Illustrator and mental ray - United.

Here we talk to Letterbox Animation about its new toolset, which seamlessly unites Illustrator and mental ray.

This is a 3-part interview, ‘The benefits’, ‘The industries affected’ and ‘The tech’.

To read ‘The benefits’ click here, To read ‘The industries affected’ click here, To read ‘The tech’ click here

UPDATE: We've had a large number of email's with various question from users, if you have such a question we have set up an special email address. "im at LetterboxAnimationStudios.com. Due to the large numbers of emails, we can't answer them all individually, but we will answer them by updating this page.

To read your questions answered click here.

Q: What exactly is the point of uniting Illustrator and mental ray?
A: Well let me explain what it is and what it does and then you’ll start to see some of the potential.

What we've done is unite the world’s best 2d render (Illustrator) and the world’s best 3d render (mental ray) and now you can use the two seamlessly.

This means that for any texture, instead of creating a bitmap version, you can use the Illustrator file directly. So you don’t have to go thru the intermediate step of the bitmap, this means files sizes are massively reduced. E.g. if the Illustrator file is about 200-300k, a bitmap could end up being 200-300 meg (depending on scale / resolution), vectors can be a magnitude of order smaller.

You can zoom (dolly) in closer to the image, and it just does not get pixilated, it always stays sharp.

Q: I don’t quite understand the zooming, can you explain?
A: Yes, as you move the camera closer to the object, the artwork...always…displays in full resolution. It’s like looking at a tree from far away; you see the basic tree, as you move closer your eyes keep the tree in sharp focus, that’s what happens in real life, that’s what we achieved.

Q: Doesn't that already happen now?
A: Sort of, it’s done in jumps, e.g. 10ft away, 5ft away, 1ft away, so you have to create multi-level bitmaps. With our unification it’s more like the way your eyes work, there are no jumps just continuous detail as you get closer, and with crystal clarity. So it’s easy now to continuously move the camera closer to the object, and not have to worry about image resolution and sharpness.

Q: If the files are smaller will it render faster?
A: As the files are smaller access times are too dramatically reduced from those large bitmaps, and this makes renders faster. Yes, it also means that you have more ram for more complex renders as every bitmap you don’t use can save you huge amounts of ram.

Q: Do these smaller files have any other benefits?
A: It means the textures for a whole project are also massively reduced, in terms of disk space, and accessing these small files across a network is extremely fast. So instead of creating a massive multi-level bitmap that tries to emulate this behavior, and take even more ram, you can just use vector art and have it work easily and efficiently.

Q: Doesn't this vector rendering slow down the machine.
A: We knew this question would be asked and all we can say is...NO.  If anything it's faster, it doesn’t have to load huge (100's meg) bitmaps, so for loading a scene, and the rendering of it, we save all that time.

Q: What industries could benefit?
A: Advertising for example, for product and packaging and point of sale, use vector art work, now they can create 3d examples using the same vector artwork. I can see that it would be easy to create VR (virtual reality) models of the product, and ship those to the client, so they can view the product, zoom in, out, tumble, rotate the product, and with out losing any resolution. No longer do they have to look at flat art. Billboards and point of sale work can now mix the 2d and 3d which give them the possibility to create some amazing concept artwork.

Q: Could you use integration of 2d/3d in feature films?
A: In feature films you’re often creating the artwork at the same time as other assets, but by creating vector artwork for textures, rather than bitmaps, you are giving the director/dp the ability to place the camera anywhere they want, and you know the artwork will always look great. That level of freedom is a massive gain.

Q: What about using the integration in games?
A: The artwork for cinematic's in games again is bitmap, with vector art you have significant gains in the freedom to put the camera anywhere and have the art look great. We understand that you may want some parts to remain bitmaps, but now YOU have the choice and freedom to decide where / when and what type of artwork is used; either vector or bitmap. It’s about giving the artist the choice.

Q: Can you use it for architectural work?
A: Of course, that’s another industry that would benefit. As in the architectural previz world they often use textures and logos, and that artwork is often in vector form. Now they have to convert it to bitmap, and suffer image loss if the camera is not placed in the right position (which is hard for walk thru’s) or if the file is not big enough (low resolution). By using our system that extra work and problematic image quality is a thing of the past.

Q: Can you use the vector artwork with Anime too?
A: Absolutely. That’s one of our greatest achievements; you can even get the 3d app to draw toon lines around the vector work. Which again is another great feature to have, and it’s blazingly fast. Or if you prefer you can change the stroke/fill style in the vector file and render it that way, now you have much more choice. It’ll really open up Anime to become much more stylized than it currently is, and that’s really exciting to us, as we really like the work done in the anime world.

