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Computer
T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R D I G I TA L C O N T E N T C R E AT I O N A N D P R O D U C T I O N

WORLD
®

March 2006 [Link]

Bug Bytes
An animated CG film starring some not so
creepy crawlers wins festival accolades

Perfect Match
Hollywood and gaming
pair up to make
King Kong interactive

To DI For
V for Vendetta: Unmasking
post’s VFX capabilities

Behind the Scenes

How studios are storing
Forward their digital assets
COMPUTER
GRAPHICS WORLD ®

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$4.95 USA $6.50 Canada

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

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Idea:
Greater creative freedom.

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

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Computer
March 2006 • Volume 29 • Number 3 T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R D I G I TA L C O N T E N T C R E AT I O N A N D P R O D U C T I O N

Also see [Link] for computer graphics news,

special surveys and reports, and the online gallery.

WORLD

D e p a r t m e nt s
Editor’s Note 4
Game On 14
The annual Game Developers
Conference is right around the corner,
and looking at the schedule, it’s
apparent that there is more to 25
10
interactive entertainment than just
fun and games—mainly, it’s a 18
business...big business. Fe at ur e s
Spotlight 6 Aping Film 10
GAMING | Peter Jackson’s King Kong
Products
from Ubisoft offers the cinematic
RealViz’s VTour appeal and action of a film and the
Alienware’s MJ-12 Workstations compelling interactivity of a leading
E-on’s Vue XStream adventure game.

Efrontier/TokyoPop’s By Martin McEachern

Manga Studio 3.0 NEW @ c g w.c o m
NewTek’s VT4 Version 4.6 A Digital Revolution 14
Web story exclusives:
FILM | After setting a new CG bar for
Matrox’s Axio suite
the bullet-time effect in The Matrix, the
Storage and the DI process
The Foundry’s Furnace 3 plug-ins Wachowski brothers took a totally
Offering storage and networking
different approach to visual effects for
Portfolio 22 solutions, Silicon Graphics is helping
their latest project, V for Vendetta.
DreamWorks’ Matte Department postproduction facility Capital FX keep
By Barbara Robertson up with its growing business.
Reviews 33
NAS vs. SAN:
Natural Motion’s Endorphin 2.5 Bug’s-eye View 18
The Big Debate
3dconnexion’s Space devices CG ANIMATION | Artist Josh Staub
Recently, the question for facilities was
shows off his digital bug collection—
Backdrop 40 whether to use NAS over 1GB/sec Ethernet
his first CG animated short film
or SAN over Fibre Channel. Now, there
Role Model called The Mantis Parable.
is another alternative—high-speed iSCSI.
Mythic Entertainment’s president/CEO By Ingrid Spencer What’s the best choice for you?
Mark Jacobs addresses the unique
challenges faced by developers of
massively multiplayer online role-play-
Special Report

Storage in the Studio 25

ing games, and provides a glimpse at
+ Filmmaker extraordinaire George Lucas and his visual arts facility, ILM, are setting
Mythic’s newest MMORPG under
a new technical bar for the studio’s storage and data setup. By Barbara Robertson
development—Warhammer Online:
Age of Reckoning. + A look at storage technology in fast-paced studios shows a range of options to suit
everyone’s needs. By Michele Hope

See [Link] for a more

On the cover: in-depth version of this article.
Josh Staub, art designer for a game developer,
offers a microscopic look at his first CG short,
The Mantis Parable. See pg. 18.

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editor’snote
Kelly Dove
Editor-in-Chief

Game On
KELLY DOVE : Editor-in-Chief
kdove@[Link]

KAREN MOLTENBREY: Executive Editor

karenm@[Link]

It’s March, and those in the gaming community are preparing to “head West” CONTRIBUTING EDITORS:
Jenny Donelan, Audrey Doyle,
in anticipation of the annual Game Developers Conference in San Jose. This Evan Marc Hirsch, George Maestri,
journey, which has been made by many an ambitious and talented game Martin McEachern, Stephen Porter,
Barbara Robertson
developer, ends and begins at the doors of the San Jose Convention Center,
SUZANNE HEISER: Art Director
where gamers, developers, and wanna-bes all converge to rub elbows with the suzanneh@[Link]
gurus, share their creative knowledge, and search for employment at top-notch studios.
DAN RODD: Senior Illustrator
However, there is more to game development than being energized and party- danro@[Link]

ready; it’s big business—especially when Hollywood comes knocking. The success of BARBARA ANN BURGESS: Production Manager
the theatrical release of Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong, for example, resulted in barbarab@[Link]

a major coup for game maker Ubisoft, as the developer released versions of the title CHRISTINE WARD: Ad Traffic Manager
ChristineW@[Link]
for all major game platforms in advance of the movie’s box-office debut. This month,
as we ready for GDC, contributing editor Martin McEachern goes behind the scenes at SUSAN HUGHES: Marketing Communications Manager
shughes@[Link]
Ubisoft to see how Hollywood and the game developers combined their creativity to
MICHELLE BLAKE: Circulation Manager
walk hand in hand—straight to the bank. michelleb@pennwell
But the stroll can be a long one for game developers that don’t continue to refine and
MARK FINKELSTEIN:
streamline technology and creative work flow within the studio. One of the most ambi- Senior Vice President
mark@[Link]
tious technological advancements for game developers—and the entertainment indus-
try overall—is Collada. Originally initiated by Sony Computer Entertainment to help COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD
Executive and Editorial Offices:
accelerate the development of content for its PlayStation 3 consoles, Collada is now an 98 Spit Brook Rd.
Nashua, NH 03062-5737
open standard that is being developed by The Khronos Group. It is based on an XML (603)891-0123; FAX:(603)891-0539
schema for 3D authoring applications, allowing developers to freely exchange digi-
CGW ONLINE: [Link]
tal assets without loss of information. In essence, multiple software programs can be For customer service and subscription inquiries only:
cgw@[Link] TEL: (847) 559-7500 FAX: (847) 291-4816
combined to create power tool chains, supporting OpenGL, OpenGL ES, and Direct3D POSTMASTER: Send change of address form to Computer
shading languages, to create advanced 3D applications and assets. Graphics World, P.O. Box 3296, Northbrook, IL 60065

The companies that currently support Collada include 3Dlabs, Autodesk, Aegia, We make portions of our subscriber list available to
carefully screened companies that offer products and
ATI, Havok, Nvidia, and Softimage. In fact, Nvidia’s next contribution to Collada will services that may be important for your work. If you do
be the FX Composer 2.0, a shader development tool that will not want to receive those offers and/or information,
please let us know by contacting us at List Services,
support loading and saving, skinning, animation, and materi- Computer Graphics World, 98 Spit Brook Road,
Hollywood and als for multiple devices, including DirectX and OpenGL. Nashua, NH 03062.

If, by chance, the benefits of Collada for game development

game developers are still unclear to you, the PixelBox Academy has introduced
ROBERT F. BIOLCHINI
a new e-learning solution (recently endorsed by The Khronos President and Chief Executive Officer
are starting to Group’s president Neil Trevett) for the technology that is designed
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY DIVISION
to teach users how to use Collada to optimize studio work flow.
work together. One area of game development that is often overshadowed by GLORIA S. ADAMS
Vice President Audience Development
console development is massively multiplayer online, or MMO,
ATD PUBLISHING DEPARTMENTS
games, which debuted more than 20 years ago. In this issue, MEG FUSCHETTI
ATD Art Director
executive editor Karen Moltenbrey sits down for a Q&A with Mark Jacobs, president
of Mythic Entertainment, developer of Dark Age of Camelot, for insight into making MARI RODRIGUEZ
ATD Production Director
games for the online player, and the challenges the developers face while trying to
push new content out to this unique community. PRINTED IN THE USA GST No. 126813153
Certainly, technology will continue to push the limits of game development worldwide Publications Mail Agreement No. 40052420

as more Hollywood studios and game developers start to hold hands and work together.
It’s a courtship that could turn out to be quite beneficial for the business of CG.
We look forward to seeing you at GDC!

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Mk Haley | Bostonian | BFA University of Massachusetts | Masa Inakage | MFA California College of the Arts |
MFA Cal State Los Angeles | Technical Advisor, Walt Disney Professor, Keio University Media Design Program,
Imagineering Creative Development, Glendale, California | Kanagawa, Japan | 22-year SIGGRAPH attendee
18-year SIGGRAPH attendee

5-days of real-world, real-time

graphic, interactive twingularity
The only conference and exhibition in the world that twingles everybody in computer graphics and
interactive techniques for one deeply intriguing and seriously rewarding week. In Boston, where
thousands of interdisciplinary superstars find the products and concepts they need to create
opportunities and solve problems. Interact with [Link]/s2006
to discover a selection of registration options that deliver a very attractive
return on investment.

The 33rd International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques
Conference 30 July - 3 August 2006 Exhibition 1 - 3 August 2006 Boston Convention & Exhibition Center
Boston, Massachusetts USA

IMAGE CREDITS: limosa © 2005 Brian Evans; moo-pong © 2005 Jun Usu, Daisuke Uriu,
Naohito Okude, Keio University Okude Laboratory; 2005.1 © 2005 Kenneth A. Huff

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spotlight Your resource for products, user applications, news, and market research

VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS TERRAIN CREATION

PRODUCTS
PRODUCTS

VTour Creates 3D Make XStream

Environments from Environments
E-on Software’s Vue 5 XStream for
2D Pictures Windows 2000/XP is a suite of plug-
RealViz has introduced VTour, ins that integrate 3D projects cre-
new content-creation software ated using 3ds Max and Maya in
based on the company’s Stitcher Vue environments. With the plug-
and ImageModeler programs ins, Vue 5 Infinite environments are
for the creation of photorealistic matched with Max or Maya scenery
3D environments from 2D pic- in one render pass, while the Max or
tures or panoramas. Using digi- Maya elements are rendered together
tal photos or 360-degree panoramas, VTour can be used to create 3D rooms, with Vue elements, matching shad-
buildings, streets, and environments with polygonal photo-textured primi- ows, reflections, and illumination for
tives. The results can be exported or published as a 3D movie or interactive seamlessly blended environments.
application for use with 3D viewers such as Macromedia Shockwave Player E-on’s Vue software includes Eco-
or Virtools Web Player. VTour can be used to create virtual walk-throughs System technology, which can be used
inside buildings, or for urban planning, video games, and virtual sets for
film and television. The program runs under Windows and is priced at
$580. A Mac-based version is slated for release this summer.

WORKSTATIONS
PRODUCTS

Alienware Adds New Nvidia

Options to MJ-12 Workstations
Alienware’s new MJ-12 7500i and MJ-12 7500a workstations for creative
professionals feature Nvidia Nforce 4 SLI X16-based motherboards with to animate forests with wind, breeze,
two full-bandwidth 16-lane PCI Express slots for optimized and scal- vegetation, and terrains containing
able performance. Both the Intel-based MJ-12 7500i and infinite levels of detail, volumetric
the MJ-12 7500a workstations are offered with atmospheres, and procedural multi-
Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 graphics cards materials. Vue environments can be
and hard drives in RAID 0 and 1 con- created directly in Max and Maya with
figurations for up to 2TB of data stor- a separate license of Vue 5 Infinite.
age. The company’s optional Liquid Plug-ins for LightWave 3D, Cinema
Cooling technology reduces noise 4D, and Softimage XSI are currently
and allows for cooler operation of being developed. Vue 5 XStream sells
the workstations. Pricing for for $495, and the XStream Bundle,
the MJ-12 series of worksta- which includes Vue 5 Infinite and Vue
tions starts at $1599. 5 XStream, is priced at $995.

