Autodesk makes the magic of Transformers, Star Trek, Terminator and Harry Potter possible

In its latest productions, ILM offers the magic of visual effects with Autodesk solutions for the film industry: Maya, Inferno, 3ds Max, Softimage and Backburner.

Industrial, Light & Magic (ILM) ha confiado en el software de entretenimiento digital de Autodesk para crear miles de tomas de efectos visuales para las películas más taquilleras de este verano, incluyendo, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Terminator Salvation y Star Trek. ILM created stunning visual effects using Autodesk Maya and Inferno which is part of ILM's proprietary SABER high-speed compositing system.

Stig Gruman, VP de entretenimiento digital de Autodesk Medios & Entretenimiento, ha señalado que “cada año aumenta la cantidad y la calidad de los efectos visuales llevados a cabo en las películas. ILM continúa extendiendo los límites creativos y tecnológicos al crear efectos visuales impresionantes que estremecen a las audiencias en todo el mundo. Autodesk se enorgullece de estar asociado a ILM y a otros cientos de pioneros en efectos visuales que contribuyeron creando algunos de los efectos más increíbles y memorables de este verano”.

Star Trek, one of the largest CG models

The summer film season began in early May with the global release of Star Trek, for which ILM created 797 shots on some of the largest CG models ever built, using a combination of tools, including, but not limited to, Maya and Inferno. "Star Trek is one of the most creative, fun and artistic projects I have ever worked on. We positioned this project specifically with the Inferno/SABER system, because we knew we could make something truly special. The reliability of the system, combined with the incredible talent we have here, guarantees spectacular results. Star Trek was the magical combination of super powerful software and amazing talent," said Eddie Pasquarello, ILM's Compositing and Visual Effects Supervisor for this film.

“This film represented a new beginning for Star Trek: working together with J.J. Abrams, we wanted to give it a fresh look," says ILM Animation Director Paul Kavanagh. "Using the Maya hardware rendering tools, we were able to literally animate 70 shots in five days (a process that typically requires months of production). “Maya’s high speed, easy iteration capabilities, and seamless compatibility with the Zeno software platform provide a set of tools that enable creativity, and in fact, this was the key to the project’s success,” adds Kavanagh.

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Transformers, robots with more than 50,000 parts

More than 555 shots, 46 robot heroes, (some with more than 50,000 individually animatable parts) and the need to create an IMAX version, are aspects that posed many challenges to the ILM staff working on the sequel to Transformers, made up of more than 250 artists. This staff calculated that it would take a common computer 16,000 years to render this movie. Animation Supervisor Jeff White commented that “with diverse artists with different skills and disciplines collaborating on the film, the increasing interoperability of Autodesk tools has been a huge advantage.” ILM used the functions of a variety of Autodesk software for the entire production structure of Transformers: Autodesk 3ds Max for digital matte painting, Softimage in the art department, Inferno/SABER for compositing, Backburner for network processing, and Maya as the central tool for animation, manipulation and design. White added that "Maya gave us incredible performances, starting with the robots; it's not just about the action sequences: a big part of the story is made up of the artistic and emotional aspects of the important moments between the robots and the human actors. We were able to achieve this thanks to Maya and the flexibility of the Python language. Spectacular animations with incredible tools make for a fantastic movie."

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Terminator: Maya and Inferno in record time

In addition to Star Trek and Transformers, an ILM team of more than 150 people created 366 effects shots for Terminator Salvation using Maya and Inferno. Ben Snow, ILM's visual effects supervisor on the film, highlighted that "Autodesk software, being comprehensive, achieved ambitious visual effects on Terminator Salvation in a short production period. Maya was the lynchpin for ILM's animation of all of the Terminator robots, and its flexibility made it easy for us to integrate it into our software. Inferno was instrumental in the film's success by creating a digital Arnold Schwarzenegger T-800, and allowing us to seamlessly combine the CG actor with the stunt double. “Inferno also gave us the shooting power, speed and flexibility we needed to create the challenging shots of the T-800 digital human being attacked with grenades and the resulting damage.”

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Harry Potter: a team of 80 professionals

And for this summer's Harry Potter sequel, 80 artists contributed 165 shots, using a combination of Maya and Inferno. ILM's work on the film includes extensive photo-realistic fluid simulations of fire and water, as well as crowd-doubling scenes with thousands of animated characters in a single shot.

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