How do you design for a space, not just a screen? This talk will explore how to think outside of the box (literally) when creating immersive experiences for physical environments. We'll share insights into how our team approaches spatial design—from the earliest concept art to the final install—while always keeping the visitor experience a priority. We’ll cover the importance of prototyping early and often, we’ll look at strategies for working efficiently on small multidisciplinary teams, and we’ll discuss how stepping away from the computer can help creative problem-solving. Whether you're an artist designing with projections, VR/AR/XR, or touchscreens, this session will cover the framework involved in building immersive, accessible, people-first experiences.

Discover the essentials of design visualization in our AU class. Learn how to effectively use 3ds Max software for modeling, Arnold for rendering, and Moxion for collaborative workflows. Gain practical skills to create visually striking designs efficiently and accurately.

We believe every content creation organization (CG-VFX) using Flow Production Tracking software in some way faces challenges when transferring data between its offices or with its outsourced vendors and clients. To address these challenges, we designed and developed a UDP-based high-speed application in sync with Flow Production Tracking. FastX is highly reliable for all types of data movements—transfers of scans, work files, final output, multisite/remote renders, CG Files, vendor output, files to DI, disaster safe backup, and final output to clients. Most of the transfers mentioned resemble work related to the CG-VFX industry. But FastX was actually designed to address many industries that deal with high-volume data transfers in daily operations.

Let's push the boundaries of architectural visualization! This workshop will focus on seamless integration across Revit and 3ds Max software from Autodesk and Twinmotion from Epic Games to revolutionize your design presentations. You'll gain expertise in transferring detailed building information modeling (BIM) data from Revit to 3ds Max for high-end rendering, followed by immersive virtual reality (VR) simulations using Twinmotion. Expect a hands-on session where you will learn to create visually stunning, interactive VR experiences to captivate and engage your clients. Whether you're enhancing project pitches or refining design reviews, this workshop will equip you with the tools for next-generation presentations. A live VR demo will underscore practical applications, showcasing how to bring architectural concepts vividly to life. This session is perfect for architects, designers, and visualization specialists eager to adopt the forefront of technology in their workflows.

SYNK is an innovative real-time production toolkit that enables content creators to produce linear and virtual content using the same tools and processes used by big studios with decades of experience in animation. SYNK allows assets from traditional digital content creation software and outputs from game engines to be managed in a single accessible environment through an integrated real-time workflow. SYNK manages the data from the early concept phase all the way to final delivery, enabling output to virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR), cinema, animation, video games, and virtual productions.

As technology continues to evolve, the intersection of 3D design and artificial intelligence (AI) presents exciting opportunities for innovation in content creation. In this session, we'll showcase experimentation with innovative techniques—namely, ComfyUI, ControlNet, and Stable Diffusion—to forge a future pipeline that seamlessly integrates 3D rendering with AI-driven processes. We'll outline a visionary approach toward empowering artists and streamlining the content creation process. By using advanced AI algorithms and data-driven insights, we aspire to give artists greater control over their creations as they enhance their efficiency and creativity while using Autodesk tools, specifically Maya and Arnold software. Our vision for the future pipeline revolves around achieving a seamless transition from 3D design to AI render, while empowering artists with unprecedented control over their creations.

The kids are all grown up! The gamer generation has entered the workforce and they are not afraid to push technology to the limits for fast, high-quality results. In this class, you will see how the Autodesk Media and Entertainment collection can take AEC storytelling, visualization and simulation to the next level. Additionally, we will explore game engine workflows to create immersive experiences that help projects get to a finished state faster. Join us!

It's 2023 and you've been wondering "WTF is USD?” You're not alone! Software never stops evolving, and it is easy to feel left behind when new tech enters the scene. Funny enough, that is exactly what USD is aiming to address. USD stands for Universal Scene Description, and it is an open-source initiative, meaning it is being built in a public facing manner, without any single company claiming ownership of its development. Rather, multiple companies share the same vision – a world where sharing production assets among programs is consistent, reliable and easy. In this class you will learn USD's origin, where its currently at in the Media & Entertainment Industry, where it is headed, and how these techniques and technologies add benefit to any industry pipeline.

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) has opened new frontiers for creative expression and world building, transcending traditional boundaries of imagination. This session will explore the potential of AI-generated worlds in fostering empathy, rituals, and community building, while reflecting on the environmental challenges faced in the Anthropocene. We’ll discuss a case study of an imagined world, that we call Eden. This world was designed to have one-to-one mirrors of the relationships formed between ecosystems on planet Earth, while being different enough to avoid an uncanny valley effect. We’ll highlight the role of AI-generated worlds in providing a mirror for understanding our own planet and community, emphasizing the importance of empathetic practices for planetary interests.

This class will present a quick and easy-to-use workflow between Maya software and ZBrush. Maya is the industry-standard software for 3D animation, and ZBrush is the industry-standard software for 3D sculpting. Although both are widely used in the industry, it is not common to see beginner tutorials about the workflow and integration between both software systems. This course will try to fill this gap with plenty of examples and best practices. We will show you how to create basic meshes in Maya, how to refine the basic mesh in ZBrush using Live Boolean, how to go back and forth between both programs using the GoZ plug-in, how to export high and low-poly models back to Maya, and how to create textures in ZBrush and apply them to an Arnold shader, among other interesting topics. In the end, you will have a very good grasp of how to use Maya and ZBrush together.

