Cameron knows the rendering software. Simply put, the function of this software is to make the image effect more realistic and credible through complex calculations on lighting, material, and color of the primary rendering image produced by the computer. Even to the point of being difficult to distinguish between true and false.
Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects production company of "The Abyss", is currently using the Renderman rendering software developed by Ed Kammer.
When Ed Kammer was still in Industrial Light and Magic, George Lucas bought the permanent right to use this software in a forward-looking manner. After Jobs bought the animation department of Industrial Light and Magic and established Pixar, Egypt De Camal put this software into Pixar to obtain a certain amount of equity, but as Jobs continued to inject funds into the loss-making Pixar, the equity of several Pixar managers was eventually withdrawn by Jobs, and the reanderman software became Property of Pixar.
When Eric wanted to take over Pixar from Steve Jobs, Jobs also tried to strip the renderman software from the property list of Pixar studio, but failed in the end. value.
After reading the development plan of the fluid simulation software and understanding the general situation of the reanderman rendering software, Cameron ≠ ■, and then became very interested in the 3D modeling software that Eric just said, from what Eric said just now Here, Cameron keenly felt that the 3D modeling software that Eric said was the top priority of this plan.
"San Francisco hasn't discussed a detailed plan yet. I originally planned to entrust Autodesk to develop this software, but I didn't agree on the ownership of the software. In the end, I had to do it myself." Facing Kame Long's curiosity. Eric spread his hands and explained.
"Autodesk?" Cameron asked suspiciously.
"It's the industrial design software development company of the famous autocad software," Eric said. According to the information in memory, several major 3D animation design software Maya, 3dmax, and softimage in the previous life were all products of Autodesk. , Autodesk has almost monopolized this type of film and television special effects software.
But even if history does not change in any way, it will be more than ten years later.
Now Autodesk is still focusing on the development and operation of autocad, an industrial design software, because computer video special effects have just emerged, and Autodesk is not interested in the development of 3D animation software for film and television special effects at all. Because they think that such professional-level software does not have much commercial prospects.
The reason why Eric wants to entrust Autodesk to develop is mainly because Autodesk has nearly ten years of technology accumulation in 3D design software development, which can greatly shorten the development time of 3D modeling software. I am not interested in similar software, but I still want to share the ownership of the software with Eric. In the end, the two parties did not reach an agreement, and Eric could only organize his own team to develop.
Hearing Eric mention autocad, Cameron remembered and asked a series of detailed questions. Cameron finally asked: "Eric, how much do you plan to invest in these plans? I think this must be a very large expense."
"The development of fluid simulation software and the optimization of renderman do not require much money. 30 million US dollars is enough. The most important thing is maya. This software requires continuous investment, but I think it will definitely bring me in the future. enough in return."
"Maya, do you mean the name of the 3D modeling software you mentioned? Unexpectedly, you are still interested in the mysterious Maya civilization."
Eric explained: "The maya here is not a guide to the Mayan civilization in America, but the pronunciation of an ancient Indian word, which means 'dream'."
"The name is... so apt," Cameron said with a smile.
"Of course, in fact, 3D modeling is only the most basic function of Maya. In my plan, 3D animation, simulation, special effects and other functions will be added in the future, and it will be connected with Reanderman rendering software to form a complete Special effects production process," Eric said confidently, of course, these are just his technical ambitions.
The reason why there were so many mainstream or non-mainstream special effects software in the previous life was mainly because within ten years of the rise of computer special effects, most software giants were not optimistic about the commercial prospects of this type of software. Many old-fashioned special effects companies had to develop their own. After the giants in the software industry see the huge commercial output value of special effects software, the special effects software on the market has become diverse, and it is almost impossible to monopolize it.
But now, Eric has made this move much earlier than many people, and he has no idea of letting the digital field enjoy Maya exclusively, but after the software design matures, he will ensure that the technology in the digital field is absolutely leading Under the circumstances, there is a plan to introduce it to the market. He believes that when there is a mature special effects software available, not many special effects companies will be willing to develop independently.
This is still the first step. With the development of the digital field and the promotion of maya software, slowly, many film and television special effects solutions and special effects plug-ins will be developed based on maya software, just like many application software are developed based on windows system. In that way, a strong binding effect is finally formed.
By that time, even if there are giants in the software industry who want to step into this software field, maya's software status in the film and television special effects industry is already equivalent to windows and the operating system. I can only stare at this piece of fat with an output value of tens of billions of dollars.
It is always troublesome for women to pack up. Eric came back from the tennis court, showered and changed in just over ten minutes, and it took Famke Jansen more than half an hour to walk into the study with a pot of coffee At this time, the girl has changed out of the hot navel vest and hot pants, wearing a simple white T-shirt and khaki slacks, her hair is still slightly wet, and her face is also lightly made up .
"Mr. Cameron, Ms. Bigelow, do you need coffee?" Famke Jansen asked while pouring the coffee.
Catherine Bigelow, who was standing by the wall admiring Eric's sketches, turned around, nodded with a smile, and stepped forward to help, while Cameron, who had just been amazed by Famke, At that time, he completely lost interest in beauty, and was excitedly discussing the special effects of the disaster film series with Eric. He only nodded slightly when he heard Famke's question, and didn't even turn his eyes.
"Miss Jason, don't mind, Jim is like this, he will focus on one thing and ignore everything," Catherine Bigelow said apologetically when she saw Cameron ignoring Famke.
Famke Jansen brought two cups of coffee to Cameron and Eric, went back to the sofa and sat down, and said: "It's nothing, in fact, Eric sometimes does this, once I saw He walks up and down the window, frowning, and asks what's the matter, but Eric wakes up and gets very angry, saying I've blown his mind away."
After Famke Jansen finished speaking, the two women looked at each other, feeling a sense of sympathy for each other.
Perhaps for this reason, the two women quickly chatted together and even called each other by nicknames. (To be continued..)