Interview with Luminetik 3D Animation and VFX Studio

Interview with Luminetik 3D Animation and VFX
Studio

LuminetIK is a 3D Animation and Visual Effects House located in New York City. They have familiar faces that you recognize from Industrial Light and Magic, Digital Domain, and PDI. LuminetIK specializes in eveything from Pre-visualization, Radiosity and feature film Special F/X to Architecture/Real Estate.


CGA: Could you introduce yourself?

KC: Kevin Cahill CEO/Executive Producer & Architect
AA: Akiko Ashley CT0/Co-Executive Producer
DI: David Isyomin Director of Visual Effects (from the point of view of VFX)

CGA: Tell us about your background and how you originally became involved with computer graphics and the architectural industry?

KC: I began twenty years ago. I was using autocad 2 to create 3d models for architects that I was working for. I went to college for architecture and was a student in some of the first computer based design studios. I was frustrated with the restraints of two dimensional representations of designs. It was very limiting. I could see my designs in my head but needed a better way to communicate that to the client. People never really see a project the way it is drawn in two-dimensions. They experience it over a set time and sequence. When I got out of school I got a job thru a friend that did traditional renderings. I helped that firm grow from 2 to 50 people over two years. When I saw the potential that 3d had I went out on my own doing renderings and design. I am having David Isyomin join us to answer a few questions with me since we are also involved in Visual Effects in movies.

DI: Computer graphics wasn't really my childhood dream (there wasn't any CG at that time). It was rather happy accident. I have MS degree in Electrical Engineering, but being an engineer was never my first choice. Some 12 years ago I was searching for something more creative and less predictable than engineering, at the same time I wasn't ready to throw away 6 years of college. Computer graphics was the perfect solution. CG gives you almost unlimited creative freedom, you can be your own sculptor, your own director of photography, your own stage carpenter or your own choreographer, but at the same time it helps tremendously to understand how the tools you are using work. After all Computer Graphics is the mathematical model of the world we live in. So I made my decision to get involved in CG just five minutes and three questions later after I was shown two monitors, one had three columns of numbers on the screen (coordinates of the model), the second displayed rendering of the same model.

CGA: Can you tell us how LuminetIK came to be?

AA: Luminetik is a collaboration of artists who came together to create an identity in high-end CG projects in film, television, commercials and architecture. The key principals at Luminetik are some of the top professionals in Computer Graphics and Visual Effects.

KC: The primary focus of Luminetik is to provide design and computer graphic solutions to clients in architecture, film, television and the commercial markets. We want to provide high end computer graphics that help these professionals with award winning work.

CGA: How many people work at LuminetIK and how are the different roles divided amongst the team.

AA: There are about 20 people involved in Luminetik. Kevin Cahill is the CEO and Executive Producer of all projects involved at Luminetik. Kevin has a high-end design background and has provided award winning beautiful photo realistic renderings for architectural clients for years. Today he helps clients with their creative needs and brings the focus to the team at Luminetik. He guides the creative vision. My background is in technology and relationships with technology providers and clients. I also provide marketing and business strategies. David Isyomin is Director of Visual Effects, he delivers high end quality work and direction for film, television and commercial clients. David has worked on such films as "Titanic", "Apollo 13" and "True Lies". He also worked on to commercials like the 2001 Clio Hall of Fame winner Jeep "Snow covered and Volkswagen "Turbonium We have about several animators and modelers who are some of the top in the business.
 

	744 Broad Street, New Jersey Click to enlarge	Frame from animation Click to enlarge	Nursing Home, New Jersey Click to enlarge

CGA: Being primarily a MAC house, do you see the future of architectural rendering moving completely into the MAC environment?

KC: No, there are to many PC based solutions that are unlikely to move to the Mac. With OS X that gap will get smaller. The pipeline that I have chosen is much more Mac based because I like the operating system and the editing tools for images and animations.

CGA: What benefits and disadvantages do MACs offer over the PC environment?

AA: I would say the big issue with Mac's is the fact that there are still a limited number of software packages available. MAC's do have nice advantages as far as ease of use and they are easier to network and maintain in the pipeline. As Apple moves to OS X and changes their strategies we can see the gap closing between PC's and MAC's in the architecture, computer graphics and compositing software packages.

CGA: How is LuminetIK's approach to architectural rendering different from other firms?

KC: I think the biggest concern for Luminetik is the Lighting. Lighting is important to all the images we create. The lighting and framing of the shot controls your emotions. In architecture or advertising we are manipulating your emotions with these images. It is all about what people perceive in an image. If it is presented properly people will accept it and the product will be sold. This philosophy applies to a new building or a new toothbrush.

CGA: I have heard some tell me that architectural computer graphics is a dying fad and that architecture will cease to be marketed with CG imagery. What is your reaction to this?

