Liflet uses specialized lenses, hardware and software to created interpolated views from fixed cameras in realtime. © The University of Tokyo.

Equally as important, these new methods and understandings may give rise to forms of organization more in tune with the creative process than the hierarchical, top-down modes currently in wide practice. Perhaps a small visual effects organization will use such technologies to conceive, design and generate images of greater value to audiences than organizations employing the one-person one-workstation model. Maybe we will see early version of this work in an upcoming Computer Animation Festival.

Maybe great audience experiences in the future will come not from a collection of individuals working on parts of a whole but from many people collaborating all-at-once to create and refine objects, characters and environments without regard to team members' physical location, language or culture.

Some day, using the tools first glimpsed at in the Emerging Technologies and later implemented in the Computer Animation Festival will enable creators to move into more the mysterious creative regions than ever before.

Visual effects producer Rick Baumgartner was recently nominated for a 2003 Primetime Emmy Award for his work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He is working on the NBC show Las Vegas at Stargate Digital. He can be reached via his Website: www.vfxproducer.com.