Computerthe MAGAZINE for DIGITAL CONTENT CREATION and PRODUCTION

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® January 2006 www.cgw.com WORLD

Gorilla Tactics King Kong’s larger-than-life effects

The Power of X The Xbox 360 defines a new era in gaming Dragon Quest Adding digital magic to Harry’s latest adventure Starting a Studio If you build it, will they come?

Forward COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD to a friend! ®

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INTERIOR COMPUTER ARTS PHOTOGRAPHY ARCHITECTURE NEW MEDIA ILLUSTRATION GRAPHIC DESIGN ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN

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1.800.544.ARTS/WWW.ACADEMYART.EDU REGISTER NOW FOR SPRING-CLASSES START JANUARY 30 79 New Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA 94105 80% of our graduates are working in the art and design industry Nationally Accredited by ACICS, NASAD, FIDER (BFA-IAD), NAAB - Candidate Status (M-ARCH) Online Studies Available Image by Eva Kolenko, BFA Photography Student

MOTION INDUSTRIAL ANIMATION & PICTURES & ADVERTISING FINE ART TELEVISION FASHION DESIGN VISUAL EFFECTS

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

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

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January 2006 • Volume 29 • Number 1 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

Departments

Editor’s Note 4 Kong is King, Again CG continues to proliferate at the box offi ce, thanks in no small part to the 16 26 cutting-edge effects in King Kong and 28 Harry Potter. As a result, opportunities abound for artists and animators, some Features of whom may be tempted to open their own shop. Cover story Long Live the King 16 Spotlight 6 FILM | Director Peter Jackson Products challenged Weta Digital to think big NEW@ cgw.com while creating the effects in King Kong. D2’s Nuke 4.5 Web story exclusives: The studio answered with a breathtaking Avid’s Liquid product line jungle setting, an authentic 1930s The Cutting Edge ATI’s Radeon X1800 XT New York City, and Kong himself. Professional media creators continue Iridas’s SpeedGrade Onset By Barbara Robertson to embrace the Mac platform as a Services cost-effective way to easily create highly Let the Games Begin 22 stylized video. Nice Shoes’s Nice Spots Web-based GAMING | By taking advantage of media exchange for project review Self-Promotion: Part 3 and collaboration the industry’s latest breakthroughs, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console is changing This series for digital artists continues with getting noticed by way of users groups. Tech Viewpoint 8 the look and feel of game graphics. By Karen Moltenbrey The Bleeding Edge Trial By Fire Workstation vendors push technological Industrial Light & Magic creates the fi re boundaries in order to get an extra A Draconian Test 26 for Harry Potter’s digital dragon, using step ahead of their competitors. DIGITAL EFFECTS | ILM uses its digital a novel simulation engine that evolved magic to conjure up a fi ery dragon in from the studio’s collaboration with Portfolio 32 the latest Harry Potter adventure. Stanford University. Human Modeling By Barbara Robertson Workstations Review 34 with ‘The Look’ Luxology’s Modo 201 Starting a Small Studio 28 BUSINESS TRENDS | Want to be your Want more than just blazing-fast New+Improved 36 own boss? Owning your own VFX studio processing? We found workstations can be rewarding...and challenging. that offer cool components coupled Backdrop 40 with a stylized look that any CG artist Out of Water By William “Proton” Vaughan will appreciate.

See www.cgw.com for a more On the cover: in-depth version of this article. Pushing the technological envelope, Weta Digital crafts the great ape Kong in this epic remake. See pg. 16.

Image courtesy Weta Digital / Universal Studios. www.cgw.com JANUARY 2006 Computer Graphics World | 3

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Kelly Dove Editor-in-Chief note

KELLY DOVE: Editor-in-Chief Kong is King, Again [email protected] KAREN MOLTENBREY: Executive Editor [email protected]

As I sit down to write this, it’s not quite 2006. In fact, it is exactly one day, 17 CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: hours, 24 minutes, and 52 seconds before the premiere of King Kong. As you Jenny Donelan, Audrey Doyle, Evan Marc Hirsch, George Maestri, might expect, I can hardly wait to get in line. Martin McEachern, Stephen Porter, Barbara Robertson editor’s Academy Award-winner Peter Jackson’s highly anticipated remake of the 1933 cult classic King Kong is set to take us, once again, into the mind SUZANNE HEISER: Art Director [email protected] of a visionary ﬁ lmmaker whose penchant for great storytelling and eye for outstand- DAN RODD: Senior Illustrator ing CG and visual effects brings back the Kong-mania moviegoers must have expe- [email protected] rienced more than 70 years ago. BARBARA ANN BURGESS: Production Manager The merchandising for Kong is deﬁ nitely feeding the frenzy. Now, not only can [email protected]

you carry Kong in your pocket in the form of a credit card, you also can download CHRISTINE WARD: Ad Traffi c Manager Jackson’s offi cial behind-the-scenes postproduction diaries or buy them on DVD, and [email protected] purchase stop-motion armature prop replicas, in case you want to make your own SUSAN HUGHES: Marketing Communications Manager [email protected] Kong-based creation someday. Game publisher Ubisoft is fueling the gorilla madness, encouraging gamers on every platform imaginable to “Play as Man. Play as Kong,” in MICHELLE BLAKE: Circulation Manager michelleb@pennwell Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Offi cial Game of the Movie. MARK FINKELSTEIN: Vice President, This month, CGW does its share to spotlight Kong, as contributing editor Barbara Computers & Electronics Group Robertson details the making and grooming of this magnifi cent CG creature in “Long [email protected] Live the King” on pg. 16. COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD Executive and Editorial Offi ces: Kong is but one of the many CG effects-laden fi lms debuting this holiday season. 98 Spit Brook Rd. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which is being heralded in the media as the best movie Nashua, NH 03062-5737 (603)891-0123; FAX:(603)891-0539 yet in the popular J.K. Rowling series is also featured on pg. 26 with a technology Q&A CGW ONLINE: www.cgw.com with Tim Alexander, visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light and Magic, discussing For customer service and subscription inquiries only: the creation of water and cloth simulation for the movie (pg. 40). [email protected] TEL: (847) 559-7500 FAX: (847) 291-4816 POSTMASTER: Send change of address form to Computer As CG continues to proliferate at the box offi ce, the desire for artists and animators Graphics World, P.O. Box 3296, Northbrook, IL 60065

to break into the business of delivering visual effects for fi lm, games, and entertainment We make portions of our subscriber list available to continues to grow. Some may even be considering launching a small studio. Undoubtedly, carefully screened companies that offer products and services that may be important for your work. If you do business ownership can be extremely rewarding, or heartbreaking- not want to receive those offers and/or information, please let us know by contacting us at List Services, Outstanding ly defeating. This month, in the fi rst of a two-part series, William Computer Graphics World, 98 Spit Brook Road, “Proton” Vaughan offers advice to those interested in making the Nashua, NH 03062. CG and visual leap. See “Starting a Small Studio,” pg. 28. effects help fuel As we move through 2006, Computer Graphics World will continue to deliver the award-winning behind-the-scenes cov- ROBERT F. BIOLCHINI Kong-mania. President and Chief Executive Offi cer erage of Hollywood CG that we’re famous for. We will feature ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY DIVISION stories designed to help you get ahead in the business, technology articles and product reviews, so you can make informed hardware and software GLORIA S. ADAMS Vice President Audience Development choices, and hands-on tutorials and how-to articles designed to inspire and guide ATD PUBLISHING DEPARTMENTS you through the creative process. And, if you haven’t been to CGW.com lately, you MEG FUSCHETTI really should visit. Each month, you’ll fi nd Web exclusive stories that you won’t fi nd ATD Art Director anywhere else, along with daily news and reviews that will help keep you current MARI RODRIGUEZ ATD Production Director on the latest CG happenings. CGW.com also features the Animation Mentors, where top animators who paid their dues at high-profi le visual effects studios answer your PRINTED IN THE USA GST No. 126813153 questions about making it in the CG business. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40052420 Drop in and visit us online, quiz the Animation Mentors, send us your artwork, or just get in touch with us. In fact, you can reach me directly at [email protected]. And don’t forget to let me know what you think about Kong.

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COMPOSITING ADVANCEMENTS New Ways to Get Nuked

D2 Software, a division of Digital Domain, has enhanced its is now shipping, supports Linux, Irix, Windows, and Mac Nuke compositing system once again. Nuke V. 4.5, which platforms, and includes a lengthy list of upgrades such as PRODUCTS an image-based keyer, a new UI mode, support for Mac OS X and OpenFX, and more. The new image-based keyer gives users more ﬂ exibility when pulling high-quality keys, allowing artists to work on each color channel individually. The keyer includes specialized tools to improve matte edges and reduce the halo effect, which is common in bluescreen and greenscreen footage. Nuke V. 4.5 also introduces a new user interface work ﬂ ow, the ability to save layouts, and a new control-panel bin to manage window and property dialog boxes. Support for OS X and the OpenFX plug-in architecture allows artists to use plug-ins from companies such as The Foundry and Primatte. Nuke is priced at $4495; additional render nodes cost $745 per seat.

POSTPRODUCTION Nice Shoes, Nice Spots

Nice Shoes, a full-service postproduction and new media facility specializing in commercial work, has launched SERVICES Nice Spots, a pay-as-you-go hosted Web-based application for media exchange. Nice Spots allows users to exchange media for review and collaboration on rough cuts and fi nal edits regardless of a person’s geographic location. Nice Spots can be used for every phase of the audio and video creative process, including archiving and retrieval, viewing and commenting on casting tapes, location scouting, and dailies. When postproduction is complete, Nice Spots archives the fi nished master, resulting in a stored fi le that can be used for dubbing or broadcast. QuickTime and Windows Media fi les are provided for viewing and download. The service allows agencies to avoid the costs and hassles of sending electronic data via commercial delivery services or in a backpack strapped to a bike messenger.

6 | Computer Graphics World MONTH 2005 www.cgw.com

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NON-LINEAR EDITING Avid Flows Forward with Liquid

Avid Technology’s new Avid Liquid Liquid features, including native HDV tures include custom music creation product line is a suite nonlinear edit- editing, GPU-accelerated effects, back- capabilities directly inside the applica- PRODUCTS ing software and hardware offerings for ground rendering, Dolby Digital 5.1 sur- tion; native editing of popular codecs, event videographers, government and round audio with AC-3 encoding, DVD including WM9, DivX, and MPEG-4 for corporate video producers, and high- creation directly on the video-editing repurposing and output of content to end enthusiasts. timeline, and I/O hardware. New fea- the Internet; effects such as Timewarp, Drawn from editing products Stabilize, Dream Glow, and over formerly developed by recent- 50 plug-ins from the Commotion ly acquired Pinnacle Systems, effects suite; native HD and SD edit- the Avid Liquid family includes ing on the same timeline without new versions (V. 7.0) of the Avid transcoding; and Preview HDV in Liquid and Avid Liquid Pro sys- SD with Avid Liquid Pro. tems. Both systems offer new fea- The Avid Liquid family runs tures for users who want a single on Windows XP, and pricing for its application for the creation and various incarnations range from delivery of either tape, DVD, and $499 to $11,995, with discounted streaming media. upgrade paths for users of Pinnacle Avid Liquid builds on previous Liquid products.

