When Fox Nation’s Revolutionary War docuseries called for A-list performances in historic American locations, GO delivered the future. Instead of flying talent across the country, GO recreated the Boston Tea Party and Mount Vernon as immersive SCAPEs using LiDAR, NeRF, and photogrammetry. In this panel, we’ll break down how GO brought Rob Lowe to a virtual Boston Harbor and Kelsey Grammer to a digital Mount Vernon—without ever leaving LA. From sustainability and cost-savings to creative flexibility, this is a case study in digital twin production, Autodesk integration, and the new blueprint for high-end, low-impact filmmaking.

While professional artists use high-fidelity animation techniques—pioneered and refined by Autodesk's animation products MotionBuilder, 3ds Max, and Maya—in games, film, and design production pipelines, we ask the questions: What if the user is not as skilled? What if their requirements for control are not as stringent Could we leverage new input modalities to allow untrained creators to record and edit 3D motion in just a few minutes? We'll discuss the speed and utility afforded by animating in a completely new paradigm: One that allows you to express intent with your body, fingers, face, gaze, and speech while enhancing presence, storytelling, and collaboration in real-time immersive experiences, and engaging your spatial understanding, reasoning, and memory to author 3D animations. Come and hear what our panel of experts from Meta Platforms, Workshop XR, Entertainment and Media Solutions as well as Autodesk Research have to say.

Production in the cloud continues to be a growing trend in the media and entertainment industry. Accelerated by the pandemic and ever-growing demand for content, the need for cloud-connected workflows to deliver more, faster has never been greater. As a result, studios are seeking modern solutions to improve pipeline scalability, collaboration, and data management. In this panel, representatives from Autodesk Media and Entertainment product, strategy, and sales, will join our customers to discuss how studios are investing in existing desktop and cloud products to help them achieve desired outcomes today, and how the media and entertainment industry cloud-based software Autodesk Flow will add new value to our customers' digital transformation journey by connecting workflows, data, and teams across the entire production lifecycle—from initial concept to final delivery.

This class will present a quick and easy-to-use workflow between Maya software and ZBrush. Maya is the industry-standard software for 3D animation, and ZBrush is the industry-standard software for 3D sculpting. Although both are widely used in the industry, it is not common to see beginner tutorials about the workflow and integration between both software systems. This course will try to fill this gap with plenty of examples and best practices. We will show you how to create basic meshes in Maya, how to refine the basic mesh in ZBrush using Live Boolean, how to go back and forth between both programs using the GoZ plug-in, how to export high and low-poly models back to Maya, and how to create textures in ZBrush and apply them to an Arnold shader, among other interesting topics. In the end, you will have a very good grasp of how to use Maya and ZBrush together.

Web 3.0 is here, and industries and organizations need to be prepared to upgrade their existing content to 3D at scale. Many brands have already invested in 3D design to improve manufacturing, but haven't yet scratched the surface on the potential scalability with game engines to create interactive training, run simulations for better planning, or create more dynamic sales materials. How should organizations be thinking about their 3D strategies? Join Ashley Crowder, a pioneer in 3D and spatial computing technology, who will demo how 3D assets can be interoperable and used across the metaverse, e-commerce, product lifecycle management (PLM), and more to improve employee training, increase speed to market, and boost sales. She will present case studies—including Kohler, Merrell, and Michael Kors—that provide real-life examples on best practices for 3D designs from AutoCAD, Maya, and 3ds Max software to Unreal Engine, Unity, and web viewers. From design to e-commerce to B2B sales, learn how build a winning 3D strategy.

RADiCAL's artificial intelligence (AI) enables 3D motion capture, animation, and content solutions for film, gaming, and live events for everyone, everywhere. Our AI delivers an end-to-end software-only solution, generatively going straight from a single 2D video to 4D skeletal joint rotations, in real time, requiring no coding, hardware, investment, or training. Camera, browser, internet: done. In this product demo, we'll explain how RADiCAL Live works, how you bring real-time, multiplayer, motion-capture data into Maya software. We'll go into RADiCAL's development road map (including feature sets to be released soon). And we'll cover how we continue to partner with Autodesk in the creation of a truly democratized, end-to-end, cloud-based, collaborative content-creation platform that has AI at its heart.

