E3 2004 Coverage photos by Gary Fixler   PAGE 4

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NVidia Did Right By Me

I had my question answered about the NVidia 6 Series, which is the newest line of graphics cards. Their best won't fit in my ShuttleX PC (I have an SS51G, but only 1 due to my budget), but a version of their best will. Good enough! However, this is far from the coolest thing I saw at NVidia's booth... BTW, I would like a Frag Box. I'd convert my SS51G into the online box/creation station, and use that Frag for games and other multimedia. I could sit the Frag right on top of the one I have now, like a rack of bagel toasters. I like how this one has a handle, so you can use it like a weapon.

The Coolest Thing At NVidia's Booth

As Marc and I walked around the back of the NVidia booth, my robotically fixated mind instantly detected something robotic and/or animatronic protected in a small glass room. I zoomed in immediately to acquire more data.

With all the bright lights and glass, this turned out to be the hardest thing to photograph at the whole show, yet remained the thing I most wanted detailed photos of. I almost got into animatronics instead of computer animation. Animation is the lazy way out, because you can do everything from a computer setup. Still, animatronics, and robotics in general, hold a huge place in my heart.

I recognized a digital puppeteering harness, but still didn't know what I was looking at, besides a little piece of Heaven.

Backing up a bit, I noticed the flat panel with the info I was looking for. We were in the presence of Jim Henson's Creature Shop! Woo hoo! One of the friendly Hensonites came up, a nice guy who told me they were from the offices in Hollywood (I've been there once to help a friend drop off a demo reel), and he answered any questions I could come up with, which unfortunately amounted to about none, because I was still in shock. I love this kind of stuff. He told me where to stand for the best pictures, and that another demonstration would be starting in 5 minutes. YES!

Here's the facial animation station. The poles with the red stuff on them, and black rigging atop are things the puppeteers hands go in to work the face of whatever they're puppeteering.

The show started on schedule, with two puppeteers climbing into their controls. This puppeteer had control of all upper body movements, and a variable pedal on the floor for wing flaps. The character they were animating was none other than sponsor NVidia's computer sprite, Dawn!

Here's a blurry shot of the left forearm and hand controls, mid-movement. I couldn't get a non-blurry image of this, and the dirty glass made using a flash impossible.

Here are two of the best shots I got of the back of the Borg control suit. It was so neat how they broke up the control of Dawn. They had an area outside the booth with benches facing a screen with the live-action Dawn on it, being rendered in realtime by NVidia hardware, of course. The girl in the harness did all the wing flutters, shoulder shrugs, and head/arm movements, while the other girl worked a pedal to make the body lean, performed Dawn's voice through a headset microphone, and used every movement conceivable in both hands to actuate Dawn's ears, eyebrows, eye movements, blinks, nose wrinkles, and mouth shapes. It wasn't flawless, but it was insanely amazing. Her hands were moving as though one was Bruce Lee, and the other, Jet Li, yet out on the screen Dawn would move from an angry reading of a line to a joyful version, all facial muscles changing into the new emotion. Such wonderful muscle-memory in the hands of the face-puppeteer. They did some Simon says, played peek-a-boo, guessing games, and had audience members ask her to do things, and she was spot-on. The control in the two women working her was astounding. They didn't mess up the rapid-fire Simon Says once. Mentally, I kept screwing it up, playing along in my head. I just don't have the mental discipline to be a puppeteer...

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