BENCHMARKING COLOR GRADING ATI’s Radeon Gets SpeedGrade OnSet Overclocked Goes Pro

PRODUCTS In October, a group of overclockers in Pori, Finland, made PRODUCTS Iridas, a company delivering non-destructive color-grad- history by pushing a graphics processor engine to clock ing technologies for the ﬁ lm industry, is offering a new levels over 1 GHz on the recently-announced Radeon X1800 edition of SpeedGrade OnSet. Along with a number of XT graphics processor from ATI Technologies. The total interface enhancements, SpeedGrade OnSet Professional speed of the processor reached a clock speed 1.003 GHz Edition includes mask tools, split-screen modes for A/B and a dual data-rate memory speed of 1.881 GHz, all with comparisons, image scrubbing, and scene-based shot system stability and no visual artifacts. The team kept the organization, among other new features. The Professional rig cool using a custom-built liquid nitrogen system that Edition also introduces support for calibration LUTs and chilled the graphics will be offered with the new CineSpace OnSet application system to minus 80 from Rising Sun Research. The idea behind the product degrees Celsius. is to allow cinematographers to develop creative looks in ATI expects users a fully calibrated environment. to see the potential of the company’s new memory controller design that comple- ments the GPU’s shader engines with additional memory-clock scalability when faster GDDR-4 memory arrives The Radeon X1800 XT’s clock-scaling capabilities are made possible by the use of a 90-nanometer semiconductor process technology, a new ultra-threaded Shader Model 3.0 architecture, and a 512-bit ring-bus memory controller.

www.cgw.com MONTH 2005 Computer Graphics World | 7

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point The Bleeding Edge By Kathleen Maher

Is there any term more accurate than “bleeding edge” when talking about workstations? It seems there is bleeding going on everywhere in the industry. Vendors, locked in fi erce com- view petition, are pushing technology just to get a few benchmark points ahead. And certainly, graphics professionals battling deadlines and escalating pixel resolutions are bleeding all over the place. The workstation has undergone a profound evolution in the last SGI’s fl agship Prism visualization machine redefi nes workstation technology with scalable decade. Once the unas- modular bricks for high-performance processing and graphics. sailable domain of Unix/ RISC systems, the work- off-the-shelf components, add workstation-specifi c features such as custom cooling, station classifi cation now massive amounts of RAID and ECC memory, and advanced graphics boards for sell- Kathleen Maher includes machines based ing products branded as workstations for considerably less money than RISC- and is a senior analyst at on processors from Intel, Unix-based alternatives. Jon Peddie Research, a Tiburon, CA-based AMD, IBM/Apple, Sun, Windows-based workstations are the most common on the market today, which consultancy specializing Hewlett-Packard, SGI- is where a majority of the innovation is taking place. According to Jon Peddie in graphics and multimedia, MIPS, and even Alpha, Research’s Workstation Report, Windows-based workstations account for 92.6 per- and editor in chief of the fi rst 64-bit processor, cent of the workstation market. But there is a lot of room for differentiation with- JPR’s “TechWatch.” is still being put to work. in the classifi cation of a Windows-based workstation. The brief dominance of x86 She can be reached at [email protected]. The list of operating processors is giving way to the X86-64 processors, and single processors are losing systems includes Unix, ground to dual-core alternatives. In fact, AMD is planning to introduce quad-core Linux, Irix, Windows, processors in 2007. Workstation Mac OS, and Solaris. The 4-bit Itanium is hanging in there, and for some people, Itanium workstations In the past, vendors defi ne bleeding edge. The Itanium has a place in server systems and high-perfor- vendors are such as SGI, Sun, HP, mance computing, but as the successor for RISC/Unix workstations, it has failed to IBM, and Fujitsu built fi t the niche it was once designed for. It seems customers and developers alike real- locked in highly-tuned and opti- ly took to the idea of X86-64. The 64-bit platform lets customers transition to 64-bit mized workstations applications as their applications are ported; and developers will port applications as with proprietary compo- soon as there are enough customers using the X86-64 platform. fierce battle nents including proces- AMD has the biggest advantage at the moment. Not only did the company get sors, chipsets, graph- a head start with its X86-64 processors, but the company’s DirectConnect architec- to get a few ics subsystems, and ture puts the memory controller on the processor, while its HyperTransport technol- operating systems. Alas, ogy lets the processors share and access memory between controllers. Data gets to benchmark those days have ended and from memory faster—and for many applications, especially graphics—that’s with the rise of com- extremely enticing. To counter AMD, Intel has relied on HyperThreading. The com- points ahead. modity strategies that pany announced plans for a processor architecture similar to AMD’s, but those plans allow companies to buy have been delayed, giving AMD some breathing room. Intel in fact, had to rush its

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

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Paxville dual-core Xeon processor to mar- Some of the many high-performance workstations currently available from ket in order to counter AMD’s Opteron. In companies such as Alienware, Boxx Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, and Monarch November 2004, the fi rst dual-core Xeons, Computer include multi-core processing options and customized cooling solutions the Xeon 7000 line, started shipping that qualify their systems as bleeding edge. for servers. Intel plans to introduce the Glidewell platform for workstations based Alienware on the Dempsey processor this year, and Alienware, well known for its lineup of the word is that Intel is working furiously extreme gaming machines, has a series of to get them out the door. high-performance workstations that incor- porate inventive noise reduction and cooling About the Graphics technology, including its new liquid-cooling The three primary graphics suppliers solution. Its easy to recognize an Alienware are ATI, Nvidia and 3dlabs. The intro- system by the distinctive creature face adorn- duction of PCI Express (PCI-e) technol- ing the front. Its deskside workstations have ogy enables motherboards to accommo- two fans: an intake fan that pulls in fresh air date two graphics boards. ATI’s Crossfi re to help cool the internal components and a and Nvidia’s SLI technologies are avail- rear exhaust to eliminate the hot air. The liq- able, allowing two GPUs to work together uid-cooling alternative eliminates the need Alienware’s Liquid Cooling on an application. Meanwhile, 3dlabs’s for a secondary fan with a small, strategically reduces noise levels and lowers Wildcat Realizm 800 is a single PCI placed low-noise fan that cools the components temperatures. Express card with multiple GPUs, com- surrounding the processor, reducing decibels bining a graphics processor with a Vertex and providing temperature reductions of up to 30 percent more than conventional air- Scalability Unit (VSU) to act as the traffi c cooling methods. The addition of liquid cooling adds $202 to the base price. cop for data being sent by multiple graphics processors to and from the memory. Boxx Technologies Programmable shaders have actu- Boxx specializes in high-performance workstations for digital content creation and ally leveled the playing fi eld for graphics video and audio editing, with custom-designed machines having single-, dual-, and providers. The development of OpenGL now quad-processor confi gurations. 2.0 and Microsoft’s DirectX 9 defi nes Boxx’s new Apexx4 workstation, which is scheduled to be released this month, is APIs through which the hardware can targeting VFX and animation professionals creating large scenes and complex spe- accelerate software functions. Software cial effects with a need for accelerated work fl ow. The workstation incorporates four developers no longer have to depend dual-core AMD Opteron 875 series processors, making it a true quad workstation, on hard-wired graphics functions and, with eight CPUs and up to 128GB of memory. With a $25,000 price tag, the Apexx4 instead, can create their own effects. sits comfortably between a high-end server and an uberCG workstation. Boxx has Graphics processors now differentiate designed a special chassis that allows for maximum airfl ow, to accommodate the themselves based on performance and special cooling requirements of the high-CPU confi guration, keeping the noise level capabilities such as anti-aliasing, aniso- low enough to sit on a desktop. The system is scalable, offers Nvidia FX4500 GPUs, tropic fi ltering, and image and video includes two PCI Express graphics boards, and supports up to 10 data drives at 500GB scaling and fi ltering. In general, 3Dlabs each for up to 10TB of local storage. SLI confi gurations are also available, and Boxx is defi ned in the ultra-high end, while plans to offer Apexx4 workstations with ATI graphics cards. Nvidia and ATI battle for market share in every other area of workstation graphics. Hewlett-Packard The top-of-the-line workstations for HP are the xw9300 series, based on single- or dual- The Windows Boxes core AMD Opteron 200 series processors. HP systems offer a great deal of expandabil- Workstation manufacturers are locked ity with fi ve internal and three external drive bays. And, probably where HP soars in a competitive race to increase system above the crowd is in the work it has done to certify systems with ISVs. HP is target- performance, provide fl exible confi gu- ing the fi lm industry and continues to develop certifi ed systems for 3D modeling and rations, and reduce the costs of owning animation, special effects, and rendering. HP also offers optimized systems for science a professional graphics workstation, all and visualization, CAD, and earth applications such as oil and gas exploration. the while literally upping the coolness HP machines feature a chassis with noise dampening, a tool less upgrade, and a factor of system designs and customiz- Performance Tuning Framework to increase performance for commercially available able system alternatives. applications by up to 25 percent. The Performance Tuning Framework analyzes the

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

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system and its applications and checks book workstations and, as you might an online database for the most current expect, their features line up fairly drivers. HP’s utility supports Inventor, I- similarly. The truth is notebooks deas, Pro/Engineer, Catia, Unigraphics, are built by a handful of companies SolidWorks, and 3ds Max, all running based in Taiwan. under Windows 2000 Professional or Nvidia helped launch the mobile Windows XP Professional. workstation category with its Quadro FXgo series of graphics boards. Monarch Computer Eurocom has so far pushed the Monarch, famous for its Hornet gam- category the furthest with its Eurocom’s D900K F-Bomb offers dual-core ing boxes, applies the do-it-yourself D900K F-Bomb notebook. Available Opteron processors. model to workstations, offering systems with a menu of options including with every confi guration conceivable. AMD dual-core and FX or Intel Pentium 4 Prescott processors (performing at speeds Among its top-of-the-line systems are the of up to 3.6GHz), and a choice of ATI or Nvidia graphics subsystems. The workstation Monarch Accela workstations built with can be confi gured to include RAID, an optical drive, internal TV tuners, DVI-I for Intel Xeon processors with an 800MHz dual-monitor support and an internal PC camera for video conferencing. The systems front-side bus or Empro systems with are available with 17-inch wide displays with resolutions of 1680x1050 or 1920x1200. AMD’s Opteron processors. The base sys- F-Bomb system pricing starts at approximately $3000. tem ships with two AMD Opteron 275 Dual-Core 2.2GHz processors. The Empro Edgy Alternatives cases are serious looking but they incor- Apple G5 porate the see-through panel inspired Artistic professionals are drawn to Apple’s sense of design, ease of use, long list of by gamer machines and have built-in installed media software, and fabulous accessories like the Cinema display. heat-reduction features. Monarch also Even as Apple has announced plans to move to the Intel platform for future ups the power supply, adds ECC mem- products, the company has introduced a new PowerPC-based G5 built on dual-core ory support for up to four hard drives PowerPC processors in dual and quad confi gurations, with one and two dual-core with RAID options, and offers a lineup processors, respectively. Moreover, Apple has stepped up to true 64-bit processing of graphics options. The base system, and now supports 16GB of addressable memory. which is priced at $4564, ships with The new Power Mac G5 workstation with ATI’s FireGL V7100 with 256MB DDR3, dual-core 2.5GHz PowerPC processors could and Dual-DVI. Monarch also offers a be considered just another dual-core worksta- ULB, Ultimate Linux Box (ULB), a highly tion until it’s paired with an Apple Cinema customizable system based on Opteron HD Display. These workstations are the fi rst processors from the 1.4GHz Opteron 240 Apple machines to take advantage of Nvidia’s to the 2.4GHz dual-core 280. Graphics Quadro graphics, and they’ve gone all the way options run the gamut and include with the Quadro FX 4500. Apple has added 3dlabs, ATI, and Nvidia boards. The support for PCI Express, allowing users to add ULB pricing starts at less than $2300. up to four graphics cards driving eight Apple Cinema HD Displays. The Portables Apple has also added to its PowerBook The idea of a workstation compressed line up. These machines are based on G4 Apple G5 Quad taps into PCIe into a notebook confi guration is a dream PowerPC processors, but Apple has cut the architecture for the fi rst time. for overworked artists. While the sys- prices on the new systems, increased the bat- tems don’t accommodate multiple graph- tery life to about 5.5 hours, and added its Superdrive DVD burners to the entire line. ics boards (at least for now), and add- The top-of-the-line, 17-inch notebook is available with ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 ing monitor displays tends to defeat the graphics with 128MB of DDR for $2499. whole purpose of being mobile. But the power of today’s processors and mobile Silicon Graphics, Inc. graphics makes a notebook computer a SGI doesn’t even call the Prism, its fl agship visualization machine, a workstation. logical option when working out of the Built to be immensely scalable with modular bricks for processing and graphics, studio or in the fi eld. Practically every the Prism is built around Intel Itanium 2 processors and is available in four confi g- workstation manufacturer offers note- urations: deskside, power, team, and extreme. Starting at $8500, the base system

