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Report of the Ottawa International Animation Festival
Read what happened at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
November, 6th, 2002, Written by Will Mendez
On Friday October 4, 2002 I attended the exhibitions to the Ottawa International Animation Festival. Since Ottawa is my new home I was looking forward to this event but when my local reseller Digital Glass (Reseller of various Softimage Products, Kaydara, etc.) informed me that he was going to have a demo guy from Softimage at his booth I was more anxious to attend.
The animation festival consisted of various workshops (which I did not get to attend) and was mostly geared toward the 2D realm of animation. I discovered that the creators www.dynomight.comof my kids and my favorite cartoon at the moment, Untalkative Bunny are based here in Ottawa.
Several Canadian Educational facilities were there including Vancouver Film School, Seneca and Sheridan Colleges..
The Demo:
When I first arrive, even before I walk through the glass doors, I can see XSI being shown on the Flat Plasma TV. (Nice Prime spot for Digital Glass when you enter and exit the exhibition the first & and last thing you see is his booth) The Digital Glass booth was demoing Softimage XSI (its star attraction) Softimage Toonz, Maya(Demo guy was not from Alias) and another product (not sure of the name but it was a Mac based).
Shot of the Digital Glass booth and a guy demoing Softimage Toonz, he's being watched by Janimation's sea monster.
The Demo artist was showing V3 of XSI, and was displaying a toolset for the creation and editing of crowds.(It's unknown if this will be included in V3 or as an optional SDK,App, etc.) The toolsets behavioral system was impressive, with the inputs of a few settings you can tell your character or group of characters to run amok and avoid each other or obstacles in a scene or have some do nothing but stand there. I was surprised to see how quick and smooth this ran the demo guys laptop (which I later found out was a P4 1.7GHz ThinkPad A31p) He then loaded a scenes from Hybride's http://www.hybride.com Napoleon and Riot's http://www.rioting.com The One to demonstrate how the crowd simulation tool was used in production. After this demo started speaking with audience members answering questions and handing out this business card his name was Erik Goulet and upon seeing my card holder he said "Very nice" I then introduced my self which was then followed by "Will Mendez, we need to go to lunchI" guess he has heard of me.
Lunch:
During our discussions over lunch I discover 2 things. 1:That it was his office that is covered wall to wall with toys (something we saw during XSI Base's visit to Softimage) and 2:That he was the guy who demo'd XSI to a friend of mine in Chicago whom I was constantly telling how good XSI is. (After Erik's and a sales reps visit ,he bought XSI)
On our way back to the exhibition I asked Erik if I could take some pictures for the Base and he said sure. There is something about Softimage employees (at least with the ones I know) and their humor that go hand in hand you will see why as Erik says this is a good spot and begins to pose.
Back To Business:
When we return Erik gets right back into the flow of things and begins showing of the other features of XSI. It was cool to see actual PreViz scenes from Panic Room and how the guys from PLF http://www.thefront.com/ created virtual cameras (Grip equipment and all) which were instramental in creating the live shots seen on the movie.
Another scene that was shown was the Taxi short film and all of its FX Tree nodes and how each one was used, including transitions to produce the final scene. This was very impressive and showed the power of the XSI's built in compositor. Some of the other demos included the new Character Designer (Which IMO is Poser on steroids with a six pack of Jolt Cola) hair tools,HDRI (very impressive and fast) example using Chinny's Elephant and a picture outside of Softimage's HQ, and a new Character motion deformer which adds 3 curves to the character and you are then able to deform his walk cycle on a terrain or modify his foot placement and height. After spending the afternoon with Erik and the guys at Digital Glass I thanked them for their time and a great show.
Perspective:
Meeting Erik and watching him perform his craft really shows that Softimage has done in excellent job in training their demo artist and selecting good resellers to represent them. That with the combination of their enthusiasm gives the perspective customer /audience members the one two punch, and the competition something to emulate.
I also realized that I'm not the only one that has a fondness for Softimage and it's products but their employees do so as well. I might kicked it up a notch but the feelings derive from the same foundation, with Softimage employees it's not just another career or a business but something they live and breathe on a daily basis which in turn reflects on the company and their products.
Now is the time to get into Softimage XSI! Innovate, Create, Collaborate, and be a part of the future.
Will Mendez
XSI Base 2002
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