Making of Alice in Wonderland
1:20 pm
It’sArtMag has a short 14-minute VFX Breakdown of the “Alice in Wonderland” from Sony Imageworks. It shows some nice use of greenscreen, face matching, and other effects.
ImageWorks & ILM Release Alembic Interchange Format
5:25 pm
Today at SIGGRAPH, Sony Pictures Imageworks and ILM announced that they have collaborated on a new open-source project named ‘Alembic’, a new interchange format designed to efficiently store animation in a format that can be ready by multiple software applications.
“Who better to understand the demands of high-end production better than those who are in the thick of it,” explains Lucasfilm CTO, Richard Kerris, “working with the team at Imageworks, I think we have created a file format that will have a significant impact on the industry as global production and shared workflows continue to be a driving force.”
“Even though we recently started using our new format on multiple productions, as soon as we learned about ILM’s concurrent development it was immediately clear that one open source format utilizing the very best technology from both companies would offer the best solution for the industry,” notes Rob Bredow, CTO of Sony Pictures Imageworks.
It sounds very similar to the work done by Autodesk over the last several years with FBX, but the entire format is open-source. Hopefully other applications will begin to support it, and maybe we will finally one the “One Format to Rule Them all”.
Full announcement and details after the break.
Use of MAXON Software in Oscar Nominees
12:00 pm
MAXON has issued a new press release congratulating the guys behind District 9, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and 2012 for their Academy Award Nominations, and is not so careful to point out their use of various MAXON software packages.
“We’re thrilled again this year to see our customers recognized at the highest levels for creative excellence in digital filmmaking,” said Paul Babb, president, MAXON USA. “This year’s nominees pushed the boundaries of 3D technology to new heights delighting audiences with both fantastic and realistic effects. We deeply appreciate their reliance on our professional 3D animation toolset to achieve these well-deserved milestones.”
Several studios are mentioned across the various projects, but it really looks like BodyPaint and CINEMA4D are getting a lot of use out of the major studios. Read the full release after the break.
Sony Pictures Imageworks Releases (OSL) to the Community
2:00 pm
Sony Pictures Imageworks has just released the Alpha version of their OSL, Open Shading Language, to the community. Unlike other shader languages, OSL assumes a system is capable of ray tracing and provides global illuminates and physical accuracy by default, much different from the situation when original shader languages were developed. Built in-house for their own productions, it includes work from Rhythm & Hues and others.
“We’re excited to be sharing OSL with the world,” said Rob Bredow. “Our goal is to follow the model of the most successful open source software by making our development public. This provides the very best opportunities for collaboration and adoption. Even though it's in its early stages, there is a lot of sophisticated groundwork already laid in OSL. We look forward to the response from the computer graphics community”
Go check it out at http://opensource.imageworks.com/ .
Imageworks tools deal with Foundry
12:00 pm
A huge announcement from the Visual Effects industry today, Sony Pictures Imageworks will work with Foundry to combine their proprietary technologies. Imageworks is bringing their proprietary lighting software “Katana” to the table, while Foundry is of course bringing their compositing system “Nuke”. But the deal won’t benefit just the two of them:
Bill Collis, CEO of the Foundry, told Daily Variety: “The most likely course is (Katana) will be integrated into Nuke over time. Nothing dramatic is going to happen in the short term, but over a period of years, we’ll incorporate these Katana technologies into Nuke.”
A new version of Nuke including Furnace plugins and features is expected before year’s end.
via Imageworks tools deal with Foundry – Entertainment News, Film News, Media – Variety.
Imageworks talks about G-Force
12:00 pm
Imageworks’ Scott Stockdyk managed a crew of 326 artists for G-Force, overcoming some amazing technical hurdles. He discusses it with Computer Graphics World in a great interview, discussing the new technologies they developed to deal with the various issues during production.
The fur stylists used Imageworks’ in-house hair system. “One of the biggest issues was in getting the hair and fur to interact with all the gadgets,” says Seth Maury, digital effects supervisor. “For that, JJ Blumenkranz, the CG supervisor, and hair lead Dustin Wicke came up with a magnet system.”
Sony Pictures Imageworks at SIGGRAPH 2009
2:30 pm
A new press release from Sony Pictures Imageworks announces what you can expect to see from them at SIGGRAPH2009 in addition to the previously announced new Open-Source Software offerings. In short: Stereoscopic 3D.
Imageworks’ participation includes presentations on the making of Sony Pictures Animation’s upcoming feature film, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, the 3D stereo/live action/animation production of the current box office hit, G-FORCE, and a panel deconstructing WATCHMEN. With an eye to the future, Imageworks will be recruiting for current and upcoming productions, including ALICE IN WONDERLAND, ZOOKEEPER, CATS AND DOGS 2, the Aardman Animation production ARTHUR CHRISTMAS, Sony Pictures Animation’s HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA and THE SMURFS, in association with Columbia Pictures.
Sony Pictures Imageworks releases Open Source
8:43 pm
Sony Picture’s Imageworks has just released 5 of their internal products at open-source tools. Rob Bredow, CTO, says this:
We’ve chosen 5 projects to release as open source. This software can be freely used by large and small studios around the world. We’ve intentionally chosen popular non-restrictive licensing models to help ensure you have lots of options.
Each of these projects have passionate people behind them who are interested in seeing the code widely used. We’re into the idea of building small development communities around this code. If you’re interested in contributing, join the respective mailing lists and introduce yourself.
The five packages they’ve released are:
- OSL – Open Shading Language
- Scala Migrations – Database Library Manager
- Field3D – Voxel Data storage library
- pystring -Python String Handling in C++
- Maya Reticle – Flexible camera guides for Maya
ImageWorks discusses the Guinea Pigs of G-Force
8:00 am
G-Force, the story of a secret paramilitary group of guinea pigs and other animals, hits theaters soon and ImageWorks sits down with Resource411 to talk about the work.
While the animators developed the skeletal rigging and basic geometry of the movement and background, the visual effects team was building additional layers upon the animation. Using programs like Maya, Arnold, Houdini and Renderman, the textural reality of the movement and lighting of the many layers of fur on the guinea pigs was developed.
The movie is technically interesting on several levels because often times it’s a completely CG-generated foreground on top of a live-action background, reverse of most films. Also, it’s in “Digital 3D”, which adds alot of extra work to any film.
One VFX Company to Rule them All? Imageworks say Yes.
3:30 pm
Variety is carrying the story that, amid economic turmoil and widespread unemployment in the VFX industry, Imageworks still plans to remain a profitable and prominent VFX house. How?
Exec VP for production Debby Denise said that while Imageworks now has to compete against small shops all over the world many with much lower labor costs “The studios and filmmakers have to weigh the cost advantages against the risk of the small shops not being able to deliver large numbers of shots in time for the release date.” Imageworks advantage she said is “They can depend on us.”
Add in more automation of some processes and their obvious partnership with Sony, it seems that Imageworks might have a chance.
via Imageworks looks to rule f/x field – Entertainment News, Technology News, Media – Variety.
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