Adventures in the 4th dimension

In our last discussion of 3d math, we started to plumb the mysteries of the matrix. Along the way we discovered two important facts: First, that it’s possible to write an article about matrices with only the merest smidge of a Keanu Reeves mention and second (almost as important), that matrices are just a convention for applying dot products in series. We walked through the derivation of matrices for a series of dot products and shows how hat simple operation allows you to do rotations in two and three dimensions.

Naturally, any TA reading this will be knows there's more. We all know that the matrices we’re most familiar with — the transform matrices that drive animation and modeling — do more than rotate. So this this time out we’re going talk about how translation — spatial offsets — can be packed into matrices.  And we're going to do it in a truly brain bending way.  Sort of.

If none of this sounds familiar, you may want to return to the previous post in the series before continuing.

Dot Matrix

We started our math review with a look at the dot product, and started out by showing how dots work in a minimalist way. This time out we’ll do the same thing the most basic component of 3d math - the matrix.

Chromosaurus!

This 1985 short from Pacific Data Images (the X chromosome in the DNA of Dreamworks Animation) was extremely popular in the late 80's / early 90's CG compilation VHS market, frequently accompanied by trippy electronica.



Of special note: this is well before the the popularization of our mesh skinning techniques: all the moving parts are jointed, and the ripples in the tail are all damped sine waves instead of skeletal animation.  I'm pretty sure these aren't raytraced, it looks to me like a tweaked reflection map.

One of the saddest generation gap experiences of my life is trying to explain to my 14 year old son, who's never known a world without casually photoreal CG, why this set a generation of nerdly hearts afire.  At least he appreciated the soundtrack.

Subjective truth

This video is proof that perceived reality is socially constructed. It will delight and inspire all the artists and designers on your team...

 

Unified Particle Physics for Real-Time Applications - SIGGRAPH 2014 from Miles Macklin on Vimeo.

... and make the engineers very, very nervous...

Classic CG: La plus ca change

From SIGGRAPH 1992.



While I'd hesitate to call this a 'classic' it does prove one thing: tacky me-too crap is eternal  Hands up if you remember palette animations!  (For that matter, walkers and canes up if you remember the local-cable ads this thing was parodying!)

Classic (?) CG: Bingo the Clown

From the Classic CG files comes Bingo the Clown. This was originally created to showcase the capabilities of Maya 1.0, back in 1998. It creeped me out then and it creeps me out now.




I've been told, I don't know how correctly, that Chris Landreth - the animator who did this film - was the driving force between Maya's decision to use Euler angles for everything. I hope that's not true. Having this video and those goddamn Euler angles on your conscience is a lot to answer for.

New tools watch: MARI

Lately - particularly since the demise of the late, lamented XSI, I've been increasingly worried about getting too locked in to any one vendor for my tools.  I go way back with Photoshop - I once emailed a bug report directly to John Knoll on my Compuserve (!!) account.  I was in the audience for the Maya launch at SIGGRAPH in, I think it was 1997.

Jeez, I'm really fricking old. But I digress.

The point is, I love those tools. They've been part of my life for a long time. But I don't like being too beholden to anybody, especially not an anybody who's a big public company that has to answer to shareholders and analysts and is not particularly worried about competition.

For that reason I'm actively looking for alternatives to supplement or even supplant the old standbys.  And this GDC gave me some up-close and personal time with a very promising one: Mari, the 3-d painting app from the Foundry.

Lots of Mari work on Avatar

More after the jump.

Worst. CG. EVAR.

Anybody who has ever had to suffer through demo reel reviews will appreciate this: This guy's Youtube channel is the Louvre of bad CG. And yes, he is in on the joke. But he is looking for donations so he can raise enough money for a PC which can render shadows.

No Humans Involved (Classic CG)

Saw a great paper in +Robert Butterworth 's feed which reminded me of this classic SIGGRAPH presentation from 1994 - one of the all time greats in procedural animation.  None of the motion in this was animated by hand :)

Still on holiday blogging wise, as we ponder the year gone by, give a thought to these ancient nuggets from Robert Abel, back from when I was still in high school :)  Back when being a 'technical artist' probably meant 'being the guy who can hand adjust the laser in the slide-rendering machine that produces our graphics on film'

Who else remembers when this was cutting edge graphics? Happy Holidays!