According to SIGGRAPH, “SANDDE (Stereoscopic Animation Drawing Device) is a combination of specialized software and hardware for creating hand-drawn animation in 3D space and was developed for IMAX Corp. Unlike other forms of computer-generated stereographic imagery, SANDDE uses lines that are drawn by hand, literally in space, rather than mathematically generated 3D models, which lack the spontaneity and expressiveness of drawings made by hand.”

This installation shows that drawing is not just a 2D affair. June depicts the very beginning of real-time design of this kind. Even the most powerful floating point GPU with realtime pixel-level shading requires an interface of keyboard, mouse and/or stylus and board. One cannot help thinking that these current tools limit the creative reach of many artists. The mind reels with possibilities for rapidly designing visual effects in 3D space using natural human movements of sketching rather than an arcane series of keyboard and mouse commands. Combine this with some of the other collaborative creative technologies demonstrated at the exhibition and it's not too hard to imagine breaking away from the tyranny of the computer generated vector or bitmap while still working in three dimensions.

Tweaking the Palettes of Life
Other exhibition offerings have potentially huge impacts on both the authoring and display of visual effects imagery. One offering, Irodori, uses custom software and hardware to expands the RGB color space to a color space closer to natural human vision. The expansion of palettes will allow greater freedom for visual effects artists to create new combinations of colors to literally "set the tone" of their work.

$90,000 for a Monitor?
And just in case you were wondering how to display these expanded palettes on workstations, display makers are developing novel workarounds to current technical limitations of color reproduction. Case in point is Sunnybrook Technologies' prototype HDR monitor, which offers "300 times higher contrast, 10-30 times higher brightness, 10-30 times lower `darkness,' and 38% better coverage of the NTSC color gamut due to the use of RGB LED." All I can say is that it looked clearer than any monitor I have seen, creating the unnerving sensation that you are somehow seeing beyond a the display screen. Increasingly detailed displays (both monitors and projections) will keep content creators scrambling to create more detailed characters, environments and events. And the price will be coming down we can only hope.

Will Sunnybrook Technologies' prototype HDR monitor be worth its price tag?

May the Force Feedback Be With You
Force feedback, an implementation of "haptics" (meaning "of or relating to the sense of touch: tactile") provides both artist and audience the ability to generate and experience changes in tactile sensations. Several ET installations address how to simulate these sensations including a floor that allows you to walk (as opposed to merely floating) in a virtual world by tracking your body position and direction (CirculaFloor), a harness that provides the sensation of swimming (Swimming Across the Pacific) and a rig that gently strokes your body as it creates a 3D map of it (Tickle Salon). Most importantly for visual effects people, force feedback input devices will likely become more and more prevalent method for interacting with data first on the authoring side, then on the audience side.

Interpolate or Die
Liflet from University of Tokyo is a live demonstration of image interpolation technology echoing that used in the Computer Animation Festival's Massive Arabesque discussed earlier. Liflet uses specialized lenses, hardware and software to created interpolated views from fixed cameras in real time. This and similar technologies will allow visual effects creators to use interpolated viewpoints to expand their creative reach.

Wrapping It Up
Of course, it's unlikely we will see many of these emerging technologies in anything like their exhibited form in the near future. Most likely, these tools will be buried in an aggregate of other technologies within toolsets. Other technical advances, for example, in nanoscale materials, quantum computing, the manipulation of light and energy will be crucial in bringing the ideas presented in the exhibition within reach of the rest of us.