Inspired by games, Zviz could come back around and influence the production of future games like sequels to the LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy franchise.

Another important aspect is support for sketching and annotation. The system has interactive tools for drawing primitives, so if you’re missing a prop, you can sketch it in 2D. The 2D sketch becomes an animatable asset in 3D that you can use as a proxy. You can also sketch a note on an asset in 2D — say you want something brighter or taller — and it lives in the 3D world. You can draw facial expressions on characters and flip through them.

So, if the director can’t express what he wants with the world built for him or the library of assets, he can make a note or draw a sketch within the system to tell everyone exactly want he wants.

BR: How does the animation and shooting mode work?

SS: This is where you block out a performance, set up the action in the scene and fly the camera around to create shots. You can do different takes and keep multiple versions of a shot in memory at the same time to compare and contrast. Or, you can grab one version and make two more from that.

The system supports various camera rigs and more than one camera. You can have a free-floating camera, or you can use dollies and cranes. It has lenses and film backs — all the things a director thinks of. We have realtime lighting — game engine style lighting. It isn’t a final look, but you can have key lights, shadows, ratios. The system also supports physics, so you can have objects bouncing around and collisions.

One thing we heard from producers and directors is that the previs they get from people now tends to be unrealistic. The images are right, but the previs is not real in the 3D world and they can’t shoot it. They want freedom, but if a camera goes through a wall, they want to be warned.

BR: And the editing mode?

SS: This is where you can pull your shots together and sequence them. It’s pretty straightforward editing — you drag shots into a timeline and have in and out points. It supports audio so you can record into the system or grab pre-recorded audio clips.

BR: Does Zviz support compositing?

SS: We don’t have compositing built in, but because we built the system on Zeno, you could flip a button, jump into Zeno, set up a compositing tree and the system would import it. Sophisticated users could do anything they can do in the Maya-based system, but with the interactive interface designed for directors.

BR: Who has used the system?

SS: Lucas Animation is using the system for the TV series. Visual effects supervisors at ILM are starting to use it as well. It will probably be used at LucasArts for cut scene authoring in games.

BR: It reminds me a little of what people are doing with machinimation. How is Zviz different from what you could do with a realtime game engine?

SS: Well, mocking up movies in this environment is like the best machinima you’ve ever seen. We’re putting a game engine under a moviemaker’s tool to get graphics and speed — but the system goes beyond machimination.

If you really want to block out a movie, you don’t want machinimation. Machinimation isn’t built for a director who wants to block out shots, edit takes, do timelines and all that.

If you’re familiar with storyboards, you can even work that way. You can bring in 2D storyboards, cut back to 3D stuff and animate with the boards in that kind of workflow if you want.

We focused on the way a director wants to store shots, do edits and keep track of takes. We have asset libraries, sketching and annotation. The interaction with the camera mimics the real world.

It’s nice and direct. You don’t have to learn a lot of stuff. Everything is moveable — you can move things around, move characters around. You can pose characters and animate them. We show it to people and they get it right away. A director can reach into the picture, compose the shot the way he wants and the camera goes to the right place.

BR: So, is George Lucas using Zviz now?

SS: He hasn’t used it yet because he’s not at the previs stage with a film. I know he wants to get his hands on it, though.

BR: When can we see it?

SS: I wish we could show more people now. The time will come.

Barbara Robertson is an award-winning journalist who has covered visual effects and computer animation for 15 years. She also co-founded the dog photography website dogpixandflix.com. Her most recent travel essay appears in the new Travelers Tales anthology, The Thong Also Rises.