HyperMove 1.0

While HyperShot might not have been the first progressive rendering solution, it was arguably the one that kick-started a radical rethink on rendering, making it less complex and more realistic in terms of output. By combining a new breed of rendering technology that takes advantage of standard multi-core workstations, HDR images to create accurate lighting, and a library of actually usable materials and textures, it changed the game and made more traditional rendering tools look antiquated very quickly. It turns out that Bunkspeed, the developer, isn’t going to settle for transforming the static image rendering market and has set its sights on the animation world, so let’s take a look at what it can do.

The HyperMove interface is pretty stripped back, not to the extent of HyperShot, but it presents users with all the information they need, when they need it, all in context of the current task or selection. There are four basic entity types that can be used to manipulate any scene so let’s deal with those first, then look at how animation is added.

While HyperMove tries to maintain any material or colour assignments, users will typically want to assign their own and choosing from HyperMove’s extensive library can get them there quickly

Importing Geometry

Firstly, there’s geometry (which is the assembly or model in HyperMove parlance) and individual parts. HyperMove includes a range of tools that can bring data into the system. It has direct read tools for working with AliasStudio, SolidWorks, and Pro/Engineer (assuming a license is running on the same workstation), Rhino, SketchUp, Maya, 3ds Max (3ds) as well as standards like IGES, STEP, obj and JT. As with HyperShot, and where possible, the system tries to maintain any material and texture information held within those formats, but the chances are, if you’re reading raw CAD data, you’ll need to work with it.

Users can adapt existing materials and textures to their needs, as well as a decals and multi-layers of materials to achieve the desired look

Materials and textures

When switching into parts mode, the system segregates the parts into groups or materials according to the import process. This allows materials and textures to be added quickly. As with HyperShot, HyperMove is supplied with an extensive library of materials and textures commonly found in engineering and design, covering metals, plastics, rubbers, woods, glass, leathers and many others. While these are good for a quick pass and to get the model into a workable state, it is likely that users will still want to add custom materials. HyperMove provides full control over everything, from colour and texture, right through to tools that control exactly how the material is placed and what it’s applied to. Multi-layered materials and decals are fully supported, so within no time at all, the user can get a very close representation of how he wants that part to appear. The whole process is geared around getting up to speed much more quickly than a general purpose tool (like 3ds Max).

Joints between moving parts are created quickly and efficiently

Once the user has the model looking right, the next step is to apply the animation related properties to that model - this is split into two areas, the first of which makes sense to cover now (the other relates to creating animation with cameras). Interactivity between the different parts within the model is added using joints. Unlike other systems, which often make a meal of this, within HyperMove, it’s simply a case of picking the two parts and the system adds the joint where it finds the most sensible interaction between the two. Of course, the user still has full control over where this joint is placed and how it’s restricted for pivots, hinges and other types of joints. The whole process is very interactive and intuitive.

Scenes

The next stage in the workflow is to start to define the scene in which the animation is going to take place. As with HyperShot, HyperMove uses a combination of the model and an HDR image for creating the accurate lighting conditions in which the model is going to be presented. Using HDRi means that the user selects the image file and adjusts how it’s wrapped around the environment (to minimize distortion when wrapping an image around a near spherical environment).

Motion blur is only available in HyperMove Pro but can add a greater level of realism to animations

While HDR images contain a wealth of information about the scene they were captured from, it’s often the case that lighting will need to be fine-tuned within the scene (as we discussed with the HDR Light Studio review in the February edition of DEVELOP3D). HyperMove provides the usual range of spotlight, directional and omni-directional lights, with full control over how they’re positioned, what they light in the scene and colour, brightness, and fall off.

On the subject of lights, this is a good time to discuss props. These are basic geometries that can be included in the scene to add certain functionality, but might not necessarily appear in the rendered output. One example of when these become really handy is defining a plane and assigning a light to it, so it can act as a light with that shape. This is perfect for simulating bounce cards.

From the point of import, through material assignment and texturing, joint definition and into the hardcore camera and animation controls, the process is deceptively simple.

HDRs gives a good basic start, but a model needs to be matched to a specific scene, then the use of back-plates is also a good idea, as these give a much high quality appearance to render and animation work. HyperMove has complete control over these, how they are positioned, and in terms of brightness, contrast, and tiling, so images can be finished to exact requirements without having to work on it in photoshop after the render work is complete. There’s also a front-plate option, which allows the user to position an image in front of the model (presumably always using the transparency options combined with an alpha map) if required.

The final step in scene set-up is to add cameras to the scene (which provide the basis of animation to a larger extent). Bunkspeed has always been very good at providing in-depth, but usable camera creation tools. Full control is afforded by using standard placement tools to define the view, and how the camera interacts with the model (to follow specific parts). Added extras, such as depth of field and motion blur can then be added (the latter of which is incredibly easy to assign, but only in the Pro version).

Depth of Field is a fantastic tool for both adding realism to the model and render work, but also to focus the viewer’s eyes on the most important areas of the model

Animation tools

Now comes the fun part - creating animations. HyperMove is a keyframe-based animation tool so anyone who has used an animation system before should have a good idea of how things work. Working with specific time steps and selections, the user creates key-points, between which anything in the scene moves and the system interpolates between them. It is here that the user can also animate the model using the joints tools to show product functionality. (N.B. there’s also a physics option - see the box on the Pro version for more details).

Cameras can also be animated to show off the product with more visual interactivity. The basic keyframing tools can be used, but in order to control camera movement more closely, a Camera Path can be created, along which the camera travels in the defined time. For simple turntable or rotational animations, HyperMove can create these automatically and for many, this is perfect for showing off a new product.

Animation is either keyframe-based or, with the Pro variant, physics based simulation can be used to drive animated sequences

Output

In terms of output, there are a number of options, to either create static images or animations directly from HyperMove. In terms of formats all the usual suspects are there such as JPEG, TIFF, EXR, and AVI. Output can be generated either as GPU capture (so you get whatever you see on screen, which is typically controlled by your graphics card) or as a ray trace output, which, for those familiar with Bunkspeed’s products will know, is absolutely superb. Then, if static images are required, data can be sent off to HyperShot and it can be rendered up there, using all those tools (there are some interesting bundles for buying the two in tandem).

In terms of output formats HyperMove supports all the usual suspects for both images and video files. At the click of an icon, data can also be transferred for further render work in HyperShot

Pricing

Based on US pricing (European pricing is bound to differ slightly), HyperMove costs $1,995 as the base level and $3,495 for HyperMove Pro. To then add HyperShot onto that there are a couple of options, with HyperMove and HyperShot HD costing $2,495 and for the all singing, all dancing, HyperMove Pro and HyperShot Pro, you’re looking at $4,995. Floating licenses cost more as is pretty standard.

Conclusion

HyperMove has been long anticipated by the Bunkspeed faithful and it’s interesting to see how the system has been developed. By its very nature, animation is more complex than static image rendering, which has been mastered so well by HyperShot, so this was always going to be a different kettle of fish.

The end result of the development work has resulted in a system that’s very finely tuned for those looking to render products and show off both their aesthetic quality and mechanical or physical functionality. From the point of import, through material assignment and texturing, joint definition and into the hardcore camera and animation controls, the process is deceptively simple. It lets the hardware and software do the hard work and lets the user concentrate on creating the assets they need, whether that’s for customer or management presentation, design review or pre-manufacture marketing materials.

Once the basics have been learnt, it’s very simple to dive in, fine tune and adjust the animation to get the required results. By combining the animation of the model, the lights and the camera, some truly stunning work can be created.

www.bunkspeed.com/hypermove/

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