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Paavo Paavo
Although MFX has been delivering high-end imagery for over a decade, they are always on the lookout for new and better applications to help them stay at the top of their field. The last couple of years, since the founders of Illuminate Labs came for a visit, have been especially interesting for the company. Now, three years after our first contact, we caught up with Paavo Sjösten, head CG artist at MFX, to talk about how MFX uses Illuminate Labs’ Turtle in production.

Founded in 1995 by Mike Connor and Ulf Ziegler, MFX is based in Gothenburg Sweden. With their different backgrounds in traditional moviemaking and computer graphics, the two founders created a studio with a CGI department (formerly Studio Graphic) that could provide clients with outstanding imagery. The UK branch of the company, Motion FX UK, was started in order to support the commercial and feature work being done in Europe while MFX, Sweden concentrated their efforts on supporting manufacturing industries with technical visualizations as well as commercials, promotional films, and business to business films.


Illuminate Labs: Can you tell us how you got started in the CG effects business?


Paavo Sjösten: I read an article in a gaming magazine about the first 3D animation school in Sweden. This was around 1994, so 3D was not a big thing in Sweden at that point. One year later, there were around 300 applicants. They could only accept 10 and I got in!


IL: What influenced MFX's decision to deploy Turtle and how does it fit into your production pipeline?


PS: Well, we were a bit interested in the way Turtle could handle very large geometry and still be a very fast renderer. Next on the list, would be the flexibility and high image quality. Keep in mind that we produce a vast quantity of images from SD PAL to HD and that we create pictures that are over 15,000 pixels wide. Turtle can handle all of this pretty well.


IL: What rendering system features are the most important for the work MFX is currently involved in?


PS: Fast global illumination and final gather! It really rocks in Turtle 3! The speed of development, the new features, and the software support. Problems and bugs are usually solved within days.


IL: Can you tell us about the general rendering needs MFX faced during Koenigsegg production and how Turtle helped to address them?


PS: Quality and speed. It was a very short schedule, only a couple of weeks.


IL: Can you share any particular difficult or interesting rendering challenges that MFX has overcome lately?


PS: Well, I would say that moving from doing images in 2K to 4K all the way up to 15K in OpenEXR format could be considered interesting.


IL: Do you have any final comments regarding your experience with Turtle?


PS: Yes, but I’m going to go skiing now so that's going to have to wait for another time!


Last modified 2006-03-16