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June 2007 www.cgw.com
MakingDigital artists create ‘pretend spontaneity’ in the documentary-style animation Surf’s Up
Waves
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Computer
w w w . c g w . c o m JUNE 2007 Computer Graphics World | 1
W O R L D
Departments
Editor’s Note 2Triple the Fun
Summer blockbusters are making their
debut at theaters, and this year, it is
apparent that three’s a charm, as ani-
mators upped the graphics ante in
Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3, and At World’s
End. Yet, others are making a techni-
cal splash as well, including Surf’s Up
and Ratatouille.
Spotlight 4
Products
Apple’s Final Cut Studio 2, Final Cut Server
Eyeon’s Vision, Rotation
Blackmagic’s Intensity Pro, Multi- bridge Eclipse, HDLink Pro
AJA’s FS1, GEN10
User Focus
KONA 3 cards keep the fi lm The Flock on course.
Viewpoint: CG 10Wave Effects
The digital technology that made
waves in Surf’s Up.
Portfolio 38SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater
Products 42
Classifi eds 43
Features
Cover storyRadical, Dude 123D ANIMATION | In one of the most
unusual animated features to hit the
screen, Surf’s Up incorporates a
documentary fi lming style into the
CG medium.
By Barbara Robertson
Wrangling Waves 183D ANIMATION | The visual effects
supervisor on Surf’s Up takes us on an
incredible behind-the-scenes journey
as the fi lm takes shape.
By Rob Bredow
Mind Expansion 20GAMING | A look at the AI tools and
technology that are helping to make
state-of-the-art non-player characters
more intelligent.
By Martin McEachern
Effects Driven 30VFX | A plethora of digital techniques,
including colorful greenscreen work
and a novel CircleVision camera appli-
cation, create drama for the new TV
series Drive.
By Karen Moltenbrey
GPU Computing Uncovered 34TRENDS AND TECHNOLOGY | Under
the microscope: High-performance
computing on the GPU, and what it
means to DCC professionals.
By Alex Herrera
On the cover:Surfi ng penguins and water that becomes
a main character, that’s what’s up in the
unique CG “mockumentary” Surf’s Up
from Sony Pictures Imageworks, pg. 12.
12
June 2007 • Volume 30 • Number 6
» Director Luc Besson discusses his black-and-white fi lm, Angel-A.
» Trends in broadcast design.» Getting the most out of
canned music and sound.See i
t in P
ost
ww
w.p
ostm
agaz
ine.
com
Also see www.cgw.com for computer graphics news, special surveys and reports, and the online gallery.
20
30
34
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KAREN MOLTENBREY : Chief Editorkaren@cgw.com
36 East Nashua RoadWindham, NH 03087
(603) 432-7568
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS:Courtney Howard, Jenny Donelan, Audrey Doyle, Evan Marc Hirsch,
George Maestri, Martin McEachern,Stephen Porter, Barbara Robertson
WILLIAM R. RITTWAGE Publisher
SALESMERLE MODEL : East Coast Sales Manager
mmodel@copcomm.com(781) 255-0625
MARI KOHN : West Coast Sales Managermkohn@copcomm.com
(818) 291-1153
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lisaq@copcomm.com(903) 452-5560
Editorial Office / LA Sales Office:620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale, CA 91204
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PRODUCT IONKATH CUNNINGHAM: Production Director
kcunningham@cgw.com(818) 291-1113
MICHAEL VIGGIANO: Art Director
mviggiano@copcomm.com
CHRIS SALCIDO: Account Representativecsalcido@copprints.com
(818) 291-1144
WILLIAM R. RITTWAGE President and Chief Executive Officer
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editor
’sno
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2 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
As I write this editorial, summer is nearly here—that is, according to the cal-
endar. But if you look at the theater releases, the season has already begun.
Kicking off the 2007 summer movie fest is a trio of “threequals,” whose CG
technology has set new standards in feature films and beyond.
In early May, nearly everyone became ensnared in Spider-Man’s web, as
this number 3 shattered box-office records, raking in a reported $148 million during
its first three days. (As a result, Spidey bested last year’s record debut of $135.6 million
captured by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.) In Spider-Man 3, Peter Parker
grows into his superhero role, and as he struggles to do so, he has to face not only
inner demons, but also more intense villains sporting unique powers that could only
be had through quantum leaps in digital technology (see “Facing the Darkness,” May
2007, pg. 8). A complicated rigging system turns Venom into a creepy, intelligent crea-
ture. Dynamic particle simulation and animation makes The Sandman a huge force to
be reckoned with. And intricate face replacement, matchmoving, and stunt work give
Spider-Man and the villains commanding performances. Overall, the battles are more
intense, the performances more engaging, and the action more realistic.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, another third, hit some rough seas dur-
ing its opening weekend at the box office, failing to surpass the stellar figures for last
year’s Dead Man’s Chest but turning a respectable sum of coinage nevertheless. Last
year, a compelling performance by a CG Davy Jones and his digital mates resulted
in Oscar gold. This year, the VFX crew is hoping to repeat that success by extend-
ing Davy’s performance and that of his cursed pirates (see “All Hands on Deck,” May
2007, pg. 18). Along with more magical mocap moments, simulations proved extreme-
ly seaworthy in the film, especially the fluid sims that result in a CG maelstrom that
becomes an unforgettable battle at sea.
In Shrek the Third (see “Merry Tales,” April 2007, pg. 12), the ogre matures into
a father and a temporary king. Likewise, the CG technology in this fractured fairy
tale matured at the hands of DreamWorks. For instance, consider the cast’s clothing.
The weave in Shrek’s burlap outfit is far more detailed than before, but the crow-
ing achievement is the cloth simulation, which opened up more story possibilities.
In addition, the film’s “hairy tales” boast a new simulation engine that realistically
moves Merlin’s long beard and Rapunzel’s long braids. And when Puss and Donkey
become drenched, their matted, wet fur looks fantastic. Already in production on
Shrek 4, DreamWorks is planning a Shrek 5, which is expected to bring this endear-
ing series to The End.
A new just-released animated feature, Surf’s Up (see “Radical, Dude,” pg. 12), offers
a new spin on penguins, and on CG animation. Last year’s Happy Feet brought song
and dance to the medium, along with an Oscar (see “Happy Feat,” November 2006).
In Surf’s Up, the 3D birds show off their surfing skills, and Sony Pictures Imageworks
introduces a documentary style to the world of CGI, once again extending not only the
technical, but also the storytelling boundaries, of computer graphics.
As we go to press, Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille is poised to hit theaters, and the film is
already creating buzz in family kitchens everywhere. The imagery, created from some
new technical ingredients, is truly unique, and promises to whet theater-goers’ appe-
tites for more of this type of CG delight.
KarenMoltenbreyChief Editor
Triple the Fun
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P O S T P R O D U C T I O N
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4 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
spotlight
With its focus on image-processing
solutions, Eyeon Software announced
the addition of two new products,
Vision and Rotation.
A postproduction system for the
broadcast industry, Vision’s tool set
has been designed as an add-on to
NLEs and postproduction suites, with
fields/frames and PAL/NTSC support.
Extensive motion graphics capabilities
are combined with a scripting engine
to automate repetitive tasks, such as
station packaging and promos. Vision
is resolution-independent, with 64
times the color fidelity of 10-bit video.
Sporting multiple plug-in APIs, Vision
allows for hundreds of extra features
from many third-party manufacturers.
Rotation, meanwhile, complements
the company’s Fusion compositing sys-
tem, providing an all-inclusive package
for the demands of rotoscoping, keying,
and retouching. The integrated script-
ing and bins system make Rotation
part of the collaborative workflow.
Large departmentalized film facili-
ties can use this solution to create roto
mattes, while retouched clean plates
can be funneled to the senior compos-
iting suites for finishing.
Vision and Rotation are shipping
now for $695 and $1495, respectively.
Eyeon Shows Its Vision and More
Apple polished its reputation in the
broadcast realm by rolling out two
major releases, Final Cut Studio 2 and
Final Cut Server.
A significant upgrade, Final Cut
Studio 2 includes Final Cut Pro 6, which
introduces Apple’s ProRes 422 format
for uncompressed HD quality at SD file
sizes, and support for mixed video for-
mats and frame rates in a single time-
line. The suite also includes Motion 3,
featuring an intuitive 3D environment,
paint, and new behaviors; Soundtrack
Pro 2, with a number of new tools for
multi-track editing, surround mix-
ing, and conforming sound to pic-
ture; Compressor 3, delivering batch
encoding for multiple formats with a
single click; and DVD Studio Pro 4.2
for SD and HD DVD authoring. Final
Cut Studio 2 also contains Color, a new
professional color-grading and finish-
ing application for consistent color
and signature looks.
Final Cut Studio 2 is available now
for $1299, or $499 as an upgrade.
In another big announcement,
Apple unveiled Final Cut Server, a
new application that works seam-
lessly with Final Cut Studio 2 to pro-
vide media asset management and
workflow automation for both
postproduction and broadcast
professionals.
A scaleable server app that sup-
ports variable-sized work groups,
Final Cut Server includes a cross-plat-
form client that enables content brows-
ing, review, and approval from within
a studio or over the Internet. The offer-
ing automatically catalogs large collec-
tions of assets and enables searching
across multiple volumes via an intui-
tive user interface.
Final Cut Server, available this
summer, will cost $999 for one server
and 10 client licenses, or $1999 for one
server and unlimited client licenses.
Apple Unveils Final Cut Studio 2, Final Cut Server
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Intensity is the world’s first HDMI capture and playback card for Windows and Mac OS X systems. If you want to go beyond the quality limits of HDV or you need big screen HDMI edit monitoring, then only Intensity will let you upgrade to true Hollywood production quality.
Beyond the Limits of HDV
Working in HDTV is exciting, however, HDV’s heavy compression and limited 1440 x 1080 resolution can cause problems with quality and editing. Intensity eliminates these problems using direct HDMI capture from the camera image sensor, at full 1920 x 1080 HDTV resolution and uncompressed video quality.
Cinema Style HDMI Monitoring
If you’re editing in DV, HDV, uncompressed or JPEG video, you can use Intensity’s HDMI output for incredible digital video monitoring. Now you can use big screen televisions and
video projectors for breathtaking cinema style edit monitoring and experience the true quality of your work.
Multi Camera HD Production Studio
Perform live production with 2 Intensity cards and cameras plugged into your system using the included On-Air software. On-Air sync’s
HDMI cameras, handles monitoring and recording, plus is so easy to use, it’s ideal for education, theater, corporate training and more.
Use your Favorite Software
Intensity is fully integrated with both Adobe Premiere Pro on Windows and Apple Final Cut Pro on Mac OS X, as well as After Effects, Photoshop and many more. Intensity also works in 1080i HD, 720p HD, NTSC and PAL for worldwide compatibility.
Intensity introduces high definition HDMI editing for only $249
Learn more today at www.blackmagic-design.com
Intensity
US$249
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6 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
Blackmagic Unveils Three New Offerings
AJA Launches New ConvertersAJA Video announced two new converters: the FS1, support-
ing virtually any video input or output in HD or SD, and the
GEN10, an SD/HD/AES sync generator for professional video
post and broadcast environments.
The FS1 is a universal HD and SD audio and video frame
synchronizer and converter. With a flexible architecture, the
FS1 can simultaneously support both HD
and SD video—all in full 10-
bit broadcast-quality video
and 24-bit audio. Also, the
FS1 supports virtually any input
or output as analog or digital, HD, or SD. It can up- or
down-convert between SD and HD, provide simultaneous out-
puts of both formats, and support closed-captioning and the
conversion of closed-captioning between SD and HD formats.
FS1 also includes 10-bit HD-to-HD cross-conversion for
1080 and 720 formats. For audio, the FS1 supports eight-chan-
nel AES, balanced analog, or embedded audio with flexibility.
The converter is also network-ready, supporting SNMP moni-
toring and Web-based remote control.
The GEN10 is a flexible solution for synching video and
audio devices across a facility or network. The GEN10 con-
verter features seven outputs, including two groups of inde-
pendently controlled SD/HD sync outputs and one AES-11
output. The SD outputs can be switched between black or
color bars, and HD tri-level sync can be switched between 19
HD formats, including all that are in use today. Moreover, the
AES-11 output can be switched between silence and tone, and
all outputs are in sync with one another and are sourced from
an accurate master time base.
FS1 and GEN10 are expected to ship this month. FS1 car-
ries a price of $3990, while GEN10 costs $390.
Blackmagic Design made a trio of product announcements at
NAB, including Intensity Pro, a new, low-cost yet high-qual-
ity video capture and playback card for professional videog-
raphers; the Multibridge Eclipse editing system; and HDLink
Pro, a new model of the popular HDLink converter.
The Intensity Pro is said to be the first card to combine
the high quality of HDMI capture and playback with the wide
compatibility of analog component, NTSC, PAL, and S-Video,
along with analog audio capture and playback. It enables
users to capture directly from the HD camera’s image sensor,
bypassing the video compression chip for true uncompressed
video quality.
Intensity Pro can be connected to any big-screen televi-
sion or video projector for edit monitoring, since current com-
puters don’t have the processing speed to render complex,
multi-layer, real-time effects in HDV playing back to FireWire
cameras. Included with every Intensity Pro card for real-time
video mixing is On-Air software, which enables customers to
plug two Intensity or Intensity Pro cards into a computer for
two-camera mixing for live video production.
The card is available for $349.
Also at the show, the company unveiled its Multibridge
Eclipse, possibly the first editing system with 3Gb/sec SDI,
HDMI, and analog video capture and playback, 16-channel
audio, and 2K film via SDI resolution capture and playback.