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includes two Itanium 2 CPUs, one or two gas exploration, etc. using Cell BE processors, the same technology developed by ATI FireGL CPUs and up to 24GB of mem- IBM, Sony, and Toshiba for the next generation Sony Playstation console. The compa- ory, scaling up to 256 Itanium 2 proces- ny has introduced a two-processor blade server based on the Cell, and most recently sors, 16 ATI FireGL graphics accelerators, Mercury demonstrated the Cell processor going to work on CT (computed tomogra- and 3TB of memory. phy) image reconstruction. The company claims that the Cell is capable of orders-of- The Prism is designed for hefty magnitude faster processing for high-performance applications in medical imaging. graphics challenges. For instance, it At one time, Sony’s Ken Kutaragi, the father of the PlayStation, opined that Cell pro- was recently demonstrated with Pixel cessors would be used to build workstations for game development. That hasn’t hap- Farm’s PFPlay system and Sony’s proto- pened, but experimentation continues on several fronts. The combination of 64-bit type SXRD 4K projector for digital inter- technology and the ability to build processors with multiple cores has inspired new mediates, digital cinema, and people designs—two of which, were showcased recently at the Fall Processor Forum spon- working in 2K (2048x1556) and even 4K sored by In-Stat. Fujitsu showed off a new Sparc processor the dual-core Sparc64 VI, (4096 x 3112) space. and a new company on the scene, PA Semi, is using the IBM Power architecture to build new multi-core processors that deliver high performance at low wattages. Up and Coming In the future, unless humankind drastically changes for some unforeseen reason, Even as most of the market moves graphics professionals still will be pushing the edges of what is possible, and dead- toward standardized parts, there is new lines will still threaten their sanity. But, if it’s any consolation, workstation designers work being done that may change the are working just as hard to produce systems that rise to unreasonable challenges. workstations of the future. Just out on the horizon, Mercury Computer has @ CGW Online announced plans to build systems for Visit www.cgw.com this month as Kathleen Maher identiﬁ es workstations that take compute-intensive tasks in medical customization to an extreme in “Workstations with ‘The Look.’” imaging, military applications, oil and

14 | Computer Graphics World JANUARY 2006 www.cgw.com

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. . . . Film

By Barbara Robertson of digital creatures act in the fi lm, from For his part, Rivers moved on to the creepy pit denizens to Kong himself: supervise and direct Kong’s performance The giant gorilla is always digital. and, working alongside animation super- People walked out of the world premiere of Letteri singles out four areas in which visor Atsushi Sato, that of the creatures King Kong in 1933, horrifi ed by a spectac- he believes Weta pushed the state of the art interacting with Kong. A team of approx- ular effects scene: The star, a monstrous for King Kong: Kong himself, Skull Island’s imately 50 animators and actor Andy gorilla, shook a group of sailors off a log digital forest (created with miniatures and Serkis, who had been motion-captured and into a pit, where they were devoured by 3D plants), the ocean simulation, and a for LOTR’s Gollum, created the star’s per- giant spiders. As a result, director Merian C. reproduction of 1933 New York City. Kong formance—a blend of motion-captured Cooper cut the shocking scene. But, direc- fi ghts for survival in the fabricated jungles data and keyframe animation. “We cap- tor Peter Jackson reprised that sequence for of Skull Island, wades through CG water tured Andy for many Kong sequences, his remake, Universal Pictures’ King Kong, with blood and mud sticking to his fur, excluding the crazy stunts,” says Rivers. and, with the tastes of 21st century audi- and crashes through the streets of a vir- “We used his ideas for the dramatic emo- ences in mind, he not only fi lled the pit tual New York. Unlike LOTR, which was tional scenes. But to create the weight with giant CG spiders, he attacked digital shot on location in New Zealand, Kong’s and physics of a 25-foot gorilla, we also sailors with huge grasshopper-like insects world is largely digital. To push the state of had to keyframe him. And sometimes the and had gigantic slimy slugs swallow them the art, Weta developed new software and director wanted performances that were whole. It’s one of many sequences during plug-ins for Alias’s Maya, Apple’s Shake, more practical to keyframe.” the three-hour epic in which Jackson pays and Pixar’s RenderMan, the three major On set, Serkis wore arm extensions and homage to the original 90-minute fi lm by tools used for the fi lm. a Lycra suit padded into a gorilla’s physiol- adding a blend of spectacle and emotion ogy. To act with Naomi Watts, who plays that he mastered so successfully for The A Star is Born Ann Darrow—the Fay Wray role in the Lord of the Rings. Animation director Christian Rivers original fi lm—he was lifted 15 feet off the To tell Kong’s story, Jackson relied on began working on Kong by supervising ground in a cherry picker. When he roared, state-of-the-art visual effects, as he did for a small, tight group of animators who a mike dropped the frequency of his voice. LOTR, and as did Cooper in 1933 for Kong. “fl eshed out a lot of the gorilla’s charac- When Serkis duplicated his performance on a motion-capture stage, his facial expressions and body movements were acquired simultaneously. Rivers notes All images courtesy Weta Digital / Universal Studios. / Universal Digital Weta courtesy images All

Photo courtesy Pierre Vinet / Universal Studios. / Universal Vinet Pierre courtesy Photo that data from the areas around his eyes and brows was most useful. Rule-based “facial action coding” software developed at Weta turned the data from Serkis’s emotional facial expressions into gorilla expressions. “We could take [Serkis] straight in, body and face, or we could animate Kong, or use some combination Actress Naomi Watts’s greenscreen image (left) ter,” as he puts it. Using Maya, the group of the two,” says Letteri. was composited with the digital gorilla in front of started with the fi lm’s famous climax in a digital New York City for this sequence. which the beleaguered gorilla clings to Hair Today Weta Digital, the three-time visual effects the Empire State Building as he’s attacked Kong’s appearance was as crucial as his Oscar-winning studio (for the LOTR tril- by biplanes. Next, they worked on Kong’s performance. The fi lmmakers imagined ogy), worked on more than 3000 shots for fi ght with three T. rex dinosaurs, and him as the last of his species, living alone Kong that were whittled down to approxi- then moved on to other key sequences. mately 2500 in the fi nal cut. “[Jackson’s] way of working was to “We created more creatures for Kong discuss ideas in a story meeting and than for the entire trilogy,” says Joe Letteri, send the animators off to create little senior visual effects supervisor for Kong vignettes,” Rivers says. Eventually, the who has garnered two Oscars (The Lord of animators created Maya animatics for the Rings: The Return of the King and The the shots Jackson deemed best so that he Two Towers) and one Oscar nomination (I, could use digital cameras to design cam- Robot) while at Weta. More than 40 types era moves in the 3D environment. long

16 | Computer Graphics World JANUARY 2006 www.cgw.com

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Film. . . .

In the ﬁ lm, the craggy, bloody, battle-scarred gorilla with mud in his fur is always digital. His performance was created with a blend of keyframe animation and motion-captured data.

Peter Jackson’s retelling

of the cinematic

legend King Kong pushes

Weta Digital to supreme

heights . . . and depths live theKING www.cgw.com JANUARY 2006 Computer Graphics World | 17

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. . . . Film

in the jungles of Skull Island. “No one was around to groom what happens to a light ray entering a hair strand rather than a him, so he was a matted, dirty creature,” says Martin Hill, 3D cylinder, refracting and refl ecting inside it,” he explains. sequence lead. “The fi rst maquette was made of yak hair.” This math produced what Hill calls “shampoo commercial” To create Kong’s digital fur, Weta developed a proprietary, hair, perfect for Watts. For Kong’s coarse, matted hair, the crew deformer-based system that allowed various departments added displacements and noise. Also, deep shadows, ambient to work with different elements—guide hairs, expressions, occlusion, and refl ection baked on a per-groom level helped give and so forth. Each hair was a RenderMan curve. Groomers the hair depth and volume. “Each groom has a 3D occlusion map,” started by painting texture maps in areas where they wanted says Hill. For specular lighting, math representing an isosurface the fur to grow. The maps, vertex data, or expressions speci- around the hair clumps provided a layer used to render highlights. fi ed hair density, length (number of CVs), and thickness. “At “Fur is very dependent on the groom that defi nes the surface,” this stage, we had a porcupine-looking monkey,” says Martin Preston, fur software developer. Texture maps also defi ned the fur’s color. To style the hair, groomers specifi ed the frizziness with deformers that controlled where particular hairs would bend. A pelting system, also controlled with deformers, grouped the hair into clumps. “We had 30,000 to 40,000 clumps on Kong’s head alone,” says Preston. “It isn’t a solid mass of hair.” The stylists positioned the clumps by placing points on the model’s surface, by painting maps, and by having software ran- domly distribute a number of clumps. “We have a whole collection of plug-in deformers to control layers of clumping, grooming curves, and so on,” says Preston. “On his arm, there are 10

levels of deformers.” Kong has around four million hairs on his body that Weta Digital To wedge blood, mud, and tree trunks (the gorilla is huge, after rendered using a new shading model that executes in RenderMan. all) into Kong’s thick hair, the fur team used instanced geometry. “We had 2000 leaves and 2000 bits of mud and dried blood in notes Letteri. “You can’t separate the shader from the fur. That’s Kong’s hair,” says Preston. Because these elements were gener- what was hard—fi guring out whether [a problem] was due to ated at the same time as the hair using the same methods, they the shader or the groom.” traveled along with the moving hair. Maya dynamics animated Kong’s fur had to react to the environment around him, so the hair; the simulation crew used a separate set of deformers and the team tweaked the shader depending on his surroundings. scripts to push the fur around when Kong moved. For example, they gave Kong’s matted, dirty hair a watery sheen “What they were all building is a program that executes in at the end of the capture sequence. Also, for shots of Kong on RenderMan,” says Preston. “It has all the instructions for grow- the refl ective Empire State Building, the shading crew added ing the fur.” The program, a dynamic shared object (DSO) they a refl ection component to the hair and used a different refl ec- named Bonobo, took charge once the lighting TDs had set the tion occlusion version for the fur. “We couldn’t use the same lights and applied the shader. “It happens at the end, so at any methods as we did for the building,” Hill says. “Because you point in memory there is a limited amount of fur,” says Preston. see through his fur strands, we needed more volumetric refl ec- “It grows, on average, four million hairs to cover Kong.” tion occlusion.” Because Kong appears in lighting conditions ranging from To test the shaders, the team shrunk the digital gorilla into the hot, tropical sun to nighttime New York City, the shading a realistic size, rendered that Kong, and put him into nature team wrote one overall hair shader that incorporated shader fi lms to see how well he fi t into natural environments—particu- algorithms for any type of hair, including that for Naomi larly dappled light fi ltering through trees, as it would on Skull Watts’s digital double. Island, and early-morning light to emulate Kong’s big scene on “We started by implementing, in its entirety, a 2002 the Empire State Building, which takes place at dawn. SIGGRAPH paper written by Stephen R. Marschner and others called ‘Lightscattering from Human Hair Fibers’,” Hill says. A Jungle Out There Previously, CG shading models dealt with primary highlights Jackson’s Weta Workshop, which created models, miniatures, on hair, Hill explains, but the Marschner paper added two ele- props, and so forth for the fi lm, designed Skull Island to imi- ments: light that refracts into the hair and comes out the other tate matte paintings from the 1933 fi lm, not as a real jungle. side, and light that goes into hair, refl ects, and comes out the Nearly half the shots, including a Brontosaurus stampede, a same side it went in. “It more accurately models the math for fi ght between Kong and three T. rex dinosaurs, the spider pit,

