PL Studios to host session on special effects

From Friday’s The Oklahoman: 

By Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor

THE NEXT LEVEL

Learn about Hollywood digital effects as PL Studios, Inc., hosts Steven Roselle and Ken LaRue of Autodesk. They will talk about special effects in the film and video game industries.

Roselle and LaRue have worked with game developers, technical directors and animation supervisors using Maya, a 3D modeling, animation, effects, and rendering software. This has been used to create content for companies including Nintendo, EA Games, Lucas Arts, Midway, SCEA, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The pair will show the use of MotionBuilder, for 3D character animation, and Toxik, which creates photorealistic composites.

Steven Roselle will be showcasing MotionBuilder, which makes animation and motion capture integration easier for the animator. Work using MotionBuilder can be seen in Sony’s “Beowulf,” Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed,” and EA’s “FIFA Soccer 07” and “NBA STREET.” Ken Larue will be showing guests Toxik. Toxik’s visual effects have been seen in “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” “Apocalypto,” “The Fountain” and several others.

“Toxik makes the marriage of real and fake seamless and photorealistic,” said Sandip Patel, Chief Operating Officer of PL Studios.

The gap between film-quality and video game-quality is shrinking, Patel said.