2003 aug compgraphics

8/12/2019 2003 Aug CompGraphics

1/18

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GraphicsComputer

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2/18

Why did you decide to use

stereoscopic visual effects in

Spy Kids 3-D?

I wanted to bring stereo 3D

effects back to theaters. And I

thought doing a sci-fi movie for

kids and setting it in a video game would be

a great way to do it. The first thing I did was

get Chris Olivia, a lead artist at Troublemaker

Digital, to work up some test shots using

footage from Spy Kids 2. It was astounding.

We had this rush of adrenaline. It worked

so well that we ended up making 90

percent of the movie in stereo.

Stereoscopy in films seems

to have been merely a

novelty. Is it intended to be

something more this time?

If you look at stereo 3D movies

from the past, you see why they

didnt work: The stories werent

very good, the stereoscopic effect was

not very good, and it wasnt used as a

crucial element in the story. So I think

people just assumed that the idea wasnt

a good one. What I wanted to do was

form the movie around the experience of

being immersed in a virtual world. When

you and the main characters put on the

glasses, you enter the world of the game.

What was the best

stereoscopic movie?

Most people would say,House

of Wax. But when I realized

that, I knew we were home free.

We all knew we could easily

beat that, and be the best stereo movie

ever made. Thats one of the main rea-

sons I wanted to do the movie. Its a

genre we could redefine.

Why did filmmakers

abandon stereo 3D effects?

It was very difficult to do. In

fact, now that Ive made a

movie using the latest in high-

definition cameras and 3D digi-

tal equipment, I dont even know how

filmmakers ever pulled it off before. They

were shooting blind. They had to lock

down the camera, set a convergence,

then let it ride. Its just impossible to see

what youre doing when shooting on

film, but for stereo 3D thats critical. Film

is obsolete. Im hoping the industry

wises up and lets it go the way of the

eight-track tape where it belongs.

Why is making a stereo-

scopic film easier now?

This movie could not have

been made even a year ago,

because this is all very new

technology. We have HD mon-

itors and a dual HD projector on the

set. We can put on glasses and watch

the stereo effect as were shooting. And

we can change the intraocular distance

and monitor convergence on the spot.

But, that said, it all starts with a

moviemaker who really wants to go out

and do something different, someone

who is willing to learn the technology

and use it in a creative way.

Is it also less expensive to

produce stereo 3D now

given the new digital tools?

It was less expensive than if we

were to shoot it on film. In fact,

this movie had the same budget

as the first two Spy Kids movies. So with

careful planning, there were no extra

costs, and the movie is bigger than the

last two in every way.

Is this the first of a new

wave of stereo 3D films?

Id love to do another 3D movie,

if for no other reason than to put

to use the knowledge my crew

and I have gained over the past

year. As for others, its up to those who are

willing to go out and learn it and apply it in

a way that makes it worthwhile to the

audience. I certainly hope there are more.

What has been the

response from audiences?

The response has been even

stronger than I thought it

would be. Ive been to theme

parks where they have 10-

minute 3D movies, and those always get

big responses. But theres something

really different about seeing a long nar-

rative story set in the 3D world. You can

invest more in the characters and in the

world, and be transported beyond what

a regular movie could ever hope to

achieve. You are immersed in this game,

and like some of the characters in the

movie, you dont want to leave.

Q

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56| Computer Graphics World AUGUST 2003 w w w . c g w . c o m

dropRobert Rodriguez isthe director of Spy Kids

3-D: Game Over. For more

information about the

movie, see Spying in

Stereo, pg. 24.

By Phil LoPiccolo

Moving in Stereo

back

By adopting the latest digital filmmaking technologies,

Spy Kids 3-D sets a new course for stereoscopic effects

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3/18

World

Graphics

Comp

uter

August2003

www.cgw.com

The

HumanTouchAnimators add depth to digital actors

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4/18

Editors Note 4

Digital Future-Proofing

Spotlight 6

Products

Avids Media Composer Adrenaline

Discreet 3ds max 6

Wondertouch particleIllusionThe Foundrys Keylight 2.0

Voice-O-Matic and Di-O-Matic

User Focus

Steele VFX Engineers Chickens

Click 3xs New Spin on Mosaics

Nvidias Next Animated Pixie

Technology

Cloth-Simulation Techniques

Market Outlook, Industry News

Server Adoption Rates Rise

Blur Studio Relocates

Digital Video Viewpoint 14

Video in Stereo

Game Viewpoint 16

The Plays the Thing

Art Studio 40

SIGGRAPH Animation Festival, Part II

Reviews 42

3Dlabs Wildcat VP990

Cebas finalToon

Products 46

Backdrop 56

Moving in Stereo

Cover story

Character Studies 18

ANIMATION| Short films from

SIGGRAPHs Electronic Theater

expand the range of virtual

human actors.

By Jenny Donelan

Spying in Stereo 24

FILM| Spy Kids 3-Ds stereoscopic

effects place moviegoers in the

middle of the action.

By Audrey Doyle

Animated Angels 32

WEB| Internet animations offer

fans a prologue to the new film,

Charlies Angels: Full Throttle.

By Courtney E. Howard

The Art of Espionage 38

GAMING| Ubi Soft spent a yeartweaking the graphics in its Splinter

Cellgame to exploit the hardware

power of each major platform.

