FumeFX for mental ray Released

...some time ago, it seems. And I forgot to post about it - sorry.

For those who saw me demonstrating FumeFX rendering in mental ray in singapore, or heard me blabbing about it elsewhere, well, maybe I should have mentioned that it is now actually released? Well it is. Head over to Sitni Sati for a look:

www.AfterWorks.com




Enjoy.

/Z

Merry Christmas Post

My render from Jeremy Birn's lighting challenge

'ello 'everybody, and merry christmas, and all that Jazz!

Yes, I'm back from SIGGRAPH ASIA in Singapore. I couldn't get so much net connection so there wasn't much of the promised "reporting"; I apologize profusely. For the totally curious, there are some random pictures here and some cellphone video here.

SIGGRAPH ASIA was overall a very nice experience. It was small (Pixars Tony Apocada compared it to "US Siggraph 10 years ago") which was a good thing - the US SIGGRAPH's tend to overwhelm. Only drawback of Singapore; drinks way too expensive ;)

And there was an Electronic Theatre (see last post)!

The Masterclass went very well, many special thanks to Mike Seymour from FXGuide who not only was my MC for the Masterclass, but also kept up with my 175 page powerpoint, and knew which page I had to return to when Powerpoint decided to crash yet-another-time. Note to Self: Keynote, pre-prepared DVD, or anything... ANYTHING but Powerpoints next time!

Speaking of next time, unless the economy implodes further, I'm tentatively signed up for doing a class next year in New Orleans. Nothing signed up for next SIGGRAPH ASIA in Yokohama, Japan, though.

For me, I will be trying to spend the remaining shivering pieces of the year w. my family, enjoy the festivities, eat the stuff we Swedes eat, and celebrate the most holy thing on Swedish Christmas: Donald Duck.

I part with a little Christmas Gift from (again) my friends at Blur Studios (who I must add was a great help in providing me with eyecandy for my Siggie presentations); you may recall I posted a while back about an event where they talked about their Warhammer cinematic. Well, this event was filmed and is now available online, clikety here and enjoy over 2 hours of rendering, animation, crowd/hair/cloth sim, modelling and rigging geekiness!

With that, I bid adieu for 2008.

Marry X-mas and a happy new year!

/Z

Electronic Theatre FTW!

I sit here outside the Eletronic Theatre at Siggraph Asia 2008 posting this, waiting to get in. The Electronic Theatre has always been a cherished Siggraph event, the highlight of the entire conference.

Yet, this year, in Los Angeles, there wasn't one. In the opinion of me, and many others, this was a disasterous move.

My good friend Mike Seymour from FXGuide (who was also nice enough to MC my Masterclass) has started an online petition to bring it back, so when we go to New Orleans in 2009, this Gem of the computer graphics industry will be back in it's proper forum, to spread the digital joy we all so desperately crave (oh, how poetic!).

So please, if you are a Siggraph nut, head over to and sign it.

Thanks. I'll now go in and enjoy the show...

/Z

Singapore Setup Session

I arrived alive and well in Singapore, almost immediately ran into Duncan Brinsmead from Autodesk (pictured here on the left) and since we had some free time we walked around Singapore, and even took a trip on the "Singapore Flyer", which is the Singaporean version of the London Eye thingy.

As it happens, both Duncan and myself are doing presentations at tonights Autodesk User Group event.

So for us, today is "Teh Big Setup Day" for this presentations, as well as the booth theatere stuff.

For most of the week, I'll be alternating between the Autodesk and NVidia booths. I also hear Autodesk is streaming their booth theatre presentations over the net this year (see link below).



On Friday december 12:th, the 3 hour version of my "Miracles and Magic" mental ray masterclass will be held. It's in the convention center, but note it's an Autodesk masterclass and hence requires a ticket beyond the siggraph one.


More information on User Group event, Masterclasses, and Streaming..



/Z

Up up and away....

I'm at the airport awating my first airlift enroute to SIGGRAPH ASIA in Singapore.

As a precaution, I took the photo on the right of my bag, so if it gets lost, I can show people what it looks like ;)

Smaller updates of my travels and wherabouts will be on Twitter, so follow me there, please.

If I am in Wifi range, I may show up on the FRING thingamabob on the right side.

Also, there may be QiK updates now and then.... stay tuned, same zap time, same zap channel....


/Z

Singapore Sling: SIGGRAPH ASIA 2008

In December, I am flying to Singapore to attend SIGGRAPH ASIA.


Singapore. I think.


This will really be my first visit to this corner of the world, so it will be interesting. Assuming the current planning remains, you can most likely find me around our mental images corner of the NVidia booth, as well as doing mental ray demos in the Autodesk booth. I'll be tweeting as well, as usual.

Among other things, one thing I will be doing at SIG' ASIA is to do a re-run of my masterclass from SIGGRAPH 2008 in Los Angeles, entitled "Miracles and Magic".

It was clear I had tried to cram way too much stuff to fit in the 1.5 hours I had; I had to skip every single live demo, and leapfrog little gems to just to get through it all. But I did get through it all, at a breakneck pace.

The Audience looked somewhat like this:





So... the idea here is to re-do pretty much the same masterclass, but as a 3 hour version. This would give us a more ... relaxed... pace, and the demo bits would actually fit!

So, to be totally clear. If you were at my Autodesk masterclass (not the "SIGGRAPH Course" on "HDRI for Artists") held at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles, you already saw this, but very ... quickly. :)

So if you weren't in L.A, and are interested in the same topics, feel free to attend. The blurb for the class reads as follows:

• The course will focus on photo-realistic rendering in mental ray in the context of visual effects, as well as for product and architectural visualization. The session will open with a quick introduction to photometric concepts followed by a practical guide to a linear workflow and why proper gamma correction is imperative. It will then move on to efficient techniques for achieving highly realistic results when combining CG and live action by combining existing tools together (e.g. the architectural and production shader libraries), techniques for rendering flicker-free animations with Final Gathering, and tips for conserving memory.
  

For more information about attending the Autodesk Master Classes, go here.

/Z