KC: I don't know if it is dying or just evolving. There is a growing number of firms doing renderings in house. There are a lot more graduates coming out of school with computer graphics skills including using Maya, 3D Studio Max, Lightwave and Archicad for renderings. I think the market is growing. Computer imaging is an asset that gives you instant access to viewing your work in 3D. Computer generated imaging works better in the workflow then traditional techniques.

CGA: I understand you have done some work for some very high-profile clients, can you tell us about a few of those projects?

KC: I worked on a project for Maya Lin that presented a unique challenge. She recently designed a park in Grand Rapids that had a plaza that became an ice rink in the winter. In the concrete were embedded fiber optics that created the star pattern in that sky on the millennium at right at the stroke of midnight . Finding that star data was a challenge. I used a program called "Starry Night". It was great. All I had to do was set up the latitude and longitude for the site and date a time. The software used the information I gave it and created the night sky. The image was taken into Archicad's plotting software and traced as a vector drawing. From there, that line drawing was sent off to the landscape architect to be incorporated into the site plan.

	Maya Lin Grand Rapids Skating Rink Click to enlarge	Bay Bridge in San Francisco Click to enlarge	Leigh High International airport Click to enlarge

I also did some renderings, animation and documentation for a custom car garage for Jerry Seinfeld. It was a unique project. It was more like a showroom than your typical garage. The floors were terrazzo and the elevator was a custom design with glass and titanium. Upstairs there was a pool room. The width of the building was very thin, barely enough room. Jerry made a comment one day about an episode where Kramer and George put a pool table in a small room at George's parents house. "We don't want it to be like that … that was a funny episode though."
I worked on that project originally do renderings and animations. It evolved where the designer needed some design help. We had weekly meetings to where we could see the design in 3D. Archicad was a very valuable tool. The 3D model in Archicad gave us the information we needed for the construction documents. We even got drawings for some structural layouts of a unique custom roof design.

I did rendering of the high profile Bay Bridge in San Francisco. The bridge won a design award due to the rendering. I got the technical data from the engineer and plugged it into Softimage and it created a beautiful replica. The Mental Ray rendering engine added to it's beauty and helped bring it to life.

I designed a house for a client in Southampton New York. I designed the house from start to finish. It is on the beach front of a elegant neighborhood in the Hamptons. I enjoyed the design process and created 3D renderings and animations a long the way that helped me solidify many design decisions. This house is getting lots of press due to its popularity among design people.
 

	Southampton House Click to enlarge	Light Cylinders Art Installation Click to enlarge	Sci-Fi Times Square ticket booth Click to enlarge

 

	Southampton House - Lightscape Click to enlarge	Southampton House - Lightscape Click to enlarge	Southampton House - Lightscape Click to enlarge

 

 

I also did a project called Light Cylinders which was an eight minute animation of the Ft. Lauderdale Art Installation. The whole animation was done in Lightscape. If you are familiar with Lightscape, you understand that animating and rendering in Lightscape takes a tremendous amount of time. It took me 2 weeks to render my scenes. Once I was finished with it, I was very happy.

 

	Southampton House - Lightscape Click to enlarge	Southampton House - Lightscape Click to enlarge	Lightfair - Lightcsape Click to enlarge

DI: I have worked on high profile projects in film. I have worked on films like "True Lies", "Dante's Peak", "Apollo 13" and "Titanic". I am not sure your readers would need the high-end effects of film, but we are capable of delivering that class of work.

	Apollo 13 Click to enlarge	Titanic Click to enlarge	True Lies Click to enlarge

CGA: What were been some of the challenges that you encountered with those projects?

KC: It seems that personalities are always the biggest issue. Software can be adjusted to make it do what you want but people are a different story. The biggest issue is sense of control. If you are doing a rendering that is based on a 3D model often you find yourself quickly ahead of the designers. When you build this model in the computer you have to address all elements of the design to create these images. Often the designers are not ready to address the issues you make them aware of so early in the design process. The design process becomes much more detailed faster than a traditional process but only if you have that information. Decisions need to be made sooner that otherwise would not be needed till later in the construction documents. If this is not addressed the project can take longer than it would have if the design decisions were made early on.

CGA: What have been some of the biggest rewards with these projects?

KC: The biggest reward has been the design process and seeing what you design materialize. It is one thing to see the walk through animation, another to see it in reality. It is very rewarding to see people enjoy the space you designed. It is rewarding to help other architects reach clients through the renderings I do. It is very cool to watch a movie and see your building in the film.

CGA: What do you see as some of the challenges facing the architectural CG industry as a whole?

KC: I think the worst thing to happen is the low-end design tools that homeowners use. You know the ones that let you design your own house, kitchen or deck. I think these software packages reduce the creative flow of what people can do to their homes. Everything is set to one generic standard. This is a phenomenon that is growing in America. You see too many cardboard cut out for homes. I think that software packages should allow flexibility in design and thought. Homeowners should explore their individuality.

CGA: What was your favorite or most rewarding project and why?

