ImagineFX - Issue 179

InstaLOD

ADVERTORIAL
SIGGRAPH 2019

saving a minimum of half a day per model

of processing time. Due to InstaLOD’s

user interface and experience, the team

was able to understand the software

within just an hour of training. “Our

prayers were quickly answered when

we heard about the magic of InstaLOD,”

says Mitch Harvey, 3D innovation

manager at Deckers Brands. “We can

now entirely avoid that bottleneck and

freely utilise our CAD assets for any

output downstream.”

PIONEERING VFX

As one of China’s leading VFX studios,

Fontre Technology serves enterprise

clients and consumers from around the

world. One of the studio’s key offerings is

the production of 3D car configurators for

Tier 1 OEM clients. This typically involves

repairing and recreating the CAD data

supplied by the automotive client, in a

process that spans multiple weeks and

requires several operators and modellers.

Fontre Technology first came into

contact with InstaLOD at an industry

event. Realising that this technology could

be a revolution for their entire internal

production process, they reached out to

InstaLOD. Within hours of deploying the

software, the studio was able to perform

tasks that previously took several days

with just a few clicks. Despite the studio

only using a fraction of the technology

at their disposal, the cost-savings have

been dramatic and plans have been put

into place to deepen the integration of

InstaLOD in their production process.

InstaLOD has also become part of the

fabric of Rotor Studios’ work, and without

it the rapid development of their WebGL

technology would have been impossible.

The studio has saved iteration time on

assets by accelerating the process of

combining meshes, thereby reducing draw

calls. In turn, this has allowed Rotor Studios

to develop far more photorealistic CG.

The solution proved painless to

integrate into Rotor Studios’ content

pipeline, development tools and content

creation software. Various parameters

can be defined and set before leaving the

program to run its course, without any

need to follow up. While the technology

has been vital for Rotor Studios’ WebGL,

it has proven especially useful across the

entirety of the company’s development

and the post-production undertakings.

NEW REALITY

Blood & Truth is an explosive thriller game

developed exclusively for PlayStation VR.

The player becomes an action hero against

the glamour and grit of modern-day

London. It is the highly anticipated spiritual

successor to the London Heist segment of

PlayStation VR Worlds, developed by Sony

London Studio.

Creating an ambitious realistic world

running at 60 frames per second, in two

eyes with a wide field of view, and at

greater than HD resolution is one of the

key challenges that London Studio faced

on the project. The detailed environments

required a huge leap in the number of

assets to develop, so finding the right

optimisation solution was critical.

InstaLOD’s well-designed Autodesk

Maya integration and command line

tools meant that initial tests were easy to

produce. Despite using an early-access

release initially, London Studio was

impressed with the robust toolset and how

InstaLOD quickly resolved any issues.

COST AND TIME SAVINGS

Performance is critical at all stages of a

VR title. The ease of integrating InstaLOD

into their Maya pipeline meant that Sony

London Studio could quickly produce a

“PRODUCING LODS FOR ALL THE ASSETS IN THE GAME MANUALLY

WOULD TAKE MANY MONTHS ON A JOB THAT NO-ONE WANTS TO DO.

INSTALOD REMOVED THIS COST AND EFFORT”

James Answer, lead technical artist, Sony London Studio