The Institute of Animation’s Research and Development lab presents a series of applications based on the Frapper (Filmakademie Application Framework) platform:

The "Agent Framework" is a development platform for character-centric application prototyping. A dialogue system will demonstrate an early prototype of an interactive, personalized FMX conference guide.
“Splat” is a collection of non-photorealistic rendering algorithms combined with the real-time capabilities of the Frapper platform. It is suited for use in Filmmaking and real-time Agents.
The “Performance Solver” is part of the new Facial Animation Toolset 2.0 release and allows the analysis of complex motion capture data to drive parameterized facial animation rigs.
A most recent cooperation with HCI (Heidelberg Collaboratory for Image Processing) and Filmakademie focuses on the development of stereoscopic postproduction tools based on the Frapper and Charon Frameworks (Moros).

Frapper is released under the LGPL v2.1 open source license.

Golaem Behavior Pack manages predefined classic behaviors (find a path, navigate, look at, grasp…), and is adaptable both to the configuration of the digital mock-up and to the morphology of characters. Golaem Activity providing an authoring tool for human activity description situated in an informed environment, and a runtime engine processing activities described with this graphical language.

Stéphane Donikian has a PhD in computer science and an habilitation to direct research from the University of Rennes 1. He spent 15 years doing research successively at CNRS and INRIA on the following topics: individual and collective human behaviors, informed virtual environments, and interactive storytelling. He is the initiator, co-founder and CTO of Golaem S.A., a startup company valorizing several research results of his former team (Bunraku).
Contact him at stephane.donikian@golaem.com.

Golaem is editing software solutions for autonomous human-like characters able to perform realistic and complex actions in real time. We offer 3D business users, an unprecedented range of building blocks, as well as complete solutions, for simulations of individual and collective human behaviors in digital mock-ups. To reach this objective, Golaem is providing software components in a hierarchical and modular way, to propose a solution adapted to the complexity of each targeted simulation.

This presentation will focus on ongoing research at Disney Research Zurich related to 2D hand-drawn animation. I will present work aimed at improving the 2D animation pipeline used by the Walt Disney Animation Studio, including research on high-quality line vectorization and computer-assisted tight inbetweening of animation drawings. I will also show how we have brought some of the stylized techniques for depicting motion in hand-drawn animation into the realm of 3D graphics.

Dr. Robert W. Sumner is the associate director of Disney Research Zurich and leads the research group on animation and interactive graphics. He received a B.S. (1998) in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia and his M.S. (2001) and PhD (2005) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He spent three years as a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich before joining Disney. Robert is an adjunct lecturer at ETH and currently teaches a course called the Game Programming Laboratory in which students work in small teams to design and implement novel video games.

Disney Research Zurich (DRZ) is an industrial research laboratory created by The Walt Disney Company and located in Zurich, Switzerland. DRZ conducts advanced application-oriented research in computer animation, interactive graphics, computational cinematography, computer vision, video processing, wireless communication, and related fields. After one year of growth, DRZ consists of 22 full-time researchers and 20 associated scientists working to ensure that Disney’s core businesses remain at the cutting edge of technology and innovation.

Film techniques such as rim lighting, backlighting, sophisticated camera animation, motion-captured animation and render output options can all be used in real-time within CryENGINE, to create a final product that rivals pre-rendered quality. Hannes will also discuss CryENGINE’s potential for film previz, as well as using a Maya CryENGINE previz pipeline.

Hannes Appell studied animation and visual effects at the Filmakademie Institute of Animation and Visual Effects in Baden Württemberg. Before that he worked as a games journalist, editor and post-pro/graphics artist for GIGA GAMES and NBC Europe in Düsseldorf. He is currently working in Crytek’s Visual Development Group as a cinematic artist, where he focuses on next-gen video game and film design.

Crytek GmbH is one of the world’s leading independent development studios for interactive entertainment. It is dedicated to creating high-quality video games for the PC and next-generation consoles, powered by their cutting-edge 3D-Game-Technology, CryENGINE®.

A handcrafted feel, moody lighting, intricate detail and impossible perspectives are all easy to depict in concept art, but hard to achieve in real-time 3D. Hannes will show how using camera projection can help translating a piece of 2D concept art into real-time 3D while not only staying true to the original art, but also adding to its original mood and even saving time doing it.

Hannes studied animation and visual effects at the Filmakademie Institute of Animation and Visual Effects in Baden Württemberg. Before that he worked as a games journalist, editor and post-pro/graphics artist for GIGA GAMES and NBC Europe in Düsseldorf. He is currently working in Crytek’s Visual Development Group as a cinematic artist, where he focuses on next-gen video game and film design.

Crytek is one of the world’s leading independent development studios for interactive entertainment. It is dedicated to creating high-quality video games for the PC and next-generation consoles, powered by their cutting-edge 3D-Game-Technology, CryENGINE®.

Traditionally Cloth and Hair have been a difficult problem to solve. In "Planet 51" the simulation had to be fast and cartoonish to match production needs and the style of the characters. We will show the process of cloth and hair simulation from the first designs to the final shot, and how to deal with cloth simulation within deadlines and production budget.

