Fox Sports produces photo-realistic graphics with Vizrt and Allegorithmic
At the 2016 NAB Show Vizrt is hosting a hands-on demonstration of a new animation/texturing software plugin from Allegorithmic called Substance, which leverages the Viz Engine realtime compositor to create physically-based rendering (PBR) animations and materials.
Fox Sports used the Substance plugin, which includes more than 1000 plug-and-play materials, as well as their industry-standard software for material generation called Substance Designer, to create photo-realistic augmented reality graphics for the Daytona 500. The Substance plugin allows graphic artists to create their own content files and export them directly to Viz Engine for immediate rendering and distribution.
“I am thoroughly excited about the new integration between Vizrt and Allegorithmic. Being able to design highly photo-realistic surfaces in Substance Designer and bring them into the Vizrt system is a game changer,” said Andy Blondin, Art Director, Fox Sports Graphics. “The Substance-based workflow gives the artist freedom to create with the same surface qualities that you see in the real world. This has been the secret to high-end real-time graphics for years and we can now enjoy the same quality in Vizrt. I can’t wait to see how far we can push this technology.”
“This is the future of creating tileable materials instead of using photo manipulation software,” said Gerhard Lang, Chief Engineering Officer, Vizrt. “By using a combination of materials with global illumination, we are opening the door to real-time photorealism. Material definition language (mdl) is quickly becoming a standard that enables us to keep the look consistent from design in Cinema 4D or any other 3D program, to Viz Engine, to NVIDIA Iray. Allegorithmic Substance Designer is the one real tool for creating materials.”
With a wide range of customers across several market segments, including broadcast, motion pictures and gaming, Substance is quickly becoming the industry standard for PBR material authoring. It’s a way to make elements of an animation or CG title look more photo realistic or natural looking by changing how light bounces off different surfaces. Different types of surfaces (such as metal, leather, plastic and glass) look more photorealistic and “natural” because the way that light reflects off them and the more accurate way shadows are created.
“The Allegorithmic Substance plugin is a powerful texturing solution allowing users to unleash PBR materials within the Viz Engine renderer,” said Sébastien Deguy, CEO at Allegorithmic. “We’re pleased to be working with Vizrt to offer its rendering engine to our customers so they can composite stunning images in real time. This is exactly what our customers are looking for —speed and efficiency — when creating their graphics projects.”