Computer Graphics World 2009 10

$6.00 USA $8.25 Canada

www.cgw.com October 2009

Dark Knight

Batmans unnerving interactive adventure

Batmans latest adventure unfolds

in an unnerving interactive setting

Dark Knight

modo 401 Dracula image by Rick Baker

20091006_cgw.indd 1 10/6/2009 2:33:06 PM

October 2009 1

ON THE COVER

SEE IT IN

The caped crusader tackles his deadliest mission yet in the computer game Batman: Arkham Asylum, where players assume the Dark Knights identity in this interactive experience and learn the deepest, darkest secrets of the villains out to destroy this superhero, pg. 14.

The Art of compositing: What infl uences these artists.

The evolution of surround sound. High-defi nition television series. Director Mike Judge on Extract.

Features

Dark Matter

14The beloved superhero Batman takes on a crew of villains and goons in the interactive adventure Batman: Arkham Asylum, which is being lauded as the greatest comic-book game of all time. By Martin McEachern

Reconstructing Nature

26 Designers are turning to nature for their latest inspirations, using a process aptly called biomimicry. By Kenneth Wong

Cloud Computing

32 Pixar delivers a touching animated short that required artists to create CG clouds and effects that are main characters in the movie. By Barbara Robertson

The Birds and the Wally Bs

36 Pixar and why it continues to create animated short fi lms. By Mark StuartStereo Twice Over

38 Buzz, Woody, and the gang come to life as never before, as Disney/Pixar remakes two of Pixars classic fi lmsToy Story and Toy Story 2in stereoscopic 3D. By Barbara Robertson

Beauty Supply

42 Some of the characters in the feature Surrogates project beauty that is only skin deep, thanks to intriguing CG makeovers. The movie also sports other types of visual effects, including a robot factory, battle scenes, a car crash, and more. By Barbara Robertson

COVER STORY

Web ExclusivesGo to www.cgw.com for the latest industry news and our online-only stories. Also, be sure to check out the videos and blogs.

October 2009 Volume 32 Number 10 I n n o v a t i o n s i n v i s u a l c o m p u t i n g f o r t h e g l o b a l D C C c o m m u n i t y

DepartmentsEditors Note Rerun Relief

2Along with sun and hot weather, the summer months also tend to bring a lot of television reruns. This year, though, two new series, packed with visual effects, offered viewers a nice treat from the TV show repeats.

Spotlight

4 Products Autodesks Mudbox 2010, MotionBuilder 2010, Soft- image 2010. Vicons Boujou 5. Khronoss OpenGL 3.2. Smith Micros Poster 8. Sony Imageworks open-source development program. Maxons Cinema 4D 11.5. IDVs SpeedTree Cinema. Blackmagics DeckLink Studio 2, HDLink Pro DisplayPort, and more. News Q2 brings good news for Nvidia and Intel, and especially AMD. CG market continues to grow. User Focus Polygon makes a big splash in the fi lm Haeundae.

Back Products

47 Recent hardware and software releases.

26

14

42

32

38

October

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EditorsNote

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2 October 2009

L ike everyone else nowadays, I have very little free time on my hands. Nevertheless, I try to find an hour or so to watch my favorite television shows. It is what I do during my wind-down timethe precious minutes at the end of what are becoming very long days. Usually there are not enough minutes to catch all my prime-time favorites, but then again, that is what TiVo and DVRs are for.

In May, when the television season ended and reruns began, I planned to catch up on these shows. But something unexpected occurred: some new series debuted for the summer. I am not talking about Big Brother, the yearly summer reality series that sucks viewers into its vortex for three nights a week. Rather, I am talking about unique programming that made me look forward to an evening indoors. And as a bonus, the shows featured a heavy dose of visual effects.

My favorite of these shows was NBCs Merlin, an import from the UK where the drama series began last fall. Merlin places a slightly new spin on the famous Arthurian legend, taking viewers to the early days of Camelot, when Arthur was a spirited young man and Merlin was only

beginning to hone his magic skills. We wanted to produce something that merged the legend with big, family entertainment, says producer Johnny Capps. We didnt want to make a 15th-century version of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Nevertheless, the production was epic in proportion, and the visual effects grand. There are dragons and griffins. Castles and walled cities. Villages and mountain vistas. Magi-cians and witches. Tornadoes and plagues. Good and evil. Think of it as Harry Potter meets Middle Earth, as some have accurately described it. And the key ingredient is the digital magic created at The Mill in London. Often the effects are composited elements, and at times they are 3D. The Camelot castle is an actual castle: the Chateau de Pierre-fonds, a French national monument that has been digitally enhanced for the shows pur-poses with set extensions and so forth. The CG star of the show is a dragon, a remaining vestige of magic before it was banned in the kingdom by Arthurs ruling father. Merlin is often seen speaking to the wise beast, which is chained in a deep, dark cavern. And the dragon speaks to Arthur, thanks to techniques refined at The Mill.

While the second season of this magical show has begun in the UK, it will arrive in the US much faster this time around, with the second season set to begin in the US this winter.

Another summer show was Warehouse 13, which debuted on the Sci Fi Channel, and is described as part The X-Files, part Raiders of the Lost Ark, and part Moonlighting. The show, which wrapped recently, follows Secret Service Agents assigned to the governments secret Warehouse 13, a holding area for all things supernatural. Keyframe Digital in On-tario, Canada, created an average of 120 to 150 VFX shots per episode. For one episode, titled Duped, the studio developed a self-illuminated greenscreen to create one of the warehouses historical artifacts, Lewis Carrolls famous magic mirror. Keyframe mainly used 3ds Max for the CGI and Combustion for compositing and 2D effects. Tracking was done in Boujou.

As I write this editorial, the fall season has just begun. There are some new dramas and new comedies, but none of these are steeped in visual effects. In the past, TV shows that demanded a host of VFX work seemed to disappear quite fast from the prime-time lineup, some far quicker than others. Lets hope that this summers magic moments will lay the groundwork for more VFX work on television. n

Maximum Speed. Zero Drag.

With LightWaves insane speed across the board, not to mention

its flexibility and ease of use, it has no equal. For WarDevil, it has

become the core of the project and continues to provide us with solutions where other 3D applications give us dead ends.

LightWave v9 Get it done.

LightWave 3D Kelly Myers, VFX Supervisor, The WarDevil Project, Digi-Guys, Ltd

LightWave and LightWave 3D are registered trademarks of NewTek Inc. NewTek Inc. 2009. All rights reserved. 2008 Digi-Guys. WarDevil is a registered trademark of Digi-Guys Ltd. All rights reserved.

4 October 2009

Vicon Introduces Boujou 5

PRODUCT: MATCHMOVING

Vicon, developer of motion-capture and image-understanding systems, recently released Boujou 5, camera matchmoving software that enables 3D professionals to automatically derive complex camera motion and calibration data from image sequences. The new version gives users greater control over the matchmoving process, particularly through manual tracking tools.

Boujou 5 uses a new method of solv-ing 3D camera positioning and motion paths from image sequences. This approach accelerates the solve and allows users more manual interaction within complex shots. The software also features an automatic sequential solver that looks at a single frame at a time, enabling the user to intervene at any time, rather than waiting until the

end of the process. A fully functional Graph Editor lets users manually tweak the camera data and, if necessary, reprocess a shot. They can also lock valid sections of solved data or sections known to be correct, which they can then use to improve other segments of an image sequence.

Boujou 5 is currently available and sells for $10,000.

PRODUCTS: MODELINGANIMATION

At SIGGRAPH, Autodesk revealed a host of its 2010 prod-ucts, including Mudbox, MotionBuilder, and Softimage.

Mudbox 2010, the latest version of Autodesks digital sculpt-ing and painting application, makes it easier for artists to use Mudbox alongside Adobe Photoshop by importing PSD fi les to be used as paint layers, and with Autodesks Maya, 3ds Max, and Softimage software through FBX support. The prod-uct also features a host of new creative tools and workfl ows (such as new brushes, support for ambient occlusion map baking, and new viewport fi lters), as well as a C++ SDK that enables production teams to customize and integrate Mudbox into pipelines. Mudbox 2010 began shipping in August for $745, with an upgrade price of $375.

