Autodesk’s Busy
One of today’s more pleasant meetings was with Autodesk Media and Entertainment group manager Maurice Patel, and not only because of the chocolate, cookies, and comfy couches. For one thing, I got to see old colleagues Dan Ochiva and Steve Katz after far too long during the meeting, and they might be reporting on this blog site about the Autodesk meeting, as well.
I took a couple of quick things from the meeting as standing out. First, stifled economy or not, Autodesk is going full bore with eight new product announcements here at Siggraph. Second, amazingly, I was reminded that Maya animation software is, believe it or not, 10 years old. The other day, I reported on Pixar’s celebration of Renderman’s 20th anniversary, but getting to 10 as an almost ubiquitous product in the world of animation is just as impressive.
And finally, in the now obligatory discussion of stereoscopic 3D and its impact on the industry, Maurice emphasized that the company is now in the process of buildling stereoscopic capabilities across virtually all of its entertainment-related product lines. Maya and Toxic already have such capabilities, and Autodesk is now showing a technology preview as the company gets ready to add those abilities to Lustre, with plans for other products well underway.
“You have to be able to view stereoscopic images all across the process, and not just in the final color grading environment,” Maurice says. “It has to run across the chain, much like color management, so that is our goal.”
Lots to see, and ponder, at the Autodesk booth (#501).
–MG
