Interview with Autodesk’s Marc Petit About REALVIZ Acquisition

REALVIZ was a unique company, one of the first to solve and commercialize a range of outstanding visual effects tools ranging from panoramic Stitching to 3D Tracking. The fxguide founders actually visited REALVIZ about 2 years ago in its location just outside of Cannes, France. This visit cemented our opinion about the quality of the team and depth of their image research and development. The company’s contribution to the visual effects industry has been enormous, thus their future is of great importance to many in the industry.

The purchase of REALVIZ by Autodesk initially received some bad press – perhaps due to the online suspension of purchases via their website, or perhaps because of discussions suggesting a reduced product line. As reports have widely speculated about the future of these French developers, we approached Autodesk directly to set the record straight: would the French R&D team be leaving, would the original founders be moving on, and just what could we expect from the company formerly known as REALVIZ?

fxguide spoke with Marc Petit, SVP, of Autodesk Media & Entertainment about the the deal….

fxg: Autodesk has purchased REALVIZ. How did this come about, who approached who?

MP : We have been partners with REALVIZ since its inception and have been licensing various parts of their technology. The teams know each other very well and have immense respect for each other. Recently, we recognized the technology had reached a level of maturity that would benefit from being integrated into Autodesk products, while the REALVIZ products could benefit from Autodesk’s infrastructure. So the timing was right!

REALVIZ’s technology provides simple and efficient ways to bridge the real with the virtual, and combine the world of imaging with the world of 3D and visual effects. The technology is used in many of the industries that Autodesk serves, including architecture, film, broadcast and gaming.

fxg: Will the founders of REALVIZ be staying with the company?

MP :Yes, REALVIZ co-founders Dominique Pouliquen and Luc Robert have joined Autodesk, and we’re very happy to have them onboard! The talented REALVIZ team brings together great engineering skills and deep expertise in visual graphics and image processing. They have a proven track record of innovation. We are thrilled to have them with us – this was one of the important motivations behind the deal.

fxg: What does this change mean for REALVIZ customers?

MP :All kinds of good things!! Autodesk invests hundreds of millions of dollars in research and development each year, and offers international solutions and best-of-class distribution and support. REALVIZ customers will continue to receive online support as well as support through the REALVIZ website forums. Stitcher, ImageModeler and Movimento remain standalone products – R&D has remained uninterrupted on these products.

The REALVIZ products will enable Autodesk to make 3D technology more ubiquitous, through the creation of 3D models from simple 2D images, and by creating virtual environments from conventional photographs and films.

fxg: Have products been removed from the product line?

MP : Yes, some of REALVIZ’s products have been discontinued:
Stitcher Pro, Stitcher Unlimited DS, StoryViz, and REALVIZ hardware and software product bundles, also Student versions of ImageModeler and Stitcher. 

Matchmover, Retimer and VTour are no longer available as standalone products; core technology from these products may be integrated into future versions of Autodesk’s existing products.

We are continuing to develop and sell Stitcher Unlimited, Stitcher Express, ImageModeler and Movimento software as standalone products. Educational Institution versions of ImageModeler and Stitcher will also continue to be available.

fxg: Will R&D continue from France?

MP :Yes, there’s a strong R&D team in France that has become part of Autodesk’s R&D team. The team will benefit from Autodesk’s well established processes and have access to Autodesk’s resources and technology.

fxg: Will REALVIZ continue with a separate website?

MP :The REALVIZ website will continue to exist for a short period of time. The long-term plan is to migrate the product pages for Stitcher, ImageModeler and Movimento to Autodesk.com, and migrate tips, tricks, tutorials and community forums to The AREA, Autodesk’s online community portal.

fxg: What makes an educational copy of the software (on the website) an educational copy? Is it a full copy only sold to schools or is it functionally different?

MP :The education versions of the REALVIZ software are fully functional; however the license agreements differ between Education and Commercial versions of the software.

fxg: Is Autodesk staff excited to have the REALVIZ products in the Autodesk family?

MP :Absolutely! Numerous customers across many of our industries spend a lot of time seamlessly integrating 2D and 3D. For us, this technology was one of the missing links in several workflows. Automatically stitching images together to create panoramas or 360 environments is critical for photographers to create pictures that cannot be shot, e.g. large landscapes or small rooms, and is equally essential to create HDR spherical maps for CG applications in games or 3D rendering.

Understanding 3D from a set of 2D pictures is core for simple things such as measurements (for set design or renovation projects); extracting 3D models and textures is important for games, pre-vis and visual effects, but is also used to recreate existing buildings or even full digital cities.
Extracting accurate motion information from shots is the basis for matchmoving; now the technology also allows for very efficient and non-intrusive optical motion capture which is very efficient for facial animation or performance augmentation. By adding a couple of ancillary cameras to a shooting session, a lot more 3D can be extracted to ease and improve post-production!

We’re looking forward to seeing some of these technologies deeply integrated into your favorite products.