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ANIME TOOLS HD AND SD FINISHING

PRODUCTS

PRODUCTS
Get Creative Matrox Systems
with Manga Studio Support Adobe
Efrontier has teamed with TokyoPop to release Manga
Studio 3.0, manga and comic-book creation software for
Production Studio
The Matrox Axio suite of HD and SD editing platforms
aspiring and profes-
now support the new Adobe Production Studio and Adobe
sional artists. The
Premiere Pro 2.0, offering users real-time multi-camera
software includes
editing and real-time SD clip upscaling in an HD timeline.
the tools to create
The Axio systems also offer voice-over recording in the
manga-style comics
timeline, audio VU meters on capture, and WYSIWYG
without the use of
support for Adobe’s After Effects and Photoshop C2,
other graphic soft-
Autodesk Media and Entertainment’s Combustion and
ware. Some of the
3ds Max, Eyeon’s Digital Fusion, and NewTek’s LightWave
features included in
3D. Other features in
Manga Studio 3.0 are a large selection of screen tones,
the Axio solutions
single-click special effects, drag-and-drop tools, word
include no-render
balloons, and floating palettes. Once the manga or comic
HD and SD finish-
artwork is completed, it can be printed from any comput-
ing in compressed
er, sent to a service bureau for publishing, formatted for
and uncompressed
the Web, or exported for coloring. Manga Studio is avail-
formats, real-time color-correction tools, and analog and
able in two versions: Manga Studio Debut, priced at $50,
digital audio and video inputs and outputs. The Matrox
and Manga Studio EX, which sells for $300.
Axio HD system pricing starts at $17,000, and the Matrox
Axio SD pricing begins at $13,000.

VIDEO PRODUCTION
PRODUCTS

COMPOSITING

VT4 Integrated
PRODUCTS

Production Suite Furnace 3 Plug-ins

Update Available Heat Up Shake
The Foundry has released
NewTek is offering a free upgrade to Version 4.6 of its VT4 Furnace 3 for Shake, a
Integrated Production Suite to registered owners of the new suite of plug-ins
system. The new features of the upgrade include improved for Linux or OS X ver-
3D animation and motion-graphics tools, enhanced sup- sions of the software
port for multiple monitors, and improvements to the that include DeBlur, to
NewTek codec. The update also supports LightWave automatically remove
8, Version 8.5, and FX Monkey, the icon-driven motion motion and out-of-focus
graphics and animation wizard that can be used to easily blur; MatchGrade, for
create animated 3D logos. VT4 V. 4.6 also includes new color histogram match-
audio mixer skins, support ing; and Tracker, a multi-point tracker that locates
for YUY2 FourCC, allow- regions on a moving image. Other enhancements to the
ing files to be read direct- program include ColorAlign, to remove discrepancies
ly into the Windows Media in the alignment of three color channels in an image;
Encoder, and more. The Splicer, to stitch together arbitrarily shaped images or
Version 4.6 upgrade is avail- parts of images and create a visually believable seam;
able as a free download at and DeNoise, to remove noise and artifacts in an image.
the NewTek Web site. Furnace 3 pricing begins at $4000.

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.... Gaming

Aping Film
Ubi s o ft adds a t o uc h of Hollywood

to i ts K ing Kong video ga me

By Martin McEachern

Representing a new breed

of video game, Peter
Jackson’s King Kong is one
of the first interactive titles
conceived by an A-list movie
director. Working with
developer Ubisoft, Jackson
provided creative direction
for the game, along with
assistance from Weta, his
Oscar-winning effects studio.

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Gaming ....

As
key scenes from both the cinematic and ventions as life meters and ammunition
interactive perspectives, and offer view- icons. In fact, so close was the collabora-
ers the best of both worlds.” tion between the filmmakers and Ubisoft
The player begins the game in first- that no conceptual art was produced for
person mode, playing Jack Driscoll as he the game. Instead, Ubisoft relied solely on
escapes the tribal fortress with his friends Weta’s conceptual art and digital assets
King Kong made a much-hyped swing into and flees into the jungle in search of to guide the look, tone, and color palette
theaters this winter, he made an equally actress Ann Darrow, who’s been abducted of the game. Ubisoft used Weta’s concep-
anticipated entrance onto the gaming by the giant ape. Along the way, Driscoll tual art to re-create the geography of Skull
scene. Released on all the major game plat- must race across creaking rope bridges, Island in meticulous detail, including the
forms, Peter Jackson’s King Kong is the first enter dank caves, and escape on river mist-blanketed jungle and the tribal for-
in a new breed of video games produced rafts, all the while defending Ann and tress on the peninsula where Ann is held
under the stewardship of heavyweight his friends from humongous millipedes, for sacrifice to Kong. The developer also
film directors. With Hollywood direct- Velociraptors, and ferocious T. rexes, using used footage from the film—for exam-
ing the interactive action, game develop- 1933-style guns, spears, and tusks, or by ple, the characters running away from
ers are hoping to break down the creative employing such diversionary tactics as the dinosaurs—which was matched to in-
barrier that has, in recent years, stymied igniting grass fires. game animations.
progress in the gaming arts. For the rest of the game, the player According to Ubisoft producer Xavier
For the King Kong game, movie director controls the hulking frame of Kong in Poix, developing a movie-based video
Peter Jackson conceived the title as a sister third-person mode. Whether he’s bound- game that’s scheduled to launch concur-
companion to the film that would not only ing across the jungle floor or the streets rently with the film was fraught with chal-
embody the narrative of the feature—and of New York on his knuckles and feet, or lenges, particularly since the game’s devel-
all its major action set pieces—but expand swinging through chasms and tall gullies opment (which typically spans two years)
on its universe as well. To realize his while clinging to vine-covered cliff walls usually occurs well in advance of the film’s
vision, Jackson turned to Ubisoft production, and sometimes, its pre-
game designer Michael Ancel, production. To meet this challenge,
whose previous title, Beyond Ubisoft met with Jackson and the
Good & Evil, impressed the direc- Weta team more than a year before
tor with its charming charac- the film’s preproduction com-
ters, imaginative story, and cin- menced, to discuss the emotional
ematic visuals. Their venture intentions for the film.
resulted in a massive, $10 million “The game was pretty far along
collaboration between Jackson’s by the time principal photography
Weta Digital studio (which pro- began,” says Poix. “In fact, the first
duced the effects for the movie time Jackson saw a 3D King Kong
as well as for the Oscar-winning was when we brought him one of
The Lord of the Rings trilogy) and the first builds of the game, which
The filmmakers and gamemakers worked closely on the inter-
Ubisoft’s studios in Montreal and active title. To that end, Ubisoft used Weta’s conceptual art and
was months before Andy Serkis
Montpellier, France. Ubisoft incor- digital assets to determine the look and feel of the imagery. donned his infamous Kong motion-
porated much of Weta’s concep- capture suit.” (For details on the
tual artwork directly into the game engine or the sides of buildings, Kong’s simian making of the King Kong film, see “Long
as background imagery, while Weta’s movements—supervised by Jackson—are Live the King,” January 2006, pg. 16.)
creature and environmental maps served as explosive and realistic as they are in the Once film production had begun,
as reference for Ubisoft’s in-game texture film. Jackson and the gamemakers chose members of Ubisoft’s Montpellier crew
mapping. Meanwhile, Jackson provided the dual perspectives so that the player made the trek to New Zealand five
creative direction for the story, the game- would experience both helplessness and times to study the movie sets. “We dis-
play, the visuals, and the look and move- ultimate power, the two primary visceral cussed everything—duplicating camera
ments of the creatures. emotions engendered by the film. angles, making sure the sense of scale
“Gamemaking is similar to filmmak- was achieved accurately, maintaining
ing: You are focusing on the story,” says From Film to Game a consistent look between the film and
Jackson. “The parallel development of the To help capture Jackson’s cinematic pol- game versions of the various creatures,”
game and the film enabled us to look at ish, Ubisoft jettisoned such gaming con- says Poix. “The close collaboration also

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.... Gaming

To make the title

enabled us to develop parts of the game more cinematic,
that aren’t included in the movie, such Ubisoft forwent a
as new areas of Skull Island, exclusive number of typical
creatures, and an unlockable alternate gaming conventions,
ending. These additional elements could such as life and
not have been achieved without us hav- ammo meters,
ing open access to the movie throughout which tend to
all phases of preproduction, production, obstruct the images
and postproduction.” on the screen.

Of Man and Beast vulnerability desired by Jackson. Also, we wanted to avoid under-
To create the final in-game Kong model, Weta provided Ubisoft mining the audience’s preconceptions about how the iconic char-
with a digital version comprising approximately three million acter moved about.”
polygons. To make the mesh game-ready, the Montpellier crew For texturing Kong, the artists referenced Weta’s concept art
refined the model using the studio’s proprietary Jade game edi- as well as images of actual gorillas. In total, the beast uses six
tor, the same engine used for Beyond Good & Evil. Because the textures: 256x256 (4 bit) for the skin, 128x256 (8 bit) for the face,
gorilla is seen so closely throughout the game, the artists crafted 64x128 (8 bit) for the inside of the mouth, 32x32 (4 bit) for eyes,
and 128x128 (4 bit) and 64x64 (4 bit) for the fur. Montpellier’s
in-house fur shader allowed artists to control such attributes as
the color, length, and density of the fur. “Balancing the length
and density of the fur was the key to achieving a soft, furry
coat that would render efficiently and not hinder the frame rate,”
says lead programmer Jean Francois Provost.
While the Montpellier group developed these textures for the
PlayStation 2 iteration (the lead version of the game), their team-
mates in Montreal enhanced the surfaces for the more-powerful
Xbox 360 title, which boasts higher-resolution (512x512, or 32-
bit) textures. The next-gen console version also supports higher-
resolution geometry, normal mapping, dynamic lighting and
Animators were challenged by the range of Kong’s motions shadows, and better water effects. For instance, the T. rexes in
(knunckle-walking, swinging, climbing) as well as the gorilla’s
the Xbox 360 version use five texture passes, including the orig-
emotions (which ran the gamut from ferocity to vulnerability).
inal pass, a tessellation pass, and a final pass to increase the
the model in only one level of detail to avoid storing unnecessary dinosaurs’ volume and the definition of their reptilian hide.
geometry. Using the Jade editor, the riggers built Kong’s skeleton For the human characters, the artists worked from photo-
with 30 bones for the basic articulation and 10 additional bones graphic references within Jade to produce models in three levels
for twisting various body parts, particularly the forearm. of detail. To differentiate the natives as much as possible, the team
Also within Jade, the artists created Kong’s facial animation created three geometric variations and then scaled them further to
using a mixture of bones and morph targets depict- enhance their individuality. To rig
ing such expressions as anger, sadness, happiness, the natives, the team modified the
and surprise. Although Weta supplied Ubisoft bone lengths of a base skeleton,
with Kong’s motion-captured animations, the data which contained approximately
proved far too memory-intensive, and the move- 35 bones. For the main characters,
ments far too specific, to be incorporated directly the Ubisoft group used two types
into the game engine. Therefore, the team crafted of skeletons: one for the men and
all of Kong’s animations by hand after receiving another for Ann. Along with addi-
instruction from Serkis. tional bones to handle more com-
“The hardest part of animating Kong lied in plex twisting in the wrists, arms,
maintaining credibility throughout his multiple and elbows, these models are
modes of locomotion—from knuckle-walking, to also capable of facial animation,
propelling himself on his hind legs, to swinging Working from photo references within accomplished with morph targets
and climbing,” says Poix. “In animating Kong, we Ubisoft’s Jade software, the artists re-created and gaze-tracking through AI-
worked hard to capture the mixture of ferocity and the game’s human characters, including Ann. controlled inverse kinematics.

