Imagine the hundreds of people that a computer graphics animated feature requires.(Think: Pixar or a VFX heavy superhero blockbuster.)
Now imagine the entire undertaking of these projects being done by a handful of people. Instead of a pipeline of specialized workers, this handful of people are unique multi-talented “librarians.” Like DJ’s who sample electronic music, animated storytelling will mix streams of data, creating visualizations for a variety of new platforms.
Hypothesis:
Computer Graphics Production – as it exists in the movie business – will be disrupted by peer based, real time networks.
Increasingly, collectives of creative developers are sharing new ideas, code and work flows. By sharing powerful tools and know-how, communities are growing at a pace that will soon outperform the quality and market need of closed systems. Essentially, the open networks will outperform the closed companies. The advances of these creative networks will make the computer graphics artists that work within it, mind-boggling, productive.
Most interesting to me, is that visualizations might not be rendered on a centralized farm of computers, but by an infinitely scalable, distributed network. The libraries, the labor and the processing power will be shared by all who participate. The more who join in, the more powerful the network will become.
This is enormously exciting for the art form. The way Youtube empowered content creators, and Instagram made everyone a photographer, new networked technologies will democratize and enhance the animation storytelling process for anyone with an internet connection. Admittedly, it is also threatening to those who exist in the industry today.
This is what my research and writing has been focused on for the last year. I’ve spent this time exploring engines and new workflows, playing with ways to develop content, and then writing my thoughts over and over. I want to understand this evolution.
The best way for me to internalize my learning is to write about it, teach it, and share it. And so, it is my hope that the self imposed pressure of a weekly newsletter will keep me diligent on these explorations.
Every week, I will write a new post discussing my thoughts on technology like game engines, distributed networks, machine learning, agile storytelling, but most importantly, the evolution of the networked artist.
If you are a computer graphics artist, producer, student, or thinker, I welcome you to subscribe and join in. If you feel this is useful, please pass it on to others who you feel it will be useful to.
Real Time animation production should start with a change in mindset
Computer graphics can make gorgeous, high resolution stuff. However, that isn’t always the point.
The graphics of the game industry evolved on a parallel track to the 3d techniques of the movie business. Instead of focusing entirely on high resolution images for the screen, they focused on reusing things, packing them, and limiting the color palettes. In order to play in real time, the content needed to be optimized. Because of this focus, games have always been looked at as less graphically impressive.
That’s because most in the movie industry don’t understand the real art of game design.
Instead of thinking:
“How do I make this really high quality?”
Start thinking:
“What’s the most efficient thing I can build to get the most use out of it?”
A Space Chicken Showed me the Way
In 2012, I was an animator, but a novice game designer. After three failed attempts at building a mobile game, I decided to simplify my learning process and rip off what everyone else was doing at that time — build an endless runner.
Roping in some development help, the result was Commander cluck, a demo of a running and jumping space chicken, that had a single touch mechanic. This was a triumph for me as my first game that actually worked. What threw me about the development process however, was learning and seeing the potential of something called procedural generation.
I had started to write unique levels out but, after watching the talks and readings from the independent gaming world, I decided to try something new.
I divided a level into seven “chunks” of content. I made a single level with seven variable chunks. I made four different background sets of pieces. Then, I tied the content variables and the speed into the performance of the player. At run time, the chunks were randomly selected and placed based on the changing variables.
The result was a game that generated it’s levels and dynamically adjusted the difficulty.
A fairly simple thing to uncover for most college level game developers, but for me it was like figuring out my first animated walk cycle. I remember my mind exploding at the possibilities.
Because of this odd space chicken game, I had learned the value of reusing things mathematically.
Leverage to Infinity and Beyond
Engines are collections of work flows (tools) and reusable elements (assets) that the game industry has standardized to leverage these kind of opportunities. Every engine comes with the ability to generate levels, set up UI, create a player controller and many have things like gravity, starter templates, or scoring systems.
All of these developments allow you to get up to speed and experiment with the game content much faster. As you continue to develop your processes, engines allow you to build more tools for duplicating work, offsetting it, and (most importantly) enhancing it. The better the infrastructure below you gets, the more you can improvise faster.
Experimenting with content in engines is about efficiently leveraging optimized content. This is the genesis of creating compelling procedurally generated content. A subject I will be speaking about in length on this Nytrogen newsletter.