Multibridge Eclipse allows twice the SDI data rate of nor-
mal HD-SDI, while retaining compatibility with normal HD-
SDI and standard-definition SDI equipment. The 3Gb/sec SDI
allows 4:4:4 video using a single BNC-type connection, while
Blackmagic Design’s new 2K via SDI ability enables high-reso-
lution, real-time 2048x1556 feature-film editing. The system
also includes color management via built-in 3D lookup tables.
Multibridge Eclipse will be available in July for $3495.
In addition, the company announced the HDLink Pro, like-
ly the first monitoring solution for DVI and HDMI displays
that features 2K support via 3Gb/sec SDI. A new model of the
HDLink converter that allows low-cost DVI and HDMI dis-
plays to be used for SDI monitoring, HDLink Pro allows any
supported DVI or HDMI display to be used for HD-SDI moni-
toring. Moreover, HDLink Pro supports the new 3Gb/sec SDI
standard for twice the SDI data rate than normal HD-SDI. Ideal
for HD or 2K film monitoring, HDLink Pro switches between
SD, HD, and 2K instantly. HDLink also features a new chassis
with all connections on one side.
Expected to be available in July, HDLink Pro will be priced
at $795.
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Multibridge Pro is the first bi-directional converter that’s also an editing system. Featuring a built-in PCI Express link, you can connect to Windows or Apple Mac systems for the highest quality editing solution.
Connect to any Deck, Camera or Monitor
Multibridge Pro supports standard and high definition 10 bit SDI and analog YUV, as well as NTSC/PAL video in and out. Multibridge Pro also features 4 channels of sample rate converted AES audio and analog stereo XLR audio in and out, combined with two channel RCA audio outputs, great for low cost HiFi monitoring.
Advanced HDMI Monitoring
Multibridge Pro includes built-in HDMI out. Perfect for connecting to the latest big screen televisions and video projectors for incredible digital cinema style edit monitoring.
World’s Highest Quality
Multibridge Pro works natively in 10 bit 4:2:2 and features the industry’s only true 14 bit analog conversion with uncompressed video capture/playback. With uncompressed 10 bit capture and playback, you’ll always retain that pristine film look.
Dual Use – Converter and Capture Card
Get the world’s most amazing editing solution for Apple Final Cut Pro™ and Adobe Premiere Pro™. When not connected via the PCI Express link to your computer, Multibridge Pro also works as a bi-directional video and audio converter. Multibridge Pro is really two products in one, always adapting to your needs.
Multibridge Pro has HD-SDI and analog editing with HDMI monitoring for only $1,595
Learn more today at www.blackmagic-design.com
Multibridge Pro
US$1,595
The Drawn Together images are courtesy of Comedy Partners.
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8 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
In the recently released action/drama The Flock, a vigilant
state agent (Richard Gere)—while training his young female
replacement—must track down a missing girl who the agent
believes is connected to a paroled sex offender he is inves-
tigating. Working against the clock, the pair sort out the
details while tracking the potential
killer. Similarly, those working on the
movie had to work against the clock
while solving difficult issues. To this
end, the group facilitated its unique
2K workflow and digital intermediate
process by using AJA Video’s KONA
3 video capture card.
KONA 3 is AJA’s uncompressed
capture card for SD, HD, Dual Link
HD, and 2K for PCI Express (PCIe) Apple G5 Power Macs
and Mac Pro systems. Supporting any uncompressed SD or
HD format, KONA 3 also captures and plays back uncom-
pressed 10-bit and 8-bit digital video and 24-bit digital
audio. With this flexibility, the card was an integral part
of the film’s Apple Final Cut Pro editing pipeline. Warner
Bros. performed the scanning, color correction, and film-
out for the project.
David Blum of Phoenix-based Catalyst FX served as the
visual effects supervisor on the film, and he recruited George
Rizkallah of the Burbank, California, Product Factory to
develop a customized 2K pipeline that would enable the team
to do a final conform on the feature using Apple’s Final Cut
Pro. The pipeline employed four KONA 3 cards running on
Apple Mac Pro systems with Final Cut Pro on an XSAN net-
work with 26TB of storage. The systems were connected via
2Gb Fibre Channel.
“Because of the way that our visual effects shots were
created—many multi-layer timeline effects on more than
800 shots—the only practical way to complete the film on
time and on budget was to do our final conform in Final
Cut Pro,” says Blum. “The AJA KONA 3 provided the per-
fect solution and performed brilliantly. I could not have fin-
ished this film without the KONA 3 card. The folks at AJA
worked closely with us to ensure that our pipeline was run-
ning smoothly.”
The Flock is the first major feature film finished in 2K,
DPX, 4:4:4 log color space using Final Cut Pro, and both
Blum and Rizkallah credit the success of this workflow to
the card. Because the offline Final Cut Pro sequence was
too complex for all the visual effects and editing to be repli-
cated within the production company’s timetable, Rizkallah
customized a pipeline using Cinema Tools combined with
original software to create pull lists for scanning, and then
set the handles of the scan to match the Media Manager han-
dles set in Final Cut Pro to the KONA 3 2K setting. Using
AJA’s DPX-to-QuickTime Translator, the sequential DPX files
were wrapped as QuickTime files for proofing and rendering,
and then converted back into sequential DPX frames, which
were then delivered to Warner Bros. for color correction on a
FilmLight Baselight system.
“We chose the KONA 3 for several reasons,” says offline
editor and Product Factory owner Rizkallah, who was the DI
supervisor for The Flock. “When you’re doing a 2K conform
in Final Cut, you have huge file sizes and amounts of data
to work from. AJA is the only solution that can handle files
of those sizes. The fact that the KONA 3 can do HD or SD
down-converts from the 2K in real time is a huge timesaver,
as is the fact that you can look at an accurate 2K image on
an HD monitor, especially when the alternative is renting a
very expensive 2K or 4K projector. Most importantly, AJA’s
tech support provides immediate solutions to problems as
they arise.”
Rizkallah points out that the key to the group’s success
was AJA’s DPX Translator. “The fact that AJA technology can
convert DPX to QuickTime is incredibly efficient—QuickTime
can be easily read in Final Cut or just about anything else
that uses QuickTime out there,” he says.
Keeping The Flock Process On Course
Images courtesy B
auer Martinez S
tudios.
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By Matt Hausman
10 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
through collapse, and back to flat again. By offsetting in time the animation of neigh-
boring cross sections of the wave patch, the motion of a tubing wave could be achieved.
The waves were animated in this way entirely by hand without procedural mecha-
nisms and with a great deal of time spent getting the motion to appear to generally obey
a narrow subset of real-world characteristics, such as forward velocity, lateral break
speed, a lip that fell at a speed close to gravity, plausible volume preservation, and cor-
responding surface stretching. For composition and timing purposes, the ability to pre-
visualize dominant wave and surfing features, such as the white-water explosion of the
crashing wave and the wake from a surfboard, was incorporated into the rig as well.
While the function of the wave rig was to provide the gross animation of the surf-
ing waves, it was not designed to provide the small, higher-frequency waves of the
water surface. Inspired in part by Tessendorf ’s work on simulating ocean water, we
developed a Side Effects Houdini- and Pixar RenderMan-based system to simulate
open ocean waves for the overall displaced water surface. The system employed
“wave trains,” simply defined as the sum of continuous wave patterns of varying
period, amplitude, direction, and speed.
By creating sets of Gerstner-style wave trains whose speeds, by default, were
physically based but whose frequency ranges and angles of propagation were hand-
tailored, we chose several water surface “styles.” These ranged from almost dead
calm to stormy and chaotic. The frequencies of the wave trains were segregated
into three ranges: low, medium, and high, each with individual control over ampli-
tude, cuspiness, and speed. Provisions were made for general noise-based and spe-
cific hand-tailored control of areas of amplitude reduction of the wave trains for a
varied and natural look of the ocean surface. The peaks of waves could be deter-
mined and isolated in the shader to create areas of aerated water or to be used as
the source of emission for particle effects. Data, output from the simulation system,
describing the frequency ranges and propagation angles and speeds of the wave
At the onset of development,
the Surf’s Up effects team was
given two main directives in
regard to the water and wave
effects: Make it look 80 percent
real, and make the entire process
capable of producing 20 minutes of final
surfing footage as efficiently as possible.
For anyone who has worked on a
large-scale project such as this, it will
come as no surprise that the latter of
those goals was the one that took the
most work. A couple of months were
required to hammer out the basic
approach and produce a test that, while
crude in comparison to the end prod-
uct, more than adequately proved the
overall technical strate-
gies. It then took well
over a year to iron out
the specifics and craft a
production pipeline that
spanned five depart-
ments: character rig-
ging, layout, animation,
effects, and lighting.
In a collabora-
tive effort between the
effects and character
rigging departments, a
wave rig was developed
in Autodesk’s Maya that
provided the motion of
the surfing waves (see
“Radical, Dude,” pg. 12).
The rig deformed a rect-
angular patch so that
any lateral cross sec-
tion of the patch could
be animated through
the evolution of a two-
dimensional wave shape,
from flat water, to tubing,
Imageworks
chose several
styles for the
water surfaces
in Surf’s Up.
Wave trains such as these were used to add textural detail to the water surface.
Wave Effects
Matt Hausman is an effects animation supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks.
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w w w . c g w . c o m JUNE 2007 Computer Graphics World | 11
trains was input into the water displacement shader for rendering.
Ambient foam—foam created from crashing waves, splashes, surfboard wakes,
and shore break—all were critical components of the look of the Surf’s Up water.
From the start, it was important to create methods for general and specific foam
placement, erasure, dissolution, and animation. Used not only to create a more real-
istic look, different foam patterns and formations were employed to distinguish wave
styles and locations from one another.
Three distinct foam patterns were designed from live-action reference and con-
sultation with the visual development department: a patchy foam used for choppier
water and splashes from rocks and characters; a more elegant graphic style referred
to as “web foam” taken from specific photographic examples and used with calmer
water at the North Beach location; and a convected bubbly foam used with the beach
break system of small waves lapping at the shoreline.
A distinction was made between “standing” foam, foam that was generated with
procedural noise functions in the shader, and “interactive” foam, which was specifi-
cally placed or the result of a specific event like a splash or wake. Interactive foam
used the same noise functions as standing foam but was placed on the water using
point clouds sampled in the reference space of the water, with attributes describ-
ing search radius and density. Once enough points, collected in the reference space,
crossed a density threshold, foam would appear in the additive space of the points’
search radii on the corresponding part of the wave surface. Similar to the methods
of amplitude reduction of the wave trains, areas of foam could be erased or reduced
procedurally with noise fields or specifically with artist-designed maps projected
onto the ocean surface.
Particle Matter
All the spray effects in Surf ’s Up—the white water, lip spray, surfboard sprays, char-
acter splashes, rock splashes, and so forth—were rendered entirely, or in part, as
dense clouds of RiPoints calculated at render time in RenderMan. To accomplish this,
a proximity-based particle instancing scheme, called Cluster, was developed as a
RenderMan DSO. The instancing algorithm produced new points along and around
the vectors between pairs of seed points from sparse particle simulations with many
parameters controlling point size, distribution, density, opacity falloff, and attri-
bute blending. Because the final particle counts required for white water or lip spray
in a given shot would most often exceed the memory limitations of the renderfarm
machines, methods for rendering subsections of the elements had to be developed.
Thus, a scheme for slicing cluster renders into layers based on distance from the cam-
era plane and for managing the compositing of those layers was implemented.
Throughout the show, the cluster DSO was optimized in an attempt to render
as many points as possible and, ultimately, was capable of rendering without slic-
ing nearly 45 million motion-blurred points. For a big Mavericks wave shot in Surf ’s
Up, the combined point count of the white water, lip spray, and foam ball (the white-
water explosion inside the tube) could easily reach 500 million points.
The clustered effects were lit using deep shadows, which were rendered from each
light: typically a key, rim, and fill. The final beauty render of the element was a “util-
ity” pass with equal contributions of the key, rim, and fill lights segregated into the
RGB channels of the image to be balanced and color-corrected into the shot during
compositing. Extra passes for specular glints, particle life, and density variation also
were provided to increase the detail of the element. To save time, especially during
sliced renders, the matting of other objects was handled by rendering deep shadows of
the occluding geometry from the shot camera and sourcing them into the white-water
and spray shaders for opacity variance.
In retrospect, it seems odd that a
computer-generated movie with so
much water in it would have been
made without the use of a fluid solver
at any point in its production. But that
fact underscores the overall method-
ology used by the effects and anima-
tion teams on Surf’s Up, which were
initiated in response to the following
quandary: How to efficiently create a
lot of realistic-looking surfing waves in
a production pipeline whereby the pri-
mary animation of the waves occurs
during layout and key features of the
wave need to be previsualized and
altered during animation.
As more sophisticated ocean-simula-
tion techniques become available, CPUs
become faster, and memory more expan-
sive, future answers to this question may
not rely on any of the strategies outlined
above. However, given the demands
of an animated feature, during which
keeping creative and technical options
open for as long as possible through-
out the pipeline is strongly desired, the
approach of layering linked yet discreet
solutions to the primary wave features
proved highly successful.
Matt Hausman is an effects animation super-
visor at Sony Pictures Imageworks.
Upper: An early test rendering of a pipeline
wave. Lower: An early lighting test show-
ing various shadow-casting techniques.
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It’s all about Cody Maverick, an aspiring surfer,
who is the subject of a surfi ng documen-
tary and the star of Sony Pictures
Animation’s Surf’s Up.
. . . .3D Animation
Images courtesy Sony Pictures Animation.
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the fi rst two commandments would be: “Live in
the moment,” and “Have as good a time as you can.”
So, if you were fi lming a documentary about surfers, even if those surfers were
penguins and not people, you’d want to capture that spontaneity. To do that using
animation, in which every frame is handcrafted and precisely controlled, would
be...well...radical, dude.
