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Pixar's Drawing Tool 145

Posted by michael from the monday-night-football dept.
May Kasahara writes "Millimeter has an interesting look at Pixar's Review Sketch tool, one of this company's latest pieces of proprietary software. It's cool in that it allows directors to draw on top of CG images with a Wacom Cintiq, essentially bringing elements of traditional hand-drawn animation into the 3D realm. The article discusses how the tool came about, how it was used during the production of The Incredibles, and even includes a discussion of the tool's naming."
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Pixar's Drawing Tool More

Pixar's Drawing Tool

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  • that's incredible!
    • Wow... that's incredible! Close. That's Incredibles!

      In less incredible news, Pixar has pushed back their last feature, while paired with a certain evil empire, Cars until May 2006

      (insert riot here) which had been due Nov 2005. This is so they can sell more DVDs for your holiday shopping pleasure later in 2006 (the fucked up logic escapes me, but Dreamworks is doing the same shit with Shrek 3, moving it back to May 2007)

  • This idea isn't all that new, the only new part is their application. TVPaint on the Amiga let me do this with renders (from NewTek's Lightwave).
    • Doesn't matter. They'll still get a patent on it.

    • Re:Isn't all that new... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SilentChris ( 452960 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @09:53AM (#11051169) Homepage
      Did TVPaint let you doodle on something already animated and save the changes automatically when you put the pen down? Did it upload the changes to the server so other artists could get a full transaction history of the suggestions being made? Did it have thoughtful design features, like turning the pen over to erase (obvious) and not allowing someone to delete the whole screen accidentally (not as obvious)? Didn't think so.
      • 1) Save changes automatically -- Not sure, but you could probably make an arexx script to (I'll have to ask the all knowing author when I get a chance)
        2) Server? Who needs a stinkin server? But again, probably could through arexx.
        3) That's hardware related, but I do have a tablet for the Amiga that has 2 buttons on it, one switches to Erase mode.
        4) How you gonna do that accidentally? Are you that inept?
        And overall: Get some film and a rotoscope and some paper, you can do the same.

        • Re:Isn't all that new... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by SilentChris ( 452960 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:27AM (#11052141) Homepage
          "Server? Who needs a stinkin server?"

          When you're working on a major motion picture that has several dozen artists, a full team of probably close to a hundred people, and a budget of millions, you need accountability if someone makes a change.

          I would think an artist would welcome being able to look back at certain versions of scenes, call them up at any point, and derive how the drawing got to where it is currently. This isn't some starving artist creating basic 3D renders in his garage; this a multi-million dollar business.
          • Did you read the article at all?? They used the drawing primarily as a directors reference to animators. Looking back at certain versions of scenes would be based up on the actual scene, not his drawing, as his direction is what it is, not what it was. Anyone that works in a production environment knows that there are two basic rules:
            1) The director is always right.
            2) If the director is wrong, see #1
            There is no reason to go back to see what the director was right about in the past, because all that mat
            • Did you read the article at all??

              Do you randomly spaz on people for no reason at all?? This isn't a film school test and you aint no teacher. And as if being able to look back and see who made what changes when wouldn't be useful.

              There is no reason to go back to see what the director was right about in the past, because all that matters is what he is right about in the present.

              What if A is right now and B is wrong, but in the past B was right and A was wrong?
          • Pixar movies rock a little harder than 100 employees, don't they?
      • Also, there is a new program [for Microsoft(r) Windows(tm) and Mac(R) OS X], Mirage, by Bauhaus Software [bauhaussoftware.com] that developed from TV Paint (sorta) and allows for even more.
        All tradmarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

      • Re:Isn't all that new... (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I have mod points, but couldn't find '-1 Pompous Ass' in the combo box
      • You thought wrong. Considering that everything you mention can be implemented with less than a screen full of code in ARexx, I'd say the answer to all of your questions is yes.

