Autodesk Entertainment Software Shines on Television

New Shows “The Cape,” “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior” and Ongoing Programs “Glee,” “NCIS,” “No Ordinary Family” Benefit from Autodesk Visual Effects Tools

The visual effects and post-production teams behind top-rated television programs such as “Glee,” “NCIS,” “Bones,” “Fringe,” “The Good Wife,” “No Ordinary Family” and “Dexter” and new midseason additions “The Cape,” “Chicago Code” and “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior” regularly turn to Digital Entertainment Creation software from Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), to help raise the bar in episodic television.

“Digital workflows have become more prevalent in episodic television, and as a result, we’re seeing our visual effects and compositing tools used heavily on a variety of programs for compositing, cleanup and beauty work on more dramatic programs to heavy visual effects sequences for more action-laden shows,” said Marc Petit, Autodesk Media & Entertainment senior vice president. “It’s great to see so much creative innovation from the television production community, and we continue to develop our tools to deliver the speed and efficiency that our customers require.”

Eden FX, which provides visual effects for the new series “The Cape,” as well as “Fringe,” “Undercovers,” “Community,” “Teen Wolf” and “NCIS,” has tightly integrated Autodesk Maya, Autodesk Softimage, Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Mudbox 3D animation software tools into its workflow. “It has been exciting to see the integration of Autodesk’s products into our pipeline. Our artists can create work that just would not have been possible with other packages, and still deliver on our traditionally ‘snug’ television schedules,” said Steve Pugh, VFX producer, Eden FX.

Los Angeles-based LOOK FX is working on the sixth season of “Bones” and also contributes visual effects to “Harry’s Law” and “No Ordinary Family” using a range of tools that includes Maya, Mudbox, Autodesk Flame and Autodesk Flare. They were also the lead visual effects house on the final season of “Lost.” LOOK 3D Supervisor Michael Capton explained, "With the short turnaround for TV production, the flexibility of Maya gives us the ability to work quickly and make changes on the fly, enabling us to handle almost any effect thrown at us."

FuseFX creates visual effects for several new and popular shows, including “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior,” “Chicago Code,” “Glee,” “No Ordinary Family,” “Lie to Me,” “Criminal Minds,” “United States of Tara,” “The Good Wife,” “The Unit” and “Mercy.” FuseFX Founder and Visual Effects Supervisor David Altenau said, “3ds Max, our primary tool for computer generated animation and effects work for both television and film, has been critical to our success as a visual effects facility. We use it in combination with V-Ray to create a multitude of CG elements, digital environments, fire, smoke, airplanes, helicopters, digital doubles and more.”

In a standout promo for Season 5 of “Dexter,” the show’s hero stands still in a living room as the world around him turns upside down. Everything from a couch to picture frames to vials of blood, microscope slides and a bowl of cereal crashes to the floor as the room spins in slow motion while Dexter stands unscathed in the center of the frame. For this promo, SWAY Studio used 3ds Max and Flame to build computer generated (CG) elements and complete heavy compositing work in each of the spot’s 30 shots. “This project was challenging because it was a mix of many complex elements integrated seamlessly into an entirely CG environment. Some of the elements were shot practically and had to be carefully keyed, and others reproduced in photoreal CG. I love the internal paint system in Flame — it allows us to have better control over the CG performance of elements,” said Aaron Powell, SWAY Studio VFX supervisor. “I am a big fan of Flame. You can experiment with layers and see them more rapidly. It is a huge savior — especially on a project like this one that involved keying and compositing of highly metallic and reflective elements.”

Keyframe Digital Productions made extensive use of 3ds Max to create visual effects for “Warehouse 13” airing on Syfy and “Lost Girl,” in Canada on Showcase. The facility does a lot of scripting, taking advantage of the open source code in 3ds Max to customize its pipelines. “Our technical director writes scripts in 3ds Max to help mold our production pipeline and continually make our workflow more efficient,” said Darren Cranford, principal at Keyframe Digital Productions.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries ¾ including the last 15 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects ¾ use Autodesk software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software for global markets. For additional information about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com.

Autodesk, AutoCAD, Flame, Flare, Maya, Mudbox, Softimage and 3ds Max are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2011 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.