What’s Old is New Again

If it works, don’t fix it. That advice certainly saves time and, usually, money. But when your content’s out of date, or worse, the resolution of your original media is languishing in a murky VHS-quality haze, it’s never a bad idea for a complete overhaul.

For those mounting a museum exhibit featuring ancient artifacts, the challenge is a bit trickier. When the American Museum of Natural History renovated its permanent Hall of Human Origins recently, it used the most sophisticated lighting, construction and video technology its donors’ money could buy. The museum producers also employed a simple but ghostly visual projection effect dating back to the Victorian era, a holdover from an earlier version of the exhibit that never failed to pack them in. Why? Why not, the producers decided, especially if they could use the old effect to project hi-res video for more discerning 21st century eyes. Take the magic out of the exhibit, they figured, and you’re left with a high-tech but static experience that has no business highlighting the natural history of our shared world. Read more about how Tom Strodel and his team at 24fps Productions blended old and new for the museum on page 30.

Still, the pursuit of the new never goes out of style. The race to get quintessentially photo-real results has resulted in some truly amazing digital tools and even more amazing effects in films and television spots. SIGGRAPH 2007 will have plenty of examples on display. (And we’ve got a great tutorial on page 20 on how to save time with render passes in Maya 8.5.) I think, however, that the turn toward a simpler, illustrative style in motion work is a counter trend that deserves just as much fanfare as the blockbuster effects. Spots featuring this pen-and-ink, hand-colored collage style, blended with live action, have the graphic power of a one-shot magazine ad or poster but the precision and organic motion only the most powerful computer tools- in the right hands- can provide. It’s the perfect way to update a time-honored style, and a refreshing visual treat amid all the who-can-top-this pyrotechnics.

The folks at Rhinofx used this style to elegant effect in this month’s cover, which they designed for us in honor of SIGGRAPH. The design is based on an ad the studio originally created for Fidelity Investments. But the artists and animators at Rhino aren’t bound by this or any other design style and have produced everything from complicated 3D FX to character-driven animation. That’s the real secret to great design: adaptability. Find out how they make it work on page 44.