Editor’s note: This post is part of our “In the NVIDIA Studio” series, which celebrates featured artists, shares creative tips and tricks, and showcases how NVIDIA Studio technologies improve creative workflows. It also delves into the features, technologies, and resources of the new GeForce RTX GPUs and how they can dramatically accelerate content creation.
Every month, new creative apps will be updated and optimized using the NVIDIA Studio platform, enhancing the creative process with NVIDIA RTX and AI.
RTX-powered video editing app CyberLink PowerDirector now adds High Efficiency Video Encoding (HEVC) settings, 3D artists can take advantage of new features and faster workflows in Adobe Substance 3D Modeler and SideFX: Houdini, and content creators using Topaz Video AI Pro can now scale photo and video corrections at faster speeds with NVIDIA TensorRT acceleration.
The August Studio Driver can be installed via the NVIDIA app beta, a must-have for creators and gamers, keeping your GeForce RTX PC up to date with the latest NVIDIA drivers and technologies.
This week’s featured NVIDIA Studio artist, Stavros Liaskos, is using the NVIDIA Omniverse platform to build and connect Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD) apps to create physically accurate 3D digital replicas of Greek Orthodox churches, holy temples, monasteries, and other buildings.
Watch a replay of NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang’s SIGGRAPH firechat chat with WIRED senior writer Lauren Goode and Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to discover the latest breakthroughs in graphics and generative AI.
There are creative apps
The NVIDIA NVENC video encoder is built into every RTX graphics card, offloading the computationally intensive task of video encoding from the CPU to a dedicated portion of the GPU.
CyberLink PowerDirector, the popular video editing program that recently added support for RTX Video HDR, now has settings to boost HEVC in NVIDIA NVENC HEVC Ultra Quality mode.
The new feature reduces bit rates, improves encoding efficiency by 10%, and significantly improves video quality. With custom settings, content creators can provide a superior viewing experience for their audiences.
Alpha Export allows you to export HEVC videos with an alpha channel to add overlay effects to your videos. This technique allows you to create transparent backgrounds and quickly process animated overlays, making it ideal for creating social media content.
With the alpha channel, users can export HEVC video up to 8x faster and with 100x reduction in file size compared to run-length encoding supported by other processors.
Adobe Substance 3D Modeler, a multi-surface 3D sculpting tool for artists, virtual effects specialists, and designers, has released Block to Stock, an AI-powered, geometry-based feature that accelerates prototyping of complex shapes.
You can quickly replace a rough 3D shape with a similar, more detailed existing 3D model, resulting in highly detailed shapes in no time.
The recently released version 20.5 of SideFX: Houdini, a 3D procedural software for modeling, animation and lighting, brings NVIDIA OptiX 8 and NVIDIA’s Shader Execution Reordering feature to the Karma XPU renderer, powered exclusively by NVIDIA RTX GPUs.
These additions mean that compute-intensive tasks can now run up to 4x faster on RTX GPUs.
Topaz Video AI Pro, photo and video enhancing software for noise reduction, sharpening, and upscaling, now adds TensorRT acceleration for multi-GPU configurations, enabling parallelization across multiple GPUs for significantly improved rendering speeds. With two GPUs, it’s up to 2x faster than a single GPU system, and even faster on systems with additional GPUs.
An intriguing virtual cultural institution
Thanks to the immersive work of Stavros Liaskos, managing director of visual communications company Reyelise, anyone can now explore more than 30 Greek cultural sites in virtual reality.
“Many historical and religious sites are at risk due to environmental conditions, neglect and socio-political issues,” he said. “By creating detailed 3D replicas, we are helping to ensure that their architectural splendor is digitally preserved for future generations.”
Liaskos dedicated the project to his father, who passed away last year.
“He taught me the value of perseverance and instilled in me the belief that there is nothing I cannot achieve,” he said. “His wisdom and guidance continue to inspire me every day.”
Churches are architecturally complex structures, and to create a physically accurate 3D model of the church, Liaskos used Omniverse’s advanced real-time rendering capabilities in conjunction with a number of content creation apps.
The OpenUSD framework enabled a seamless workflow between the various apps Liaskos used: for example, after using a Trimble X7 for high-precision 3D scanning of the structure, Liaskos easily moved to Autodesk 3ds Max and Blender for modeling and animation.
They then used ZBrush to sculpt intricate architectural detail onto the model, then refined the texture using Adobe Photoshop and Substance 3D, all of which was integrated into Omniverse for real-time lighting and rendering.
For post-production work, like adding visual effects and compiling rendered scenes, Liaskos used OpenUSD to transfer his project to Adobe After Effects, where he finished the video output. Nearly every element of his creative workflow was accelerated by NVIDIA RTX A4500 GPUs.
Liaskos also explored developing an extended reality (XR) application that would allow users to interact with 3D projects in real time within virtual reality (VR).
First, laser scanning and photogrammetry were used to capture the church’s detailed shape and texture.
We then used Autodesk 3ds Max and Maxon ZBrush for retopology to ensure the model was optimized for real-time rendering without losing detail.
Liaskos used OpenUSD to import his XR scenes into NVIDIA Omniverse, then packaged them for streaming to a VR headset using the NVIDIA Omniverse Create XR spatial computing app or the Unity engine for an immersive viewing experience.
“This approach will allow the architectural beauty and cultural importance of these sites to become even more apparent,” Liaskos says. “To recreate the overwhelming and shocking sense of calm and safety one feels when visiting these deeply spiritual spaces, we need to make our simulation as good as possible.”
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