Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/18322
Both Autodesk® 3ds Max® software and Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design software provide powerful, integrated 3D modeling, animation, ren- dering, and compositing features that enable artists and designers to quickly ramp up for production. Te two versions are used by game de- velopers, visual effects artists, and graphic designers as well as architects, designers, engineers, and visualization specialists. Autodesk® Motion- Builder® software is used for high-volume game-animation pipelines, director-driven virtual cinematography, and real-time character simula- tions, while Autodesk® Mudbox™ software is a highly intuitive digital sculpting and texture painting solution. Using Autodesk software along with Intel® hardware helps to keep the hits coming. To see why, it’s worth taking a look in more detail at Framestore’s production pipeline and the challenges that go with it. portions. Scene segmentation enables artists to pull up specific parts of a complex scene and work on just that aspect – not only increasing in- teractive performance, but also providing opportunities to work collab- oratively in parallel. And the latest toolsets also offer increased, scalable rendering capacity to help customers achieve their final output faster. PRODUCTIVITY Te second pillar relates to productivity. By streamlining workflows, and developing enhanced, in-context user interfaces that let the magic happen in a natural and fluid manner, Autodesk enables artists to com- plete the same tasks with fewer clicks, leaving them more time and en- ergy to devote to finessing their work. What’s more, by providing focused toolsets for specific tasks, Au- todesk offers optimized environments that help artists be more effi- cient, and to concentrate on their creativity. “Artists are able to work faster and more effectively, which is very exciting,” said Mulholland. “For example, our recent adoption of MotionBuilder has opened up new options for performance capture that will allow new and exciting ways for us to work with animation and previsualization.” CREATIVE CAPABILITIES Te third pillar focuses on creative capabilities, Hoffmann ex- plained. Combining the power of a Westmere-based workstation with the newest tools helps to give artists the features they have been asking for: faster ways of blocking out a shot, high-speed modeling tools, and Framestore artists created the richly emotional facial animation for the creatures in Where the Wild Things Are. Thanks to meticulous attention to detail and masterful use of Autodesk tools, the baby elephant truly came to life in Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang. Peer into the Pipeline Hoffmann explained how a modern pipeline is essential to han- dle those giant, pixel-pushing jobs. “Tere are four pillars in the modern pipeline,” he explained, “together, they can help our customers over- come the incredible challenges they face every day.” PERFORMANCE Te first pillar is performance—with tools that leverage state-of-the- art hardware that features high-quality displays, 64-bit architectures, ac- celerated GPUs, and multi-core processors – like Intel® Westmere-based workstations that offer up to 10 cores. Framestore’s Mike Mulholland, an 11-year veteran of the VFX industry and currently computer graph- ics supervisor, said it’s hard to keep up with the technology, but their IT staff is constantly rolling in new equipment: “Te hardware continues to improve at a rate where things we would have thought impossible just a few years ago are now commonplace.” Alongside raw processing power, Autodesk provides tools to help cus- tomers handle massive data sets by segmenting them into manageable accelerated workflows for character skinning and rigging. Te simula- tion capabilities and rendering tools are better, also. As fast as users can dream up new things to ask for, they put those features to use and ask for more. Framestore’s Mulholland agreed with Hoffmann on the importance of creative toolsets, explaining that while production challenges fac- ing Framestore continue to grow, the tools have been able to keep up. “Framestore has been using Maya and the Autodesk tools for many years,” Mulholland said. “Te current Autodesk tools are an evolution of what we’ve used in the past, and they’re helping us improve the work- flow and quality of our assets. Maya 2011 brings numerous modeling and rigging improvements that have helped our teams. Te work in visual effects becomes more complicated every year; the amount and resolution of our assets increases every year. Te Autodesk suite of tools allows us to deal with the complexity of the shots while producing stun- ning work.” October 2010 39