This course aims to educate participants on the innovative integration of machine learning (ML) techniques for deformation approximation within Maya software. Using approximations for (part of) a deformation stack can highly improve interactivity when using complex rigs, and can significantly improve the portability between different applications. It is designed for animators, game developers, VFX artists, and any professional interested in exploring the intersection of ML and 3D animation. This course will explore a demo of a rig with computationally expensive muscle deformations that is reduced to a simple, general, black-box neural network that only requires inputs from the motion system. We'll show the entire setup process in detail. In addition, we'll go over best practices, tips, and limitations to help users get the most out of this tool for their production needs.

As technology continues to evolve, the intersection of 3D design and artificial intelligence (AI) presents exciting opportunities for innovation in content creation. In this session, we'll showcase experimentation with innovative techniques—namely, ComfyUI, ControlNet, and Stable Diffusion—to forge a future pipeline that seamlessly integrates 3D rendering with AI-driven processes. We'll outline a visionary approach toward empowering artists and streamlining the content creation process. By using advanced AI algorithms and data-driven insights, we aspire to give artists greater control over their creations as they enhance their efficiency and creativity while using Autodesk tools, specifically Maya and Arnold software. Our vision for the future pipeline revolves around achieving a seamless transition from 3D design to AI render, while empowering artists with unprecedented control over their creations.

In the fast-paced world of product design, there's a universal challenge to stay ahead of trends while efficiently bringing products to market. X-Rite has addressed this with innovative solutions benefiting automotive brands and industrial designers alike. The PANTORA application simplifies digital material creation, offering a standardized platform for storing and sharing complex material data to streamline design workflows. The AxF format ensures compatibility and collaboration across platforms. Join us to explore how PANTORA and AxF can transform your approach to material design and 3D visualization.

AI tech may get all the attention, but there isn't an AI solution for the critical workflows that architects need to tell the stories of their projects. Designers want visualizations that simultaneously capture a building's aesthetic complexity and the hard data points of energy efficiency, occupant movement, and traffic flow. AI isn't delivering, and Chaos is stepping up. Come see the latest tools for Revit users to conduct energy analysis, with results that can be generated and understood by everyone contributing to your Revit project. Then see how to easily assemble visualizations from across teams and creation tools into real-time explorations, with animations features that go far beyond what design tools are made to support. Learn how quickly you can bring design options to life with stunning ray-traced rendering, dynamic crowds of digital humans, and realistic vehicles traffic. Chaos will show how all of this is possible today for the casual users while meeting the demands of specialists.

The kids are all grown up! The gamer generation has entered the workforce and they are not afraid to push technology to the limits for fast, high-quality results. In this class, you will see how the Autodesk Media and Entertainment collection can take AEC storytelling, visualization and simulation to the next level. Additionally, we will explore game engine workflows to create immersive experiences that help projects get to a finished state faster. Join us!

Finding it tough to uncover the elements you want to see in Revit software? So much time is spent finding elements in your views that it can affect your ability to get work done. Through examples of common visibility problems, we can uncover the typical problems in a given view. This course will take you through the Revit Graphics hierarchy to explain the ways you can find and uncover elements throughout your model in a systematic way. Learn ways to uncover visibility issues in your model and change the behavior of the model editors and consultants for best-practice results. Understand how work sets, filters, line styles, view templates, links, and computer hardware like graphics cards can all make a difference in adjusting your model appearance. You will walk away from this course with the knowledge of how to adjust your views to see what you want with the minimal amount of troubleshooting required to save time, effort, and sanity.

Any building information modeling (BIM) software can be considered a game engine: it has geometry, data, and interaction. As a BIM manager, you want to design workflows that are easy for your team to follow, and be ready for a variety of exceptions. That's not too different from a game master designing a game logic for the player to follow. What are the rules? What's the outcome? What's the interface that helps players/users navigate your logic? How can you keep players/users engaged? How can you achieve all of this within the capacity/limitation of Revit software? This session will showcase a few games built entirely within Revit, as well as some efforts that gamify the work in the professional production of Ennead Architects.