Yet, that’s exactly what the directors and producers at Sony Pictures
Animation (SPA) did, thanks to a crew of approximately 250 talented anima-
tors and artists at Sony Pictures Imageworks. And the result is one of the most
unusual animated features ever to hit the screen.
In Sony Pictures’ Surf’s Up, a documentary fi lm crew follows a young
hot-dog surfer named Cody Maverick from Shiverpool, Antarctica, to
the Big Z Memorial Surf Off on Pen Gu Island. It’s the fi rst feature ani-
mation mockumentary. “It was fun to fake that whole style to create
the illusion of reality, the believability of characters, to shoot with a
handheld camera, to even have access to archival footage,” says Ash
Brannon, who directed the fi lm with Chris Buck.
Producer Chris Jenkins sparked the idea. Jenkins, who came to
SPA from Disney Feature Animation where he worked as a visual
effects supervisor and effects animator on Who Framed Roger
Rabbit, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King,
and other fi lms, thought of turning a story about surfi ng penguins
into a Spinal Tap-like documentary.
“This is a new way to tell a story and a way to realize great ani-
mation,” Jenkins says. “We had to create ‘pretend spontaneity.’ We
had to pretend to interview someone who we happened to catch.
But, it was all planned, of course.”
The planned spontaneity in the mockumentary forced changes
through the entire production, from recording sessions to water sim-
ulation. The characters needed to be self-aware. The camera had to be
handheld. The water became a character.
To help give the dialog track the freshness of a real conversation, the
directors recorded actors two or three at a time, something that rarely
happens for animated fi lms. Usually directors record each character’s dia-
log separately.
“Animation is tending to become very shticky,” Jenkins says. “The
characters deliver lines, and there’s almost like music hall pitter-patter to
the timing. We let the actors read the script, and then we threw the script
away and had them put it in their own words.”
For example: During Surf’s Up, the documentary crew making the
fi lm about Cody often captures the Sports Penguin Entertainment Network
(SPEN) crew, which is covering the surfi ng championship event. Real-life
XGames sports announcer and surfer Sal Masekela is SPEN’s sports announcer
in the fi lm, and two of the top surfers in the world—Kelly Slater and Rob
Machado—voice the penguins playing his roving reporters on the beach.
w w w . c g w . c o m JUNE 2007 Computer Graphics World | 13
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into the virtual, animated world. As he
or she moved the camera, the scene in
the virtual world changed. It’s a process
similar to that used for virtual sets. “If
you turn around, you’re turning around
in the virtual world,” says Bredow. “And,
you can zoom in and out.”
Here’s how the “Handicam” system
affected the animation process: First,
layout artists blocked out the approxi-
mate positions for the characters and an
approximate camera move. “Unlike the
usual straight-ahead narratives with spe-
cific beats and actions, we had a wide-
open palette,” says Shaub. “We could cut
loose and animate.”
When the directors approved that
basic performance, the layout artists
filmed the action with the Handicam.
The shots then went back to the anima-
“We did several recording sessions
with them when we could catch them,”
says Buck. “We’d show them footage,
and they would riff on it. They added a
cool sense of believability.” The directors
not only used the improvised dialog, they
caught flubs, microphone hits, coughs,
and so forth, all of which gave the record-
ing an on-the-spot feeling.
When the documentary crew interviews
characters on camera, the directors
wanted to capture that same feeling of
spontaneity.
“These characters are not just deliver-
ing lines to drive a story in a narrative
fashion,” says David Shaub, animation
director, who led a team of approximately
60 animators at the peak of production.
“Rather, they are aware of themselves and
how they might appear on camera. What
a character is saying and what he’s think-
ing (or what he really means) might be
entirely different things.” The documen-
tary camera adds another layer of com-
plexity to the subtext. Some characters
liked being on camera; others didn’t.
But, what appears to be spontaneous
on screen is the result of animators having
crafted the performance down to the last
eye dart. “The difference between a believ-
able performance and one that is over-
played can be as subtle as a bottom eyelid
raised a touch too high,” says Shaub.
Because Shaub wanted animators to
experiment with acting ideas, he asked
for fast, responsive rigs. “From my per-
spective, it was better to animate with a
basic, stripped-down puppet that was
faster than a slower rig with a lot of cool
features,” he says. “It was a complete
joy to animate because we were free to
explore without the technical burdens
typically found in a character rig with
lots of bells and whistles.” Or, as it turns
out, some of the logistical strictures typi-
cal of most animated features.
To create an animated film, typically
the layout department first creates cam-
era moves based on the storyboards.
Then, for the most part, animators per-
form the characters from the camera’s
view. The pre-determined camera moves,
camera angles, pans, zooms, and so forth
rarely change because that would affect
the animation. But to capture the doc-
umentary feel for Surf’s Up, the action
needed to drive the camera and the cam-
era needed to be flexible.
“When we decided we needed a real-
time camera, the challenge was to put
that camera inside Maya,” says Chris
Juen, digital producer. “We did a lot of
development early on to make that work,
but it really sealed the documentary feel-
ing of the movie. It affected everything.”
One of the most obvious changes was
that layout artists controlled the virtual
camera with a real, handheld camera.
“We bought a $250 camera on eBay and
Frankensteined a motion-capture unit
on top,” says Rob Bredow. The motion-
capture unit had six lenses that looked
at flashing infrared markers on the ceil-
ing to track the camera’s position in real
time. The camera operator/layout artist
looked through the camera’s viewfinder
14 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
. . . .3D Animation
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tors. When they finished the animation,
they had the final camera to go with it.
Although at first the crew thought that
inserting the Handicam into the process
might be a bottleneck, it not only pro-
vided the handheld feel they were after, it
became a timesaver.
“I’d say about 85 to 90 percent of the
movie was filmed with the handheld cam-
era,” says James Williams, layout super-
visor. “Because it was relatively easy to
do in terms of setup, and the technology
was robust, we ended up using it even for
static shots. When we’re looking at the
characters, we get the slight movements,
the slight adjustments in frame.”
When they shot from shore, the lay-
out artists used a telephoto lens; when
a character was surfing and the camera
crew was standing in the water, they’d
often use a wide-angle lens. To clear an
area in the middle of their workspace at
Imageworks for filming, the 12 layout art-
ists moved their desks to the edges of the
room. In the center of the ceiling above
them was the grid of infrared lights.
“We jumped, we fell over, we did all the
things a documentary camera crew would
do,” says Williams. When Cody is injured,
the camera crew runs after the characters
transporting him for help. When a pen-
guin throws shells at a cameraman, he
ducks. “By physically placing a camera on
your shoulder, you truly felt present in the
scene for the first time,” Williams adds.
The scene was optimized geometry
that played in Autodesk’s Maya, which
meant that once the layout artists cap-
tured a camera move, it became the vir-
tual camera move for the scene without
needing any translation.
In addition to the documentary crew, the
SPEN television crew also shot footage
during Surf’s Up. For this footage, the lay-
out artists created camera rigs in Maya
that could displace themselves with the
movement of the water, as if the SPEN
crew had attached the cameras to a boat
or surfboard. For helicopter shots, the lay-
out artists translated the camera in Maya
using motion paths, and then used their
Handicam system to simulate the feeling
of a camera crew looking out the window.
The documentary crew cut some of
this footage into their film, as well as that
from little video cameras on the beach
and other cameras. Each of these sources
had a different look, from the high-defi-
nition quality of the SPEN footage to the
footage from yesteryear.
“As you’re watching the documen-
tary [about Cody] being filmed,” says
Williams, “various crews are shooting
the competition as well. And when some-
one is interviewed, you might see archi-
val footage.”
For the archival footage, the effects
artists dragged film prints through the
parking lot, scanned them, comp’d the
scratches into final shots, and added
dust, penguin feathers, and other effects
to “age” the images. Some shots in the
archival film and in the documentary
used cameras with limited depth of field
and imperfections around the lens. “All
the shots are based on real-world surfing
documentaries,” says Bredow, “all the
way down to the lenses.”
John-Paul Beeghly, director of pho-
tography for the surfing documentary
Step into Liquid, offered advice on lenses
and camera speeds. When he invited
Bredow to accompany him on location at
Cortes Bank 100 miles off the Southern
California coast where surfers ride
some of the biggest waves in the world,
Bredow jumped onboard (see “Wrangling
Waves,” pg. 18). He shot reference of surf-
ers unafraid to ride 60-foot waves and, of
course, of the waves. “At that point we
still didn’t know how we were going to
do the waves,” he says.
w w w . c g w . c o m JUNE 2007 Computer Graphics World | 15
3D Animation. . . .
At top, from l. to r.: Imageworks modeled three types of waves with blendshapes, generated particles from the shape, ani-mated the wave using concentric rings, added the surfboard and surfer, and then rendered a final image (above).
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Bredow had helped develop CG water
for dramatic shots in the film Cast Away.
But water in those shots had appeared in
night scenes. Now, he needed to lead a
team that would create believable, surf-
able CG waves for shots in broad daylight.
“There was no room to hide,” he says.
And there was a second problem:
“We needed the waves to know where to
put the characters, the camera needed
to know where the white water was to
frame the characters, and we needed to
know where the character was so we
wouldn’t cause it to disappear in white
water,” Bredow says. “We needed all
three all the time, and it wasn’t clear
which needed to come first.”
Rather than trying to create water
with a fluid simulator, they decided to
model three types of waves using blend-
shapes that an animator or layout artist
working in Maya could use to change the
wave’s action. The idea is similar to using
blendshapes to manipulate a model into
various facial expressions over time (see
“Wave Effects,” pg. 10).
The modelers used reference footage
to create three base models: Mavericks, a
huge, gnarly wave that looked like those
off the coast at Half Moon Bay, California;
Pipeline, a perfect tube wave like those in
Hawaii; and spilling breakers that don’t
have enough power to throw water over
the lip (the part of the wave that curls over
at the top). Then, they animated these
waves to look like the reference footage,
and checked the animation against math-
ematical equations using a virtual speed-
ometer and gravity balls.
A speedometer placed in the mid-
dle of the wave measured how fast the
wave moved forward and broke from
left to right. Gravity balls placed on the
lip and released as the lip reached its
apex measured whether the lip fell at
the correct speed.
“Animators or layout artists could
animate the waves like characters,”
says Bredow. “They could also preview
the effects that go along with the waves
in real time—the white water and the
wake trails from the surfboards. The
wake enabled the camera operator to
frame the shot properly and position the
characters.”
John Clark, the wave animation lead and
a lifetime surfer, helped refine the Maya-
based rig. He also created 22 generic ani-
mations for each of the waves that anima-
tors could use as starting points.
Clark began by modeling the Maver-
icks wave. “Imagine a huge NURBS plane
created by a set of parallel curves,” he says.
“Each one of those curves is responsible
for a certain number of isoparms. The rig
has a series of concentric rings that run
along the surface, and as I rotate those
rings, they drive the curves through their
blendshape stages.” By swapping blend-
shape curves, he could use the same rig
for the three different wave types.
After testing rigs with various num-
bers of rings, Clark settled on 19 for
most of the waves, although a few spe-
cial waves needed 38 rings. By rotating
the rings, he could drive the wave from
flat, to peaking, to breaking, to crash-
ing, to flat again. “By animating one ring
at a time and offsetting that animation,
I created the down, or the line-breaking
action of the wave,” he says.
At the same time, Clark would ani-
mate such attributes as how far the lip
16 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
. . . .3D Animation
At left, the raw edge of the rendered wave becomes realistic when, at right, particle spray is added.
At top, appearing on camera makes some characters uncomfortable. At bottom, to create “archival footage” for the mocku-mentary, the effects crew aged animated sequences in various ways.
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would throw out or curl over, the depth
of the trough, the thickness and thinness
of the lip, the height and width of the
wave, and the roundness of the face. The
squarer the wave, the more powerful it
was. In addition, for helicopter shots, he
could control how much volume of water
was behind the wave, and for all shots,
the amount of digital noise that added
texture to the lip and face.
Clark also blocked out surfing shots
so that the layout department could film
them. “I had detailed storyboards, but
I made some adjustments once I got a
character on the CG wave to re-create the
feel and action they were after,” he says.
“When I had the generic waves set up, I’d
bring characters in and block out shots
really fast. The nice thing about having
the waves and the timing right is that it
dictates what the character and camera
must do. The surfer has to keep with the
lip of the wave. There is a certain amount
of time. And that all dictates what the
camera will do.”
The water dictated what the surfboard
would do. “We constrained the surf-
board to the forward translation of the
wave,” says Shaub. “It was locked to the
surface of the wave, and then we had off-
sets on the board with moveable pivots.
So, we had an infinite number of posi-
tions to pivot on the board. If Cody stands
on the nose hanging six, the board piv-
ots from there. It swings around from the
pivot on the tip.”
To make it possible for the short-legged
birds to run and, more important, surf,
the animated penguins had to have lon-
ger legs than real penguins, and they had
to have knees. “We couldn’t have any-
thing that would be bashed by the surfing
community,” says Shaub, “from the way
they carry the board with its tip down a
little bit, to how they surf on the water.”
Despite having surfing as the theme
for the film, however, much of the action
takes place on the beach and in the jun-
gles on Pen Gu Island.
“People look at this film and go, ‘Wow,
it’s about the water,’” says Lydia Bottegoni,
coproducer. “But there are many impres-
sive effects. The sand moves and inter-
acts with the characters every time they
take a step on the beach. Branches and
bushes and trees move.”
CG supervisor Daniel Kramer wrote
what the group calls the “sandbox” tool,
which worked in Side Effects Software’s
Houdini. “It was a newer incarnation
of the technology we used to put foot-
prints in snow in previous films,” says
Bredow. “The simple simulator in sand-
box allowed the sand to fill in the foot-
steps. Ironically, it was also the core
engine for the wakes.”
Technical director Tom Kluyskens
built a system in Maya and Houdini that
produced little breakers rolling onto shore.
And wave development lead Deborah
Carlson sent waves moving along the sur-
face of the ocean into infinity, whether
the weather was stormy or calm.
The nearly 50 people in the effects
department also created lava, feathered
penguins, and one chicken; they ani-
mated crowds and generated hundreds
of particle simulations. “Everything gen-
erates particles,” says Bredow. “We have
spray coming off the boards, off the lip
of the waves. The average wave shot has
460 million particles. We calculated that
with the number of wave shots in the
film; we generated 48 trillion particles.”
Lighters working in Imageworks’
new proprietary Katana software sent
hundreds of layers to Pixar’s RenderMan
for final renders. “Lighting was a huge,
complicated problem,” Bredow points
out. “The directors wanted the water to
look believable and photorealistic. And,
they wanted to art-direct it.” For photo-
realism, they used raytracing and refrac-
tion. For art direction, they provided
a “zone system,” which controlled the
shading on the waves.
“The water is astonishing,” says Jen-
kins. “You can really feel the waves. I
always knew we had a very special idea.
But, I couldn’t have imagined how phe-
nomenal it would look. There’s a shot of
Cody and Z on the beach. We’re looking
at their backs. The full moon is creating
glitter on the ocean. When they showed
that shot to me, I was kind of overcome. I
was amazed by the quality, the technical
achievement, the mastery of CG, where
we’ve come to now. It’s not the The Little
Mermaid, that’s for sure.”
Barbara Robertson is an award-winning
writer and a contributing editor for Com-
puter Graphics World. She can be reached
at BarbaraRR@comcast.net.
w w w . c g w . c o m JUNE 2007 Computer Graphics World | 17
3D Animation. . . .
Lani, the lifeguard, and Cody share a moment. Their surfboards have moveable pivots so that when they’re surfing, the board follows their movement.
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JP Beeghly: Hey Rob, can you get down to Dana
Point within three hours?
Rob Bredow: Uh, yeah. It moved up?
JP Beeghly: Yup, Sean thinks the swell is coming
early. Jamie Stirling and Carlos Burle are already in
the air from Hawaii. We’re leaving tonight.
Rob Bredow: I’ll grab my camera, and I’ll be on
my way.
The next 48 hours became my fi rsthand intro-
duction to the world of big-wave surfi ng. I tagged
along, invited by award-winning cinematographer
and producer JP Beeghly as his sound guy and grip
on an expedition to Cortes Bank with several profes-
sional surfers. Cortes Bank is a break 100 miles off
the coast of California, created by a giant underwa-
ter mountain that makes the water shallow enough
to create breaking waves with 30- to 60-foot faces
under the right conditions. Sean Collins, who runs
surfl ine.com, is the master at predicting these waves
and had just moved our timetable up by another 30
hours so we wouldn’t miss this swell.
In the summer of 2003, I found myself sitting
in a pitch meeting during the early days of Sony
Pictures Animation. The fi rst pitch was a detailed
series of 10 or more boards full of illustrations fea-
turing a bear and a mule deer, who we all know
today as Boog and Elliot, the stars of Open Season
(see ”Bearing Up,” September 2006). The story
was well under way, and the movie already had
the momentum of a picture going into production.
Almost as an aside, the story artist wandered over
to a single board that contained some of the fi rst
drawings illustrating the next movie in the produc-
tion pipeline. At that point, the story team was still
working out whether the story was ”West Side
Story meets The Endless Summer” or something
else entirely. But one thing was clear: We were
making a movie with waves and surfi ng penguins.
This was the movie that I wanted to be a part of.
After meeting up with everyone on the boat,
the night was spent trying to sleep below deck as
the vessel made its way 100 miles out to sea in
large swells. There was a reporter from New York
who, unfortunately, didn’t take any seasickness
pills...he was literally green.
Sony Pictures Imageworks has a long history of
working with water, and I have been a part of
most of those projects. From early small-scale,
photorealistic water in Stuart Little (1999) to the
full-scale nighttime storm in Cast Away (2000),
Sony Imageworks has been a part of making water
serve the needs of fi lmmakers for years. However,
Surf’s Up was clearly going to raise the bar a few
notches, since it required more than 20 minutes
of tropical waves with surfi ng penguins. Where to
start? We began by collecting reference from every
surfi ng documentary we could fi nd.
I remember waking up in the early morning
because the boat stopped rocking as violently as
it had been. I climbed up to the deck to see the
predawn sky and noticed that we were passing
an island, which shielded the boat from the giant
swells and made the water as smooth as glass. A
couple of minutes later, we left the shelter of the
island, and the boat began its familiar rocking as
we continued toward Cortes Bank.
One fi lm that stood out for me and Ash
Brannon and Chris Buck, the directors of Surf’s Up,
was Step Into Liquid. Because of its outstanding
photography and authentic view of the surfi ng life-
style, we all had fallen in love with the movie and
the surf documentary genre in general. I looked up
some of the people involved in the movie’s creation
and John-Paul (JP) Beeghly, the producer and cine-
matographer, visited Imageworks to give a lecture
to our crew on shooting a surfi ng documentary.
JP and the camera assistant spent the morn-
ing assembling the camera on a special stabiliz-
ing rig on the back of the deck and getting ready
to shoot. The surfers prepped their boards, and
we did a presurf interview with them about their
expectations of surfi ng the legendary Cortes Bank,
a break only a few surfers have ever braved. They
were hoping for the biggest waves of the year. I
remember the moment the captain of the boat
pointed out the window to white water breaking
on the horizon: Our fi rst glimpse of the break in the
middle of the ocean.
We took away several important things from
JP’s lecture and the movies we had been studying to
help us with our goal of making waves which were
detailed enough that the audience would leave the
theater feeling as though they had actually been
out there riding inside the tube themselves. We
knew we needed to handle slow motion naturally
throughout every department, since most spectac-
ular wave shots are photographed at 240 fps. We
needed the camera to go above and below the
surface. We needed to create a wide variety of
waves, and we needed to fi gure out how to push
20 minutes of wave shots through multiple depart-
ments. It was going to require a substantial team
of wave experts.
Our boat was drifting slowly, with engines run-
ning off the left shoulder of the break about 150 to
200 yards away from the white water. Even at that
distance, the waves looked huge. By 11 am, the
18 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
. . . .3D Animation
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surfers were being loaded onto the jet skis that
would be pulling them into the break. With
long lenses we could watch the surfers drop
onto the 40-foot faces of these waves and
disappear behind the swell before we could
see them again getting picked up by the jet
skis. A couple of times a surfer would get
caught in the churn, and it was diffi cult for
the skis to get in to save them between the
closely timed sets. It was pretty amazing.
Fortunately, Surf’s Up was the type of
project that attracted some of the best tal-
ent in the industry. Our CG supervisor in
charge of all the effects animation was Daniel
Kramer, who came from a strong effects back-
ground and led the team in writing tools and driv-
ing the look of the water. Matt Hausman handled
fi rsthand many of the hardest water elements in
the movie Castaway, and returned as one of the
VFX animation supervisors on this fi lm (see “Wave
Effects,” pg. 10). Debbie Carlson joined the team,
having just completed some of the most challeng-
ing sequences in The Polar Express, and imple-
mented much of the water surface and wave shad-
ing issues for our fi lm. We also found our wave
animation lead early in the project’s life: John Clark,
who brought years of actual surfi ng experience to
the crew and, in the end, animated many of the
waves himself.
We fi nished the day eating fresh fi sh that the
crew had caught and reviewing the tape that we
shot. The most popular was the helmet-cam foot-
age of one of the wipeouts during which Carlos was
forced down over and over again as the sets poured
in over him. He hit with such impact that it ripped
apart his backpack that held the waterproof recorder,
but, somehow, he and the equipment both survived.
Everyone had amazing stories to tell.
In the end, we made an animated documen-
tary starring surfi ng penguins and waves. The
waves were keyframed and controlled just like
the rest of the characters in the fi lm, and they
played a starring role. Whether it was the 50-
foot breaks in the sequence during which
Cody gets pummeled by the giant Pen Gu
break (modeled after the Mavericks break off
the shore of California), or the overhead pipe-
line waves that Cody and Geek surf on the
south shore, the movie has the authentic feel
of a surfi ng documentary.
Rob Bredow is a visual effects super-
visor at Sony Pictures Imageworks.
3D Animation. . . .
w w w . c g w . c o m JUNE 2007 Computer Graphics World | 19
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TAKES CENT
The great American author Henry James once posed this ques-
tion: “What is incident but the illustration of character; what is char-
acter but the determination of incident?”
To look for such depth in the actions of the non-player charac-
ters (NPC) currently inhabiting modern video games would be
laughable, to say the least. Often seen walking into walls, stymied
by doors, or falling down readily apparent holes, NPCs have gained
little in gray matter over the years. Indeed, while motion capture has
brought lifelike authenticity to their motion cycles, and soaring polygon
counts and intensive normal mapping have defi ned the pores in their skin and
the weave of their garments, advancements in artifi cial intelligence have not
proceeded apace. Today’s NPCs are, unfortunately, all beauty and no brains.
They’ve been lobotomized, in part, by a lack of processing power available
for pathfi nding—the term used for the technology required to make an NPC react
to his or her situation and move from Point A to Point B. Pathfi nding can be so
taxing on the CPU that the cities and streets of video games—while always store-
lined and well landscaped—are curiously bereft of crowds in that they sometimes
resemble ghost towns. In addition, writing pathfi nding algorithms can be so chal-
lenging that programmers often resort to “cheats” by oversimplifying landscapes,
thoroughly scripting the characters’ actions, or manually positioning pathfi nding
data into the world to direct the NPCs—like blind men with canes—around obsta-
cles or toward hiding places.
Even worse, the developers might limit the NPCs’ interactivity with the envi-
ronment if they cannot, for example, climb stairs or use an elevator. Moreover,
the characters’ physical reactions are confi ned to a fi nite set of canned animation
cycles, which soon grow stale, repetitive, and boring. These crutches not only rob
the NPC of autonomy, but also more importantly, rob the player of the anticipation
of unexpected reactions, a feeling so crucial to fueling suspense in movies, novels,
and other storytelling forms.
Part one of a two-part series.
Ott
o im
ages
co
urt
esy
Soft
imag
e.
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ER STAGE IN NEXT-GENERATION GAMES
As the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 shatter the hardware barri-
ers that have previously handicapped AI, several new technologies
are emerging to capitalize on this newfound power; fi nally, this will
enable NPCs to set their crutches aside and take the fi rst steps toward
moving on their own. And, they will do so in unprecedented numbers,
fi lling the ghost towns of yesteryear’s games with bustling, intelligent
crowds. Thanks to advancements in behavioral AI and real-time, synthe-
sized human movement, NPCs will be capable of reacting and moving on
their own, and have almost infi nite freedom in responding to a situation; they
will even learn from human players, game designers, and from their own mis-
takes, like truly adaptive organisms.
Natural Motion’s Euphoria Of course, implanting a highly developed brain into an NPC would mean lit-
tle without a sophisticated motor control and nervous system to make the char-
acters’ bodies carry out those high-level decisions. Typically, animators would
keyframe or motion-capture cycles for various actions, such as running, falling,
or jumping, and then blend those same animations ad nauseam during gameplay.
Take the example of a baseball player charging home plate and colliding with
the catcher as he receives a throw from the outfi eld. Whether the runner slides
headfi rst or feetfi rst, or tries to swerve around the catcher, the play at the plate
can only unfold through a fi nite set of animations created for each player. The
moment is always “canned” (so much for unexpected reactions). Now, imagine
if every time the runner collided with the catcher, the collision would transpire
according to the characters’ muscular responses, just like in real life. In effect,
every single collision would be different.
Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS) is poised to cut the puppet strings off digi-
tal characters—both in fi lms and now in games. Through Euphoria, the real-time
version of NaturalMotion’s Endorphin software, DMS can assume control over a
By Martin McEachern
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______________________________
character at any time during gameplay and adaptively drive the
character’s movements using AI motion controllers that simu-
late the character’s biomechanics, muscles, motor control, and
nervous system in response to sensory input. As a result, it pro-
duces interactive animations and, more importantly, unique
game moments.
The first title to introduce this technology to the world will be
LucasArts’ tentatively titled Indiana Jones, scheduled for release
in 2008. At E3 2006, onlookers were astounded by a sequence
set in 1939 San Francisco during which Indiana Jones balances
atop a moving trolley car, fending off enemies pursuing him in
jeeps. The enemies drove the jeeps in real time, responding to
the traffic around them; and if the henchmen hanging onto the
vehicle sides sensed an impending crash, they would jump onto
the trolley—not to attack Indy, but to avoid the accident. When
one was thrown into an oncoming truck, not only did the driver
attempt to swerve out of the way, but as the enemy hit the wind-
shield and rolled off the hood, he clung desperately to the grill
before getting pulled under the tires.
Self-preservation dictates these behaviors, not a scripted rou-
tine or predefined animations. Through the use of a physics
engine, Euphoria-enabled characters acquire sensory informa-
tion about the position, direction, and speed of other characters
or objects, and adjust their behavior accordingly. (For Indiana
Jones, LucasArts is using Havok Physics for both collision detec-
tion and rigid-body simulation.)
Astonishingly, many viewers reacted with empathy for char-
acters that seemed to be engaged in an independent pursuit
of their own self-preservation. Judging by this early reaction,
consumer expectation for unique game moments and height-
ened identification with NPCs may force the entire industry to
adopt DMS. Obviously, animators and programmers alike are
nervous about how such technology will affect their futures.
Will it spell the demise of ragdoll, keyframed, or motion-cap-
tured animation?
