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SeanCier writes "The SIGGraph 2004 conference showed off a lot of trends: high-dynamic-range (HDR) displays and video, suddenly ubiquitous general-purpose GPU programmability (it's not just for polygon shading anymore), 3D and high-colour displays, ever-more-refined fluid dynamics, crowd animation, and point-based graphics, to name just a few. But there was an unspoken undercurrent, a trend that's waiting to happen in the visual effects community, and happen in a big way: Open Source." Read on for more.

There are plenty of examples of open source and the graphics community getting along grandly: Gimp and CinePaint (aka FilmGimp), ILM's OpenEXR, and projects like Open Scene Graph. Linux, in particular, has made spectacular inroads: nearly everybody uses it for rendering, and many (most?) use it as their desktop OS of choice. In the RenderMan user's group (I'll get into RenderMan more in a minute), for example, somebody asked how many people used Linux as their main OS. Plenty of hands, and some approving chuckles all around. Mac OS X? A few hands, and woots. Windows? No hands at all -- and moreover, an handful of boos, followed by everybody cracking up as they realized the whole community was abandoning Microsoft wholesale.

But then there's the other side. All the major visual effects and animation studios -- ILM, Pixar, Dreamworks, Digital Domain, Blue Sky, Disney, and so on -- have a team of programmers in-house. Five, ten, two dozen, or more. They're the ones that'll write the software that does special rendering algorithms for Shrek 2, or an animation control system for Mr. Incredible, or produce massive crowd simulators for Lord of the Rings. Things that commercial software doesn't quite do -- or that nobody else has tried to do, or even thought of. Things they need to do just so. Things they need to do now.

Everybody has a ton of custom software written -- often good software, with flexible frameworks and clever hacks. Moreover, they don't want to rely any more than necessary on commercial software, because if ILM finds a bug in Maya that holds them up or slows them down, they best they can do is pay Alias to fix it fast (i.e. weeks) and then have hundreds of animators waste thousands of hours time working around it for weeks. And worse, if Digital Domain buys Alias and decides they'll keep new versions of Maya to themselves, ILM is simply screwed, in a big way. If they want to get a particular feature in Maya, and a plugin won't cut it? Well, that's even harder -- and involves more money and more time.

So ILM writes their own stuff whenever they have to, and whenever they can. And Digital Domain writes their own stuff. And Dreamworks writes their own stuff. And Disney writes their own stuff.

And most of it is all the same stuff. Fluid dynamics? Hair? Subsurface scattering? Muscle-and-skin systems? Crowd control? Dozens of topics -- and every studio pretty much has pretty similar, rather redundant code to do 'em all.

These studios aren't in the business of writing software, they're in the business of making movies. So why are they spending their time and money writing software? Because they have to; it's a Necessary Evil.

So, what if they all worked on Open Source stuff instead? Look at what I just wrote. Every word is a reason to go Open Source. No drawbacks, all upside: no lock-in, you can fix stuff, you can add stuff, you don't have to wait on anybody else, and plus, you can do all this while also using what others have written.

The knee-jerk reaction that may be some executives' first objection: our code is a strategic advantage, giving it away would be throwing away money. If we can do hair and our competitors can't, we'll make better films then they can (and, if it's a visual effects studio, we'll win contracts based on that unique ability).

Bull honkus. If your competitors need hair, they'll write hair software, no problem. Another quote from the Pixar RenderMan user's group, this one by a RenderMan developer (paraphrased): "this is based on the subsurface scattering papers from a couple years ago. Everybody does this, based on those papers." Nope, I don't see strategic advantage there: I see waste.

It is, as they say, a win-win scenario; the studios contribute their code to Open Source projects, and everybody helps make that code better. ILM started it in a small way, with OpenEXR, and it worked: OpenEXR is *the* format for high-dynamic-range images, no questions asked. Did it benefit ILM? You betcha: major packages everywhere (Photoshop, RenderMan, etc) either import/export OpenEXR now, or will soon. Pixar even contributed new compression code.

So, a great scenario, and proof that it works. Why hasn't it happened in a bigger way yet? Fear of the unknown. But listen close, and you'll hear a flood coming that could change the landscape -- and it's hard to divert a flood.

That leaves only one question: how will it start? Well, it could begin with open source projects becoming valuable to studios, as started happening with Gimp (though here I'm talking more about advanced 3D animation, simulation, and rendering; Blender's great for what it does, but medium-to-large studios aren't its intended audience; it's not going to displace Maya any time soon, because it doesn't offer anything that Maya lacks as far as the studios are concerned). Or it could start with a studio making a bunch of their custom in-house software Open Source (like ILM did with OpenEXR). Either way, it's up to us as a community -- either to write the software or to sell the concept.

