues’ VFX supervisor for Garfi eld: A Tale of Fur Fun Two Kitties, overseeing a crew of 300 digital artists to bring the feline back Rhythm & Hues places an improved CG Garfi eld into to the big screen. Her supervisor credits ‘hairy’ situations in the fat cat’s live-action sequel include The Ring 2, both Scooby-Doo fi lms, and others.

Rhythm & Hues has a long history of character animation, going back to the early ’90s with we made improvements to the original the Coca-Cola Polar Bears. In 1995, with the Academy Award for Achievement in Visual Ef- Garfi eld rig so that he moved more natu- fects awarded to R&H VFX supervisor and co-founder Charles Gibson for Babe, the studio rally than in the fi rst movie. established itself as the leader in the talking-animal niche, with Stuart Little (cats), followed by Cats & Dogs (felines and canines). Rhythm & Hues leveraged the talking-animal repu- Did you create any new tation with its strong character animation pipeline, and started doing fully CG-animated Q hair and fur technologies characters for live-action fi lms and commercials. Some of those included Mr. Tinkles in or techniques for the fi lm? Cats & Dogs, Scooby-Doo (1 and 2), Cat in the Hat (fi sh), and the fi rst Garfi eld release in We’re constantly tweaking our 2004. That run culminated with the recent box-offi ce smash and Academy Award nomi- A software, so in a sense, we cre- nee The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which featured the ate new technology on every photoreal CG Aslan lion and 40 mythical character types, under the supervision of one of job. Most of the recent advances have R&H’s in-house VFX supes, Bill Westenhofer. to do with better application of environmental lighting to the fur itself, better What was the extent of the did a signifi cant amount of sheen, and better self-shadowing. Q work you did for Garfi eld 2? A work, particularly the ‘talking Rhythm & Hues’ scope of work animal’ portion. They are live- Would you describe for Garfi eld 2 consisted of 390 action animals with CG faces. Q your fur process? A shots featuring a 3D animated The fur is groomed and con- Garfi eld and/or his alter ego, You also did the hair trolled using various levels of Prince. We created, animated, lit, and Q and compositing for the A guide hairs. Maps are used for composited Garfi eld and Prince, his original Garfi eld movie? color and opacity. Several dif- almost identical counterpart, and all the Yes. We did the animation, as ferent lighting layers are rendered so that things that they interact with. A well, for the fi lm. details like sheen and shadows can be controlled in the composite. During how How did the work Q long of a period? Q this time differ? Which tools did you We had about four months of Garfi eld got an upgrade to Q use for the hair/fur? development and about six take advantage of advances We use our own proprietary A months to do the actual shots. A in our software and pipeline. software for just about every- He also got some slight mod- A thing we do. Our main package How many people eling tweaks. He’s actually fatter this is called Voodoo. Q worked on it? time around. Our animation rigging has At our peak, we had more than improved, so it was a bit easier to get Did any of this technology 250 people on our crew from more iterations of animation, and to get Q evolve from the work you A the US and India. more believable fat, skeleton, and mus- did in Narnia? cle interaction. As with any fi lm that Absolutely. Every show is built Did other studios depicts an animated character, that char- A on the things we learned from Q work on the fi lm? acter is an actor; it must evoke emotion previous shows. Rainmaker in Vancouver also and be totally believable. To that end, continued on page 80

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