The Autodesk Research Residency Program is open to external groups in academia, the startup ecosystem, and industries focused on novel project work. The program provides Autodesk with industry insights and offers resident teams access to a global network of innovators, events, and the Autodesk Technology Centers. Resident teams often work alongside Autodesk researchers and peers, fostering a conducive environment for problem-solving, ideation, and development with rapidly advancing technology like artificial intelligence (AI). As leaders in AI research and a trusted partner to industry, Autodesk Research and the Autodesk Residency Program are natural fits for Design and Make teams developing high-impact industry solutions with AI. This session will provide multiple case studies of the AI work taking place within the Autodesk Research Residency Program. We will feature specific teams using AI, and highlight how their participation in the Residency Program is accelerating their work and use of AI.

Explore the fusion of ancient culture and modern technology in the Longmen Grottoes metaverse project by Xu Hui Design Co., Ltd. Discover how Autodesk software was instrumental in creating a digital replica of this UNESCO World Heritage Site. This session will cover the innovative process—from 3D modeling with Autodesk tools to virtual space planning—culminating in a metaverse experience that preserves and promotes cultural heritage. Learn about the challenges of digitizing intricate sculptures and the impact on sustainable tourism and education. This case study is for professionals interested in the intersection of technology, cultural preservation, and the future of interactive learning experiences.

In this workshop, we'll discuss how we used Maya software to create our short film Scrap Metal. We will take a deep dive into what kickstarted the project, how we got it funded, and all the technical and creative challenges. We'll also talk about managing a short film of this scale and complexity on an indie budget. At the end, we'll discuss the further development of the IP, and where we want to go next.

In this session, we will show the new media and entertainment Autodesk Platform Services-oriented software and give an introduction to how the APIs work. The Autodesk Platform Services Flow Graph Engine API is already in beta, with the Media and Entertainment Data Model coming soon to support the Flow Asset Management tools. This class will focus on those features that will also be included in the digital content creation (DCC) tools, but from an API perspective to show how customers can automate and access the data and functionality in an automated way.

Join Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) to discover its journey of adopting and deploying OpenUSD to build an interoperable Spatial Technology Stack (STS) with tools that include Maya software, 3ds Max software, Epic Unreal, and McNeel Rhino. The STS lets ZHA build immersive digital twins that enable deeper integrations between design and construction, enhance spatial experiences, and increase efficiencies in design and review cycles. In the session, we'll cover how no-code or low-code platforms and APIs, such as NVIDIA Omniverse, are enabling ZHA to build proprietary tools. These tools allow the firm to interact with and manipulate its data sets in processes such as robotics and digital fabrication. This approach reduces material waste while increasing sustainability and innovation. Join us to explore how this innovative approach revolutionizes architectural design, making it more engaging, responsible, and accessible to the architecture, engineering, and construction industry.

In this session, we'll introduce GraphQL and explore how it is being used to deliver the promise of "granular" data. As you have heard before, Autodesk is investing heavily in cloud data with Autodesk Fusion (manufacturing), Autodesk Forma [architecture, engineering, and construction; building information modeling (BIM)], and Autodesk Flow (media and entertainment) industry groups. At the center is also the Data Exchange API that allows data to be shared in a specific and durable way. From authoring to access, this class will explain the details about each software system, and how to use the GraphQL API to access the data. We'll also cover the fact that data can easily be accessed across each of the information models, and via Data Exchange.

Attend this session for an in-depth exploration of animation techniques in game development using Maya software. Gain valuable insights into hand-keyed animation, considering the demands of modern gaming environments. Dive deep into Maya software's sophisticated toolset, discovering how you can refine your animation process with precision and finesse. Learn an optimized workflow engineered for seamless integration with diverse game engines, facilitating the smooth transition of your animations into the game engine you work.

Although the character-animation process has been largely digitized, the fundamental approach has remained relatively unchanged for more than a century. Animators create performances by creating key poses, which they then string together in a sequence to create motion. They continue to add and finesse these keyframes until they get a believable performance. In this presentation, we will demonstrate a new approach to character animation that uses AI to transform the way animators work. With neural motion controllers, we use machine learning to model how characters move and behave. An animator then only needs to specify high-level intent, like when and where they want the character to move, and the neural motion controller does the tedious work of producing natural, believable motion. We will also demonstrate that by connecting this new technique with core Autodesk capabilities, we can create a production-ready workflow where animators retain full artistic control over the final animation.

