Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1585
prove the number of iterations so we can add
more to our shots. The more iterations, the
more we can improve on individual shots;
this gives artists more time to work on their
shots and directors more that they can put
into a shot," he adds. "It is not as glamorous
or as sexy, but it will have a greater impact
on what the audience sees."
To this end, Imageworks has been ex-
tremely active in generating improved soft-
ware packages—assets that are perhaps even
more valuable than, say, a database used to
re-create New York City (which Image-
works has readily available). One example is
Katana, Imageworks' lighting package that
enables artists to light scenes quickly and
with fewer lights and fewer man-hours. The
studio also developed new rendering soft-
ware, called Arnold, that enables the crew to
render shots quicker, whether it is for a VFX
or CG movie. It was used on Monster House
and Eagle Eye, and currently
on Cloudy and Alice.
Additionally, the facility
has created numerous track-
ing and production enhance-
ments for locating where shots
are at any given instance on
any computer, and for helping
to determine the cost benefits
of making certain changes to
a shot.
"There are many internal
technological advancements
that give artists a very clean way of working
on a shot as opposed to just managing the
things they need to do to be able to work on
the shot," says Sarnoff. "It is much easier for
artists to take [software] off the shelf than
to design it themselves. However, there are
some things we need to do in this company
that are unique because we are always on
the cutting edge. Take our lighting tools for
instance; we work on a lot of shots, and the
commercial tools are not yet able to handle
the volume we need. When we are work-
ing on tens of thousands of processors, it is
more cost-effective to just build something
yourself than to buy it for each processor."
In terms of CG models, the desire is still
there to
cross-utilize assets
among various
media, particularly from film to games.
However, most film assets are still too heavy
to have practical value for these licensees.
"What has improved most, though, is the
understanding of what people can use and
what they do not need, so they are no longer
asking for the wrong things," says Sarnoff.
"They no longer ask for everything, but
rather very specific pieces of the models or
the shaders they want to use, so they can
make their model look as compelling as
what we created for the theater experience."
The Economy and the Future
In today's economic climate, even Hol-
lywood is feeling the pinch. "There has
always been this theory that the entertain-
ment industry is recession-proof. The dif-
ference now is that there are many forms of
entertainment, so you never know which
part of the industry will be recession-proof
and which will be affected by the economic
troubles we are facing," notes Sarnoff. "So
rather than thinking we are bullet-proof,
everyone in this industry needs to keep their
eyes on the ball to see where the audience is
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