Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s The Adventures of Tintin was this year’s Golden Globe winner for Best Animated Feature Film. NewTek’s vice president and head of 3D software development Rob Powers served as supervisor of the Virtual Art Department for Tintin prior to joining NewTek. A VAD is much more than previs. It involves interacting with the entire film creating virtual environments—complete with lighting texturing and atmospherics—that the director can use to explore how live actors interact within a 3D scene. Powers understands the power of the VAD having first introduced the concept in James Cameron’s Avatar. While working on Tintin Powers assembled a team of artists to work in Spielberg's Los Angeles-based VAD unit using LightWave 3D as the primary tool for asset creation and texture baking. Digital assets were delivered to Weta Digital as FBX files that were imported into the studio’s Autodesk Maya-based pipeline and shared with Giant Studios for motion capture integration with Motion Builder. Many congratulations to Steven Spielberg Peter Jackson and the entire team of artists animators and actors for their ‘Best Animated Feature Film’ Golden Globe win for The Adventures of Tintin says Powers. The opportunity to work with and learn from such a diverse group of artists and visionaries was very rewarding. Watch The Adventures of Tintin trailer at www.us.movie.tintin.com NewTek www.newtek.com