Rewriting the Rules of Animation
It is the opinion of Haden Blackman, project
lead for Indiana Jones, that traditional rag-
doll animation eventually will become obso-
lete. “Ragdolls typically look like sacks of
flour tied together; characters using Euphoria
behave in far more realistic and natural ways
because they are literally infused with a cen-
tral nervous system that takes into account
the ways in which muscles, nerves, and skel-
eton all interact in a real human body,” he
says. “Ragdolls flop around when knocked
over or thrown; Euphoria-enabled characters
protect their heads, roll with punches, try to
brace themselves when falling, and even try to
regain their balance. You’ll never see a falling
ragdoll character grab for another character or
object in the world, but at LucasArts, we have Euphoria charac-
ters that can perform these types of [self-preserving] behaviors.”
With the Xbox 360 running on three processors and the
PlayStation 3 firing on as many as seven, Torsten Reil, CEO and
co-founder of NaturalMotion, believes that the new generation
of consoles will take their place in gaming history as the birth-
place of intelligent, interactive animation. It’s an inevitable evo-
lution, because, as Reil says, “We finally have the CPU power
and technology to simulate characters, rather than just playing
back animation data. Moreover, it is what gamers want. You
just need to take a look at some of the major gaming forums on
the Web. People want characters that are believable, that act
differently every time. Rendering quality is very high already,
but people are dismayed by the artificial nature of static ani-
mation playback.”
Euphoria comprises two components: an authoring tool
chain for tuning DMS Behaviors (Euphoria:Studio) and a run-
time engine (Euphoria:Core) to execute them during gameplay.
After modeling and rigging a character—in Autodesk’s Maya or
3ds Max, for example—an artist uses Euphoria’s Maya or Max
plug-in to create the Euphoria skeleton based on the full charac-
ter rig. This skeleton also includes collision volumes represent-
ing the character’s mesh.
Using the Euphoria skeleton, an animator—often working
closely with a behavior engineer and AI programmer—deter-
mines and tunes a character’s behavior during a scene. The art-
ist can direct a character to act drunk, look at another character,
attempt to cling to an object or another character, or pursue any
other goal. In essence, an animator works much like a director
directing actors. To trigger the DMS behavior during gameplay,
the game engine sends the current frame of the running ani-
mation to Euphoria:Core, which seeds its skeleton with the in-
game skeleton, and then takes over. The process simply reverses
itself on the handover back to the animation data.
Since Euphoria is skeleton agnostic, it can assume control
NaturalMotion’s Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS) technology uses the processing
power of the computer’s CPU to create character movements in real time that result in
adaptive behaviors like those in the football tackles shown above.
Gaming. . . .
w w w . c g w . c o m JUNE 2007 Computer Graphics World | 23
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___________
over any kind of skeleton created in any modeling software—be
it biped, quadruped, or the more exotically articulated. In fact,
the software does not affect a developer’s existing modeling,
rigging, or animation pipeline, nor does it place a greater bur-
den on the AI programmer. “Your existing rig, including muscle
deformers, weightings, and blendshapes, continues to work as
usual,” adds Reil. In this way, Euphoria can also play canned
animation cycles at the same time as a DMS simulation, so a
simulated action can run simultaneously with facial animation
or lip-syncing, for example.
For armor-clad characters, such as the stormtroopers in
the upcoming next-generation Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
(scheduled for a Spring 2008 release), Euphoria will make
the armor and other accoutrements, such as hats and weap-
ons, interact naturally with the simulation of the body. Though
Euphoria’s focus is currently character simulation, it can also
control vehicles and other rigid objects while interfacing seam-
lessly with all the major physics engines, such as those from
Havok and Ageia.
LucasArts on DMS
So, what will become of the traditional keyframing animator in
this new era? “Keyframed animations and motion capture will
still have a prominent role in game development, and always
will,” says Blackman. “At LucasArts, the size of our anima-
tion teams hasn’t really changed. However, rather than wast-
ing time animating the tenth variation of a punch impact or a
fall, for instance, these animators are able to focus on charac-
ter performances and signature animations such as attacks. So,
we have the best of both worlds: endless variation supplied by
Euphoria, and handcrafted and memorable animations where
they are really needed most.” Blackman asserts that in addi-
tion to handcrafting animations, LucasArts animators will work
closely with engineers to develop Euphoria behaviors, and both
will be able to adjust parameters to achieve the best effect and
most authentic reactions.
Having unlimited interactivity within a game sequence
has triggered a radical mind shift in the way LucasArts now
approaches the creation of game environments. “I think that,
as an entire team, our mentality has shifted towards creating
environments and situations that take advantage of our charac-
ter’s behaviors and capabilities,” says Blackman. “The Euphoria-
enabled characters can do some surprising things, and finding
ways to spotlight these behaviors and interactions is a totally
different—and sometimes challenging—mind-set for design-
ers and engineers. We’re always asking: In this encounter or
area, where are the opportunities to show the player something
they’ve never seen before?”
A huge amount of variation in behavior can result from the
slightest changes in the environment. “A character thrown from
a balcony might try to catch his fall when he hits the ground, but
a character thrown from a balcony over a canopy of trees will
try to grab hold of branches or perhaps shield his face before he
hits the ground,” Blackman notes. Moreover, changing the size,
weight, and build of a character—from fat to skinny, for exam-
ple—will also alter the simulation.
Collaboration across the pipeline
By strengthening the collaborative relationship between char-
acter TDs, animators, AI, and gameplay engineers, Euphoria
is breaking down the compartmentalization of the production
pipeline. This unifying effect extends to the physics team as
well. “Our [behavior] engineers need to be aware of the impact
of physics simulation on the characters and their behaviors.
We all have to collaborate, iterating on the behaviors to ensure
that we get the best payoff for everything the player does,”
says Blackman.
While Indiana Jones 2007 will only feature Euphoria-enabled
humanoids, Blackman says that LucasArts is considering apply-
ing the technology to the creatures, droids, and even vehicles of
forthcoming, next-generation Star Wars games. Another revolu-
tionary technology set to debut on LucasArts’ next-generation
LucasArts is using NaturalMotion’s Euphoria to generate intelligent characters in its upcoming title based on the Indiana Jones film series.
Imag
e cou
rtesy LucasA
rts.
24 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
. . . .Gaming
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___________
titles will be Pixelux’s Digital Molecular Matter (DMM).
A breakthrough in material physics simulation, DMM
enables every substance in the virtual word—be it organic,
inorganic, rigid, or soft—to behave with the properties of its
real-world counterpart. Glass shatters like glass, wood splinters
and breaks like wood, rubber bends like rubber, stone crumbles
like stone, and so forth. Thanks to DMM, even Jabba the Hutt’s
blubberous rolls of fat and the loose wattles of flesh dangling
from the cackling Salacious Crumb will jiggle and jostle with
unprecedented realism.
“We’re truly bringing together two bleeding-edge, simula-
tion-based technologies to make the interactions with charac-
ters and environments much more rewarding, surprising, and
authentic,” notes Blackman. “A stormtrooper thrown at a DMM
wooden beam knows that beam exists and might try to grab
onto it. The DMM beam also knows about the stormtrooper,
which means the weight of the stormtrooper might cause the
beam to splinter and eventually break, resulting in the storm-
trooper losing his grip or falling, at which point he might flail or
attempt to break his fall.”
Havok’s Behavior
While Euphoria is set to imbue next-generation NPCs with neu-
romuscular autonomy, new behavioral tools are enabling ani-
mators to author extremely complex behaviors quickly by
combining huge numbers of animation assets into graphi-
cally created blend trees based on “finite-state machines”
(branches of motion). Two of these middleware solutions
are Havok’s Behavior and NaturalMotion’s Morpheme, and
they’re giving artists control over the transition logic and
blends of their in-game animations—a power previously
reserved for programmers.
With either of these tools, animators can layer anima-
tions for a given situation and evaluate them with a “what
you see is what you get” result. Moreover, NaturalMotion’s
Morpheme can seamlessly integrate with Euphoria to real-
ize an infinitude of emergent behaviors. While Behavior does
not use DMS, it does offer some behavioral controllers, such
as grab, tackle, and climbing, to add emergent performance
to an NPC. To illustrate this capability, imagine a character
standing inside a building just as a missile strikes. As bricks
and rubble rain down, the character can use Havok Physics
to query for information about collidable objects, such as
the proximity and velocity of the debris, and then, using
Behavior, procedurally cover his head, run for cover, duck
under a doorway, or access any number of other “states” to
handle the event.
Moreover, Behavior-driven characters will deflect when
they brush up against a wall or another person. They can
reach out to touch or grab a nearby object, stagger differently
based on the direction from which they are hit, and blend
continuously between a walk, run, and turning without los-
ing traction or requiring a discrete change of state. If they fall,
they can automatically lunge toward a protective position. They
can climb ropes, tackle others, or be tackled themselves—all in
unscripted ways.
“Our goal is to keep creative control in the hands of the artists,
without requiring a lot of custom programming. With Havok
Behavior, artists can immediately pull animation and charac-
ter assets directly from 3ds Max, Maya, or XSI, and combine
them with physics, procedural animation, real-time IK, and
Havok’s Behavior enables artists to control the transition logic and
animation blends in a game.
Gaming. . . .
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________________
even facial animation, to create event-driven character perfor-
mances that react to changes in the game,” says Jeff Yates, vice
president of product management at Havok.
According to Yates, Havok Behaviors comprise “states,” each
representing a specific mode of movement for the character (such
as cover, run, or hide). Within each state, the artist can empower
a character with a wide array of capabilities through the use of
blending trees. Using a collection of built-in and user-written nodes,
artists can blend different motion types while acknowledging the
physical world to alter movements and event-change states.
Blended transitions between the states provide a smooth
bridge for shifting a character seamlessly between different
modes when a key event occurs. “The real backbone of Havok
Behavior is the generalized node processing tree that comprises
each state,” says Yates. “The processing tree for a particular
state is analogous to shader trees in today’s 3D modeling tools,
except that in Havok Behavior, the nodes of the tree are motion
generators, not shader programs.”
Character Behavior
Once animation cycles have been developed for a character,
the animator brings the character into Havok Behavior. Here, a
behavior “container” is filled with related states, each compris-
ing a component of the behavior. Within each state, a blend tree
is built that synthesizes animation for the character, using a
variety of operators, or nodes. While the simplest of these oper-
ators is an animation clip, more complex operators can blend
a variety of clips; at a higher level, they can incorporate phys-
ics, IK, and purely synthetic or procedural operators that per-
form special operations that may sense the environment using
collision detection from Havok Physics. In those, sensory infor-
mation is incorporated into the resulting motion, allowing the
character to reach and grab a nearby object, for instance.
“The process of building the behavior is akin to rigging a
character,” explains Yates. “It is a task that can be allocated to
a single person, like a character TD or a game designer who is
in charge of the ‘logic’ of a particular character’s motion graph.
This does not need to directly involve the animators, but it can.”
To program a character to catch a football, for example, art-
ists use Behavior to create nodes for a character that sense the
environment (through collision detection and raycasting) to
determine when the ball is within reach; the character then
attempts to reach it through an IK end effector. Complex, pro-
cedural interactions between characters, such as tackling, com-
bine balance nodes and keyframe animation with environmen-
tal sensing. When the player senses the other character, Behavior
drives the end effectors of the arms to the proper location, and
then drives to a pose to close the hands around the other player.
Simultaneously, the “tacklee” senses collision events and deter-
mines if they are severe enough to cause a “recoil,” or to warrant
a large-state transition—perhaps to a fully ragdoll-driven state.
At any time, the game’s AI can modify Havok Behaviors by
tapping into the values that control blends, transition times,
animation speeds, ease in/out values, and so forth, based on
the particular circumstances of an event. At critical moments,
just before transitions, the AI can intercept event traffic and
alter the behavior based on more global conditions that perhaps
only the AI knows or understands.
Havok Behavior also fully exploits other physics-based capa-
bilities of the Havok physics engine, including ragdoll simulation
and ragdoll “muscle” or constraint systems, which, together, drive
the pose of the character in controllable ways. A developer can
choose, for example, to transition from an animation-driven state
to a ragdoll node. “This transition equates to the familiar ‘death
by ragdoll’ effect,” says Yates. “But even better, a game developer
may choose to blend the ragdoll death with a [keyframed] ‘death
pose’ or ease it slowly into a ‘getting up’ pose so that the character
is lying in the right position to return to its feet.”
The Havok Behavior tool and SDK both extend and build
upon other Havok products, including Havok Animation and
Havok Physics, all of which target PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo
Wii, making it attractive to developers hoping to produce games
across multiple platforms. “Havok Behavior augments [tradi-
tional animation] tools by harvesting the keyframe animations
they produce, and giving the game creator a tool designed spe-
cifically for an event-driven, run-time world,” says Yates.
Of course, Havok demurs at LucasArts’ grim forecast for the
future of ragdoll animation, which is integral to Havok’s suite of
software. “This is someone’s personal opinion,” counters Yates.
“This seems to imply that Euphoria characters are unique in per-
forming self-preservation behaviors, and that they do it alone.
Euphoria characters are very much dependent on physics and
AI to tell them where they are in the world, and that there is a
threat approaching. Ragdolls are still the basic building blocks
for creating character performance, whether you’re using DMS
or Behavior, or any other tool. Without a stable skeleton with
defined joint constraints and correct mass distribution parame-
NaturalMotion’s new Morpheme, an advanced animation engine
and graphical authoring tool chain, gives animators unprecedented
control over the look of their in-game animations.
. . . .Gaming
26 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
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ters, you have nothing to apply your higher-level behaviors to.”