By Karen Moltenbrey

Departments

Features

18

24

August 2003 Volume 26 Number 8

On the cover:

The artist spotlighted in Sam Chens

award-winning animated short, Eternal

Gaze, grapples with the creative

process. Turn to pg. 18 for more.

Also see www.cgw.com for computer graphics

news, special surveys and reports,

and the online gallery.

32

w w w . c g w . c o m AUG UST 2003 Computer Graphics World| 3

38

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5/18

products

modelin

ganimation

Discreet has announced 3ds max 6,

the latest upgrade to its flagship 3D

modeling, animation, and rendering

software. With Version 6, the company

affirms its commitment to game

development and introduces new

features and enhancements.

New features that game develop-

ers in particular will welcome

include a robust 3D painting and

texturing application based on Right Hemispheres Deep Paint engine. It

enables artists to paint multiple channels of information on multiple objects

using multiple layers. Discreet also adds to the rendering options by bundling a

license of Mental Ray 3.2 and integrating it tightly with the software.

Enhancements to 3ds maxs interface include a complete rework of

Schematic View that makes the product more efficient and user friendly. Vertex

Paint has been updated to include pressure-sensitive brushes and blurring. The

package also makes automating technical tasks easier by adding a command

line interface to the renderer and Maxscript.

Character animators will appreciate the new

skinning tools, which permit envelopes to be

mirrored across a character. For effects artists,

Discreet has created Particle Flow, an event-driv-

en particle system with an easy-to-use, node-

based interface. In another nod to the game

development environment, Reactor, 3ds maxs

physics engine, is bundled with Version 6 and

has been updated to include vehicle and human

dynamics. Scheduled to ship this summer, 3ds

max 6 costs $3495. George Maestri

Discreet; www.discreet.com

infoNOW 50

Deep Textures Come to 3ds max

For a direct link to more

product information and

vendor Web sites, click on

www.onlinecenter.to/cgw

spotlight Your resource

for news, products,

user applications,

and market research

Desktop SD Videofrom AvidAvids Media Composer Adrenaline video-editing system com-

bines the companys Media Composer software with its special-

purpose Adrenaline hardware, which features a unique hybrid

architecture that takes advantage of both host-based processing

and hardware-based acceleration. The new system is designed

to provide workstation-level video-editing capabilities on a

desktop PC or Mac, at a price in the low five figures.

The Adrenaline hardware device, which is part of Avids

recently announced DNA (digital nonlinear) family of

accelerators, connects to a desktop unit through a single

FireWire connection. According to the company,

Adrenaline is the first system to support uncompressed SD

(standard definition) video over standard FireWire. In

addition to real-time, multi-stream, uncompressed SD

video editing, Adrenaline offers 10-bit high-definition

media expandability. Other features include 24P Film

Composer offline editing functionality, 24-bit audio, and a

real-time, automated color-correction tool.

Adrenaline can operate in a collaborative workflow with

the Avid Unity MediaNetwork. It provides native support and

timeline mixing for Avid Meridian JFIF, ABVB, DV25, DV50,

IMX, and uncompressed 601 media formats. The Media

Composer Adrenaline system costs $24,995. Jenny Donelan

Avid Technology Inc.; www.avid.com

infoNOW 51

products

videoediting


Imagecourte

syDiscre

et.

Imagecourte

syAvid.


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6/18

spotlight

For the past several months, Nvidia has been turning

heads at industry trade shows with its short animation of

the fetching fairy Dawn, a realistic-looking real-time

character created by the graphics card vendor for show-

casing the power of programmable shaders and vertex

processing on its GeForce FX line. Since the E3 trade

show in May, Dawn has been sharing the spotlight

with her pixie pal Dusk, also created by the Nvidia

development team to draw attention to the same pro-

grammable features used in Dawnin particular,

the use of customized skin, hair, and wing shadersbut

with the addition of real-time shadow effects.

In the original demo, a fresh-faced Dawn prances

along a tree branch, as soft sunlight filters through her col-

orful, translucent wings and is absorbed by her light-

peach skin. In contrast to this sun-kissed setting is the

more robust, dark, grungy environment of Dusk. In the

Dusk animation, the moonlight is reflected on the charac-

ters black leather and lace clothing and on her silver wings,

along with projected real-time shadow effects.

Our goal [with these animations] is to show that the new

graphics hardware now supports the kind of shading language

that the film industry has been using for years, only in real

time, says Curtis Beeson, manager of the companys technical

demonstration team. We initially did this with Dawn, and she

had this soft, high-dynamic-range lighting effect that people

werent used to seeing in real

time. But something was con-

spicuously absentshadows. So

when we released the GeForce

FX 5900

Ultra, which

supports the

same function set used

for Dawn, we were able

to go back and add that

detail.

Produced by Nvidias con-

tent development team (led by

Daniel Hornick), Dusk was

created in much the same way as

Dawn. To model the character

and the background, the group used

Discreets 3ds max and character

studio (mainly for touch-up) and

Alias|Wavefronts Maya (mostly

for the character setup, skinning, and rig-

ging). Texturing was accomplished in Adobe

Systems Photoshop and Right Hemispheres

Deep Paint.

