3D DIRECT • October 15, 2001

Dreaming in 3D

by Abby Albrecht

Alias|Wavefront launched the Maya Masters program to honor select Maya artists from around the world whose work stands as an example of excellence in 3D graphics and animation. Four Maya Masters have been chosen to launch the program: Dirk Bialluch, Chris Landreth, Nobuo Takahashi, and Habib Zargarpour. Each has made significant contributions to the CG industry based on breakthrough usage of Maya technology and/or contributions to the community at large via training and education. Alias|Wavefront's goal in launching the Maya Masters program is twofold: recognize industry leaders who have chosen to work with Maya and provide a means to mentor other artists, particularly students.

The Maya Masters Web site, which also launches today, features a biography of each master; a synopsis of their portfolio; as well as an in-depth interview with each covering such topics as how they got started in CG, how they've used Maya on specific projects, and where they see the industry going.

The Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C. presented discreet with the Technology to Empower Community (TEC) Champion Award. Discreet was recognized for its "excellence in promoting innovative technology to educational communities throughout the country." Congressman Major Owens, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus' Education Brain Trust presented the award.

Discreet's work in the educational community focuses on assisting schools and community based service organizations with technology implementation to help students use tools that drive them to take an active interest in their education. VR Visions, a partner of discreet in its educational outreach, also received a TEC Champion Award for the company's efforts on a new animation and virtual reality laboratory at Medgar Evars College in Brooklyn, New York.

The SIGGRAPH conference is the world's annual celebration of the latest research advances, demonstrated applications, and freedom of expression within the disciplines of computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH 2002 committee has announced a call for participation for the format and styles of presentation to be shared at the next confluence of these disciplines in San Antonio, Texas in July 2002. Based on this foundation, the committee invites everyone to define the cutting graphic and interactive edges in science, art, medicine, entertainment, communications, education, and other areas of interest in order to build the next international celebration.

Laurel Klick, a visual effects supervisor at Cinesite Hollywood, was presented an Emmy award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special for her work on Frank Herbert's Dune (Part 1), which aired on the Sci-Fi Channel. The statuette was presented at the 2001 Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

Frank Herbert's Dune is the second film iteration of the classic science fiction novel. In 1984, David Lynch directed a feature film version. In this latest rendition, Klick was responsible for the space sequences, "water of life" visions, the arrival of the navigator, and "folding space"—which was basically a cone textured with a cloud pattern and star field that turned in on itself. The work included entire 3D environments and multi-layered compositing.

"The challenge we faced was in designing the abstract ideas that are crucial elements of the story," says Klick. "We had a lot of freedom to come up with a design for folding space, the navigator's arrival and the water of life scenes. We designed the shots in the computer and rendered motion tests with different looks and effects for Ernie Farino and John Harrison (director) to review."

The visual effects team that worked on the film included: Ernest Farino, Tim McHugh, Klick, and Frank H. Isaacs (visual effects supervisors); Elaine Essex Thompson (visual effects coordinator); James Healy and Gregory Nicotero (lead special effects supervisors); Anthony Alderson (CGI supervisor); and Chris Zapara (lead CGI animator).

Strata shipped the Rich Media Edition of Strata 3Dpro. Version 3.6 of the application features the ability to render 3D images and animations and export them as Macromedia Flash files and other vector formats for the Web or for print. Strata 3Dpro's new capabilities are gained by the incorporation of the Swift 3D PowerModule, which utilizes RAViX II rendering technology from Electric Rain, Inc. For more information about Strata 3Dpro visit the company's Web site.

Nvidia Corp. announced that its GeForce Titanium series of graphics processing units (GPUs) has secured design wins with the industry's top suppliers. Starting October 12th, products based on these new Nvidia GPUs will be introduced by the following add-in card companies, including: ASUStek Computer, Inc.; Creative Technology Ltd.; ELSA; Leadtek Research, Inc.; Gainward Co. Ltd.; Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.; MSI; PNY Technologies; and Visiontek, Inc.

"With the new GeForce3 Titanium series, Nvidia is able to deliver a DirectX 8-based graphics solution well beyond the enthusiast market," said Jeff Fisher, executive vice president of worldwide sales at Nvidia.

Nvidia Corp. also announced that its family of graphics and multimedia processors has been optimized for the AMD Athlon XP processor 1800+. In addition to nForce, Nvidia's complete family of graphics processor units (GPUs) are optimized for all AMD processors, including the AMD Duron processor, and for Windows XP through Detonator XP, Nvidia's new Windows XP-ready Unified Driver Architecture (UDA).

BOXX Technologies announced that the 3DBOXX R1 series of high-performance workstations and the RenderBOXX R1 series of rendering systems now include the new AMD Athlon MP processor with QuantiSpeed architecture and Smart MP technology.

Designed for Microsoft Windows 2000/NT or Linux, the 3DBOXX R1 and RenderBOXX R1 systems are available in single and dual processor configurations and are optimized for creating and rendering 3D content and animation.

Abby Albrecht is the Web editor for 3Dgate. Be verwy, verwy quiet. We're hunting advertisers. You can reach Abby at aalbrecht@cmp.com.