Animators should begin to internalize the optimization & leverage mindset and not think of an animated story as a linear progression, but a collection of animated pieces. These pieces can be reused and assembled in mathematical ways that I’ll soon be discussing right here.
I began this newsletter to begin a conversation with the computer graphics industry. Should you have thoughts or comments, please feel free to reach out. I can be found on twitter @nyewarburton.
This is a three part series on Blockchains and Animation Production. The Nytrogen Newsletter follows my thoughts on the evolution of real time production in computer graphics.
Part 01: F***** on the First One
Agents and Lawyers, Oh My…
When I was 29, I sold a show idea to a television network. I was simply a guy who enjoyed animating things.
I
was working on a studio lot to work on a film. I used the internal
studio index to find the people to pitch to, and set myself up to make a
deal with this mighty corporation’s animation development department.
My writing partner tactfully let the world know that we had set up a deal, and suddenly, a lawyer and an agent magically arrived. They told me, as experts, they would take care of the business dealings. I was removed from negotiations, and kept on the sidelines.
Three
months later, the lawyer placed a stack of papers on the desk in
front of me. It outlined a deal where I needed to work my ass off for
imaginary outcomes, to which the network would own every character,
joke, technical solution and story point until (should the show be
green lit) the second season. And then, myself, my writing partner, and
our production team would receive only a small percentage.
“I’m being f*****.” I said out loud.
My lawyer nodded. “This is a network deal, you always get f***** on the first one.”
Intellectual
property is the life blood of entertainment, and it is systematically
controlled through corporate legal systems. Whether intellectual
property began as an ethical concept is immaterial, it’s evolved into a
mechanism for large expensive legal teams to steal from artists.
Set the Ideas Free
The internet has proliferated ideas, that only when *compounded* – as in – smashed together – create magical things. Going viral comes from modulation. An idea proliferates because people change it, and make it their own.
It may be possible for a single idea to resonate with others, but
encapsulating that idea into a box and stamping ownership on it, will limit its ability to evolve.
This means, in the networked world, we all need to let go of our ideas.
Give them away.
The value we will gain from our collective creative network will outperform the gain we will get from a traditional, legally structured, intellectual property system.
I
must admit I still have trouble accepting this line of thought. It is
counter to what business and law tell you about how you should conduct
your business dealings. The reality is that our business dealings have
become unacceptably corroded. Corporate interest has become too powerful.
No artist should ever be “f****** on the first one.”
Is there another way?
However, there still needs to be a system.
Artists
need a way to be paid; compensated for their efforts, and rewarded for
their devotion to their craft. The ideas, the rates, and the work will
need to be protected by more than something as clumsy as a legal team.
This is why I believe animators need to know about the development of blockchains. It
may just be a way for artists to work together without a system
composed of lawyers and agents. Decentralized computing is pretty
complex stuff, but I believe it important for artists and creators to
understand. I will begin to share my thoughts on blockchains as they
pertain to computer graphics, next week.
Part 02: The Lawyer in the Database
Blockwhat?
I’ve read hundreds of self proclaimed “simple explanations” about blockchains. They usually begin by talking about Bitcoin and Satoshi Nakamoto. These explanations tend to get a bit “mathy” and spend a lot of time on game theoretical problems about trust and governance. It’s no wonder Silicon Valley types love to tweet about this stuff.
For
our understanding of blockchains as it pertains to computer graphics,
I’d like to clear your mind of any preconceived ideas of
decentralization or smart contracts and just focus on two simple words:
Copy and Paste
Because
we all work on a computer, every photoshop file, maya file, python
script, or word document contains our ideas, our designs, and our
stories. If I like something I create, then I feel it has value. If I
can make a copy of it, in essence, I have reduced the scarcity (and the
real world value) of the idea. Simply, it’s no longer unique.
In
economics, the concept that an idea (or art work) can be duplicated
digitally like this, with no additional labor, is called “zero marginal cost.”When the cost of making an infinite amount of something is the same as making one of something, it begins to challenge conventional capitalist thinking. This is why I believe that our value systems need a realignment to reflect network value rather than individual value.
And the data we create, should belong to … us.
So, just what are Blockchains?