To animate Dusk, the Nvidia team hired a

modern dancer, whose

movements were cap-

tured with a 24-camera

Vicon8 optical system

by House of Moves. The

motion-capture facility

then processed the data

using its Diva software.

Nvidia imported the

raw data into character

studio, and applied it to

the model. More intri-

cate movementssuch

as hand/finger anima-

tions, facial expressions,

and wing movement

were hand-animated in

3ds max.

Rendering was accomplished with a custom-built real-

time system similar to current game engines. We use Cg, a

high-level Nvidia shading language in OpenGL, or HLSL in

[Microsofts] DirectX, to draw the image, says Beeson.

Even though Dusk was intended to show off Nvidias

high-end consumer cards, the animation required a profession-

al Quadro FX 2000 solution for the content creation.

One of the biggest challenges to making Dusk, accord-

ing to Beeson, was figuring out how to assign the shaders

before they were supported in the software used to generate

the content. Most of this software supports Cg internally

now, which will make it easier to prototype the look of an

effect in the future, he notes. Through Cg, artists can now

create photorealistic shaders and modify them in real time

within their viewports, enabling them, for instance, to alter

the sheen of Dusks skin from dry to oily by adjusting sliders

in the application, and the change will be calculated and ren-

dered in real time. Conversely, we had to invent tools along

the way and export the effects into our engine before ever

seeing what they were going to look like.

In all likelihood, Dawn and Dusk are probably the most

realistic real-time characters appearing today, and they have

demonstrated to game developers what can be accomplished

using state-of-the-art technology, especially programmable

skin shaders. And, Hornick expects that other characters will

soon be sporting similar skin effects in upcoming game titles,

including Tiger Woods 2004 from Electronic Arts. As with

Dusk, this game includes improved self-shadowing, with

advanced DirectX 9.0 pixel shaders creating accurate shadows.

Were shooting for a cinematic look that is more in tune

with movies than current game content, says Hornick. KM

KEY TOOLS: GeForce FX and Quadro FX cards, Nvidia

www.nvidia.com

infoNOW 82

userfocu

s

multimedia From Dawn to Dusk


Unlike its Dawn animation, which is

entirely GPU-driven, only some of Nvidias

Dusk (above) is processed in the GPU.

Images

Nvidia

Corp

ora

tion.

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7/18

spotlight

According to the recent TrendWatch report, Visual Effects/

Dynamic Media, the number of facilities planning to purchase

servers is significant across all markets (see chart below) and has

risen 17 percent compared to a year ago.Several factors are driv-

ing this growth:Visual effects and dynamic media organizations

increasingly are buying servers for tasks such as rendering, and

running Linux on the systems.And the transition to digital video

production formats is creating the need for additional storage and

dedicated servers for specific tasks. Moreover, prices have

declined,making servers a must haveinvestment even for small

studios and independent freelancers.Jim Whittington, prin-

cipal of market research firm TrendWatch, Mill Valley, CA.

marketoutlook

Source: Excerpted from the TrendWatch Visual Effects/Dynamic Media Report

Percent of all U.S. visual effects/dynamic

media studios/facilities planning to buy servers in 2003

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

54%

44%

31%

25%

22%

20%

19%

Web/Interactive Media Cos.

Animation/Effects Studios

Postproduction Facilities

Broadcast/Cable Studios

Recording/Mixing Studios

Corp. Film & Video Companies

Production Companies

Serving Up

One of the biggest snags in computer animation has been

to simulate how clothing bunches up and then relaxes

again, as when a characters elbow bends or arm moves

across the front of the body. The problem with conven-

tional cloth-simulation techniques is that during such

motions, fabric becomes sandwiched in areas where it

intersects with the body and itself, and it gets pulled,

stretched, and tangled. As a result, it can flutter, wiggle,

and appear jagged. And then, when the body parts sepa-

rate, it can remain pinched and tangled instead of falling

loosely and naturally back to its original shape.

To avoid these problems, David Baraff, Andrew

Witkin, and Michael Kass of Pixar Animation Studios

have devised two cloth-collision algorithms described last

month at SIGGRAPH in a paper titled Untangling Cloth.

The first is called collision flypapering, which eliminates

nearly all visible artifacts in regions of body intersection by

carefully controlling the motion of any trapped or pinched

cloth points. The accompanying figure shows how the fly-

papering algorithm produces realistic cloth simulations

when clothing would otherwise get pinched from typical

body motions of a CG character (above).

The researchers also have developed

a cloth-to-cloth collision algorithm that

performs a global intersection analysis

(GIA) of the interacting cloth meshes. It

instantaneously characterizes the current

intersection state of the fabric in order to guide the cloth

back to an untangled state where intersections occur. The

two images at the right demonstrate how a crumpled shirt

looks with the GIA algorithm turned off (top) and then

turned on (bottom). Phil LoPiccolo

technolo

gy

simulation Untangling Cloth

Imagescopyrigh

tandre

prin

tedwith

permission

ofPix

arAnim

ation

Studio

san

dA

CM.

