Autodesk has signed a definitive agreement with Avid to acquire substantially all of the assets of Avid’s Softimage business unit for around US$35 million. This will mean that Autodesk will own three of the main 3D suites: 3ds Max, Maya and Softimage|XSI.

The company says that it intends to continue developing and selling Softimage’s core product line, while integrating certain Softimage technology into future versions of Autodesk solutions and products. Autodesk plans to acquire and continue developing the core Softimage|XSI suite, the Softimage|Face Robot facial animation software, the Softimage|Cat character animation plug-in for 3ds Max and the Softimage|Crosswalk ‘interoperability solution’ – which will be integrated with Autodesk’s own sharing technology.

“As we have demonstrated since the acquisition of Alias in 2006,” said Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment, “we’re committed to giving our customers choice when it comes to their 3D tools. We plan to maintain and grow the Softimage product line, and through Autodesk FBX provide better interoperability between Softimage products, 3ds Max and Autodesk Maya. FBX also provides interoperability between Softimage products and our specialised applications such as Autodesk Mudbox, Autodesk MotionBuilder, Autodesk ImageModeler and Autodesk Stitcher, as well as numerous third-party applications.”

Softimage was founded in 1986 by Daniel Langlois and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Softimage|XSI is used by leading VFX houses and games companies including Digital Domain, Ubisoft, SEGA Corporation, CAPCOM, Animal Logic and The Mill. Over the last few years, XSI has become more focussed on larger workgroups of animators and modellers, dropping the entry-level Foundation version when XSI 7 was released in August.

Animation created for the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Lucasfilm Ltd. and Lucasfilm Animation are using Autodesk® Maya® software to create the upcoming television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, just as they did to create the feature-length animated film that is now in theaters.

These are the first animated Star Wars projects from Lucasfilm. The projects benefited from a global production environment, with Maya as the hub for creating highly detailed worlds, characters and creatures, including Anakin Skywalker, R2-D2, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jabba the Hutt.

Lucasfilm Chief Technology Officer Richard Kerris said, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars brings an entirely new look and feel to Star Wars by moving it into animation. We wanted to use technology that would live up to the high standards of Lucasfilm, and selected Autodesk Maya as our animation platform for both the film and TV series. We chose Maya for its creative tools, extensibility and large user base. Maya is the backbone of our global production environment, enabling us to seamlessly share work between our United States-based creative team and our production studios in Asia.”

Digital artists in California, at Lucasfilm Animation Singapore and at partner studio CGCG in Taipei, have created more than 30 episodes of the TV series. The California-based creative team at Lucasfilm Animation establishes the storyline and key scenes, while animators at the studios in Asia produce the animation. This around-the-clock production chain generates an average of eight finished minutes of animation each week — an unprecedented productivity level for film and TV production.

Kerris added, “Maya has become the animation platform of choice for the film industry. It greatly reduces the complexity of working globally. At Lucasfilm, we’re constantly developing new tools, and we fit them into Maya. In essence, Maya is the concrete foundation that lets us explore new concepts and maximize productivity and creativity — without disrupting our global production pipeline.”

“Ultimately, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is about great storytelling,” said Danny Keller, animation supervisor at Lucasfilm. “From a technological standpoint, we need to be flexible in order to take the creative vision wherever George Lucas and supervising director Dave Filoni dream of taking it. Autodesk Maya allows us to do that.”

The Pudong New Area government in Shanghai expects to attract more than 200 animation and cartoon enterprises into Zhangjiang High-tech Park within five to 10 years, the district government said recently.

To forge the city’s animation industry base in Zhangjiang, the government plans to set up an “animation valley” as Phase 2 of the Zhangjiang Creative Industry Base.

The new facility will also provide a creative hub for animation and comics artists and investors to tap the vast potential of the Chinese domestic market.

The valley has teams of animators, together with BG artists, graphic designers and directors.

Each link in the animation production process can be completed at the facility, including graphic design, storyboard, layout, coloration, compositing, visual effects and post-production.

In the past three years, Zhangjiang Creative Industry Base has attracted more than 20 companies in comics and animation making.

These include Fantasia Animation, which is China’s first privately owned animation company that is qualified to export their products, and Hippo Animation, which specializes in producing 3D and 2D animation feature films, TV series, games and short mobile animation series.

Other tenants include City Animation, which adapts online literature into comics that are available in the city’s 4,000 supermarkets and convenience stores.

These enterprises are well integrated with the nearby online game base, which was established three years ago.

The country’s biggest base for online games, this part of the park is home to over 30 online game developers and operators.

These include SNDA Entertainment, The 9, and Electronic Arts. Online game companies at the park have captured a combined 75 percent share of the Chinese online games market, according to 2005 figures.

“The combination of animation and online game development can help to form integrated industries that can optimize resources,” said Yuan Liqiang, general manager of the Shanghai Zhangjiang Creative Industry Development Co Ltd.

The plan also involves building China’s first animation museum and animation cinema. The “animation valley” will be a market-oriented research and development platform jointly invested by the Pudong New Area government, Shanghai Zhangjiang (Group) Co Ltd and Shanghai Movie Art Academy, district officials said.

The final goal within a decade is to create more than 5 billion yuan (US$730 million) in output value of animation-related products, and have three to five leading companies in the comics and animation, film and TV post-production and design sectors. In other words, it will be cartoon central.

A complete industry chain including creation, planning, brokerage, post-production, marketing, communication, extensive development and tourism is expected to be forged.

Autodesk developers of Autodesk Maya Fluid Effects System have been awarded Technical Achievement Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Maya Fluid Effects System allows digital artists to create realistic animation of liquids and gases, using novel simulation techniques for accuracy and speed, as well as a unique scripting language for working with volumetric data.