In this talk, we look at the variety of features and toolsets inside Maya that can be leveraged by artists to create compelling and engaging animated performances, in sometimes unexpected ways.

With recent advances in generative models, many industries must adapt to offer more-intuitive solutions to interact with their expert software. The challenge ahead is to combine this expert knowledge with artificial intelligence (AI) to include more-natural ways of interacting with our tools while remaining precise and controllable. In this talk, we will discuss our solution to achieve this for content creation in Maya software. We'll present a high-level overview of the architecture to better understand the integration of the Microsoft Azure OpenAI services in our product. Then, we will discuss how we improved the inference model bridging the gap between research and production. We'll also show a demo of our plug-in in Maya software on a complex scene. You'll leave this session knowing how to prepare a proper data set for code generation from prompt, how to design a structured context improving the accuracy of the generated response, and how to maximize custom embeddings to handle more-complex use cases.

This class will present a fast, easy-to-use workflow for creating great-looking renders using Maya software with the GPU-based Redshift Renderer. This hands-on class has the indie artist and 3D generalist in mind, instead of the big company with an army of specialized artists. The Redshift Renderer is widely used in the industry and can give you realistic-looking images in a fraction of the time needed with other renderers. Nevertheless, Redshift's integration with Maya can be confusing in the beginning. This class will cut to the chase and show you how to set up your model in Maya; select the correct Redshift shaders; prepare your materials, lights, and lens effects; and finally render your image using the two available modes in Redshift: Production and RT (Real Time). You'll learn about lens effects, denoisers, AOVs, and VDB rendering.

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) has opened new frontiers for creative expression and world building, transcending traditional boundaries of imagination. This session will explore the potential of AI-generated worlds in fostering empathy, rituals, and community building, while reflecting on the environmental challenges faced in the Anthropocene. We’ll discuss a case study of an imagined world, that we call Eden. This world was designed to have one-to-one mirrors of the relationships formed between ecosystems on planet Earth, while being different enough to avoid an uncanny valley effect. We’ll highlight the role of AI-generated worlds in providing a mirror for understanding our own planet and community, emphasizing the importance of empathetic practices for planetary interests.

Digital models are the key to unlocking improved sustainability and lower costs in product design. This session will explore groundbreaking techniques for using 3ds Max and Maya software to create realistic 3D assets that designers can trust and rely on, eliminating the need for physical samples. Discover how physically based rendering (PBR) extensions generate assets with an accurate and tactile appearance. Learn how to render PBR assets consistently across various contexts for seamless collaboration. See how to maximize reusability by creating asset variations for other departments once the design is complete. Based on real-life examples from major retailers, this session demonstrates the compelling advantages of digital design: significantly reducing waste, eliminating delays, and cutting costs throughout the design process. Revolutionize your product design workflow with 3D assets that replace the real thing.

Join us for an epic digital panel dedicated to fostering diversity and inclusion in the gaming industry. This event unites game developers, designers, storytellers, and enthusiasts to tackle the challenges and unlock the opportunities to create a more inclusive gaming landscape. Power up your network by connecting with industry leaders, dive into an insightful panel discussion, and level up your strategies for breaking down barriers and championing representation in games. Whether you're a veteran player or a newbie to the field, this digital panel is your ultimate chance to connect, learn, and contribute to a more inclusive future in gaming.

