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| CSIRO | SOLVE | Issue 12 | Aug 07 | |
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ARTICLE
FLUID DYNAMICS:
Studios Go With the Flow By Jason Major
Australian know-how is helping to bring state-of-the-art special effects into smaller-budget filmsMany of today’s ‘blockbuster’ films owe more to their computerised special effects than to the conventional ingredients of acting, sets and storyline, and this is bringing into film-making a whole new set of skills and technologies.
It is an area in which Australian know-how has excelled, with considerable input from scientists who have helped push the Australian special-effects industry to the fore worldwide. In the never-ending pursuit of ‘enhanced reality’ combined with lower production costs, researchers are now developing an all-in-one software tool for the multi-billion-dollar, three-dimensional animation and special-effects industry. In particular they are looking for ways to more accurately model fluids: air flowing into lungs, blood coursing through veins, smoke billowing from a holocaust, or a terrifying torrent of water hurtling towards an audience. In the past, the software used to create these effects has tended to be developed specifically for one movie, making special effects very expensive and often out of the reach of smaller productions. To change this, CSIRO, in a collaboration with the South Korean Government-funded Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) – one of the world’s largest developers and suppliers of computer graphics technologies for games – is working to develop a cost-effective fluid-modelling tool that will raise the reality bar once more for 3D animation, film-making and the gaming industries. CSIRO has particular experience in the field of fluid dynamics. Researchers at CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences (CMIS) have used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to develop 3D models of everything from tsunamis and volcanic eruptions to molten metals flowing into moulds, liquids and gases flowing through pipelines, and airflow over wings. CFD team leader Dr Paul Cleary says makers of big blockbuster movies with relatively unlimited resources can, and do, develop highly complex software to simulate a specific type of fluid flow or other special effects. “But this tends to be single-use or customised for each movie,” he says. “Often such effects are incredibly expensive and labour-intensive, using vast amounts of human and computer-processing power. Smaller production houses and animators simply avoid scenes that require such technology. “So, we have taken a physics and maths-based approach to the problem and applied the same scientific rigour we use for scientific analysis. The result will be a highly accessible, cost-effective, all-in-one tool, with accuracy and realism an order of magnitude higher than anything currently available. The overall effect of enhanced processing capability will also significantly improve production times.” ETRI’s collaboration with CSIRO is now more than halfway into a four-year research partnership, a partnership that has successfully developed and tested most aspects of its software, begun talking to the market and commenced seeking licensing opportunities. CMIS business and commercialisation manager Andrew Dingjan says special-effects directors in the motion picture and digital games industries are continually raising the bar to create hyper-realistic effects using computer graphics. “This CSIRO–ETRI technology will expand the boundaries of 3D fluid animation,” he says. “The CSIRO–ETRI software will give even small-budget movie makers, animators, special-effects studios and game makers a more accessible, affordable and flexible tool to accurately model dust, mud, spray, water, champagne bubbles, curling smoke – any fluid in any circumstance that Hollywood can imagine – all in one package,” Mr Dingjan says. “Animation is a global industry worth US$55 billion and it is growing at eight per cent each year. This is the only technology of its kind in the world for creating super-real fluid effects simply and cost-effectively. We anticipate it will produce a long-term income for Australia.” The technology is expected to come online in 2008–-09 and, although licensing arrangements are yet to be finalised, opportunities are being sought with relevant industries such as motion picture and commercial production houses, specialist software distributors, and computer-graphics and special-effects houses. Mr Dingjan says the market for this technology is essentially two tiered: “You have the big production houses such as Disney and Twentieth Century Fox, and the similarly large special-effects studios which service these. Then there are the smaller movie and animation studios, and industries such as advertising and games makers.” The software of choice for high-end 3D computer graphics and modelling in the animation industry is MAYA. The research aim is to produce a plug-in or compatible add-on to the MAYA software. The commercial details of how this will happen have yet to be determined, but the line between real and unreal on the big screen is about to be blurred a little more.APPLICATION Computational fluid dynamics has enabled the generation of 3D-image models of fluids – everything from tsunamis and volcanos to molten metals, gases flowing through pipes and airflow over wings – that can be used in film special effects. BENEFIT A unique, highly accessible and cost-effective fluid-modelling software tool that will bring realistic fluid special effects within the reach of smaller budget films. For further information contact: |
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