Indeed, ragdolls have advanced since Havok pioneered them
six years ago. At GDC 2005, Havok demonstrated a new genera-
tion of ragdolls that can be imbued with sophisticated behaviors,
such as ducking to avoid a missile or rolling to protect the body
from blows. These new-gen doll behaviors are created through
blending procedural controllers such as reach IK and physics.
Softimage’s Face Robot
As progressively autonomous characters cultivate greater empa-
thy and identification in the player, the need for advanced, real-
time facial animation systems to express and heighten their
emotions will only increase. For example, in Valve’s Half-Life 2
(see “Larger than Half-Life,” March 2004), the game engine and
AI combined 34 blendshapes non-linearly to make the charac-
ters express a wide range of emotions.
To address this growing need, Softimage Face Robot has
now been updated for real-time use. Face Robot provides art-
ists with tools for creating high-quality facial animations. At the
heart of the system is a proprietary soft-tissue solver (referred
to as the Jellyfish Solver) that procedurally simulates the flesh,
muscles, and bones of the face using motion-captured data or
keyframed poses. It will work with any facial mesh that fol-
lows the flow lines of the face. Once key points on the mesh are
selected, Face Robot automatically determines the underlying
musculature and binds the soft-tissue solver to the skin, then
allows the artist to animate the face and fine-tune its deforma-
tions to achieve the desired look.
With the new game export tool, Face Robot can transfer
the entire performance onto a game-ready version of the face,
which is typically, but not necessarily, lower resolution, by com-
puting an optimal envelope and animating a user-specified set
of bones to closely match the original performance. To capture
the highly detailed wrinkles and furrows that could only be
achieved through a denser model, Face Robot’s game export tool
also generates a series of blendable normal maps and applies
them to the face as the bone-weighted mesh deforms, thus re-
creating all the fine creases found on the high-resolution mesh.
“Face Robot is all about making it much easier for the artist
to create those intensely lifelike facial expressions,” says Gareth
Morgan, senior manager of business development
for Softimage. “So, if you have a dynamic emotion
engine at runtime, and a list of X number of facial
emotional states that you have to create, Face Robot
will help you make those facial states on your mesh
more easily and more quickly.”
Typically, says Morgan, to set up a robust facial ani-
mation system within a game pipeline—a challenge
that game developers must now inevitably confront—
usually takes more than a year’s work. “If you want to
do something with the quality level that next-genera-
tion gamers are going to expect, Face Robot will reduce
to a matter of weeks, even days, that long and complex
process of getting faces set up and into an animation pipeline.”
As Morgan points out, building a facial animation system
from scratch is something that happens at the pre-production
stage, and typically a developer doesn’t get that lead in time to
build an entirely new animation pipeline. “Facial animation is
different and specialized compared to full-body character ani-
mation; what Face Robot offers is an end-to-end solution for that
part of their pipeline, shortening the development cycle and
providing facial animation at a speed and level of realism that
would be otherwise impossible,” he adds.
LucasArts is also recognizing that the need for greater facial
expressivity will only intensify in the wake of advancing AI.
According to LucasArts’ senior engineer Steve Dykes, “We’re
presently working closely with Industrial Light & Magic on
new motion-capture techniques, including facial mocap tech-
niques that will allow our characters to actually act and show
an incredible range of emotions.”
For both the player and the characters, these emotions stem
from the constant thwarting of expectations during gameplay.
Watching a character struggle to cope with such an unyielding
world is what allows the player to root for or against their suc-
cess. But since this struggle has, until now, always been pre-pro-
grammed, video games have been unable to exploit this rooting
mechanism within the player and, hence, unable to unlock the
full emotional potential of the medium.
“Soon gamers will feel like they’re no longer playing a pro-
grammer, but a thinking entity. It puts them in an entirely new
head space,” says Dr. Paul Kruszewski, chief technology officer
at Engenuity, a leader in artificial intelligence solutions. While
experts disagree over the specifics of the impending AI revolu-
tion, one thing is certain: This is the generation that will sow
the seeds of emergent intelligence, seeds that may ultimately
grow to realize Henry James’ ideal in the interactive world.
Next month, Part 2 of this series looks at several AI middleware
tools aimed at improving AI in next-generation games.
Martin McEachern is an award-winning writer and contributing
editor for Computer Graphics World. He can be reached at mar-
tin@globility.com.
Though not a game AI tool per se, Softimage’s Face Robot allows artists to cre-
ate high-quality facial animations for characters that are far more expressive.
. . . .Gaming
28 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
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or the past several years, Zoic
Studios has helped fast-track
movie-quality visual effects on
television by creating stunning imagery
for a number of series, including Battle-
star Galactica, Serenity, Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, Firefl y, CSI: Crime Scene Investi-
gation, and more. Most recently, the
facility found itself behind the wheel in a
new action-fueled Fox Television drama
called Drive.
Drive follows a diverse group of
Americans driving for their lives, or the
lives of a loved one, in a sinister, cross-
country road race. Some of them have
been coerced into joining the race, while
others have sought out the race on their
own amid rumors of a $32 million prize.
To put viewers on the edge of their seats
(and in their seats) during the pilot, Zoic
created a cutting-edge, two-minute open-
ing sequence that employs a range of dig-
ital and photographic techniques.
The segment moves seamlessly from
the open highway and into, around, and
through six cars and a motorcycle, guid-
ing the audience to the leader and the
star of the series, Nathan Fillion, at the
front of the pack. Zoic accomplished
this through a combination of live-action
stunt photography, a 220-degree matching
highway psyclorama, greenscreen stage
work, CG cars, refl ections, and charac-
ters. “Drive required the entire gamut of
visual effects practices to accomplish the
new techniques in the scene,” says Loni
Peristere, creative director and partner at
Zoic. The result is a seamless experience
in race photography as seen through the
eyes of an omniscient camera whose lens
is not bound by physics or structure.
According to Peristere, the dramatic open-
ing sequence was made possible through
extensive previsualization and planning
that required the production and effects
crews to follow a meticulous road map;
that map itemized and scheduled each
step in the lengthy and complex process.
The previz not only considered the tech-
nical limitations of the camera equip-
ment, but also established the technical
requirements of the sequence. The end
result appears to be one layer, although,
in reality, it comprises several thousand
layers. Moreover, it doesn’t appear to
have much technical fl ash; the effect is
almost invisible, save for the fact that the
viewers have this improbable omniscient
view, says Peristere.
The script called for a shot that moved
into the Florida Keys over Highway 1,
then down onto the road where the cam-
era would pass in and out of seven vehi-
cles involved in the race, thus introduc-
ing the cars and the drivers. With this
in mind, Peristere and creative director
Chris Jones met with Robyn Roepstorff,
30 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
. . . .VFX
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a senior previz supervisor who built the
previsualization in Autodesk’s Maya. The
artists at Zoic then brought this layout to
the set, where they used it as a working
template for shooting, giving CG super-
visor Jarrod Davis the ability to make
changes when necessary.
As Peristere explains, he and others
gathered the stunt team and professional
drivers around the monitors to discuss the
layout of the 37 pieces of the puzzle they
would need to make the shot whole. After
they viewed the previz, the group moved
to a long table where Andy Gill, the stunt
coordinator, used Matchbox cars to illus-
trate the shot pieces to the drivers, so
everyone could see the action from the
top down. “From there, we jumped into
the vehicles, rehearsed, and then shot the
pieces,” Peristere says. “The stunt team,
led by Spiro Ratzos, had to hit dangerous,
hard marks at high speeds. Once we had
our take for the performance, we had to
retake the scene using CircleVision (con-
sisting of several independent film plates)
for our psyclorama.”
According to Peristere, this meticu-
lous prep enabled the group to cut the
Zoic Studios created a number of digital
images and effects for the new Fox Televi-
sion drama Drive. What looks real often is
not, as this image series illustrates. Above,
from top to bottom, shows the elements
comprising the final comp (above, right).
w w w . c g w . c o m JUNE 2007 Computer Graphics World | 31
VFX. . . .
Images courtesy Zoic Studios.
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shooting schedule in half, and as a result,
make the action and coverage broader
and better—“key successes for television
production,” he adds.
The sequence, at its core, shows an entire
freeway with several hundred cars, all
incorporated into a continuous two-min-
ute shot. And the layers add up: fore-
ground live action, onstage greenscreen
technocrane match plates, background
CircleVision psycloramas, a live-action
exit, 3D tracking, 3D reflection passes,
3D specular passes, 3D key lighting, a
3D beauty pass, a 3D ground pass, a 3D
tire pass, a secondary 3D traffic pass, and
more. In addition, Zoic had to introduce
11 characters in seven moving vehicles
without a cut.
“It’s two minutes-plus, and the most
challenging part was creating the illusion
of a camera that seems to move freely
up and down the freeway at high speed,
passing in and out of cars as it introduces
the characters,” describes Peristere. “No
equipment or solution alone could make
this happen; it required a concept of ideas
developed by many experienced people.”
While the end result is an invisible
effect that seems simple and unimpressive,
quite the opposite was true. According
to Peristere, the plan initially seemed
improbable from the concept stage. “It
was a creative idea that did not have a
solution that could be applied out of the
box,” he says. “Rather, it required a giant
think tank involving stunts, production,
special effects, and post to even begin to
fathom, and even with all that planning,
we were unsure of its final potential.”
All the driving shots involved digital
compositing and 3D reflections and light-
ing applications. So, everything was, to
some extent, affected digitally, despite
the fact that the imagery originated from
photography. “The actors never went on
the road. We used visual effects to put
them there,” Peristere points out. “We
needed to move freely in and out of the
vehicles, and the CG windscreens and
car interiors at times allowed us to shoot
without limitations.”
Similarly, the car exteriors could
only be used in a limited fashion, so CG
vehicles—modeled in Luxology’s Modo,
animated in Maya, and rendered with
NewTek’s LightWave—often were placed
within the real-world environment
to augment the scenes. According
to Peristere, the CG cars were used
mainly when the practical cars could
not be timed to meet the complex
performance demands.
The most pressing demand was
for a solution that would allow the
camera to move around the free-
way in an apparently omniscient
manner without the usual motion-
control limitations. Moreover,
the team needed to carry the
effect into episodic production,
which can require the work to
come together in literally less
than a week. And key to this
was an internal application
dubbed ZoicEarth, which, in
itself, became a complicated
R&D project, albeit one that
worked well toward Zoic’s
endgame of creating a vir-
tual “drive-through” world.
ZoicEarth is a 2D/3D proprietary imple-
mentation of immersive CircleVision
camera plates that gives the director the
freedom to move the camera in any way
he or she desires. This became ideal for
the show’s backgrounds, as it allowed
the camera to move freely on the stage,
thereby creating an extra level of real-
ism to the shots. However, this process
results in a terminal parallax that can-
not account for near-ground vehicles.
Therefore, those cars had to be computer-
generated or shot on stage. Zoic did both,
depending on the story point.
“The [CircleVision] effect involved
a high level of R&D, and we actually
The camera moves seamlessly among vehicles in the opening sequence. Yet, the actors were never actually on the ride, thanks to VFX.
All the actors were filmed on a greenscreen set (above);
Zoic added background imagery to finish the shots.
32 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
. . . .VFX
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walked down several roads until we
found the best one,” says Peristere. “The
photographic technique we used in the
final was not a sure thing, and we actu-
ally overbuilt the CG assets to protect
ourselves if we failed in the photographic
approach. The big question we had going
in was whether or not the lack of paral-
lax in the near-ground would render the
photographic method unusable; in post
we discovered this wasn’t an issue, as
the nodal point of the CircleVision rig
and its offset were good enough to render
the midground authentically. The near-
ground on the highway wasn’t an issue
here, and when it became one later, we
used CG. That is why the motorcycle was
built in CG.”
The series of shots, just like every
driving shot in the show, was a com-
posite; the actors never left the sound
stage. The CircleVision camera system
uses up to nine motion-picture cam-
eras to capture a 360-degree picture in
motion and in sync. The resulting plates
were then stitched together and rendered
out for the ZoicEarth application, which
involved the application of a 3D track and
the subsequent rendering of 3D passes
that later were used not only as
background imagery but also as
a lighting and reflection kit in 3D
for placing on the road the vehi-
cles that were shot on stage.
Zoic then used the lighting
chart gathered on location to light
the greenscreen set. Working in
Adobe’s After Effects, Apple’s Shake,
and Autodesk’s Combustion, the com-
positors prepped the plates, added the
backgrounds, and color-corrected
the imagery, then handed them off
to Steve Meyer, composite supervisor,
who brought all the big pieces together
in an Autodesk Flame system.
“One of the cool things about doing so
much photography for this [sequence] was
the quick comp. On stage it looked good,
but the comp had mismatched lighting
and reflections that could not come from
any other place besides a digital applica-
tion applied by an artist with a good eye,”
says Peristere. In the end, Meyer, along
with Nate Overstrom, brought these ele-
ments together using 3D renders of CG
vehicles provided by Davis.
In all, this VFX trip took a 16-person
team at Zoic nearly six weeks to com-
plete. Along the way, they
encountered new sites—
requiring the formation
of the ZoicEarth applica-
tion, which is now part of
the facility’s tool set. Says
Peristere: “It’s one killer
tool, but it wasn’t easy to
set up.”
And Zoic is continu-
ing its journey on this
series. Drive features
locations all over the
country, but production
will never leave the city
of Los Angeles. The exte-
rior driving sequences, which take the
audience from location to location, will
be photographed on a greenscreen stage,
while the location-based exteriors will be
shot by a second unit and combined in
post. In all, Drive will feature more than
120 greenscreen composites per episode,
transporting the viewer and the cast all
over the US and beyond, and Zoic will be
navigating that work, in addition to con-
tributing a number of 3D set extensions.
So, how is the effects work for Drive
helping Zoic push the state of the art
on television yet again? According to
Peristere, the work has opened up the
creative aspect somewhat. “The stage
production of location work is not only
economical but practical. We can shoot
14 pages a day without worrying about
tow rigs and wild walls,” he says. “This
is efficient and exciting.”
