What a day! Started with a great session about the movie Surf's Up, which I am so gonna see now when it comes out on DVD in October. It's a computer animated movie that was created as a documentary. They did everything from adding scratches to the "lens" you'd see while watching, to looking at how each character interacted with the camera, to actually making the camera itself a character.
To make the camera a character, they rigged it up with a motion-capture device and a little screen for a viewfinder. A real camera person would hold the camera and watch what was happening by looking through the viewfinder, which showed a 3D view of the characters interacting and the environment. The cameraman's movement was recorded and then brought into the movie, making it extremely realistic. It's like watching a reality tv show, but it's animated!
The movie was about surfing, so a large part of the presentation was about how they did the ocean, and more specifically the waves. They put a massive amount of work into the waves, and it all paid off, because they look AMAZING. Check out the preview on IMDB and you'll see it.
After lunch I went to a session called "Sharing Ideas in Teaching 3D Animation", which was interesting and helpful. It really made me think about not just how to teach this stuff, but how the students might understand it better. There is so much to learn when it comes to computer animation. Do you teach the technical stuff (the software) during class, or just talk the concepts (camera positions, basics, animation theory) during that time? Much to think about!
I then ran all the way across the convention center to watch Glenn Entis, the Chief Visual and Technical Officer of ALL of Electronic Arts speak. He gave a good talk about graphics, games, and the tools to create them, from way back in 1979 until today. In the end, the basic premise was that the new "wow" of games right now is user-created content. He mentioned The Sims, which he said is actually the best-selling game of all time, and that the biggest draw of it turned out not to be playing the characters but the creation of your own objects in the game. He also mentioned Spore, which will be hugely user-changeable. It's all about the tools, and if normal game players / users can use the tools to create their own stuff, they are going to have fun and really get into it.
Then I ran all the way back across the convention center to the Blender Artist and Developer Showcase, which was really cool. I saw and heard Ton Roosendaal, the creator of Blender (and got a picture of him... I'll post it soon!), and a bunch of the people I read about and see the work of on all the Blender websites. The director of Elephant's Dream was there, showing his latest work - very impressive stuff. Some great developments will be coming soon from Blender!
Right now I'm sitting in the session for Happy Feet. They took almost the direct opposite (and yet strangely similar) approach of Surf's Up. This movie, also featuring penguins, was also shot as if it had real people, but for this one it was directed like a normal movie. The director had no experience with animated movies, and managed to make it as if it were real "people" (penguins) doing the acting. They made it a really iterative process, which is unusual for an animated movie, because once you get the animation done it's difficult to get back in and change things. They also made very heavy use of motion capture, which as I said above Surf's Up almost didn't use at all. They actually had real people learn to walk like penguins and do all the acting!
And that's all I did today! I took more pictures today, and also still have some from yesterday, so I'll post them soon.
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