Solidsound

This piece, along with seven others, was commissioned by Hewlett Packard as part of their SE3D initiative. SE3D centres on a particular cutting-edge technological resource HP are developing known as the Utility Render Service. This service, an application of new Utility Computing technology, allows the remote (internet-based) use of huge amounts of computing power on a rental basis. HP have been market-testing this technology through a number of stages, partly in conjunction with the Dreamworks animation studios (the two most recent Shrek films were rendered using the service). SE3D was an attempt to see how the system might serve smaller studios and individuals undertaking more experimental work. For my project I developed, with Hewlett Packard engineers, Soundtracker, a new software application that allows data to be extracted from sound and applied to any attribute in Alias (now Autodesk) 3D animation software Maya. Solidsound is effectively a demonstration of these techniques and this software, showing how sound can be used to literally drive animation. The eight pieces produced through SE3D have been published on a DVD, which was first shown at the Brief Encounters Film Festival (2005), and has been shown at many international animation festivals subsequently. My research findings and the principles behind the software development were presented at a discussion on 'the Future of Animation' at the Cheltenham Science Festival (2005).