Furthermore, the composited world
opens up production value, allowing the
crew to travel to exotic locations—or just
down the street—without the myriad
of complications that come along with
taking the first unit there. “It is really a
beginning for a tool and a process that
will evolve and give us a great deal for
less,” says Peristere. “The realism of the
work also gives production new answers
to problems that they may have written
themselves out of before. Now they can
keep the idea in the show because we can
give it to them without breaking the bank
or the schedule.”
As Zoic proved, anything can happen
on a road trip.
Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor for
Computer Graphics World.
On set, Zoic used its proprietary ZoicEarth,
which gave the director the freedom to
move the camera without limitation, result-
ing in a virtual drive-through world.
The vehicles do not have windows, allowing for the camera to
freely move in and out of the car interiors.
w w w . c g w . c o m JUNE 2007 Computer Graphics World | 33
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. . . .Trends and Technology
34 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
It’s offi cial. GPUs are not just about
graphics any longer. With the release
of its latest generation G80 chip and
accompanying CUDA driver, Nvidia’s
GPUs are now equal-opportunity,
fl oating-point compute engines aimed
at a wide variety of uses. Make no mis-
take: The company isn’t backing off 3D
graphics, and the G80 promises to push
both throughput and render effects to
the next level. But now the company has
another angle to push its chips: high-per-
formance, general-purpose computation
for demanding, fl oating-point intensive
applications in a new category called
GPU Computing.
The GPU Grows Up
Once upon a time, hardwired graph-
ics accelerators ruled the graphics world.
Limited to the subset of features that hard-
ware designers chose to implement, a per-
son could turn a rendering function on or
off, albeit with very limited control on how
it rendered. The user might have Z-buff-
ered triangles with Gouraud shading and
depth-cued vectors, but not much more.
And as far as using the accelerator for any-
thing other than rendering, forget it.
During the past fi ve years, that has all
changed, and in a big way. The year 2001
marked the advent of the programmable
graphics shader with Nvidia’s GeForce3.
Hardwired vertex transform/lighting and
pixel engines gave way to ISV program-
mable shader units. Primitive in their
fi rst incarnations, these units today have
evolved to deliver massive amounts of
fl oating-point power—power made avail-
able to the programmer through high-
level shader languages.
With successive generations of shader-
based GPUs, vendors and analysts alike
began pointing out that GPUs had not
only achieved parity with most CPUs
in terms of complexity, but in a cou-
ple of important aspects they reigned
supreme. GPUs trounce CPUs on matrix
fl oating-point mathematics and tend to
be coupled with a huge amount of band-
width for streaming applications. And
the growth in that raw horsepower, bet-
ter exported to the application via pro-
grammable shader architectures, had
not gone unnoticed in technical and sci-
entifi c communities.
A grassroots campaign has since
grown from a few factions of the sci-
entifi c communities and become more
organized, looking for ways to harness
all those FLOPS for general-purpose com-
puting. The idea of high-performance
computing (HPC) on GPUs was born.
But hopeful users soon found more
than a few issues in porting their code
and algorithms to GPUs, all of which
stemmed from the basic principle that
GPUs were built specifi cally for graphics
and CPUs were not.
These included the idea that: the GPU
outputs colors (or Z) into a quad/trian-
gle region; there was no memory man-
agement on the GPU; no communica-
tion existed between stream processing
stages (everything in and out of mem-
ory); there was no scatter support, load,
or store functions; the primary GPU data
type was a stream, whereas the CPU was
a word (32 bit); graphics languages were
very different and more diffi cult to pro-
gram; and GPUs were limited in instruc-
tions, all geared to rendering.
Most notably, the programmer had to
think—and structure instructions and
data—in terms of geometry and pixels.
The GPU operated on a stream of verti-
ces and output colors (and Zs) restricted
to memory regions defi ned as triangles
or quads. Also, there was no support for
scattering data—that is, writing data to
some location based on an index—and
awkward, incomplete support for gather-
ing data. Data was output strictly as pixel
colors scanned into a quad or triangle.
Feeding the GPU often meant organiz-
ing input data as textures, and that was
something only the pixel shader could do,
not the vertex shader.
All in all, this was not a pretty sight
for programmers accustomed to CPUs.
Advocates of HPC on the GPU loved the
processing power, but to program, they
needed to see more of a typical comput-
ing model rather than a typical render-
ing model.
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Trends and Technology. . . .
A Step Forward for HPC
Nvidia and ATI were surely intrigued by
the possibilities of HPC on the GPU. Both
would welcome the prospects of fi nd-
ing new pockets in the market to gener-
ate more volume. But one problem was
that the early vocal GPU adopters weren’t
promising much volume, but, rather, were
presenting traditional HPC opportunities,
such as scientifi c computing, geosciences,
and non-polygonal graphics like fi nal-
frame or volume rendering. Nvidia, for
one, generates remarkable revenue-ply-
ing niches in the professional ranks, but
does so primarily with the same silicon
designed for the consumer/gaming ranks.
Making incremental changes to a complex
chip in order to serve new markets is a
powerful proposition for any vendor.
In 2005, the HPC community got some
help for free, thanks to Nvidia’s G70 GPU
and Microsoft’s DirectX 9c API. There
was nothing in DX 9c specifi cally for
HPC, but advancements built for graphics
helped nonetheless. Single-precision (32-
bit) fl oating-point throughout, dynamic
branching, larger code sizes, and vertex
textures eased some of the programming
issues. Vertex texture support—the read-
ing of indexed texture data into the vertex
shader—in particular, helped address the
lack of gather support.
With the G70 and DirectX 9c, the pro-
grammer had a reasonable, though still
far from simple, solution—streaming
data in from video memory, through a
shader, and then back out to memory.
Even with the help of the G70 and DX
9c, the technology was still limited to a
select few. These were typically academics
who were desperate to fi nd some reason-
ably priced, capable hardware solution to
work their hugely compute-intensive prob-
lems, but who also possessed deep insight
into the 3D graphics pipeline. In order to
tap into all those FLOPS, a person faced
the daunting task of tearing apart the
algorithm and data and then effectively
repackaging it as a stream-based graphics
rendering operation.
The As, Bs, and Cs
of GPU Computing
Recently, the industry got a look at the fi rst
fruits of Nvidia’s labor. As part of the roll-
out of its latest G80 GPU, Nvidia unveiled the
category of GPU Computing, the company’s
fi rst comprehensive answer to the demands
of HPC on the GPU. GPU Computing cov-
ers both hardware solutions specifi cally tai-
lored to the needs of the HPC market and
software, in the form of CUDA, or Compute
Unifi ed Device Architecture, a C compiler
and standards libraries that provides a com-
pletely new programming environment for
GPUs—one designed and optimized for gen-
eral-purpose data parallel computing.
Nvidia opened up GPU Computing in
conjunction with the launch of the G80,
the code name of the GeForce 8 series,
High-performance
computing on the GPU:
Where it has come from,
where it is going, and
why CPUs wil l never
be the same again
By Alex Herrera
GPU Computing Uncovered
With the release of Nvidia’s CUDA,
users are able to accomplish
high-performance computation
for fl oating point-intensive
applications. Here, an
artist can see quick results
while manipulating a
complex model.
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. . . .Trends and Technology
36 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
with a couple of key pieces of the planned environment—the
debugger and profi ler, and double-precision accuracy—follow-
ing later. The GPU Computing model exploited the G80’s unifi ed
shader architecture, where shader resources are not built specifi c
to vertices or triangles and can be more effi ciently allocated to
whichever processing threads are active and demand attention.
Most notably, CUDA provides: a dedicated, general-purpose
computing model, standard C language, load/store support, and
a more complete instruction set. The parallel data cache elimi-
nates the need to make multiple passes to memory, and concurrent
threads can share data. Specifi cally, with CUDA, GPU Computing
programmers get their own dedicated computing model. The driv-
ers and models can run concurrently, in two separate contexts,
allowing developers to, for example, calculate physics in the CUDA
context and send results off to a graphics (DirectX) context.
Running multiple threads on unifi ed, general-purpose
shaders, CUDA eliminates the awkwardness of mapping algo-
rithms and code-to-triangle rasterizers and graphics shad-
ers. Programmers can thankfully forget about vertices, trian-
gles, and pixels, and stick with a model that better mimics what
they’re used to. Textures are still available (for free, as they
have to be there for graphics), and are something an image fi l-
tering application might use, for example.
The programming language is standard C, and in the
CUDA model, programmers call a function, specifying how
many threads to run. The G80’s Massively Multi-Threaded
Architecture manages hundreds of threads, allocated across the
chip’s 128 shader units (each running at 1.35 GHz).
The G80 implements a parallel, software-managed cache,
which CUDA uses as a central repository to store and share data
among shader units and the threads running on those units.
With the cache and thread manager, threads can share data and
pass along output directly to other threads and shader units,
thereby resolving another of the oft-quoted complaints of GPU
Computing programmers.
Nvidia is working with ISV partners to optimize code to best
exploit CUDA and the GPU Computing engine.
With the new capability, Nvidia promises big bumps in
throughput. Beyond easing the programming burden,
Nvidia’s GPU Computing technology promises bigger
boosts in computation throughput. Holding up a host
of test cases from applications in weather, oil/gas
exploration, medical imaging, simulations, and, of
course, physics, Nvidia is touting some spectacular
numbers, as compared to Intel’s recent Core 2 Duo
CPU (at 2.66 GHz).
There is no clear way of commenting on Nvidia’s
specifi c sped-up numbers, but we don’t have trou-
ble believing they’re substantial. Schmid & Partner
Engineering AG, which, along with Acceleware, is working with
researchers at Boston Scientifi c to investigate the impact of mod-
ern design parameters on implantable medical devices, such as
pacemakers, when exposed to electronic magnetic fi elds. Nik
Chavannes, director of software at Schmid & Partner Engineering,
states: “Running electromagnetic simulations using Nvidia hard-
ware empowers faster processing times by factors of 25 or more,
enabling the analysis and optimization of medical products apply-
ing a level of complexity that nobody dreamed of, even two years
ago. Nvidia’s and Acceleware’s solutions have opened completely
new worlds for Computational Electromagnetics.” Listen closely,
and you’ll probably hear more cheering from all those HPC users
anxious and ready to put that boatload of G80 FLOPS to work.
Changing Tide
Nvidia—not to mention AMD/ATI and, most likely, Intel—are pav-
ing the way for dramatic changes in the computer architecture. Any
vendor is going to claim that its new technology will change the
industry; that’s just marketing. But when can you tell that a vendor
is really serious about such claims? When it puts its money where
its mouth is, and Nvidia’s done just that with GPU Computing.
Adding cost, schedule, and risk to a GPU is a serious commit-
ment, but that’s what Nvidia did. And it plans to continue doing
so, tipping its hat about double-precision fl oating-point operations
in some next-generation GPUs later this year. Double-precision
fl oating point today has virtually no applications in graphics ren-
dering, so it would have to justify itself based exclusively on GPU
Computing. Yep, Nvidia is bullish on the notion of GPU Computing,
and it’s willing to take on signifi cant risk to make it work.
What’s pushing them? Maybe it was that promise of sub-
stantial incremental volume for GPUs running as processors
for high-performance computing markets. Or maybe Nvidia
was taking the “build it and they will come” approach, count-
ing on creative developers to come up with new killer applica-
tions that can take advantage of an HPC-optimized GPU solu-
tion. Or maybe it was something else.
Nvidia’s GPU Computing technology allows for far greater
computational throughput, making it ideal in the medical
realm, where users regularly interact with very dense imagery.
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Trends and Technology. . . .
w w w . c g w . c o m JUNE 2007 Computer Graphics World | 37
In this industry, if you’re a vendor of peripheral chips, you’re
constantly looking over your shoulder for the relentless threat of
obsolescence by integration. Remember discrete chips for audio,
telephony, and networking? Gone.
Looking to the Future
Integration has taken a toll on those vendors making a living
off graphics already. Remember, it’s Intel that sells more graph-
ics hardware than anyone, integrating controllers in its north
bridge. Arguably, gaming is the only reason that graphics inte-
grated in memory controllers have not relegated both ATI and
Nvidia to niche roles. GPUs are continually under pressure to
justify themselves as discrete components.
One sure way to ensure that a peripheral is not subsumed
by the CPU is for it to stop being a peripheral. In fact, Nvidia
is not the fi rst GPU vendor to substantially shift its architec-
ture toward general-purpose computing, though it is the fi rst to
deliver a comprehensive solution to market.
In last year’s R520, ATI already made advances to make
its architecture more general purpose, for example, with a
big array of general-purpose registers (providing inter-thread
communication a la Nvidia’s parallel data cache) as well as its
UltraThreading technology, preceding the G80’s GigaThread.
And in early October, ATI more formally positioned its hard-
ware for more general-purpose computing applications with its
announcement of StreamComputing, an initiative that will prob-
ably look something like CUDA when it’s offi cially unveiled.
But guess what? GPU vendors aren’t the only ones reading
the tea leaves to make sure they’ll still be around in 10 years.
With the capabilities of GPUs on par—or exceeding—CPUs,
don’t think companies like AMD and Intel aren’t concerned
about the incursion of GPUs on their turf. We’ve just witnessed
the blockbuster acquisition of ATI by AMD—what do you think
that was all about?
AMD had to be ready. It needed the graphics expertise to ensure
that it was prepared to evolve, no matter what direction the base-
line architecture would take. Whether it is the CPU taking on GPU
functionality, CPUs sharing the motherboard with GPUs, or a fully
integrated combined CPU/GPU, AMD felt it critical to improve its
footing—critical enough to justify the $5.4 billion buyout of ATI.