I'd suggest that a great place for all this to start would be with Pixar's PRMan (PhotoRealistic RenderMan, these days often called just RenderMan). And note I say this as a shareholder. Selling RenderMan and related software accounts for less than 5% of Pixar's revenue; the real reason -- the *only* business reason -- they still develop it is for the other 95% of the company to use. If open-sourcing it would bring in collaboration and improvements that would make them just 5% more efficient in generating movie revenue, doesn't that justify the decision right there? And of course that's not counting those who would still pay for service contracts, or the reduction in development costs that could come from the rest of the community helping with their R&D (the budget for which, BTW, surpasses their software revenue). RenderMan has always been a product ahead of its time, and that's why -- despite Pixar's belligerent and hostile use of patents and close-held IP -- it's still the golden standard in this industry. The RenderMan protocol and API was intended fifteen years ago to be a renderer-independent standard, the PostScript of the 3D world. That dream died because of Pixar's unwillingness to release IP: it became difficult or impossible for others to implement that standard officially, or at all, because Pixar grasped the it so tightly (case in point, ExLuna: their lawyers summarily killed what was the best chance in years of having a RenderMan-compliant renderer with new and different functionality, complementary to PRMan). But the renderer -- PRMan -- doesn't have to die through the same mistake, even in the face of an ever-shrinking market share and competitors with the advanced global illumination algorithms PRMan lacks.

But that's not to say Pixar is the only -- or even the best or most likely -- option here. They most certainly don't hold all the cards. So, don't sit back and wait for Pixar or another studio to start the ball rolling: we need to give it a push.

Mark Pitman writes "The animated short Bunny that was featured on Slashdot a few weeks back, won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. Cool. " If you haven't seen the short, you really are missing out.

Dr. Jest writes "Blue Sky Studios is webcasting their computer animated short "Bunny" at certain times from March 15-24. You have to register your name and email address to watch it, but it's more than worth it. The broadcast quality is excellent, as is the music by Tom Waits. " Bunny is awesome. Don't miss it. The lighting and hair are both stunning. Some of the best Computer Animation I've ever seen.

Every now and then running Slashdot has its advantages. Like earlier this week when a tape arrived in my mailbox containing a copy of the new Blue Sky Studios CGI animated short Bunny. Hit the link below to read my summary of the 6 minute film. Quick show of hands, how many of you like Wallace & Gromit? How many of you dig the look of Classic Stop Motion and Claymation? Probably most of you, right? Well thats the thing about Bunny that will blow you away. It looks like someone managed to make a claymation film, but do it perfectly.

Perfect animation- smooth and believable- the bunny has excellent mass, the movement is believable, and the emotions just leap out from every movement of her body. The set, the lighting, everything is completely believable. No telltale fingerprints, or subtle jerkiness. Sure, its cartoon, but it looks real. Its great. The fur on Bunny looks exactly like it should. The reflections are right, the liquid effects are right, and the huge bug flutters around with eratic motion that is perfectly wrong. It's a treat.

So does it have a plot? Sorta. Basically it involves an elderly bunny who is baking, and a bug that gets in her way. Don't worry about it to much, it'll make your head hurt, like any good artsy film should- crazy imagry, some obvious symbolism, and some subtle stuff. But its definitely an art film and not your traditional slapstick haha short. I won't spoil it for you. Just hold your jaw shut and watch.

I want to thank the one and only Dan Weeks for sending me the tape. Blue Sky has submitted the film for consideration for the Acadamy Awards this year, and I wish them the best. If anyone has any other cool CGI that they want reviewed, lemme know and I'll check it out. I love this stuff, and I'd really like to see whats up this year. The world has come a long way since Luxo. Makes me wanna go back and make a followup to my own lame stuff.

Update: 12/07 12:21 by CT : Brooks Jewell from Blue Sky contacted me to say that he is the Press Contact over there. Questions and be directed to him.

Every now and then running Slashdot has its advantages. Like earlier this week when a tape arrived in my mailbox containing a copy of the new Blue Sky Studios CGI animated short Bunny. Hit the link below to read my summary of the 6 minute film. Quick show of hands, how many of you like Wallace & Gromit? How many of you dig the look of Classic Stop Motion and Claymation? Probably most of you, right? Well thats the thing about Bunny that will blow you away. It looks like someone managed to make a claymation film, but do it perfectly.

Perfect animation- smooth and believable- the bunny has excellent mass, the movement is believable, and the emotions just leap out from every movement of her body. The set, the lighting, everything is completely believable. No telltale fingerprints, or subtle jerkiness. Sure, its cartoon, but it looks real. Its great. The fur on Bunny looks exactly like it should. The reflections are right, the liquid effects are right, and the huge bug flutters around with eratic motion that is perfectly wrong. It's a treat.

So does it have a plot? Sorta. Basically it involves an elderly bunny who is baking, and a bug that gets in her way. Don't worry about it to much, it'll make your head hurt, like any good artsy film should- crazy imagry, some obvious symbolism, and some subtle stuff. But its definitely an art film and not your traditional slapstick haha short. I won't spoil it for you. Just hold your jaw shut and watch.