In Brief


Blur Studio (Venice, CA), a creator of visual effects and

animation, moved into a new headquarters measuring

20,000 square-feet, nearly three times the size of its formeroffices. Blur also added roughly 24 computer artists to its staff,

bringing the current head count to 65. Blur Studios immediate

reason for expansion is to meet current production deadlines,

whereas its longer-term goal is to become a major player in

feature animation.... Discreet (Montral), a division of

Autodesk, has formed a strategic partnership with Criterion

Software (Austin, TX), the maker of RenderWare middleware

tools and technology, to develop and promote a game devel-

opment pipeline between Discreets 3ds max modeling, ani-

mation, and rendering product and RenderWare.... IMAXCorporation (Mississauga, Canada) recently retired approxi-

mately $22 million in face value of its $200 million of senior

notes due December 2005 in exchange for newly issued com-

mon shares.According to the company, it has reduced its total

debt by more than 40 percent in less than two years. IMAX

also announced an agreement with EuroPalaces, one of the

largest commercial exhibitors in Europe, to open a new IMAX

3D theater at Frances Disneyland Resort Paris in June 2004.

news



8/18

DV

stereoscopic films and videos is fairly high. However, that doesnt mean anybodys giv-

ing up. This year, for example, movie-going audiences were treated to the release of two

high visibility stereoscopic moviesGhosts of the Abyss (see Atypical Stereo, July

2003, pg. 44) and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over(see Spying in Stereo, this issue, pg. 24).

Interestingly, the two movies used completely different stereoscopic techniques. For

Ghosts of the Abyss, director James Cameron chose to use a polarized technology that

requires the use of two projectorswith one projecting an image for the right eye and

the other projecting an image for the left eyeand calls for audience members to wear

special polarized glasses. In contrast, for Spy Kids 3-D, director Robert Rodriguez chose

to use 1950s anaglyph technology, which enables the use of one projector and requires

audience members to wear those funky red and blue glasses. Though not as advanced

as the polarized technology, the anaglyph approach has the advantage of being able to

be displayed in mainstream cinemas from a traditional film projector.

Moving to the Mainstream?

While its unlikely that these two films alone will suddenly make stereoscopic movies

wildly popular, their release does prompt a discussion of developments in the stereo-

scopic 3D world that just might have the potential to push the technology toward

greater mainstream acceptance. One important effort in this regard aims to take advan-

tage of recent advances in digital-video, video-projector, and computer-server technolo-

gies to create a much less expensive way of displaying stereoscopic films and video.

Spearheading this trend is a partnership of three companiesEdwards Technologies (El

Segundo, CA), Panasonic (Secaucus, NJ), and nWave (Culver City, CA).

Edwards Technologies has been in the business of building multi-sensory experi-

Since at least the 1950s, when

studios released a blizzard of

3D movies, technologists and

artists have been fascinated by

the challenge of creating a

compelling 3D moving picture

experiencein which the action on the

screen extends beyond the surface of

the screen and out into the audience.

To date, the stereo-

scopic technologies that

have the potential to

make such experiences

possible have achieved

the greatest degree of

acceptance in the techni-

cal world, where engi-

neers, researchers, and

scientists routinely use

stereoscopic technolo-

gies in car design, med-

ical research, and oil and

gas exploration applica-

tions. In addition, stereo-

scopic technologies are

used regularly and suc-

cessfully in special enter-

tainment venues, such as

IMAX theaters and 3D

theme park rides.

Despite those suc-

cesses, the stereoscopic

3D experience has yet to

significantly penetrate

the mainstream of the

film and video world. In

part, thats because its

a lot more difficult to

create a great stereo-

scopic experience using

live-action footage than

it is using computer graphics. Beyond

that, the cost of making and displaying

Video Goes Stereo

view

By Stephen Porterpoint

Although stereoscopic 3D movies are still the exception rather than the rule, the

emergence of new digital video-based projection systems promises to make stereo

3D projects more affordable to create and distribute.

Stephen Porters a contributing editor

ofComputer Graphics

Worldand a freelance

writer who has coveredideo, graphics, and

digital content creation

echnologies and appli-

ations for more than 15

ears. He can be reached

t [email protected].

Advances in

stereoscopic

technology

push 3D

video to the

forefront




9/18


10/18

Film

animated short films shown at

SIGGRAPHs Electronic Theater

last month advance the state of

the art not in terms of Is it real or is it

CG? realism, but in creating characters

who, with their movements and expres-

sions, engage audiences in some of the

same ways a human actor might. Eternal

Gaze, Chainsmoker, and Plumber

each feature a lone protagonist who

engages audiences not with beauty, charm,

or flowing photorealistic hair, but with the

earnestness with which he or she tackles a

problem. Their difficulties range from the

mystical (the artist in Sam Chens Eternal

Gaze grapples with madness,

mortality, and the creative

process, all in the space of 16

minutes) to the mundane (Ulf

Lundgrens nursing home

patient goes to great lengths

to enjoy a forbidden cigar in

Chainsmoker), while the hero of Andy

Knight and Richard Rosenmans Plumber

does battle with a surreally malfunctioning

faucet. Though each of these animated

humans has different problems, they each

pull us into their world in a similar way

with their efforts and their expressive faces.


