Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/14320
To ease the time and effort it would typically take to animate Digital magic turned a frog into a prince in this idyllic setting. hand-placed, and art-directed,” he adds. “This meant that the use of instancing and render-time proxy archiving was not a viable option, and the use of a third-party, crowd-simulation software, such as Massive, was not particularly time-effi cient or practical given the constraints of the spot.” Thus, the decision was made to have individual animation rigs in the scene, using Brickyard’s in-house fi le referencing system. This allowed the rigs to easily be loaded and unloaded individually and in groups, as well as updated as new versions became available. so many frogs, a small set of animation clips were created that could be looped, offset, scaled, and retargeted for addi- tional hand animation. These clips were then semi-randomly assigned to the various frogs in the scene, while still allowing for individual placement, orientation, and scaling. Frogs could be placed either by hand or by using painted particles on the surface of the road. The geometry was tagged with a random color offset within a specifi ed range, allowing the shader to offset the color of the frogs and how their textures reacted to the lighting at render time, providing for greater variety. Using these groupings, solid color mattes were also generated so that specifi c colors of frogs could be easily manipulated in the compositing phase. “By planning ahead and working with the custom in-house software, the shots were completed effi ciently and with the ability to easily adjust individual characters without affecting the randomness of the crowd,” says Poulatian. Planning was indeed crucial: In all, the group had just one week to complete the project. And that was how this fairytale came true for Mitsubishi. ■ PC Gaming Hardware Forecast to Reach $27 Billion Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the indus- try’s research and consulting fi rm for graphics and multimedia, has revealed the market forecast for PC gaming hard- ware, and the results are better than previously expected. The worldwide personal computer gaming hardware market (systems, acces- sories, and upgrades) is forecasted to have gained $1.2 billion in 2009, a 5.9 percent increase versus 2008 (from $20.07 to $21.26 billion). The increase is due to higher-than-anticipated consumer demand for enthusiast, performance, and mainstream hardware infl uenced by the ability to play video games ranging from casual to hard-core simulations. Due to signifi cant growth across all major markets, the worldwide PC gaming hardware market is expected to sky rocket 30 percent this year. JPR senior video game industry analyst Ted Pollak credits this growth to a number of factors. “The largest infl uence on the high forecasted 8 NEWS: GAMING July 2010 growth rate is purchasing delays for systems and upgrades in 2008/2009 as consumers circled the wagons and took a conservative position on discre- tionary spending,” he says. “A recovering economy, processing advancements, and higher-quality gaming offerings will Year double as a media center.” JPR uses a complex methodology to pinpoint the true global, total address- able market for PC gaming hardware, which is no easy feat given the multi- dimensional nature of personal comput- ers. The result is a report series that 2008 2009 2010 2011 all contribute to a healthy year for PC gaming hardware in 2010.” As JPR president Jon Peddie points out, the PC gaming market continues to be the high-growth area and technologi- cal leader for home entertainment. “With Windows 7 and DirectX 11, advanced and exciting physics, and stereovision capabilities, the PC platform is far and away the most advanced,” he notes. “And, the PC has the added advan- tage that when not used for gaming, it can serve more practical purposes and 2012 Total PC Gaming Hardware Market $20,076 $21,260 $27,617 $32,749 $34,760 is highly accurate and available by segment for companies not focused on all levels of PC gaming. The report covers all major regions and provides detail for the top 37 countries. The “Worldwide PC Gaming Hard- ware Market” report series by Jon Peddie Research comes in three versions: enthu- siast, performance, and mainstream versions, with each version selling for $5000 and the set of three for $12,000. With the set is a summary report of the total hardware PC market worldwide. ■