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CONTRIBUTOR INTERVIEWS A collection of interviews from professionals in the field of entertainment

REVIEWS Reviews on hardware, software conventions, training sessions and materials, etc.

Siggraph, 2003, San Diego

Overview

Maya Master Classes, Siggraph 2003

Maya Master Classes, GDC 2003

Overview
Mental Ray for Maya in Games, Rob Ormond, Alias|Wavefront
Maya Level Editor, Nathan Martz, Lucas Arts
API, Jeremy Gordon, Secret Level
Character Rigging for Games, Jeremie Talbot, Lucas Arts
Normal Mapping Methodologies, Chris Clay, Turbine Entertainment
Geometry Hygiene, Ben Bathen, FunnyBone Interactive
The Getaway: Pipeline, Sam Coates, SCEE
MEL and Automated Workflows, Joe Stinchcomb, Rockstar
Modeling in Games, Dru Abrams, Persistent Visions
Summing it up

GDC 2003, San Jose

Overview
IGDA Environment Artists Group Gathering, Jason Wiener, Madwomb
Brainstorming,Noah Falstein, The Inspiracy
Convergence: Feature Film and Games, Bob Nicoll, Electronic Arts
Making Characters Move, Jana Wilcoxen, and Leslie Bishko, Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design
2nd Annual IGDA Academic Summit
Summing it up

Siggraph 2003, San Diego
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Overview:

Another year of Siggraph has come and gone. Another 30 miles has been walked, a t-shirt wardrobe updated, and a truckload of drinks has been consumed. It is late on the final Friday afternoon and the town is finally starting to settle down enough to wonder what the heck hit it. I am still being stopped to ask who we were.

To me, much of what makes Siggraph is the atmosphere of the location, which drives the mood of the week. San Diego was not my favorite city, but it was certainly up on the list. How many places can you go and see a bicycle drawn taxi cart, a horse drawn carriage, and Gilligan’s boat on wheels, complete with theme song, lined up at a spotlight like they are a perfectly normal mode of transportation? It can’t quite hold up to New Orleans in either gritty beauty or sweltering heat, but it does beat the hell out of LA. Now, don't go taking that personally. I like LA. I just can't say I've ever had a great Siggraph because I was there.

The architecture in San Diego was some of the nicest I’ve seen of it’s kind (yeah, I don’t get out much these days, but I was still impressed.)  I learned the downtown area was occasionally called “The Toolbox” because of the architecture. If you look the skyline with a bit of imagination, you can see an alan wrench, a chisel, and a philips head screwdriver. The convention center itself was really spectacular, a combination of metal and glass and lines and circles. Unfortunately, in circles was often the way I negotiated the premises. It was not the easiest place to find your way around, even though the view along the way was worth the walk the first half dozen times. Nor was it the easiest for employees or Siggraph volunteers to offer clear directions. It was also one heck of a walk, making the $2+ Starbucks cookie something my calorie limit would allow.

Food:
I wish I could tell you more. I only visited one Irish pub, and now I can’ t even remember it’s name. I loved the French fries, but the rest of the food was not so impressive. The servers were a bit overwhelmed and irritable because of it. They pulled off a good fake accent, and the décor was wonderful, but I am very partial to Celtic, stone and wood. If anyone would be willing to submit some comments about the local restaurant fair, please email me at renee@firewalkdigital.com, and I will include them with this page. As far as the convention food itself? My advice is to run. Awful. Empty your wallet on nasty food in plastic boxes. I am surprised they have the nerve to make the boxes clear, they should hide the food in shame.  OK, enough of that.

Lodging:
I stayed at the Embassy Suites, which was excellent. The rooms were comfortable and spacious, the staff friendly and efficient, and the accommodations and perks very nice. It even had a river of coy fish that would follow you like dogs begging for food. Again, if anyone has any comments, praise, or warnings they would like to share, email me. We may need to know these things if there are any San Diego Siggraphs in the future.

