Dirk Bialluch

Dirk Bialluch works as a Technical Director with Ambient Entertainment. He started in career in programming and then transitioned his work to that of a CG artist. Dirk also is no stranger to the realm of animated short films, an area that was also pivotal in the start of his career as an artist.

During past few years Dirk has been working, in Germany, on character animation and setup, modeling, special effects, lighting, texturing, compositing, programming and sound effects. Recently, he has become involved in training, research and development and is currently working on a 3D feature film entitled Back to Gaya.

Q. How did you get involved in the 3D computer graphics industry?
A. In 1993, André Schneider, a friend of mine, and I were working on a new game project for the Commodore Amiga called D-Struxion. The number of graphics we had planned for this game was almost impossible to achieve with standard 2D paint software. We wanted lots of spaceships flying across the screen along smooth arcs and at that time it was impossible to rotate sprites in real-time. Finally, we came up with the idea to render graphic elements using a 3D software package and it worked out very well. Unfortunately, D-Struxion was never finished and we cancelled the project when Commodore went out of business.

Afterwards, I concentrated more on creating 3D graphics than I did on programming. As a result of this switch in focus, André and I presented our first short movie called Warlord's Grave, ( http://dirk-bialluch.mayaring.com) which was completely generated in 3D. It was shown at Bit Movie '95 in Riccione/Italy.

This movie also led to my employment game development industry.

We use Maya to edit the racetracks for a 3D racing game currently under development for the Gameboy Advanced. We have customized the standard Artisan tool using a MEL script so we can paint ground elements like gravel, mud and grass with some simple strokes. The tool automatically chooses the right random pattern module to fit its neighbors. NURBS curves can be drawn to define the ideal line for the vehicles and objects like trees are simply placed in Maya's 3D view. Finally, the script exports all data for our real-time 3D engine.

For our latest PC game Pizza Connection 2 we had to create several ground planes for an isometric view of a town, so we developed a MEL script to generate maps. The script had to be capable of assembling existing 3D modules, including streets, parks, rivers, the sea and many other elements.

The map layout was based on a "pixel map", a simple image where each indexed color represents a particular type of ground module. While the pixel map could be easily created and modified using a 2D paint program, the script did all the hard work by selecting each module depending on its neighbors and performing the necessary rotation and translation to position it in 3D space.

In multiple passes, more than 20,000 modules were created per map. The river bank and shore elements were connected to a vast lattice to randomize the geometry and to give it an irregular look. Finally, the script randomly placed Paint Effects flowers, ferns and bushes on lawns and along river banks to add some natural elements.

To give the final image an irregular, dirty look we mapped the sun light intensity with a fractal pattern.

To populate the towns in Pizza Connection 2 we had to animate more than 50 characters. Each character has his own style in movement and behavior. While most motions like cooking, gunfights, insect control and cleaning the pizzeria were keyframed, we wanted to automate the process of creating walk cycles. During the R&D phase for the game I had started to develop a flexible animation method, which controls the movement of characters based on footsteps placed in the 3D scene. The foot motion is controlled with a "reverse foot skeleton" to be able to rotate about ball and heel when lifting and dropping the foot. Based on the foot motion, the rotation and translation of the hip is animated and transferred further up the whole spine. Two additional locators serve as control objects for the wrists to animate the arms. Using this animation tool later called "Footstep System" we were able to create a vast variety of different walk styles, from jumping kids to strolling grandparents..

Bundesliga Manager X
We are currently finishing Bundesliga Manager X, a soccer management simulation. For the first time we have used motion capturing to animate the football players.

During the past month I have developed a MEL toolbox called "Motion Control" to handle motion capture data. Using this script we are able to copy the original mocap animation curves hierarchical to our real-time skeleton. To alter the motions we wanted to be able to switch between an IK / FK setup at anytime. For this purpose we used two different skeletons. The FK version was used to smooth motions, especially the knee, elbow and spine joints. The IK skeleton gave us very good control over wrist and feet position. So we were able to stick the feet to the ground, put the hands on the ball, adjust the hip position and constrain the head rotation. Finally, we used Maya's Trax editor to blend each motion into a proper rest pose.

