NVIDIA Quadro solutions improve creative workflow, as well as the delivery of real-time photorealistic graphics, for an upcoming super bowl ad.

Visual effects studios dream of rendering photo-real images in real time. SWAY Studio of Westwood, Calif., realized the dream by integrating NVIDIA Quadro based solutions from NVIDIA Corporation, the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, into its production pipeline for the creation and delivery of a :60 commercial for GM, which will debut during Super Bowl XLI on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2007.

The commercial follows a small robot that accidentally drops a bolt while working on the GM vehicle assembly line. The mistake causes the line to shut down, and the robot is ultimately banished from the company premises. Forlorn and uncertain of his future, the robot does his best to move on with life."Our biggest challenge was to seamlessly create and integrate a realistic CG robot into footage of the actual robot we filmed on set," said Mark Glaser, owner and creative director of SWAY Studio."NVIDIA Quadro based solutions allowed us to easily work at this high level of resolution and detail in real time, which saved us a considerable amount of time throughout the project."

For the spot, the talented animators at SWAY successfully created an unsullied computer-generated (CG) replication of a real-life robot that evokes precise movement and realistic emotion. To accurately create motion not easily achieved by the real-life robot used during the filming process, SWAY shot basic photography of the robot in various positions creating a model reference to aid in the 3D replication. High Dynamic Range Imagery (HDRI) was also recorded from multiple angles to generate a simulated render of what the CG robot would have looked like had it been filmed in real life. SWAY found that while animating the highly detailed 3D model of the robot, with all the detail necessary for HDTV resolution, visual interaction was solid and unshakable due to the extreme reliability of NVIDIA Quadro graphics.

SWAY also created the precise illusion of a water-filled LA River. To add the effects of moving water into the usually vacant Los Angeles River, SWAY perfected the look by studying the nuances of a real river and applying those observations to the CG water surface as multiple layers of procedural textures. To create these exact effects, SWAY used Nuke from D2 Software, high-end compositing software that utilizes the advanced features of Quadro graphics technology.

"When it comes to compositing with Nuke, NVIDIA is the only option," explains Glaser."Its Open-GL driver interface displays flawlessly on NVIDIA graphic cards. With other graphics board solutions, you can expect to have interface rendering problems, but that is not the case with NVIDIA Quadro graphics. The key is that NVIDIA delivers the best quality drivers - always stable and dependable."

"We use NVIDIA Quadro solutions for all our projects and are thrilled about the power of the latest NVIDIA GPUs-they generate an opportunity for us to be more creative and efficient in our work," continued Glaser."We get excited about faster CPUs, but what is truly exciting is the advancement NVIDIA is making with its GPUs, as this brings us closer to our vision of producing real-time photorealistic CG."