MotionBuilder 2010, Autodesks real-time 3D charac-ter animation software, now offers faster performance with memory optimization of the core engine. The new version boasts productivity-enhancing animation workfl ows, such as better pose control for the rapid reuse of animations, and user-defi ned keying group support for custom rigs, props, cameras, and lights. It also contains expanded physics and character-simulation capabilities. MotionBuilder 2010 began shipping in August for $3995, with upgrade pricing estab-lished at $995.

Meanwhile, the company also launched its Softimage 2010 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and compositing soft-ware. This latest version features an optimized core architec-ture through GigaCore III, integration of the Softimage Face Robot facial rigging and animation tool set, and an expanded

and customizable Interactive Creative Environment (ICE) system. The new version also contains improved modeling tools, additional animation and camera functionality, and an updated Autodesk Crosswalk tool set for content transfer.

Softimage 2010, available now, is priced at $2995 for the Windows version, $3295 for Linux, and $4695 for Soft image Advanced 2010 (Linux and Windows). Upgrade pricing is available, as well.

Autodesk Rolls Out 2010 Lines

October 2009 5

Khronos Releases OpenGL 3.2

PRODUCT: MATCHMOVING

The Khronos Group announced Version 3.2 of the OpenGL 2D and 3D graphics API for PCs and workstations. The third major update in 12 months, the release adds features for enhanced perfor-mance, increased visual quality, acceler-ated geometry processing, and easier portability of Direct3D applications.

Khronos is also coordinating the evolu-tion of OpenCL for parallel compute, OpenGL ES for mobile 3D graphics, and the new WebGL standard for 3D on the Web.

The Khronos OpenGL Architecture Review Board (ARB) working group has defi ned GLSL 1.5, an updated version of the OpenGL Shading language, and two profi les within the OpenGL 3.2 specifi cation; as a result, developers can

use the streamlined Core profi le for new application development or the Compat-ibility profi le, which provides full back-ward compatibility with previous versions of the OpenGL standard for existing and workstation applications.

OpenGL 3.2, designed for recent GPU silicon, delivers to application developers such benefi ts as increased performance for vertex arrays and fence sync objects to avoid idling while wait-ing for resources shared between the CPU and GPU, or multiple CPU threads; improved pipeline program-mability, including geometry shaders in the OpenGL core; and boosted cube map visual quality and multisampling rendering fl exibility by enabling shaders to directly process texture samples.

Khronos has defi ned a set of fi ve ARB extensions that enable the latest graph-ics functionality in the newest GPUs to be accessed through OpenGL. These will be absorbed into the core of a future version of OpenGL, when the functional-ity is proven and widely adopted.

The strategy is to bring revolutionary changes to OpenGL through a rapid sequence of evolutionary updates, and the ARB continues to execute to that plan, says Neil Trevett, president of the Khronos Group and VP at Nvidia. Now we have OpenGL 3.2 that fully exposes state-of-the-art GPU capabilities in a form that meets the needs of new and experienced OpenGL developers.The full specifi cation can be download-ed at http://www.opengl.org/registry.

6 October 2009

Sony Imageworks Launches Open Source Development Program

PRODUCT: DEVELOPMENT

Sony Pictures Imageworks, the visual effects and digital char-acter animation unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions, announced during SIGGRAPH 2009 the launch of an open source development program.

Imageworks, having used open source solutions in its production environment for years, aims to contribute back to the open source community by making these technologies available. The company is initially releasing fi ve technolo-gies: OSL, a programmable shading language for rendering; Field3d, a voxel data storage library; Maya Reticule, a Maya plug-in for camera masking; Scala Migration, a database migration tool; and Pystring, Python-like string handling in C++.

Field3d, an open source library for storing voxel data, provides C++ classes that handle storage in memory, as well as a fi le format based on HDF5 that allows the C++ objects to be written to and read from disk easily. Scala Migration, a library to manage upgrades and rollbacks to database sche-mas, is designed to enable multiple developers working on a

project with a database back end to design schema modifi ca-tions independently, apply the migrations to their local data-base for debugging, and when complete, check them into a source control system.

A small, rich language for programmable shading in ad vanced renderers and other applications, Open Shading Language (OSL) as offered by Imageworks includes a complete language specifi cation, a compiler from OSL to an intermedi-ate assembly-like byte code, an interpreter that executes OSL shaders on collections of points in a SIMD manner, and an extensive standard shader function library. Pystring is a collec-tion of C++ functions, whereas spReticleLoc is a Maya C++ plug-in plus MEL code that creates a reticule for a camera and enables various camera reference masks to be displayed when looking through the camera, such as fi lmback, projec-tion gate, and pan and scan attributes.

Imageworks also launched a Web site, http://opensource.imageworks.com, to keep the developer community updated on its open source projects.

PRODUCT: CHARACTER MODELINGANIMATION

Smith Micro Software Productivity and Graphics Group released Poser 8, the next generation of the 3D fi gure design and animation solution. Poser 8 enables hobbyists, artists, and graphic professionals to create and digitally shape humans, animals, and entire scenes in 3D.

In Poser 8, artists can work with avatars and all types of 3D characters that prolif-erate in advertising, video games, televi-sion, and full-length feature fi lms. The software acts as a virtual stage, offering eight new, ready-to-pose, fully-textured humans of different ethnicities and body types, thus giving artists a starting point in designing their characters. The new Poser content library provides more than 2.5GB of human and animal fi gures accompanied by a range of accesso-ries, including hair, clothing, sets, and real-world props and elements, such as lights and cameras, to produce complete scenes.

With Poser 8, both new users and hobbyists can create entire, professional-quality scenes in minutes that utilize automatically generated walking, running, or danc-ing sequences, and lifelike speaking capabilities. Once created, users can post their animations to YouTube or any of their favorite social network-ing sites.

The new, streamlined inter-face maximizes screen real estate and provides an intui-tive workfl ow, plus a new search-enabled library helps artists easily browse and organize their content. Professional-quality tools and features are included, as well, such as a dependent parameter editor that lets users teach objects in a scene to inter-act with each other, simplifying complex body movement. Other features include

cross-body morph brushes to smoothly sculpt a fi gure across every body part, new photorealistic rendering to more accurately reproduce light and shad-ows, and improved character rigging for better character bending.

Pricing for Poser 8 is just under $250; upgrade pricing is just under $130.

Smith Micro Positions Poser 8

October 2009 7

PRODUCT: MODELINGANIMATION

Maxon Computer has made available Cinema 4D Release 11.5, a comprehensive upgrade to its 3D modeling, painting, animation, and rendering software. Loaded with new features, the new version provides improved workfl ow and productivity, enabling professionals to create high-quality stills and anima-tions quicker and easier.

R11.5 features a substantially re-tooled and accelerated render engine, an all-new Picture Viewer, enhanced interop-erability with leading compositing applications, and a major upgrade to its MoGraph module, which features an integrated Dynamics Engine and a host of new additions. Also, the soft-ware provides full support for the latest operating systems from Apple and Microsoft, including Mac OS X Snow Leop-ard and Windows 7, respectively.

Maxon revamped the render engine in R11.5 to take advantage of multi-core processors, enabling artists to render imagery more rapidly and effi ciently, and utilize new features, such as render instancing and bucket rendering. Render-intensive tasks, such as sub-polygon displacement,

also have been signifi cantly accelerated. The new Picture Viewer offers a vast set of creative tools for reviewing and editing images and animations, saving artists valuable time. Added features include a render history with the ability to compare renderings, image fi ltering and adjustments, post fi lter effects, and improved layer management. The RAM player also enables users to play back animations with sound, providing the ability to troubleshoot animations while the job is rendering.

An upgraded version of the MoGraph motion graphics module sporting more functionality is also available. New features in MoGraph 2 include: MoDynamics, an optimized physics simulation package with which hundreds of objects can easily be made to collide or be affected by such forces as gravity or friction; PolyFX for providing quick and easy explo-sion effects; and MoSpline for cloning existing splines and animating them with forces and effectors.

