Maintaining an efficient pipeline: bluegfx expo show report

Kerrie Hughes | Events | News | 24/05/2011 14:40pm

Insights on improving workflow in a media production pipeline were shared by experts at the bluegfx expo earlier this month

bluegfx expo took place in London on 12 May

Leading software and hardware providers bluegfx, held the all-day event at Ravensbourne College of design and communication in London.

Sessions were held with speakers from Autodesk, Allegorithmic, BlueArc, Chaos Group, Eyeon, Glowfrog, Microsoft, MPC, Netblender, NVIDIA, Peer1, PipelineFX and Prime Focus.

During the event, experts from these companies had the opportunity to share working practices and new products with fellow professionals and students.

The exhibition provided a wealth of information on various software, hardware and plug-in options all aimed at improving workflow.

The majority of the talks discussed harnessing the power of the GPU, but various other strands included the 2012 Autodesk products and V-Ray 2.0.

GPU Cloud Computing

Peer1 and bluegfx also spoke of its plans to deliver improved application performance in GPU cloud computing through the use of Nvidia’s Tesla GPU.

Senior vice president of buisness management at Peer 1, Robert Miggins

It means that bluegfx customers now have access to high powered graphics on a pay-per-process basis.

Mental Images has also been working with Peer1 to provide the GPU cloud with RealityServer; a 3D web application software with iray rendering technology.

Iray is a photorealistic and physically correct rendering solution that also uses the power of Nvidia’s Quadro and Tesla GPUs to create realistic images.

The service enables the user to deliver and visualise 3D scenes over the web.

Peer1 announced they are due to open a UK data centre in Portsmouth on Oct 1 2011.

Autodesk and Microsoft Kinect

Autodesk technical specialists Jamie Gwilliam and Graham Bell, discussed the benefits of the 2012 Entertainment Suite, which include either Maya or 3ds Max as well as Softimage, MotionBuilder and Mudbox.

An audience member helps demonstrate how Kinect can be used with Autodesk products

The speakers highlighted the benefits of having so many programs in one package, explaining how artists are able to enhance their skills in less familiar applications that may be capable of completing work in a more efficient way.

“Just because you can do it in one package, doesn’t mean you should,” says Gwilliam.

Graham Bell noted the new features in Softimage 2012 as an example, specifically in the area of facial animation.

The duo also held a demonstration of how various Autodesk applications can be used with Microsoft’s Kinect, a subject covered in the Pre-Viz section of 3D World Issue 142.

Chaos Group – V-Ray 2.0

V-Ray 2.0 uses enhanced camera options to create realistic motion blur

Chaos Group was also at the bluegfx expo demonstrating the new features in V-Ray 2.0.

3D artist Konstantin Gaytandzhiev, discussed the benefits of using V-Ray proxies, a process that enables the user to import geometry from an external mesh at render time only.

This allows the rendering of extremely dense scenes at faster rates.

Gaytandzhiev also discussed the sophisticated results that can be achieved using the new camera options to create realistic motion blur.

The 3D artist also covered the V-Ray LightSelect render element, which enables the user to extract each separate light pass contribution and put them all together in one pass for use in composition.

Design Visualisation

Design-viz studios were also present at the expo: managing director of Glowfrog Studio, Nigel Hunt, presented a talk on efficiently handling a long term, large scale project.

The talk was based around the Greenwich Peninsula urban development project – the company started working on it in 2001 and has been ever since.

Hunt shared some of Glowfrog’s working practices for a large scale enterprise:

Interestingly, the studio uses a written document that details its particular techniques and processes for standard working practises. “It is like a bible,” Hunt says.

Communication is key, both with the client and employees, especially when organising and naming files on a large project.

Using Xrefs and V-Ray proxies – some of the Greenwich Peninsula briefs have approximately 15,000 Xrefs and close to 4,000 V-Ray proxies meaning clear organisation of assets is vital.

The managing director went on to discuss design-viz and its position in creating the image the client wants rather than a beautiful work of art.

“The bulk of our work is re-iteration, not about creating an award winning image,” says Hunt. “It is about re-visiting an image we have worked with for years and showing how we can maintain an asset as things develop.”

www.bluegfxexpo.co.uk

Posted on Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 at 2:40 pm under Events, News. You can subscribe to comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.