Dragonheart: Draco Comes Alive

PUNE, June 22: In the film Draco, the very last dragon, is not simply an animal, he8217;s the most complex computer-generated actor ever created by ILM: he speaks, he emotes, he has feelings, a soul, a sense of humour and his stance and gross body movements were created using Softimage 3d! 8220;The Dragon is by far the most complicated and elaborate computer-generated character ILM has ever built,8221; said Rob Coleman, an animation supervisor for ILM. For example, the Tyrannosaurus Rex in Jurassic Park had between seven and 8,000 control vertices; Draco has 250,000. Ultimately nearly 100 computer artists were involved in delivering the 181 computer graphics shorts that make up approximately 30 minutes of film time. ILM used a combination of robust character animation capabilities in Softimage 3d, such as inverse kinematics and constraints, to help create an incredibly life-like, 3-dimensional drago.

8220;We could not have brought Draco to life without Softimage 3d,8221; said Coleman. For example, in one particularly challenging scene, Draco is literally chained to the ground. Because the chains contacted the dragon, they had to be extremely photorealistic computer graphics models and interact seamless with Draco. Using Softimage 3d, film was able to create and effectively manage hundreds of inverse kinematic chains and constraints to create an amazing realistic scene.

These techniques, while sounding easy to do since the 1993 release of Jurassic Park, have never been so front and centre in a full length feature film: the realistic-looking computer graphics effects are not blended in seamlessly with other real-scale-model techniques. We now have tools that are able to handle the workload required for digital artistic creations to co-star in a film and enjoy 30 minutes of screen time. Softimage has truly paved the way for a new brand of screen-star in a live action setting for future films.

Now Softimage the World8217;s Best Character Animation Software training is being imparted on Silicon Graphics Workstations at Digital magic 8212; a division of Creative Concepts India Pvt. Ltd.

8211;The Course involves the study of 8212; Real human face amp; body modelling using 3D digitizing 8212; Facial Muscles used in dialog.

8211;Detailed facial expressions with face moulds and claywork.

Full body skeleton systems for controlled behaviour of articulated body movement.

Digital Magic is already imparting training in Graphics, Animation amp; Multimedia.

For further details please call 637055, 621966, 635687.