18 | Computer Graphics World JANUARY 2006 www.cgw.com

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.. . . . Film

and Kong’s capture, take place on this island. “Nearly every Skull Island shot is a combination of elements ﬁ lmed on a miniature set with digital enhancements,” says Eric Saindon, digital effects supervisor. To create Kong-sized digital trees, the crew used the same hair system as it did for the gorilla’s hair. “We started with a single hair for the trunk, grew hairs off that for branches, and con-

tinued until we had enough to create a canopy,” says Saindon, New water-simulation tools that allowed wind to blow from more “and then we did the same thing with leaves.” For interac- than one direction and emulate cresting foam helped create a CG tion between characters and jungle elements, the team often ocean as well as the interaction of the water around the boat. used Maya Paint Effects to create the environment, rendering it with custom software that fed the output mesh straight into cards with the fi lmed tree elements into the 3D scene. “We had a RenderMan. Maya’s hair solver handled the dynamics. 100-square-foot set,” says Winquist. “Everything beyond that had “When Kong and the T. rexes come down through the vines to be created by somebody.” and land in a swamp, we have a montage that’s similar to the 1933 movie in which Kong cracks the T. rex’s jaw open,” Oceans of Fun says Saindon. “We didn’t have any plates. We built the walls, Similarly, shots of the boat on which the protagonists travel to ground, plants…everything in 3D, and used Paint Effects for Skull Island and later return with the captured Kong were cre- most of that sequence.” ated from a mixture of elements—plates fi lmed on stage using a Weta’s custom Maya plug-in named Putty helped with surface- full-scale model, water created from color-corrected fi lmed ele- to-surface collisions, particularly at the end of the Brontosaurus ments that were warped by compositors, and with a blend of 3D stampede in which dinosaurs and sailors all land in a pile on top and 2D digital water simulations. of one another. “We also used it for things like footprints and “We mainly used a Tessendorf-style of water simulation as a trees,” says Saindon. “It doesn’t do the collisions; it just tells the starting point to get calm water simulations,” says Ben Snow, system when to look for collisions.” For example, rather than hav- visual effects supervisor, referring to Jerry Tessendorf’s SIGGRAPH ing a tree branch constantly checking to see if it is colliding with 2001/2004 papers titled ‘Simulating Ocean Water.’ “Then, we devel- a creature, the plug-in told the system when a creature was near. oped water-simulator deformers in Maya that we implemented as For shots on Skull Island that didn’t require much camera RenderMan shaders and Shake plug-ins so we could put the same movement or creature interaction, compositors created the jun- values into all three and get the same patterns.” gle using fi lmed elements of miniature trees. “[Jackson] wanted For rougher seas, the crew further developed the tools. “In to give Skull Island a sense of life,” says Erik Winquist, digital previous fi lms we used a single wind-speed characteristic, but compositing supervisor. “So, all the elements were shot with as we refi ned the tools, we added off-axis wind direction, which wind. Hopefully, it looks like a living place.” gave us a great deal of complexity,” says Christopher Horvath, 3D Using a custom 3D interface that Weta created for Shake, com- CG supervisor. Using data gathered from buoys in the northern positors built virtual dioramas: They imported rough geometry Atlantic, the simulation team added turbulence to surface waves for the scene and the camera used by the TDs, and then placed in the ocean, pushing smaller waves differently than big ones and having waves moving parallel to the wind as well as perpendicularly. For the most diffi cult water scene, however, in which Kong is captured while splashing in waist-deep water, the crew composited fi lmed elements. “Even with ridiculously full-blown sims, the photos looked better,” Horvath says. “So we concentrated on giving compositors tools to place fi lmed elements where the splashes would be, and added CG splashes behind to beef up and tie the elements together.” Rather than creating tools that plug together in Maya, Horvath’s team created a development suite with tools that use Maya Weta extended the small Skull Island jungle set with fi lmed elements of miniature trees on 2D controls. “We built new tools on the fl y from cards, matte paintings, and 3D plants. The dinosaur is one of 42 digital creatures in Kong. various components and would recode and

20 | Computer Graphics World JANUARY 2006 www.cgw.com

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Film. . . .

recompile on a shot-by-shot basis,” Horvath says. “We have walks and alleys with mailboxes, fi re hydrants, trash cans, bits libraries of fl uid tools written in C++ that we can reassemble of paper, and so forth. For street-level set extensions, they used into new tools quickly.” White’s CityBot with additional rules for such elements as stair- One such tool was written by 3D digital water TD Chris wells and fi re escapes. Young, who had not written code before this project. His tool To texture the buildings, 3D lighting TD Michael Baltazar creates cresting foam—the sharp bits at the top of waves that wrote software that made rough guesses for material types gradually decay and move with the waves. “It’s the most evolu- based on luminance values in black-and-white photos. To tionary in terms of pushing CG water technology forward,” says render the resulting 90,000 buildings, 3D sequence lead Jean Horvath. “It has 100 controls, and the resulting foam is magnif- Matthews created a system to bake buildings into textures. icent. In the past, we used particles or hand painted the foam. “The ’bot would build a building, and all the details would be This has a real feel to it because it’s based in science.” rendered into textures for displacement maps and so forth, so the building was rendered with textures rather than 3D geom- New York, New York etry,” explains White. “We probably have 400,000 textures.” A When Kong is captured, he is taken to New York, where he’s procedural weathering system added rain and snow. exhibited on stage. He escapes, tears through Times Square, crashes through the city all night looking for Ann, and then, at daybreak, climbs the Empire State Building. Although Watts was fi lmed running in an interior set piece, and other parts of the city were built for the actors, most of the city was constructed of 3D models with a 360-degree matte painting in the far background. “In 40 percent of the shots, there is some piece of a set—storefront windows, for example,” says Dan Lemmon, digital effects supervisor. “But, we did digital set extensions above that level. For the rest, we created everything from scratch.” To build 1933 New York, the crew started with a low-resolution polygonal map of modern-day New York that gave them the skyline for the entire city. Weta extended the New York City set and built a digital replica of 1933 Manhattan Using a dataset of modern New York that had infor- with a rules-based system that handled architectural details and textures. mation about the year each building was constructed, they culled all the structures built after 1933. Then, referenc- Gigantic Potential ing a set of photographs from an aerial survey in the ’30s, they Film critic Roger Ebert writes that the sophisticated effects created added the buildings that had been torn down. “We created all by Willis O’Brien and others for the 1933 Kong “pointed the way of Manhattan, the shoreline of New Jersey, and the shoreline of toward the current era of special effects, science fi ction, cataclys- Brooklyn in 3D,” says Lemmon. “We built historically accurate, mic destruction, and nonstop shocks…movies and countless other low-res building models in a format that would be sympathetic stories in which heroes are terrifi ed by skillful special effects.” to a script that 3D CG supervisor Chris White was writing to add Letteri believes the work Weta did for Kong could also lead architectural elements.” to new types of fi lms. “Creating a title character like Kong, who Although modelers constructed such signature buildings has such a complex performance without dialog, means we can as the Empire State Building by hand, most of the buildings make creatures that people have not been able to think of before,” were constructed using White’s script, called CityBot-Urban he says. “And, if you can build a city like New York, you can Development Software (or, ’bot for short), and a library of his- build any city—past, present, future—on any planet. [For Kong] torically accurate architectural elements. we turned the camera down a street, told the software what kind “I wrote rules based on the reference photos from the ’30s that of neighborhood or architecture to build, and it constructed the told the ’bot what to put where,” says White. The ’bot added appro- city for us. We didn’t have to texture every building by hand.” priate architectural details such as windows, ledges, and door- Letteri adds, “Having these come together opens up inter esting ways, and, thereby, created the mass of the city. The city planners possibilities for what we might be able to do in the future.” then populated New York with 3D vehicles and people. Massive Software’s crowd-simulation software managed the vehicular and Barbara Robertson is an award-winning journalist and a contrib- pedestrian traffi c unless the shots required hero animation. uting editor for Computer Graphics World. She can be reached at When the camera was at street level, the crew dressed the side- [email protected].

www.cgw.com JANUARY 2006 Computer Graphics World | 21

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First to market with its BEGINnew console, Microsoft PART 1 puts gameplay on the fast track

One of the most popular gifts this past The X Factor holiday season was Microsoft’s Xbox Microsoft’s Xbox powers next-gen gaming 360. For those lucky enough to have unwrapped one, there is little question as On November 22, 2005, the look of comput- experiences are more expansive, dra- to why this relatively small gift box was erized gaming in North America changed matic, and lifelike than ever before: Epic on so many wish lists. The fi rst of the new radically. That’s when Microsoft released its worlds spring to life with unprecedented gaming consoles to be released by the big- Xbox 360, the fi rst in a trio of expected new detail, while extremely intelligent char- three vendors, the machine was met with consoles to hit the market within the next acters display a depth of emotion never great fanfare as hopeful buyers fl ocked to several months. (Because Microsoft came before associated with gaming. Realism stores for their chance to experience the late to the console game, the 360 marks the emerges not only in the advanced tex- next big thing in computerized gaming. company’s second hardware release, while turing and lighting effects of the graph- As Sony and Nintendo prepare their competitors Sony and Nintendo are prepar- ics, but also in the way the settings them- systems for release later in the year, ing their third systems.) selves respond to characters’ movements. Microsoft alone ushered in the next Far more than a game console, the For instance, if an enemy hiding in brush generation of interactive entertainment, Xbox 360 is a video game and digital makes a sudden move, the player will which offers the power and performance entertainment system that, in addition hear and see leaves rustle, alerting them that players could only have dreamt to fueling high-def gaming, lets users to the character’s presence. about a year ago. port music to the hard drive, watch pro- Taking an early lead in the billion- gressive-scan DVD movies “right out of Powering Up dollar gaming industry, the Xbox 360 is the box,” and instantly stream and store According to Chris Satchell, general man- giving players a good look at the present digital video and other media, including ager of the Xbox Game Developers Group, state of gaming, where graphics are on digital photos. the 360 provides a true generational leap the fast track. In Part 1 of this series, we Unveiled on MTV in May 2005, the in every aspect of the system’s hard- take a peek under the hood of the con- Xbox 360 is touted as placing the user at ware, software, and services for advanc- sole, to see what’s driving the next-gen the center of the experience, anytime, any- ing gameplay graphics. For example, the titles. Next month, in Part 2, we examine where. The machine is always connected cutting-edge custom GPU offers innova- the new Xbox 360 title Project Gotham (through its Xbox Live feature that allows tions such as 48 parallel-processing ALUs, Racing 3, to see how far one developer a person to play with others in any loca- Shader Model 3.0+, and real-time auto- pushed the console’s capabilities. tion), always personalized (with a cus- matic scheduling of system resources, tomizable interface), and always plays in allowing every game to run at either 720p high def (at 720p or 1080i resolution). or 1080i resolution. The fi rst of the new game consoles to hit the market, Microsoft’s Xbox The machine—by taking advantage Microsoft has paired the GPU with a 360 incorporates state-of-the-art of the industry’s latest breakthroughs— custom CPU running at 3.2 GHz and fea- hardware for a dramatic leap represents a dramatic leap forward in turing three symmetric cores. The CPU forward in high-def gameplay and high-def gaming and entertainment (see offers huge processing power for large- game graphics. the table on pg. 24). As a result, gaming scale, complex worlds. To provide stor-