The price tag for Cinema 4D Core begins at $995, with upgrade pricing available.

Maxon Unveils Cinema 4D Release 11.5

8 October 2009

NEWS: GRAPHICS CHIPS

AMD Soars in Q2 2009Jon Peddie Research (JPR) announced estimated graphics shipments and supplier market share for the second calen-dar quarter of this year, resulting in the best quarter-to-quarter change in nine years. This spelled good news for Nvidia and Intel, but the results were especially great for AMD.

Graphics chips (GPUs and IGPs) are the leading indicator of the PC market. The GPUs go into a system before it becomes a PC and gets into the hands of the customer. After the channel stopped ordering GPUs and depleted inventory in anticipation of a long, drawn-out worldwide recession in Q3 and Q4 2008, expectations were hopeful, if not high, that Q1 2009 would change for the better. In fact, Q1 showed improvement, but it was less than expected or hoped for. Instead, Q2 was a very good quarter for vendorscounter to normal seasonalitybut then these are hardly normal times. Its clear that the channel is gearing up for what it thinks is going to be a robust back-to-school season, claims JPR.

Traditionally, Q1 to Q2 sales decline due to summer vaca-tions and preparation for the fall. This year, preparation seems to have gotten off to an early start.

Total MarketYear to year, things were great. Shipments jumped up to 98.3 million units, up 31.3 percent from last quarter, and most every-one fared well.

Things probably arent going to get back to the normal seasonality until Q3 or Q4 of this year, and we wont hit the levels of 2008 until 2010. However, people still need to buy things. Old computers will fail, new employees will be hired and need machines, and, of course, software upgrades, such as Windows 7, will be coming along.

We are still predicting an upturn in the PC market in the third and fourth quarters, and, in particular, for the graphics market

(which serves not just PCs, but aerospace and automotive, industrial systems, medical systems, kiosks, and point of sales). We are optimistic because these are seasonally the best quar-ters, points out JPR. Some contributing factors include:

In Q4, there will be two new operating systems: Apples Snow Leopard and Windows 7, which will help stimu-late new purchases in the holiday season.

ATI and Nvidia will be introducing new 40nm designs with higher performance, GPU-compute, and surpris-ingly aggressive prices.

The worst is over for inventories that have been run down, and the channel is now restocking for back to school and the holiday madness.

And yes, there is pent-up demand. Lastly, we still believe there will be an impact from the

stimulus programs worldwide.

The latest edition of Jon Peddie's Market Watch is avail-able now in both electronic and hard copy editions from www.jonpeddie.com.

VendorAMDIntelNvidiaMatroxSisVIA/S3Total

ThisQuarter

18.1350.3028.740.060.400.67

98.30

MarketShare

18.4%51.2%29.2%

0.1%0.4%0.7%100%

LastQuarter

12.8137.2023.26

0.070.700.84

74.88

MarketShare

17.1%49.7%

31.12%0.1%0.9%1.0%100%

Total Graphics Chip Market for Q2 2009

PRODUCT: MODELING

Interactive Data Visualization Offers SpeedTree Cinema Interactive Data Visualization (IDV) recently introduced SpeedTree Cinema, the companys newest product in its line of digital foliage-creation software.

SpeedTree Cinema includes a modeling tool that delivers a unique combination of procedural and handcrafted options. Controls for a number of tree param-eters are offered in an intuitive interface,

and individual branches and roots may be drawn and edited in the application. Additionally, thousands of leaf and bark textures, and a large and growing list of species are available in the SpeedTree Cinema model library, including palms, broadleaves, cacti, pines, shrubs, and fl owers.

Once created, users can then export

the SpeedTree Cinema models as a mesh in a variety of popular formats.

An annual site license for IDVs Speed-Tree Cinemawhich includes unlimited use in any number of productions for an entire yearis priced at $39,995. A production licensefor use of the prod-uct in a single production for an unlimited time periodcosts $14,995.

New DeckLink HD Extreme has Dual Link 4:4:4/4:2:2 SDI, HDMI and analog connections in SD, HD and 2K!

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Hardware Down Conversion

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NEW 4:4:4

MODEL!

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10 October 2009

NEWS: BUSINESS

CG Market to Continue Growth RateThe CG industry has enjoyed almost nonstop growth since it was established in the late 1970s. Today, computer graph-ics hardware and software (not count-ing services, maintenance, and other aspects) are worth $68 billionthats a mind-boggling average growth rate of 16.5 percent for 28 years.

Despite the recession, or maybe because of it, the market for all types of applications and hardware used in the computer graphics industry is growing at a prodigious rate and offers opportunities in many segments as companies invest today for the consumers of tomorrow.

Hardware will continue to get better, and more units will be sold, predicts analysts at Job Peddie Research, and due to the benefi ts of Moores Law, prices will be stable. This empowers the industry and contributes to the democra-tization of all segments, allowing people who were shut out in the past to partici-pate, and that, in addition to bringing great new developments, increases the overall market.

As a result of the expansion of the market, more people will be buying CG software programs, and we will see the development of traditional segments, such as CAD/CAM, expand as new

design approaches in auto-motive, aerospace, and archi-tecture are brought forth. Visualization, a market that has been almost dormant for the past few years, is poised now for great expansion

Software for making movies, computer games, high-style products, and simulations of products and activities too expensive or too dangerous to test in reality will exploit the amazing realism and real-time capabilities of todays and tomorrows CG software.

The demand for program-mers, artists, scientists, and designers who can use and exploit these new programs and their associated hardware accelerators will not subside. The economic recession has caused a slowdown, but its going to look like a small bump in the road by 2013.

We are seeing new opportunities growing out of more mainstream appli-cations for the Web and consumer applica tions. The Web is growing as a distribution medium for graphics content,

which, in turn, encourages people to pick up the tools, learn them, create content for pleasure, and even look for jobs in the fi eld. What used to be a very closed soci-ety of experts is opening up.

Computer Graphics Hardware Market

in billions of dollars US

$100

$80

$60

$40

$20

$02008 2013

Total Gaming PCs

Game Consoles

Workstations

Monitors Usedfor Graphics

Computer Graphics Application Software

in billions of dollars US

$18$16$14$12$10$8$6$4$2$0

2008 2013

OtherVector GraphicsImagingVisualization SimulationDigital VideoModeling and Animation2D Animation CelCAD/CAM Software

PRODUCT: VIDEO

Blackmagic Enhances Product LineBlackmagic Design was busy at the annual IBC conference and exhibition last month, with new updates and pricing for a number of its products. Among the announcements was DeckLink Studio 2, a new model capture card designed as a replacement for standard-defi nition cards, with increased analog connectivity for older analog equipment as well as SDI/HD-SDI and HDMI connec-tions for the latest digital equipment. DeckLink Studio 2 replac-es the current model DeckLink Studio and adds 10-bit HDMI capture and playback for the price of $695.

The company also unveiled the HDLink Pro DisplayPort, a new

model of its HDLink Pro with a display-port connection instead of a DVI connection. The fi rst HD and 2K monitoring solution for new DisplayPort monitors, the offering features deep color support, 3Gbit/sec SDI, 3D interactive lookup tables, and six channels of audio. It is priced at $495.

Also, Blackmagic rolled out software updates for all its Deck-Link cards, in addition to unveiling the new DeckLink 7.3. The company also revealed a new reduced price, $2995, for its Studio Videohub 16x32 SDI router with 3Gbit/sec SDI support, 16x16 RS-422 control, automatic auto switch, and full SDI re-clocking.

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Sync Generator

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Audio to SDI

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12 October 2009

Polygon Makes a Big SplashW hen the South Korean-made mega-disaster movie Haeundae opened recently, the $18 million fi lmthe countrys most expensive to datebecame an overnight sensation. The CJ Entertainment feature, about a tsunami that threatens to wipe out a popular beach resort, was directed by Je-Kyoun Youn of JK Film and is loaded with complex visual effects, courtesy of Polygon Entertainment, based in San Rafael, California.

