Autodesk acquires Softimage??????

I'm browsing around some random graphics sites, when I see a news item. It seems fake, but I follow it, look around, and it looks legit!

Autodesk Signs Agreement with Avid Technology to Acquire Softimage

Whoa! This may not be a big deal to you, but it is crazy in the 3D Graphics world.

In October 2005, Autodesk, home of AutoCAD and more important to this discussion, 3D Studio MAX (a 3D graphics package) acquired it's biggest competitor, Maya.

Now it looks like one more competitor is being pulled under the Autodesk umbrella - Softimage.

Who is left to compete against Autodesk products now? Newtek Lightwave? Luxology modo? Maxon Cinema 4D? Side Effects Houdini? Anybody?

I'll have to try and track down some people to talk to about this - it's crazy!

Technorati Tags: Autodesk,Softimage,3D Studio MAX,Maya

Demoscene screening

From wikipedia, a demo is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer subculture known as the demoscene.

What I knew about the demoscene I found out in college, so it's been a while since I've even thought about it. I was used to very small, early 90's era graphical programming examples that were cool, but I never got into it. What I saw at the screening blew my mind!

So what's the big deal? The animations below aren't rendered with some sort of animation package - they are done in a miniscule amount of memory, usually 64k, and done in realtime. These guys really know their stuff.

Oh yeah. I had been away from demoscene for so long that I was totally unaware of the advances that have been made. Once the demos started playing, I was convinced that they were showing the incorrect footage. I mean, this couldn't be real-time, right? I actually got up out of my chair and talked to two people asking them if they were playing the correct footage. All they could tell me was that Demoscene was listed as starting at 4pm, and we were currently in the allotted time. They asked me what I thought should be playing, and I said I didn't know but I thought what was playing was too good!

I went back to my seat stunned, totally caught off-guard.

Five demos were shown:

Metamorphosis, by Andromeda Software Development

Beyond the Walls of Eryx, also by ASD

Debris, by Farbrausch & Nero

Route 1066, by UKscene Allstars

Lifeforce, also by ASD

Technorati Tags: demoscene,demo,Andromeda Software Development,Farbrausch,UKscene Allstars,SIGGRAPH

Autodesk Users Group and Party

Monday night we went to the Autodesk Users Group and Party. It was at the Shrine Auditorium.

We sat through almost five hours of bladder controversy and demos of Maya, Mudbox, 3D Studio MAX, a lot of stereoscopic demos and industry tidbits. The stereoscopic demos were very nice and done using Dolby 3D Digital Cinema.

We looked totally hot. The glasses were really good. I had absolutely no problems wearing them over my glasses, and they worked flawlessly. They showed stereoscopic scenes from Star Wars, Coraline, Kung Fu Panda and many others. The announced versions of Maya, Motion Builder and Toxik supported stereoscopic in the viewport. Of course, you need a way to display stereoscopic images! A minor technicality, but they also supported the red-green anaglyph mode in the viewport just in case you weren't made out of money.

The meeting had some really great content, but waaaaaaay too long.

After the meeting everyone rushed out of the auditorium to another part of the building to a...party. Make that a semi-rave-like-performance-art-party-thing. Drinks were free, but crushing lines turned us away.

The party was put on by Massive Black, a studio full of really talented people and the force behind www.conceptart.org. Andrew (Android) Jones was there doing what he does best - a combination of live art performance mindbomb. I really like what he does, and his personally-industrialized wearable Wacom tablet is pretty nice too!

The food was a good mix of Asian flavor, but the teriyaki chicken kabob things went too quickly, especially when some dude walks by me and knocks my plate over. Dessert was endless chocolate-covered strawberries, pears with pomegranate (I think) and these fruit pastry things...I'm drawing a blank as to what they are named.

Technorati Tags: Autodesk,Maya,Mudbox,3D Studio MAX,Motion Builder,Toxik,stereoscopic,Massive Black,concept art,Android Jones,Andrew Jones,Wacom

San Francisco and The Clone Wars, episode 2

After lunch we walked through a few rooms of exhibits of concept art, maquettes and video, much of which was marked No Photos Please. There were a few photo opportunities, though.






The facilities are in the Presidio, which is a park open to the public. I took a quick panoramic shot outside the building, and a few other shots.

Presenting Data and Information course by Edward Tufte

Monday I went to a seminar on how to effectively present data by one of the masters of visual information, Edward Tufte, with more info here.

It was in the Doubletree Hotel, and I parked in the parking garage and decided to walk down the stairs instead of taking the elevator. This corridor is straight out of the movies.



I figured if something was going to go down, this was the place. Luckily (for them), nothing happened.

The seminar was in a conference room, and they had some surprisingly good coffee.





Here is another "review" of his seminars by someone else that went - some great details that I left out.

ET, as he is known online and to the community, is a great presenter, and I liked his style. Most of it was him talking with a little bit of some multimedia stuff. He's a Mac guy, but he doesn't come off as pretentious.

Patrons of the seminar received four of his books, which I heartily recommend. They are fantastic references as well as just plain great reading.



I also picked up a copy of his mother's book, Artful Sentences.

So why did I take this course? I have to present a lot of data, the lion's share of it is performance data, and my customers are engineering, marketing and sales. Whatever I can use to make what I show more effective (and have them come back to me less) is a win!

San Francisco, Day 5

Is this thing on? Finally an update!

Day 5, my last day in the hotel and all work business is done. I had until noon to check out, so walked down to another local place, Tart to Tart, for breakfast, again checking out the mocha.



I got everything packed, held my bags at the hotel and walked down to the Metreon again to check out the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit. It was okay, but I should have read this review first. Goodbye, $20!



Lunch saw me at Sanraku again, but this time more miso soup, California rolls and Teriyaki chicken, which was great.


So I've got some time to kill, and I need to get closer to the Presidio. Cab? No way! I walked, after checking with the concierge about some places to check out. He suggested a route that took me through Chinatown, Little Italy (is it really called that?) and some parks.

Little did I know my route was going to be 3.7 miles, while carrying a stuffed backpack and my suitcase, which the airport told me weighed 40 pounds. Hopefully that took care of that breakfast's mocha! Here's what I walked. I wish I could show an interactive Google Map, but I'm getting no love from the pathfinding AI - it's making me look like I took all these weird side streets.


Here is the entrance gate to Chinatown. If I weren't so encumbered with my baggage I would have stepped into some stores. Plenty of samurai swords, by the way.


This is the Stinking Rose, which I walked by accidentally. I've eaten there once before when I worked at a different company, and it is AWESOME...if you like garlic. I LOVE garlic.


Street poles like this made sure I knew I was in the Italian district.


I'm on a little beach at the coast now, with Ghirardelli Square behind me, the Golden Gate Bridge to my left and Alcatraz to my right.




I finally meet up with David and we have dinner at a meat skewering place, Asqew Grill, where they actually call the non-meat items on the menu "Starches."



After dinner we head down to ILM, and outside one of the entrances is this Yoda Fountain.


We caught a screening of 3:10 to Yuma in a theater for Academy members to screen movies for consideration (Dave, correct me if I'm wrong), and it didn't disappoint. Picture and sound were top notch, and I really liked the movie as well.



More pictures here.

Syd Mead

I'm a big Syd Mead fan, and I just found a new (to me) website with some of his work - The Syd Mead Project. I've always liked his retro-futuristic designs, and I love his cars.

Enjoy!