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Gaming. . . .

age for this level of detail, the vendor Undercover Graphics has added 512MB of ultra-fast system To illustrate the potential of next-gen games—particularly those powered by RAM, a 12X DVD drive, and a 20GB ATI’s Radeon graphics technology—the video-card maker joined forces with re movable hard drive. “When added digital studio Rhinofx to create “The Assassin,” the third installment in the together, these elements allow visual duo’s series of cinematic Webisodes geared for the video-game environment. and gameplay experiences beyond any- The latest episode was featured this past summer at the E3 game confer- thing seen in the current generation,” ence and at SIGGRAPH, both times running on the new Xbox 360 console, which proclaims Satchell. sports a customized ATI graphics processor. The cinematics in “The Assassin” Compared to the fi rst generation operated solely off ATI’s GPU in order to accurately demonstrate its capabilities of the Xbox, the 360’s GPU is capable within an interactive environment. According to Bob Feldstein, vice president of of processing almost 30 times more engineering at ATI, viewers can turn various effects (such as shaders) on and off shader instructions (in the thousands within the demo for a visual look at the card’s latest functionality. of instructions) and 40 times the fi ll- “The demo provides a vision of what game developers can do with the rate bandwidth. Moreover, the Xbox shaders and other features of the GPU—produce hair that blows in the wind, 360 has double the bandwidth and has detailed skin textures, and realistic motion,” says Feldstein. eight times the memory of the Xbox 1, A year and a half ago, ATI and Rhinofx produced “Doublecross,” a technical allowing developers to simulate mas- demonstration that was soon followed by “Dangerous Curves,” used to illustrate the power of ATI’s X800 and X850 sively rich worlds. Aside from providing cards, respectively. All three episodes feature ATI’s Ruby character, a lean, mean, alluring secret agent who doubles a new level of graphics fi delity, these as a global-branding icon. “Now that Ruby is recognizable, we’re able to push the envelope in terms of who she is,” functions are now able to process the says Rhinofx director Harry Dorrington, who spearheaded Ruby’s design and development. So, who is Ruby in this kind of effects in real time that previ- new adventure? She is a heroine with vulnerabilities and a warrior who can appreciate the threat posed by a for- ously had to be prerendered. In addition, midable enemy, he explains. In “The Assassin,” that enemy is the title character: a new Dorrington creation named the CPU has 10 times the processing Cyn, a cold, snide, aggressor. power of the Xbox 1 and offers a blend Cyn exists not only to take on Ruby, but also to take the ATI technology to another (game) level. A number of general-purpose processing power of advances combine to deliver heightened realism in the characterizations, artistically elevated lighting schemes for game logic and math horsepower to that underscore the dramatic element, and greater overall detail—all rendered in real time and without slowing drive next-generation physics, anima- gameplay, says Callan McInally, manager of ATI’s 3D Application Research Group. tion, and AI. With the Xbox 360, the team was able to push the look of “The Assassin” beyond what it had accomplished in “The key to the system is in the bal- the fi rst two installments in terms of technology and aesthetics, says Dorrington. For instance, the characters’ skin ance of each element,” says Satchell. “For textures are more physically accurate as a result of subsurface scattering, a process not typically found in gaming. example, the GPU has 10MB of embed- “The proof is in the polygons,” Dorrington says, “the more polys you have to work with, the more realistic the ded DRAM connected to the core, with imagery becomes.” To this end, “The Assassin” has 25 percent more polygons than the previous segments. While a 256GB/sec dedicated bus, to ensure Ruby is essentially the same model (80,000 polygons) from the previous episodes, the new hardware enabled the that the system never gets fi ll-rate bound group to expand the environment and other characters—Cyn, for instance, consists of more than 120,000 polys— while rendering large, complex scenes— all of which use complex lighting calculations for added realism. As Feldstein points out, in the past, more polys a common problem with current-genera- would have meant a slower gaming experience; but with the latest graphics hardware, that was not an obstacle. tion graphics processors.” The differences in the animation are more diffi cult to identify, but they are present. Using Alias’s Maya, Rhinofx ani- Also unique to the Xbox 360 GPU is mator Dan Vislosky modeled and rigged the characters with a setup that allowed the group more freedom when edit- automatic load balancing of the 48 par- ing the corresponding mocap data and blending between the mocapped and the keyframed animations. Also new to allel ALU processing units. This means the series is an HDRI lighting setup, which communicates more information and delivers more accurate renderings. that for every cycle, the GPU automati- On a creative level, the success of the fi rst two Ruby installments has paved the way for narrative develop- cally adjusts to the different rendering ment. Now that there is a structure to the brand, the teams are adding twists to the story line, such as killing off demands, thereby allowing the sys- Ruby’s nemesis, Optico, in the beginning of “The Assassin” and orchestrating a fi ght to the death between Ruby tem to utilize its power more effectively and Cyn. As such, Dorrington approached this project as he would a movie. “There is an implied depth to the series, than with a standard architecture. and we’ve always treated it like a fi lm trailer, or a snapshot of a larger picture,” Dorrington says. “We’ve got enough story lines collected so that if we wanted to do a feature fi lm, we could.” The Visual Translation According to Dorrington, one reason why Ruby works so well, particularly in the gaming market, is that the audi- According to Satchell, it is impossible ence is both critical and knowledgeable, absorbing the layers of the character as well as the technical capabilities of the to predict how game developers will gaming system. “The audience is so informed that it needs to see things in a more realistic and tangible way,” he says. begin to harness this power, although As McInally points out, at every gaming trade show, the number one question posed to the group is, when is there are some common features that the game coming out? “That tells me we have hit our mark,” he says. Alas, no Ruby game is on the horizon, but are likely to be exploited in new game expect to see the heroine continue her adventures in a future technology demo.

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. . . . Gaming

releases. For instance, the vertex- and pixel-processing power vices, such as the 360’s massive spectator mode (for watching will let many off-line techniques (such as displacement map- friends’ gameplay), will offer new ways for the user to interact ping, normal mapping, dynamic ambient occlusion, and global with the game world and the gamer community. illumination approximations) run smoothly in real time. “As developers start to take advantage of the hardware tesse- The Film Effect lator, gamers will see smooth, lifelike characters,” says Satchell. So, how will the level of detail in the Xbox 360 games compare “The multi-core symmetric CPU has custom math-processing to what we see presently in feature fi lms or broadcast? Satchell capabilities that allow complicated, dynamic simulations and expects a transition period while game developers mine the rich complex artifi cial intelligence to be infused with new levels of hardware resources of the new system. However, soon thereaf- animation, resulting in stunning, movie-like scenes containing ter, he believes the techniques that previously were employed many participants. And, characters will feature detailed sec- only for high-end fi lm rendering will become common within ondary animations and have dynamics simulations for ultra- the real-time realm. Also, the increased number, complexity, and realistic actions and reactions.” texture resolution of in-game characters will start to close the gap With the 360, gamers will experience a huge increase in tex- between games and prerendered content. ture detail from the use of high-resolution textures and deeper For instance, polygon counts will increase dramatically, multi-layer techniques. (Novel texturing techniques, such as resulting in central characters comprising up to a quarter of a normal and displacement mapping, are becoming commonplace million polys. “When you add advanced lighting and shading techniques, like sub-surface scat- Xbox 360 System Performance Specifications tering, displacement mapping, and ambient occlusion, you approach a look that is far more like fi lm than Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU 3 symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each 2 hardware threads per core (6 total) we have ever seen before in games,” VMX-128 vector unit per core (3 total) says Satchell. 1MB L2 cache Moreover, because every Xbox CPU Game Math Performance 9.6 billion dot-product operations per second 360 game title will be playable in

Custom ATI Graphics Processor 10MB embedded RAM high defi nition, the real-time imag- 48-way parallel fl oating-point dynamically ery will take a visual leap beyond scheduled shader pipelines current prerendered standard-defi ni- Unifi ed shader architecture tion visuals, such as those currently Polygon Performance 500 million triangles per second prevalent on television. Pixel Fill Rate 16 gigasamples per second fi ll rate using 4X MSAA Perhaps most impressive is Shader Performance 48 million shader operations per second the fact that all this imagery fi ts inside a book-size box, which uses Memory 512MB of 700 MHz GDDR3 RAM advanced compression techniques Memory Bandwidth 22.4GB/sec memory interface bus bandwidth to maximize the available memory 256GB/sec memory bandwidth to EDRAM for both visual and audio resources. 21.6GB/sec front-side bus Remarkably, with the sheer amount Overall System Floating-Point Performance 1 terafl op of CPU and GPU processing power,

Storage Detachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive it is now more viable to calculate 12X dual-layer DVD-ROM required data than to store it in a Memory unit support starting at 64MB pre-computed format. And, with multi-core architectures, developers due to the newfound bandwidth, system memory, and GPU pro- can utilize real-time streaming of data from a DVD or hard drive cessing power.) Additionally, models are becoming much higher without slowing gameplay. in resolution, and as developers become more familiar with the “The stored data can also be kept in compressed formats to console, Satchell expects to begin seeing higher-order surfaces, make better use of the storage capacity and streaming band- this due to the inclusion of the hardware geometry tesselator width,” Satchell says. “The overall effect of these features means within the GPU. that developers are able to store far richer game worlds and ren- Additionally, scenes will be ﬁ lled with hundreds or even der them in true high deﬁ nition.” thousands of characters. Because developers no longer will And with this, a visual revolution has begun. have to trade visuals for gameplay, complex games now will be more immersive, notes Satchell, and the use of new online ser- Karen Moltenbrey is the executive editor at Computer Graphics World.

