In today’s competitive game industry, the ability to work with multiple 3d applications in a single game production pipeline is crucial. doing so enables companies to not only attract larger numbers of talented artists, but also leverage the strengths of each application they’re using and expose artists to different ways of approaching problems, which can lead to more creative solutions and, in turn, higherquality games. In addition, implementing multiple core 3d applications enables companies to more efficiently scale their studios and pipelines.

In today’s competitive game industry, the ability to work with multiple 3d applications in a single game production pipeline is crucial. doing so enables companies to not only attract larger numbers of talented artists, but also leverage the strengths of each application they’re using and expose artists to different ways of approaching problems, which can lead to more creative solutions and, in turn, higherquality games. In addition, implementing multiple core 3d applications enables companies to more efficiently scale their studios and pipelines.

Autodesk’s Solutions to Hybrid Pipeline Challenges

Autodesk, a leading provider of professional 3d digital content creation software, truly understands the benefits and challenges of a hybrid production pipeline. For years, game developers the world over have relied on Autodesk® 3ds Max®, Autodesk® Maya®, and Autodesk® MotionBuilder™ software products to create amazing 3d games composed of characters and objects that boast refined and realistic movement, as well as spectacular landscapes and virtual worlds that are rendered in real time.

Autodesk’s Solutions to Hybrid Pipeline Challenges Autodesk, a leading provider of professional 3d digital content creation software, truly understands the benefits and challenges of a hybrid production pipeline. For years, game developers the world over have relied on Autodesk® 3ds Max®, Autodesk® Maya®, and Autodesk® MotionBuilder™ software products to create amazing 3d games composed of characters and objects that boast refined and realistic movement, as well as spectacular landscapes and virtual worlds that are rendered in real time.

The most widely used and supported 3d file format on the market today, Autodesk FBX is an ideal solution for content creators, whether they’re looking to switch 3d packages while continuing to use legacy content or expanding their pipelines to include multiple 3d solutions. It is especially powerful in applications involving motion, cameras, characters, nonpolygonal surfaces, and/or skeletal hierarchies.

FBX supports most major 3d data elements, as well as 2d, audio, and video media elements. designed for animators working on feature films, games, TV series, and commercials, FBX allows most 3d data types to flow among different software applications, and it supports all major NURBS and polygon surface types, keyframe and motion-capture animation, shapes and morph targets, materials and textures, lights, cameras, hierarchical information, and character animation data, including inverse kinematics, envelopes, and deformations.

Autodesk has included FBX plug-ins with both Maya and 3ds Max to provide high levels of interoperability not only between these two packages, but also with MotionBuilder, which supports FBX natively. In addition, Autodesk offers the FBX SdK, a free C++ software development platform and API toolkit that allows application and content vendors to transfer existing content into the FBX format with minimal effort. Users can convert animation and geometry data across multiple data structures, as well as parse data files of various origins into data structures that can then be accessed by the application or tool being written. The FBX SdK works on Windows®, Mac OS® X, Irix®, and Linux® operating systems and can read/write .fbx, .3ds, .obj, and Collada formats without additional plug-ins, providing users with access to these formats without having to learn a new API.

High Moon Studios Leads the Way

Among the numerous leading game developers that have been taking advantage of the best-in-class capabilities of 3ds Max, Maya, and MotionBuilder, coupled with the universal 3d asset exchange capabilities of the FBX format, is High Moon Studios of Carlsbad, California. Formerly an independent studio and now a wholly owned subsidiary of Vivendi Games, High Moon Studios has been a Maya house since 2002, when the company formed. In fact, Maya and MotionBuilder played a crucial role in the development of High Moon’s debut title, the highly successful action-horror game darkwatch. Shortly after the release of darkwatch in 2005, the studio added Autodesk’s award-winning 3ds Max to its tool set.

Since that time, High Moon Studios has been hard at work developing game projects for next-generation consoles. To do so, the company has been relying on—and benefiting from the numerous advantages of a hybrid production pipeline composed of, among other tools, Autodesk’s award-winning 3d software and its FBX file format.

“We use a mixed pipeline that includes 3ds Max, Maya, and MotionBuilder so that we always have the best tools for the task at hand, regardless of what we’re creating,” says Randy Stebbing, technical art director at High Moon Studios. “Plus, the FBX file format (allows) all the tools we use (to) interoperate, whether they were developed by Autodesk, or by other vendors who support the format. This helps us to create compelling content that enables us to remain at the top of our game in this highly competitive industry.”

Finding and Grooming the Right Talent

According to Stebbing, incorporating 3ds Max, Maya, MotionBuilder, and the FBX file format into the production pipeline at High Moon Studios has provided the company with several important benefits. One of the key benefits has been the ability to build a best-of-breed team of artists who are ready to tackle whatever development challenges they encounter during production. Indeed, the folks at High Moon Studios have formed a dynamic team of talented modelers and animators who not only possess valuable experience in 3ds Max, Maya, and MotionBuilder, but also were able to be productive immediately after joining the company.