By Jenny Donelancharacter

studies

Short f i lms

advance

the art of

human

character

animation

3

Their moods range from deep and

portentous (above) to wryly humorous

(left) to slapstick (below), but each

short animated film featured here

has a character with whom audiences

can readily identify.

E T E R N A L G A Z E

C H A I N S M O K E R

P L U M B E R



11/18

E T E R N A L G A Z EDirector Sam Chen sees many similarities

between himself and the subject of his film

Eternal Gaze. Chen spent two and a half

years in relative isolation while making his

computer-animated short about the twen-

tieth-century artist Alberto Giacometti,

whereas the Giacometti of his film labors

alone in his studio. Both men worked with-

out assistants, Giacometti preparing his

own clay and stretching his own canvases,

and Chen doing his own research, model-

ing, animation, and post-production. Most

of all, says Chen, both he and the late artist

share an extraordinary single-mindedness

about the creative process.

For Chen, this particular all-consuming

project began with research into the life

and art of Giacometti, whom he describes

as one of the greatest but least recognized

artists of our time. Chen had never heard

of Giacometti until he read about him in an

assigned text in a college course, but he felt

immediately drawn to the man, who was

known for his moodiness, his melancholy

humor, and his exacting standards.

Chen also studied Giacomettis sculp-

tures so that he could digitally reproduce

their distorted and agitated surfaces in his

film, and the animator took a sculpting

class as well. As everyone knows, Chen

says, animators are actually frustrated

actors. I took the sculpting class in order to

get into Giacomettis head.

Chen wrote two scripts, scrapping the

first five months of work to re-orient the

story around the artist rather than the

sculptures as originally planned. Early

thumbnail sketches became a 10-minute

animatic that evolved into a CG layout

that grew into a 16-minute film containing

220 shots. Altogether, Chen modeled 18

different sculptures for the film, using

photographs as his main reference. Giaco-

metti himself is represented by three dif-

ferent models, in part because he ages

nine years during the three-act movie.

The end result, a black-and-white CG

short with no dialog and one human charac-

ter in a single setting, has won numerous

awards, including best animation for the SIG-

GRAPH 2003 Electronic Theater. The film

contains no astonishing special effects or

feats of CG realism. Instead, the overall

visionthe shadowy studio, the original

musical score by Jamey Scott, the hope and

agony on the face of the character as he strug-

gles with guilt, fear, a leaky roof, and a chron-

ic coughcombine to create a compelling

story about the redemptive power of art.

Chens chief inspirations for Eternal

Gaze were movies:Blade Runnermost of

allfor its film noire look, its pacing,

and its melancholy and Citizen Kane, for

its use of black and whiteI watched it

once a month while I was making my

film, he says. He also was influenced by

Pixars short films and Steven Spielbergs

moviesfor their heart and emotion.

In fact, by design, says Chen, the camera

Film

Director Sam Chen modeled artist Alberto

Giacometti (left) in a nonrealistic, carica-

ture style. Giacomettis sculptures (right),

on the other hand, were created to resem-

ble their real-life counterparts as closely

as possible. Much of the action in the film

involves Giacometti creating his works

of art (below).Images courtesy Sam Chen.

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12/18

moves in Eternal Gaze resemble those from traditional movies

more than they do camera moves in most CG films.

When he began making Eternal Gaze, Chen had already

directed several movies, including film documentaries and comput-

er animations. He had extensive CG experience, but still found the

challenge of realizing his vision rather formidable. First off, A

mantra for the film was historical accuracy, he says. It was impor-

tant to get the right look and feel for Giacomettis studio in Paris in

the 1950s and 60s, and also to represent the artist in spirit if not exac-

titude. Chen decided that rather than try and fail to represent him

photorealistically, he would exaggerate Giacomettis facial features,

and make his overall proportions

nonrealistic. Nevertheless, he was

careful to make the character

human enough that viewers

would identify with him rather

than dismiss him as a cartoon. I

wanted to capture the essence of

Giacometti, and show his tor-

ment... and ultimately, to have the

audience empathize with him,

says Chen.

To create Giacometti, Chen

used a combination of NURBS,

polygons, and subdivision sur-

faces in Alias|Wavefronts Maya.

Most of the sculptures were mod-

eled in NURBS, and the studio

and other objects within it are in

large part polygonal. Throughout

the film, Chen employed keyframe animation for better control in

achieving the looks and movements he wanted.

The most challenging part of rigging, notes Chen, involved

Giacomettis expressive face, which is the focal point of the film.

Chen used a bone and muscle

system rather than morph tar-

gets, which he thought would

create a canned or artificial

look. He consulted medical

books to find out which facial

muscles deploy for different human emotions, then rigged bones

to simulate the muscle contractions and expansions.

The textures and shaders used in the film are a mixture of pro-

cedurally generated textures and scans, including some taken

from photographs of Giacomettis face. Chen added effects such

as the curls of smoke from Giacomettis cigarette in post produc-

tion using Adobe Systems After Effects.

While Chen says he doesnt regret having to make Eternal

Gaze on his ownin fact, the self-described Jack-of-all-trades

says he wouldnt have been able to make the same film if he had

not been able to control all its aspectshe did have to compromise

here and there because of time constraints and the lack of help.