Classes:
I spent most of my time checking out the list of classes I wanted to see, missing a good two thirds of what was on my list because of overlap and essentially never making it to the Exhibit floor. I will do my best to review the classes I attended for at least the time I was there. Occasionally I darted from one to the next after only a speaker or two, unless I was so taken by he subject content I couldn’t tear myself away.
 

Maya Master Classes, GDC 2003
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Overview:

This was the first time Alias|Wavefront offered Maya Master Classes at GDC. In the tradition of A|W, these classes were given the Sunday and Monday before the conference at a comfortable suite in the Hilton next door to the convention center. The entire session consisted of 10 classes, 5 per day, at the cost of $150 per course or $1000 for all ten. You could also purchase the API bundle consisting of 2 classes for $180 each. The classes covered a range of subjects in art and programming, each course with it's own instructor, and all the instructors specialized in the class subject and had working knowledge in the field. The class sizes were small and personal, numbering between perhaps 25-50 per class. Each course was up to 90 minutes long and allowed ample time for questions at the end of the course, along with demonstrations on how to solve a particular problem when needed. There was a half hour break between classes. Coffee and water was provided along with orange juice or soda, depending on the time of day. The seating was in rows on padded chairs with adequate knee room.

If you are taking the full course load, bring what you need for the day. Pack some snacks to tide you over until you can grab something more substantial- there are only 30 minute breaks between classes, which doesn't allow time for a full meal. Pack a sweater or jacket incase the AC is cranked high.

You might want to bring a laptop for note taking, or if you want a quieter but less efficient way of taking notes, bring a pad with a hard backing for note taking on your knee, and an extra pencil or pen. One of those light-up pens is ideal, because it gets quite dark in the room. Tape decks and video cameras are discouraged. I would suggest arriving early and staking out a seat as close to the speaker as possible, since I found the sound system to be turned rather low. As a matter of fact, that was one of only two complaints I had for the course: the sound system and the lack of immediate handouts to follow along with or refer to later. The sound system was kept low enough to make it somewhat difficult to catch all the words, especially with the soft-spoken instructors. The lack of handouts meant you had to take thorough enough notes that you could add to between classes. However, some instructors did follow up with course notes online, or would provide links where you could do added research.

The Maya Master Classes and Instructors:

Mental Ray for Maya in Games, Rob Ormond, Alias|Wavefront:
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This gave an overview of the uses, tricks, shortcomings, and great results of using Mental Ray for your lighting and rendering needs. Rob focused on how to set up Final Gathering since it is fast enough for the lesson and gets great results. He talked about how higher ray counts give a less splotchy lighting effect; how to use light cards, and to turn off primary visibility if you don't want to see them. He gave a tutorial of a glowing ball that cast light and shadow where he used an incandescent shader. He baked this light in, then baked the background and the rope that held the ball. You could see how the area of rope closest to the ball had more light saturation than further away. It was quite convincing. From there he selected the ball object and scaled it up so it lit the original object as well. It was a very good course, with plenty of info.

Maya Level Editor, Nathan Martz, Lucas Arts:
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Nathan gave a great overview of the API pipeline, Maya's strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses were few, but he was able to supply info like which cursors crash the system, and to stick to the select or crosshairs; add an icon image so you don't just have a gray box that inevitably will confuse your artists as to if they are in mode or not; tools must be childproof and bulletproof- they must be intuitive and resistant to error; front load the hard and risky stuff. You will always have less time a month from now; and data integrity is priceless. And most important of them all: if you have to sleep under your desk, be sure to vacuum periodically.  ;-)

API, Jeremy Gordon, Secret Level:
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Jeremy Gordon gave a nicely paced demonstration with a good graphic presentation. He explained how creating a new node type is an easy way to get Maya to look for it; how they embedded Word and Excel, the game engine, etc. into Maya. They can also surf the web through Maya. Go to secretlevel.com to download the code.

