Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/8034
■ ■ ■ ■ Trends & Technologies how many miss, and that gives you ambient. If you want color bleeding, you also have to com- pute the color at those hit points. T at involves starting a shader to compute the color, so it’s time-consuming and expensive. With the point- based approach, you get color bleeding for free. T e object [from which you generate the point cloud] already has the color and materials ap- plied, so the point cloud has the appropriate col- ors built in. You just look up the pre-computed color at that point and you’re done.” Similarly, while displacement mapping slows a raytracer down, the point cloud doesn’t care, which is one reason why Hery wanted to use this method for Pirates. “We saw a three- times speedup and more for ambient, and 2009 Sci-Tech Oscars The Scientifi c and Technical Awards, often called Sci-Tech Oscars, are in three levels: Technical Achievement Award (certifi cate), Scientifi c and Engineering Award (bronze tablet), and the Academy Award of Merit (Oscar statuette). Of the 15 awards this year, 12 center on tools for rendering, on-set motion capture, and digital intermediates. Rendering: Scientifi c and Engineering Award Per Christensen, Michael Bunnell, and Christophe Hery for the develop- ment of point-based rendering for indi- rect illumination and ambient occlusion. Much faster than previous raytraced methods, this computer graphics technique has enabled color-bleeding effects and realistic shadows for com- plex scenes in motion pictures. Scientifi c and Engineering Award Paul Debevec, Tim Hawkins, John Monos, and Dr. Mark Sagar for the de- sign and engineering of the Light Stage capture devices and the image-based facial rendering system developed for character relighting in motion pictures. Technical Achievement Award Hayden Landis, Ken McGaugh, and (Top) Davy Jones was the fi rst CG character ILM rendered using point-cloud-based indi- rect illumination. (Bottom) Double Negative recently used the technique in 2012. probably four or fi ve times faster for indirect illumination [color bleeding],” he says. “It en- abled a new look, and we could do Pirates 2 without taking over the whole renderfarm.” Hery, who is now a look development su- pervisor at ImageMovers Digital, adds, “T ere’s still no better practical solution for indirect illu- mination in production for Render Man-based engines. It’s the best approach for optimizing.” At SIGGRAPH 2009, Christensen fi nally met Bunnell, the man whose idea led to the sci- tech awards for the three researchers. “We had exchanged e-mail,” Christensen says, “but, hadn’t talked in person. We had dinner in New Orleans. I was excited to have fi nally met him in person. T e point-based approach is like all great ideas: In hindsight, it seems obvious, but somebody has to think of it. It’s absolutely brilliant.” ■ Barbara Robertson is an award-winning writer and a contributing editor for Computer Graphics World. She can be reached at BarbaraRR@comcast.net. 32 March 2010 Hilmar Koch for advancing the technique of ambient occlusion rendering. Ambi- ent occlusion has enabled a new level of realism in synthesized imagery and has become a standard tool for computer graphics lighting in motion pictures. On-set Performance Capture: Technical Achievement Award Steve Sullivan, Kevin Wooley, Brett Allen, and Colin Davidson for the de- velopment of the Imocap on-set perfor- mance capture system developed at Industrial Light & Magic. Digital Intermediate: Scientifi c and Engineering Award Dr. Richard Kirk for the overall design and development of the Truelight real- time 3D look-up table hardware device and color management software. Scientifi c and Engineering Award Volker Massmann, Markus Hasen- zahl, Dr. Klaus Anderle, and Andreas Loew for the development of the Spirit 4K/2K fi lm scanning system as used in the digital intermediate process for mo- tion pictures. Scientifi c and Engineering Award Michael Cieslinski, Dr. Reimar Lenz, and Bernd Brauner for the develop- ment of the ARRIscan fi lm scanner, enabling high-resolution, high-dynamic range, pin-registered fi lm scanning for use in the digital intermediate process. Scientifi c and Engineering Award Wolfgang Lempp, Theo Brown, Tony Sedivy, and Dr. John Quartel for the de- velopment of the Northlight fi lm scan- ner, which enables high-resolution, pin-registered scanning in the motion- picture digital intermediate process. Scientifi c and Engineering Award Steve Chapman, Martin Tlaskal, Dar- rin Smart, and Dr. James Logie for their contributions to the development of the Baselight color-correction system, which enables real-time digital manipu- lation of motion-picture imagery during the digital intermediate process. Scientifi c and Engineering Award Mark Jaszberenyi, Gyula Priskin, and Tamas Perlaki for their contribu- tions to the development of the Lustre color-correction system, which enables real-time digital manipulation of motion- picture imagery during the digital inter- mediate process. Technical Achievement Award Mark Wolforth and Tony Sedivy for their contributions to the development of the Truelight real-time 3D look-up table hardware system. Technical Achievement Award Dr. Klaus Anderle, Christian Baeker, and Frank Billasch for their contribu- tions to the LUTher 3D look-up table hardware device and color-manage- ment software.