Plan on a set of stylish stereoscopic 3D glasses becoming permanently attached to your noggin for the next few years. You’ll have to slip them on for such things as movies, video games, doing the dishes perhaps, oh… and conference keynotes.
Why? A guy who just spent years producing a movie costing $300+ million, which made $232+ million over the past weekend alone, is changing how much 3D inundates every area of our life. That guy is director James Cameron, and SolidWorks just announced him as the SolidWorks World 2010 keynote.
If you’ve been sliced into tiny 2D fillets and stuffed under a rock, you’ll want to know that the movie I’m talking about above is James Cameron’s Avatar. He had the idea to make it since 1994, developed a bunch of impossible 3D tech to shoot it and now has most everyone experiencing the movie-going experience in new and wonderful 3-dimensional ways. If you were able to get tickets over the weekend to see the movie, you’ll know just how Cameron has easily raised the expectations for 3D in the future. And, if you were able to get passes to SolidWorks World 2010, you’ll get to hear direct from Mr. Cameron about all of this.
How does Autodesk play into it?
So, at Autodesk University 2009, the Manufacturing keynote was John Landau, producer of Avatar. He talked about how Autodesk was instrumental in shooting the scenes for the movie. It just so happens they were not actually ‘shot.’ They were simulated. All scenes on the alien world of Pandora in the movie were filmed using Autodesk’s virtual cinematography MotionBuilder software.
image via DeskEng
At the Manufacturing keynote (Autodesk University has three other keynotes, including the main stage keynote) everyone heard how the Autodesk Manufacturing and Digital Entertainment divisions worked together to help with the production of Avatar. Everyone there, who had two eyeballs, also had the pre-launch pleasure of watching 15 minutes of the Avatar movie in magnificent 3D.
Now, you have SolidWorks bringing in, not only the producer, but the director and man behind the vision of Avatar. Oh to hear the talking going on behind the scenes at Autodesk and SolidWorks. I so wish I could use movie producers and directors as really long jabbing sticks. Awesome.
Was SolidWorks used for anything in Avatar
It’s possible that equipment used to to create a mechanism that delivered the vending machine which sits down the hallway of James Cameron’s office could have been developed in SolidWorks, but there’s nothing directly linking SolidWorks to any production of the movie. Kinda makes sense. The entertainment industry is out of typical SolidWorks target (although RED is doing some nifty development with their ONE series cameras) but you can bet, like SolidSmack, they’re all about the 3D and letting people know about the innovative process that made Avatar happen.
More at SolidWorks World 2010
This post was initially going to be about all the other stuff going on at SolidWorks World 2010, but I’ve gone and ruined it now so here’s the run down of everything you’ll want to check out.
Map your Show
SolidWorks is using Map Your Show to make it easier for you to get organized. It’s great, it just doesn’t work on crumby mobiles that can’t render Flash *stupid iphone*
People
I hear there will be some people there. Here are some you should physically bump as much as possible so they remember you. People at SolidWorks World
Tweet-up
The SolidWorks World Tweet-up is going to be on January 31st. That’s the Sunday night before the conference begins.
CSWP Event
You can take the CSWP at SWW10 for Certification and to get into the CSWP event where you’ll be able to race supped-up Team Associated SC10 R/C Offroad Trucks and listen to live music.
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SolidSmack is a very small behemoth of an online community about 3D CAD, technology, design, robots, and ninjas… Ok, maybe not ninjas so much, but those guys are COOL so there just might be something about some dang ninjas.