As technology continues to evolve, the intersection of 3D design and artificial intelligence (AI) presents exciting opportunities for innovation in content creation. In this session, we'll showcase experimentation with innovative techniques—namely, ComfyUI, ControlNet, and Stable Diffusion—to forge a future pipeline that seamlessly integrates 3D rendering with AI-driven processes. We'll outline a visionary approach toward empowering artists and streamlining the content creation process. By using advanced AI algorithms and data-driven insights, we aspire to give artists greater control over their creations as they enhance their efficiency and creativity while using Autodesk tools, specifically Maya and Arnold software. Our vision for the future pipeline revolves around achieving a seamless transition from 3D design to AI render, while empowering artists with unprecedented control over their creations.

This course aims to educate participants on the innovative integration of machine learning (ML) techniques for deformation approximation within Maya software. Using approximations for (part of) a deformation stack can highly improve interactivity when using complex rigs, and can significantly improve the portability between different applications. It is designed for animators, game developers, VFX artists, and any professional interested in exploring the intersection of ML and 3D animation. This course will explore a demo of a rig with computationally expensive muscle deformations that is reduced to a simple, general, black-box neural network that only requires inputs from the motion system. We'll show the entire setup process in detail. In addition, we'll go over best practices, tips, and limitations to help users get the most out of this tool for their production needs.

In the fast-paced world of product design, there's a universal challenge to stay ahead of trends while efficiently bringing products to market. X-Rite has addressed this with innovative solutions benefiting automotive brands and industrial designers alike. The PANTORA application simplifies digital material creation, offering a standardized platform for storing and sharing complex material data to streamline design workflows. The AxF format ensures compatibility and collaboration across platforms. Join us to explore how PANTORA and AxF can transform your approach to material design and 3D visualization.

Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) has been involved in the 3D modeling of judicial evidence for homicide cases since 2015. The lab has refined its modeling workflows based on the established use of reality capture (photogrammetry) and BIM (Building Information Modeling) to model artifacts and buildings. Working with the coroner’s office, CIMS has incorporated newer forms of 3D modeling and real-time rendering to establish a standard for displaying digital representations of photographic evidence in a courtroom setting. In this class, we’ll cover our modeling process, starting with analyzing evidence to presenting the data in a user-friendly format. Utilizing Maya software, we’ll model a series of anatomical base meshes that we’ll then manipulate to show inflicted injuries. Next, we’ll texture map the models in Mudbox using photos as reference. Finally, we’ll combine the pieces in Unreal Engine using a template. The addition of blueprints and widgets complete the final product.

Jason Martinsen is an animation industry professional with 18 years of animation experience at companies like Naughty Dog, Sony, Blue Sky, DNEG, Coalition, Moon Studios, and Reel FX. In this session, he will talk about some animation tips and tricks he’s learned throughout the years. He will gear the discussion toward animation professionals and students, and the topics covered will use terminology unfamiliar to non-animators.

This session is for admins who want to learn more about the steps required to transition to named user. We will cover step-by-step instructions that will help you add users with our four invite workflows, assign users to your subscriptions with import to assign and active directory group sync, update your license type to a named user subscription using automation or self-service by end users, and detail the new sign-in process for your users. Attendees will leave the session ready to transition and set up their new named user subscriptions in the most efficient way possible.

As part of our 2021 product releases, many products will include a faster install and easier deployment experience that will automate critical updates, customize and streamline deployment, and let users get up and running instantly without any downtime. Come learn from an expert about the new install experience!

AI tech may get all the attention, but there isn't an AI solution for the critical workflows that architects need to tell the stories of their projects. Designers want visualizations that simultaneously capture a building's aesthetic complexity and the hard data points of energy efficiency, occupant movement, and traffic flow. AI isn't delivering, and Chaos is stepping up. Come see the latest tools for Revit users to conduct energy analysis, with results that can be generated and understood by everyone contributing to your Revit project. Then see how to easily assemble visualizations from across teams and creation tools into real-time explorations, with animations features that go far beyond what design tools are made to support. Learn how quickly you can bring design options to life with stunning ray-traced rendering, dynamic crowds of digital humans, and realistic vehicles traffic. Chaos will show how all of this is possible today for the casual users while meeting the demands of specialists.