Polygon may have recently cemented its status in South Koreas fi lm industry, but its roots are distinctly Hollywood. Headquartered in the former Industrial Light & Magic building, the company was founded in 2007 by former ILM CG supervi-

sor Hans Uhlig, who is no stranger to the disaster fi lm genre. His credits include The Day After Tomorrow and The Perfect Storm, among others.

Boasting soundstages, construction and model shops,

special and visual effects production, and camera, story, and art departments, Polygon is well equipped to take on feature fi lm work of any magnitudeeven that of a quake which, in turn, spawns a tsunami. Just before fi lming began on Haeundae, Polygon wrapped production on another South Korean feature shot in Northern California, Chaw, which opened across Asia on July 16 to great box-offi ce success.

It was Uhligs expertise in designing complex and beautiful water sequences for Hollywood movies using a combination of practical and digital effects that attracted director Yoon Je-kyun to bring the Polygon team on board for Haeundae. Says Youn, who is also head of JK Film, We wanted to inject the

same caliber of fi lm production within Haeundaeand set a new fi lm standard by having Holly-wood-level production values and special effects in a Korean studio fi lm release. Polygon Enter-tainment helped us achieve that goal.

Haeundae is about a tsunami set to strike the tranquil beaches of Haeundae, Busan, and chronicles the happenings that surround the event. The bulk of the movie was shot in Busan, where Uhlig was overseeing the VFX as the fi lms visual effects supervisor. However, six action sequences involving heavy visual and special effectsincluding one in which hotel rooms are fl ooded with waterwerent possible to shoot in Korea.

Under the supervision of producer David Dran-itzke, Polygon constructed the multiple sets needed for those shots (for instance, a deluxe beachside hotel room, hotel corridor, bathroom, helicopter, heli tank rescue, boat rescue) and brought the principal actors to the US from Korea for second-unit shooting over a four-week period.

Over the course of eight months, a team of artists at Polygon worked on the feature fi lm, including veteran visual effects producer Jeff Olson, who joined Polygon after wrapping the hit movie Star Trek at ILM, where he has worked for 23 years. While at ILM, Olson also had the opportunity to work on another fi lm

featuring extensive water effects: Poseidon. Utilizing their expertise in smart, economical sequence

production, Uhlig and his team collaborated closely with the fi lmmakers and talent to produce the action sequences,

USER FOCUS: VFX

With expertise in both practical and digital water effects, Polygon Entertainment created effects for the South Korean disaster fi lm Haeundae. At top shows the original fi lm plate, while at bottom is the completed shot.

October 2009 13

including the movies 10-minute opening scene of a large fi shing boat being tossed around on violent seas during a storm. This scene was shot using two HD Sony F23 cameras on the studios backlot in San Rafael inside a 60-foot tank that Polygon designed.

Prior to building the practical boat section that fi nally made it into the movie, Polygon created a digital model within Autodesks Maya for approval as well as effi cient design plan-ning. The boat model was then brought into Autodesks AutoCAD, and passed on to the construction team.

The crew then constructed the center part of the shipa perfect match with the CG versionto work on an underwater gimbal. Back in the computer, the live-action shots integrated seam-lessly into the CG scene. Polygon shot extensive storm sequences in the tank, as well as multiple greenscreen scenes that included combining practical and CG water.

A custom water pipeline was developed by Polygon CG supervisor Jay Shin, lead software engineer Erik Krumrey, and shader developer/sequence supervisor Ken Wesley. The group did extensive water R&D and wrote custom scripts that were plug-ins to Maya. Pre-comping was done in the US with a team of artists using The Foundrys Nuke.

While most of the matchmoving and rotoscope work was done by a Korean vendor, Polygon did some matchmov-

ing using The Pixel Farms PFTrack and select roto paint work using Silhouette FXs Silhouette. Both programs are accessible off-the-shelf tools, but in the hands of experi-enced artists, they proved capable of achieving the desired

shot outcome. People weve spoken to are always shocked when

they see the fi lm and hear how we completed such sophisticated sequence and effects work, considering we were working with what was essentially an indie fi lm budget compared to Hollywood standards, says Uhlig. We accomplished this by staffi ng small teams of highly capable artists who possess wide-ranging skill sets spanning traditional and digital fi lmmaking.

According to Dranitzke, Polygon Entertainment works closely with its clients to devise the most creative and cost-effective shots possible, because sometimes it doesnt make sense to allocate three months to R&D when the directors vision can be accomplished through a combination of practical effects [combined] with CG.

Polygon Entertainment built a custom water pipeline to handle some of the more challenging fl uid effects, which helped augment practical fl uid effects. The team also created custom Maya scripts for the water work.

A lot of the fi lms focus obviously was on water since the story involved a tsu-nami, although the digital artists also created a number of other effects, including explosions, as seen in this before (top) and after (bottom) shot.

October 200914

Gaming

Batmans cape was an always-present challenge for the game developers. The artists had to drive the cape through the real-time physics of the game engine, yet switch to a keyframe solution for handcrafted animations.

Images 2009 Warner Bros.

he Dark Knight delivered arguably cinemas f nest

performance in 2008, with a haunting vision of Bat-

man steeped in a labyrinthine maze of moral choices

that wowed critics and audiences alike, en route to becoming the second-

highest grossing f lm of all time. One year later, the Dark Knight is poised to

represent the shining moment for gaming, this time with Batman: Arkham Asylum,

an interactive title for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC that is having the same

seismic commercial and critical impact as its cinematic predecessor.

Developed by Londons Rocksteady Studios and featuring all-new character designs from

comic publisher and DC Comics imprint Wildstorm Productions, Arkham Asylum is a mas-

terpiece of modern gaming. It is a visceral virtual experience that immerses players so deeply

in the creepy, Gothic biosphere of its closed-o island setting that f nishing the game feels

like leaving the theater after watching e Dark Knight: satisf ed, but exhausted.

As a result, the game has inspired a tsunami of rhapsodic prose since its release. Critics

have lavished it with superlatives, calling it the greatest comic-book game ever made, the

best licensed game of all time, and the best game of the year. e universal acclaim has

even landed the title in the Guinness Book of World Records as e Most Critically Acclaimed

Superhero Game Ever, a highly specif c distinction, but an honor, nonetheless. After f nish-

ing the game, I can only add my voice to the choir.

rough stunningly animated and voice-acted scenes, the games plot twists alternate be-

tween the exciting and the horrif c. e story was co-authored by Paul Dini, writer of Bat-

man: e Animated Series, and reassembles most of the cast from the hit series to reprise

their roles, including Mark Hamill as the Joker, Kevin Conroy as Batman, and Arleen

Sorkin as Harley Quinn. But make no mistake, this is no cartoon world theyre

inhabiting: e air is laced with salty language, the lady villains prance about

in skimpy attire, and bodies are falling left and right, as the game pulls no

punches in depicting the psychopathy of its criminally insane inmates, at

times even making e Dark Knight look like a Disney movie.

Inmates Rule the AsylumAlthough the game is faithfully rooted in the 1989 graphic

novel of the same name by writer Grant Morrison and artist

David McKean, it plays out like a love letter to the entire

70-year mythos of the Batman canon. e adventure

begins with an in-game cut-scene showing the caped

crusader escorting the Joker back

to Arkham Asy-

October 2009 15

Gaming

he Dark Knight delivered arguably cinemas fi nest performance in 2008, with a haunting vision of Bat-man steeped in a labyrinthine maze of moral choices

that wowed critics and audiences alike, en route to becoming the second-highest grossing fi lm of all time. One year later, the Dark Knight is poised to

Images 2009 Warner Bros.

October 200916

n n n n Gaming

lum, an island prison for the criminally in-

sane, where hundreds of the Jokers goons

are being conveniently housed after a

mysterious fire erupted at Gotham Citys Blackgate prison.