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Gaming ....
Gorillas in the Mist tures created in Montpellier. I painted the textures to resemble
The Montpellier effects team also created the heavy mist that Weta’s environments, the temples, or the stone wall, preserving
permeates the game’s jungle setting. It thickens the bright sun- the graphic style of the game and avoiding ‘pseudo-realism.’”
light pouring through the canopy, casting dappled light over the Whether hiking around cliff-hugging trails, passing through
foliage and adding a sense of heaviness and humidity to the air. thick jungle patches, or basking in the god rays streaming
The artists created the mist and the fog using a sprite generator through the air holes in the caves, gamers playing the Xbox 360
version will notice a crispness in the shadows and a brilliance in
the lighting that is unmatched on other systems, thanks to a com-
bination of highly detailed normal maps and dynamic lighting.
Also, the artists enhanced the lushness of the jungle in the
Xbox 360 title using up to six textures for the diverse foliage:
a base texture, a moss texture, a shadow texture, a specular
map, a normal map, and a detailed normal map that accentu-
ated the gnarled and knotted look of the tree bark and the crag-
giness of the rocks. To create wet skin and wet fur, the Jade
engine dynamically altered the specular map to increase the
shininess of the textures according to the wetness of the sur-
face. The team also employed cube maps on the water pools to
further enhance the lighting and reflections.

Revitalizing the Medium

Released on all the major platforms, the game’s effects, like those
Peter Jackson’s King Kong heralds an impending flood of games
in this scene, are most apparent in the Xbox 360 version.
either created by A-list directors or inspired by their films. A
within Jade. To create the complex lighting, they lit most objects game version of The Warriors has already hit store shelves, fol-
vertex by vertex, and relied on real-time omni lights for illumi- lowed soon by video game versions of The Godfather, Dirty
nating the characters when they were in close proximity to fi re, Harry, and Taxi Driver. Meanwhile, director John Singleton is
moonlight, or other dynamic light sources. currently producing Fear and Respect, starring Snoop Dogg,
“Our primary concern in lighting the jungle was to create sim- while John Woo is developing a video game sequel to his film
ple and readable images. Jackson wanted to create an immer- Hard Boiled, titled Stranglehold. Also, Electronic Arts continues
sive environment,” says art director Florent Sacre. “Therefore, to adapt such James Bond classics as the upcoming From Russia
we didn’t want to overdo the lighting and risk losing the depth with Love, starring Sean Connery.
and scope of the jungle. We did only what was needed to make Perhaps the biggest recruitment to the video game world,
the world in the game believable.” however, may be Steven Spielberg, who recently signed a much-
In another sequence of the game, Driscoll and his friends publicized, long-term agreement with EA to develop three
float down a river on rafts that are suddenly besieged by T. rexes. franchise properties bearing his signature style of storytelling.
Basic water simulation was accomplished by the Jade engine. Throughout his career, that style has been characterized by a
The artists created more complex water effects by applying the tight control over the audience’s point of view.
same texture maps used for Kong’s fur onto successive layers Another unique creative force that will soon invade the gam-
of alpha maps. Jade’s sprite generator also produced the game’s ing world is that of David Cronenberg, director of last year’s
smoke and fire, which were controlled with axis constraints. highly acclaimed A History of Violence. His as-yet unnamed game
To create the leaves, grass, and other foliage, the group used project will be developed with Toronto’s Trapeze Animation
Sprite Mapper 2 (SPM2), a proprietary sprite generator within Studios. Cronenberg once referred to each of his films as a “self-
Jade that’s especially dedicated to the PS2 and similar to that contained biosphere,” a description that more aptly encapsu-
used for the fog and mist. With SPM2, Ubisoft was able to cre- lates the essence of an interactive world.
ate and apply any number of sprites to either a zone or a vertex, If directors such as Jackson, Spielberg, and Cronenberg can
and modify them by adding noise or changing their size, form, inject the gaming medium with the same revitalizing energy
or density. “I personally made every texture before we went to and innovative vision they unleashed on the film world, the
New Zealand,” says Sacre. “I trotted around Montpellier with future of the interactive experience may soon take some new,
my camera, and I selected interesting organic and inorganic sur- unexpected and exciting directions.
faces that would constitute kits of textures. The majority of the
photographs we took in New Zealand weren’t inserted into the Martin McEachern, a contributing editor for Computer Graphics
actual game, but rather, used as reference for refining the tex- World, can be reached at martin@[Link].

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.... Film

A digital

The Wachowski brothers’ film noir-styled that few people will notice on screen Cinesite used its React crowd-simulation
“kung-fu meets sci-fi” movie, The Matrix, could be a harbinger for changes in the software to handle the motion for the
won a visual effects Oscar in 2000 for, way postproduction houses and colorists thousands of digital people dressed like
among other effects, the stylish “bul- work with film in the future. V in this scene.
let-time” shots in which Keanu Reeves’s James McTeigue, who was first assis-
actions happened in extremely slow tant director on all three Matrix films to work on it from that point of view, to
motion while the camera swung around and on Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of play with little details in a way that I don’t
him. Since then, so many films—from the Clones, directed V for Vendetta. Hugo think anyone will notice, but that finessed
Charlie’s Angels to Shrek—have imitated Weaving, who played Agent Smith in the the movie as a whole.”
and parodied the bullet-time shots that Matrix trilogy and Elrond in The Lord of Cinesite created most of the effects,
the effect has become a cliché. the Rings trilogy, is V, a vigilante who with Framestore CFC handling the digi-
But, what happened behind the slo-mo wears a white Guy Fawkes mask, black tal intermediate (DI) work. In addition,
action arguably had a more widespread hat, and black cape. And, Natalie Portman Double Negative put videos on television
and lasting impact on visual effects. To is the mild-mannered young woman he monitors and video screens throughout
create digital reproductions of the loca- rescues—and radicalizes. Based on a the film. All three studios are in London’s
tions surrounding the action, the Matrix graphic novel illustrated by David Lloyd Soho district.
crew used photogrammetric model- and published by Vertigo/CD Comics, the “Our most obvious visual effects were
ing with projected texture mapping, UK-German production takes place in a the explosions and a knife fight scene,”
and state-of-the-art image-based light- future, totalitarian Britain. The tag line says Glass. “Cinesite handled those and
ing techniques based on Paul Debevec’s for the film, which tackles the question of smaller bits and pieces. Framestore CFC
research at the University of California. armed resistance to totalitarian oppres- changed the lighting on the key charac-
Today, most films with visual effects sion, is: “People should not be afraid of ter’s mask in postproduction and bal-
use lighting techniques based Debevec’s their governments. Governments should anced the atmosphere throughout one
research, and digital matte paintings that be afraid of their people.” sequence [see “VFX in the DI Suite,”
include projected texture maps on image- Dan Glass, who was visual effects pg. 16]. I found that work particularly inter-
based models are increasingly common. supervisor for Batman Begins and for the esting—the whole process often blurred the
It’s unlikely that the 500 visual effects final two Matrix films, was V for Vendetta’s line between what we did in visual effects
shots in the Wachowski brothers’ latest visual effects supervisor. Unlike the Matrix and what was dealt with in the DI.”
film, V for Vendetta (which they wrote trilogy, only a few of Vendetta’s effects are
and co-produced), will win a visual obvious, and the visual effects crew often Trails of Destruction
effects Oscar—the timeline was tight, relied on practical elements rather than Early in the film, V makes his mark by
and the story didn’t demand huge effects. CG. “The majority of the effects are sub- exploding big buildings. For this, the
However, as in The Matrix, something tle,” Glass says. “It was a real pleasure buildings were miniatures that the crew

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Film ....

Re olution I n a n o v e l a p p ro a ch , cre w s cre a t e

m a n y o f Ve n d e t t a ’s e ff e ct s i n DI

By Barbara Robertson

photographed. “We had seven weeks Cinesite. To create the feeling of hyper- ers. The geometry was created in Pixar’s
allotted for visual effects, and we didn’t speed, the crew filmed stunt performers RenderMan and layered in different ways
have a big budget,” says Glass. “We tried at high speed; the stunt performer act- with textures, some moving and some not,
to find or photograph real elements.” ing as V handled bladeless knives. The and then taken into the composite.”
For the fire, Glass had Pacific Title in Los CG knife trails, which looked like ciga- Compositors working in Apple’s Shake
Angeles scan fire and firework elements rette smoke, created the illusion of speed used optical-distortion nodes to break
from the Warner Bros. archives. “I was in the slow-motion scenes. up the passes and mix various levels of
keen to use real fireworks,” Glass says. “CG To create the trails, Cinesite first transparency, especially when V walked
tends to be slightly clean, but with the real tracked the camera with 2d3’s Boujou soft- through a knife trail. “We used lots of
elements, you get all the details for free.” ware and Science-D-Visions’ 3D Equalizer, 2D plug-ins for Shake,” says Johnson.
Cinesite relied on CG for the knife and rotoscoped knife strikes in the shots, “Everyone had to maintain continuity
effects, however, during a sequence adding CG knife blades to handles and, through scenes.”
in which V shows off his superhuman sometimes, complete knives modeled
power by moving at hyperspeed. “It’s in Autodesk Media and Entertainment’s Street Scenes
the Vendetta version of bullet time,” says Maya (formerly from Alias). A Maya plug- Cinesite also created digital crowds for
Matt Johnson, visual effects supervisor at in extruded layers of geometry from the a sequence in which thousands of peo-
tracking curves to create ple appear on the streets dressed like
geometry planes based V. Although the production crew filmed
on the knives’ motion, real people in costume gathering at the
“but more complex,” says Houses of Parliament, Cinesite increased
Thrain Shadbolt, 3D their numbers by replicating those real
supervisor. “[The plug- performers in compositing and by cre-
in] also cut these planes ating fully CG characters. The studio’s
into several pieces, some crowd-simulation software, called React,
moving quicker than oth- handled the motion by applying anima-
tion created from motion-capture data to
Layers of geometry
15 different crowd models. To animate the
extruded from tracking
cloaks, the crew integrated Syflex’s cloth
curves and rendered with
simulations into the crowd software, pre-
textures were compos-
ited with various levels of
baking the animation when the crowds
transparency to create the were shot from a long distance.
knife trails left by V in In addition, Cinesite created large
this image. matte paintings by using RealViz’s Stitcher