Blockchains are trusted networks. They are trusted because no one owns them,
and if built correctly, they provide the necessary ethical practices
that define the collective. The nodes on the networks support each
other, not by deciding to, but by being incentivized to.
As
opposed to using a centralized company or service to mediate conflict,
the governance of blockchains are designed for the collective to
benefit. Those that follow the practices, that enable the trust of the
network, are rewarded with tokens. In a decentralized, or blockchain
enabled network, the collective protects it’s own data.
I saw Zavian Dar give a fairly clear presentation of blockchain economics at the Blockstack summit. (below)
I like to say that a blockchain creates it’s own “lawyer in a database.”
To mistake cryptocurrency as simply a currency to be bought and traded,
is missing the point of blockchains. All too often we are worrying
about the price of bitcoin and ethereum, instead of understanding the
value they really have. The network is built as a means for collective
groups to come to a consensus. How we track and pay for value,
(cyrptographic tokens) is merely a device for execution.
By using blockchains to track intellectual property, we enable the collective to protect it’s own value. Things can be copied and pasted, only if conditions are met. The
collective ethics or “governance” can be programmed into the chain, so
we don’t need to an agent or lawyer to “handle” it for us.
Next week, I will define how I think a blockchain network could work for a computer graphics collective. It isn’t so much about the technical components, but the concept that artistic collective can govern themselves more ethically and efficiently than the centralized corporate system we have now.
Part 03: Blockchain Guilds
Associations of Craftsmen
In the medieval era, artists and
builders formed group associations to protect their “tricks of the
trade.” As opposed to artists who were owned by monarchies and religious
organizations, the founders of these organizations, or ‘guilds,’
were independent masters who cultivated apprenticeship programs,
created documentation, and standardized methods for protecting
intellectual property. These collectives were the precursor to
universities.
The industrial era saw rise of organized labor
unions to protect workers from centralized interest. Many of these
initiatives were centralized themselves, and were ineffective, either
being too small to combat large corporate power, or (worse) becoming big
interest themselves.
Computer graphics artists have no protection now. They are scattered around the globe, unorganized, and often misvalued for their contribution to the craft.
My hope is a new form of guild will arise, thanks to some fancy computer science.
Incentivizing Distributed Networks
The
company Otoy has a unique vision for computer graphics. As one of the
leaders in rendering with their Octane system, they have begun to think
about how distributed rendering would benefit everyone.
They have
proposed a blockchain solution aptly named “render token,” that
compensates users on a network who contribute their processing power. By
assigning a compensation to the donation of GPU’s, it allows users to
govern how their contribution can be used, and (potentially) assign an
accurate market value for it.
From their website:
Ethereum’s
widespread adoption was the key to realizing our vision. Instead of
GPUs being used to only mine currencies, we use their intrinsic
function to render and leverage the features of the blockchain:
network, incentives and trust.
Otoy has
gained a small amount of traction in the entertainment community,
(mainly among the motion graphics community) with support from Bad Robot
leader, J.J. Abrams, himself.
They are not the only ones who see this blockchain benefit.
The
network Golem, also provides a token for processing power contribution.
A new chain called Helium, rewards users for buying and maintaining
independent wireless network hardware. Others, like IPFS
(interplanetary file storage) and Storj pay tokens in exchange for
storage space. Whether these networks use the large crypto-networks like
ethereum, or develop their own side chains to scale, the truth about
blockchains is starting to becoming clear.
Blockchains are coming, and the effect will be incredibly and entirely disruptive.
When
networks of creatives can share their processing power, their storage,
and give their intellectual property openly, with full knowledge that
they will accurately compensated for their contributions — it suddenly
diminishes the need for a centralized company or organization.
Decentralized Guilds
My
hope is that computer graphics artists will begin to form guilds on the
blockchain to protect their intellectual property, gain access to
shared assets, and get paid for their contributions (and fairly.) Should
this actually work, artists will flock to the networks with the most
ethical governance, and thus create global network value.
The
governance of these networks will be like the guilds of the medieval
era, but instead of being confined to a city or area, they will
propagate to wherever the network will reach. (Everywhere on the
planet.)
