DRAKE

Sony Pictures Imageworks 的 Katana 將整合進下一版的 Nuke

Drake — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:04:30 +0000

The Foundry have acquired the technology of Sony Pictures Imagework's (SPI) Katana 3D lighting & compositing package. Katana's hardcore lighting node based technology will be integrated into an upcoming version of the Foundry's Nuke 2D package. We spoke to both companies about why SPI would part with such a great in house tool and why the Foundry needs another compositing lighting system, in this online exclusive.

Source: Foundry Acquires Katana from SPI for Nuke.

Katana Application

Python application

Lighting, rendering, and image compositing

Facility funnel from data to images

Team of six developers for 3 years

Passed 300,000 lines of code

190,000 C/C++

45% image operations

20% scene processing

20% plugins to external apps

120,000 Python

75% interface and pyqt widgets

Current Projects

Spiderman 3

Surf's Up

Beowolf

User Python Interfaces

expression evaluation as field values

interactive shell

macros as directories of .py files

pixel processing and scene processing

Weekly release cycle

Development and maintenance

Plugin extensions in Python

Source: Python at Imageworks .

Notes:

介紹這則新聞
介紹 Katana in Python
介紹 Nuke 原來的 3d lighting 功能
我的觀點：
- 3d compositing by nuke chief scientist
- comp-oriented lighting需要直接與 shader, lighting, rendering 做結合，才符合 pipeline 的精神。
- python application: ui, extension, integration, ...

3D Business

Drake — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:20:00 +0000

3D business is not born yet. It is like an expected new born baby. I say new technology regarding 3D is necessary for 3D business. It is said "Necessity is a mother of invention".

3D technology is a sort of a "Mother of 3D business". Then who is a "Father" of expected new born baby named "3D business"?

It is "Business model" who would become a "Father".

Only when "Technology" meets "Business model", new business will be born.

All of the 3D related people need to collaborate to establish 3D business. "Competition to Collaboration" is my message.

-- quotation from an email

Rob Cook's Steven A. Coons Award Speech at SIGGRAPH 2009

Drake — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:57:53 +0000

Every computer graphics researcher should look at this wonderful talk by Rob Cook @ Siggraph 2009 for his perspective of the current CG achievement and the future challenges of this field. I am so excited to know that Siggraph officially released this recording such that I can review it again casually at my cabin~

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Filip's wedding photo in Autostereoscopy

Drake — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:38:33 +0000

Visualize Binocular Disparity by Nuke

Drake — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:34:58 +0000

While you are learning something, the best and mnemonic way to be aware of the details and possible utility behind is try to use different viewpoints on it, try to explain one thing in different languages or images, or even convince someone else the idea. And luckily, you have this "something" all along your life...

The below is just a normal view (the left view) of a cloning project of another autostereoscopic video clip.

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Briefing of Day 3 in SIGGRAPH 2009

Drake — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:55:41 +0000

只要 google 一下 nvidia siggraph 2009 這三個關鍵字，就自然會看到 NVIDIA 今年所有在 Siggraph 2009 發佈的投影片或影片，加上 NVIDIA 的技術團隊在給演講時，早就被知會投影片是會被放到網路上的，所以投影片的內容，都盡量製作成讓人可以自修的程度，很是貼心。

首先，NVIDIA 提供給立體視覺用的 driver/api 是使用 off-axis 的。事實上，幾乎沒有任何理由要使用 parallel 或是 toe-in 的 camera setup。雖然拍攝 IMAX 時，他們會告訴你使用 parallel 的 camera setup 就對了，但其實那是因為，IMAX 的 projection setup 有幫你做了 offset，同等於是在拍攝時期就使用了 off-axis。
NVIDIA 的 driver/api 提供了如下三種作法（建議）給程式人員：
- Use stereo surfaces: Duplicate render surfaces
- Do stereo drawcalls: Duplicate drawcalls
- Apply stereo separation: Modify projection matrix
Parallax = i.o.(interocular distance) * ( 1 - screen_depth/perceived_depth )
有趣的是，投影片給人（我猜是專門針對遊戲設與與程式人員）一些立體視覺設計的準則：
- Extra care must be taken to achieve a convincing effect
- Objects should not be clipped by the edges of the window
- Move object slowly from inside the screen to the outside area to give eyes time to adapt
- Realistic rendering helps
投影片裏頭使用的術語不是很正式，尤其是 convergence 這個字眼，建議想更加清楚了解細節的人，要去另尋教課書。
投影片中，特別針對 Parallax Budget 有很深入的探討與分析，非常的珍貴。

PS. slides 裏頭的 Stereoscopy Basics 部分做得非常的好，想了解一些些基本的立體成像原理的，非常推薦。

Making of "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" in Stereo and Mono 基本上整個內容與立體無關，讓我聽完整場後，只覺得這部動畫應該挺好看的，然後抱著遺憾離開…

Pixar's RenderMan User Group 的內容在這。

Briefing of Day 2 in SIGGRAPH 2009

Drake — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:12:23 +0000

一大早就見識到 Will Wright 的 Playing with Perception，270 多張投影片，搭配上他那像機關槍似的表演風格，實在讓人很難不從睡眼惺忪醒來，整個就很震憾。

Will 的開場白是一個叫 Kittenwar 的網站，整個網站就是一直出現兩隻貓，讓你選一隻你比較愛的，就這樣。但是呢，Will 從分析這個網站上的點閱結果開講起，秀出了目前的冠軍貓，最不討人喜愛的貓，然後比較之間的差異，接著就是分析一下…然後給一些例證…整個就很搞笑，尤其是出自 Will 非常正經八百的說詞~

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初探 Fujifilm 3D 相機 W1

Drake — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:26:50 +0000

前幾天拿到 Fujifilm Finepix Real 3D W1 的機器，工作期間要把玩它的時間有限，下班後要過的宅男生活滿檔，但這玩意兒著實重要而且有趣，不用力玩的話，會對不起 John 的。

3D 照片拍攝後，會存出一個 .MPO 的檔來，上網研究了一下，在 MTBS3D 上得知 .MPO 其實就只是兩張 .JPEG 直接黏起來，所以你只要有辦法找出黏接點，然後就可以把整個 file stream 分成兩個新檔，自然就會得出左右眼各一張圖了。Wikipedia 上有稍稍提到 JPEG 的檔頭，這樣就足夠了，直接掃過整個 .MPO 檔，找出 FFD8FFE1 就行了。這作法雖然有一定的機率（不知道多小就是了），會找錯，不過大部分情況下 ok，就先將就著點兒用，不然還得去用別人寫的程式的話，要整合進自己寫的程式裏頭來自動化的話，就有點麻煩~

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Briefing of Day 1 in SIGGRAPH 2009

Drake — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:12:00 +0000

SIGGRAPH 第一天常常是很少活動的，除非有你感興趣的 full-day or half-day course。雖然如此，人數還是比真的沒啥活動的最後一天來得多一些，原因之一是註冊。

班傑明的奇幻旅程（The Curious Case of Benjamin Button）是今年的最大贏家，拿了數不清的大獎，連同最大的奧斯卡也頒了不少獎項給它，是以第一天的這個 talk 可以說是重頭戲。裏頭提及了，這是史上第一部跨越了 Uncanny Valley 的電影動畫。因為上一部嘗試走這條路的太空戰士（Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within）沒有成功；魔戒裏的咕嚕與獸人、哈利波特裏頭的奇幻生物，或是納尼亞傳奇裏頭品質參差不齊的角色，並不是真人；更不用提貝武夫裏頭那有點像遊戲風格的人物了。

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