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. . . . Digital Effects

A draconian TEST

The muggles at ILM conjure up a digital dragon in the

latest Harry Potter feature The Goblet of Fire

By Barbara Robertson In Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter and the ered to a long chain. To win the Triwizards ture. “We talked about doing fl esh sims, Goblet of Fire, the young wizard’s nemesis Tournament, Harry must retrieve the egg but it was better to put the controls into is a fi re-breathing dragon with a spiky tail and fi nd a clue for the next task. He enters the animators’ hands,” Alexander says. that can slap the teenager around, claws the quarry timidly, and hides behind ILM’s cloth-simulation engine, however, on its wings so it can walk, and the ability a rock. When he scampers toward the animated the wings. To decide how thick to fl y as fast as Harry on his broomstick. egg, the writhing dragon attacks with its to make the bat-like wings, character- It’s a “horntail” dragon, the most danger- spiky tail. The young wizard calls for his look developers showed Jimmy Mitchell, ous kind, and it stars in 145 shots, all cre- broom and fl ies out of the dragon’s reach. the fi lm’s overall visual effects supervi- ated by Industrial Light & Magic, one of But, the dragon breaks free and gives sor, various simulations that used com- seven facilities that added digital wizardry chase. Harry heads for Hogwarts with the binations of fl exibility and springiness to Harry Potter’s latest adventure. dragon blowing fi re at his feet, and the until he found a setting that he liked. “It was our main sequence,” says Tim action sequence takes off. Alexander, ILM visual effects supervisor. To build the CG dragon, ILM scanned Bird of Prey In addition, the studio created a hero shot a half-scale, 30-foot-long maquette with a While the creature-development team of a magical boat (see “Out of Water,” pg. 14-foot wingspan. Plates covered the drag- modeled, textured, and rigged the dragon, 40), the world-cup Quidditch match and on’s long tail. Little claws hung from its animation director Steve Rawlins sorted stadium in the beginning of the fi lm, and wings like tiny hands. Modelers at ILM through reference material, working with a few other one-off shots. then sculpted the CG creature using one Mitchell to shape the dragon’s attitude. The dragon sequence begins in an Alias Maya unit to represent one foot in “A dragon is one of those mythical open-air arena built inside a rock quarry. real space. They relied on displacement creatures that you always want to give There, a large golden egg glows atop a to create wrinkles on the leathery skin a different style,” says Rawlins. “He’s boulder guarded by a fi ery dragon teth- and wings and to create the small plates, an obstacle, a threat to Harry; we had to

An angry digital dragon chases Harry Potter (played but modeled the tail’s bigger scales. make him threatening and powerful.” by actor Daniel Radcliffe, who was ﬁ lmed on a blue- The modelers also created shapes that Rawlins borrowed the predatory ac - screen stage) past a matte painting of the hills out- the animators could dial in and out to tions and ﬂ ying styles from falcons, side Hogwarts. emulate the creature’s moving muscula- eagles, and hawks, and created anima- Images courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

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Digital Effects. . . .

ble, the crew scanned Radcliffe and created digital robes. “We could use the underlying body from the previous fi lms, but he had aged enough that we needed a new scan,” says Rawlins, “and a new broomstick.” Animators started with matchmove ILM created the dragon’s fi re using a novel fi re-simulation engine within the studio’s Zeno animation derived from the bluescreen pipeline that had evolved from the ongoing Physbam collaboration with Stanford University. plates of Radcliffe riding a motion-con- tion tests for the dragon using, espe- controllers on the picture to move the trol base, and then blended the digital cially, the birds’ tendency to use their joints. Then, they moved the Maya ani- Harry into the live-action Harry in shots wings to change direction. But in one mation into various software packages that were too dynamic to fi lm. “The key sequence, the dragon chases Harry across within ILM’s Zeno pipeline to see the to making the shots work was matching Hogwarts’ tiled rooftops, and hangs from high-res model and work with the envel- the long robes,” says Rawlins. “The cloth- Dumbledore’s tower like a bat. “To dis- oping (skin), textures, and simulations. sim guys did the simulation, and then we play its personality, we had to determine The wing was like a skin membrane sculpted the cloth into the right frames how upright and crouched the dragon that stretched from the fi ngers to the crea- for the transition.” would be,” Rawlins says. ture’s hip. Weighting the skin to move with For the backgrounds, the crew worked Eric Wong, the creature development the infl uence of the joints stretched the in ILM’s Zenviro camera-projection soft- supervisor, created the rig—an elegant one, membrane, but the skin didn’t fl ap in the ware, creating 3D matte paintings of Hog- states Rawlins. “He made sure the bones wind when the dragon fl ew or jiggle when warts, a ravine, and a bridge from photo- pivoted from the right place, and gave it planted an arm on the ground. Cloth graphs. On the all-CG shots, the animators us enough joints to control the dragon, simulation added the rippling realism. worked with the camera-layout team to whether it was fl ying or walking, without “The cloth simulation was diffi cult make sure the camera moves matched the overburdening the animators,” he says. when the dragon closed his wings,” says energy in the chase scenes. “Sometimes Animators could move one wing, and Alexander. “All that cloth had to go some- even the background plates were heavily the other would match the performance, where, and it penetrated and intersected manipulated to add energy,” says Rawlins. or they could animate the wings sepa- itself in the folds.” To fi x these problems, “We shot still elements of crowds cheering rately by turning “symmetry” on or off; the crew used corrective shapes. “In in the stands and tiled them together to the wings moved with the upper body. most of the sequences, he’s fl ying; the give more energy to the shots.” “Symmetry worked from the shoulder to tough situations were at the beginning, In the end, Harry defeats the dragon by the wings and the fi ngers,” says Rawlins. when he’s crawling on the rocks and using a familiar action/adventure trick: He “When he’s fl ying, a wing acts like a wing, blowing fi re,” he adds. fl ies through an arch too narrow for the but we also think of it like an arm. When To help sell the shots in the arena, dragon, and just like a helicopter chas- he’s walking on his hands, he’s similar to rigid-body simulations caused CG rocks ing a car into a small tunnel, the dragon any animal walking on all fours. He folds to crack, tumble, and fall away when the crashes into the bridge. The triumphant up his fi ngers, puts his knuckles down, dragon planted its knuckles on the ground. Harry fl ies back to the arena and cap- and twists out his elbow.” They also made the chain snap, fall, and tures the egg. The animators used constraints to fl ip hit the rocks when the dragon took fl ight, For its part, by creating a nasty fi re- the dragon’s claws into position and to and swung the piece of chain that hangs breathing dragon that pushed Harry into wobble the wrist, which provided a sense from the dragon’s neck. the quarry rocks, chased him through the of weight. They also keyframed the tail Animators controlled the timing that air, and slithered after him across rooftops, spikes to move up or down during the started the fi re: The dragon opened its ILM mastered its challenge as well. dragon’s performance. mouth, took a deep breath, and exhaled To help all nine animators give the a blast of fl ames from vertical slits at the Barbara Robertson is an award-winning animal the same type of performance, base of its tongue. “We had shapes that journalist and a contributing editor for they started with a library of pre-made fl apped a bit, as if some force was coming Computer Graphics World. She can be poses. “They could see a pose, click on it, through,” Rawlins says. “And, of course, reached at [email protected]. and the dragon would go into that pose on he blinks his eyes and snarls.” Another that frame,” explains Rawlins. “It helped simulation fanned the fi re. @ CGW Online everyone get up to speed quickly.” The In many of the shots, the dragon chases Visit www.cgw.com this month as Barbara interface Wong developed for the rig used a digital Harry Potter; that is, a digital dou- Robertson details ILM’s cutting-edge fi re- a picture of a dragon: Animators grabbed ble of actor Daniel Radcliffe. For the dou- simulation engine used for the fi lm.

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. . . . Business Trends

[]Part One of a Two-Part Series

Starting your own studio—it’s an artist’s dream. Throw in the prospect of creative control, add the potential of a hefty owner’s draw on payday, and you’ve got a fantasy that is absolutely perfect for prime time. The reality is that new businesses face myr- iad challenges, and in a competitive, fast-paced industry like 3D animation and visual effects, the highs can be enormous Ready to grab destiny by the and the failures costly. George Lucas had to start somewhere, right? So, what about horns and start your own studio? you? Where do you begin? What’s the best way to set up and run a professional production studio without losing your shirt? Before you make the leap, know How do you ﬁ ll your own shelf with Academy Awards? To help answer these questions, we’ve drawn on the real-world experi- what you’re getting into. ence of artists who have succeeded at launching small studios. Henk Dawson, co-owner and award-winning illustrator of Dawson 3D, a Seattle-area studio specializing in exqui- By William “Proton” Vaughan site three-dimensional illustrations for clients such as Apple, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Pepsi, launched his career as an illustrator trapped in the role of graphic designer. On the day Dawson received his walking papers, Dawson 3D was formed. Instead of pondering his fate on the way to the unemployment line, Dawson hit the ground running, networking and talking to other designers and artists in need of a freelance illustrator. “Thanks to my [former] boss, my new business was off to a good start,” he says. Soho VFX, a small to mid-size visual effects facility in Toronto, now in its fourth year of operation, has approximately 35 employees and a staff that ﬂ uctuates in size during peak production cycles. Founded by Allan Magled, Michael Mombourquette, and Berj Bannayan, the studio’s recent credits include The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Final Destination 3, and Fantastic Four. So how did the Soho VFX crew get their business off the ground? “Is ‘no one would hire us’ an acceptable answer?” jokes Magled. The reality is that the three entrepreneurs bought the visual effects division from a studio in Toronto, where they all previously worked. “The opportunity came along and we © William© Vaughan and Alejandro Parrilla.

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Business Trends. . . .

took it,” explains Magled. “Not everyone possesses the full group Luminetik, founded in New York by of skills required to run a studio. And, Kevin Cahill and Akiko Ashley, began many people cannot function with the with a staff of four artists and a client list uncertainty of not having a steady pay- that sprang from relationships the found- check.” Like it or not, you probably have ers developed throughout their careers. to relinquish the steady paycheck privi- For fi ve years Luminetek’s focus was lege when you launch a studio. The work commercials, industrial videos, architec- fl ow is hardly consistent—it can be feast tural visualizations, and visual effects or famine—especially while you’re get- work for motion pictures. But that all ting established. And, realistically, it changed when the company relocated may take months before you get a pay- to Santa Monica, California to develop ing gig. Dis Konnected, a feature-length, CG-ani- “Make sure you’re ready to give up mated fi lm. When asked how the move your health insurance, your paid vaca- affected their business, Ashley remarks, tion, your company-bought hardware “I would say the biggest change we made and software, your retirement plan, and was going from a ‘work for hire’ studio to your ability to call in sick when you an ‘original intellectual property’ studio.” roll out of bed with a 102-degree fever,” warns Joe Zeff, founder of Joe Zeff Are You Ready for This? Design in Montclair, New Jersey. Sick So, what makes you think you’re ready to days really aren’t an option when dead- tackle the challenges of owning your own lines are looming, clients are calling, and business? Without a clear idea of what’s you are the production crew. in store, striking out on your own can be Seriously ask yourself if owning a stu- a one-way ticket to the poor house. dio is something you can be committed to First of all, there’s a lot to be said for for the long term. If starting a studio with paying your dues at a major studio. You a partner, it’s important to know who you experience fi rsthand a streamlined pro- are going into business with. It may sound duction process, rub elbows with talented trite, but having a partner is similar to get- people, and broaden your technical and ting married. Often, you will spend more business skills. You build on the value of time with your business partner than with working as a team, and can experience a your family. Stressful situations will arise started with a staff of three people great deal of creative growth—all things that test your working relationship and, focused on interactive presentations you can easily carry with you to your own ultimately, your friendship. “You should for Compaq, Halliburton, and NewLine studio. Also realize that being a great art- always make sure there is good chemis- Cinema; the staff quickly grew to 16 ist with immense technical skills doesn’t try and a shared vision among the people within the fi rst year. “Some of our early necessarily make you a great business you work with,” warns Ashley. “These are hiring decisions were rushed and turned manager. Talent is only a starting point people you are going to be working with out to be bad hires, which slowed down in this business. for a long time.” our growth,” adds Larsen. Deuce Bennet, co-founder of Creative Business partners aren’t the only Before you rush out and staff up, make Imagineering, a full-service video, graph- members of your crew whom you should sure you can afford everyone you are hir- ics design, and production facility near choose carefully. The smaller the studio, ing. The CG industry is a tightly knit Dallas, believes you need to go into busi- the more important it is to have a skilled, community, and rumors travel quickly. A ness with your eyes wide open. “Not versatile staff. Many start-ups are staffed studio can easily get a bad reputation as a everyone is cut out for running their own with acquaintances already in the busi- company that lets go of employees every studio. Doing CGI work requires one ness, or people who were highly recom- time cash fl ow gets low. Instead, con- skill set—running a business, doing pub- mended. “One wrong hire can wreck a sider contracting workers until you have lic relations, marketing, budgeting, and studio,” explains Kurt Larsen, co-founder a steady work fl ow, and as the business interacting with clients demands a differ- of Six Foot Studios in Houston. grows, offer full-time positions to your ent expertise altogether,” explains Bennet. Launched in 2000, Six Foot Studios best contract employees. This approach