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.... Film

VFX in the DI Suite to quilt photographic tiles enhanced in

Adobe’s Photoshop. A shot of Natalie
During V for Vendetta, V’s pure-white Guy Fawkes sphere to a long sequence. “Usually, we’d grade Portman standing on a balcony in the rain,
mask is always partly in shadow, a stylistic device that everything, send it to visual effects, and they’d add for example, was filmed on a set piece
wasn’t possible to achieve all the time during filming, atmosphere,” says Inglis. “We tried that at first, but in a studio. To create the rain, Cinesite
particularly in fast-moving scenes. Also, because the we felt it wasn’t working. It was a long sequence with used Maya particles rendered through
main character is masked, the filmmakers used shad- a lot of cuts, and we needed to see the atmosphere RenderMan. The crew added depth of field
ows to create expressions on the unchanging mask. in context.” by splitting the rainstorm into multiple
At first, colorists in Framestore CFC’s digital The visual effects crew rotoscoped the fore- layers rendered at different speeds, and
intermediate (DI) suite tried drawing relevant shapes ground characters and rough shapes of the alleyway then blurring highlights on some layers
on the mask and moving them with the tracking sys- to create mattes, and generated visual effects plates
tem in the grading software. “The drawn shapes of smoke. The smoke plates were a combination of
only looked realistic enough on a few occasions,” practical elements from Framestore CFC’s library and
says Adam Glasman, colorist. smoky noise generated in Shake.
To increase the realism, the VFX crew built a 3D “We mixed the smoke, graded the background
model in Autodesk’s Maya from a scan of the real mask through the smoke using holdout mattes from the
and, using 2d3’s Boujou and RealViz’s MatchMover, rotoscoped characters and alleyway, and then com-
tracked it onto the bined everything with keys we pulled in Baselight and
character. Then, they with shapes we drew in Baselight,” says Fawkner.
lit the mask, ren- “It’s remarkable how much you can get away with
dered out a gray- when you have a swift work flow.”
scale matte in Pixar’s Although they might have accomplished the task
RenderMan, and for that sequence using a Flame or Inferno system
imported that matte from Discreet, it would have required many iterations
into the grading suite. because the compositing was grade dependant: The
There, with senior grade changed as the artists added the smoky atmo-
compositing artist sphere. Also, by using the Baselight system, the color-
Jonathan Fawkner at his side, colorist Adam Inglis ist-compositing duo could access the entire film at 2K.
applied corrections through the 3D matte to increase “On the Inferno, we could have made the changes
the density and create shadows on the filmed mask. on a background plate, but then the grade would have
Framestore CFC uses the Baselight grading sys- been bluer, so we would have had to redo the smoke,”
tem from FilmLight, which provides real-time pro- explains Fawkner. “On the grading system, we just
cessing on films scanned at 2K. For this movie, the dialed down the smoke. So, it was slightly more inter-
digital effects studio began by making a digital ver- active.” And, as a result, the client could tweak the
sion of the feature. Then, Glasman sat in a grading effect until the day before the film was finished.
Real performers were replicated at Cinesite,
suite with the director of photography, the director, Fawkner believes DI software will begin including
and digital extras were added to create the
and others, correcting the color. Thanks to mattes more effects capabilities. Inglis points out, for example,
huge crowds shown in these shots.
created by the visual effects crew, correcting shad- that once clients are in the grading suite, they notice
ows on the mask utilized a similar process. such things as rigging wires that they didn’t spot when in Shake, during compositing. To control
“It gave us all the advantages of an interactive looking at sequences offline on an Avid system ... things a hero raindrop that splashes in Portman’s
grading session to do what would otherwise be a they want painted out. face, Shadbolt used a Maya expression to
visual effects job,” says Fawkner. “We could have “Everyone knows you can color-correct,” Inglis attach one particle to a locator.
done this in compositing, but we would have had says. “Now clients are asking what else can be “Hopefully, these effects won’t draw
to deliver it for comments, go back and change added on top [of that]. When we first started doing attention to themselves,” says Johnson.
it, deliver it again, and so forth. Instead, we basi- DI, we’d send shots to visual effects to have images “This isn’t a popcorn movie. The visual
cally had a client session in which we were able to flopped. Nowadays that would be absurd.” effects were not the end; they were the
increase and decrease the contrast in the mask, and Nevertheless, none of the people on the team means to the end.”
make it lighter or darker so that it not only matched expects that colorists will handle complicated
the rest of the lighting, it did its job in telling more of effects in grading. “The process we did for V was Barbara Robertson is an award-winning jour-
a story and giving V more character.” quite unusual,” says Inglis. “Not many productions nalist and a contributing editor for Com-
The colorists turned to the visual effects crew for would be prepared to run two grading suites for puter Graphics World. She can be reached
help with another grading problem: adding atmo- two months.” —Barbara Robertson at BarbaraRR@[Link].

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Imagine
Passion calls you. Your inner artist responds.
Today you discover who you are meant to be.
Fearless. You embrace the tools in front of you and
take pleasure in your infinite potential. The journey
to your success begins with this first step.
Take it.

The Powerful, Approachable, Complete 3D Solution experience it at [Link]

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.... CG Animation

A f ilm m aker ’s short

a n im at ed t ale about a

c o u ple of high-te ch
View
bugs creat es a buzz

By Ingrid Spencer

A lthough Josh Staub fell into

his career as a digital artist by
chance, his animated
movie, The Mantis Parable, happened
very much on purpose. And now, those
efforts are paying off: His eight-minute
short

short about a caterpillar and a praying

mantis has earned numerous film-fes-
tival awards, and, though the movie
didn’t get on this year’s Oscar short-
list, it did make the qualifying list.
Staub spent nearly two years cre-
ating the story, visuals, animation,
sound effects, and musical score
for The Mantis Parable himself, all
for about $4500 through his newly
formed Jubilee Studios. Before trying
his hand in CG filmmaking, Staub
honed his skills as the art director
and visual design director for Cyan
Worlds, developer of Myst, Riven, and
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. Staub founded
Jubilee Studios, an army of one, to pro-
duce Mantis and work on any other
freelance opportunities that might inter-
est him. Nevertheless, the 30-year-old
Staub never saw himself as a gamer, and
still doesn’t consider himself an animator.
“I truly never expected to be doing

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CG Animation ....
what I’m doing,” says Staub. “I always knowledge and experience to create The and a couple of 200GB hard drives. Toward
liked to draw, but computers weren’t that Mantis Parable. the end of the project, he purchased an
interesting to me, although I had a knack Working two nights a week on the additional Dell machine with the same
for technology. I always saw the com- film in his home studio above his garage, specs for about $800, which helped him
puter as a tool.” Staub was a high school Staub refined his concept for the film render the final scenes.
student when he interned at Cyan, and and then began the creative process. The modeling for all the imagery in
after a stint in college, he returned there, “Preproduction consisted of the basics— the film, including the characters and
and has been at the studio ever since. pencil and paper for concept sketching their environments, was done in Autodesk
As Cyan grew, so did the artist’s role, a and loose storyboards,” he notes. “I also Media and Entertainment’s 3ds Max 4.2,
progression that provided him with the did a lot of insect research—reviewing using poly-subdivision techniques. “I like
simple shapes and forms that ‘read’ well
visually, so the modeling tends to be the
least important aspect of the scene cre-
ation,” says Staub. To create personalities
for the main characters—the caterpillar
and the mantis—the filmmaker called
upon two crucial critics: his young chil-
dren. “I’m sitting there trying to get a cat-
erpillar to express emotion,” he says, “and
kids are very honest [with their opinions];
they have no preconceived notions.”
In fact, Staub says he intended for the
film to appeal to every age group, and
credits his work at Cyan for giving him the
To artist/game designer Josh Staub, his first animated short film, The Mantis Parable, was ability to achieve that. “Cyan has managed
an experiment—a foray into the world of linear storytelling. Most impressive is the fact to reach a nongaming community because
that the story, as well as the visuals, animation, and sound, were done solely by Staub. its games are nonviolent and nonthreaten-
ing, and are just an escape to other worlds.
various images, nature film clips, and I wanted Mantis to achieve some of that.”
such, primarily using the Internet.”
Staub says he also learned valuable A Bug’s Life
lessons from fellow filmmakers, many Making the world of the entomologist’s
of whom became stymied as their con- office believable depended largely on the
cepts got too complex. Therefore, he textures and the lighting for the diverse
resolved to keep his story simple. “I’m objects in the scenes, including the Mason
not a big pyrotechnics guy,” he says. jars (filled with leaves and branches) that
“I’m interested in linear storytelling. hold the “lead” bugs, the insect informa-
This was a way for me to explore that.” tion lying on the entomologist’s desk, and
The Mantis story tells the tale of the open window through which plants
two bugs trapped in an entomologist’s and the sky are visible.
office, and offers the simple moral According to the filmmaker, he created
message that revenge is not as sweet the model textures himself and applied
as one may think. However, render- them using 3ds Max rather than proce-
ing eight minutes of 3D imagery was dural or commercial textures. He accom-
no easy task for a budding filmmaker plished this by hand-painting the images
with limited resources. or beginning the process with raw materi-
Staub works on a variety of pow- als, such as personal photographs, that he
erful workstations at Cyan—Silicon imported into Adobe’s Photoshop, where
Graphics and Dell PCs. At home, the he would then blend, overlay paint, color-
majority of his work was done on a just correct, stretch, and do whatever else it
one machine, a 3.0 GHz Dell similar to took to get the image right.
the one he has at Cyan, with 1.5GB of RAM “The resulting texture usually bares lit-

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.... CG Animation

tle resemblance to the initial pho- dering methods. He then applied

tograph, but the organic texture, a subtle amount of what he
or roughness, is generally main- calls “faux” depth of field using
tained,” he explains. an Adobe After Effects plug-in,
Staub cites the work of Pixar, called Lenscare, from Frischluft.
DreamWorks, and Fox’s Blue Sky “Rendering with true motion blur
Studios as influences, especially was too expensive,” Staub says.
when it came to lighting a 3D scene. “So, I rendered all the images with
He especially admires filmmakers a small amount of 3ds Max’s stan-
who make good use of radiosity— dard-image motion blur.”
a computer rendering technique The resulting images were
that imitates subtle properties of rendered at 1280x693 resolution
natural light—even though he did and compiled in After Effects.
The Mantis models, including that of the praying mantis, were
not use the technique in Mantis Staub exported the edited clips as
created and rigged within Autodesk’s 3ds Max software.
because he didn’t feel as if it gave uncompressed QuickTime mov-
him the control he wanted over the color and the light. ies, and then finished the final editing in Adobe’s Premiere Pro.
The Mantis Parable takes place in a variety of lighting scenar-
ios, and Staub used standard 3ds Max lights, with colored spot- Navigating the Festival Circuit
lights, directional lights, and spots as bounce lights to enhance Once Staub had burned the film onto DVDs using Adobe Encore,
the scene’s natural appearance. All the images were raytraced he had another new world to conquer—the realm of the film fes-
using the Chaos Group’s free downloadable version of VRay, tival. “You can’t go rent an eight-minute move at Blockbuster. “If
though no global illumination was applied. Rather, all the images you want anyone to see your film, you’ve got to get it into the
were raytraced, allowing the filmmaker to produce realistic-look- international film festival circuit.”
ing objects such as the glass jar. Through research, Staub learned that to make a film eligible
Meanwhile, the animation was done using bones that Staub set for an Academy Award, it has to win awards at one of a select
up inside 3ds Max. “I created a variety of character rigs to accom- group of 40 festivals. “I heard a horrifying statistic that says film-
modate specific caterpillar and mantis motions, such as flying or makers are usually happy with a 10 percent acceptance rate,” he
falling,” says Staub. Eyelids—a physical characteristic that does says, adding that he was somewhat prepared to be discouraged.
not appear on the real insects but does so on the filmmaker’s vir- Nevertheless, Staub submitted his movie to five of those 40
tual versions—were created as separate objects and animated with festivals, and got into all of them. “It took a ton of research,” he
morph targets. “This was not meant to be A Bug’s Life, and it’s not says. Of most value to him was the Web site [Link].
a documentary,” he explains. “Like Riven, Mantis was about push- com,
___ which helps indie filmmakers minimize the tedious and
ing for a fantastic but believable realm.” In that regard, the film- repetitive festival submission process.
maker used Max’s flex modifier for the secondary motion of the The speed at which everything progressed was indeed
insects’ antennae. All the other animation was done by hand. unexpected. The Mantis Parable won its first award at the
Staub rendered the images as .rla files, which contain Z buf- Seattle International Film Festival, and then went on to win
fer information, rather than use time-intensive depth-of-field ren- eight other accolades.
Today, Mantis continues to receive recognition. Currently,
Staub is contemplating his next move, though he’s adamant that
it won’t be tackling another film completely by himself. “It was
a lot of work,” he admits. To keep him going through the dif-
ficult periods, Staub kept an online journal, which can still be
read at [Link]. “When I would feel dis-
couraged, I would get an e-mail from someone asking about the
film, and that kept me on track,” he says.
And just like the caterpillar star of The Mantis Parable,
Staub’s career could metamorphose into something new and
exciting as well.