Autodesk developers Duncan Brinsmead, Jos Stam, Julia Pakalns and Martin Werner were recognized with Technical Achievement Awards for the design and implementation of the Maya Fluid Effects System at the Scientific and Technical Academy Awards ceremony held earlier this month.

Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment, said, “It is such an honor to be recognized with this Scientific and Technical Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—the gold standard of achievement in filmmaking technology.  This award is a testament to our brilliant engineers who continue to blaze new trails for the entire 3D computer graphics industry.”

Recipients are selected by the Academy for their ability to demonstrate a proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures.

This is the fifth time innovative technology developments from Autodesk have been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards.

Autodesk has announced that with the forthcoming release of 3ds Max, it will be splitting the release into two products, 3ds Max 2009 Entertainment, for game and movie producers, and 3ds Max Design 2009, for architects, designers and visualization specialists.

Both versions will offer new rendering capabilities and improved interoperability with other products like Revit, as well as additional time-saving animation and mapping workflow tools.

Its entertainment branded version will include a new Reveal rendering toolset to streamline iterative workflows, a ProMaterials material library for simulating real-world surfaces, as well as numerous biped enhancements and new UV editing tools. It will also include Recognize, a new scene-loading technology which it says will significantly improve the inter-application workflow with Revit Architecture 2009.

Its design branded version will include all features of the entertainment branded version, with the exception of an included software development toolkit, used primarily in game and video markets to to integrate software into a production pipeline and develop in-house tools to be used in conjunction with the 3ds Max. The design version will also include “Exposure technology,” to simulate and analyze sun, sky, and artificial lighting to assist with LEED 8.1 certification.

“Autodesk 3ds Max now comes in two distinct flavors to better meet the specific needs of our entertainment and visualization customers. 3ds Max 2009 and 3ds Max Design 2009 provide users with tailored online experiences, user interface and application defaults, tutorials, samples, and more. This simplifies the learning process and makes it easier for users to find the information that’s most relevant to them”, said Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment.

More than 30 Super Bowl XLII TV commercials for Bridgestone, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, FedEx and other advertisers were created using Autodesk, Inc. technology. Autodesk’s visual effects, editing/ finishing and 3D modeling, animation and rendering software were used to deliver computer-generated imagery, including digital animals and environments.

“With a viewership of over 97 million people, this year’s Super Bowl commercials have exceeded expectations and delivered the inspired entertainment we look forward to year after year,” said Karim Salabi, Autodesk Media & Entertainment vice president of marketing. “Once again, leading post-production facilities relied on Autodesk solutions to deliver high-impact TV commercials, all within the strict deadlines of commercial post-production.”

Numerous post-production facilities worked on the creation of Super Bowl commercials with Autodesk solutions:

Method Studios completed two Bridgestone Tires spots.  The Autodesk Flame visual effects system was used on Unexpected Obstacles, while The Scream was completed with Autodesk Maya 3D animation, modeling and rendering software to mold, rig and animate seven animals.

The Mill used the Autodesk Smoke editing and finishing system, Autodesk Mudbox brush-based modeling software, Flame and Maya to create a variety of commercials, including Coca-Cola’s It’s Mine (Mudbox, the nCloth functionality in Maya, Flame and Smoke).

Filmworkers Club used the Autodesk Inferno visual effects system, Smoke and Flame to create several spots, including Budweiser’s Clydesdale Team.

Framestore NY used Maya for modeling, look development, animation and rendering of computer generated birds in FedEx’s Carrier Pigeons, as well as Flame for compositing.

Autodesk announced today that its Autodesk 3ds Max software and Autodesk Maya software for 3D modeling, animation and rendering have won Technology and Engineering Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, in the Gaming Category of Visual Digital Content Creation Tools and Their Impact. Now in its fourth year, this category award recognizes pioneering efforts and breakthroughs in the gaming world.

Seth Haberman, chair of the Video Gaming and Technology Awards Panel, said, “An expert peer group studied digital content creation tools over a six-month period, and we unanimously awarded both Autodesk tools. The majority of video games are created with Autodesk products. As well, these industry- standard tools continue to shape the most sophisticated digital content across numerous entertainment platforms. I congratulate Autodesk on driving 3D innovation with 3ds Max and Maya.”

Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment, said, “On behalf of Autodesk, I thank the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for this tremendous honor. I’d also like to thank all the Autodesk artists out there. They have an amazing passion for our products; constantly motivating and inspiring us to take our tools in new directions. We’re dedicated to making 3ds Max and Maya the most innovative 3D tools for storytelling, cinematography and visual communication.”

3ds Max and Maya received the awards on January 7, 2008 at the 59th Annual Technology and Engineering Awards ceremony held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Launched in 1948, the Technology and Engineering Awards honor development and innovation in broadcast technology and recognize companies, organizations and individuals for breakthroughs in technology that have a significant effect on television engineering.

Coined by Richard Saul Wurman in 1976, Information Design is a field and approach to designing clear, understandable communications by giving care to structure, context, and presentation of data and information, in the effort of making information as effective as possible. As a field, its principles relate to all communications products and experiences, regardless of medium: print, broadcast, digital, online, etc. Information Design is primarily concerned with clarity (instead of simplicity) and understanding, and with readers and users responses to information presented textually, graphically or in the form of an animation.

Selling/Buying Whatever You Want
credits: Itamar & Fabiane Medeiros

Combine cheap labor costs and cheap electronic appliances and you’ll get a high-tech version of the “sandwich-man“: in the middle of XuJiaHui, the busiest commercial center in downtown Shanghai, it’s common to see young men carrying backpacks, probably containing laptops, attached to 17” LCD displays showing TV spots, as well as some interactive media advertising (mostly animations done in Flash).