HCID 2014: The Graphics Revolution and how Visual Effects became accessible to everyone. Josh Davies & Tom McLoughlin, FXHOME Ltd

The Graphics Revolutionand how VFX became accessible to everyone

• Introducing FXHOME

• A brief history of the GPU

• Visual Effects

• Why this matters to you

• Designing the future

• FXHOME is a technology company, specialising in imaging and visual effects products for film makers and photographers.

• FXHOME develops products for both consumers and professional users, works in partnership with major global companies including Sony and offers consultancy and technology solutions for a wide range of clients.

Introducing FXHOME

• Founded in 2001 by UEA Graduates

• Grew from a bedroom startup to international company over 13 years

• Over 250,000 users worldwide

• Based in Norwich, UK

• 85% of users are in the United States

Introducing FXHOME

Josh Davies • Founder & CEO FXHOME • History of Art Graduate • Programmer since childhood • UI & Design Lead for all FXHOME products • Website and UX design

Tom McLoughlin • Marketing Manager for FXHOME • Communications & Film Graduate • 10+ years experience of Film & Advertising Production • Produces all FXHOME film assets • Manages communications team

Introducing FXHOME

Introducing FXHOME

A brief history of the GPU

The GPU

• "Graphics Processing Unit." Like the CPU (Central Processing Unit), it is a single-chip processor. However, the GPU is used primarily for computing 3D functions. This includes things such as lighting effects, object transformations, and 3D motion. These types of calculations are taxing on the CPU, the GPU can help the computer run more efficiently.

• The first company to develop the GPU was NVidia, Inc.

• The GeForce 256 GPU could process 10 million polygons per second and had over 22 million transistors.



!

The Playstation 1 (1994)


• GPU development continued apace in the 2000s

• Most rapid advances in PC Graphics Cards

• Driven by the gaming industry


% increase in CPU processing power over time


% increase in GPU vs CPU processing power over time

• Large CPU vs. GPU power differential

• Exponential increase in graphical processing power for consumers



Silicon Graphics International (SGI) hardware from the 1990s

SGI Octane: 1998-$38,995



• VFX industry has moved from bespoke hardware to the same equipment that everyone uses

• SGI were one time owners of the Cray Supercomputer brand

• Your smartphone would have been considered a super computer not long ago



SUPERCOMPUTER

These conditions have created an environment in which we are used to

seeing high end VFX, whether in Hollywood movies, commercials & even

YouTube videos.


Visual Effects

Visual Effects

• Once the preserve of studio block busters or limited to one or two key moments in a film

• The VFX spectacular has become standard fare in all areas of visual storytelling, and has allowed high end practitioners to do incredible things

• Life of Pi - impossible to film

Life of Pi, 2012

Visual Effects




• Gravity

Gravity, 2013

Visual Effects




• Gravity

• Toy Story - exponential increase in quality due to technology and user expectations

Toy Story, 1995

Toy Story 2, 1999

Toy Story 3, 2010

Visual Effects

• Toy Story 1 took 800,000 machine hours to render

• Between 2-15 render hours per frame (24 frames per second)

• Contrast with Construct (2014)

Visual Effects

• Toy Story 1 took 800,000 machine hours to render

• Between 2-15 render hours per frame (24 frames per second)

• Contrast with Construct (2014)

• Entire trailer rendered in 5 minutes

• Different to editing, special effects and sound design

• Creating something impossible to capture in camera

• Combining layers to create something new (moving Photoshop)

• CGI elements

• Particles with Physics behaviour

• 3D lit, textured and animated models

• Colour Grading

• Nearly very frame of film, TV or even internet video has some form of VFX, you might just not realise it.

Visual Effects Principles

Visual Effects Principles

Why does this matter to you?

Designing the future

• Fiction has long had a role in predicting and forming the future

• In the 20th century, science fiction in particular came to have a strong futurology component

• Arthur C. Clarke

• Philip K. Dick

• William Gibson

• Film (and VFX) have built on these works, through adaptation & homage


Blade Runner, 1982


Minority Report, 2002

Designing the futureDesigning the future

John Underkoffler - MIT Media Labs www.ted.com/speakers/john_underkoffler


http://www.ted.com/speakers/john_underkoffler

Iron Man 2, 2008


• Contrast how well the VFX have aged with the quality of vision

• All these ‘worlds’ hold up, because they feel believable

• The increase in data complexity is marked

• The data in all the Iron Man HUD shots actually relates to the ‘real’ environment

• HAL from 2001 was a just voice, Jarvis from Iron Man provides large amounts of visual data


We tell stories with pictures


• Marketeers talk about brand and product stories

• Increasingly those stories have to be visual

• How do you present a vision of a product that doesn’t exist yet?

• How do you make someone believe in a new idea?

• You show it to them



Google Glass promo, Jan 2013

• How FXHOME approach UI in our software design

• How FXHOME approach UI in terms of our websites

• How FXHOME approach UI in our promotional materials

• Questions from the floor


Technology

HCID 2014: The Graphics Revolution and how Visual Effects became accessible to everyone. Josh Davies & Tom McLoughlin, FXHOME Ltd