Render On
Computing power is thankfully and constantly always keeping ahead of the game, improving in considerable leaps and bounds throughout every year, and 2003 was no exception. One impressive revelation that was the talk of last year was the major shift to Linux operating systems. Many large and small reputable animation studios such as DreamWorks, The Walt Disney Co., Pixar Animation Studios and Blue Sky Studios, to name a few, have made the switch to Linux-run operating systems within the last year. Promising more memory and greater processing power for the rendering process, arguably one of the greatest demands in our industry today, many studios are realizing their once mighty render farms are beginning to tap out at the 32-bit system memory threshold. Thankfully, within the last year scalable and clustered systems are becoming better solutions and readily available for our needs, and with the introduction of 64-bit processors such as AMD’s Athlon 64 FX Processor, the choices are becoming very obvious and simple.

Other hardware vendors such as NVIDIA and ATI have also locked horns within the last year, delivering the next wave of graphic processors. Both sport impressive 128-bit floating-point precision, giving power users the much needed realtime performance. ATI had put up a great fight and continues to do so with their Radeon 9800 family series, but no other vendor created as much stir as NVIDIA with their high-end Quadro FX series of graphic cards, touting the “Industry’s only true 128-bit floating-point graphics pipeline.” With the introduction of the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000, NVIDIA succeeded in delivering to the power users of our industry.

Sega’s Animanium develops software that is compatible with most major 3D applications, saving users money and headaches.

The Future of CGI
In the past year, significant improvements have definitely been made, but I got the feeling it was more a year for the artist. The tools have gotten easier to use, so much so they’re now beginning to take a backseat as the talent behind the scenes bring us unsurpassed realism in digital characters such as Gollum and the Hulk. With stunning visual effects in films such as The Return of the King and X2, even the accolades have been more evident, with the introduction of the International 3DAwards and Exposé created by CGNetworks (a division of Ballistic Media Pty Ltd.), to name a few, and the competition has surely heated up.

But have we seen it all? Not likely, as software and hardware continue to develop at such a rapid rate that we can expect to see new tools such as Luxology’s Modo, ZBrush 2.0 and long-standing vendors such as Alias, Softimage and NVIDIA stepping up to the plate time and time again.

Tito A. Belgrave is currently a freelance writer and senior 3D artist for DKP Effects in Toronto, who is working on the first- ever primetime CG series, Game Over (http://www.gameover.tv), debuting March 10 at 8:00 pm on UPN. When not involved in a hectic day-to-day schedule, he spends time with his lovely fiancée, and works on his short film, The Tale of Kar.