/*jupiter jazz*/ is proud to announce that the Vancouver-based studio Image Engine, used AtomKraft for heavily motion-blurred atmospheric snowfall effects featuring millions of 3D particles in Electronic Arts’ “SSX: Deadly Descents” snowboard game trailer. Image Engine was one of the first studios joining the beta testing of AtomKraft, back in mid 2010. Their experienced team has provided outstanding feedback during the development of this product. Ultimately /*jupiter jazz*/ added direct support for Image Engine’s Cortex VFX library.

Any Cortex procedurals can now be used directly with AtomKraft, through the new AtomCortex node.

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This article is also featured on CGWorld Japan.

 

Shawn Walsh, Visual Effects Executive Producer & Partner at Image Engine, says:

We had a very tight deadline on this game trailer working in concert with Goldtooth Creative Agency and Electronic Arts. With so much atmospheric work going into the shots we needed a Nuke plug-in solution that would be a fast way for us to produce a convincing snowy environment. Atomkraft integrated very well with our proprietary compositing tool set.

Bernhard Kimbacher, Lead Compositor at Image Engine, adds:

The main advantages of working with AtomKraft for SSX: Deadly Descents have been its flexibility and speed. We were working with a really fast moving camera, and literally whipping through snowstorms. To create the snow we used a tool developed by our R&D programmer, John Haddon, and rendered it out in Nuke using AtomKraft. One really good feature was that we could change things on the fly in Nuke and then render really quickly. We managed to render up to 2 million sprites at once and we had render times for the snow of  15 to 20 seconds per frame.

Paolo Berto, CEO of Jupiter Jazz, says:

When Image Engine started using AtomKraft Beta in production it was the first time this toolset was used to deliver final shots: we were surprised of how smooth things ran and we were very curious to see final results.The 3D snowfall is outstanding and the particle count and render time that Image Engine reported is really impressive. We look forward to work more with Image Engine in the future. Their innovative pipeline and strong R&D dept. makes them an ideal partner for testing AtomKraft on new grounds.

Moritz Moeller, CTO of Jupiter Jazz, adds:

Image Engine are known in the Nuke community as an innovator already, not least through their outstanding work on ‘District 9’. The contribution of their in-house libraries to the Cortex VFX opensource project allowed us to integrate the latter with our product seamlessly and provide a hook for TDs who need radical control over AtomKraft. The ongoing collaboration with Image Engine has keenly promoted our development efforts already. We are passionate for them to throw more wicked ideas at us that will help push AtomKraft to the next level.

Setup & Shots Breakdown

This simplified diagram shows a typical setup to create snow using AtomKraft at Image Engine: a sequence of sprite textures frames is read via the Read node, specific frames are held by the FrameHold nodes and joint with a ContactSheet node. These are passed to Image Engine’s proprietary volumetric particle system which can be rendered directly by AtomKraft’s AtomRender node.

Heli Arrival

Heli Drop

Snowboard Action I

Snowboard Action II

The Official Game Trailer

About Image Engine

Image Engine provides world-class visual effects for feature films. With over 15 years in the industry, several award wins and an impressive list of feature film credits including the recent The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, District 9, Law Abiding Citizen, 2012, Watchmen, Orphan & currently The Thing and Immortals, it is leading the growing feature film visual effects industry in Canada. Image Engine is a privately owned and run company, based in Vancouver, BC.

About /*jupiter jazz*/

Jupiter Jazz is a privately held company focusing on high-end software solutions for visual effects. The company acts as an umbrella for the commercial endeavors of the /*jupiter jazz*/ group. Jupiter Jazz was founded by Paolo Berto & Moritz Mœller in 2010 and it is based in Hong Kong.

The /*jupiter jazz*/ group, founded in 2007 by Paolo Berto, is a worldwide network of professionals who focus on pushing the intersection of art, technology, science and beer. Its members are carefully chosen specialists with complementing backgrounds from different fields.

The people behind the curtains

/*jupiter jazz*/ wishes to thank the team working on the tools: Moritz Moeller, Chishing Yip, Luis B. Barrancos and Paolo Berto. Special thanks also to the Image Engine team: John Haddon, Bernhard Kimbacher, Shawn Walsh and Hannah Hughes. And kudos to the whole Cortex developers network.