Ingrid Spencer is the former managing editor of Computer Tele-

To enhance the natural look of the film, the artist used a range of phony and Architectural Record. She can be reached at Ingrid.
lights, and then he raytraced the imagery using VRay. spencer@[Link].

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where companies dream in hypercolor.

Business is busting at the seams for Orlando’s digital

media sector. Home to top-notch studios like Electronic
Arts, specialized higher-ed training programs, and the
world’s largest concentration of simulation developers,
it’s no wonder companies around here are so animated.

C A L L 8 8 8 . T O P. C I T Y O R V I S I T O [Link]
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Portfolio
DreamWorks’ Matte Department

Images from the upcoming film Over the Hedge, to 3D character modelers (and their creations) often steal the show in CG films, while digital
be released by DreamWorks Animation.
matte painters work quietly behind the scenes, crafting the actual scenery where the
Creating matte paintings for CG animation requires a different characters perform. Realizing the importance of these “scene makers,” DreamWorks
approach than it does for live-action films with digital effects,
according to Ronn Brown, head of the matte-painting Animation last year established a matte-painting department at its Glendale, California,
department at DreamWorks Animation’s Glendale, California, campus headed by artist Ronn Brown. At the time, the studio already had a small department
facility. The department generated the backgrounds and
scenery in the images shown here, which are from the team’s in place at the PDI/DreamWorks facility in Redwood City that had worked on such box-office
first project, Over the Hedge. hits as Shrek, Shrek 2, and Madagascar. But when the Glendale studio shifted to making
“In CG animation, there usually isn’t much to match other than full-CG animated films, the need for more matte painters became very clear.
key art, an overall aesthetic, light direction, and, sometimes,
“Matte artists have, and always will be, a great alternative both financially and artistically
rendered elements,” Brown says. “So, there is more of an
opportunity to get creative [than there is in live action].” for shots where it’s not feasible to film in live action or build entire 3D environments,” says

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Brown. “The matte painters always bring a quality aesthetic to vistas and set-extension shots.” Image series spanning both pages:

As Brown points out, matte paintings for CG animated features require a style that has to Interior and exterior shots: These two series of images from
Over the Hedge illustrate the extensive digital set paintings done by
be matched—one with some semblance to reality without the full-blown reality of a live-action
the newly formed DreamWorks matte-painting department. From
plate. “Most matte painters are more ‘realistic’ and paint to match filmed scenes,” he explains. left to right in each series shows the compelling CG backgrounds—
At DreamWorks, the objective of the matte painters is to create vista shots of landscapes and cities, one indoor, the other outdoor—crafted by the group. Next is a shot
of the characters, followed by the fully composited image.
as well as do render enhancements. Currently, the group in Redwood City is working on Shrek the
Says Brown: “We work hand in hand with the art and lighting
Third, while the Glendale team is focused on Over the Hedge (due out this summer), and is begin- departments on each show. Matte artists typically have years of
ning work on the upcoming comedies Flushed Away, Bee Movie, and Kung Fu Panda. artistic training. They can do concept designs for visual development,
as well.” In fact, most of the matte artists at the Glendale facility
A selection of images from the matte-painting group’s most recent project, Over the have live-action visual effects film experience, as well as some
Hedge, is featured on these two pages. —Karen Moltenbrey animation and background painting experience.

MARCH 2006 Computer Graphics World | 23

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Storage in the Studio

Advanced storage

Storage in systems and storage

networking
architectures
enhance work flow

the Studio at digital content

creation studios.

ILM’s state-of-the-art
(storage) studio
Industrial Light & Magic
uses high-speed NAS servers
with a distributed file system,
10GB/sec Ethernet, and a
5000-node renderfarm to
store and move 170TB of content.

C ASE STUDIES
Storage stokes the
creative process
High-speed data transfers and
collaborative content sharing
top the storage priorities
at DCC facilities.

Printed in conjunction with

magazine

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Storage in the Studio

ILM’s state-of-the-art probably at most visual effects studios,

there is an ongoing war between the ren-
derfarm and storage. Currently, we have

(storage) studio about half a dozen major motion-picture

projects under way. Keeping everyone
happy requires feeding a phenomenal
Industrial Light & Magic uses stone unturned when it developed the amount of data to those render nodes.”
infrastructure that powers Industrial How much data? “The whole [storage]

high-speed NAS servers with Light & Magic (ILM), Lucas’ award-win- system holds about 170TB, and we are 90
ning visual arts facility, and the Lucas percent full,” says Thompson.
Arts game-development division. “When In a visual effects-laden film such as
a distributed file system,
we went from San Rafael to the Presidio, Star Wars, nearly every minute of the 140-
we had a 10X increase in network band- minute film included work by ILM. For
10GB/sec Ethernet, and a 5000-
width,” says systems developer Michael the film Jarhead, which is not considered
Thompson. “We knew it would be coming, a visual-effects film, ILM created about
node renderfarm to store and
so we designed a system that could handle 40 minutes of effects. With that in mind,
a massive jump in network throughput.” consider this: ILM currently renders most
move 170TB of content At the new Lucas Digital Arts Center visual-effects shots at around 2K x 2K res-
(LDAC) in the Presidio, a 10GB/sec Ether- olution; however, some productions are
By Barbara Robertson net backbone feeds data into 1GB/sec moving to 4K x 4K resolution. A shot is an
pipes that run to the desktops. About 600 arbitrary number of frames; film is pro-
miles of fiber-optic cable thread through jected at a rate of 24 fps and video at 30
When George Lucas moved a large part of 865,000 sq. ft. of building space; the net- fps. To produce the final shots, compos-
his filmmaking empire from San Rafael, work is designed to accommodate 4K itors combine several layers of rendered
California—a small town north of San images via 300 10GB/sec and 1500 1GB/ elements for each frame. A 100-layer shot
Francisco—into a state-of-the-art, four- sec Ethernet ports. is not unusual; most shots include at least
building complex on 17 acres of parkland A 13,500-sq.-ft. data center houses 20 layers. It took 6,598,928 hours of aggre-
in San Francisco’s Presidio, he spared no the renderfarm, fi le servers, and stor- gate render time to produce the shots in
detail. Lawrence Halprin, the renowned age systems; the data center’s 3000-pro- Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith.
landscape architect, even rearranged cessor (AMD) renderfarm expands to
individual rocks in the babbling brook 5000 processors after-hours by includ- A New Way to Store
that rambles through the campus to ing desktop machines. The IT team began looking for a new stor-
achieve the most pleasing sound. “All these render nodes constantly age system about three years ago when
Similarly, the technical team left no need data,” says Thompson. “At ILM, and Lucas was beginning work on Revenge of
the Sith. They chose SpinServer NAS hard-
ware and the SpinFS distributed file sys-
tem from start-up Spinnaker Software.
“The system had all the attributes we
needed to go forward,” says Thompson.
“We knew we’d have major scaling issues,
and it could scale well. Also, it has good
data management features and a unified
naming space [aka global namespace].”
Yet, shortly after ILM purchased the sys-
tem, Network Appliance bought Spinnaker.
“It was spooky for us,” says Thompson.
“We didn’t know if they would deep-six the
At the new Lucas Digital Arts Center in the Presidio, a 10GB/sec Ethernet backbone feeds technology. But it turned out to be a good
data into 1GB/sec pipes that run to the desktops. The network can accommodate 4K images deal. For the past two and a half years,
via 300 10GB/sec and 1500 1GB/sec Ethernet ports. we’ve been prototyping NetApp’s Data

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4IRED OF FORCING UNSTRUCTURED DATA

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The Leader in Clustered Storage

1-877-2-ISILON | [Link]

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Storage in the Studio

ONTAP NG [Next Generation] software, the studio can organize its file systems was around $50,000 a day for downtime.
which includes the Spinnaker software.” into a tidy hierarchy. Before, people work- It would have cost millions of dollars, and
ILM now uses 20 Linux-based SpinServer ing on shots had to keep track of which that doesn’t take into account delays.”
NAS systems and about 3000 disks from servers had the elements they needed. Now, Thompson is looking at ways
Network Appliance. “In six to nine “Now, it looks like one giant disk, and to implement a similar system between
months, we’ll swap the SpinServers they can keep everything for one movie Singapore, where Lucas has opened an
for Network Appliance hardware, but in one area instead of on 14 different serv- animation studio, and Lucas’ headquar-
ers,” Thompson explains. “And, because ters at Skywalker Ranch north of San
© Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved. Digital work by ILM.

