Multimedia
Blogs
Forum
Affordable HD
Whitepapers
Newsletters
Events
Advertisers
DCP Directory
MillimeterInfrastructure Rules
Aug 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Cynthia Wisehart
This year, we saw Siggraph through a new lens. Our editorial team started blogging at NAB, and by Siggraph we had advanced to video blogging. It was great fun and brought an immediacy to the trade show coverage that is hard to imagine when you're used to being a monthly. Our video technology editor Trevor Boyer shot with an elegant Sony PD170 and became an early user of the Lectrosonics 401 receiver and SM transmitter, which proved itself nicely, picking out clear audio in the midst of the cacophony of Siggraph. To read and see, go to siggraph.millimeter.com.
Some people complained to me that technology-wise the show didn't seem particularly revolutionary. But I found the emerging groundswell of infrastructure and systems-oriented features, things like IO options, asset management, file linking, and collaboration features, to be more important even than new artistic-oriented features.
For example, Autodesk's latest release of the ubiquitous 3ds Max (now at version 8) certainly has comprehensive new artistic features, particularly features for advanced character animation, covering the gamut from modeling to texturing (including the new Pelt Mapping feature). But at least as important, Autodesk Vault — the built-in asset manager in Max — is a serious tool and an open standard, interoperable with other asset management products and systems.
Autodesk also gave its first public showing of new (shipping) 64-bit versions of Fire and Smoke 7, Inferno 6.5, and Flame 9.5. At the packed user event, nearly a thousand of the Autodesk faithful also saw a technology demo of the future plans for 64-bit and 3D. Smoke and Flint 9.5 were also showing and shipping on 32-bit IBM Linux platforms. And Siggraph audiences got to see Autodesk's Toxik collaborating compositing system originally unveiled at NAB (and another one of our Pick Hit winners).
This is just one company's interpretation of what our community needs from modern tools, but it demonstrates that we are entering a new phase of creativity in product development. We will, of course, continue to see more artistic tools for artists, but hopefully new emphasis on infrastructure will give them more control over the way they work together, organize their businesses, and take advantage of emerging distribution models.
Lest we forget those who actually use the tools: Autodesk users Tomek Baginski (Fallen Art) and Shane Acker (9), were honored in the Computer Animation Festival and Electronic Theatre, respectively. And in a particularly dark year — even for animators — Autodesk tools helped provide comic relief in the hands of Blur's Paul Taylor (In the Rough) and Jeff Fowler (Gopher Broke).