Although the character-animation process has been largely digitized, the fundamental approach has remained relatively unchanged for more than a century. Animators create performances by creating key poses, which they then string together in a sequence to create motion. They continue to add and finesse these keyframes until they get a believable performance. In this presentation, we will demonstrate a new approach to character animation that uses AI to transform the way animators work. With neural motion controllers, we use machine learning to model how characters move and behave. An animator then only needs to specify high-level intent, like when and where they want the character to move, and the neural motion controller does the tedious work of producing natural, believable motion. We will also demonstrate that by connecting this new technique with core Autodesk capabilities, we can create a production-ready workflow where animators retain full artistic control over the final animation.

In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, workstations stand as pivotal tools that catalyze innovation and drive efficiency across a spectrum of industries. This presentation sheds light on recent innovations in workstations impacting the building design/construction, product manufacturing, and media and entertainment industries. Driven by the rapid implementation of new Autodesk tools and integrated add-ins, these industries are continually pushing the limits of computational requirements. In other words, the software "monster" that we have created (and love) needs to be properly fed. In this session we will discuss innovation in CPU, GPU, I/O, and workstation engineering that can benefit the complex 3D, VR, AI, and Reality Capture workflows.

Transformation across our industries continues at an extraordinary rate, fueled by the productivity and profitability gains businesses are experiencing as they embrace new technologies and new ways of working. In this session, senior leaders from our Media & Entertainment, Architecture, Engineering & Construction, and Design & Manufacturing businesses will share our vision for the future of our industries and stories of how customers are Making the Future by leveraging the power of Autodesk AI and our industry clouds. Sensory viewing space for General Session will be located in the AU Theater (6A).

Hear from a panel of technical visionaries as they explore the role of Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD) in fostering open data exchange—not just in media and entertainment, but across industries. From traditional filmmaking to virtual production, architecture, engineering, construction, automotive, and manufacturing, our team of experts will explore how USD opens the door for seamless connectivity and collaboration across large-scale 3D projects of all kinds. 

Autodesk Informed Design and Data Exchange are the platform technologies we use to connect plant design and construction, with the help of Autodesk Construction Cloud. It's never been so easy to share data and its configurations. Data Exchange makes it very easy to collaborate and share information in integrated factory modeling (IFM) within Autodesk software systems, but also with applications such as Tekla or SolidWorks. Autodesk Construction Cloud helps us store all information centrally and make it available to everyone involved in the project. Informed Design offers the possibility to provide configurations from Inventor software for various types of building equipment in Revit software as configurable families. This ensures that only predefined variants are installed and prevents cost-intensive special solutions. Last year, we talked about the possibilities of the beta versions. Now we would like to take a closer look at the solutions and share experiences from customer projects with you. It's going to be good!

Arcadis is a global architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) and infrastructure player with engineering teams working closely with visualization teams in Australia, Manila, Canada, and Romania. Since early 2019, Arcadis has provided traditional client-requested visualizations. As a leading AEC company and Autodesk Partner, Arcadis wanted to enhance its visualization capabilities through a new digital workflow integrating immersive worlds and mixed reality in its mobility business. The convergence of media and entertainment with the AEC industry through technology marks a transformative shift in both sectors. Traditionally distinct, these industries are increasingly finding common ground as they harness the power of advanced technologies to collaborate and innovate, and Autodesk is at the forefront of merging this technology to continue to deliver innovation to customers. This convergence continues to evolve and promise to redefine traditional boundaries and pave the way for innovation between these two industries.