the system spreads the data across the Francisco. He installed 20TB of storage on
servers so that it’s evenly balanced, we Network Appliance hardware running the
can add servers as we need them.” Data ONTAP NG software in each location,
In fact, during the move from San but the problem is WAN latency.
Rafael to San Francisco, the two facilities “Data access over fiber between San
acted as one. “We had people on both Rafael and San Francisco was very
sides of the Golden Gate Bridge access- fast, but when you’re shooting pack-
ing the data and moving it around with- ets to Singapore and introducing milli-
out losing access,” says Thompson. The second delays, the computers start bog-
ILM used SpinServer NAS hardware and
studio leased a fiber-optic cable that ran ging down,” says Thompson. “It’s not
the SpinFS distributed file system from
from San Rafael to Berkeley and then the throughput; it’s the round-trip time.
Spinnaker Software (which was acquired
across the Oakland Bay Bridge to San We’re looking at Network Appliance,
by NetApp) for its work on Star Wars:
Francisco to link the SpinServers in San Hewlett-Packard, and a lot of start-up
Episode III—Revenge of the Sith.
Rafael to those in San Francisco. “All the companies that deal with these WAN
will still run the same software stack,” data still showed up as one virtual disk,” issues for a solution.”
says Thompson. “Our system is a weird says Thompson.
hybrid: It has all the features of a SAN, Because it could run the two facili- Back at the Ranch
but it does NAS as well.” ties as if they were one, ILM could move Meanwhile, back at ILM, Thompson
Linux-based render boxes at ILM talk to people from one location to the other in wants to try playing high-performance,
the disk storage systems via the NFS proto- waves; it was never necessary for any- 600MB/sec HD video off the core stor-
col. Brocade Fibre Channel switches han- one to stop working in order to move. age. Currently, the studio uses custom-
dle data transfer between the SpinServers “Without this system, we would have had designed, dedicated HD video servers.
and two types of disks: high-speed pro- to completely shut down the whole facil- “When you’re streaming uncompressed
duction disks and slower nearline disks ity,” says Thompson. “Our daily burn rate HD video to the desktop, the throughput
used for archiving data before it goes off- is astronomical,” says Thompson. “So we
line to an ADIC Scalar 10K tape library. have homegrown HD servers. There’s a
Couriers deliver final shots to production feature in the new ONTAP NG software,
studios on FireWire drives. though, that we think we can use to
“One of the nice things about our stor- stream HD video to the desktop for the
age system is that it allows you to run the whole facility. Each server would do ½0th
disks very full,” claims Thompson. “The of the load and, when they’re combined,
3000 disks are divvied up into 20 stacks, we could play at warp speed.”
and as they fill up, the data moves from Would that imply more data stor-
one to the next. However, the users can age? “I’ve been doing storage here for
still get to all their data via normal paths. six years, and I’ve found that people will
They don’t know we’re moving data use up whatever you put out there,” says
around behind the scenes.” Thompson. “We’ll probably be buying
more disks this year. At least now, add-
One Giant Disk ing more storage takes only a few hours.”
Because the Spinnaker system has one uni-
fied naming space, all the disk drives look Barbara Robertson is a freelance writer
like one giant disk to the users, whether ILM uses Angstrom Microsystems’ Titan64 and a contributing editor for Computer
the data is on the fast production disks or SuperBlade rendering servers to enable fast Graphics World. She can be reached at
on the slower nearline disks. This means generation of complex visual effects. BarbaraRR@[Link].

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Storage in the Studio

Serial ATA (SATA) disk drives. TerraBlock

C A S E S T U D I E S
capacities range from 2TB to 12TB, with
support listed for up to 24 simultaneous

Storage stokes the users and 16 streams of uncompressed HD

video. PostWorks also uses TerraBlock stor-

creative process
age—along with its own, self-assembled
“nearline” storage systems—as a temporary
holding area for older files.

High-speed data transfers instantly available, shareable, and reus- CASE 2 High-Performance SATA
able from a central storage repository. The proliferation of multiple copies of files
and collaborative content It’s also about producing quality content is a common problem at studios—and
as efficiently as possible. one that used to be experienced by The
sharing top the storage Napoleon Group, a New York City-based
postproduction facility. According to
CASE 1 The Need for Speed director of engineering Maciek J. Maciak,
priorities at DCC facilities
“Anytime your user data becomes central- “The days are long gone when operators
ized and available from more locations, it used to say, ‘You need this file, in this for-
can be worked on in a more cost-effective mat, on this drive? Okay, let me go make
By Michele Hope manner,” says Matthew Schneider, direc- a copy and get it to your machine.’ People
tor of technology at PostWorks, New York, haven’t been calling me about that any-
a film and HD post facility that has been more,” says Maciak.
Change is a constant in today’s studios involved in a variety of independent fea- The Napoleon Group implemented a
as they struggle with crunching dead- ture films and TV shows. central file repository that now acts as
lines, the need to juggle multiple projects “Sooner or later, storage will become the backbone of most of the company’s
at once, and the prospect of overhauling part of the lifeblood that makes it all hap- file storage needs. This backbone is built
their server, storage, and networking pen,” says Schneider. “Whether it’s inter- on a 3.5TB Max-T Sledgehammer NAS sys-
architectures to make way for the grow- esting to you or not, it’s something you’ll tem with SATA drives, from Maximum
ing wave of high-definition (HD) work. be forced to learn how to do. Storage is at Throughput, which stores everything
In our latest look at the state of stor- least half the equation, if not more.” from accounting and front-office docu-
age technology in fast-paced studio PostWorks’s storage infrastructure ments to archives of renders and jobs
environments, we found everything includes a variety of Avid workstations from all of the edit suites.
from “storage-on-the-go” systems used connected to Avid’s Unity shared stor- “We’ll have as many as eight opera-
for real-time editing in the field to elab- age systems via 2GB/sec Celerity Fibre tors accessing either the same footage or
orate enterprise-class storage instal- Channel host bus adapters (HBAs) other footage on the drives simultane-
lations that mirror many Fortune 500 from Atto Technology (which also ously,” says Maciak. “The performance
companies. These high-powered imple- offers high-speed 4GB/sec
mentations can include hundreds of Fibre Channel adapters). Matthew Schneider,
terabytes of data and “tiered-storage” PostWorks’ total Unity stor- PostWorks’ director of
technology, uses 4GB/sec
architectures to help move archival and age capacity exceeds 30TB.
Fibre Channel HBAs from
backup data onto lower-cost storage sys- For storage and play-
Atto in most of the
tems. We also found facilities that use back of high-bandwidth dig-
studio’s Avid workstations.
homegrown virtualization software to ital 2K film mastering files, The HBAs provide the
help users access specific files without PostWorks also uses Facilis 350MB/sec to 400MB/sec of
knowledge of the physical device where Technology’s TerraBlock throughput required for
the file actually resides. 4GB/sec Fibre Channel SAN HD work performed on
Underscoring these storage strate- disk arrays, which are based nearly 30TB of Avid’s Unity
gies is the goal to make work in progress on low-cost, high-capacity storage systems.

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Storage in the Studio

is surprising. Maximum Throughput has

a processor onboard that makes the magic
happen. Without that, it would be impos-
sible to do what we’re doing.” Maximum
Throughput claims an aggregate sustained
throughput of more than 300MB/sec, with
capacities ranging from 2TB to 32TB per array
and support for file systems up to 16TB.
Configuration files for key applica-
tions have been modified to automatically
export to the Max-T system for archiving.
According to Maciak, “Operators know
to look for those types of folders on the Max-
T, so there’s no more ‘share your drive and
I’ll put this on your desktop.’ This just sim-
plifies the whole archiving process.”
Maciak also incorporates 3TB of nearline
Maciek J. Maciak, director of engineering at The Napoleon Group, sits in front of what he
storage that is simply a PC with a RAID stor-
calls the storage backbone at the facility, a 3.5TB Max-T Sledgehammer disk array from
age controller. When a job no longer needs to
Maximum Throughput that’s used for editing and rendering.
be stored on the primary Max-T system, the
job is sent to a “holding” folder used to move files to nearline Channel SAN connections, they went with two Studio Network
storage. “We have a rule that says if the Max-T is 75 percent Solutions iSCSI-based globalSAN X-4 shared storage systems run-
full, dump all the contents of the holding folder to nearline stor- ning on a Gigabit Ethernet network. (iSCSI SANs provide a low-
age. Once the nearline storage gets full, we move it over to tape,” cost alternative to Fibre Channel SANs.) Since the systems are
Maciak explains. based on Ethernet and iSCSI, Fife’s team found it could even do
simple checks of files using a laptop in a different room. By install-
ing SMS client software on the laptop, the group could plug into
CASE 3 Sweet-Sounding iSCSI SANs the SAN from anywhere—even over the Internet.
Sausalito, California-based music editor Malcolm Fife knows
firsthand how much the use of inefficient storage can cost a
project. Fife has performed sound work on movies such as King CASE 4 Eliminating Pipeline Bottlenecks
Kong and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He is also a partner of During peak production for South Park, it’s not uncommon for
Tyrell LLC, which focuses on sound design, music production, the 60-plus animators and editors at Los Angeles-based South
and postproduction editing and mixing. Park Studios to work approximately 100 hours per week.
Fife knows that when the director of a big-budget film According to J.J. Franzen, South Park Studios’ technology
comes to play the latest sound reel and suggests a few changes, supervisor, work begins in earnest a week before the show is
you don’t want to hold up the process trying to move the fi le due to air, with changes often made as late as 12 hours before
from suite to suite to cut a new version. airtime. This timeline requires systems to be available at all
“These are multimillion-dollar timelines. If that change times—a feat put to the test at the start of the ninth season
isn’t handled instantly, you could easily blow thousands of when a network switch failure made it impossible to access
dollars,” says Fife. any work in progress until the problem was solved.
After working with London’s Abbey Road recording studio “We realized then we had to get rid of our older stuff and
on the score for The Lord of the Rings sound tracks, Fife and his remove single points of failure on our network,” Franzen
partners became enamored of the work flow there, which was explains. The studio replaced the main file server—another
based on several Studio Network Solutions A/V SAN Pro Fibre potential point of failure—with Apple’s Xserve RAID servers
Channel storage systems that helped streamline the recording, and a 15TB Apple Xsan storage configuration capable of sup-
editing, and mixing of the music score for The Lord of the Rings: porting the 30MB to 50MB of capacity needed for an average
The Two Towers. (In addition to Abbey Road, A/V SAN Pro disk animated scene, as well as the 150MB to 200MB required for
arrays are used by facilities such as Sony/ATV, Wally’s World, larger scenes. The storage system is also mirrored, and sup-
and Vidfilm/Technicolor.) ports automatic fail-over in case of failure.
Fife and his partners decided to duplicate much of the Abbey In the upgrade process, Franzen also implemented Atempo’s
Road setup in their Sausalito facility. However, instead of Fibre TimeNavigator software, which takes incremental backups four

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Storage in the Studio

times a day. TimeNavigator now provides time-stamped back-

ups of earlier file versions so animators and editors can quickly
access them without having to go through re-rendering.

