:: CGNetworks Feature :: CG Retrospective 2004
Leonard Teo, 23 December 2004
Twelve months can be regarded as a short or a long time depending on how you look at it. One year flies past so quickly, yet so much can happen in such a short span of time. In 2004, the high-end creative computer graphics industry was once again shaped by many events – some of them incredibly significant with ramifications that will affect us in years to come.
With the help of the CGTalk community, we compiled a comprehensive list of CG-related things that happened in 2004. The criteria for selection were that the event or thing that happened in 2004 had to be innovative, landmark or very cool. It could be events, movies, short films, games, products, software or anything that had a profound or memorable effect on the CG industry in 2004. Over 13,000 people viewed the thread and over 130 posted suggestions for the list. Public voting then allowed us to tally the Top 20 things in CG that happened this year. As compiled and voted by the community, here are the Top 20 things that happened in the CG industry in 2004:
Number 20: NVIDIA Gelato
The company formerly known as Exluna, responsible for the RenderMan-compliant renderer Entropy was acquired by NVIDIA in 2002. Following a bitter legal battle with Pixar over patent infringements, Entropy was axed. While Pixar had retained its stronghold on film rendering by muscling out one of its biggest threats to PRMan yet, the minds at Exluna (now known as the NVIDIA Digital Film Group) were hard at work on the next-generation renderer.
Finally released this year, Gelato is a breakthrough renderer that utilizes commodity graphics hardware to accelerate rendering to previously unheard-of speeds. As the power of graphics processors such as NVIDIA's GeForce and Quadro line continue to push the limits of real-time rendering performance and features, Gelato harnesses these advancements to bring rendering to new, dizzying speeds. NVIDIA Digital Film Group
Number 19: Onimusha 3 Opening Cinematic With the games market pushing revenues higher than feature films now, it's inevitable that the ‘glitz' factor be raised to new levels. The Onimusha 3 Opening Cinematic is a fine example, with action directed by Donnie Yen (best known for his work on ‘Blade 2' and ‘Hero') featuring actors Jean Reno (‘La Femme Nikita') and Takeshi Kaneshiro (‘The House of Flying Daggers').
The Onimusha 3 Opening was produced by Japanese studio ROBOT Communications using a blend of live-action sixth-scale miniatures and CG. Characters were primarily motion-captured and all elements brought into 3ds max for integration. In addition to 3ds max, plug-ins used were Shag:Hair, ClothFX, Phoenix Tools, AfterBurn and V-Ray for rendering.
ROBOT Communications won the Best Game Cinematics category at the International 3D Awards. Onimusha 3 Opening Cinematic
Number 18: Luxology Modo
One of the year's most highly-anticipated software releases was Luxology Modo, the new subdivision surface modelling platform. The key strength of Modo is its design as a platform rather than a stand-alone application, allowing it to be customized and integrated into just about any production pipeline. While Modo is still in its infancy, it is already winning favour in many studios for its speed, toolset and workflow.
"Modo allows 3D modellers to create without obstacles," said Brad Peebler, president of Luxology. "By developing modo with the input of many of the world's premier artists, we've come up with a product that is more like an extension of the artist's imagination than a simple tool. Modo simply doesn't get in the way."
Number 17: The Gnomon Workshop – New DVDs The CG training market has been swamped with huge libraries of training DVDs recently as many content developers jump onto the bandwagon. Despite this, few come close to the training material that The Gnomon Workshop continues to produce.
Perhaps the biggest differentiating factor that makes Gnomon DVDs such highly coveted items is the legitimacy of the trainers – practically the biggest names in the film industry. Gnomon's analogue library in 2004 was graced by Yannick Dusseault (‘The Lord of the Rings'), Syd Mead (‘Blade Runner'), Ryan Church (‘Star Wars: Episode II & III'), Feng Zhu (‘Star Wars: Episode III'), Scott Robertson (‘Minority Report') and many others from the inner circles of the film concept design industry.
Finishing off 2004, Gnomon returned to its roots by releasing a pantheon of DVDs for Maya and ZBrush, again featuring the top names in the field such as Meats Meier (‘Hellboy'), Zack Petroc (‘Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow') and Kevin Hudson (‘The Polar Express'). The Gnomon Workshop
Left image: Ryan Church
Number 16: Alias Sold, and Buys Kaydara It's been rumoured for some time that Alias would be sold. To whom, was the big question. Alias made headlines in April by announcing an acquisition plan that would allow the company to be purchased from SGI. Its new owners would be private equity firm Accel-KKR and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. The deal was finalized in June with the sale of Alias going through at USD$57.5 million.
Surprising everyone, however, was the acquisition of Kaydara announced at SIGGRAPH 2004. Best known for its MotionBuilder software and FBX file format, the purchase of Kaydara brought some of the brightest minds in the animation industry into the Alias fold.
“There is a natural fit between Alias and Kaydara's product lines. We share the same vision, strategy and goals as well as a powerhouse of tremendously talented employees,“ says Michel Besner, President of Kaydara. “We are poised to bring even greater value to Alias customers and the overall 3D industry,“ he adds.
