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We're starting to veer off topic a bit. The purpose of the Production Challenge is not to stump the people involved or try to make things as difficult as possible. It isn't even attempting to approach being a real world production. It's basically a Master Class, except the materials are created live rather than canned.
The situation poses a challenge: Create a production shot in one day.The subject of the shot is known in advance, but not worked on in advance.
- the artists involved don't have a lot of experience working together
- the equipment and work environment is unfamiliar
- there is a relatively short time to get the work done
- the artists doing the work have to explain what they are doing as they do it, and hopefully be entertaining along the way
The above conditions are quite conducive to error and comedy. Those who attended last year's event can confirm we experienced some crashes and plenty of unforeseen stumbling blocks. Where things got interesting is in how we took advantage of the tools and experience in order to overcome those problems. Those moments are where the magic happens, the stuff you simply can't get from a textbook, traditional master class, or canned demo.
On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 5:43 PM, Matt Lind < mlind(at)carbinestudios.com> wrote:
If the Softimage production challenge only creates linear
content within 'x' amount of time, then it's not really pushing much other than
the energy reserves of the people making content. It's more or less post
production for a day, no?
Just my opinion, but I feel that the production challenge
would be a better demonstration of XSI's competitive edge (or flaws) if it truly
mimicked what goes on in a typical production studio including the overhead of
getting set up and dealing with the unexpected.
For example, grab a few non-XSI users at random and train
them on the spot to participate in the challenge. Many studios deploying
XSI don't have the luxury of having a large talent pool of XSI users to draw
from. So trying to overcome this hurdle would be a good test to see how
friendly XSI is to new users who need to get going fast and largely do so on
their own. Don't put these users solely in non-lead roles either - give
them responsibility. yeah, in 12 hours that's asking quite a lot, but hey,
our employers ask as much all the time. Fair is fair.
I'd like to see more use of realtime technologies.
Everybody talks about how games and film/video are merging and have been doing
so for years. Let's see it. Not just as a shallow case of using an
OpenGL/DirectX viewport to see your objects, but rather to prototype as well as
optimize the entire workflow. for example, how can we use vertex color
properties and user normal properties to cut down the amount of work we do, the
amount of data we store, without sacrificing quality or integrity (for
those of us who produce functional content)? What can be pushed to
hardware that has traditionally been done in software? Oh, and here's the
real catch - the computers in use cannot be identical. There needs to be
variety of graphics cards (brands and models) and system configurations to
account for the true mixed environment that exists in studios. Some
graphics cards shouldn't be on the XSI certified list (Nvidia GeForce, for
example). Why? because if this is to be a genuine production
challenge, XSI must adapt to the production environment, not the other way
around.
Those are just off the top of my head, given time I'll
think of other things.
Matt
From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM
[mailto: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of Bradley
Gabe Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 2:35 PM To:
XSI(at)Softimage.COM Subject: Re: Softimage Production Challenge 2008:
Getting started
Due to NDA, and as Chinny reminded us, I'm not allowed to discuss
the next gen tools. If we have access to them for the event, we would
certainly take advantage of anything they can provide. I've done plenty of
flocking effects with the current XSI particles. Don't forget, the
tools we use will be dependent on the shot we're trying to produce. We could
ask for shot submittals to involve some kind of crowd theme or abstract art,
but that might be too tough to do in a single day from scratch!
:-)
On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 4:28 PM, Tim Leydecker < baueroink(at)gmx.de> wrote:
Hey
Brad,
I´m not sure how powerful the next-gen XSI tools already
are
but would still expect to see great examples of the classic
flock
of birds, nice example:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=manuel+presti+&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2
In
a nutshell, scripted interaction that might even look
great without
having to render but "just capture in realtime".
More wishful
thinking? Classic FX:
Volumetric Smoke, Fire, Explosions.
Some
tough nut?
Ice or Glass melting/shattering, then morphing into
an
animated character, sort of reliving Abyss or
Terminator.
General emphasis on "abstract" imagery, possibly
driven
interactively, either by realtime input or possibly
audio.
Cheers
tim
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