VIEW Conference | Digital Cinema, Virtual Reality, Computer Graphics, (3D) Animation, Video Games&Visual Effects

SOFTIMAGE Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc. is based in Montréal, Canada, and provides intuitive, production proven tools that free 3D artists to create the world’s most compelling characters in the film, broadcast, post-production and games industries. SOFTIMAGE is responsible for the first photo-realistic 3D dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and the very first true 3D immersive console fighting game SEGA Virtua Fighter. Its flagship product, SOFTIMAGE|XSI is the most complete 3D character animation solution available. Easily integrated into any CG production pipeline, XSI software enables 3D artists to create the most lifelike character performances.
SOFTIMAGE|FACE ROBOT is the first commercial toolset that accelerates facial animation that empowers 3D artists to create, refine and repurpose high-quality, lifelike facial www.softimage.com animation in less time than traditional solutions. For more information about SOFTIMAGE, please visit .
SOFTIMAGE 3D technology was used in the Academy Award-winning Happy Feet animated motion picture and 300, the stylized adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel. SOFTIMAGE is used in game development, like for the recent Xbox 360 console game “Lost Planet”.

Enea Le Fons
Senior Instructor and Technical Consultant for Europe, Middle East and Africa
SOFTIMAGE

Enea Le Fons is SOFTIMAGE Senior Instructor and Technical Consultant for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Enea manages PURE Computer Graphics, the SOFTIMAGE Distributor and Advanced Solution Provider, and provides customers with sales, support and technical consulting for 3D solutions based on his deep knowledge of SOFTIMAGE|XSI software. Up to 2007, Enea accumulated more than 1850 hours of certified teaching activity in universities and institutes as a 3D animation instructor from years of extensive experience in post production, special effects, architecture, design, video games, and sensor-driven 3D applications.
Enea is also founder of www.xsiitalia.com, Italy's biggest SOFTIMAGE community.

Kevin began working in the 3D industry in 1995 with Strata 3D as one of the first
immersive 3D game titles hit the market called MYST. He has since spent 12 years in the industry running public relations and corporate communications for companies including Fractal Design, MetaCreations, Discreet/ Autodesk , and currently is working with SOFTIMAGE. Having participated in, and planned hundreds of world-wide trade shows, press and industry conferences, Kevin G. Clark brings a seasoned sense of style and historic experience to the VIEW conference.

(1) SOFTIMAGE|XSI: "There's something new under the hood"
Taking advantage of cutting-edge SOFTIMAGE|XSI features for design visualization,
film production, game development, and other fields.

Packed with comprehensive technical demonstrations, tips, techniques, and a few surprises, this exclusive XSI master class is designed to teach 3D artists of all levels how to use XSI for next-generation films and games, as well as non-traditional fields like architectural pre-visualization and product design.
Beginning with an overview of new features in XSI 6.5, attendees will get an in-depth look at Crosswalk, a bi-directional way to transport 3D assets into-and-out-of Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya using standards like .dotXSI and COLLADA. You will see how SOFTIMAGE|XSI tools can be integrated in an existing Autodesk-based pipeline, allowing artists to reap the benefits of the non-destructive and non-linear workflow in SOFTIMAGE|XSI 3D software.
Next, the session will focus on how XSI performs as a creative tool for product design and architectural pre-visualization. SOFTIMAGE will demonstrate how XSI can be used together with PURE Computer Graphics' solutions through case studies of highprofile customers.
We’ll conclude the class with a practical look at XSI tools for 3D game developers,
Technical Directors, and a quick preview of upcoming SOFTIMAGE technologies. If
you are curious about SOFTIMAGE and XSI, this is definitely the session to attend!

Special Guest: THE SHIFT
Emiliano Colantoni and Gianfranco Sgura from THE SHIFT, Grand Prize winners of Cgsociety's EON challenge, will offer a spectacular in-depht workshop on the techniques used for the production of their award-winning short movie.
Special Guest: Massimo Giacon
One of Italy's most active and influential illustrators and designers, will offer a casestudy on Physical Prototype process of his design projects produced by Alessi, with SOFTIMAGE|XSI and Pixologic Z-Brus

(2) SOFTIMAGE|XSI : Let's PLAY—3D Game Development
Using SOFTIMAGE|XSI software to realize an efficient, open, and accelerated workflow for Next-Gen 3D Game Development

This SOFTIMAGE|XSI Master Class is designed to take 3D artists—from beginner to advanced—on a full tour of the revolutionary features and elegant workflow that make SOFTIMAGE|XSI the tool of choice of leading game companies like Valve,Lionhead Studios, SEGA, CAPCOM, Pandemic, EA and more.
SOFTIMAGE will show how to use game-development specific features in SOFTIMAGE|XSI software to maximize the creative process and work efficiently in a next-gen game pipeline.
Key XSI features for game dev include:

The Gigapolygon core- A live ‘extreme performance test’
demonstrating the core technology in XSI that allows multi- million
polygon models to be easily manipulated and managed
Ultimapper-An XSI feature allowing artists to generate film-quality
normal, depth and color maps in a 3-click workflow
XSI's framework for artist-friendly prototypes in DirectX and OpenGL
shaders
GATOR-A SOFTIMAGE revolutionary 3-click workflow to transfer
properties such as shape animation, weights and UV coordinates among
objects of arbitrary topology
MOTOR-SOFTIMAGE Motion Transfer Operator is an artist-proof
workflow for retargeting animations and motion capture data among rigs
of arbitrary setup.
Alienbrain— Alienbrain is a leading asset management system for
artists with features that make it easy to version, manage and share any
kind of file, with unique workflows that let artists work visually.
Alienbrain saves time and takes the guesswork out of even the most
demanding productions

Special guest: a leading game technology developer, will present its new projects and show how they use SOFTIMAGE|XSI tools and workflow to build game environments and characters for its upcoming 3D game titles.
The session will close with a crash-course on SOFTIMAGE|XSI Mod Tool: a FREE version of XSI that empowers game enthusiasts to develop their own mods and original videogames for XBOX 360 and PC in conjunction with Microsoft XNA Studio Express: if you are a game fan and you are wondering how to break into the Games biz, you don't want to miss this session

(3) SOFTIMAGE|XSI for Visual Effects (VFX)
How 3D Artists & Technical Directors use SOFTIMAGE|XSI software to create
stunning 3D Visual Effects for Film and Television Commercial

In this master class, SOFTIMAGE will show how VFX companies harness the power of SOFTIMAGE|XSI to create some of the most realistic and fantastic visual effects for film and broadcast. SOFTIMAGE|XSI software was built on a Gigapolygon core that can handle assets of tremendous complexity within an elegant workflow to deliver Visual Effects with an unprecedented level of detail—faster and in a process that is harmonious with compositors and editors.
Attendees will learn:
- how Visual Effects productions can benefit of the Gigapolygon Core and XSI 64bit native support, allowing assets of tremendous complexity to be loaded, edited and rendered out;
- how render artists can benefit utilize the seamless integration of mental ray renderer within XSI to build complex shaders visually trough the Rendertree and Texture Layer Editor, all while having deep control of each step through interactive shader balls and image-comparing tools;
- how Technical Directors can benefit from the wide range of render tools and settings in XSI that make set up and creation of custom render passes a breeze. Render Passes, Render Channels and Render Buffers will be practically introduced and compared;
- how the integrated compositor and painter in SOFTIMAGE|XSI can be used for fast and resolution-independent compositing within small teams, and as a source of incredibly creative tricks and tweaks within even bigger pipelines involving external compositors.

Special Guest: Xchanges VFX
Fabrizio Volpi and Marco Negri from Xchanges VFX, one of Italy's most prestigious
VFX companies, will offer a step-by-step workshop demonstrating how they create
complex photorealistic Visual Effects for some of their famous publicity campaign.

The Master Class will close with an incredibly rare and special opportunity ONLY for selected and registered audience (register on XSIitalia.com and contact PURE Computer Graphics for Admission). For the first time in Italy, SOFTIMAGE will offer
a technology demonstration of the upcoming XSI technology codenamed “moondust" architecture. Audience members will get an early glimpse of what the future of rendering in XSI will be, by showing the incredible seamless integration of a Renderman-compliant renderer and early particle system demonstrations.

(4) SOFTIMAGE|XSI : "There's something new under the hood"
Taking advantage of cutting-edge SOFTIMAGE|XSI features for design visualization, film production, game development, and other fields

Packed with comprehensive technical demonstrations, tips, techniques, and a few surprises, this exclusive XSI master class is designed to teach 3D artists of alllevels how to use XSI for next-generation films and games.
Beginning with an overview of new features in XSI 6.5, attendees will get an in-depth look at XSI workflow and tools for rigging, non-destructive animation, motion tranformation, collaborative workflow and asset re-deployment.
Next, SOFTIMAGE will offer a workshop on rendering and compositing techniques and give a short introduction on XSI Solutions for Tool Development.

SPECIAL GUEST: ANIMO s.r.l., one of Italy's oldest animation and post-production studios, will offer a retrospective on their 10 years history, talk about evolution of Computer Graphics and Intstruments and show in depht their productions.