CASE 5 Titanic Storage

Another studio that knows how to keep the digital pipeline hum-

Image © Disney Enterprises, Inc. and Walden Media, LLC.

ming is Los Angeles-based Rhythm & Hues, an animation and
digital effects studio that became known as the “talking animal
house” for its award-winning work in the film Babe.
Recently, Rhythm & Hues put 650 people to work during
the hard-core production phase of the Disney movie Narnia.
Chief tasks involved the development of animation and under-
lying muscle movements of key characters such as Aslan the
lion, including computer-generated simulations of smoke, fi re,
Rhythm & Hues used three high-speed storage systems from
and the lion’s fur.
BlueArc to handle the renders and nightly processing of up to
According to Rhythm & Hues’ vice president of technology
24TB a day of data during peak production of Narnia.
Mark Brown, this required about 24TB of data to move through the
system each night—a process that was managed through a com- “You can put 256TB on a storage server [which is what each
bination of several high-speed Titan storage systems from BlueArc Titan system can support], but our problem is that we have so
and Rhythm & Hues’ homegrown virtualized file system. The file many processors going at it that we wouldn’t have the bandwidth
system allows data to be replicated in front of the BlueArc disk we need. So we only put 4TB to 6TB behind each Titan head so that
arrays so that bandwidth levels are always maintained. we have the bandwidth to get to the data,” says Brown. BlueArc’s

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Titan storage systems deliver 300MB/sec to 400MB/sec of sus- tion of custom virtualization software that masks the under-
tained throughput for Rhythm & Hues and are capable of scaling lying complexity of the storage systems in use. Storage
from 5GB/sec to 20GB/sec of throughput, according to BlueArc. resources at E! Networks include about 200TB of SATA-based
NAS from Isilon Systems, Network Appliance
NAS servers, and two Fibre Channel SANs
CASE 6 NAS + SAN from DataDirect Networks. Mayzurk says the
What do you do when the clips you produce virtualization capability allows him to remain
might end up on other TV channels and on other vendor-agnostic. “We didn’t want to be tied to
shows, or even on the Internet? According to Jeff a particular vendor or type of technology. We
Mayzurk, senior vice president of technology at want the flexibility to migrate as storage tech-
E! Networks, this means the underlying IT infra- nology improves.”
structure has to allow production teams to be able Isilon’s IQ series of clustered storage sys-
to quickly re-use content as needed, in a variety Jeff Mayzurk, senior vice tems include the OneFS distributed fi le system,
of forms, as soon as it’s produced. president of technology for which scales to 250TB of capacity. The com-
From a storage perspective, this has meant a E! Networks, fuels the pany claims throughput performance of 3GB/
company’s multimedia
“hub-and-spoke” architecture that captures any sec. In addition to standard Gigabit Ethernet
productions with several
film acquired from the field once, and copies it connections, Isilon’s IQ series systems are also
hundred terabytes of
into the network’s central storage repository. This available with higher-speed, lower-latency
networked storage and
material is then distributed to various edge (or custom virtualization
InfiniBand connections.
spoke) locations for their own use, whether on ansoftware. Storage includes
Avid system or Apple’s Final Cut Pro system con- nearly 200TB and 50 nodes of Michele Hope is a freelance writer focusing on trends
nected via a director’s home. Isilon IQ storage systems and advancements in the storage industry. She can
What makes this model work is a combina- based on SATA disk drives. be contacted at mhope@[Link].

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F

3D CHARACTER ANIMATION

Endorphin 2.5
Creating realistic character animation
is easier when models get physical

By Alex Lindsay and Ben Durbin

Motion-capture systems allow for instance, the animation

the acquisition of actual human pattern changes, and the
performances, with all the tim- character will try to keep
ing, body mechanics, and gravity that its balance before falling,
Using Natural Motion’s Endorphin 2.5 motion-synthesis
make for compelling natural motion in doing its best to land in a
software can deliver unpredictable results.
animation. However, there are certain protected position.
types of captures that only the hardiest Combining behaviors
of actors would be willing to tackle: fall- and making subtle changes to the param- acter, and creating a cube to represent the
ing off buildings while being hit with eters in Endorphin can deliver different projectile. We created a cylinder primitive
high-velocity projectiles and landing results from the same source material. to represent the arm of the streetlight, add-
on oil drums, for example. Yet, Natural Objects can be constrained to scene ele- ing a force before hurling it at the actor.
Motion’s Endorphin 2.5 motion-synthesis ments so the characters interact appro- Up to this point, we have the mak-
software was designed for these types of priately within a variety of environments. ings of a standard dynamics simulation,
animation challenges. The software’s available tools make it easy but this is where Endorphin’s behaviors
The Endorphin software includes a to guide the animation’s results with these take control. When the actor is hit by the
specialized set of character animation behavioral tools, instead of having to key- projectile, we added a Writhe behavior to
tools for creating scenes like the one frame the animation. make the character’s arms thrash about.
mentioned above, with the sort of physi- By simply tweaking the behavior Sometime during the middle of the fall,
cal behaviors you would expect from live parameters in Endorphin, you can re- we scheduled a “hands reach and look at”
actors interacting in real-world situations. simulate and review your changes. The command to have the character reach out
It gives you a simple but powerful way to simulation engine is efficient and quick; for the arm of the streetlamp, constrain-
synthesize interactive animation between even on a modestly powered machine, ing the hands to the streetlight to let the
characters and dynamic environments. iterations are possible. digital actor catch the arm. Releasing the
Endorphin’s behavior-based anima- Creating the work flow in Endorphin lamp’s arm and having the character land
tion pipeline has a straightforward inter- begins with the program’s standard biped on its feet was accomplished by applying a
face that can be integrated with other character. Custom characters created in Land and Crouch behavior to the model.
animation packages. Behaviors in the other programs such as Softimage’s XSI We could also transition the char-
program are configurable units of anima- or Autodesk Media and Entertainment’s acter into a motion-captured clip of an
tion, which can be applied to a character Maya, which match the skeletal structure actor standing and looking over its shoul-
for varying lengths of time. A model that and proportions of your destination char- der. Blending from Endorphin’s behavior-
is being driven by a Catch Fall behavior, acter, can also be imported to replace the driven crouch to the motion-captured data
for example, will do its best to turn and standard biped character. is accomplished using a transition event,
break a fall with its hands after being hit We tested the dynamics functional- which blends the simulated environment
by an object. If you precede the Catch ity in the program by setting up a scene with the recorded motion data.
Fall command with a Stumble behavior, with a digital actor positioned on a roof All the scheduling mentioned above
and peering down over the edge. simply requires moving and scaling events
Endorphin 2.5
[Link]
________________

We programmed an object to hit the on the timeline, a process familiar to any-

stats

Price: $9995 character from behind and, as the one who has used a track-based NLE inter-
Minimum System actor fell, arms flailing, it grabbed a face found in a video-editing system or a
Natural Motion

Requirements: Windows 2000/XP,

light pole and dropped to a crouch- multi-track audio-editing solution. Nota-
Intel Pentium Processor or AMD
Athlon 1.7 GHZ ing position on the ground. bly, the simulation above was set up with-
Setting up the initial scene in out keyframing, and entirely new versions
512MB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 2, or Endorphin required setting up a of the animation can be generated with
ATI Radeon 7000 or higher.
plane for the roof, posing the char- subtle tweaks to the behaviors and envi-

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ronmental components of the simulation. tination characters in other packages more decrease the overall dexterity of your char-
The program has an uncomplicated inter- fluid. A rig remapping tool lets data that is acter would allow for a greater range of out-
face, and arranging events on the simple applied to one character be remapped to put, even with the existing behaviors.
track-based timeline is straightforward. The another, even if the skeleton setup differs. Adding constant forces, such as wind,
properties windows expose just enough infor- It would be good to see Natural Motion to the single impulse force would definitely
mation to make tweaks without the process add a more comprehensive set of behaviors broaden the scope of the possible simula-
becoming unmanageable. Overall, the inter- in future versions of Endorphin. Almost all tions. And, finally, it would be nice to see a
face provides what’s needed—nothing more. the existing sets are focused on impact or batch-rendering option that would allow for
Using Endorphin within an existing ani- fall-related reactionary events. And, while a range of simulations to be batch-rendered
mation pipeline is accomplished with the it’s a safe bet that most people using this with the opportunity to vary the parameters
import/export support. Existing scene ele- type of software will have access to a library of the simulation within specified ranges.
ments in OBJ, XSI, and FBX formats can be of motion-captured source material, adding With a clean interface, a strong and grow-
brought into the program for spatial refer- more ambient behaviors would make the ing set of built-in behaviors, and good sup-
ence, and existing animation in the major software program better. Some examples port for standard animation file interchange
formats can also be added to the scene. we would like to see added include turning formats, Endorphin is a powerful addition to
Dynamic Blending allows you to blend to react to sound and ducking or dodging to any character animation pipeline.
between the simulation environment and avoid incoming projectiles.
imported animation sources for more real- Also, incorporating parameters to the Alex Lindsay is the founder of Pixel Corps, a
istic transitions. And, the tools for creating characters that govern their overall coor- guild for content creators of all skill levels.
custom characters in Endorphin 2.5 make dination level would be a welcome addi- Ben Durbin is a motion-capture specialist and
the setup and proportion matching of des- tion. Settings that allow you to increase or research division leader at Pixel Corps.

_____________________________

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INPUT DEVICES

Space Devices
SpacePilot, SpaceBall, and SpaceTraveler:
alternatives to input and manipulation

By Dan Ablan

Years ago, when I first started send your mouse straight

working with computer graphics, to Ebay, but actually they
trackball input devices were the rage. are designed to reduce your
Back then, utilizing a computer mouse keyboard usage, not replace 3dconnexion’s Space line complements a
was for “ordinary” users. However, if you your mouse. person’s mouse, reducing keyboard usage.
were a part of the creative crowd working The Space series of input
with digital images, having a trackball with devices are designed for Windows 2000/ Pilot is highly customizable, allowing you
your desktop PC was commonplace. Today, XP, Linux, and Unix systems; unfortu- to program the buttons any way you like for
trackball devices have given way to five- nately, the units are not available for OS simplifying the way you input and manipu-
button Bluetooth mice and keyboards, as X on the Mac. Beyond that, the installa- late objects. The display on the unit is easy
well as other alternative input devices. tion of the Space devices was straight- to see. It displays what you’ve programmed
Enter 3dconnexion and its series of forward. The first of the devices I tested and the buttons you’ve pressed.
high-end input devices for the creative was the SpacePilot, which currently only But you’re probably still asking your-
professional. Recently, I had a chance to supports Windows 2000/XP. Once the self, what exactly is this thing? I was ask-
test-drive three of its unique input devices: drivers were installed, the SpacePilot ing myself the same question. Perhaps the
the SpacePilot, SpaceBall, and SpaceTrav- started working immediately. (Note that best way to answer it is with a real-world
eler. Admittedly, I’m a fan of Logitech mice these devices were tested on a Sony Vaio scenario. When working in Softimage
(using an MX900 Bluetooth right now), so P4 with 2GB RAM running Windows XP XSI, 3ds Max, or SolidWorks, for exam-
I was anxious to see what the Space prod- Service Pack 2.) Shortly after installing ple, you will need to make tweaks and
ucts offered and how they performed. the drivers and software, a straightfor- adjustments in order to model. Normally,
The best explanation of how these ward tutorial panel appears with a 3D you would accomplish this by rotating
devices fit into your production environ- object and instructions for familiarizing your view, selecting your adjustment tool,
ment is best explained by 3Dconnexion’s you with the SpacePilot and how the unit and adjusting the vertex, edge, or polygon
slogan “two-handed power.” Back in the works. At this point, you are guided to a using the keys on the keyboard.
day, a trackball was programmable and game within the configuration panel, to With the SpacePilot, you literally
acted as an input device and a mouse. help you set up work flow. have one hand on the model to rotate,
The 3Dconnexion devices are developed Within minutes of installing the Space- adjust, or even paint it. The SpacePilot
to work in conjunction with your mouse, Pilot on my machine, I had a clear under- controller rotates, pans, and zooms mod-
not as a replacement, which is what I standing of how it worked, and although I els or animations in several 2D and 3D
originally believed. At first glance, you had only scratched the surface of what the applications, and includes 21 keys that
might think these hip-looking units will device offered, I was hooked. The Space- are labeled for specific functions within
your application. The fi rst six keys are
3d c o n n e x i o n viewable on the unit’s LCD display, but
an unlimited number of function config-
stats

SpacePilot Price: $499

Minimum System Requirements: Windows 2000/XP; Intel Pentium 4/III urations are available. You can control
or AMD Athlon processor-based system; 20MB free disk space; USB 1.1 or 2.0 different modes such as Modeling, Ani-
mation, Parts, Assembly, and so on. One
_______________
[Link]