Blockchains are still very much in their infancy. It is
still uncertain whether projects like Bitcoin, Ethereum or even Otoy
will truly scale, but now that the idea has been set free in our
collective consciousness, it is only a matter of time before some form
of decentralized network becomes a reality. I’m hopeful the technology
will rise to the need.
The surprising effects of open source computer graphics development
Ever Knock Over an Ant Hill?
I’d like to bring up a comedy routine from one of my favorites, Brian Regan.
Do you ever knock over an ant hill? Ever notice how they just start building it again?
You’d think there would be at least one of the ants who’d go:
“OH MAN!!!!! I DON’T BELIEVE THIS!!!!!”
We
are that one angry ant and that’s why it’s funny. We care about the
things we build, and we get upset when someone knocks the whole thing
down. Ant behavior seems counter to who we are. Instead of a single
controlling interest, a collective hive mind just builds, without any
drive but the creation of the ant hill itself.
I think this is the perfect analogy to think about open source. Brian Regan is also hilarious.
Open source?
In my day job, I use pretty fancy pieces of software to do computer graphics. These days, it’s mainly Autodesk’s Maya, Adobe’s After Effects, and the super duper Unreal Engine from Epic. I’m amazed at the advances these pieces of software have every year.
However, when a community rallies around a free piece of software, the effects can be even more astounding.
Blender is an open source 3D package and production suite which, for free, allows for the creation of models, rigs, animation, textures, compositing and editing!
Every major part of the animation pipeline has an independent group of
developers solving a critical production problem. The community also
shares videos about how to build things, provide plug ins and updates,
and contribute to an infinite amount of chat rooms, websites and
documentation.
Projects like Blender, the Godot engine, Open
Broadcast Software, and the painting application Krita, are part of a
growing world of open source computer graphics software. Essentially, a
quality graphics pipeline can be created with software that have no licenses.
At
it’s core, open source projects stay independent and free, which allows
others to adopt it more readily. When community pain points are
discovered, the users themselves can simply take it upon themselves to
fix it.
This is key.
See, if I want an update to the Unreal Engine, I have to wait for the developer, Epic, to get around to it. (Here’s the Roadmap: https://trello.com/b/TTAVI7Ny/ue4-roadmap) Even if there are 100’s of world class developers working on the problem, because the system is closed there are only a (relatively) few number of people working on it.
I have been informed by an Ureal expert that the above is not true. Unreal provides a semi-open source license which allows for opportunities for non-Epic developers to contribute to the code.
k. Back to the Rambles.
For an open source project that I use, there are usually
communities working on the same problem sets I have. The bigger and more
active that community becomes, the more powerful the tool becomes. The
users aren’t boxed out of the development in order to be monetized. The
users (and the knowledge they have) become part of the development
process itself.
Below is a visualization of python. You can see
how the development of it twists and turns with the needs of the
community. What closed company development pipeline would ever create a
library like this?
Open Source for the Ecosystem
For
the time being, the software packages and systems I use in my graphics
work are closed. I work in companies, and business models are tied to a
mechanism to control scarcity. Most software focused companies will
continue to license, use subscriptions or SASS, because that’s how you
make 20th century money.
What I wonder is:
How long will these closed systems be able to maintain their lead on the rest of the pack?
How
can a localized graphics pipeline compete with an infinite group of
user/developers and an ever increasing collection of models, animation
and art? Yes, it’s true, that perhaps that our graphics ecosystem will
be controlled by Epic, or a titan like Amazon, or Microsoft Azure.
It
also may also be possible that that people will want a free ecosystem,
filled with free software, and the value will come from the singular
hive mind that is set on building with it.
Thanks for reading. We’ll see you next week.
Reference and Links:
Software –
Autodesk Maya: http://autodesk.com
Adobe After Effects: http://adobe.com
Epic Unreal Engine: http://unrealengine.com
Blender: http://blender.org
Godot: http://godotengine.org
OBS: https://obsproject.com/
Krita: https://krita.org/en/
Reading –
Yokai Benkler,The Wealth of Networks: http://www.benkler.org/Benkler_Wealth_Of_Networks.pdf
The Agile Manifesto: http://agilemanifesto.org/
Comedy –
Brian Regan Official Site: http://brianregan.com/
And I found his “Ant” routine here: http://inviewmedia.org/index.php/media-gallery/1408-brian-regan-ants-fishing?category_id=12