Industries are converging, and so are the workflows and products that today's leading brands are using. In this session, we'll explore workflows with 3ds Max software for digital representations of products that can be used in a variety of ways, including marketing materials, online product imagery, and real-time applications such as augmented reality with the use of open standards which can also extend into the metaverse.

During this presentation, you’ll learn how to start using the Arnold rendering engine that is part of 3ds Max software. Lighting is a crucial element in architectural design. Based off an imported Revit file, you’ll learn what kinds of lights Arnold offers to help tell the story of your design. Besides exploring different Arnold lighting techniques, you’ll get a much better understanding of the most important Arnold render settings. This will include the advantage of NVIDIA’s RTX-based technology, which will help denoise your image in a split second. We’ll also explain the Arnold standard surface material to give you a much better understanding of the next step in the world of 3ds Max materials. The presentation will end with some smart vegetation techniques that don’t slow down your Arnold rendering at all.

The media and entertainment industry is faced with increased demand for high-quality visual effects—and shrinking production schedules and budget. Studios need to provide graphics applications for employees and freelancers from any location, foster collaboration, and minimize IT and real estate costs, while ensuring that IP is secure. To provide a native workstation-like experience for artists, companies are looking toward virtual desktop infrastructure powered by NVIDIA virtual GPU technology and Teradici cloud-access software. Learn how two leading visual effects and animation studios are meeting the demands of artists performing computer animation and modeling on Maya software from anywhere, while maintaining a high-quality user experience. See how you can use the latest NVIDIA RTX technology that lets Arnold boost performance for interactive rendering as compared to rendering with CPU only, along with the added security of Teradici PCoIP protocol.

In the wake of the second digital turn in architecture (Carpo, 2017), this talk questions the opinion of Gershenfeld (2012) that ‘’a new digital revolution is coming, this time in fabrication.’’ It questions the widespread use of digital fabrication from industry and investigates the impacts on architecture and society. It's not a pure architecture lecture but multidisciplinary research which tackles the 3D printing industry as we know it today. Specific examples from digital software such as processing would be given in order to demonstrate how the new tools give computational power to architects and produce a new architecture. The lecture debates the above phrase through different approaches towards digital materiality, the use of digital tools in fabrication, the goal of mass customization-collaboration and the relation of design with making. Moreover, It searches the origins and the development of the idea of digital fabrication from antiquity to 21st century. Specific examples are presented towards the prospects of digital fabrication regarding its opening to the society, its further development of embodied technology, and the overcoming of temporal limitations of cost, speed, and quality. Finally, it concludes with useful findings and questions for further research in the field.

Getting your client to understand the intent of your design is one of the most difficult obstacles in the architecture business. As an architecture visualization expert, the speaker has spent the past 14 years finding ways to creatively show architectural designs in a way that the client can understand. One of the best ways is to show that design preconceptually over the proposed site it will live on. In this class, you’ll learn how to set up a drone and how to best control it for applying 3D compositing. We’ll cover the basics (as well as some tricks) to get the best possible drone match animation, covering preproduction to postproduction and everything in between.

In this Hands-on Lab, you’ll learn how to start using the build in Arnold renderer in 3ds Max. Based on a linked Revit design you’ll learn how to use the best approach for both exterior and interior design visualization. We’ll discuss different lighting techniques, material types, and how to populate your 3ds Max scene so that it becomes a pleasant image to watch. In addition to static images, you will also learn how to render to a VR environment with Arnold.

With its outstanding modelling tool set, Autodesk Maya software is well suited for concept modelling in many industries. Arnold renderer now ships with Maya 2017 as standard so we will cover some of the impressive physically based shader presets such as car paint.

3ds Max 2018 software introduces the Arnold 5.0 rendering engine as one of the default rendering engines, replacing the mental ray engine that many Revit users are accustomed to using. This has ramifications for workflow, materials, and lighting when linking or importing Revit models into 3ds Max software. You might be tempted to stick to the ART renderer to avoid the change, however the Arnold renderer can provide stunning still images, as well as 360°, virtual-reality, stereo panorama images when configured properly. This class will provide you with the tips and tricks you'll need to successfully pair your Revit model with the new features of 3ds Max. Come get acquainted with Arnold!

This class will present a fast, easy-to-use workflow for creating great-looking textures using Maya software and Substance Painter. This hands-on class has the indie artist and 3D generalist in mind, instead of the big company with an army of specialized artists. Substance Painter has become the industry standard tool for creating textures for games and films, but it's a very complex and daunting software, and its integration with Maya is not always straightforward. This class will cut to the chase and show you how to prepare your model in Maya, set your materials, export, procedurally create the texture in Substance Painter, and then—finally—bring it all back to Maya and render beautifully with Arnold.

A modern VFX (visual effects) rendering pipeline is made up of many materials with detailed descriptions called looks. Looks need to be passed across different software products without loss of fidelity. Current workflows involve duplication across complex pipeline tasks that are hard and laborious to maintain. Arnold software lets you author asset looks in any supported software and then reuse the same looks in another software using the Arnold data format, which is fully extensible. Arnold furthers this approach by capitalizing on open-source back ends like MaterialX and USD, enabling users to build a very flexible, reusable, and connected pipeline. Arnold users can take advantage of this interoperability right out of the box. The data is always live, enabling users to make alterations (major or minor) at any point in the pipeline. In this talk, you will learn about setting up your pipeline to capitalize on reusability of looks. You will also see examples of taking your asset looks through different software.