Week 1 Entry 3: Response to Mohamed

Mohamed Bahrani wrote:

Eight months ago was the first time I heard about Second Life, and consequently, the first time I heard and learned what Avatar means. At that time, I wasn’t a fan of SL, nor could I understand the learning benefit behind using such an environment. Having said that, I learned how to create presentations in SL, and searched for educational and interesting sites.

However, since the movie Avatar (by James Cameron) started playing in the theater, I started to get questions from friends about SL, as they learned from me before that you can create you own in SL. Moreover, it seems that people are more interested than before in learning about Avatar and the technology behind it.

Recently I read an article (URL below) about one of the leading production designers in the Movie Avatar, and how he depends on Z Brush application to design digital sculptures. After viewing a few samples and a demo of what Z Brush can do, I realized how close and realistic some of them are to reality.

Although I used 3D applications before, like 3D Studio Max, and was impressed by its capabilities, looking at applications like Z Brush software, and watching the Avatar movie, you can sense that this is just the beginning. I believe that the success and popularity of the Avatar movie will create an evolution in 3D applications, 3D virtual reality and 3D environment. How close can we get to these Avatars using such tools?

RESPONSE:

Very interesting Mohamed. As the rise of 3D development continues (as seen through Avatar) the only hope is that the applications used to create the objects follows. I have worked in Maya, and 3DS Max before, and my downfall has always been the amount of time it takes to create everyday simple objects. New revolutionary tools such as the Zbrush help designers in saving time. With better modeling practices in less time, developers may turn out higher results over the year.

Sometimes, to continue the growth of a applications, you have to step back. The I/O brush does just that. It goes so far back it flips the roles of 3D and product. The I/O brush takes textures from 3D objects and uses that as a real time brush. Check out the video here: