DreamWorks Releases Open VDB Software with Eye on Industry Standard
By Karla Robinson
December 4, 2012
December 4, 2012
- DreamWorks Animation spent years developing specialized software, which it used heavily in “Rise of the Guardians,” a $145 million animated film released in November. Now, the studio is giving away its software for free in hopes that it will become a standard format.
- “The software, known as Open VDB, allows animators to more easily create ‘volumetric’ effects, such as smoke and other amorphous materials,” the Wall Street Journal explains.
- “DreamWorks executives didn’t say how much they spent developing the software,” notes the article. “They released it in hopes it would be adopted as an industry standard and integrated into commonly used software platforms. This would increase its utility for DreamWorks even if it gave competitors access to an element of the company’s tool kit, according to studio executives.”
- In “Guardians,” childhood legends like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny fight for children’s innocence against a villainous boogeyman Pitch. The Sandman character “Sandy” expresses thoughts and emotions with swirls of sand. DreamWorks’ Open VDB software was used to create the complicated animations of shifting shapes for Sandy’s dreams, as well as the nightmares Pitch transforms them into.
- “As technology at studios like DreamWorks grow increasingly sophisticated, ‘visual effects are becoming integral to the performance of a movie,’ said Lincoln Wallen, chief technology officer at DreamWorks.”
- While giving away software is not unheard of in the entertainment industry, it is a first for DreamWorks, and the company only plans to do so selectively.
- “There’s other stuff that we’ve developed in house that we’re like, ‘No, you’re not getting that,'” says David Prescott, the visual-effects supervisor for “Guardians.”
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