In November, Softimage revealed the latest version of the flagship animation package, XSI 6. This new build of the animation software brought in new solutions for animators to work with 3D characters and motion capture data.
XSI 6 supports the .NET framework and includes the integrated C# object-oriented programming language popular with next-gen 3D game developers. The pipelines for films and gaming are catered for as well, for TDs familiar with Python. Softimage has also worked closely with its industry partners, and will support the upcoming DirectX 10 hardware that will operate on Microsoft Windows Vista in XSI 6 software.
The highlights of the XSI 6 software includes CROSSWALK, to ease the transfer of assets to and from other 3D software; DELTA, which is a high-end production solution for working with and making changes to 3D models and scene set-ups; the Elastic Reality Warper and Morpher, which brings the ability to morph, distort and reshape images and sequences using the Illusion compositor within XSI 6.
In Disney/Pixar’s ‘Cars’, every detail in the characters, the settings, the props, lighting, shading, textures and animation was beautiful. Everything about this film had the trimmings of a great road-trip. Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Joe Ranft, the autos don’t inhabit a human world; the world is all theirs.
Insects are Volkswagens with wings. Flowers look like Calla lilies, but they’re really taillights. Tractors painted with cow-like patterns moo. Mountains shaped liked tail fins in the Cadillac Range rise from sagebrush-covered plains. High altitude clouds look like tire treads and if you look closely, you might see little car-shaped clouds with puffs of exhaust behind them.
Autodesk 3ds Max 9: 64-bit
Image: F.E.A.R., Courtesy of Monolith Productions
At the huge Autodesk Usergroup meeting in Boston’s SIGGRAPH this year, Marc Petit announced the new version of 3ds Max, together with new versions of their other software.
Autodesk has clearly focused its efforts behind the lifting of core performance of the software, and strengthening the pipeline efficiencies. Designed and optimised for the latest technology 64-bit workstations, 3ds Max 9 has been elevated with core animation and rendering tools developed to assist the artist more than earlier versions. Tighter control of shared files, tracking of project assets and increased pipeline customisation has been delivered to accelerate the creative workflow.
Files generated within 3ds Max 9 in the proprietary file format FBK, will continue to be transferable between different Autodesk products like Maya, Motionbuilder and others, while mental ray 3.5 also adds powerful rendering functionality to the 3ds Max rendering capabilities. Its simplified user interface is perfect for working with global illumination and SSS shaders, as well as a unified indirect lighting model that provides matching results when switching between different radiosity modes.
When Sony released the PlayStation 3, many of my friends and workmates who were normally sedate gentlemen, lost all decorum. The specs of this unit are impressive and Sony’s vested interest for games with Sony movie links. The PS3 features the much-vaunted Cell processor, running at 3.2GHz, giving the whole system two teraflops of overall performance. It sports 256MB XDR of main RAM at 3.2GHz, and 256MB of GDDR VRAM at 700MHz. More than enough, one would think, for the running of lag-free, high-end graphics in gameplay.
At least with this platform, there aren’t as many reports of players throwing the handsets at their screens.
The eleven-minute short film, ‘Elephants Dream’ is created using Blender3D, free 3D software, engineered by Ton Roosendaal in the nineties. During the internet’s heady early days, Roosendaal had to give up on developing the software himself, as the creditors needed more money. Through intense lobbying, the money was there and he could continue but there was a time he thought the entire project would be completely shelved.
Seven months ago, Roosendaal decided he needed to produce a vehicle movie to prove the software’s worth. This was quite the international project, as animators and artists became involved from countries like Finland, the USA, Australia and Germany, as well his native Netherlands. People like Bassam Kurdali, Andreas Goralczyk, Matt Ebb, Bastian Salmela and Lee Salvemini got involved, as well as several others. Ton worked in a small animation studio where the software developer was in constant touch with the artists, building the tools that they needed and continually improving the software as the project went along.
