3D Visions for the New Millennium
Brendan Kavanagh, Senior Marketing Manager
Nichimen Graphics, Inc. (Los Angeles)

3D Vision for the new Millennium--Such a difficult question. We think you'll probably hear a variety of takes on a subject like this. At Nichimen Graphics, we have a fairly experienced brain trust trying to figure this question out every day. We definitely think we have the answer that most artists are looking for - something different. A completely new paradigm for addressing 3D.

Having achieved a prominent place in the minds of 3D artists over the last 10+ years (Nichimen acquired the once revered Symbolics technology several years ago), we get some pretty candid opinions about the state of 3D graphics software. The overriding sentiment is that people want a different way to work. They're frustrated by the technical limitations of most software products and see that it is often extremely difficult to migrate traditional artists into working directly on the computer. Artists want flexibility and power in a consistent, usable environment. They really haven't been given that. We think Mirai will change all that.

Nichimen's Mirai Interface

Being that feature sets and new technologies have been concentrated upon very heavily in recent years, it is now more important to stabilize those feature sets and develop flexible workflows around them. Most vendors seem to be in agreement on this subject and it is evident from the products being released. Most discussions we hear are less focused on feature lists than on the way artists work. Thankfully, Nichimen Graphics has been focusing on the way artists work for a long time. We've always made artists tools and we've been astute in basing our next-generation product, Mirai, on the tenets that artists employ in the real world - on a day-to-day level.

Integration is another important trend we are cognizant of at Nichimen. Many times, the biggest bottleneck in production is the transfer of data between packages. Studios spend endless amounts of money trying to integrate disparate packages. The more that can be done in a single environment, the better off artists are in the long run. For now, vendors are working more closely to talk to each other's packages, but we think everyone would like to see the day when their package can stand alone. We believe that Mirai is clearly headed in this direction.

In addition, we believe that most of the important developments in recent years have been focused on exploiting real-time content creation methods. With the advent of faster, more powerful machines and consoles like the highly touted Playstation II, the need for pre-rendered technologies is decreasing a bit.

Nichimen Graphics' long term commitment to real-time development and our involvement with the top game developers in the industry uniquely positions us to leverage these and other rapidly emerging trends. With a solid, dedicated and passionate software development team, many of whom hold Ph.D degrees, Nichimen is optimistic that 3D graphics software has strong potential to meet artists' most important demands - now and in the future.