hoosh! 2006 was a year full of new releases, massive
CG movie performances, product surprises, and the
inevitable mergers and takeovers. With the active CGSociety community assisting, we have compiled a comprehensive list of events, films and product upgrades that were related to CG in 2006. The criteria for selection, is that the event had to be innovative, landmark or extremely cool.
We were interested in anything related to the CG industry - software releases, movies, short films, games, products, or anything that had a profound effect on the CG industry this year. Many thousands of people viewed the threads related to the CG Retrospective 2006 and offered suggestions to the items that should be on the list and here we now present the public-voted list of CG-related coolness!
NewTek’s major rewrite of LightWave’s core put a spotlight on the application in July, just in time for the promotion of the reversioning at SIGGRAPH. New features included a node-based materials editor, optically correct cameras, adaptive pixel subdivision, Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces, sub-surface scattering and vast render speed improvements.
A new node based materials system added new shading models to the app., as well as Oren-Nayar, anisotropic, and sub-surface scattering; the greatly improved rendering speed for today's high-demand scenes; and the enhancement of subdivision surfaces in Modeler and Layout, including Adaptive Pixel Subdivision, which helps the user do a variety of new duties for film-quality displacement mapping, normal mapping (including ZBrush support) and level-of-detail control at render time. LightWave now has a comprehensive toolset for matching real camera lenses, an addition that will greatly enhance the ability of visual effects artists to match 3D elements to live footage.
Apple took a hold of Shake 4.1, the first Universal version of its compositing software and shook its price from US$2,999 to US$499 to bring its use further down into the wider production community. Final Cut Studio users have now been able to use Shake for sophisticated 3D compositing, keying, image tracking and stabilization for the price of a plug-in.
So now, the Shake community has the opportunity to learn more about an app used extensively in the high-end of the VFX industry, and this cannot be a bad thing.
| Apple Shake CGTalk Shake thread
The e-on software company of Oregon, announced in July of 2006, the release of Vue 6 Infinite, software for generating natural 3D environments. The software was then previewed at the SIGGRAPH show in Boston in August.
Vue is an advanced solution for generating and animating 3D environments. Clouds, atmospheres and ethereal landscapes will be possible, in either static or animated sequences. Using new animation and integration tools, Vue 6 Infinite integrates easily with other 3D applications. Vue 6 Infinite is based on a redesigned architecture to provide users with an improved workflow. The second generation of the EcoSystem technology is included, which integrates the Spectral Atmosphere model, and the MetaCloud, which is be able to generate clouds for the 3D landscapes.
Microsoft XBox 360
Image: Epic Games ‘Gears of War’
Looking at every game cinematic previewed on CGSociety this past year, there is mention of one platform in every one of them. XBox 360. Microsoft Game Studios and Epic Games Inc. have confirmed that “Gears of War,” for instance, the Xbox 360-exclusive title, has sold more than two million copies worldwide, in the six weeks since its release. This platform has some serious audience out there, and this has paved the way for further game development in the 360 arena.
The number of games being produced right now for this platform, is driving the industry into some very interesting areas. Listen closely to the rumble of studios moving new hardware, desk and chairs together for a very busy 2007.
Chipset-maker AMD announced its intent to acquire the Canadian graphics card company, ATI, for US$5.4 billion in July of 2006. The general consensus is that ATI and AMD were joining forces at a propitious moment in the overall development of the industry.
There were words about ATI’s relationship with Intel and at the same time, some discussion of AMD’s connection with NVIDIA. The timing is also reportedly beneficial for the Nintendo wii, XBox 360 and further development of Windows Vista.