        People who haven't used Amigas don't realize how powerful ARexx was. ARexx made it trivial to extend the functionality of programs. Nearly every program had an ARexx port that you could connect to. Those programs exposed most, if not all, of their functionality via ARexx functions that you could access. With a couple lines of

      • ...and not allowing someone to delete the whole screen accidentally (not as obvious)? Didn't think so.

        A good number of Amiga drawing programs had a lock background layer function. I don't remember well, but I'd think theres a good chance TVPaint had it.

      • Did it have thoughtful design features, like turning the pen over to erase (obvious) and not allowing someone to delete the whole screen accidentally (not as obvious)?

        We (now obsolete) draftsmen used to actually have electric erasers [artsuppliesonline.com] and I doubt that real illustrators ever bothered to use the other end of a pencil for erasing. The choice of grades for graphite and eraser compounds (not to mention personal style) were too great to just rely on one type of erasure. I could blather on about this, but it wo
    • Speaking of old hardware...

      WACOM is discontinuing the Cintiq line. So, lot of good this is...

      • "WACOM is discontinuing the Cintiq line. So, lot of good this is..."

        That's a pity. Oh well. I nearly bought one of those. Unfortunately, the resolution was too low (I really like my 1600 by 1200) and the price was too high. I bought a TabletPC instead, no regrets there, and it was cheaper and higher res than the Cintiq.

        I guess what I'm saying is I'm not all that surprised.
        • I know it's slightly offtopic, but what TabletPC do you have that hits 1600x1200 and is still cheaper than a 15" Cintiq?
          • "I know it's slightly offtopic, but what TabletPC do you have that hits 1600x1200 and is still cheaper than a 15" Cintiq?"

            I communicated poorly. I have a 1400 by 1050 (still better than 1280...) Toshiba M-200. It cost me $1,800. The price of the 15" version recently dropped from $1800 to $1,500, making it a bit cheaper, but it only does 1024 by 768.

            The bare minimum I would have needed was the 1280 version, but I'm much happier with the M-200. Plus it's a great little laptop.
    • It's also been around in the fcheck file viewer for maya for quite some time. Just rick click and draw on the frames. I haven't tried to save out the modified frames though.

  • Could this have other applications? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jim_v2000 ( 818799 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @09:05AM (#11050771)
    Say a doctor is performing a surgery, and suddenly needs help from a a more experienced surgeon. Get him on the net, get a live video feed of hte operation going, and the more experienced doctor can draw live diagrams (or whatever he needs to)to show the other what to do/where to go.
  • I certainly see the value of the tool, but is it really such a unique invention?
  • I give you 15 minutes until this generates rumors of an impending tablet Mac.
  • I read this article in mm, and i beleive CGW had an article on it as well.. from what i understand its very similar to Alias's Sketchbook pro. It is a little different in that in Alias Sketchbook Pro you first hit the capture screen button on your windows task bar and then it opens up in alias sketch pro... where you can easy draw on the screen cap and save etc.

    Alias Sketchbook pro is an EXCELLENT tool. I would like to see it have the Pixar workflow added to it though, which is to simply allow you to draw

  • My brand-new Intuos3 seems as dust and wormwood to me now that I hear the Cintiq really does work... I am consumed with envy and covetousness... the great shininess of this shiniest of toys calls to me... perhaps finally it's actually time to hop over to the US and shop for one!

    PS
    I live in the UK. Sensible people don't buy at UK prices.

    PPS
    For innovation, service and attitude, Wacom are the best tech company in my universe.

  • So? (Score:3, Funny)

    by FlimFlamboyant ( 804293 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @09:27AM (#11050945) Homepage

    The director could draw on an image, and then play it back with the image moving underneath his drawing

    Pfft. John Madden has been doing this for years!

  • "Desktastic" from Panic.... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Dr. Mojura ( 584120 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @09:29AM (#11050959)
    While it may not be quite as advanced, in particular with the corporate uses, Panic [panic.com] has a li'l app, also for OS X called desktastic [panic.com] which allows you to draw directly on the screen. Just as Pixar's tool, this features Wacom tablet support, variable line widths and an eraser function. The drawings can be saved for later use.