Q. What projects have you worked on?
A. Lots of Games and a few short movies:
1990 Triton, Computer Game Commodore 64
1990 Helden, Computer Game Commodore 64
1993 Timelock, Computer Game Commodore Amiga
1993 -1994 D-Struxion, Computer Game Commodore

Amiga
1994 Warlord's Grave, Short Movie
1995 Space Marines, Computer Game PC
1996 Formel 1 Manager 96, Computer Game PC
1997 Formel 1 Manager Professional, Computer Game

PC
1997 Swing, Computer Game PC
1997 Bundesliga Manager 97, Computer Game PC
1998 Bundesliga Manager 98, Computer Game PC
1998 Swing Professional, Computer Game Playstation
1997-1999 Pizza Syndicate, Computer Game PC
1999 Wilbert the Worm, Short Movie
1999-2000 Pizza Connection 2, Computer Game PC
1999-2001 Bundesliga Manager X, Computer Game PC, Playstation 2

Q. What makes this industry so exciting to you?
A. I have been fascinated by 3D graphics since I saw the first computer generated images in movies like The Abyss and Terminator 2. With a background in technical drawing, 3D software gives me the ability to visualize my ideas, though I am not really skilled in drawing by hand. The opportunity to give my ideas shape in a surreal or real form is the most exciting aspect about CGI for me.

Another exciting point is the constant technical challenge, due to the rapid development of hardware and software. With the introduction of scripting languages like MEL and an open API we are now able to solve tasks that would otherwise have taken a tremendous amount of time, thus giving us more flexibility to experiment with different approaches. It is fantastic to see, how artistic and technical talents can be merged and what possibilities will arise as a result in the future.

Q. Where do you see the industry going in the next 5 years?
A. With the development of new advanced graphic tools and hardware getting more powerful, realism will be pushed ahead within the next years. The new Final Fantasy movie demonstrates impressively what can already be done nowadays concerning character animation and rendering. With computers getting faster and cheaper, render technologies like global illumination can be applied. This will increase realism dramatically, while reducing the amount of time spent to light a scene.

Physical simulations i.e. for cloth, fluids, clouds and plants will make it easier to imitate the real world, something far too complex to rebuild and animate by hand. The introduction of Paint Effects was an important step in this direction.

For the computer games industry everything seems to depend on further development of graphic hardware. With higher poly counts, multi texturing, bump mapping and shadows becoming standard features, real-time 3D will certainly gain in realism. The trend is already going towards displaying everything using a real-time 3D engine, replacing space consuming prerendered CG clips, thus making this technology extremely interesting for internet applications.

If you are interested in character animation you need to study human beings and animals. In time you will get a sense for correct timing and motion. "The male and female figure in motion" by Eadweard Muybridge is a very good reference for human motion. When modeling for animation it is a good idea to learn all about the skeletal structure and muscle interaction.

The realism of a scene depends much on lighting and texturing. Having access to a good texture library will make it much easier to create realistic images. Many techniques used in the film industry can also be applied in the world of CGI. The book "Digital Lighting and Rendering" written by Jeremy Birn gives a very detailed insight, how to create professional renderings.

Beside a 3D software you need a good compositing tool. It can be very time consuming to tweak the render parameters until you get the look you want to achieve. My preferred method is to render in layers with z-depth and use a compositing software to do the post processing. Most images that come out directly of the render pass look a bit harsh. To avoid that typical cold CGI look, read a few of the tricks Dirk uses to warm up the look of images right out of the render pass:

• Desaturate the image
• Adjust the gamma value
• Add some depth fog to simulate the atmosphere and make the colors more grayish with increasing distance
• Add a soft glow to the image with a very high filter size. This will soften the image and distribute the colors evenly to achieve a homogeneous look.

Two projects I have worked on:
http://www.pizzaconnection2.de
http://www.bundesligamanager.de