If you’re here, check out booth 202 for the launch of Darwin Dimensions. This is something really new (and fun). It’s a character animation software that works kind of like an audio loops program where you can assemble a unique mix by blending and morphing among pre-built assets.

In this case, database of high quality pre-built models (called Ancestors) can be combined in an infinite number of ways–you use shaders to tweak the mix, creating a kind of gene matrix from up to four ancestors at a time; you can end up using all the models if you like. You can combine their gross body structures such as proportion, cranium shape and size, etc ; you can also access details like noses, ears, eyes, etc. and combine elements of multiple models or just a few to build distinctive features, while watching it all take place in real time.

The software can then give you a fully rigged wire frame, or a finished Maya-ready textured character (built from the library of textures). more

Last night Ken and I hit the Houdini party. It was fun but I was just too tired to do anything - so I split early.

Today is going great. I spoke to the Laika for a while. They are doing really great stuff. It is so nice to see a studio that is not affraid to do something different!! The staff was nice and really helpful.

Then off to a visit at the Pixar booth. Busy! The staff was doing a great job of answering questions in the chaos the surrounds their booth.

More Later

-Chris Myers

www.chrismyers3d.com

Solomon Grundy

Savannah College of Art and Deisgn

Met with Vicon this morning. The Brit-based company, which has been a leading supplier of motion capture hardware/software for years, created a bit of stir when they bought service company House of Moves a few years back. What’s a manufacturer doing going into competition with potential customers?

Whatever you think of that situation, what it has done is bring to the fore the sorts of creative, workflow, and budgeting issues all of its customers face. Earlier this year, House of Moves moved in with Vicon’s LA-based Entertainment services headquarters; this has not only helped to consolidate product design and product use, but also created a feedback loop that seems to have benefited both. more

Eric Saindon on the Massive booth (1023) showing how he did the crowds on King Kong with Stephen Regelous now-famous software.

While you’re there check out the latest edition of Massive 2.6 . Just some highlights;

Now Massive agents can be assigned render attributes and shader visibility on a per-render basis, allowing even more customization. Agents are smarter and can do better stunts, support for sub-D geometry gives you better quality and the new integrated Velocity renderer can render at film quality at killer speed (30x faster than supported software renderers, Massive says).

Answer: Sony SXRD 4K digital cinema projector. 4K. That’s the point. The thing that sold me on digital cinema back in the day (the 2K day) was seeing Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron digitally projected–stunning.

Now audiences at the Electronic Theater can see animation at twice the resolution. For animators who are all about nuance and impact there is nothing like digital to push the point.

Keep your eyes open and see if you can see the difference in Andy Lomas’ fractal piece (pictured). Sony says it’’s the only piece that could be rerendered to 4K in time for exhibition. Next year the call for entries will let people know that they are welcome to submit in 4K, so…I guess you all need to buy more RAM. more

A number of years ago, I attended a press conference where the founder of SGI strutted before an NAB audience of broadcast and post executives, stating in no uncertain terms that in a few years his company would “own” the industry. SGI’s big, bold booth made a statement commensurate with his claim. It was the 1990‘s afterall, when the high-end computer graphics market for feature films and commercials took off, due in no small part to this upstart Silicon Valley success story with it’s high flying, free spending attitude.

Fade out/fade in to Siggraph 2006. I spent 15 minutes trying to find the company‘s sole representative, now holding forth at a table in a partner‘s booth. Times have changed. SGI has been declared dead many times over the years since that original presentation by Jim Clark. Its share price has plummeted, staff has been cut again and again. Their luxe Mountain View campus was sold to Google a while back; a bankruptcy filing was made this past May. more

Sony‘s professional display products are turning on and turning heads in several exhibit areas of the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival here in Bean Town this week. The Sony technologies on display range from SXRD 4K large venue and LCD business projectors to displays for digital signage applications.

“SIGGRAPH is the perfect place to fully exhibit the capabilities of our professional display products,” said John Kaloukian, director, Sony Electronics professional display group. “The growing use of computer graphics and interactive technologies in motion picture animation, simulation, CAD/CAM work and post-production has increased the need for displays and projectors that fit a range of professional requirements. The products in our line-up were designed with just that flexibility in mind and that‘s what will be on display at the show.” more

Emmy award-winning Toon Boom Animation Inc. announced the pre-launch of Toon Boom Studio V3.5. Toon Boom Studio V3.5 enables users to animate with more power and ease, bringing significant improvements to animation techniques, special effects creation and color palette management. In addition, V3.5 offers a more user-friendly interface with a welcome screen and help wizards, as well as timeline improvements.

Highlights of this latest release include:

• Animated elements to quickly animate drawings




• Real-time Drop Shadow effect to create rich-looking animation




• Improved tools such as Select Scene Operator, Contour Editor, Color Transform as well as Texture and Gradient Mapping to facilitate the animation process




• Enhanced interoperability with other software with PDF export




• Simplified User Interface to work more efficiently

more

NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, today announced the first stage of extensive enhancements for LightWave 3D on the Mac. The migration of LightWave 3D to Universal Binary provides NewTek with a foundation for upcoming advancements in 3D technology for the Mac community. Live demonstrations of this new technology on Intel-based Mac systems will take place at the NewTek booth (1518) and press suite at SIGGRAPH 2006. more