I want to thank the one and only Dan Weeks for sending me the tape. Blue Sky has submitted the film for consideration for the Acadamy Awards this year, and I wish them the best. If anyone has any other cool CGI that they want reviewed, lemme know and I'll check it out. I love this stuff, and I'd really like to see whats up this year. The world has come a long way since Luxo. Makes me wanna go back and make a followup to my own lame stuff.

Update: 12/07 12:21 by CT : Brooks Jewell from Blue Sky contacted me to say that he is the Press Contact over there. Questions and be directed to him.

Every now and then running Slashdot has its advantages. Like earlier this week when a tape arrived in my mailbox containing a copy of the new Blue Sky Studios CGI animated short Bunny. Hit the link below to read my summary of the 6 minute film. Quick show of hands, how many of you like Wallace & Gromit? How many of you dig the look of Classic Stop Motion and Claymation? Probably most of you, right? Well thats the thing about Bunny that will blow you away. It looks like someone managed to make a claymation film, but do it perfectly.

Perfect animation- smooth and believable- the bunny has excellent mass, the movement is believable, and the emotions just leap out from every movement of her body. The set, the lighting, everything is completely believable. No telltale fingerprints, or subtle jerkiness. Sure, its cartoon, but it looks real. Its great. The fur on Bunny looks exactly like it should. The reflections are right, the liquid effects are right, and the huge bug flutters around with eratic motion that is perfectly wrong. It's a treat.

So does it have a plot? Sorta. Basically it involves an elderly bunny who is baking, and a bug that gets in her way. Don't worry about it to much, it'll make your head hurt, like any good artsy film should- crazy imagry, some obvious symbolism, and some subtle stuff. But its definitely an art film and not your traditional slapstick haha short. I won't spoil it for you. Just hold your jaw shut and watch.

I want to thank the one and only Dan Weeks for sending me the tape. Blue Sky has submitted the film for consideration for the Acadamy Awards this year, and I wish them the best. If anyone has any other cool CGI that they want reviewed, lemme know and I'll check it out. I love this stuff, and I'd really like to see whats up this year. The world has come a long way since Luxo. Makes me wanna go back and make a followup to my own lame stuff.

Update: 12/07 12:21 by CT : Brooks Jewell from Blue Sky contacted me to say that he is the Press Contact over there. Questions and be directed to him.

Every now and then running Slashdot has its advantages. Like earlier this week when a tape arrived in my mailbox containing a copy of the new Blue Sky Studios CGI animated short Bunny. Hit the link below to read my summary of the 6 minute film. Quick show of hands, how many of you like Wallace & Gromit? How many of you dig the look of Classic Stop Motion and Claymation? Probably most of you, right? Well thats the thing about Bunny that will blow you away. It looks like someone managed to make a claymation film, but do it perfectly.

Perfect animation- smooth and believable- the bunny has excellent mass, the movement is believable, and the emotions just leap out from every movement of her body. The set, the lighting, everything is completely believable. No telltale fingerprints, or subtle jerkiness. Sure, its cartoon, but it looks real. Its great. The fur on Bunny looks exactly like it should. The reflections are right, the liquid effects are right, and the huge bug flutters around with eratic motion that is perfectly wrong. It's a treat.

So does it have a plot? Sorta. Basically it involves an elderly bunny who is baking, and a bug that gets in her way. Don't worry about it to much, it'll make your head hurt, like any good artsy film should- crazy imagry, some obvious symbolism, and some subtle stuff. But its definitely an art film and not your traditional slapstick haha short. I won't spoil it for you. Just hold your jaw shut and watch.

I want to thank the one and only Dan Weeks for sending me the tape. Blue Sky has submitted the film for consideration for the Acadamy Awards this year, and I wish them the best. If anyone has any other cool CGI that they want reviewed, lemme know and I'll check it out. I love this stuff, and I'd really like to see whats up this year. The world has come a long way since Luxo. Makes me wanna go back and make a followup to my own lame stuff.

Update: 12/07 12:21 by CT : Brooks Jewell from Blue Sky contacted me to say that he is the Press Contact over there. Questions and be directed to him.

danimal writes "Well, last week we at Blue Sky Studios released a web site for our new short computer animated film, Bunny. We all worked incredibly hard on this and we are glad it is done. There are a few stills and after the premier in NY (next week) we are going to put up more images and stuff. There are some screenings of it in L.A. for the next 3 days (starting today 11/17). " The shots from the film look awesome. This sure ain't tron anymore.

danimal writes "Well, last week we at Blue Sky Studios released a web site for our new short computer animated film, Bunny. We all worked incredibly hard on this and we are glad it is done. There are a few stills and after the premier in NY (next week) we are going to put up more images and stuff. There are some screenings of it in L.A. for the next 3 days (starting today 11/17). " The shots from the film look awesome. This sure ain't tron anymore.