SpaceBall 5000 Price: $499

very nice feature is that the SpacePilot
Minimum System Requirements: Windows 2000/XP, Unix (SGI, HP,
Sun, and IBM), and Linux (64-bit available) software automatically detects the soft-
3dconnexion

ware programs installed on your system

SpacePilot Price: $199
and automatically configures the con-
Minimum System Requirements:
troller to support those programs.
Windows 2000/XP, Linux; Intel Pentium 4/III or AMD Athlon processor-
based system; 20MB free disk space; USB 1.1 or 2.0 The main knob on SpacePilot is the
motion controller. It has six degrees of

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motion, making it easy to navigate with ing 3D objects in real time, like the Space- faster. A mouse and keyboard combina-
just one hand while editing with your Pilot. The SpaceBall controller is best tion has, by default, been the way model-
mouse in the other hand. To the right of suited for CAD/CAM/CAE, animation, ers and animators have input and manip-
the motion controller is a Fit button, which and game development. ulated 2D and 3D objects for many years.
is great to quickly fit your model to view. The last in the Space series is the However, that way of working can be
The Keyboard Modifiers on the SpacePilot Space Traveler, which supports Windows limiting—the mouse only delivers one
allow your hand to remain on the control- 2000/XP and Linux. I really like this little movement at a time, and the artist has
ler while typing shortcuts. I found the Ctrl, device because of its compact size. It has to continually stop and start the creative
Alt, Esc, and Shift options on the SpacePi- six degrees of motion like the other process to adjust viewports, models, ani-
lot very useful, not realizing how often I 3dconnexion products, and is designed mation, etc. By adding the 3dconnexion
use these functions until I started review- for motion control. Basically, it offers the Space devices to your system configura-
ing the unit. features found on the main knob of the tion, not only can you expect to save a
Another addition the 3dconnexion SpacePilot. However, with the SpaceTrav- great deal of time and frustration, you
Space series is the SpaceBall 5000, which eler, you can easily tuck it in your laptop can expect a work flow boost, too.
supports Windows 2000/XP, Linux, and bag when working remotely. It also offers
Unix. This unit performs similarly to eight illuminated buttons around the Dan Ablan is president of AGA Digital Studios
the SpacePilot, but has 12 programma- base of the knob to give it more program- in Chicago and founder of [Link]. He
ble buttons and no LCD display. It offers mable functionality. is also the author of numerous books, includ-
the same six degrees of motion and func- Digital content creators are always ing The Official Luxology Modo Guide from
tionality of panning, zooming, and rotat- looking for ways to work smarter and Thomson Course Technology.

Log on and you

could win!
Another great reason to visit [Link]

PRIZES! We are giving away great products

right on the website to some lucky winner, and
it might as well be you! To enter the drawing, all
you need to do is log on and sign up. Well pull
[Link]
________________________
the name and ship the prize. Visit today and
you can enter to win SpacePilot courtesy of:

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showcase
Mk Haley | Bostonian | BFA University of Massachusetts | Masa Inakage | MFA California College of the Arts |
MFA Cal State Los Angeles | Technical Advisor, Walt Disney Professor, Keio University Media Design Program,
Imagineering Creative Development, Glendale, California | Kanagawa, Japan | 22-year SIGGRAPH attendee
18-year SIGGRAPH attendee

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IMAGE CREDITS: limosa © 2005 Brian Evans; moo-pong © 2005 Jun Usu, Daisuke Uriu,
________________
Naohito Okude, Keio University Okude Laboratory; 2005.1 © 2005 Kenneth A. Huff

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advertiser phone or web page

advertising sales offices

index to advertisers

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continued from page 40

tent for players, and those players will
chew through that content faster than
Q Are MMOs rising
in popularity?
Based on the success of World
Q Who is the typical
MMO player?
The player types are all over
you predicted.

Why did you suspend

A
of Warcraft (WoW)—5.5 mil-
lion players—the answer is an
unqualified ‘yes.’
A the board, constantly changing
depending on the successful
titles released over a given year.

Q development of Imperator?

A
After E3, we re-evaluated
Imperator, and based on what
we saw, we didn’t believe it was
Q Have the new consoles
affected MMO play?
Not yet. As of now, the con-
Q
How are you attracting
newbie MMO players?
We are constantly trying to
going to be a great game. A good
game, absolutely, but not a great game.
Based on that, we decided it would be bet-
A soles don’t have a lot to offer
the players in terms of MMOs.
The current generation of con-
A
improve the newbie experience
in our game and also expand-
ing the availability of trial ver-
ter to postpone development until a time soles has great technology, and, eventu- sions of the game over the Internet.
when we could turn it into a great game. ally, I see them being a major part of the
Can you

Q
How far along are you
on Warhammer Online:
Q describe the
worlds and

A
Age of Reckoning? imagery we

A
We are right on track with will see in
WAR’s development, and we Warhammer?
will be showing a fully work- It will feature fantastic imagery
ing version of the game at this year’s E3. that has its own unique look
Internal testing has already begun, and it and feel. The game will not look
is looking great. like DAoC, WoW, or EQ, as we
are developing a look that both
Why do you think that fits the Games Workshop aes-

Q title will be successful?

The combination of Games
MMO scene, but to date, there aren’t a
lot of MMO games.
thetic and is attractive to the MMO gamer.

What makes the

A Q
Workshop’s fantastic IP and
Mythic’s proven development Is there enough of a player title so unique?
teams and technology will be
Q base to support new titles? First, there is over 25 years of

A
hard to beat. Well, every time a new game content to draw from. Games
comes out, some people Workshop has created a lot of

Q
Why is Dark Age of
Camelot so successful?
A switch, some people play
multiple games, and some
great IP for us to use in this game.
This IP will help set us apart from our com-
DAoC was the first, and still new people are brought into the mar- petition. As to other features, it wouldn’t

A
is the most, successful game ket. Based on WoW’s success, I think be Warhammer if there wasn’t a major war
that features a system of Realm we have seen the first major expansion going on, and as such, we expect the RvR
versus Realm (RvR) combat, of the user base since EverQuest (EQ) system that we are creating to be the best in
which people have enjoyed playing for came out [in 1999]. the industry. In terms of other features, well,
years. Killing NPCs and solving quests that will be for another day.

Q
can get old fairly quickly, but doing What are MMO players
battle against hundreds of other players, looking for in a game In the future, what do you
that never gets old. that they can’t get from
Q envision for MMOs?

Q
What is the key to creating
a successful MMO?
A console play?
To date, PC MMOs are more
social than console MMOs.
A
Over the next few years, there
will be a continued growth of
the MMO market, lots of new
There are three keys: a fantas- There is an entire world of people in subscription models being

A
tic IP, stable and solid technol- the game to interact with. Also, the PC tried, and as I laid out during a keynote
ogy, and strong player-support MMOs have had better graphics than the address several years ago, a number of
systems. older generation of consoles. high-profile failures in this space.

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backdrop
Interview by executive editor
Karen Moltenbrey
Mark Jacobs is president/CEO and
lead designer at Mythic. His first
Role Model official step into the computer games
industry occurred in the early ‘80s with
Conquering the expansive, complex world of MMORPGs pay-for-play online games. Before
then, he “unofficially” programmed
requires vision, a solid game plan, skill. . . and a bit of luck
games while he was in law school.

Once the domain of techno and hard-core gamers, massively multiplayer online role-play- program, and deploy of any type of game
ing games (MMORPGs) have expanded in recent years to include a wider demographic in the industry. We have all the same con-
than ever before. Identifying this trend early on, Rob Denton and Mark Jacobs formed cerns as a non-MMO developer, with the
what is now Mythic Entertainment in October 1995, to pursue this market. After launch- added complexity of tens
ing a number of online games, Mythic released in 2001 its most successful MMORPG title of thousands of simultaneous users.
to date, Dark Age of Camelot, based on Arthurian, Celtic, and Nordic legends. Since then,

Q
the company has continued to support and expand the game, releasing its sixth Camelot Are there concerns
expansion pack, Darkness Rising, last October. Not resting on its laurels, the developer strictly unique to MMO
is continuing its quest to broaden the MMO horizon with new and compelling content, development?

A
and in 2007, plans to release its next MMORPG, which is based on the Warhammer fan- There are lots of them. First,
tasy world created by Games Workshop, the largest tabletop fantasy and futuristic battle- you have to predict how mil-
games company in the world. lions of people might try to
play your game. If there is a bug some-

Q A
Currently, which MMOs enough modems wired together where in the game, they will find it. If
are you working on? so people could actually play a there is an exploit, they will abuse it. If
We are hard at work on our multiplayer game. there are ways to play the game differ-

A latest MMORPG, Warhammer

Online: Age of Reckoning
(WAR), and we continue to
Q
How has the
process evolved?
ently than the developers expected, they
will discover it. Second, there are huge
issues with the number of people and
add lots of new and exciting stuff to We’ve gone from an era where things that can be on the screen at any
Dark Age of Camelot.
A 32 players online at one time was
a major accomplishment, to one
one time. In a stand-alone game, devel-
opers can control exactly how many

Q
Why did you get where 32,000 concurrent players objects can be within the player’s view
into the MMO game? online is the minimum bar for success. at any one time; you can’t really do that
That’s where I believed the in an MMO. There’s an old MUD rule

A future of gaming was going

to go. I just didn’t think it would
take this long to get there.
Q
What are some of the new
obstacles that you face?
One problem is the ever-
I coined 20 years ago that says that if
there are 100 people in your game, you
can expect at some point that all 100 are

Q
What was your first title?
My first pay-for-play online
A increasing cost of developing a
next-generation MMO, as well
as the ever-increasing expecta-
going to want to go to the same room, at
the same time, and do the exact same
thing, and the game better be able to
game was a 4X sci-fi game tions of the players. handle it. The same is true for MMOs.

A called Galaxy back in 1985,

which was followed by an
ORPG called Aradath.
Q
In what way does MMO
development differ from the
Q
What concerns must you keep
in mind while developing the
approach you would take with content of the game?

Q
Can you recall some of the
biggest obstacles then?
One major obstacle was getting A
a console or multiplayer game?
MMO games are the most
difficult games to design,
A You need to remember that you
can never create enough con-
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CONFERENCE MAY 9-11 EXPOSITION MAY 10-12 L.A. CONVENTION CENTER

Three Days That

Could Change Your Year.
One place. One entire industry waiting for you. One dynamic educational program
WHERE BUSINESS GETS FUN

that will guide you toward the most promising opportunities within the interactive
entertainment industry today. It's the E3 2006 Conference Program.
Industry executives and renowned creative talent will share their knowledge
and views of the future, and supply you with tips and strategies to perfect your
business plans and keep you one step ahead of the competition. Whether you’re
a designer, manager or strategist, there are more than 30 sessions covering a
wide variety of topics specifically designed to meet your needs and interests.
And that’s not all. The exhibit floor is where you will see all the newest computer
and video game products and technologies that the industry has to offer.
Register today for the E3 Conference Program.
2006 Three days that could change your whole year.

REGISTER ONLINE W [Link]

____________________________

E 3 is a trade event and only qualified industry professionals may attend. No one under 18 will be admitted, including infants.
Visit [Link] for registration guidelines.

© Entertainment Software Association 2006

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