Vertex 2020 Day 1

Yesterday was once again the amazing vertex conference. A few people from my year attended last year and we found it incredibly useful, so wanted to attend once again. Unfortunately we only managed to get day 1 tickets, as the full passes for both days seemed to sell out incredibly quickly! Maybe everyone is cottoning on to how good a show this is!

The day 1 agenda comprised of a talk from Dylan Sisson on the abilities and features of both the newest version of RenderMan (Pixar’s in house rendering engine) and how this applied to the creation of Toy Story 4 with some exciting insights and clips to demonstrate some key areas. This was incredibly exciting for me as some of the capabilities really blended well into the creation and editing of simulations etc, which falls into the remit of Projection Mapping, which is what I am potentially aiming for post-graduation. I’ve included my notes from this session below.

This was then followed by a panel discussing whether photorealistic or stylised renders were better. This panel was hosted by a huge group of artists (if you’re reading this, hi!) from different backgrounds, who had an incredible range of pathways into animation and games. The speakers were so incredibly insightful about the different pathways and I found this really interesting as it breaks away from the traditional pipeline and entry routes into the industry.

The final part of the evening was a socialising opportunity. I made my way around and had some really interesting conversations, ranging from the content and process of my 3rd year film, the industry in general and very specific technical discussions. The thing that really blew me away is how friendly and helpful everyone was.

Overall the event was very good, however I really wish I had managed to secure a day 2 ticket. I know for next year that I need to make sure I buy tickets much earlier. I am also going to attend the VFX emerging artist festival in March, so I’m hoping that will be just as valuable as this event was.

Pixar talk - RenderMan

RenderMan key features

• Globally calibrated exposure - all calibrated against all other light sources!!!! - very efficient - modifiable exposures - similar to f stops
• RenderMan 21 can simulate light rays and particles in water particles eg. Rain.
• Usable with Houdini elements - Toy Story 4 used AI spiders created in Houdini to create spiderwebs
• Free for non-commercial use!!!!!
• Live renders! 
• RenderMan 23.1 is newest version.
• RenderMan challenge competition - using a -remade asset and populating the rest of the world. 

USD - universal file type & organisation system

• Allows for an alternative pipeline as the file types update when added to - no destructive workflow.
• Open source file format - works between different render engines and programmes - Maya, Houdini, Katana, Nuke - faster read and write - Open GL
• Uses a file hierarchy and directly updates other files, up and down stream. 
• Can pull models from files into Maya
• Allows for shader variance - eg. 14 types of wood, with 3 levels of wear. 
• Auto creates 90% finished shots - tweaks and aesthetic changes
• Allows for complex lighting and modelling shots. 

XPU

• Working on renderer that can GPU and CPU 
• Can handle huge amounts of geo and complexity.