Q: What other uses are there?
A: We are developing a version for games, and this could be the most massive change games have gone thru.  Because in all games the majority of the dvd is taken up with textures, now as I explained vector images are massively...smaller. This means you could have more images on the dvd, and create a much more immersive title. Imagine seeing billboards, houses, buildings, props with massively detailed artwork, that... DOES NOT... disintegrate / pixilate as you get closer.  Sponsors would be very happy as their logos and products will always be sharp and high detail.

Q: Why are there no images here?
A: Two reasons, one; you have to sign a nda, two; as I mention we are not yet convinced that us releasing it, until we've completed talks with dcc creators. First we really have to evaluate the their input, that is the main motivating factor right now. But we might post up a video at a later stage, once things are more clearer in terms of the above directions then you'll see images, videos etc.

Q: What about some technical details?
A: Well we can’t say too much, but what we can say is the work flow is incredibly easy, not to dissimilar to how you use a bitmap. After all its about getting the results, and that's the important thing, so to minimize learning time it always best to create a workflow that the artist is familiar with.

Q: Easy, like how?
A: Like just as you use textures now, load the image (vector), apply it to the model, and you’re done. Nothing new to learn, we do the work for you behind the scenes so to speak.

Q: Can you see the vector art in the viewport, just like textures?
A: Yes, all of the vector images are visible in the viewport, you can move and rotate the viewport and the vector artwork is always displayed. This is so cool.

Q: What about zooming in the viewport?
A: Yes you can do that too. Again it's about maximum functionality.

Q: Extra functionality, what don’t you have?
A: I think it would be great to get a bit more help from the dcc manufactures in terms of early access to beta’s etc, and some technical details from the graphics card manufacturers. But I am sure that will be coming soon, after all I think you’re the first to hear about this. Some of them are probably unaware of what we are working on; we've kept it quiet, until we had it operational to a high degree, and ensured that it’s stable. For the dcc manufacturers it opens up sales for them in new areas. The unification is a big feature asset for any dcc manufacturer.

Q: What else can you see this technology being used for?
A: That I can’t say, not just yet. Enough to say if you think about it there are ...endless possibilities.

Q: Where did you get the idea from?
A: Well we're in pre-production of a feature, and I was looking at artwork, I saw some amazing Illustrator work, then I thought...why can’t you...

Q: And from there it started?
A: Yes, but we had made a decision to freeze code development, to concentrate on our feature. But this was definitely worth reversing that decision just to have this capability.

Q: Do you use Cairo to do this?
A: No, that would be limiting on what you can do in illustrator, and they would be very frustrating, knowing that you cant do certain things. We'd rather not deal with those limits,and are sure that you don't want to either, that is why we don't use it.

Q: Does that mean you can do any artwork in Illustrator?
A: At this point (and we're still testing) we have not found anything you can't do in Illustrator.

Q: What DCC tool does this work with?
A: Unfortunately we can't answer that question, as it would be unfair to the other dcc's if we replied. We think that that question will be answered shortly, but we want to wait to we have a complete list, and ensure it integrates in a way the dcc creators are content with.

Q: What effect will this capability give you?
A: Well we did take a huge hit on our project, in terms of time, and that really hurt; we have scrapped most of the bitmap textures in favor of vector. But every time we see the performance gains but more importantly the results - we know we made the right decision.

Q: What are the benefits and losses of that decision?
A: It was a hard call to make in some ways, but in others it means we can create visuals that are truly amazing, and the quality of them is just stunning, and we can place the camera where we want and not have to re-do textures, and see pin sharp details.  It really will raise the bar in terms of viewing and expectation. That’s why we thought it has to be worth it. Also the development decisions we made if we do proceed and make a commercial product means we’ll deliver the best features for the user that we possibly can, after all we want them too.

Q: When will this be released?
A: We’re still working on extra functionality, and some parts of this question have been answered, so right now is an interesting time. As we are still deciding if we’re going to release this as a product independently, which takes a huge amount of effort and time and resources, or to just use it as-is exclusively for our own productions, or only thru the dcc tools themselves. That decision is probably the hardest question of all.

Q: Are you working on anything else?
A: As I said we really should freeze development. But how can you stop when you have brilliant ideas like this and get to see the results of your work in full cinematic glory - the images you’ve always wanted. The convenience / quality / factor is just to hard to pass by. As for other tools, you know you start to think about what they could offer and...

Illustrator is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. mental ray is a registered trademark of mental images.