Character Rigging for Games, Jeremie Talbot, Lucas Arts:
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This was one of my favorite classes, and it drew in a good sized crowd. Jeremie did an excellent job of explaining some of the nuances of rigging, and how he anticipates further uses for the skeleton thus streamlining the animation process throughout the pipeline. He showed tricks used at Lucas Arts to keep the rigging as light and efficient as possible, while creating believable characters with a range of expressions and movements. Jeremie provided insight to some tricks such as how a biped leg skeleton can, by animating and offset, be used on a 3 joint leg. He explained how bones are far less expensive than blend shapes, and how 150 blend shapes can become cumbersome, but 150 bones is like having only one. Jeremie is a natural instructor. He spoke clearly and at a good pace for taking notes, and gave both verbal and visual demonstrations.

Normal Mapping Methodologies, Chris Clay, Turbine Entertainment:
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This course dazzled me with some extraordinary work. Chris has found ways of getting spectacular results, fooling the eye into thinking you are looking at complex geometry when in fact it is just texture and bump maps and a simple plane. Lighting travels over the surface creating highlights and shadows with incredibly realistic results. His course taught how to get the most bang for the buck in producing complex looking graphics inexpensively. He also provided course notes by the next day, a nice concise 12 page paper with overviews, tricks, and links to recommended plugins. It included not only tricks for the creation, but the best way to view the results for those pesky milestones.

Geometry Hygiene, Ben Bathen, FunnyBone Interactive:
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Here we got an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of using smoothed polys over NURBS, what to do and what to avoid, and an overview on efficient mapping. You can find more about it in the documentation.zip link in the MEL scripts section of Ben's site, at: http://www.benbathen.com/MelScripts.html. Also, check out his tutorial section at: http://www.benbathen.com/Tutorial.html.

The Getaway: Pipeline, Sam Coates, SCEE:
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The Getaway is an achievement under any circumstances. Modeling and mapping London for any reason is a daunting task, but to put that environment into a fast paced game with gobs of realism is all the more mind-boggling. This course did not have any course notes provided but Sam did give a wonderful slide show and explanation of the steps the team went through to get The Getaway from concept to shelf. He did so with grace and humor, and was quite candid about the successes and shortcomings of the team, ideas, and the softwares used. He played the game twice during the seminar, showing the results of Sony's efforts. The results were not fruitless. Much of the class stayed on to play the game on the projection screen during break!

MEL and Automated Workflows, Joe Stinchcomb, Rockstar:
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Joe spoke clearly and quickly, covering tricks of the code and workflow shortcuts that artists can use to facilitate some of the more mundane tasks. He is an explosion of information. Ask him a question and you will get more than you bargained for. A sample of his advice was to get a text editor that is easier on the eyes, to start small by breaking the problem down into small parts. Learn the UI first. Grab code from the script editor to make a MEL shortcut on the shelf.

Modeling in Games, Dru Abrams, Persistent Visions:
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This course gave an overview on the best ways to maintain the integrity of curves on models such as cars, how to use the cut poly tool and some basic polygonal modeling information. He clarified how one tool was better than another in particular cases, and gave visual examples as he went along.

Summing it up:

The Master Classes were all and all a very good experience. I would suggest you target the courses that pertain to your particular venue, come with at least a basic understanding if the subject, and ask questions. You will come away armed with enough skills to improve your production for relatively little cost.

GDC, San Jose, 2003
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Overview:

I attended my first GDC this year, one of the perks of spending my spring in Santa Cruz. I have to say I was very impressed, and will make this a favorite event that I will look forward to year after year.

GDC is focused on one of my favorite subjects: learning. It consists of too many classes to choose from. If you leave there without a severe overload of information you had to of spent the week asleep. My advice is to bring everything possible to maximize the opportunity; digital recorders for demos packed full of details and philosophies, laptops or pen and paper for note taking, lots of business cards and resumes to hand out, and water to help you stay hydrated and alert. Dress comfortably, and get your schedule mapped out as quickly as possible. From the moment you arrive, you are already missing 3 things you will want to do.

Location:

It was well situated just off of South Almaden Avenue. Depending on your route, the crisscross of ramps could be a bit confusing and rush hour traffic could make some moments a bit tense, but all in all it was a breeze to find.