Soon after the cackling clown-prince of

crime is admitted, however, Harley Quinn

overrides the security system, enabling his

escape. He sets the inmates free, and then,

with Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, Scarecrow,

Victor Zsasz, and the Hulk-like Bane at his

side, he executes a plot to obtain a chemi-

cal called Titan, which is secretly under

development inside the asylum. With it,

he hopes to turn the inmates into an army

of monsters to serve beneath his hand and,

afterwards, dump the waste product into

Gotham Citys water supply.

From the crumbling, gargoyle-adorned

asylum, with its 1920s retrofitted look, to the murky waters lapping at the island

shore, to the ghostly depths of the forest

where Batmans cave lurks, the game plung-

es us into a gritty, comic-book hellhole that

is as unique and fully realized a world as

Bioshock was in 2007. Its a common set-

ting for suspense and horror stories (remi-

niscent of Dennis Lehanes Shutter Island),

and indeed the game veers, by turns, from

action, to suspense, to outright Silence of

the Lambs-style horror. The audio logs of interviews between Arkhams doctors and

the inmates will chill your spine, as their

pathologies are revealed in gruesome de-

tail, revealing how and why villains like

the Riddler, Croc, Poison Ivy, and Harley

Quinn went completely sideways.

Heightened Comic RealismAt the outset of production, the first chal-lenge Rocksteady faced was finding an overarching visual philosophy to not only

capture the tone, mood, and atmosphere of

the Batman universe, but to do something

even trickier. Art director David Hego ex-

plains: Right from the start, we had to

develop Arkhams visuals as the glue that

would join diametrically opposed styles:

the comic books style and an ultra-realis-

tic render style. We wanted to stay true to

the comics over-the-top look through the

saturated colors and the stylization of the

world and characters, but still keep the ma-

terials and shaders close to reality. That is, concrete should look like concrete, wood

should look like wood, but the mood and

architecture should be more exaggerated in

a pure comic-book sense: The verticality should be exaggerated, the visual elements

slightly over the top, he says.

To accomplish this, the group read

through a huge assortment of Batman

comics and graphic novels. The first one that came to mind is, of course, Arkham

Asylum by Morrison and McKean. But at

the end of the day, even if that was a good

starting point at the beginning of the pre-

production, the team ended up creating its

own unique style through the maturation

of the project.

Additionally, Wildstorm updated the

designs of the characters, making them,

like the asylum, tougher, darker, yet still

colorfully over the top. We worked closely

with Wildstorm and DC Comics in devel-

oping the new designs, says Hego. The relationship was open and prolific. The main goal was to create our own take on

the main protagonists. We wanted to give

Batman fans a new vision of the Batman

universe. For example, Harley Quinn in

Arkham Asylum represents a completely

new take on the character, at least visually

[in her very skimpy outfit]. It worked quite nicely, as the result on screen was breath-

taking. There are always many iterations when working on such big, well-known,

branded characters. But at the end of the

day, the result on screen is faithful to the

original vision, with a bit of a twist and

Rocksteadys touch.

Similarly, the team tried to find a unique character for the iconic asylum, which is

rendered, like the characters, to unite dark,

comic-book pastels with gritty realism.

We toyed around with building Arkham

Asylum as essentially one big building,

following the idea found in most of the

comics depicting the madhouse. However,

we later decided that the gameplay and at-

mosphere would be more compelling if it

were broken down into several buildings,

says Hego.

Portrayed in the past as both a Gothic

hellhole and a modern, sterilized, white-

washed hospital, Arkham Asylum, through

Rocksteadys eyes, features cold, clinical

white-tiled walls intermingling with stone

gargoyles and countless Gothic spires.

Our vision of the asylum is dark, gritty,

and Gothic. It might as well be the darkest

and grittiest representation of the asylum

in Batmans history, Hego says. To create

The game action takes place both inside and outside the iconic asylum. Inside, the aesthetic is cold and clinical; outside, it is dark and gloomy.

October 200918

n n n n Gaming

more visual variety during the exploration

of the island and to add a layer of history

to the structures, each building received

its own architectural style and meaning.

For example, the administrative building

exudes a high Gothic architecture, the

medical pavilion depicts a Victorian archi-

tecture, and the catacombs reflect a mix of early-industrial Victorian style.

The uniqueness of each set added a lot of depth and believability to the environ-

ments, adds Hego. We also designed each

location with its own color palette, a set of

main tones that honored, purely, the visual

tradition of the graphic novels and comics.

Rocksteady did an enormous amount

of research on actual mental hospitals and

penal institutions prior to production, and

tried to stray little from the reality they

found there. Once our visual style was

established and the art vision understood,

the creation of the environment was a

natural and organic process that deviates

just a little bit outside of the real world,

says Hego. I think that is what creates the

unique mood and feel of the game.

However, in its quest to remain accurate

to hospital dcor, the crew unwittingly

turned the indoor medical levels into an

unexpected technical nightmare. Thats because they had decided to furnish each

of the examination rooms with the thick,

plastic curtains so common in most hospi-

tals. Worse, each one was modeled, rigged

with bones, and physics-driven in Auto-

desks 3ds Max. The levels would run ter-ribly with more than one curtain, laments

Rocksteady artist Will Smith. To remedy

this, we eventually coded the curtains to

become idle if they werent visible. We

also reduced the number of bones on each

mesh and how detailed they work.

Lay of the LandThe Arkham campus is sprawled out across the island in six main buildings, each honey-

combed with dark, dingy cells and a maze

of cavernous corridors leading to labora-

tories, libraries, interrogation rooms, in-

firmaries, ICUs, decontamination rooms, and hidden execution chambers. Having

Batman spend a night in the Arkham Asy-

lum was really the most powerful way to

concentrate as many villains at once in a

believable set, says Hego. Depicting Bat-

mans journey through the madhouse and

the encounters that would happen made

for a fascinating concept. Indeed, the

journey becomes one of psychological hor-

ror, as well, when Batman falls under the

influence of the Scarecrows hallucinogens and endures the hellish nightmares of his

worst fears come true.

Proving the adage that creativity thrives

on restrictions, the small, localized island

setting also allowed the team to maximize

the details and visual scope of the levels.

We wanted to have a detailed world, says

Hego, meaning that the amount of detail

in the rooms and locations would be very

high and time-consuming. Making some-

thing bigger would have made the quality

of the visuals suffer. Nonetheless, Arkham island is still mas-

sive, replete with an Overworld of new

facilities, catacombs, and natural environ-

ments on the outskirts of the island that

can be unlocked through backtracking and

re-exploration when Batman progresses

through the adventure. This is done by expanding his abilities and Bat tech. Un-

fortunately, the additional overlay of a few

of the sets in the Overworld taxed the com-

puting power of both consoles. Because of

the size of the levels and the detail of the

game, it was hard to get these Overworld

levels running in frame on the consoles. To

make them run, we spent months reducing

the number of assets, combining similar as-

sets, combining textures in shaders, remov-

ing any unnecessary or hidden geometry,

and basically being careful with what we

built, says Smith.

Nevertheless, Rocksteady wanted to en-

courage and reward this kind of free explo-

ration of the island, which was one of the

primary reasons for dividing the asylum into

multiple buildings and creating the Over-

world. Breaking it down into multiple

buildings spread across the island allowed

for more exploration, both within the struc-

tures and outside them, and also broke the

monotony of solely interior environments,

contrasting them with the overwhelming

spaciousness of the exteriors, says Hego.

Indeed, outside, in these exhilarating

exteriors, the island is thick with swaying

trees, weeds, and foliage, as well as the sea

grass combing the shoreline. In addition,

theres the plant life in the botanical gar-

den, where the seductive Poison Ivy prac-

tices her evil science. While artists sculpted

a handful of static tree meshes in 3ds Max,

they relied primarily on the commercially

The team applied motion-captured animation to the characters basic movements. For more com-plex actions, the artists used keyframing techniques.

CGW :808_p 7/16/08 11:45 AM Page 1

October 200920

n n n n Gaming

available SpeedTree, a tool kit from Inter-

active Data Visualization for creating and

rendering plant life in games.