KC: My favorite and most rewarding project was a $10 million dollar home design that I did in Southampton New York. The house is minimalistic design that worked for the client. I loved doing that project from start to finish. It is something that is very pleasing to the eye. It has been getting lots of press lately. The house appeals to my artistic sense and aesthetics. It is very beautiful.
 

	Southampton actual photograph Click to enlarge	Southampton actual photograph Click to enlarge	Southampton actual photograph Click to enlarge

CGA: What software do you currently use and have you used in the past for computer renderings/animations and why have you chosen those particular applications?

KC: I use Archicad for my architectural modeling and documentation. It works the way I think which means I can concentrate on the design and not the software. All of the tools are architecturally oriented, roofs, walls etc. It's more like building a chipboard model than drafting. The parametric objects allow for flexibility needed in the design process and keep the file size low. For studies and lower budget projects I render in Artlantis and for the high-end projects I use Lightscape. I can have an animation set up in a few minutes with Artlantis. It is also linked to Archicad so once it is set up I can revise the model and the textures, shaders and animation will remain. With Lightscape it is more time intensive but the results are amazing. People think that the renderings are built photographs. For organic or extremely complex models like a cable stay bridge I would use Maya. I had done some renderings of the new San Franciso to Oakland Bay bridge. Since the design totally changed at the last minute the Structural Engineer had to revise his anaylsis and only he had the information. He faxed me a list of 3D coordinates of each cable connection. I took the information from that list and I was able to position each connection along the bridge. Since the software allows you to parent pieces, once I plugged in the new coordinates for the cable connections the cables moved and rotated accordingly.

DI: I will answer that question as related to visual effects. I strongly believe that choice of the application should be determined by answering three simple questions. First: Is this tool the best for this particular task? Second: How flexible the software is? (Is it easy to make changes?) Third: Is it easy to incorporate this piece of the software with the rest of production pipeline? The software with the highest score obviously is the favorite one. This method wouldn't be very popular among "software loyalists", but it produces the best results at the end. Here is the list: Renderman, Rhino, Softimage, Maya, Digital Fusion, Houdini, Photoshop, Inferno and a lot of proprietary staff.

CGA: Which individual(s) have/has influenced your renderings the most?

KC: Ansel Adams, N.C. Wyeth, and Santiago Calatrava. I am a big Santiago Calatrava fan, I would love to do his renderings. I love his work.

CGA: Clients are becoming much more discerning about the quality of architectural imagery, what is LuminetIK doing to push the envelope?

KC: We thought about all those things when we formed Luminetik into a high end 3D Animation and Visual Effects studio . We explore the current and new technologies in our pipeline so we can deliver the best solution to the client. We deliver photo realistic work at all kinds of budgets. We refined our pipeline from presentation to finished product to blow a clients mind. We have taken the top talents in computer animation, visual effects and music and merged it into a full service one-stop client stop. We do the kind of presentations that not only get the job done but also wins awards and gets recognition. We have Oscar, Clio and Emmy talent at Luminetik. I have won a few awards in rendering in architecture. Luminetik will not only push the envelope, we will be one of the pioneers.

CGA: Where do you see the future of architectural rendering and how will new rendering technologies affect the future of LuminetIK or the industry for that matter?

KC: I think that one day, we will have the technologies like what you see on Star Trek, like the Holograms used in the Holodeck. You can move through your creation in a simulation and see what it is that you are doing in real time, and with voice recognition, you will be able to do this on the fly.

CGA: What do you feel are the limitations of current rendering technology?

KC: Today, renderings are affected by the hardware and software limitations. At Luminetik, we are writing our own scripts to get past some of the software limitations. You are very dependent on processing power and graphics cards. We would like to see real time rendering in the future.

CGA: What tip(s) can you give our readers to improve their architectural renderings?

KC: You should always have patience and always push the envelope. The biggest mistake people make in doing renderings is not considering the textures and the lighting. These elements are the key to good and solid renders.

CGA: What do you not like to see in computer generated architectural work?

KC: Although I have used them, people that are posed like in a Sears catalog. It looks so pretentious. The people who are photographed do not seem natural in the setting we use them in.

CGA: What is in the future for LuminetIK?

KC: Luminetik will continue to grow in its diversity and in it's artistic approaches in all our markets. We will explore technologies and expand our use of digital tools as we grow. Luminetik is moving into feature films, and architecture is still a predominant part of that market, as Visual Effects also includes buildings and architectural features.

CGA: What is your favorite link to visit on the web?

KC:

http://www.apple.com
http://www.vfxpro.com
http://www.cgarchitect.com
http://www.architosh.com
http://www.cgchannel.com
http://www.highend3D.com

DI: I find personalized Yahoo! pages is the fastest way to access various sources of information.

AA: http://www.google.com, it' my portal to the web

CGA: Which/What web based resources that you have found the most
informative?

http://www.vfxpro.com
http://www.cgchannel.com
http://www.apple.com
http://www.cgarchitect.com
http://www.architosh.com
http://www.imdb.com