a conversation with peter ryce

MAYA! ...It is a word that seems to be on everyone's lips in the computer animation community. As most of you know by now, Maya is the next-generation 3D animation product from Alias/Wavefront, a wholly owned, independent software subsidiary of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Maya represents a dramatically new approach to character animation and visual effects that has taken people by surprise and garnered a lot of attention. Maya consists of a full set of tools for creating high quality animation and effects. Its considerable abilities have been further extended by the release of three advanced add-on modules; Maya F/X, Maya Artisan and Maya Live. One thing Maya is not, is cheap. The starting price for the base package is $10,000. Maya F/X and Maya Live each cost an additional $10,000 and Maya Artisan is priced at $7500. Obviously then, Maya is not the kind of off-the-shelf 3D program that you pick up at the nearest Circuit City or Best Buy Store. It is definitely not aimed at the hobbyist market. This is serious professional software.

So who IS buying Maya? And why? Well, the venerable Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a leader in visual effects for the past two decades, has purchased enough seats of Maya to give technical directors and artists throughout its digital production departments extensive use of the software. Valkyrie Studios Inc. is using the NT version of Maya to develop their new PC game "SepterraCore". Dream Pictures Studio has purchased 150 seats of Maya to create Japan's first fully computer generated feature film. MEDIALAB, French pioneers in real-time performance animation characters have combined Maya with their proprietary CLOVISTM PA real-time rendering software to create a process they call 3D Skinning, which allows them to create characters with no visible limb joints, whose muscles flex and relax as their skin wrinkles and ripples in real-time. But that is only the beginning of their list of satisfied customers.

Another enthusiastic client is Blue Sky/VIFX, who are using Maya to animate six dinosaurs for an upcoming IMAXTM movie called T-Rex. Imagination Plantation, a fairly new CG studio located in San Francisco, chose Maya, citing its speed, interactively and the ease with which it can be customized. Santa Barbara Studios chose Maya to create animated sequences for a presentation commissioned by specialty AutomataTX that will be used by Honda to introduce a new digital manufacturing process. Meanwhile New York City-based GLAC Productions is using Maya to create its first animated cartoon, The Buddy System. You may also have seen the television ad for Ping putters in which an animated golf hole attempts to elude a pursuing golf ball. It was created by Rhonda Graphics using, you guessed it, Maya. Calibre Digital Pictures is also using Maya to create the stunning effects for the television series Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict.

Obviously then, the people at Alias/Wavefront who created Maya, have done something right. How did they go about creating the program that has generated so much excitement? We wanted to find out, so we asked them. Alexandra Walsh from the Alias/Wavefront Public Relations department was kind enough to set up a telephone interview with Peter Ryce, who is the company's Product Manager. Although their main offices are in Toronto, when we spoke to Alexandra and Peter by phone they were hard at work at a big convention in Atlanta. Peter graciously agreed to satisfy my curiosity about Maya, and its development.

VMM: First off Peter, thank you for agreeing to talk with me and answer a few questions.
Peter: It is my pleasure.

VMM: What were your primary goals when your company set out to create Maya?
Peter: Well, to begin with, we wanted to take advantage of all the new technical innovations in the industry. We wanted to make the best use of the advances that have been made in hardware and architecture. Furthermore, we wanted to create a new architecture that would be more in tune with the way work is being done today. In the past, digital animation tended to be compartmentalized with individuals working separately on specific assignments, but today it is much more of a team effort and we wanted our product to facilitate collaborative development.

We also wanted to push the performance barrier as far as we could. We wanted to give our users capabilities they have never had before.

VMM: What specifically was this software designed to do?
Peter: We set out to create a program that would give our users the ability to do high quality, complex character animation. In addition, we wanted to make this software easy to use. We felt this was an important factor for the client. We were also committed to developing a state-of-the-art particle system for creating believable visual effects.

VMM: What was the actual development process like?
Peter: We began three years ago by combining teams from Alias and Wavefront. as time went by, different people were assigned and reassigned so that the size and makeup of the team were in continual flux. The important thing was flexibility, having the right people in the right place at the right time. Fortunately, Alias and Wavefront each have over a decade of experience in this industry, so we had plenty of talent and experience to draw on.

VMM: What was the overall philosophy of the design team?
Peter: That is an easy question to answer. Our whole philosophy was simple: Under promise, over deliver.

VMM: That is a pretty good philosophy. What specific steps did you take to live up to it?
Peter: Probably the most important step was to involve our beta partners early in the process. We had a very long BETA program. This enabled us to take advantage of input from some of the best and most experienced artists in the business, and make adjustments accordingly.

In turn, our BETA partners have become some of our most ardent supporters. Just as one example, Kleiser-Walczak Construction Company was so impressed when they got their hands on Maya that they did the unthinkable. They were midway through production on The Adventures of Spiderman, an animated film to be used in a Universal Studios Theme Park ride, when they became a BETA partner. They were so impressed with Maya that they switched to it in mid-production. As you probably realize, changing software partway through a project is a nightmare for any production manager. It is almost unheard of. We felt this was a pretty solid endorsement of Maya's capabilities.