Given the opportunity, he would have added just a few more

effects. For example, when items in the finished film are

destroyed, there isnt any dust or smoke rising from the debris as

there should be. A related challenge was asset management.

There were so many formats, so many files, so many shots, he

notes. I started having file-naming convention problems. I had to

write my own scripts [here his computer science background came

in handy]. And render wrangling was a nightmare.

Overall, though, Chen is more than pleased with his creation.

I made the film that I wanted to make, he says, adding that this

would not have been possible just a few years ago, when an ani-

mated film this ambitious would have had to be made at a big stu-

dio. Thats one of the things about where the industry is going

the tools are all available now, and its very empowering and

encouraging for the individual artist today. Besides, he adds,

When I watch the movie I forget about the technical difficulties.

Film


Chens virtual Giacometti, which he

created using photos and film clips

as references, is an exaggerated

version of the late sculptor.

Eternal Gazebegins in color inside a

museum, then morphs to black and white

as we see in the exterior of Giacomettis

Paris studio in the 1950s.

TOCTOC1 13 2 5 4 FWo r l d GraphicsComputer___________


13/18

C H A I N S M O K E RAlthough animator Ulf Lundgren has created special effects for

fantasy-based and futuristic productions such as the Harry Potter

movies and the James Bond filmDie Another Day, he is more fas-

cinated by the little moments of everyday human existence.

Lundgren is a people watcher. So when he set about creating his

first independent project, he decided to concentrate more on

character than on plot.

The films story is simple: An old woman in a nursing home

keeps trying to sneak a cigar, and keeps getting caught. Whats

complex about Chainsmoker is the range of emotions that

crosses the womans wrinkled face: Shes sly, anticipatory, fright-

ened, contrite, and, ultimately, satisfied. As the day goes by, shad-

ows lengthen, and a radio plays 1940s big band music in the back-

ground while she tries again and again to enjoy the cigar she so

obviously craves. But each time shes about to inhale, we hear

authoritative footsteps echoing in the hall, coming closer and

closer. Whether you smoke or not, you find yourself rooting for

this spunky nursing home resident denied of her simple pleasure.

(Lest you forget the perils of smoking, however, a series of lung X-

rays at the movies beginning sets the appropriately morbid tone.)

Giving the woman a personality and

attitude was a blast, says Lundgren.

After having spent years of studying

faces and facial expressions for other

projects, making a film in which the

story centers around reactions and

expressions was extremely exciting.

Lundgrens nursing home resident is

the most realistic-

looking of the three

CG characters exam-

ined here. The artist

created her entirely

in Softimage, hav-

ing first filmed his

cousin acting out

the different epi-

sodes and then re-

timing the perfor-

mance in Adobe

After Effects to give

it more of an ani-

mated feel, using

the film for a refer-

ence. He wanted the

characters expres-

sions and reactions

to be humorous and

a bit slapstick in

nature, but not com-

pletely over the top.

Another notable

feature is the warm, dif-

fused light that changes

to represent the different

times of day in which the

action takes place (the film itself is just under four minutes long).

Ive always been a sucker for light, says Lundgren. This was a

chance to play around with different solutions and light treat-

mentsbut at the same time it turned out to be a lot harder than it

seemed and took a lot more time than I had expected. Lundgren

was slowed down partly because he ended up building his own

light rig that incorporated approximately 30 different raytraced

lights. Time-consuming though this was, his hand-built rig allowed

him to blend various colors so that he could set them

playing in the old womans wrinkles and in the shad-

ows, all of which give the film a richer, softer look.

Altogether, it took Lundgren more than six

months to create Chainsmoker while working at

day jobs such as creating effects for the Bond and

Harry Potter movies. He also was hampered by hav-

ing to render the entire project on his laptop. Though

hes satisfied with the filmIf there were anything

I was really unhappy with I wouldnt have released

ithe hopes to spend more time planning and try-

ing out different visual styles for his next project.

Did chainsmoking help get him through the long

nights of modeling, animating, rendering, and com-

positing? No, Lundgren replies. I was too uncool

in school to smoke, and too smart nowadays.

Film


Lundgren modeled his nursing home

patient in Softimage, paying particular

attention to her wrinkles (top).The

bandages (right) appear after one of

her smoking-related mishaps.

Different lighting schemes were used

to indicate that time was passing inside

the patients room.

ImagescourtesyUlfLun

dgren.

TOCTOC1 13 2 5 4 FWo r l d GraphicsComputer___________


14/18

w w w . c g w . c o m AUGUST 2003 Computer Graphics World| 23

P L U M B E RThe principals of Red Rover Studios, with a track record of

making television commercials for Toyota and the like, want-

ed to get involved in short film production. To show what

they could donot to mention learn what they could do

they decided to make their own computer-animated short.

The end result, Plumber, features Mario, one very deter-

mined fixer-upper who meets his match in a bathroom faucet

that refuses to stop dripping.

Mario goes to extraordinary lengths to stop the leak, and the

tap meets him every step of the way. In the battle that ensues,

there are explosions, a collapsed ceiling, and a flood so great

that Mario is forced to swim through the inside of his house to

attack the plumbing. The film is a showcase for special effects

such as these, but the real star is the bald and sinewy Mario,

who is annoyed, then angered by the recalcitrant tap, but seem-

ingly unaware that anything out of the ordinary is going on.

