Week 3 - 3D Graphics R & D Blog

• Describe some highlights and pioneers of the history of 3D Graphics with visual examples.
  Ed Catmull, one of the co-founders of Pixar Animation Studios, he is probably one of the most famous computer scientist you will hear of in the creative industries. Catmull's greatest contribution to the industry would be the creation of texture mapping, he also developed anti-aliasing algorithms, the refining of sub-division modeling, and blazed the trail in working on the concept of Z-buffering. Catmull truly laid the foundation for the computer graphics industry as we know it. He is currently president of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios.
  Ken Perlin is another industry legend, his achievements have been incredible. He made Perlin Noise which is a popular and flexible procedural texture that comes standard in almost all 3D software packages. He also made hypertexture, which is the ability to view the changes to a model's texture in real time, More of his achievements include, real-time character animation, and Stylus based input devices. It's possible that Perlin's advances in the field were not as earth shattering as the creation of texture-mapping, but they are things artists use every single day to make art which makes them just as worthwhile.
• Reference:
  Slick, J. (nd). 10 Pioneers in 3D Computer Graphics. Retrieved from, http://3d.about.com/od/3d-101-The-Basics/tp/10-Pioneers-In-3d-Computer-Graphics.htm. (Accessed 19/06/2014).
• Discuss the meaning and implications of the term “democratisation” in relation to the 3D graphics industry.
  Democratisation in terms of technology refers to the increasing availability of sophisticated technology and the decreasing price of that sophisticated technology. Innovation in the industry and consumer/user demand have become related with more affordable, user-friendly products.
  In terms of 3D graphics this means the massive divide between big triple A studios and the regular enthusiast is slowly getting smaller. Things like new technology, software and services will either limit or expand what the enthusiast, or studios can do. For example the regular enthusiast is limited by his system specifications, and whilst it is a lot cheaper to buy a powerful computer now then it was ten years ago it is still a bit pricey and can limit what a singular person can do, recently over the past few years online services have been appearing that allow for a little bit of extra expansion, still limited, but less. An enthusiast could animate a scene, finish a couple of test renders, then send their files to a dedicated render farm. This frees up a workstation for other projects, whilst it isn't the perfect solution, it shows that technology in general is moving fast and becoming more and more available to the public every year.
  
  Reference:
Unknown Author. (25/10/2013). The democratisation of computer graphics. Retrieved from, http://www.creativebloq.com/audiovisual/democratisation-computer-graphics-10135033. (Accessed 21/06/2014).

• Emerging technologies – What is Ptex and how do you think it will affect asset creation now and into the future?
  Definition:
  Ptex is a mapping system for textures, it was made for production-quality rendering by Walt Disney Animation Studios. UV unwrapping and mapping is not needed. The file format can store hundreds of thousands of texture images very efficiently fitting it all into one file. Ptex can apply separate textures to every face of a polygon mesh.
  How does it affect asset creation in the present and future?
  Ptex has been incorporated into the movie industry pipeline, beginning with Disney Animation, and Pixar. It is a lot more efficient than UV when it comes to texturing, however it is not the industry standard, further more Ptex can pose a problem for the video game side of the creative industries because games have to be rendered in real-time. Ptex is mainly used on animated film because they have got to make very high quality textures for pre-rendering and under limited deadlines. Ptex seems like it could be the way of the future, but there are a few problems however it's relatively early in it's life and could become more widely implemented.

• References:
  Unknown Author. (ND). Ptex. Retrieved from, ptex.us/. (Accessed 18/06/2014).
  Masters M. (17/02/2014). Understanding Ptex - Is It the Future of Texturing?. Retrieved from, http://blog.digitaltutors.com/understanding-ptex-is-it-the-future-of-texturing/ (Accessed 22/06/2014).