Colophon

VRML 2.0 Development

A little over a year ago, Silicon Graphics introduced WebSpace Navigator and brought 3D to the World Wide Web. When Moving Worlds was recognized as the standard for VRML 2.0 earlier this year, the potential to make environments on the Web more dynamic arrived. Hence, we decided to make VRML 2.0 the technical focus of Hot Mix 14.

We were fortunate to have the opportunity to collaborate with many talented people during this project. Sandeep Divekar, VRML advocate and CEO of 3Name3D was instrumental in getting this project off of the ground. Cindy Reed of 3Name3D designed and produced all of the VRML content. Creative vision was delivered by Jean-Francois Podevin and Larry Scher. Finally, this would not have been possible without the full commitment and support of the Silicon Graphics Cosmo engineering team, who worked directly with Cindy to provide multiple releases of Cosmo Create 3D and Cosmo Player throughout the project.

From the onset, our primary goal was to showcase what was possible with VRML 2.0. We had introduced VRML 1.0 with the Hot Mix Hotel on Volume 13, and learned a great deal from that experience. It was important to us to take Hot Mix 14 much further, especially with the announcement of Moving Worlds shortly before we started production. Additionally, we wanted to illustrate what could be done with Cosmo Create 3D, which was being developed throughout the production of this project.

Cindy Reed of 3Name 3D determined which VRML 2.0 features should be included and communicated them to artist Jean-Francois Podevin. J.F. then provided rough concepts for several scenes. Cindy evaluated what could be done with the concepts based on the VRML 2.0 spec, and with the current Cosmo software. The designs were then finalized by Cindy, J.F. and Larry Scher.

For the development of this project, Cindy started with the Wavefront modeler, and imported the 3D models into Cosmo Create 3D. She then developed the VRML primarily in Cosmo Create 3D. Testing of the VRML was done with Cosmo Player for Silicon Graphics and PC platforms. As new features were added to the Cosmo tools, more features were added to the designs. Cindy found it interesting to see Cosmo Create 3D "grow up" from a useful, but very limited program, to a really powerful content creation tool.

To experience the VRML 2.0 worlds on Hot Mix 14, we have included the beta 2 versions of Cosmo Player for Silicon Graphics and Windows. There may be newer versions available since the time that the CD's were pressed. These can be downloaded over the Web and can be found at http://vrml.sgi.com.

Where will we go from here? It's difficult to say, given the rate at which things are advancing. One thing is clear, 3D on the Web will become more pervasive as authoring and browsing tools improve, and we look forward to incorporating the latest advances into future Hot Mix releases.

Opening Animation

The Opening Animation featuring the new Hot Mix logo was designed and developed by Aylin Uysal, a designer in the creative group at Silicon Graphics. Aylin used Alias Power Animator on a Silicon Graphics Indy. The rendering was completed on an Indigo2 Impact.

Package Design and Production

The creative team of Amy Gregg and Jenifer Bailey worked closely with Aylin Uysal to integrate a fully rendered scene from the opening animation into the package design. In addition, screen shots of the VRML environments were incorporated.

How we make Hot Mix a cross-platform CD

The Hot Mix CD is cross-platform and can be read on PC's, Macs, as well as other UNIX platforms. This is made possible through the use of CDR Publisher (tm) from Creative Digital Research.