    It's really quite a bit of fun! Not to mention available to Joe User.


  • Couldn't they just have gotten this guy a nice tablet PC, a copy of Photoshop, and then give him a new layer to go hog wild on? I mean, is this really that revolutionary?

    Or they could have projected onto a whiteboard with one of those fancy tools that transfers whatever you write to a PC...thus having his sketch overlayed on the original...there seem to be dozens of better alternatives to their orignal idea of taking a digital picture of the whiteboard.
    • > Couldn't they just have gotten this guy a nice tablet PC, a copy
      > of Photoshop, and then give him a new layer to go hog wild
      > on? I mean, is this really that revolutionary?

      Bill Gates? Is that you?

      Seriously. The idea is that they can can sketch over a series of CG frames in the movie:

      > The director could draw on an image, and then play it back
      > with the image moving underneath his drawing.

      So when they're playing back the film, they can see the new ghosted sketches on top of it:

      > When
      • To do it in Photoshop would probably require them to grab a single frame and move it into Photoshop, breaking the flow of what they're doing.

        Not to mention that vector drawing in Photoshop is still awkward. Even in the latest version, the vector tools still don't blend very well with the rest of the app. If you draw a squiggle with the Freeform Pen tool, for example, you get a Shape layer that uses the squiggle as a mask over a solid color. If you want to get a natural media-looking line, you have to draw
    • You are missing something. The key is not being able to make a sketch to show some improvement. That's not really that big of a deal. The key part is storing these images throughout the production pipeline so that artists can refer to Brad's specific directions so that they can accomplish their job efficiently. It is the integration that is important. To bring up photoshop on a separate tablet pc, transfer an image over, sketch over it, send it back and then insert it in a database is not useful.

  • Why its not the same (Score:5, Interesting)

    by acomj ( 20611 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @09:36AM (#11051008) Homepage
    There is some tendancy to say "photoshot already does this with layers..." and to some extent its true, but why this is different.

    Its not a pixel drawing tool. Its a hybrid vecto tool with erase any part of the stroke you put down capability. You erase any part you like, which is a neat solution.

    quoth..
    A key feature of the tool is its eraser. "This is a vector-based tool with a raster erase," says Johnson. "You can scale an image up or down, and when you want to erase, you turn the pen over and it erases.
    end quote.

    I like software solutions to specific problems, especially those that can be developed by small teams. Unix like.

    It seems to be just erasing by adding "transparent strokes" which I've never seen before. It would make it harder for an application like painter to use this technique because how many layers would you remove. But for sketching it seems ideal.

    • It seems to be just erasing by adding "transparent strokes" which I've never seen before.

      Either that, or it's using region subtraction.

    • > when you want to erase, you turn the pen over and it erases

      In short, it's a digital pencil which works like a pencil, looks like a pencil and still gives a digital output :)

      Nice mixture of old and new - now, I prefer to see what I'm drawing AND the pen together (like on paper) , which sucks when I draw on a tablet. All that said, I'm not a graphic artist and all I draw are random lines :)

  • out of the bag (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 )
    Now that we're seeing a demo of "Review Sketch", we'll see reimplementations of it under open source - and won't see others, kept proprietary and secret at actual Pixar competitors. Regardless of copyright or patent, though trademark will probably keep the name "Review Sketch" safe. Often, the most valuable contribution to innovation is the proof of concept. And Hollywood tools make their techniques part of the culture in that shifting population of mercenary contractors which prizes specialization as much

  • I recognize this... (Score:5, Funny)

    by lukewarmfusion ( 726141 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @09:50AM (#11051138) Homepage Journal
    Imagine it in a John Madden voice:

    You see, Mr Incredible is running through the forest because he doesn't want to get caught. Watch him hit this spin move right there (scribbles line on screen) - and when the henchmen try to close the gap (marks an X on henchman's forehead) he cuts back and completely dodges their tackle. (unrelated doodle) I wish I had him on my team when I was coaching. (play-by-play announcer slaps forehead and shakes his head)

