autodesk university '09
event summary
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Will had the opportunity to attend Autodesk University in Las Vegas this year, and there was a lot to see. Autodesk University is a weeklong conference that has lectures, classes, and reveals that are centered around the software packages released by Autodesk.
Since there was so much to see and do this year at AU we are only going to cover the high points. One of the major points was the upcoming release of the movie Avatar written and directed by James Cameron. Will was actually luck enough to preview 17 minutes of the film in Digital 3D and Dolby Surround. It was quite an experience. Since on 17 minutes of the film was previewed we can only discuss the technology involved in the story and not the plot.
Avatar marked a changing point in the way that films are actually created. Rather than filming in front of a green screen the actors are filmed wearing motion capture suits and their performances are recorded into the digital environment. This removes the need for post production requiring the inserting of the environment the actors were in. The motion captured for these scenes are recorded using Autodesk's Motion Builder software and the environment was created in Autodesk's Maya. With this filming technique the actors are already acting and interacting with the environment. So much so then when Mr. Cameron looked through the cameras at the actors in their motion capture suits, he say the digital characters that they were portraying.
Later the performances are "final rendered" and layered into the three dimensional images that you see when you view the film with the 3d glasses on. The final result is visually amazing. It is the most convincing movie ever filmed involving computer generated graphics.
Another new software that we had the privilege to see was Autodesk's Project Newport. Project Newport is a real time fully rendered environment that architects can use in a design atmosphere with their clients to portray their designs to their clients. Instead of the stagnant still images that take hours to create, Project Newport uses technology from the computer game world to allow designers to insert their designs into gaming engines.
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click on an image to see full size
The images above are taken directly from the program. These images show how convincing the Newport environment is. We would love to go into more detail but we are bound by our non-disclosure agreement! Sorry.
There was some other technology that we were lucky enough to see in the convention hall. In the convention hall there were vendors from all backgrounds of the architectural design profession. Here were some of the more notable products that we got to see.
Nvidia was there previewing a new release of the mental ray render engine that features real time renderings. This new feature would only be possibe on Nvidia's newer CUDA enabled cards. (Note that in our workstation review we did a couple of weeks ago, we recommended getting CUDA graphics capable cards) There were hints that this technology would be released into upcoming releases of 3DS Max but this could neither be confirmed or denied.
There was plenty of 3D printing companies in the event hall all showing off their newest printing technologies. There was a distinct shift in the 3D printing world this year. 3D printing companies appear to be moving from the traditional powder then cast systems to the ABS plastic systems that produce workable prototypes. All printing companies were touting large drops in the pricing in the next year, so maybe soon there will be printers at the desks of architectural design students and not drafting tables, but one can only dream.