When they embarked on the project, the Red Rover artists

applied the same scheduling methods they use to create a televi-

sion commercial, only expanding the timeline from several weeks

to five months. They used an animatic throughout the project,

notes producer Randi Yaffa, which was updated weekly for inter-

nal review. The animatic allowed us to follow the films progress,

make editing and timing changes, and see potential mistakes that

might not have been as evident on a scene-by-scene basis.

All the action takes place in a colorful, semi-realistic, semi-

cartoon-like setting that the films creatorsdirectors Richard

Rosenman and Andy Knight and producer Randi Yaffadescribe

as hyper-real. The bold use of stylized color, notes Rosenman, in

conjunction with global illumination rendering, helped make the

film especially attention-grabbing. But global rendering turned out

to be an especially difficult part of the project. The action takes

place inside Marios house, and interior global rendering is much

more complex than exterior global rendering because the light

sources are more varied, says Rosenman. The team ended up

developing numerous techniques to reduce rendering time.

All the animation in Plumber is keyframed. Mocap has

its applications, says Rosenman, but Plumber was not suit-

able for it. Even before he was animated, the Mario character,

modeled in Discreets 3ds max, presented challenges. He

underwent hundreds of mutations, says Rosenman, before

the creators were satisfied. Similarly, the morph targets for

Marios expressions went through many iterations before he

gained his determined visage.

Marios clothing also was problematic for a while. Until the

team worked out the details of the cloth simulation, the charac-

ters bold, frantic motions were too abrupt for the cloth calcula-

tions, which resulted in his shirt getting stuck in his arms and

other areas. For the underwater scene, the most eye-catch-

ing in the film, the team used fluid dynamics simulation.

Notes Rosenman, We tested for months before we were

able to reach a compromise between realistic-looking water

and production-friendly simulations.

In the end, the Red Rover team was able to imbue its first

short CG film with plenty of humor and visual appeal. As for

the earnest Mario and his battle with the faucetlets just

say he makes a better star of a CG film than a plumber.

Jenny Donelan is a contributing editor for Computer

Graphics World.

Film

Adobe Systems www.adobe.com infoNOW 60

Alias|Wavefront www.aliaswavefront.com infoNOW 61

Discreet www.discreet.com infoNOW 62

Softimage www.softimage.com infoNOW 63

toolbox

The most eye-catching scene in

Red Rovers Plumber is one in

which the lead character swims

underwater through his

flooded house.

The animators experimented

with a variety of looks and

facial expressions for Mario

(above). The brightly colored

world he inhabits straddles a

line between realistic and

cartoon-like (right).

Images courtesy Red Rover Studios.


_________

_____________

___________

__________

___________
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15/18

Clockwise from top left:

Influencing Bone Remodeling in Osteoporosis, directed by Jane Hurd and pro-

duced by Amalia Delicari, illustrates how the drug actonel suppresses bone loss.

Mekarate, directed and produced by Hiroyasu Shimo, focuses on an inept office worker

who is haunted by a self-destructive wish and plagued with anti-social behavior.

Ode to Summer, directed by Ron Hui and produced by Tony and Raymond Neoh, uses

CG to bring to life the art of Chinese ink-brush painting.

Little Red Plane, directed and produced by Joey Jones and Wira Winata of Shadebox

Animations, uses digital techniques to take a young boy on a spiritual journey.

The Future is Wild, directed by Steve Nicholls and produced by Paul Reddish of 422

Ltd., places 47 unique and highly diverse CG animals into live-action backgrounds for this13-part television series from Animal Planet USA.

Art Studio

Each year, the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival serves as a mir-

ror of what is possible today and as a window into what might be

achieved in the future. The festival is defined by one wordvision,

says chair Darin Grant from Digital Domain.Through a unique blend of

art and technology, it has helped display the vision and achievement of

the pioneering efforts of our industry during the past 30 years.

This year, the Animation Theater projects were shown collectively in

one large venue,rather than in multiple rooms.As a result, the festival jury

had to limit the number of selections, presenting 52 projects compared to66 last year. Of these,28 are international submissions, and 14 are student

TheSIGGRA

PH

ComputerAnimationFestival,PartII

40| Computer Graphics World AUGUST 2003



16/18

Clockwise from top right:

Pingwin, directed by Wojtek Wawszcyk and produced with Georg Gruber, features a pen-

guin, created in Softimage|3D, which moves to the rhythm of an orchestral selection.

Plumber, directed by Andy Knight and Richard Roseman, and produced by Randi Yaffa of

Red Rover Studios, uses computational fluid dynamics, cloth simulation, and other digital

technologies to create the dynamic imagery in this humorous animated short film.

Time Warner Pigs, directed by Bruno Aveillan and produced by Quad-Believe, is a televi-

sion commercial featuring fantastical CG pigs created by La Maison.

This Wonderful Life, directed and produced by Liam Kemp, shows how a newfound love

can fill the void in a persons heart following the death of a spouse.

Solder Man, directed and produced by Dave Novak, is a story of creation, evolution, andproblem solving, as the main character looks to the only solution he knows: soldering.

productions. Moreover, only 25 pieces were presented in the prestigious

Electronic Theater, compared to 35 during the previous year.

