News: Beijing 2008 Olympic Games: Autodesk Technology Enhances Olympic Experience for Millions of Viewers

"Birds Nest" Stadium Visualizations, Olympic Mascots and TV Content All Shaped with Autodesk Software (August 22, 2008) Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) entertainment and design software was used to create cutting-edge content for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Leading digital content creators relied on Autodesk technology to deliver Olympic projects as diverse as stadium visualizations and mascot design, to broadcast graphics and commercials for global brands. China Central Television (CCTV) CCTV is China's largest national television network. CCTV created its Olympics One Dream, One World and Olympics Age packaging and promotions with the Autodesk Smoke finishing system. As well, the broadcaster is using Smoke daily for content production during the Olympic Games. Crystal CG Crystal CG is the official graphic design supplier for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Using Autodesk 3ds Max software, Crystal CG created architectural visualizations of the Beijing "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium and related facilities. 3ds Max and Autodesk Maya software were also used on TV commercials and promotions, and an educational sports program. In addition, Crystal CG produced the five "Fuwa" Olympic mascot cartoons with Maya. Psyop/Stink Psyop/Stink used Autodesk Maya animation software to create three TV commercials for Adidas' "Together in 2008, Impossible is Nothing" Olympic Games campaign: Together, Zheng Zhi and Hu Jia. The spots include computer-generated crowds with a pencil-sketch look. "Almost every shot in these Adidas spots involved creating assets in Autodesk Maya, and compositing them with live-action footage," said Tony Barbieri, technical director at Psyop. "Using Maya, we quickly populated scenes with hundreds of varied cheering fans. There were about thirty variations of fans, all modeled and rigged in Maya. By using just one rig for each gender, we were able to capture motion and create custom animation cycles to populate the entire crowd." Psyop provides 3D animation, visual effects and digital content for the advertising market. Seven Network The in-house team at Australia's Seven Network used Smoke to deliver Olympics promotional materials for Channel Seven. "Smoke is the only system capable of handling the phenomenal amount of work accomplished at Seven. As our day-to-day, get-it-out system, Smoke is absolutely invaluable," said Suzique Doughty, senior editor, Channel Seven. suedlich-t Visual effects and animation studio suedlich-t relied on Maya and Autodesk Combustion software to shape Olympic trailers for the ARD and ZDF German public broadcasting networks. The trailers feature live-action footage of athletes morphing into 3D ink-strokes and ink-drops. Combustion was used for compositing and visual effects. suedlich-t used the Maya software's fluid and particle systems extensively for transitions between athletes and ink. About Autodesk Autodesk, Inc., is the world leader in 2D and 3D design software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk has developed the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art Digital Prototyping solutions to help customers experience their ideas before they are real. Fortune 1000 companies rely on Autodesk for the tools to visualize, simulate and analyze real-world performance early in the design process to save time and money, enhance quality and foster innovation. For additional information about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com.

P9 Design creates publicity design campaign

P9 Design, the film publicity design vertical of Percept Holdings Group’s international film-marketing company P9 Integrated, has created publicity design for C-Kkompany. The designing company has done posters, stills and billboards for the Balaji Motion Pictures upcoming film, releasing on 29 August. P9 claims that it has designed the publicity campaign for C-Kkompany by keeping the unique theme, subject and genre of the film in mind. The USP of the film was kept in mind while designing the posters and stills and a major thrust was giving to the onscreen chemistry that the characters share. All the creative have backdrop and images of middle class settings in Mumbai connoting the theme of the film. P9 recently has also embarked in providing website designing and promo designing services.
P9's film chronicles include Shaurya, Summer 2007, Hastey Hastey, Dus Kahaniyan, Dhol, Bombay To Bangkok, Return Of Hanuman, Mumbai Salsa and Loins Of Punjab. Their upcoming films include Rubaru, Right Yaa Wrong, Rang Rasiya, Aashayein, Firaaq, Pankh, Manikantan, Kanchivaram, Tasveer 8x 10 among others, said a company release.

Autodesk HumanIK Middleware

Autodesk® HumanIK® animation middleware is a run-time solution that enables dynamic in-game character animation. Integrated within the game engine, animators and game designers can now alter animations on the fly, letting characters interact dynamically and realistically with their environments. Optimized for next-generation platforms, HumanIK consists of a run-time full-body inverse kinematics (IK) solver, as well as a run-time retargeting engine for characters of differing size, proportions and skeletal hierarchy. By providing integration with Autodesk® Maya® and Autodesk® MotionBuilder™ software, HumanIK delivers full-fidelity playback of content authored with the Autodesk 3D solutions. HumanIK enables truly compelling in-game animation, unlocking the potential for truly innovative next-generation gameplay. HumanIK is a highly modular, multi-threaded library, optimized for PlayStation® 3, Xbox® 360™, PowerPC®, PC, PlayStation® 2, and Xbox® platforms. HumanIK offers developers a modular component for the development of their animation tool-chain and run-time game engine.

The Key Benefits are:

- Dynamic Target Assignment

- Run-Time Retargeting

- On-target IK System

- Consistency with Autodesk 3D Authoring Applications

- Pipeline Considerations

- Authoring & Blending Animation Clips

More at autodesk: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=9491249&siteID=123112

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VFX of 'Kahani Hamaray Mahabharat Ki'

Mumbai-based Color Cubes which recently won the Global India TV Honor award for its cutting edge VFX works in Aahat Season 3, is now doing the VFX for Balaji Productions' Kahani Hamaray Mahabharat Ki, being aired on 9X. Some of the decisive scenes done by Color Cubes include the baby Krishna and Sheshnag scene, creation of a 3D wolf character, the goddess Ganga and water splash scene, all of which have already gone on air. For creation of all these key shots, the VFX Company has done an extensive work on character modeling, water simulation, particle simulation, caustics, amongst other CG and VFX techniques. Said Suraj Rao, Creative Head of Kahani Hamaray Mahabharat Ki, "We are getting a good response from the audiences all around. Now the TV format is changing, and lot of VFX is involved in the serials going on air these days. We have tried to use high-quality VFX for the scenes in the serial and have achieved to reach quality level of CG work for the small screen. The VFX work done by Color Cubes is really appreciable." Explaining the baby Krishna and Seshnag scene, Himanshu said, "For this particular shot we had to put lot of effort creating the CG naag (snake) and rain and to composite it with live artist and water, along with the creation of water simulation." "We also had to work on the rain and water interaction with the artist because we made CG rain and water splashes. The CG water splashes have been added digitally using particle effect which needed an extensive research to give the desired look that the director asked for." For the goddess Ganga and water splash scene, Color Cubes composited CG water with real water and created CG water splash, waves and tornado which later converts in the form of goddess Ganga. Explaining one of the critical shots from the series, Himanshu explained, "One of the most complicated shots was creating a CG environment and a CG 3D wolf. Earlier we tried shooting a dog and transforming him into a wolf, but we couldn't do it because of the dogs' walking style and his tongue, which is always out of the dogs' mouth. Later we created a CG wolf and environment which we composited with the artist, shot in the chroma background." Few of the other sequences which took a lot of effort included camera motion shots, matte cutting, character modeling, complex compositing shots and rope removal, to name a few.