If you have the QuickTime plug-in, you can view a clip from ADAPT 2006 by simply clicking on the second image below.

Montreal became the center of the CG universe at the first ADAPT Conference held recently. The final attendance numbers of about 1,000 were a pleasant surprise. All photos courtesy of Janet Hetherington unless otherwise noted. 

The weather was not very co-operative, but a little rain did not stop digital artists, students, industry representatives and recruiters from attending the first Advanced Digital Art Production Techniques (ADAPT) Conference in Montreal on Sept. 23-24, 2006.

In fact, the ADAPT registration line-up at the Hyatt Regency was a pleasant surprise. “The final attendance numbers are very close to a thousand people,” says ADAPT organizer Jean-Eric Hénault, president of CG Channel and co-founder of Digital04 Studios. “We were quite shocked when we saw the line-ups at registration on Saturday morning.”

The robust turnout and strong industry participation prompted Marc Petit, Media and Ent. vp for Autodesk, to declare, “Montreal is the center of the CG universe!” during his address at Saturday evening’s cocktail mixer.

Petit also noted that participants came from across Canada, the U.S. and many other countries, including Brazil, Egypt and Japan, to attend ADAPT 2006.

Those attendees included pros and students alike. A group of digital arts and computer science students from Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. made the two-hour trip to take in ADAPT’s 3D track and to meet with recruiters. “We’re here for the classes and to possibly find a job,” says digital arts major Peter Jones.

Seasoned professionals were also eager to hear what the high-caliber speakers had to say. Raonell Conouer, senior vfx artist for Ubisoft, attended the show for the seminars in the 3D track. “I’m looking to learn new techniques,” he says.

2D, 3D and Exploration
ADAPT 2006 offered three tracks of programming — 2D, 3D and Exploration — that ran concurrently. The classes had a late start on Saturday due to the need to process the lengthy registration line.

“I didn’t expect such a big turn-out at 9:00 am on Saturday morning. This is a packed house,” was the pleased observation of 3D track speaker Aaron Holly, who presented a discussion of “Rigging for Animation: Applying 2D Principles in a 3D World.” His presentation included an example using the Meet the Robinsons trailer to demonstrate how line of action and posture can change the mood or tone of the animation. Holly is currently working for Disney Feature Animation.

ADAPT 2006 in action, pros and students from Canada, U.S. and many other countries mix it up. © 2006 — Digital 04 Studios.

Over in the 2D track, Dylan Cole, who has worked on such films as Superman Returns, Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia, discussed matte painting composition and design. He provided a hands-on look at creating buildings, bridges and architectural scenes, and offered such tips as flipping the canvas back and forth while in Photoshop, to accurately check perspective. As in the other classes, Cole worked in realtime on a computer, with his images being appearing on a large screen so the entire room could see his work in progress.

In Exploration, Thierry Doizon (aka Barontier) also provided a hands-on look — this time at digital speed-painting — with a special focus on concepts for science fiction and fantasy environments and characters. Using Photoshop, Doizon demonstrated how to create a mood, using textures and answered questions about how to set up custom brushes to achieve effects. Doizon, who is currently employed by Ubsioft Montreal, recently launched Steambot Studios with a collective of concept artist partners.

After a strong opening, the 11:00 am sessions followed, with Mark Lefitz (Spider-Man 2, The Matrix Reloaded, Reign of Fire) discussing 2D/3D integration, in the 3D track. He illustrated his points with examples from Meet the Robinsons (due out March 30, 2007). In that movie, the Robinsons characters go from the present to the future, and the future city to which they travel becomes “evil” — transforming into a dark, red, industrial city. Lefitz also showed the class how Maya could be used to create a futuristic spaceship terminal by manipulating an existing image. Lefitz originally trained as an architect and worked on such high-profile buildings as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.