Embark on a flight above Westeros with the Rodeo FX animation department as they discuss the intricate work done on these jaw-dropping creatures for the latest season of HBO's smash hit House of the Dragon.

Teaching Tectonism to AI"" is an exploration that focusses on the convergence of AI and tectonism. Tectonism, as a leading subsidiary style of parametricism, poses a unique challenge for current text-to-image AI tools due to their limited comprehension of structural dependencies in architectural representations. The presentation will showcase the potential of merging structural topology generation tools with Generative Artificial Intelligence across various architectural typologies and how this is integrated into early stage ideations at Zaha Hadid Architects.

Bifrost is a powerful graphical programming environment for creating procedural visual effects simulations, geometry, rigging, and animation. In this session, we'll showcase new, modular, deep-learning workflows in Maya software using Bifrost. We will demonstrate how to use Bifrost for procedurally generating training data for AI systems, as well as how to deploy trained AI models in Bifrost using new Bifrost nodes designed for deep learning. The session will include practical examples of industry problems that are suited to a media and entertainment audience, such as using AI for complex rigging kinematic solvers.

While professional artists use high-fidelity animation techniques—pioneered and refined by Autodesk's animation products MotionBuilder, 3ds Max, and Maya—in games, film, and design production pipelines, we ask the questions: What if the user is not as skilled? What if their requirements for control are not as stringent Could we leverage new input modalities to allow untrained creators to record and edit 3D motion in just a few minutes? We'll discuss the speed and utility afforded by animating in a completely new paradigm: One that allows you to express intent with your body, fingers, face, gaze, and speech while enhancing presence, storytelling, and collaboration in real-time immersive experiences, and engaging your spatial understanding, reasoning, and memory to author 3D animations. Come and hear what our panel of experts from Meta Platforms, Workshop XR, Entertainment and Media Solutions as well as Autodesk Research have to say.

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.

Jason Martinsen is an animation industry professional with 18 years of animation experience at companies like Naughty Dog, Sony, Blue Sky, DNEG, Coalition, Moon Studios, and Reel FX. In this session, he will talk about some animation tips and tricks he’s learned throughout the years. He will gear the discussion toward animation professionals and students, and the topics covered will use terminology unfamiliar to non-animators.

As part of our 2021 product releases, many products will include a faster install and easier deployment experience that will automate critical updates, customize and streamline deployment, and let users get up and running instantly without any downtime. Come learn from an expert about the new install experience!

In this session, we'll show a pipeline concerning the benefits of moving content from Autodesk products to Unreal Engine and Twinmotion Engine.

RADiCAL's artificial intelligence (AI) enables 3D motion capture, animation, and content solutions for film, gaming, and live events for everyone, everywhere. Our AI delivers an end-to-end software-only solution, generatively going straight from a single 2D video to 4D skeletal joint rotations, in real time, requiring no coding, hardware, investment, or training. Camera, browser, internet: done. In this product demo, we'll explain how RADiCAL Live works, how you bring real-time, multiplayer, motion-capture data into Maya software. We'll go into RADiCAL's development road map (including feature sets to be released soon). And we'll cover how we continue to partner with Autodesk in the creation of a truly democratized, end-to-end, cloud-based, collaborative content-creation platform that has AI at its heart.

With recent advances in generative models, many industries must adapt to offer more-intuitive solutions to interact with their expert software. The challenge ahead is to combine this expert knowledge with artificial intelligence (AI) to include more-natural ways of interacting with our tools while remaining precise and controllable. In this talk, we will discuss our solution to achieve this for content creation in Maya software. We'll present a high-level overview of the architecture to better understand the integration of the Microsoft Azure OpenAI services in our product. Then, we will discuss how we improved the inference model bridging the gap between research and production. We'll also show a demo of our plug-in in Maya software on a complex scene. You'll leave this session knowing how to prepare a proper data set for code generation from prompt, how to design a structured context improving the accuracy of the generated response, and how to maximize custom embeddings to handle more-complex use cases.

In this talk, we look at the variety of features and toolsets inside Maya that can be leveraged by artists to create compelling and engaging animated performances, in sometimes unexpected ways.

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.