Earlier this year, before ever revealing its intentions regard-
ing ATI, AMD had already tipped its hat when it made a fl urry
of announcements paving the way both for GPGPU and the ATI
acquisition. First it announced it would license Opteron’s cache-
coherent HyperTransport and socket, allowing third-party pro-
cessors to share the motherboard with its fl agship processor.
Then it followed up with Torrenza, a platform formalizing the
concept of “socket fi llers,” allowing OEMs to build hybrid sys-
tems optimized to deliver maximum performance for specifi c
application demands.
From Torrenza, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine the CPU
integrating all or part of that third-party accelerator. And this past
October, that’s precisely what AMD announced with its Fusion
program, promising future multi-core chips starting in 2008,
combining both CPU and GPU cores on a single processor.
So, what’s Intel doing during all of this activity? For a couple
of days, Wall Street, for one, was guessing it would go and acquire
Nvidia, resulting in a short-term spike in its stock price. But there
were lots of reasons that made such a move unlikely. Intel’s got
graphics technology in-house, though it has not had success doing
the type of innovative, high-performance designs as Nvidia or ATI.
To date, Intel hasn’t been as vocal on how it is position-
ing itself for this changing landscape. But at the latest Intel
Developer Forum last September, the company did unveil the
concept for a future large-scale, multi-core platform called
Terascale. Terascale combines both general-purpose and special-
purpose cores in a processor, supported by a new interconnect
fabric. Intel didn’t say so, but one can imagine the general-pur-
pose core would be a conventional x86 core, and a special-pur-
pose core might be a GPU or some subset/variant thereof.
For its part, Nvidia is going it alone, at least for now. With GPU
Computing, it is fi rst to market with a better-thought-out, compre-
hensive solution for carrying out HPC tasks on a GPU. It should
lead to incremental business for Nvidia GPUs, fi rst and foremost
in higher-volume gaming, as well as a non-trivial amount in
lower-volume but higher-margin workstation applications.
As it has in the past, Nvidia is taking risks and aggressively
blazing its way ahead. And if the past is any indication of future
success, Nvidia is sure to be rewarded handsomely.
Alex Herrera is a senior analyst with Jon Peddie Research and
author of “JPR’s Workstation Report.” Based in Tiburon, CA,
JPR provides consulting, research, and other specialized ser-
vices to technology companies, including graphics develop-
ment, multimedia for professional applications and consumer
electronics, high-end computing, and Internet-access product
development. For more information about the reports, visit www.
jonpeddie.com/special/Workstation.shtml.
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38 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007
PortfolioSI
GG
RAPH
Ele
ctro
nic
Thea
ter
Clockwise from top:
Ark (Best of Show) This creative animation, produced by Marcin Kobylecki and Grzegorz Jonkajtys of Poland, captured the SIGGRAPH Animation Festival jury’s eye to take the top prize.
Dreammaker (Jury Honors) From Germany, this piece by Leszek Plichta of Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg surpassed the expectations of the jury, thereby receiving accolades from some of the industry’s top representatives.
En Tus Brazos (Award of Excellence) Another student entry, this short from directors Francois-Xavier Goby, Edouard Jouret, and Matthieu Landour of Supinfocom/Premium Films, also garnered a coveted prize.
Often called the Academy Awards of computer graphics, the annual SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater is a premier event for the world’s most innovative and amazing digital films and video creations. This year, an internationally recognized eight-person jury—which, collectively, has expertise in all the various segments of the industry—selected 39 submissions for the honor of appearing in the 2007 Electronic Theater. All told, the jury, in three and a half days, reviewed more than 900 entries, which is 20 per-cent more than the total of the previous record for submissions. The jury’s choices rep-resent outstanding achievements for this era in the particular area of computer graph-ics that each animation represents, says chair Paul Debevec of the USC Institute for Creative Technologies.
The entries to the Computer Animation Festival—which comprises the Electronic Theater and Animation Theaters—are representative of the wide range of interests in
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© Nvidia© Nvidia
JUNE 2007 Computer Graphics World | 39
computer graphics present at SIGGRAPH, including animation, visual effects, research, scientific visualization, art, broadcast, and real time. Similarly, they reflect CG excel-lence from around the globe: 72 animations are from outside the US. “I am thrilled with the jury’s selections and feel they did a great job not only in choosing innovative and excellent pieces, but also in selecting those from across the board in all the submis-sion categories,” says Debevec.
Aside from the Electronic Theater pieces, another 93 were chosen for the Animation Theaters. This content will be presented in themed segments that will play throughout the show.
Three groundbreaking films received the coveted SIGGRAPH festival awards: “Ark,” Best of Show; “Dreammaker,” Jury Honors; “En Tus Brazos,” Award of Excellence.
“This year’s winners are perfect examples of how computer graphics is enabling small,
Clockwise from top left:
HP Hands “Paulo Coelho” This image is from a spot for HP by creative directors Rich Silverstein and Steve Simpson from Motion Theory in the US.
Cascades This still is from a technical animation by the Nvidia Demo Team.
Nvidia Real-Time Graphics Research: The GeForce 8 Demo Suite This image is also from R&D by the Nvidia Demo Team.
A Gentlemen’s Duel This amusing animated short film was sub-mitted by Blur Studio.
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Portfolio
40 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007
Portfolio
independent groups to create films with vast landscapes, complex characters, and amazing visuals,” says Debevec. “Just as CG blurs the line between real and virtual, each of these, in its unique way, explores what is tangible and what is imaginary, and whether that difference is important.”
According to Debevec, this is a notable year for studio shorts in the Electronic Theater. There are always tent poles of the show that everyone looks forward to, and they include Pixar’s “Lifted,” Blue Sky’s “No Time for Nuts,” and Blur’s “A Gentlemen’s Duel,” he notes. “Not every show is lucky to have three of the major studios with a major shorts effort.”
2007 is also a big year for real-time content; to that end, there are nearly 10 min-utes of real-time material in the theater. One highlight is a documentary of a new game
Clockwise from top left:
Happiness Factory This still is from a compelling commer-cial directed by Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick of Psyop.
Gears of War This game image is courtesy of Mark Rein and Epic Games.
Formation of a Spiral Galaxy A wondrous visual, this proj-ect came from The Four-Dimensional Digital Universe Project by the National Astronomical Observatory in Japan.
Travelers: Snowball Complex in composition, this still is from a piece courtesy of Dan Lemmon, visual FX supervisor, and Weta Digital.
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JUNE 2007 Computer Graphics World | 41
module for Half-Life 2, called “Portal,” which has an especially innovative gameplay element. Additionally, there will be a montage comprising various real-time techni-cal advances in gaming, as chosen by the jury. Also, the show features various scien-tific visualizations, including a breathtaking animation of a galactic formation, called
“Formation of a Spiral Galaxy.” “Every piece is there because it is different—it pushes beyond the borders of what
we have seen before,” says Debevec. “And there are more than a few laugh-out-loud moments that are humorous in unexpected ways.” In other words, there is something for everyone to enjoy.
A small selection of images from this year’s the Electronic Theater is presented in these pages. —Karen Moltenbrey
At right, from top to bottom:
Swirl An intriguing still from the animation presented by Lee Griggs of the UK.
Raymond An image from a piece by Fabrice le Nezet, Jules Janaud, and Francois Roisin of The Mill in the UK.
Sears Tools “Aboretum” This selection comes from an ani-mation by Sabrina Elizondo of Method Studios in the US.
300’s Liquid Battlefield The highly stylized movie 300 con-tains a number of CG achievements by various facilities, includ-ing this work by Scanline VFX, submitted by Stephan Trojansky and Danielle Plantec.
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42 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
For additional product news and information, visit w w w . c g w . c o m
products
SOFTWARE
V I D E O
Camera and Color ControlWin FilmLight and Grass Valley demon-
strated FilmLight’s Baselight system in direct
control of the entire command block of the
Grass Valley Spirit Classic DataCine camera.
This event marked the fi rst time a software-
based color-grading system has been used
to control a Spirit DataCine, and the pairing
lends to a more productive telecine work-
fl ow. Baselight controlled the system’s fi lm
transport, primary and secondary color, focus,
resize and rotate, sharpness, and degrain fea-
tures. The companies also have integrated
Grass Valley’s Bones Dailies postproduction
solution with FilmLight’s Truelight color-man-
agement system as part of a calibrated, on-set
to deliverables production pipeline. Baselight
control for Spirit Datacines and Truelight color
management for Bones Dailies are available
this month.
FilmLight; www.fi lmlight.ltd.uk
Grass Valley; www.thomsongrassvalley.com
Encoding in a FlashWin Kulabyte is shipping the Kulabyte
Professional Flash Encoding Suite, introduced
at NAB2007. The video encoding solution
uses industry-standard codec engines and
combines Kulabyte’s Live 2-pass variable bit
rate encoding and on-demand broadcast-
ing. The Kulabyte system enables media cre-
ators to encode and distribute digital content
more than 12 times faster than industry-stan-
dard codec times, while also delivering high
picture quality and optimal bandwidth use.
Kulabyte’s Professional Flash Encoding Suite,
packaged with the On2 VP6 codec engine,
starts at $8000.
Kulabyte; www.kulabyte.com
P L U G - I N S
Fx for Final CutMac Noise Industries unveiled its FxFactory
for Apple Final Cut Studio 2, a visual effects
tool for postproduction and broadcast pro-
fessionals. FxFactory Version 1.05 includes
GPU-accelerated, native visual effects plug-
ins for Final Cut Pro 6 and Motion 3, via
Apple’s FxPlug architecture. The latest edi-
tion also boasts custom presets, new fi l-
ters, and GPU-accelerated rendering. The
included FX for Motion Pack offers Glitch,
3D Shatter, Panel Vision, and RGB Trails
effects plug-ins; whereas the FX for Editing
Pack contains Cheshire Fade, Explode Away,
Panels Mix Off, Spinner, and Zipper transi-
NEWS FROM
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FOR REPRINTS AND
ON-DEMAND PRINTING
www.copprints.com(800) 280-6446
Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m | 43
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products
44 | Computer Graphics World JUNE 2007 w w w . c g w . c o m
tions. Noise Industries also demonstrated
two new FX Packs: ImageFlow FX with 10 dif-
ferent animation styles, and TextFlow FX with
10 beat-synchronized text animation effects.
FxFactory Pro is priced at $399 and includes
the Motion and Editing Packs. Version 1.0.5 is
a free update for current owners of FxFactory.
The Motion and Editing Packs are each avail-
able for $99.
Noise Industries; www.noiseindustries.com
HARDWARE
V I D E O
Red or Blue?Bluefish 444
introduced its
RedThing and
BlueThing com-
pact multi-standard
HD-SDI to DVI-I converters,
enabling HD and SD signals to be viewed
on virtually any LCD, plasma, or projector dis-
play. The solutions automatically sense and
size incoming signals and output resolution
to ensure image conformity with 16:9 and 4:3
screens. Its high-quality spatial and temporal
video processing deliver frame-rate conver-
sion, scaling, and de-interlacing to provide
high image quality on inexpensive displays.
Other features include DVI-D and DVI-I out-
put, a test-pattern generator, support for
output resolutions between 1024x768 to
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ing connector. RedThing and BlueThing are
priced at $1695 and $2095, respectively.
Bluefish 444; www.bluefish444.com
Collaborative EncoderWin Kulabyte and AMD partnered at NAB
to demonstrate the Kulabyte Professional
Encoding Suite, a multi-core encoding system,
driven by Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors
in an eight-socket server. This 16-core video
encoder server is said to deliver a 60 percent
speed increase over comparable multi-core
processing systems, which are largely limited
to a maximum eight cores in a single server.
The product combination is well suited
to DVD authoring houses,
postproduction facilities, tele-
vision studios, and produc-
ers of mobile video. Kulabyte’s
suite is infused with TimeSlice tech-
nology, designed to deliver faster encod-
ing and improved picture quality.
Kulabyte; www.kulabyte.com
AMD; www.amd.com
S T O R A G E
It’s a RAIDCiprico demonstrated a direct-attached stor-
age system using the new PCI Express exter-
nal cabling standard and based on the compa-
ny’s RAIDCore software RAID stack. Ciprico’s
RAIDCore was running on a direct-attached
20GB/sec PCI Express 8x external connection
to a SATA 2 I/O card. The external card was
mounted in a 3U, 16-drive chassis with 16
Hitachi 1TB SATA 2 drives running Adobe’s
video editing suite and supporting multiple
streams of HD video. The scalable RAID system
is designed to meet the bandwidth demands
of HD, 2K, and 4K video applications.
Ciprico; www.ciprico.com
P R E V I Z
Precision with PrevizionCinital showcased the latest motion-track-
ing and visual effects features in Previzion
HD Studio, the company’s end-to-end vir-
tual studio solution for previsualization and
visual effects creation. Previzion aids artists
at visual effects and film, television, and mul-
timedia companies in integrating computer-
generated graphics and live video to create
synthetic visual spaces. The solution com-
bines camera motion tracking, scene integra-
tion technology, and advanced features such
as keyed subject occlusion. Use of the FBX
file format ensures camera motion data can
be recorded and imported into popular 3D
programs, including Autodesk Maya and 3ds
Max, Softimage XSI, Luxology Modo, and
Maxon Cinema4D.
Cinital; www.cinital.com
June 2007, Volume 30, Number 6: COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD (USPS 665-250) (ISSN-0271-4159) is published monthly (12 issues) by COP Communications, Inc. Corporate offices: 620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale, CA 91204, Tel: 818-291-1100; FAX: 818-291-1190; Web Address: info@copprints.com. Periodicals postage paid at Glendale, CA, 91205 & additional mailing offices. COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD is distributed worldwide. Annual subscription prices are $55, USA; $75, Canada & Mexico; $115
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