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. . . . Business Trends

also gives you a chance to work with people on select projects, and a small staff, make your decisions wisely. to see if they are a good fi t for your studio. Since you are creating the framework for your studio’s suc- “Companies have to expand to survive. Adding new people cess, determine beforehand whether or not you will need addi- can be very tricky and dangerous. Incorporating them into the tional staff to manage operations and bring in new business. way things function, how your studios process works from the Unfortunately, many studios fail to adequately promote and beginning to the end, and assessing their potential is crucial for attract new business. One way to increase your business, and project success,” explains Admir Elezovic, co-founder and art revenue, is to contract a commissioned salesperson whose sole director at Croteam, an interactive entertainment development purpose is to bring in new clients. company located in Zagreb, Croatia. Sometimes adding staff isn’t the best solution. Often, many And Now, the Business Plan people at small studios wear several hats. “I’m not just an Whether you’re creating a new entity, or starting a new division illustrator. I’m the accounting department. I’m the marketing within an established company, don’t do anything until you have department. I’m the purchasing a business plan and take the necessary steps to bring the plan to department. I’m the tech-sup- fruition. The old adage “no one plans to fail, but many fail to plan” port department. I’m the secre- certainly applies here. tarial staff. I’m the mail room. I’m A business plan is a document that maps a company’s mis- the payroll department. I’m the sion by detailing objectives and outlining budgets. It acts as a gofer,” explains Zeff, who compass when determining which direction to go. “When cre- remains nimble at his abil- ating a business plan, you want to build a clear focus and foun- ity to multitask. “Not only dation for the company,” states Ashley. “There should be real do I need to create top-qual- planning, and a really clear focus early on.” ity illustrations, I need to When writing a business plan, ask yourself: What are the make sure my fi les are skills you and your partners possess? What services do you backed up, my electric intend to offer? How much revenue will you need each month bill is covered, my taxes to pay the bills? What type of workload and profi tability targets are up to date, and my are you shooting for in the coming years? What types of projects invoices have all been paid.” will you take on, and which ones will you turn down? Set your Zeff’s business has limits and clearly defi ne your direction. steadily grown, but he resists A business plan should describe the type of business, tar- the temptation to increase his get market, and the services offered, and include marketing, staff. Zeff admits he could fi nancial, and human resources information. Also consider work less and potentially that once a business is under way, a business plan can quickly make more money if he fi lled become outdated. Regularly revise and update your business his studio with entry-level plan as the studio evolves. If you don’t understand business hires and took on a steady planning and investing, cash-fl ow statements, fi nancial pro- stream of contract work. For jections, contracts, and marketing, consider hiring a consul- example, he turned down tant to help lessen the confusion. four months worth of edito- You will also need to determine the structure of ownership. rial work last year to focus on a Will your studio be a partnership, sole proprietorship, LLC, cor- major project for Unisys. “With poration, etc.? Don’t jump in blindly. Find a good, local small- a larger staff, I might have been business consultant or tax lawyer to help determine the best able to manage both the Unisys solution for your needs. project and the editorial work,” says Zeff. “One might think, at The Advice Continues fi rst glance, that the logical business decision Next month, we will discuss choosing the best location for your would be to grow. But in the long term, splin- needs, fi nancing equipment, distinguishing yourself from the tered focus could result in diminished quality, which, competition, pricing your services, and more. in turn, could undermine the reputation of my studio. And the increased overhead would certainly cut into the operating bud- William “Proton” Vaughan inspires and motivates students at The get, curtailing my ability to purchase up-to-the-minute hardware DAVE School in Orlando, Fla., where he continues to push the and software to stay ahead of my competitors.” limits of 3D art and animation. He can be reached by email at Whether you go into your new studio alone or with a partner [email protected].

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A F Ma S C W Previous Page Contents Zoom In Zoom Out Front Cover Search Issue Next Page BE G A CW Previous Page Contents Zoom In Zoom Out Front Cover Search Issue Next Page BEF MaGS Extreme HD Workstations!

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From left: Creating digital humans is one of the most diffi cult tasks that a CG model- Aviator’s Wife Alessandro Baldasseroni of Italy crafted this image using a er can undertake. The complex web of facial muscles is diffi cult to compre- combination of 3ds Max, Photoshop, and Brazil. Says artist Steven Stahlberg of the piece: This interesting character has a creative design of accessories and hend, let alone mimic on the computer. And then there is the complicat- hairstyle, excellent texturing—this artist is one of the best texturers I’ve seen— ed task of skin shading, which must be perfect. According to artist Steven and fl awless modeling.” Stahlberg, making truly realistic skin is like “Zeno’s Paradox of the Tortoise Sandra Produced by Mihai Anghelescu of Romania, this image was created using 3ds Max, Photoshop, and V-Ray. Comments artist Francisco A. Cortina: and Achilles”—we keep getting closer, but in small steps. “Replicating a person’s smile has always been diffi cult. The key forms and Hair generation is challenging as well. However, most major 3D modeling contours of the face while smiling have been nicely and softly modeled here. packages now ship with a tool for creating realistic hair, and fi lm studios con- I particularly like the subtle squint of the eyes and shape of the lips as they stretch over the teeth. Overall, this character exudes a complex feeling through tinue to push the technical boundaries of hair and fur simulation for animals in her smile, and also conveys a sense of apprehension in her expression.” fi lms such as Narnia and King Kong that can be applied to CG humans.

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With a host of other projects, ﬁ lm studios have been breaking new ground Clockwise from left: in human character generation during the past few years. And, with the release Imperial Glory This image was created by Ivan de Andres Gonzalez and Almudena Soria of Spain using 3ds Max and Photoshop. “Here is a great face, with of the next-generation game consoles, expect to see inventive human character a perfect expression. Pose, lighting, and modeling is extraordinary, and I love the developments also coming from the real-time arena. cloth wrinkles. I can smell the gunpowder,” says Stahlberg of this selection. To celebrate the many advances in character modeling to date, Ballistic Beauty Monica Mihai Anghelescu also created this image in 3ds Max, V-Ray, and Photoshop. As Stahlberg points out: “She really is a beauty. The artist has Publishing has released d’artiste: Character Modeling, a coffee-table book achieved wonderful skin, a soulful look in the eyes, lovely hair, subtle wrinkles, and highlighting a wide range of digital character models, including those from gal- realistic lips; taken together, it all makes her seem very much alive.” lery stills, games, ﬁ lms, and other types of 3D projects. These two pages feature This Girl Loves Eating Tomato Wenxian Huo of China made this piece in 3ds a sampling of digital human images that appear in the book, which is available Max and Photoshop. Notes Cortina of the craftsmanship: “Creating an interesting and believable toddler is no easy feat. The immediate striking features were the at www.ballisticpublishing.com. —Karen Moltenbrey light and color in the composition, and the baby’s innocent yet piercing eyes.”

JANUARY 2006 Computer Graphics World | 33

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3D MODELING Modo 201

Luxology’s modeling, painting, and rendering software amps creativity

By Dan Ablan reviews

Modo 201, which is scheduled straightforward way to apply textures to for release this month, is a sig- models. It can be used to layer textures, nifi cant product upgrade for Lux- images, and maps to a ology, bringing the software much model—similar to the way Setting up textures in Modo 201 is achieved by stacking closer to being a full-blown modeling layers are set up in Adobe’s textures in the program’s Shader Tree. and animation program. Photoshop. The process One of Modo’s most notable features begins by applying a base material to an environmental lights. Like in most pro- is its customizable user interface. Many object, controlling diffuse values, Fres- grams, the global illumination is proces- people consider this attribute to be nel effects, and specularity, then adding sor-intensive, so your rendering speed will at the bottom of the priority list when surface properties, such as image maps. vary depending on processor speed. The choosing a modeling software, which is You can also place a mask on the model rendering engine includes bucket patter understandable. However, when you use to isolate the image map and continue to selections, which allow you to change the a program for several hours a day, the UI, enhance the textures with features such way a render is calculated. Also included is by default, becomes signifi cant. as noise, bump, displacement, luminos- support for instance rendering, OpenEXR, Modo’s interface is intuitive and user- ity, and subsurface scattering. fi le sizes up to 30,000x20,000, and various friendly, allowing you to open multi- Modo’s micropolygon displacement anti-aliasing routines. ple panels that can fl oat independently, tool allows for great detail without adding Multiple cameras can be added in be sandwiched between other panels, a lot of geometry. 3D modelers that don’t Modo, but when compared to other 3D moved elsewhere on-screen, or posi- include micro polygon displacement, for applications such as Softimage XSI and tioned on a second monitor. Panels can example, require the user to subdivide a LightWave 3D, for example, setting be easily collapsed and accessed using model, using an extremely high number up cameras and lights is not easy and the small buttons that appear when a of polygons to achieve the same effect. straightforward. The Luxology team panel is resized or with keystrokes. To Enhanced texturing options in Modo also has added interesting new ways to existing Modo users, the intuitive UI is allow for greater fl exibility when using control camera positions, but the pro- not new. However, Version 201 improves the shader tree by giving you the ability to cess is not intuitive. on an already excellent interface by paint your own textures directly on your New modeling tools include mesh incorporating tabbed viewports, an models. The system can be used to quickly instancing, enhanced cloning, and fall iView feature for quick preview renders, create a UV map for a model, and paint off, while a polygon reduction feature and tiny thumbnail previews that update it in a fl at UV display or directly on the helps keep texture maps intact. How- as a model changes. The ability to cre- model. This includes the ability to paint ever, Modo 201 still lacks animation ate, save, and share interface layouts in color and bump or displacement maps. capabilities. Modo 201 is one way the program helps The unwrap UV option makes the creation Modo 201 is an impressive upgrade to users modify their work fl ow. of UV maps easy. While image maps are an already powerful modeler. The inclu- Modo’s new shader tree is an intuitive, great, the ability to add a scrape, cut, or sion of signifi cant painting tools, with extra color throughout Z Brush-like fl exibility, and a fast, high- Modo 201 a mod el is ideal. quality rendering engine with global- Price: $895 Luxology has also illumination options make Modo a for- Minimum System Requirements: add ed a new render- midable 3D modeling solution. Windows 2000/XP, running on a Pentium 4 ing engine that offers stats or Athlon system, or Mac OS X 10.3.9 on a G3, 512mb RAM, 100mb available hard-disk global illumination, Dan Ablan is president of AGA Digital Stu- space, OpenGL-enabled graphics card, micro polygon displace- dios in Chicago and founder of 3D/Garage. monitor resolution of 1024x768 or greater, ment rendering, lens com. He is also the author of “The Offi - DVD-ROM drive, and an Internet connection distortion, depth of cial Luxology Modo Guide” from Thomson for product activation. Luxology www.luxology.com fi eld, motion blur, and Course Technology.