“Companies that limit their content creation to a single application severely limit both the talent pool from which they can hire and the external partners with which they can effectively work,” comments Stebbing. “However, by introducing multiple core applications into their pipelines—as we have done— companies can recruit talented artists, regardless of their preferred application. A hybrid approach means a company doesn’t have to exclude more than half of its potential job applicants because they don’t have experience with the single core application the company uses. By using multiple applications, a company can focus on how an artist’s models look and animate, instead of on which application the artist may have used on his or her last project.”

Stebbing continues by noting that most applicants focus on three things when they’re applying for a job: the location of the company, the skills required, and the software the company uses. If a company’s job postings advertise that it uses only a single application, that company most likely will unintentionally exclude many excellent candidates. “

To emphasize his point, Stebbing points to a sampling of jobs posted recently on one popular 3d web site. “About 47% of the job postings mentioned Maya, another 40% were seeking job applicants with skills in 3ds Max, and the remaining 13% were seeking applicants with skills split among several 3d applications,” he says. “These percentages will fluctuate daily, but if your studio supports the use of multiple 3d applications, it will allow you to greatly increase your potential employee pool.”

In addition to opening its doors to a larger talent pool, Stebbing says that the studio’s hybrid production pipeline has created an environment in which artists can learn new skills. When the studio’s artists attend industry conventions or user group meetings, for instance, they are more open to looking for the best solution to a given problem. Furthermore, a mindset has been created whereby artists can creatively approach a modeling challenge and iterate on solutions to the given problem using more than one tool. “In contrast, in studios that standardize on a single digital content creation solution, the tendency is to focus narrowly on the current package and ignore the potential benefits of broadening the production pipeline,” he says.

Another artist-related benefit that High Moon Studios has reaped by using multiple packages is the cross-pollination of ideas that comes with multiple approaches to the same problem. Usually senior animators, riggers, and modelers have used several different applications during their careers; great benefits arise from the conversations that result when users of 3ds Max, Maya, MotionBuilder, and other software brainstorm on how they would approach a given problem.

“Often, seeing how a different program solves a problem will spur artists into determining whether their 3d application of choice can do something similar,” says Stebbing. For example, he recalls how one longtime Maya user at High Moon Studios quickly saw the benefits of an alternative modeling approach that a co-worker showed him in 3ds Max. “The Maya user was then able to take those lessons learned from 3ds Max and write a custom MEL script that replicated the same process in Maya,” he says.

Creating a Flexible Pipeline

Of course, attracting the best artists and animators— and helping them to hone and evolve their skills—is only one of the challenges game developers face today in order to remain competitive. Another challenge is to create a pipeline that is flexible enough to tackle the problems that inevitably arise during the content creation process; a challenge that High Moon Studios has overcome thanks in part to its choice of the Autodesk software and the FBX file format.

“Our workflow can change radically during production, reinforcing the need for us to be agile and flex numerible throughout the production process,” Stebbing says. “Therefore, instead of assuming a ‘one tool fits all’ approach, it’s important to ask which tool is best suited for each individual task.”

According to Stebbing, the folks at High Moon Studios determine the suitability of a particular tool for a given task by asking four important questions. First they ask whether the problem and potential solution are well understood. Regardless of the problem the team is trying to solve, Stebbing says, a good understanding of the problem and its potential solution will result in reduced risk. Once the problem and potential solution are properly defined, the team can analyze the available tools and assess the risks involved in using them.

Using the complementary tools of 3ds Max, Maya, and MotionBuilder has helped High Moon Studios reduce risks when trying to solve game development problems, Stebbing maintains. What’s more, the FBX format has helped alleviate potential issues concerning data sharing. “Actually, we’ve found that FBX provides access to 3d content from most 3d software vendors,” Stebbing says. “Using the industry- supported FBX solution makes it possible for us to benefit from the flexibility that comes from using multiple digital content creation tools.”

The second question the artists ask is whether the solution they are considering is robust, predictable, and repeatable. According to Stebbing, when using multiple applications it is important to be able to pass predictable data among programs, and he says the team’s use of presets and configuration files makes that task easier to manage. “Because of this flexibility, it is important to determine the appropriate settings for our particular task,” he notes.

He adds that the FBX format has worked well for High Moon Studios because it provides a multitude of options when transferring data. “Once the optimal export and import settings are determined, those settings can be encapsulated in a script that the artist uses every time he does an export. Because all of the export and import settings of the FBX format for 3ds Max and Maya are scriptable, our artists can ensure the correct settings,” he says. Indeed, using a custom preset for export and import settings guarantees predictable and repeatable results when transferring data. As an added bonus, because the export/import settings of FBX for 3ds Max, Maya, and MotionBuilder are scriptable, the artists can batch-process multiple files.

Contact Information

High Moon Studios

6197 El Camino Real
Carlsbad, CA, 92009
USA

tele: 760-448-3000
fax: 760-448-350
www.highmoonstudios.com