Juan Carlos Olmos started his career in CG in 1992. He specialized in modeling, working at Rem Infografica and Animaciones Imposibles as Modeling supervisor. He is currently working at Ilion Animation Studios as Cloth & Hair Supervisor where he combines his artistic and technical skills. He was responsible for developing the Cloth & Hair pipeline for "Planet 51".

Ilion Animation Studios was founded in 2002 to create state-of-the-art computer animated movies for worldwide theatrical release using its own purpose-built cutting-edge technology. Ilion Animation Studios and companies Zed and Pyro Studios, were founded and are run by Ignacio Perez Dolset and Javier Perez Dolset.

In this presentation, we will discuss the technical infrastructures we feel are essential for an animation studio to be able to produce animation feature films efficiently. To support our argument several successful use cases from "Planet 51" will be presented.

Alberto Arenas has over 10 years of professional experience in the field of CG, the last 6 of which were spent actively taking part in the creation of Ilion Animation Studios and the production of its first feature film, "Planet 51" . He spent his first 3 years at Ilion as a Render Developer, which gave him experience of production development. The last 3 years as Software Tools Supervisor have provided him with a firm grasp of how software/production work together.

Ilion Animation Studios was founded in 2002 to create state-of-the-art computer animated movies for worldwide theatrical release using its own purpose-built cutting-edge technology. Ilion Animation Studios and companies Zed and Pyro Studios, were founded and are run by Ignacio Perez Dolset and Javier Perez Dolset.

Exceeding expectations within the highly competitive VFX industry with its shrinking budgets, shorter timescales and the ever increasing complexity of work, requires studios to take their pipelines to the next level. This talk will outline MPC’s custom pipeline, describe some of its key principles, and conclude with insights into future development. It will use examples from MPC’s latest shows such as “The Wolfman” for character work, “Prince of Persia” for large scale environments, and “Percy Jackson” for the distributed sharing of work between MPC’s facilities.

Hannes Ricklefs joined MPC in 2005 where he holds the position of Head of Pipeline for MPC’s Film division. He has worked in R&D on shows such as “X-Men 3”, various “Harry Potters”, and “Narnia: Prince Caspian”. In addition, he has lead the development of core R&D projects including MPC’s lighting pipeline and asset management software.

MPC leads the world in visual effects for the Feature Film, Advertising, Digital and Television industries.

Thad Beier, Head of CG, Digital Domain, www.digitaldomain.com

Thad Beier joined Digital Domain in April 2009 as Head of CG, where he oversees production technology and long-term facility planning to ensure that artists across all feature productions can create the highest quality images efficiently and effectively. Beier is a twenty-five year veteran of the visual effects industry and served as a Visual Effects Supervisor on more than a dozen films. He recently supervised the creation of 1,150 + visual effects shots for "Fast and Furious", leading the work of twelve VFX studios around the world. In 1995 Beier co-founded Hammerhead Productions, where he spent fourteen years developing the company’s VFX production toolkit and supervising visual effects and he has been recognized with a Scientific & Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS). Beier holds a BA degree in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University and is a member of the AMPAS Science & Technology and Visual Effects Steering Committees.

Bruno Nicoletti, Chief Technical Officer, The Foundry , www.thefoundry.co.uk

Bruno Nicoletti gained a degree in computer science and mathematics from Sydney University in 1987. After graduation he wrote in-house software at XYZap productions, Australia's first computer animation company. Afterwards he freelanced as a developer for a range of visual effects and computer animation companies, including Animal Logic, Softimage (now part of Autodesk), Discreet Logic (now part of Autodesk) and The Computer Film Company (now Framestore). In 1996 he started The Foundry and is now the company's CTO and heads the HPC team there.

Christophe Héry, Look Development Supervisor, Image Movers Digital, www.imagemoversdigital.com

Christophe Hery joined ImageMovers Digital in January 2010 where he holds the position of Look Development Supervisor. Hery is responsible for overseeing the practices and technologies for texture painting, material designing, light rigging and rendering. An alumnus of Industrial Light & Magic, Hery previously served as a research and development lead, supporting the facility’s shaders and providing rendering guidance. He was first hired by ILM in 1993 as a senior technical director. In 2003, Hery was the recipient of a Technical Achievement Award for the development of practical methods for rendering skin and other translucent materials using subsurface scattering techniques.

Andy Lomas, Lead Engineer, The Foundry , www.thefoundry.co.uk

Andy Lomas is working as Lead Engineer, leading the development of look-development and lighting tools at The Foundry with responsibility for integrating core elements of the Katana technology acquired by The Foundry from Sony ImageWorks into their products. He was Head of Computer Graphics at Framestore before. Over the last 17 years he has been involved in a wide range of projects ranging from commercials and long form television to live action visual effects and CG feature animation. His credits include “The Matrix: Reloaded”, “The Matrix: Revolutions”, “Over the Hedge”, “Lost in Space”, “Fairy Tale: A True Story”, “The Odyssey”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “Arabian Nights”, “Jason and the Argonauts” and "The Tale of Despereaux". Most recently he has been working on Framestore's contribution to “Avatar”. He has won numerous awards, including Emmys for supervising the computer generated effects on “The Odyssey” and “Alice in Wonderland”. Andy is also an active digital artist, exploring the complex nature of forms that emerge from the digital simulation of growth systems.