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SOFTWARE ebellum, along with the major arteries and veins Cut Pro compression of the brain. The crown jewel of the collection is codecs, including DV, DVC FACIAL ANIMATION a heart derived from MRI and CT data. Textures Pro, DVC Pro 50, and Photo captured from actual human specimens and car- JPEG I/O are supported for low Digital Pictures Speak a Thousand Words diac cycle animation ﬁ les are available separately. bit-rate projects. Embedded audio Win Creating animation from a single photo The collection is being introduced for $9995, and six channels of AES/EBU XLR digi- is the end result of using Reallusion’s CrazyTalk with a standard retail price of $13,995. tal audio connection I/O with built-in sam- 4.0 Media Studio. After importing a single digi- Zygote Media Group; www.3dscience.com ple rate converters for 5.1 surround sound are tal photo, a wizard is used to ﬁ t photos, record standard features. SD Spark retails for $1,495. or import audio, and turn the image into an ani- Digital Voodoo; www.digitalvoodoo.net HARDWARE PROTOTYPING STORAGE An Eden for Rapid Prototyping Appro’s XtremeServers Win Stratasys’ new Eden500V large-for- Speed Enterprise Computing mat PolyJet rapid prototyping system mea-

Win • Linux Appro International’s new 3U sures 19.7x5.7x7.9 inches (500x400x200 XtremeServer for rendering and digital content mm), allowing the construction of bigger creation features up to four single- or dual-core models than did previous PolyJet systems. mated actor. Animations can be exported as AMD Opteron processors and eight DIMM sock- The large build envelope also allows multiple

full-screen digital videos, Web-ready interactive ets per CPU for up to 128GB of memory per server, models to be produced simultaneously in a

online content, or as talking e-mail. 2.4TB SATA or 876GB SCSI hot-swappable drives, single run. The Eden500V uses four jumbo- New to this generation of the product, the two PCI-X and PCI Express x16, and redundant sized material cartridges so that the machine CrazyTalk Media Studio Timeline offers an edit- power supplies and fans. Base pricing for the can operate for a longer period of time while ing interface designed to direct facial animation. Appro 3U XtremeServer starts at $15,753. unattended. New speed and resolutions set- Users can control the animation track sequence Appro; www.appro.com to sync audio with emotional expressions, and natural human motion with keyframed head, VIDEO EDITING eye, and shoulder movements. The retail price of CrazyTalk Media Studio is $149.50. Digital Voodoo Sparks up the Mac Reallusion; www.reallusion.com Mac Digital Voodoo’s SD Spark video card, which is compatible with Panther OS X, Final Cut 3D MODELS Pro HD, and the Apple Power Mac G5 series of workstations, is a multipurpose video card that Zygote Engineers 3D Female Models features a number of SD-SDI, analog video, and tings allow users to match these properties Win • Mac • Linux • Irix Zygote Media audio I/O connections. to specifi c projects. In high-speed mode, the Group’s new Female Anatomy 3D Model Targeted at boutique studios and video pro- speed effectively doubles that of previous Collection 3.0 allows artists, animators, fessionals, the SD Spark offers the ability to PolyJet systems by reducing horizontal reso- and bioengineering designers to gener- work with uncompressed video in 10/12 bit, SD- lution to 30-microns (0.0011 inches), with a ate medical animation, illustrations, and SDI I/O, 12-bit analog component, composite, high-resolution setting of 16-micron (0.0006 other 3D scientifi c visualizations. New S-video I/O, a built-in A/D and D/A converter. inches) layers for more detail and surface features of the Female Anatomy 3D Model SD Spark offers 10-bit RGB I/O and 10/12- smoothness. The Eden500V can use all of Collection include an accurately detailed bit single and dual-link SD-SDI I/O. For broad- the available PolyJet materials, including the muscle system, deeper sulci and gyri of the cast designers, fi ll and key outputs and an inter- Translucent, Vero, and Tango material lines. cerebrum, and surface corrugation of the cer- nal keyer for logo insertion are also included. Final Stratasys; www.stratasys.com

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Next Page Next Page 1.800.661.4101 Search Issue Search Issue Computer Graphics World World Computer Graphics or visit vfs.com. or game design Harder Play Hard, Work everything for education VFS. A proven in the and experience hear, see, you industry. entertainment and everything information detailed For know call need to you MONTH 2005

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continued from page 40 Other than the new 32GB to blur the water a tiny bit in the compos- paint fi xes and composite fi xes later for Q machine, did you add any ite. [In fact] that was one of our issues the cloth sim when we got mismatches, other hardware? with the water: It was a bit too glassy, and because we didn’t want to redo the water. We upgraded 230 processors we wanted it to be a stormy afternoon. So, A in our renderfarm to 64-bit we added pinching and fi ne deforming to What did you use for machines, to continue render- the water after it was simulated, to make Q rendering these shots? ing in Mental Ray. All our machines are it look windblown. It was sort of like a dis- We used all our renderers—for 64-bit, but we don’t switch the ROM to 64- placement map on the surface of the water. refl ections and refractions on bit unless we need to—a lot of companies A the surfaces, we used [Mental haven’t complied their software for 64-bit. How did you create Images’] Mental Ray; for the Internally, we have some 32-bit software Q the wake? particle spray, we used our P-Render, that we haven’t migrated yet. Our sys- We got that free from the water and we also used [Pixar’s] RenderMan. tems group has gotten to the point where sim. As the boat drags through they can boot into 64-bit when needed. A the water, it causes the wake. How long did it take to Q create the shot? What resolution were you Was all this effort worth it? It was a 20-week shot. Jimmy Q working in? Q It’s a great step for us. We have Mitchell [VFX supervisor] was We worked in 2K resolution. a lot of work coming up on A extremely patient. We didn’t Because we had a lot of refl ec- movies that will use this water show him anything until six A tion on the water, it was very A technology. This was our fi rst weeks before the shot was due. We’d crisp. In the far background is time out, so we found the bugs been working on it for 14 weeks, trying to a matte painting based on a live-action and the issues. Now, we have a good sense get it rendered, but he didn’t get cold feet. plate, so to match the live action, we had of what it will take in the future.

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advertising sales ofﬁ E-MAIL: randyj@ ext. 240 pennwell.com FAX: 886-2-8773-7066 E-MAIL: Teresa_Fu@acertwp. BOXX Technologies www.boxxtech.com 5 com.tw Reprints PARS International Corp. Hong Kong & China Dell, Inc. www.dell.com/SMB/DCCSolutions C3 TEL: 212-221-9595 Adonis Mak Web: www.magreprints.com TEL: 852-2-838-6298 E-MAIL: [email protected] FAX: 852-2-838-2766 E-MAIL: Dimension Printing www.dimensionprinting.com 13 United Kingdom [email protected] Amanda Loftus TEL: 44-1793-641571 Singapore FAX: 44-1793-610001 Joanna Wong-Monis eovia www.eovia.com 9 E-MAIL: [email protected] Tel: 65-6836 2272 Fax: 65-6735 9653 France E-MAIL: LifeMode Interactive www.lifemi.com 37 Luis Matutano [email protected] TEL: 33-1-39-66-16-87 FAX: 33-1-39-23-84-18 Internet Sales E-MAIL: [email protected] Shaun Shen Macworld Conference & Expo www.macworldexpo.com TEL: 916-419-1481 Germany FAX: 916-419-1474 Holger Gerisch E-MAIL: [email protected] E-MAIL: [email protected] New York University www.scps.nyu.edu/x94 11 and Director, Johann Bylek Internet Services E-MAIL: [email protected] Tom Cintorino TEL: 49-89-904-80-144 TEL: 603-579-9002 Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. www.okino.com 37 FAX: 49-89-904-80-145 FAX: 603-579-9030 E-MAIL: [email protected]

Polhemus, Inc. www.polhemus.com 14 India List Rental Rajan Sharma Bob Dromgoole TEL: 91-11-2686113/14/ 98 Spit Brook Rd. 26865103/26861758/ Nashua, NH 03062-5737 Qsol www.qsol.com 31 268617666861113 TEL: 603-891-9128 FAX: 91-11-26861112 FAX: 603-891-9341 E-MAIL: E-MAIL: [email protected] [email protected] Softimage-Avid www.softimage.com C4

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A F Ma S C W Previous Page Contents Zoom In Zoom Out Front Cover Search Issue Next Page BE G A CW Previous Page Contents Zoom In Zoom Out Front Cover Search Issue Next Page BEF MaGS backdrop Interview by contributing editor Barbara Robertson Tim Alexander, visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic for Harry Out of Water Potter and the Goblet of Fire, joined ILM in 1996 after working for Disney ILM melds water and cloth simulations for Studios. He received a British Academy a breathtaking sequence in Harry Potter Award for The Perfect Storm.

Each of the four Harry Potter fi lms has challenged the studios that created the magical illusions to push the state of the art in visual effects. ILM’s Tim Alexander describes Was the simulation engine that studio’s most challenging sequence in this year’s effort. Q used for all the water? The simulation gave us a vol- Of the sequences in Harry new water-simulation technology from ume and a surface that we Q Potter that you supervised, our partnership with Stanford University. A could render. On top of it, we which one raised the It lets us increase the resolution in cer- dumped live-action elements technical bar most? tain areas of the simulation grid so we can and particles. The simulation poured The boat and water shot was get higher-resolution sims without using water off the boat; we got a nice, fl ow- A something else. The boat as much memory, which allows us to get ing surface. But it gets globby if we don’t comes up from underwater and fi ner details. We bought new hardware—a have spray and particles at the edge. breaches. When it pulls up out of the four-processor Angstrom Microprocessor Therefore, we had to transition between lake, water runs down the sides of the machine with 32GB of RAM that just sat the simulation surface and the spray. TD boat and back into the lake, and rings of there and chunked away on the simulation. John Hansen spent many a sleepless water sweep out around the boat. The It took two weeks to run the simulation. night getting the water running right. sails unfurl, and water drips off the sails This was a big, big shot: It’s basically one while they’re poofi ng out. long 900-frame shot, and we had to simu- How did you link the late a large area of water surface. Q simulations and the spray? Did you use a miniature? We had escape particles that Q We had a 1⁄16 miniature that we Where did you start? were generated by the simula- used later in the shot, but the Q First, we animated the boat A tion engine; it’s a nice innova- boat coming out of the water and got our cloth simulation to tion in the new water engine. A was all CG. We bid it both ways, the point where we could have We could set a boundary condition, and as a miniature and as CG. The A it in our water simulation. The once the surface reached that boundary, it price difference was negligible, and the cli- boat is a straightforward model started emitting particles. Those particles ent wanted the control, so we did it using with textures from our art department. were rendered separately, not at the same CG. The problem with using a miniature time as the surface. was that the boat would’ve had to be quar- For the sails, did you use ter-scale, and we don’t have a tank deep Q cloth simulation? Were many iterations enough to bring it up from underwater. Tim Brakensiek [creature TD] Q required? Plus, it would be hard to pull the boat up used cloth sims for the sails We did low-res simulations to be and not have it break apart. It would have A and for some wires, ropes, and sure they were working. We had been a complicated miniature shoot. cables. The sails are tied as the A to lock it in fairly early: When it boat comes out of the water, and they takes two weeks to do the water What were the technical unfurl mid-rising. So, most of the water simulation, you can only get a few done. Q breakthroughs for the shot? mass comes off the deck, the side bars, At a certain point, we couldn’t change the This was the fi rst time we were and the tied-up cloth, but it also drips off simulation or the animation, although we able to couple cloth and water the sails. The cloth affects the water, and could modify the camera slightly. We did A simulations. And, we used all- the water affects the cloth. continued on page 38

40 | Computer Graphics World JANUARY 2006 www.cgw.com

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