  • Gromit does this in Linux (Score:2, Interesting)

    by scav ( 14941 )
    Gromit [unix-ag.org] does this and Totem [hadess.net] can use Gromit when playing a video.
  • Maybe now spoiled Hollywood directors, with fat budgets and competitive coolness, will drive a market for simple, mobile tablets. A 20x15x.5" 4Kx3Kpxl 8h Flash/WiFi tablet that's just an Xserver with GL ASICs would really lead the market into the 21st Century. After a while, a 12x9x1" UXGA version might cost $1000.
  • I own an old Wacom PenPartner tablet and the harder I press, the thicker the line both for drawing and erasing. I wonder why they had to use a line-width indicator for this instead of pressure?
    • it is kinda unclear given the article's wording, but maybe anybody adjust the line width on the fly?

      • Seems that the bulk of them liked to make the line-width really small and use multiple lines to sketch instead of varying the width *shrug*. You're right -- they aren't being very clear on that one.
  • gromit [unix-ag.org]

    Couple it with an application to take screenshots, and you're set.

  • What a lot of people seem to be missing: (Score:5, Informative)

    by EnglishTim ( 9662 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @10:10AM (#11051336)
    A lot of people seem to be missing the central point here:

    The thing that is so useful about their program is not that you can sketch over the top of a picture. You can do that on a hundred different programs out there.

    The big thing is that the sketches are completely integrated into their pipeline. This means that if someone makes a sketch on an image, anyone working on that show can view that sketch when they're viewing that image. They can view the sketch when they're working in their 3d package - they can view the sketch when they're working in their compositing package. It's all saved, tracked and displayed automatically.

    I work at a major European Visual Effects/Post Production studio, and that kind of stuff can be tricky. Tracking all your resources, integrating all your software, that kind of thing. It's all to do with workflow making sure everything is working smoothly for everybody from Render Support through to Producers, Animators and TDs.
    • Keep modding the parent up. He seems to be the only one that really gets it.

      • You mean mod points are for THAT?

        I thought they were for modding up people who say...

        "Bah, this is nothing, I hacked up a similar thing back in the 40s on my 8 Hz proto Linux box which I made from a used radar tube and gave to Walt Disney. Nothing to see here, move along people (after modding me up for making some joke about old people in Korea)."

        That's what mod points are for. How DARE you go against the /. culture of new product bashing!

  • There's an interesting PDF over at Animation Meat called Brad Bird on Comps [animationmeat.com], which has him scribbling all over shots from King of the Hill showing what's wrong with them.
  • "All those drawings are still sitting there on the same website," says Johnson. "It's fun to spelunk through it. Occasionally, you'll even see a hangman game!"

    My first thought Tic-Tac-Toe. I guess Hangman's just as good, but perhaps Pictionary would be more appropriate.

  • Has Pixar switched over to using Maya for their animation?

    I remember reading somewhere that they had their own animation software... Marionette I think it was called.
  • I think the software is nice and all, but the importance of the article is how the company shapes itself and is flexible enough to change the way they work and produce new tools, especially in 3D, where all the software has such a high learning curve. They are only not scared of changing what their artists use, but they also adapt to new needs.
    This is an excellent insight as to what really makes Pixar a success! Who can doubt they will be leading the market for years to come?
    How many of us can say we work i
  • It'd be great for PDF or any word processor to use a tool like this. Scratch out, proof reader mark up red right on the docs. Open Source would be killer. The utility would save the scratches as vectors in the PDF, and you could email back the writers.

    My first reaction to this was, why don't they open source it? It doesn't really give competitive advantages to them, it's just a way to communicate better between teams.

    It will become the next overpriced franklin covey tool.
  • Pop up to the homepage, and that issue of millimeter also has a really interesting bit [millimeter.com] on the creation of the sword fight in the leaves from Zhang Yimou's "Hero."

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