Parking:

The parking was ample, especially if you arrived early enough. Later in the day would require a bit more searching, but if you arrived in time for the morning class you could pretty much be guaranteed a space nearby. If you arrive later you might have to walk a block or two, but if you are spending the day on the convention floor, you would be foolish to prepare yourself for anything less than a day on your feet. Parking, once you find the good spots, usually run about $5.00 for the day. If you arrive early enough, the parking directly across the street is by far the cheapest and most convenient. If you arrive a bit later, there are parking lots under the highway that are in the same $5 range. Try to bring exact change, since often the change machines don't work and the payment system consists of pushing your coins or bills through an appropriately numbered slot or feeding a cash machine. Parking under the Hilton is convenient but will cost you $16 for the day. And there are other parking lots nearby for around $7.

Food:

There was an ample lunch provided for full ticket holders that accomidate both meat eaters and vegetarians. It was a basic sandwich fare, with a side serving and a small dessert and beverage. In the mornings and afternoons, coffee or soda was made available, along with a snack such as cookies or brownies or popcorn. I wouldn't drive out of the way to eat the fare, but it was adequate enough when you had little time between courses. A variety of other hotel restaurants were nearby, and a few blocks into town had a good selection and variety.

Classes:

Classes varied in size and style. Some were lecture based, some were participatory. Most would include some sort of PowerPoint demonstration, and others, like "Making Characters Move" or "Brainstorming" class encouraged you to work in groups to fill a particular assignment. Each class had an evaluation form to fill out at the end, asking for you to rate the presentation, relevancy, speakers ability, and if you would recommend the class to a colleague.

IGDA Environment Artists Group Gathering:
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I decided to see what sort of class the IGDA would offer, and was quite pleased with what I found. This course was taught by Jason Wiener of Madwomb, (http://www.madwombcom) who gave some really interesting insights to the psychology of environmental design. He covered how important surroundings are in evoking a particular mood, and how that knowledge can be applied to the gaming environment.

As a class, we were broken up into groups and each given scenarios to resolve. We brainstormed on the characters and what they would need, how their space would be laid out, and what sort of limitations or freedoms could be imposed to heighten the experience. He taught design philosophies such as windows are not for looking out- they are for bringing the world in. He spoke about looking at a building from the outside, and how an odd number of windows or floors in a facade is more comfortable to humans, where as an even number feels more institutional and controlling. An example would be the Nazi culture. They used even numbers on everything. With something like a corridor, it is instinctive to move through it, and like blood through a vessel the tendency is to move faster through a constricted space.

We discussed how a node is an interaction of different spaces. Imagine a main hallway, with corridors coming off to the right, and a bookshelf on the left. Each corridor would cause a pause in the forward movement, as would the bookshelf. Put the bookshelf across from one of the corridors, and you have a double pause situation. When it comes to steps, every step is an adventure. The rise vs. the run is what controls this pacing. If the steps are steep, they require great focus and skill to negotiate. If they are wide, there is time to look around, but the step still needs to be paid attention to. And if the staircase is spiral, the variation can cause a whole new adventure. By using these basic design features, you can pace your players through their environment simply by imposing subliminal rules. I really enjoyed this class, and wished I had taken more.

Brainstorming:
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Noah Falstein of The Inspiracy (http://www.theinspiracy.com). This was a fun class that included both a casual lecture and group brainstorming sessions. The final brainstorm was a challenge to create a game within certain parameters and preferably using existing technology. Some really interesting ideas came out of that one, my favorite being some twisted scenario involving the chicken and the egg. Somebody tell me when that one gets funded, please! It was one of the most original ideas I've heard in a while. There were some peripheral anecdotes that I found interesting as well.  Some of Noah's suggestions on brainstorming? To loosen things up and to strike a launching point, start the meeting chatting about common subject. It doesn't have to be related. During the brainstorming session, it is OK to offer constructive negative comments. However, no negatives are final. Support them with a reason for the negative, and offer another alternative. Use familiar references to speed ideas. And it's OK to flip to production/ marketing issues.