Alliances and frameworks are increasingly key procurement vehicles to facilitate large-scale delivery with multiple contractors supporting the delivery of a common goal. We'll discuss how our experience of alliance and framework contracts has been enhanced through using the Autodesk Build software and the integration possibilities enabled by the open API Autodesk Build Service. We'll demonstrate how Autodesk Docs software enables contractors to share information, capture collaborative lessons learned, and use standardized details—and the program, cost, and quality benefits that this creates for clients. In this talk, we'll discuss transparency between contractors as well as the trust and confidence that Autodesk and OpenSpace can provide to clients. With one eye on the future, we'll also explore the potential game-changing impact that Autodesk Informed Design software could have on contractor collaboration through safe sharing of intellectual property in design.

Intangible heritage, globally, is under threat from aggressive urbanization and globalization, particularly in developing nations like Vietnam. To safeguard Vietnamese oral traditions, social practices, festive events, and childhood play, the project Play to Preserve the Past uses augmented reality (AR) to undertake a nuanced exploration of creative practice methodologies and considerations for creating immersive AR experiences. Central to this pursuit, the research endeavors to explore the question: How can creative practitioners harness the potentials of AR for seamless transmission of intangible cultural heritage?

Jason Martinsen is an animation industry professional with 18 years of animation experience at companies like Naughty Dog, Sony, Blue Sky, DNEG, Coalition, Moon Studios, and Reel FX. In this session, he will talk about some animation tips and tricks he’s learned throughout the years. He will gear the discussion toward animation professionals and students, and the topics covered will use terminology unfamiliar to non-animators.

In this class, we will get in-depth with the Sheet Set Manager and discuss and create sheets and sheet sets. We will learn about custom properties and how to use them to store huge amounts of reusable data. We will learn about sheet views and how to use them to make adding our design details to the plans a breeze. We will discuss how we can use the Sheet Set Manager as a lightweight project explorer to navigate all our projects’ design files. We will discuss and learn about labeling our sheets and sheet views. We will learn how to create blocks with predefined attributes that will fill in data from the sheet set automatically. We will learn how to quickly plot or publish individual or multiple sheets with minimal clicks. Lastly, we will learn how to organize our sheets with subsets or with selection sets to track additional stages in the design or construction processes.

Join Fernando Macedo—founder and COO of SPIRIT Animation Studios and creator of KARL's Animated Franchise—for an exclusive lecture that will unveil the challenging strategies behind creating a global franchise with more than 1 billion views. Whether you're a talented artist with big dreams or a business owner, this event promises invaluable insights that can catapult your venture to extraordinary heights. Since its debut at Disney Channel, KARL has evolved into a franchise with three seasons, spin-offs such as Karl Babies (season 2) and Ketchup Jack: A Villain Story (feature), games, and e-books—reaching audiences worldwide. Macedo will share knowledge about strategic brand development on how to craft a brand that resonates on a global scale; maximizing engagement across diverse platforms; and monetization strategies that ensure sustainable revenue. Macedo is a veteran industry leader frequently present at global pitchings. He was invited to be a juror at the 51st Annual Annie Awards, and was a speaker at SIGGRAPH Bogotá.

Maya software has recently added some significant new tools for character rigging and animation. These include Offset Parent Matrix, which creates an entirely new way to think about rigging characters. Understand how this feature works and how it can simplify rigs to make them both faster and easier to understand. In addition, new utility nodes such as UV Pin, Proximity Pin, and Rivet can help accelerate facial animation and other skinning tasks. Learn how to use these tools to create better rigs for your characters. Animation features include a brief tour of the new Maya Motion Library, along with a number of animation productivity enhancements, which can speed the animation process.

Exciting possibilities lie ahead in Media & Entertainment. Unprecedented demand for high production value content is ushering in a new era of technological innovation. In this session, M&E leaders will share more about Autodesk's Design & Make Platform, as well as the newly announced capabilities in Autodesk Flow, our industry cloud for media & entertainment. Learn about how you can join the Flow mission into the future of content production while leveraging the power of Autodesk AI and our core portfolio.