Whether the piece is a fascinating story that has been captured

and told through the use of computer-generated images, a creatively

edited breakdown of the visual effects work from a professional studio,

or a scientific showcase that gives us a glimpse at the edge of our ever-

expanding technological horizons, it always represents the best that our

industry has to offer each year, says Grant.

A selection of images from the Computer Animation Festival appearson these two pages. Karen Moltenbrey

AUGUST 2003 Computer Graphics World| 41

2002 SSNK New York; Quad, Believe.



17/18

Competition in the 3D hardware

market has been fierce over the

past few years. ATI and Nvidia

have been fighting it out in the con-

sumer space, and this battle has crossed

over into the professional workstation

arena as well. Another contender, 3Dlabs

has long been a major player in the

professional space. Now a division of

Creative, 3Dlabs unveiled the Wildcat VP

series, its answer to the less expensive but

still powerful cards that have been flood-

ing the market of late. In fact, the Wildcat

VP line brings a new architecture and ter-

rific quality to price-competitive worksta-

tion cards. The VP990 Pro ups the ante by

including 512MB of video RAM, more than

any card currently on the market.

The VP990 Pro fits in a standard AGP

slot and has the same heatsink and fan

found on other VP series cards. The

heatsink isnt terribly large, but it makes

for a tight fit when theres another card in

the top PCI slot. Its best to leave this PCI

slot open, as the heat-generating VP990

Pro needs all the air it can get. On the back

of the card are two DVI connectors as well

as a stereo jack. For those using CRT mon-

itors, two DVI-to-analog connectors are

included as well.

The software included with the card

installed flawlessly. 3Dlabs provides its

own control panel for adjusting and tweak-

ing screen resolution, as well as OpenGL

and monitor settings. The OpenGL panel

comes with a number of presets custom-

tuned for most major 3D applications.

When first using the card, I did run into a

few problems with screen

refreshes using the default

OpenGL settings. These

problems showed up both

on the desktop and in appli-

cations such as 3ds max

from Discreet. Switching to

the 3ds max settings on the

OpenGL control panel cleared up these

issues and I had no further problems.

The VP990 Pros whopping 512MB of

video RAM is great for anyone using large

amounts of textures in their work. It also

should help those who run high-resolution

or multiple monitors. The card supports

the new 9-megapixel displays from ven-

dors such as IBM and Hitachi, as well as

high-resolution dual monitors. Users cre-

ating content for feature films and HDTV

will be very pleased with the results. I

found images and color to be crisp and

clear, due partly to the cards 10-bit

RAMDACs and its good-quality drivers.

The core of the Wildcat VP is 3Dlabs

P10 visual processing unit (VPU). Most

graphics cards have a single large graph-

ics processing unit (GPU) which resem-

bles a computers CPU, but for graphics.

3Dlabs VPU consists of many small,

single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD)

processors tied together in a supercom-

puter-like array. The Wildcat VP has more

than 200 of these processors on a single

chip, which enables the card to parallel-

process image information, theoretically

making it smoother and more responsive

than a typical graphics card.

These small processors also can be split

up and used for different

tasks, and to offload tasks

normally completed by the

CPU. This is undoubtedly

where professional 3D

graphics is headed, as it

allows rendering times to

be cut significantly. These

processors can handle anything from

antialiasing pixels, to calculating high-

order surfaces, to performing such eso-

teric tasks as wavelet compression and

photoreal rendering. This frees the CPU

for other tasks, speeding up interactivity.

The VP990 shares the same VPU as

the Wildcat VP970, which can crank out

225 million vertices per second. I tested

the card on a dual 1.4GHz Pentium III

with 1.5GB of RAM. Viewperf scores were

good: The board turned in a 3ds max

score of 11.9, a ProE score of 18.3, and a

UGS score of 15.3. While this is fast, it

lags behind some cards on the market,

most notably the Nvidia Quadro FX 2000

and the ATI FireGL X1. However, these

cards currently max out at 128MB and

256MB of video RAM, respectively, so the

additional memory in the VP990 Pro is

certainly a bonus.

Priced at roughly $800, the VP990 Pro

is not cheap, particularly considering that

the VP970, with 128MB of RAM, can be

had for less than $400. Though not the

fastest on the market in terms of bench-

marks, the VP990 Pro is a solid performer.

Its multiprocessor architecture is unique

among graphics cards and offers many

possibilities for expansion and customiza-

tion. And its large amount of video RAM

certainly will appeal to those using lots of

textures or high-resolution displays.

George Maestri is a Computer Graphics

World contributing editor and president

of Rubberbug, an LA-based studio

specializing in character animation.

3Dlabs pi les on the video memory

By George Maestri

Price: Approximately $800

Minimum System

Requirements: Windows98/Me/2000/XP-based machinewith Intel-compatible processorand AGP slot 3

Dlabs,a

division

ofCreative

www.3

dlabs.com

infoNOW9

8

stats

Wildcat VP990 Pro


The Wildcat VP990 Pro graphics accelerator

from 3Dlabs provides 512MB of video RAM.

r

eviews

Wildcat VP990 Pro

H A R D W A R E


__________

___________
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18/18

2003 aug compgraphics

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