Computer Science 39a : Schedule

"The Animator's New Toolkit"

Jeff Light joined Industrial Light & Magic in 1990 as a software developer in the scanning department. There he served on the team that developed the Kodak/ILM input scanner which received a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in 1994. Over the last several years, Light has spearheaded both the research and development of ILM's motion capture department, where he served as the department's manager.
Light received his Bachelors of Fine Arts and Masters of Art degrees in Cinema from Ohio State University. In addition to his studies at Ohio State, Light has also taught both film and classical/computer animation there. Light has also worked at Cranston/Csuri Productions in Columbus, Ohio as a computer graphics artist.

ILM CREDITS

Global Illumination in Production?

Dan Wexler spent the last four years developing a new rendering and shading system for Pacific Data Images used on a variety of feature film projects including Antz and the upcoming feature, Shrek. He attended the University of Californa at Berkeley where he studied radiosity algorithms before working Sun Microsytems and Xaos Tools. His research interests include complex scene management, image based rendering, and shadow algorithms, but most of his time is spent fixing aliasing problems and listening to animators complain about the renderer.

The Making of Antz

Michael Collery is currently Digital Matte Painting Supervisor on PDI's next feature film "Shrek". He holds a BFA in Expanded Arts and an MA in Computer Animation from Ohio State University, and has over 20 years of experience in the computer animation field.
HW #6 online due 10/13 : Design a Rube Goldberg scene

• Game engine constraints and prior work
• How the backgrounds work
  • Artists' work in Softimage
  • Camera data for "matchmove"
  • Output and truncation of the z-buffer
  • Alternate method: pop-up planes with masking
  • Object states, top and bottom layers
• How the characters work
  • Softimage animation of rigid meshes
  • Blending animations
  • Limb tags in node hierarchy
  • Priority channels attached to tags avoid unwanted blends
  • Choreography tool
• What we'd do differently

... the importance of bouncing ball to obtain weight.

• What spacing, timing and sqash and stretch does to animation, and how to get them in computer graphics.
• How to communicate an idea using those tools.
• The importance of interpretation of reality to communicate the idea.
• An overview of the two levels of animation:
  1. Movement and the basics of it.
  2. Acting and how to use the tools of movement to achieve it.

... the importance of the bouncing ball concept for obtaining weight in computer (and all sorts of) animation.

• The importance of spacing and timing.
• What squash and stretch does to animation and how to obtain it with rigid computer models.
• The importance of exageration (or interpretation ) of reality to communicate an idea.
• Some of the tools and concepts animators use to communicate and stage their idea better.
• Basically, an overview of the two levels of animation:
  1. Movement and the basics of it.
  2. Acting and how to use the tools of movement to communicate.

Miguel Fuertes joined Industrial Light & Magic in 1994 to work on the film Casper. He is a graduate of The Information & Sciences University in Madrid, Spain. Prior to ILM, Fuertes worked as an animator, storyboard artist and camera operator for Hanna Barbera on a number of animated projects including The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Smurfs, various television specials, features and his own mini-series for children. In 1989, Fuertes joined Amblimation, Steven Spielbergs animation studio in London, as a classical animator on the films, Fievel Goes West, Were Back and Balto. In addition to his career as animation supervisor at ILM, he has been teaching classical animation at the Animation Workshop in Denmark.

ILM CREDITS

Creature Software for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Cary Phillips came to Industrial Light & Magic in 1994 after spending three years as a software engineer at Pacific Data Images. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Graphics from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied with Dr. Norman Badler, and has MSE and BES degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. Notably, Phillips developed the facial animation software for the talking dragon in Dragonheart and the monkeys in Jumanji. He is one of the principal developers of ILM's current digital system for describing and animating complex skinned creatures. This ILM proprietary animation software, called "Caricature," now plays an instrumental role in all character animation done at ILM.

ILM CREDITS

Crowd System

Jonathan Gibbs has been at PDI for just over two years. He was a lead Effects animator on the film Antz, and spent most of his time developing the PDI crowd system. Jonathan is currently working on PDI's next feature film, Shrek. On Shrek he is spending most of his time working on various rendering problems such as skin, hair and fur as well as continuing to improve the crowd system. Before joining PDI, Jonathan recieved his MS degree from UCSC and his BS degree from Principia College both in Computer Science.

Staging

Douglas Edward Smith. Native of Brampton, Ontario, Canada. Attended two years of Classical Animation program (1988-1990) at Sheridan College before joining animation industry full-time.
Worked as an in-betweener during the summer between 1st and 2nd year, at Lightbox Studios on several television spots. Worked exclusively as an animator after second year on numerous animated television shows including Tiny Toon Adventures, Goof Troop, Pirates of Dark Water, Fish Police, Wish that Changed Christmas, Mumfie the Elephant and others even more embarassing to mention. In 1993 I was in Taiwan as the overseas supervisor for the second season of Eek the Cat and the Terrible(!) Thunder Lizards.
Began career in CG animation in 1994 with production of Casper at ILM. Subsequent work included DragonHeart and Jurassic Park:the Lost World which included significant character setup in addition to my animating duties. More recent work has included extensive pre-production on Hulk (cancelled), Mighty Joe Young and further pre-production on an all CG feature.

After I failed my Art school degrees in France, I started to work in Paris as an illustrator and animation filmmaker.

I created a few short films for T.V., and I directed "Alex" an animation series for channel A2 in France. It was given the best short TV series award at the Annecy film festival 1988. The series was bought and broadcast all over Europe and Japan (NHK).

I received a Grant from the French government (BOURSE LAVOISIER) and an invitation from Apple 's ATG graphics group where I spent 2-1/2 years. I produced an animation film, "The Donor Party" shown in international festivals, released by Canal Plus France, Channel 4 in London and distributed by Manga entertainment.

I joined Berkeley System in 1993 and designed screen savers: Bad Dog is now the main character of a TV series on Fox. Then I worked for different game companies: Convivial, Illumina, Purple Moon as animator/ animation director and character designer.

Then I decided to use my skills as an animator in a different industry. I worked for "Kodak Imagination Works" as an interaction designer, designing and building a few prototypes for the entertainment industry. Recently I spent a few months at IDEO on a R&D project thinking about new ways of doing prototypes.

Now I am part of Celery Design developing projects for different clients. I plan to teach some animation workshops in Europe next spring.

I’ll show some examples of my work, from linear to interactive animation, and I’ll try to explain how animation can be used as a tool to convey ideas in different fields.

No class.

Thanksgiving Holiday!

• Bonnie, Helen, Johnny -- "A Computer System for Movement Schemas"
• Seema, Mike, Vickie -- Video Game Paper
• Liane, Colleen, Josh -- "Composition of Realistic Animation Sequences for Multiple Human Figures"
• Bedros, Oscar, Jen -- "A Robot that Walks: Emergent Behaviors from a Carefully Evolved network"
• Badi, Brent, Chris -- "Motor Programs as Units of Movement Control"

John Berton joined Industrial Light & Magic's computer graphics team in 1990 to work on the feature film "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." He most recently supervised the visual effects for Universal Studios' "The Mummy." He holds a B.A. degree in Communications and Film from Denison University in Granville, Ohio and an M.A. in Art Education/Computer Graphics from The Ohio State University. Prior to ILM, Berton created computer animation and electronic music for both commercial and artistic productions including Cranston/Csuri Productions, The Ohio Supercomputer Center, The Ohio State University and Mental Images GmbH.

ILM CREDITS