studioGPU

Maya - MachStudio Pro - PhotoShop Workflow using ATI Eyefinity on FirePro V8800

At the ATI Professional Graphics preview event back in early April pre-announcing the FirePro V8800, StudioGPU was asked to participate and demonstrate a complete production workflow using MachStudio Pro. In particular: how would the workflow benefit by taking advantage of multiple displays (all driven by the single FirePro video card using ATI Eyefinity technology).

The following video capture shows the very smooth integration between Maya, MachStudio Pro and PhotoShop in a real production workflow.  The PhotoShop integration including editable layers for the render passes is especially interesting.

StudioGPU’s chief scientist has many talents

Yoni is the chief scientist for StudioGPU and one of the visionaries behind MachStudio Pro. When not coming up with paradigm-shifting solutions for 3D artists or creating real-time radiance pass rendering, he spends time on other pursuits including it seems, juggling. 

We surreptitiously captured this 7-sec clip at the ATI Professional Graphics preview event back in early April, pre-announcing the FirePro V8800.

Always good to see the human side of the people behind the technology!

How will GPU tools affect the individual and small 3D computer graphics studio?

One of the staff from StudioGPU had written up a response to a post on a 3D discussion board. The question was: How will the upcoming IRay and GPU's affect the individual and small 3D computer graphics studio?

I found this topic to be so interesting, that I wanted to re-purpose his responses and intermix it with my own views (so apologies in advance if it sounds like two people).

How will the upcoming IRay and GPU's affect the individual and small 3D computer graphics studio?

In my mind this question is actually three separate questions.

1. How will iRay affect my hardware needs?
2. How will iRay affect my pipeline?
3. How will iRay affect my workflow?

Hardware

First thing to consider is; iRay is a platform, not an application. It's a way of harnessing the power of multiple GPUs over a network (including over the net). This means that from the hardware standpoint, you don't necessarily have to invest in new hardware. Application developers will either provide the computing power over the web as a SaaS solution (and hopefully be able to give good throughput), or you will subcontract the hardware portion to render farms which have multiple Nvidia GPUs. Of course you will be able to deploy your own cluster of Nvidia GPUs if you want to.

Pipeline

From the pipeline perspective, this really has to do with who will port their tools - or design new ones - to iRay. The current available applications which use iRay are pretty much limited to mental ray and still images. Basic things like changing light direction or camera position can be done with very fast visual feedback using progressive rendering, but the ability to truly author the content by accessing the entire gamut of visual parameters is currently unavailable via the iRay platform. We still need to see tools that can do more than provide fast navigation to understand how iRay will affect the pipeline and how will tools that use it, will replace existing ones.

Workflow

The workflow is of course the most important piece of the puzzle. However, it's too early to understand how it will change as there are no tools yet, which harness iRay for complete 3D visual authoring. But we can in general understand how GPUs affect the way we create CGI by looking at the wider GPU visual computing arena. Tools like Octane Render, Furry Ball and of course, MachStudio Pro are already changing the workflow landscape by harnessing the power of local GPUs to author visual content in real-time and near real-time.

Octane is in the early stages, with limited features and control. It is designed for creating still images rather than animations and relies on progressive rendering for speed. For even modestly complex scenes, you degrade the image sampling quality. I'm not a fan of progressive rendering in general. How strange would it be if you were a painter and as you applied paint to a canvas, you saw a grainy approximation of your work as you painted. The more complex your painting, the longer it would take after each brush stroke to see the actual image. That is to me, progressive rendering. Better than nothing, but still the technology is getting in the way of the creative process.

Furry Ball, as an add on to Maya, is actually more interesting and I look forward to seeing where this software goes. From the double-speed videos I have seen, it looks promising. But since it is Maya dependent, you manipulate lighting in a separate window from the image, which again separates the artist from the canvas. Moving back in forth between different modes is cumbersome and adds extra steps and extra time to your workflow. Fortunately the software does not succumb to the progressive rendering approach that feels so removed from direct interaction with the final scene.

In contrast to the other GPU tools, in MachStudio Pro, the workflow is akin to "painting with light". In fact, the ability to author visual content in real time creates a "digitally tactile" sense of working with paints on a canvas. This puts the emphasis back on the artistic skills of the user; and less on the technical software expertise.

With MachStudio Pro you can make a scene look any which way you want. So the question becomes, how do you want to make it look?. This question can be answered through imagination, or experimentation. The point is that having the tools which help you imagine, and experiment, are among your most valuable tools as an artist. The tools which empower you to be an artist, are the tools which will ultimately affect your workflow.

Getting the technology out of the way of the artist

The idea that a sotfware package will someday offer a magic "Make Art" button which will produce meaningful, photo-realistic images in one click, is simply misleading. A push button render with technically correct global illumination, is good for rendering colored spheres or stemware on a table, but generally not so good for rendering an image or scene intended to convey creativity, meaning or feeling.

With tools like MachStudio Pro, the quality of an image can evolve based on the artists reflexive reaction to the scene. Clicking a render button and getting a physics-defined, ray-traced image is not much of a creative process. Creativity is about being able make a decision, quickly observe the result, and then further evolve the image. It is this dialog with the image, this interactivity, that makes a good artist and good 3D CG animation.

As the field of CG is developing we are being handed better and better tools to express ourselves. The tools which will change the workflow-landscape will be those which empower and inspire us to express ourselves in most natural and direct ways.

The virtual sets and visual effects in ABC’s V - the Visitors

OK - I have to admit, I am a major SciFi fan and have been eagerly awaiting the new season of ABC’s V. If you are not a V follower, the quick recap is: The Visitors (a.k.a. V) are an invading alien race of reptilian humanoids who disguise themselves to look human.  Their spaceships fill the sky over major cities and they are gradually infiltrating into human society.  The third episode of the new season airs tomorrow. 

Why am I writing about V? For this new season of V, ABC is bulking up on virtual sets, FX, and virtual locations.  Zoic Studios is one of the primary FX companies behind V with 20 artists delivering green screen and virtual sets. (In fact they won the VES Award for Outstanding Created Environment in a Broadcast Program or Commercial for creating atrium and ship interiors for the V pilot.).  With the increased VFX demands in this second season,  Zoic was looking for ways to push their workflow pipeline into hyperdrive without shooting up costs.  Enter MachStudio Pro.

This recent article that appeared on CGW explains in detail what Zoic is doing, but here is a cut-to-the-chase recap:

The Atrium virtual set for V, which appeared in 17 shots over two episodes, contained 2,589 frames, each of which was fully rendered three times for a total of 7,767 frames rendered. Initially, Zoic rendered the set in an un-optimized fashion; it required recalculating the lighting simulation for each frame and yielded a render at four hours per frame. Zoic staffers tweaked the set and were able to optimize the render time to one hour per frame.

Zoic then decided to try MachStudio Pro and brought rendering times down to 16 minutes per frame (versus one hour).  They are now working with StudioGPU to further optimize frame buffers which they think will reduce render time to 4 minutes per frame.

Now that kind of 6000% performance increase is worthy of being called advanced alien technology.