Restyling the BatmobileArtists gave the Batmobile a significant style overhaul for the game, applying the

same fusion of gritty realism and retro

comic book that re-energized the charac-

ters and sets. We wanted to keep the cool,

hard, chunky Batmobile feel while adding

a 1920s retrofitted style to it, says Hego. The result comes across like a mix of a hot-rod monster car and a rocket. It looks

pretty cool, and sits well in the dark and

Gothic atmosphere of the game.

When asked if the team modeled and

textured the Batmobile in various states of

damage and disrepair, Hego prefers to leave

us in suspense. I dont want to spoil any-

thing about what is going to happen in the

game, he comments.

Comic CharactersTo create Batmans repertoire of ninja

combat moves, Rocksteady mocapped

professional martial artists at its in-house

studio in London, which employs Vicons

Blade and 30 F40 cameras. The team processed the data in Autodesks Motion-

Builder before animators crafted the fin-ished performances in 3ds Max.

The developer also used 3ds Max to model and animate Batman, Alfred, Com-

missioner Gordon, the guards, wardens,

and the rogue gallery of inmates, building

each character model with roughly 15,000

polygons. Looking at Jokers face, at the

fine lines, wrinkles, scars, and caking paint, players can see the excruciating detail with

which artists rendered each character. They painted most of these details in Adobes

Photoshop and Pixologics ZBrush, bak-

ing them into normal maps that were one

part of a complex shader system, including

diffuse maps, specular and specular power maps, and a transmission map. The latter simulates subsurface scattering to capture

the translucency of blood, flesh, skin, and the vessels writhing and popping beneath,

most noticeably in the muscle-bound Bane.

Artists accomplished much of the wrin-

kling, furrowing, and delicate deformations

in the faces using normal-map blending,

which, according to Hego, helped to sig-

nificantly reinforce the expressions. We built the shaders using the [Epic Games]

Unreal Engine 3, he adds, authoring each

one at a resolution of 2048x2048 for high-

end PCs.

The facial blendshapes for all the char-acters, which were somewhat exaggerated

to handle the wildly gleeful inflections in Hamills performance, for example, were

entirely bone-based and sculpted 3ds Max.

The backbone of Rocksteadys lip-sync-ing and facial animation system was OC3

Entertainments FaceFX, which worked

within the Unreal Engine 3 to analyze

the sound files, sync the lips in real time, and then blend in general facial expres-

sions. Animators utilized FaceFX for a

dual-method approach that allowed us to

take advantage of FaceFXs great real-time

analysis functions while still being able to

do our own custom animations within 3ds

Max, says artist Paul Bolden.

To create much of the real-time, in-

game animations, the FaceFX system ana-

lyzed and animated the faces from a large

range of preset bone-pose targets set up

by the animators. For more detailed cut-

scenes, however, the animators expanded

on those primary bone poses and set up

a custom control rig within 3ds Max that

could be animated freely. Those custom an-imations could then be read by FaceFX and

rendered through the same pipeline within

the Unreal engine, explains Bolden.

This custom control rig, which was de-signed in 3ds Max for each of the main

characters faces, consisted of well over 30

bones. Artists exported the bones using a

MaxScript that separated the poses into

their own tracks with unique function

curves, which were then recognized by the

FaceFX setup.

Knight MovesWhile Rocksteady used Vicons Blade sys-

tem to capture most of the basic move-

ments of the characterslike walking,

running, and martial artistrythe team

was also doggedly determined to use the

system to capture some of the more com-

plicated altercations between the characters

and their environments. The hardest shot we did [which occurs in a cinematic] hap-

pens in a scene where a small and feeble

character is hung up by pipes and wires en-

twined around different parts of his body. Soon after, he transforms into a much big-

Appearing in Batman: Arkham Asylum is the iconic Batmobile, built in Autodesks 3ds Max, as were all the characters and sets.

October 2009 21

Gaming n n n n

ger and heavier character, who frees himself

from the restriction of the pipes and tubes.

To capture this, we had to set up a com-

plex harness system in the motion-capture

area that allowed the actor to struggle and

pull himself down from the pipes in a safe

environment. The whole shot consisted of three people controlling the harness and

wires while giving the actor enough free-

dom to perform, explains Bolden.

For Batman himself, Bolden says the

hardest and most time-consuming anima-

tions were the ones that were impossible to

motion-capture, yet still needed to look as

fluid and realistic as their mocapped coun-terparts. One scene, in which Batman is

being grabbed by a much larger character,

was incredibly difficult to get right. Bat-man releases himself by kicking out of the

hold and back-flipping, before landing on his feet. The entire combination of motions was entirely hand-animated, he explains.

Of course, the cape was an ever-present

challenge for animators, spreading out as

Batman takes flight, or just billowing and rippling in the wind as the Dark Knight

stands perched atop a gargoyle, surveying

the world below. During the cinematics, a

cloth system developed in 3ds Max drove

most of the cape animations. The simula-tion was set up and then executed to re-

act to all of Batmans moves, says Bolden.

The simulation not only gave us accurate weight and motions for all the moves, but

also allowed us to control collision and

secondary aspects, such as wind or dam-

age. This was then imported back into the game engine and played at specific points in the game.

The capes rigging, Bolden continues, was extremely advanced and difficult to develop. We needed the ability to drive

the cape through the [real-time] physics of

the game engine, and then switch to a key-

framed solution to play [handcrafted] ani-

mations for individual set pieces, he says.

An enormous amount of time went into

developing the rig and the physics solution

that drove the cape; the physics had to cope

with interactions between Batman, the oth-

er characters, and the environments during

combat and environmental navigation.

Feelings of EmpowermentBatmans gameplay is divided into three

modes. The first is hand-to-hand, martial-arts combat, showcasing his ninja train-

ing. The second is the invisible predator mechanic, in which Batman uses stealth

to stalk enemies from the rafters without

them ever seeing him. By striking from

the shadows, using fear and intimidation

to outwit and overcome his adversaries, the

gameplay encourages a degree of prepared-

ness specifically designed to empower the player. While stealth is a key component

in these actions, Rocksteady prefers to call

them predatory, because stealth tends to

imply weakness, something the team ag-

gressively tried to avoid.

Finally, Batman is a detective at heart, so

the game involves a lot of exploration, inge-

nuity, gadgetry, and old-fashioned detective

work to gain entrance to the many rooms

and chambers of the cavernous asylum. For

instance, to break into a locked or blocked

room, the player has to use Batmans cryp-

tographic sequencer to hack the security

codes, or use their reasoning to solve the

240 logic puzzles that the Riddler is con-

stantly squealing into Batmans earpiece,

giving clues about the rooms hes entering.

Most times, Batman must employ all

three modes at once. For example, while

surveying a group of inmates from atop the

rafters as they hold some guards hostage be-

low, Batman can switch to detective mode

and use a blue-tinted X-ray-style visor

Using 3ds Max, the artists created all the characters (top), adding facial detail in Photoshop and ZBrush (bottom), and baking the imagery into normal maps that were part of a shader system.

October 200922

n n n n Gaming

similar to the one from The Dark Knightthat lets him see his enemies through walls

and identify important aspects of the en-

vironment, like ventilation shafts, knives,

and guns. He can then spread his cape and

lithely alight to an adjacent room, plant a

sticky bomba gel-like explosiveagainst

the wall and, detonating it remotely, dis-

perse most of the villains in a panic. Then, he can finish the rest off with a flurry of roundhouse kicks and punches.

Similarly, when the Joker locks the war-

dens in a gas chamber, Batman has only sec-

onds to save them. X-raying the scene with

his visor, he finds extractor fans that, with a deft throw of his batarang, can be activated

to flush the toxic gas from the room. As Zsasz holds a guard hostage in an electric

chair and threatens to fry him if anyone ap-

proaches, Batman scans the room for ven-

tilation shafts, climbs through, and then,

hanging upside down from above, subdues

the villain with a quick twist of the neck.

Rocksteady specifically designed these actions to combine stealth, detective savvy,

intelligence, and high-tech gadgetry, with

the express purpose of immersing the

player in the unique mind-set of the Dark

Knighta man who relies not on super-

powers, but merely superior human and

physical strength to defeat his enemies.