VMM: What do you see as Maya's niche in the industry?
Peter: Feature films, of course. Also broadcast work and I also see us making an impact in video game creation as well. Anyone doing character animation and visual effects is going to wish they had Maya.

VMM: What are the future plans for this software? What is the next step?
Peter: Our main focus, as far as future goals, is to completely eliminate dependency on older products. There are still some aspects of our older program that our users continue to turn too. Eventually, we will bring all of that functionality into Maya, making it self-sufficient.

We are also working on consolidating the User Interface. As I mentioned, this product was developed by a large team, and naturally, in some instances, people working on different elements of the project, duplicated the work to some extent. We are working at eliminating this overlap and streamlining the interface, so that the next generation is even more simple and efficient.

Of course, we will continue to add functionality to the program as well.

VMM: It sounds as if you are really committed to customer satisfaction.
Peter: Absolutely. We are completely focused on the customer and their needs. We also feel we are very responsive. Our R&D teams travel out to various customer's sites, to observe the program being used under real working condition. The beautiful thing about Maya's architecture is that it allows rapid development. To give you another example of how we differ from the norm in this industry, Artisan was actually ready before the announced shipping date. As I said, our architecture facilitates innovation and speed. The Windows NT version of our software will ship, as scheduled, next month.

VMM: tell me more about the NT version.
Peter: The NT version is something we are quite proud of. Naturally we are thrilled at the support we have gotten from the big studios like ILM, but we feel that this NT version will put the power of Maya in the hands of some of the smaller shops, as well. We can't help feeling that this will help push the envelope in what is being done in 3D. The NT version will have true NT implementation. It will take advantage of the advances in PC technology. There will be support for AVI files and TrueType Fonts.

This version makes extensive use of OpenGL technology and , I think, most importantly, it gives our customers complete freedom to move work between platforms without file transfer issues. This is not a scaled down version of Maya, this a fully functioning powerful program tailored to Windows NT.

VMM: What else can we look forward to in the near future Peter?
Peter: We are also releasing our latest advanced module next month (June). It is called Maya Live and it is going to solve a lot of problems for animators who want to integrate 2D elements into their 3d animation.

VMM: In what way?
Peter: Maya Live will allow artists to add realistic 3D objects into live-action footage. It will also allow them to add real objects into 3D virtual worlds.

For example, Maya Live can actually extract camera information from existing stock footage. This means the elimination of countless hours of matchmoving and set reconstruction, trying to line up your 3D work with 2D footage. It will also eliminate the need for costly and time-consuming motion control shots in many instances. It can create a virtual copy of the camera used to shoot almost any live-action footage. The camera's motion path and lens focal length are applied to the Maya camera, to ensure that the 3D elements match the movement. Maya Live will also allow artists to reconstruct elements of live-action scenes, and real objects, as 3d geometry. For objects that are traced it creates 3D markers which make it easy to replace them in the scene with 3D elements.

The full range of camera moves are possible. Handheld shots, slow pans, tracking shots, aerial shots, tilts, zooms, and rotations can all be recreated, even from archival footage. And there is no limit on scale. It will work on everything from wide exterior shots to miniatures.

VMM: If you could name one thing, Peter, what would you say is the real heart of Maya?
Peter: I guess I would have to say MEL. That stands for Maya Embedded Language and it is what gives Maya such a wide range of functionality. MEL is actually a scripting language. Every command has a command line equivalent. This makes it easy for the user to write scripts to extend the abilities of the program. The user can take as much advantage of this feature as he or she chooses. MEL makes it easy to write macros, but full programming is possible as well. We were surprised at the interest we have seen in Maya from programmers as well as artists.

VMM: Give me a practical example of how a customer has taken advantage of MEL.
Peter: That is easy. As you can imagine, it can be quite a challenge for traditional animators to make the transition to computer animation. Disney used MEL to create its own interface for facial animation. Now, by simply manipulating a series of sliders and buttons, the animators can create the full range of facial expressions without having to learn a complex software interface.

VMM: So MEL makes it easy for users to create their own UI?
Peter: Yes, exactly. But not just UIs. With MEL the user can create their own macros, plugins, whatever.

VMM: Well, it seems clear that Maya lives up to all of the buzz it has created in the industry. Who was the mastermind behind the development team who created this product.
Peter: That honor goes to Venu, the Director of Engineering for Maya. He led the R&D teams that created Maya. His full name is Venu Venugopal and he deserves a lot of credit. VMM: Peter, I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed visiting with you. I have learned a lot and I appreciate your taking time out to talk with me. I only have one more question.
Peter: It was my pleasure. I hope I can answer it.

VMM: I always ask everyone I interview where the readers can see their work in action. So how about it, Peter. can you let us in on where we can see Maya at work on the big screen?
Peter: Mmm, well actually, I can't really talk about a lot of projects yet. But I can tell you that Maya was used in the upcoming release, Mighty Joe Young.

VMM: We will be watching for it. Thank you again.
Peter: Thank you and take care.


Darris Dobbs is a regualar contributor to Visual Magic. He is a professional 3D modeler, animator and writer and the co-owner of HieroglyFX Design in Wichita Kansas.

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