Convergence: Feature Film and Games:
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Taught by Bob Nicoll of Electronic Arts (http://www.ea.com), this class was just plain fun, not only because of the terrific subject matter but because of the antics of Bob Nicoll. There was a technical difficulty that had him pounding his head on the wall, literally. Is there any one of us that doesn't completely identify? I can bet no to that!

Bob was a wealth of information on the past and present of gaming, and quite excited, nearly driven with anticipation of what lies ahead. I learned that at EA, the team storyboards out the levels prior to any creation. Lighting, animatics, previz- the walls get covered with art, ranging from concepts of gadgets to environmental designs.

Then the information flowed on the future of gaming, and everyone leaned forward in their seats. Bob Nicoll feels that cinematics will get to be less in games, not more. He expects to be hiring a lot of camera people, as they set up camera blocking. He gave some stats to support his beliefs: The PS1 had characters of 200 polys. The PS2 has characters of 5000 polys. He projected the next gen would have 125,000 polys per character! To help you wrap your mind around that, Jurassic Park dinosaurs were 50,000- 60,0000 polys. He further projects 16 polys per pixel resolution; Mostly SubD real time, and some artists may work in NURBS. Soon, resolution will no longer be an issue. Realism has been the goal to date. Now, believability is the target. And my favorite comment was "The art form of the 21st century is interactive".  Oh, my!!

Making Characters Move:
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I didn't get to spend nearly enough time in this class. I wish, really wish I could have. It was a blast for the short time I was there, and similar to an acting for animators class I took a few years back. There were two instructors, Leslie Bishko from Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, and Jana Wilcoxen from Slovenia. On entrance to the class you were handed movement signature coding sheets to fill out that graphed out different character types, and ways to rate the character body language that would make them readable. It helped to give a condensed package that simplified the task of portraying your ego with just a glance. In the time I was there, Leslie and Jana covered how to fill out the graph to rate the importance of certain qualities, then broke the room up into teams with an assignment. To learn more, you can go t o their site at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laban_anim/

2nd Annual IGDA Academic Summit:
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The afternoon I was there, this course focused on what the various institutes and gaming companies most needed from each other, coupled with ideas and suggestions on how to motivate students to achieve their goal. There were some encouraging predictions as well. One speaker, for example, stated the gaming industry will be the entertainment of the 21st century, and it will require a dedicated curriculum. There were some good speakers, quite a list of them, actually, and the room was pretty much packed.

One speaker from a school in China was using a motivational idea for his students that I found truly intriguing. He had his students working on a game called the Nanjing Massacre Project. It focused on the history of conflicts between the Japanese and Chinese. Now, please don't kill the messenger, but he spoke about how this game was based on a recent history when the Japanese came to China and massacred the Chinese. Now he claims Japan is denying the massacres ever happened, and are changing the history books to no longer carry the events. The game started development as a sniper game, but his class decided to do historical research and change the focus. Now the game is focused on justice. It is played in two parts, with the first part focusing on going in and photographing the acts of massacre, the second part based on after the war and prosecuting the war crimes depending on how good the evidence was you collected. A very interesting concept, and far more cerebral than the string of shooters that are produced annually.

Summing it up:
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The general consensus was that attendance was a bit lower this year, most likely due to the current state of the economy. That disconcerting reality crept in full force early in the week, when one instructor asked the class who was working. Very few people raised their hands. Later on, one very innovative fellow had his resume printed right on his shirt. It seemed to be an effective way of getting his name out there. I later learned he landed several interviews from his unique billboard advertising. The volunteers were well organized, and there were plenty on hand. They were knowledgeable and eager to please. The general layout was convenient and intuitive, and the mood upbeat.

Overall, this is a conference I will attend any chance I get. There is simply so much information set up in such a learning- friendly environment, I can't see GDC as anything other than beneficial and just plain fun. It is not as exhaustive as some of the other conventions I have attended, simply because you can take a class session sitting down. And the fact that you get to learn, network, play, study, and observe makes this the highlight of those who truly love the craft of game creation. I recommend it completely.

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