We wanted to explore the psychology of

the Batman character, says lead designer

Sefton Hill. Players should feel empow-

ered by being Batman and his ability

to handle any situation. To endow the

player with this sense of empowerment,

Rocksteady always eliminated any trace of

avoidance and weakness in Batmans

stealth operations.

When Batman is fully engaged in invis-

ible predator mode, hes constantly scaling

walls and ledges, climbing through ventila-

tion ducts, or trying to gain a precarious

foothold or handhold on his environ-

ment. To constrain his hands and feet to

the surfaces, Rocksteady used an in-house

solution that corrected foot levels on un-

dulating terrain and repositioned Batmans

hands while he shimmied along ledges.

[Using this proprietary tool], the hands

are free to move and reposition themselves

when Batman is clear of a wall, railing, or

other scalable surface. But, when the hands

do approach a scalable surface, the limb is

retargeted toward the wall to cope with any

unevenness and keep things looking clean,

explains Bolden.

Another good example of this tool at

work would be the opening scene of the

game, in which the guard pulls Jokers

trolley [Hannibal Lecter-style] down the

corridors. Using the IK on his arm, the

crew was able to make the two AI charac-

ters (the second guard and The Joker on his trolley) move down the hall with the

correct lag, coping with AI cornering and

small undulation.

Lighting the Dark KnightTo capture the ghostly murk of the island

and the dark, dingy, sodium-suffused inte-riors of the asylum, Rocksteady employed

primarily the stock lighting systems of the

Unreal Engine 3. We laid down hun-

dredssometimes even thousandsof

lights in each of the rooms and locations

to mimic a global illumination lighting so-

lution, explains Hego. It proved to be a

good method because we wanted the light-

ing to be quite stylized and contrasted to

follow the dark, Gothic feel of the asylum.

Obviously, lighting is a character in itself

in the Batman world. Theres a misty, dif-fuse lighting engulfing the island, replete with god rays from the moonlight, while

haunting, chiaroscuro shadowing creates

pockets of fear at every turn. Therefore, real-time and volumetric lighting was cru-

cial for moonlight and searchlights. Real-

time, dynamic lighting is used on all the

characters and interactive elements of the

game. But the lighting is not the only way

to light up an environment and establish

the mood. For instance, fake god rays made

out of polygons, particle systems, or even

animated additive shaders are other ways

to create the thick, misty atmosphere on

the island, Hego explains. Its a great way

to create contrast between the lighting and

the silhouettes of the Gothic architecture.

Nevertheless, even though the game

employs advanced lighting systems, such

as real-time reflection mappingoff the water or the reinforced glass of the hold-

ing pen, for exampleRocksteady tried,

as a general rule, to minimize the impact

of such power-hungry effects. You need as much bandwidth as possible to display the

amount of detail in both the environments

and the high-poly characters, not to men-

tion to maintain the game mechanics and

AI running in the background, explains

Hego. So more than ever, we used a lot of

smoke and mirrors to create believable and

impressive effects. Most of the time, dis-torting a cube map through an animated

Real-time and volumetric lighting was needed for moonlight and searchlights; the overall misty, foggy atmosphere was crafted with fake god rays made from polygons, particle systems, or shaders.

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October 200924

n n n n Gaming

normal map in a shader can achieve an ef-

fect that can be as believable as one purely

calculated in real time.

Hego concedes that memory manage-

ment was a constant challenge looming

over the entire course of production. In-

deed, the PS3 version requires a 1.2gb

install that lasts for almost three minutes,

and still the graphics are slightly, if imper-

ceptibly, less crisp than that of its Xbox 360

counterpart. We already had 18 months

of experience with next-gen techniques

when we began Arkham, he says, so we

were very mature in term of workflow and tools. Still, it was always hard fitting the amount of details displayed on screen into

the consoles memory and maximizing the

resources available at any moment to make

sure that each room would stream in and

out smoothly.

Holy FX Animation, BatmanBatmans is a deeply dark and atmospheric

world filled with fog and wind, as well as slanting sheets of rain pounding the pave-

ment at the wrought-iron gates of the asy-

lum, where spectral clouds creep in front of

the moon above. Its a world that demand-

ed effects animation of the highest caliber, not only for weather and environmental

effects, but for smoke and fire, explosions from Batmans gel weapon, bullet hits off

the Kevlar bodysuit, and the poisonous gas

released by the Joker.

The team created all those effects in the Unreal Engine 3 shader editor and parti-

cle system editor. The visual aspect of the wind was created using animated shaders

applied to flat polygons strewn across the landscape, along with wind volumes to re-

act to physics and objects, such as Batmans

cape. The rain is done in a similar way. The

artists created fog using a fade-in proximity

and normal dependant shaders applied to

flat polygons. They also generated smoke, gas, and fire with particle systems coupled with animated shaders.

Detective ModeWhen Batman is in invisible predator

mode, he can fire his grappling hook, as-cend to the top of a stone gargoyle, and,

switching to detective mode, survey the

area under the blue tint of his X-ray vi-

sor. Ironically, the visorwhich reveals

red and blue skeletal outlines of friendly

and enemy nonplayer characters, as well as

important objects (like knives and guns in

bright orange)was not derived from The Dark Knight.

We were working on this effect long be-fore seeing the movie, Hego stresses. The idea behind the detective mode was to

create an augmented-reality interface that

would inform Batman about his surround-

ings. So, it would have to look like the

actual world is being filtered, with some computer information displayed on top.

The crew did some edge-finding processes to create that scanning and computing feel.

Masks are generated in real time to exclude

the interactive elements from becoming

tinted in orange. On top of the full-screen

process, another layermade in Adobes

Flashdeals with all the information and

computer simulation.

But before all this, the biggest techni-

cal challenge of the visor involved creating

a post-process shader that would not ruin

the frame rate, as it would have to pro-

cess several full-screen effects. Therefore, we had to optimize it several times during

the games production to get it just right,

says Hego.

The Greatest For die-hard comic-book fans, their super-

heroes are religion, and from the movies

and games, they demand total fidelity to the biblical canon. Anything less would

be heresy. Unfortunately, most superhero

games, especially those designed as cross-

platform movie tie-ins, have been substan-

dard, to say the least.

However, Batman: Arkham Asylum is

a roundhouse kick right to the heart of

that sorry tradition, demolishing it with

thoughtful, action-packed gameplay, top-

notch voice acting, riveting storytelling,

and a slave-like fidelity to the Batman my-thology that makes it ooze authenticity,

while still pushing the comic book in a new

and exciting direction.

Comic-book fans, at long last, can re-

joice. For now at least, Arkham Asylum

holds the mantle of greatest comic-book

game of all time, and is a front-runner for

best video game of 2009. n

Martin McEachern is an award-winning writer and contributing editor for Computer Graphics World. He can be reached at [email protected].

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#25493 - CGW Ki Pro Ad:Layout 24/06/2009 14:47 Page 1

tumped by a design problem? Running

out of ideas? You might want to watch

a grasshopper or mentally dissect a fern.

ats what the growing crop of bio-

mimicry practitioners would encourage

you to do.

To borrow the words of Ask Nature (www.asknature.

org), an open-source biomimicry portal, the new f eld

is where biology and design cross-pollinate, so bio-

inspired breakthroughs can be born. A casual glance at

the list of projects archived online at Ask Nature reveals

colored f bers and fabric inspired by the wing scales of

Morpho butterf ies (Morphotex from Teijin Fibers in

Japan), a metropolitan high-rise inspired by the skeleton

structure of a sponge (the Gherkin in London), and a

soil-moving system inspired by the skin of earthworms

(University of Jilin in China).

Confronted by the limitations and unfortunate conse-

quences of industrialization, many academics, research-

ers, designers, and architects now turn to nature for clues

on developing more sustainable inventions and creations.

In this article, we follow in the tracks of a prairie hop-

per, translate an ageless equation, and magnify our cell

structures to learn how biomimicry works. A crucial part

of copying nature, as it turns out, is digitally reconstruct-

ing and simulating the natural objects and organisms

behaviors using 3D modeling and analysis software.

Green Education from an Insect Sometime in mid-May, a giant prairie hopper measur-

ing roughly 8x40x9 feet and weighing roughly 9.3 tons

(18,600 pounds) began making its way toward the Co-

lonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. e insect

traveled not by hopping on its hind legs, but by way of

a shipping container. Upon arrival, it was expected to

strut its limbs, spread its wings, and perch by the hillside

near the No. 6 fairway, where the media and guests of

the Crowne Plaza Invitational PGA Tournament had as-

sembled for a glimpse of the oversize bug.

In architecture lingo, the prairie hopper is a portable,

prefabricated, modular structure. It can be segmented

into individual components, transported to a site in

compact form, and reassembled there. Designed as an

entertainment pavilion, the two-story installation lets

people drink in not just the refreshments from the bar,

but also a commanding view of the nearby groves.

ough its primary color is white, the prairie hopper

is a green spirit, an example of the latest innovations in

sustainable architecture. Standing on a skeleton of re-

cycled steel, the habitable hopper is covered in a mass of

thermal- and evaporation-resistant limestone-composite

materials. Its o -grid, capable of heating and cooling

itself via wind turbines and photovoltaic panels. e

structure relies on solar-thermal collectors for potable,

sanitary hot water. Depending on the sun angle of the

October 200926

Engineering/Design

Anderson Anderson Architecture used Autodesk Revit to model the green pavilion dubbed Texas Prairie Hopper. The 3D model allowed the architects to study the movement of the panels and more.

October 2009 27

Engineering/Design n n n n

October 200928

n n n n Engineering/Design

locale and the preferred orientation of the

installation, the hoppers adjustable screens

can be articulated to provide optimal shad-

ing. Behind the stairs leading to the upper

deck, beds of cacti, muhlies, blue gramas,

sand bluestems, and yarrows thrive with-

out regular irrigation.

The prairie hopper was brought to lifemerely 55 days after the idea hatched

as a napkin sketchwith the expertise, la-

bor, and support of Anderson Anderson

Architecture, Texas Christian Universitys

Institute for Environmental Studies, Ad-

vantage Steel Service, NextEra Energy,

Veristeel, and several other individuals

and organizations.

A Bugs LifeThe pavilion was dubbed Texas Prairie Hopper, partly because the collapsible,

ground-hugging structure with steel hinges

resembles a grasshopper, and also because

the modular setup allows it to hop (in a

manner of speaking) from one site to the

next. But once that became the official name, the project began to take on more

and more grasshopper-like characteristics,

according to its creators.

By the time Anderson Anderson Archi-

tecture accepted Texas Christian Universi-

tys invitation to get involved, the Crowne

Plaza Invitational was merely two months

away. So the team had to find creative ways to shorten the production cycle. Here, they

found that the modular assembly worked

in their favor.

We used one T-shaped structure repeat-

edly, because [the steel fabricator, Advan-

tage Steel Service] was able to produce it

easily by ripping apart a standard I-beam,

recalls Karl Vavrek, a project manager at

the architecture firm. We reused it [as a base component] as often as possible for

simplicity and consistency in the design.

We only changed it when we needed to.

Anderson Anderson Architecture decid-

ed to model the entire project in Autodesk

Revit Architecture, a 3D building infor-

mation modeling (BIM) software pack-

age. We modeled [the prairie hopper]

digitally in extreme detail, essentially every

single bolt, partly to speed up the steel fab-

rication process, explains Mark Anderson,

a founding principal of the firm. He notes that as Vavrek and Yevgeniy Ossipov, an-

other project manager, finished designing one piece, they would send the drawings

over to the steel fabricator to manufacture

it. So, essentially, they were building the

digital model and the real construction

components simultaneously.

We modeled the pieces in the order in

which they would be built, says Ossipov.

The first module we modeled was the frame [the system frame used by Veristeel

for modular structures]. Then we made the large panels and the rails that would be at-

tached to the frame.

Each steel beam was cut with a series

of holes. At the time of installation, the

frames, rails, and panels were meant to be

joined together with bungee cords, bolts,

and 1500 tiny S-shaped hooks made of

UV-resistant material (polyether sulphone,

or PES). The advantage of digitally mod-eling these components in detail, Ossipov

notes, was the ability to study the intersect-

ing points and the articulated panels to en-

sure there were no collisions.

Because the golf tournament was going

to take place during hot weather, the group

realized it needed lots of shade as well as

lots of surface areas for the green roof sys-

tem and for showing off the native plants. From the beginning, we knew we

wanted the panels to be attachable at vari-

ous angles, depending on the orientation

of the installation or the time of day, notes

Vavrek. With Revits sun-angle study tools,

the team was able to determine the appro-

priate position of each panel.

Even though there were several of us

working on the same project, we were us-

ing a single digital model, says Vavrek. So

we had good control over the process.

In the middle of the project, Texas

Christian Universitys Institute for Envi-

ronmental Studies requested a photorealis-

tic rendering of the installation, to be pub-

lished in its media kit. With the Revit 3D

model readily available, Ossipov was able

to export the geometry of the prairie hop-

per as a 3D DWG file to McNeels Rhino software, then use Next Limit Technolo-

gies Maxwell Render plug-in for Rhino to

produce a series of images. The results can still be seen in the institutes online project

page at www.ensc.tcu.edu/colonial.php.

An example of the physical manifestation of the golden ratio, also known as phi, can be seen in the coil of this fern.

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October 2009 29

Engineering/Design n n n n

An Enigmatic FanMany mathematicians believe physical

manifestations of phi, also called the gold-

en ratio or divine ratio, could be de-

tected all around us, in the looping circles

that form a conch shell, to the cyclical pat-

terns of the galaxies. (Robert Langdon, the

hero in Dan Browns The Da Vinci Code, insists it could also be found in the pyra-

mids of Giza, the Parthenon at Athens, and

Beethovens Fifth Symphony, among other

places.) You also would find this equation in the propulsion systems and thermody-

namic technologies developed by PAX

Scientific, a California-based research and development corporation. Many of its pat-

ents involve adaptations of phis equilib-

rium principle to industrial processes.

At PaxFan, a master licensee of PAX

Scientific, phi turns into something coolquite literally. Fans made using

PAX Scientific technology are quieter and use less energy per flow unit than com-petitive products, declares the company.

PAX fans produce these benefits by re-ducing the amount of turbulence in the

air before and after contact with the fan.

The curved blades generate a laminar, vor-tical flow on their downstream side, mov-ing air centripetally and with markedly

reduced turbulence.

A tornado shows you an example of

how nature uses phi to equalize pressure

using the vortical pattern, says Kim Pen-

ney, senior design engineer at PAX Scien-

tific. After all, a fan is for producing air-flow, so were looking at optimizing [the fan blades] shape to produce that effect.

PaxFan uses SolidWorks, a 3D mechani-

cal design program, to digitally model its fan

blades. But more importantly, PaxFan uses

high-end fluid-flow and airflow simulation programsAnsys Fluent and AcuSims

AcuSolve and AcuConsoleto study the

flow patterns using digital mock-ups. You can put your hands in front of the

fan to feel its effect, but you cant really see whats going on with airflow patterns, says Penney. With Fluent and AcuSim software,

designers at PaxFan can subdivide the 3D

model of the blades into meshes (known as

meshing in the field of computer-based analysis and simulation), apply forces as

numeric values, and then study the effects on the air around the geometry as color-

coded patterns. Parasolid serves as the in-

termediary file format between the design program SolidWorks and the fluid and flow analysis programs used by PaxFan.

Fluent offers the SolidWorks Connec-tion module, which gives users the abil-

ity to perform initial computational fluid analysis. The concept of the SolidWorks Connection is to identify and resolve tech-

nical nuances as the geometry model is be-

ing created, according to Ansys.

SolidWorks includes a finite-element analysis feature (previously known as

CosmosWorks but now simply known as

SolidWorks Simulation), which is useful

for studying, for instance, the anticipated

deformation of t