Winner of Innovator of the Year at the 2022 AU Excellence Awards and an active contributor to the Bifrost community since its inception, we're so happy to introduce Maxime Jeanmougin as the latest member of Autodesk's Bifrost software development team! Whether it's serving as a mod on the Bifrost Addicts Discord or developing and distributing free tools to streamline production for other artists, Jeanmougin is always thinking about ways to improve the artist's experience, and we couldn't be more excited to have him on the development team.
We recently chatted with Jeanmougin to learn more about his time at Platinum Games, his journey with visual programming languages, and his efforts to create a more accessible Bifrost for all. Check out our conversation below, only on AREA.
Maxime: Hello, my name is Maxime Jeanmougin. I'm French and 31 years old. I've been living in Japan for four years and recently joined Autodesk as a Software Development Engineer on the Bifrost team. I work to help bring to life all the features that are on our internal roadmap. I'll also communicate with artists as much as possible to get feedback, answer questions, confirm bugs, and log tickets. But the central part of my job would be software development.
Before joining Autodesk, you were a Technical Artist at Platinum Games in Japan. Can you tell us a bit about your experience in the games industry?
Maxime: Yeah, I spent three-and-a-half years at Platinum Games. It was an absolutely amazing experience. I helped the production by providing new tools to artists and designing new workflows. I made scripts to automate some hair generation for characters. I also created new simulation tools, like a game-focused hair simulation solver built entirely in Bifrost. I also made some fake rigid body dynamics tools for us in Bifrost. At GDC last year, I presented a procedural game-building toolset, which lets other artists make buildings procedurally by connecting high-level Bifrost nodes together.
You've been working with Bifrost since the beta in 2018. What first drew you to learning Bifrost, and how do you think led you to where you are now working as a developer?
Maxime: Yeah, so I would have to go back a while ago. I started learning 3D at ARIES Lyon, a computer graphics school in Lyon. I spent two years there learning how to be a 3D generalist. After that, I didn't start working as a freelancer because I wanted to push my knowledge further and find a niche in the 3D medium I would like to work on. I was experimenting with software. I learned particle effects in 3ds Max, so I did quite a lot of rendering back then.
Then in 2013, I discovered ICE, which was a very popular visual programming environment. When I first started, it was a revelation to me. You have this visual programming environment in your hands, and without actually knowing how to do programming, you can sort of make tools by manipulating data. I gained a lot of experience there, just playing around and trying to understand the toolset, and eventually, I started to build my own small tools. But then, in 2015, the Softimage license ended. I didn't know what to do because I had already been deep into this software and liked it very much.
At this point, I discovered Fabric Engine, another visual programming environment. I continued learning 3D technical skills and some programming logic, but this time through Fabric Engine. I also made some tools there, like facial rigging tools, rigging solvers, and rigging components. I did that for a few years while also beginning to do some freelancing. But at this point, I was still doing 3D generalist tasks. Around 2017, Apple acquired Fabric, so the software disappeared from the web. At this point, I didn't know what to do. First, it happened with Softimage, and now it's happened again. So I was like, "Ahhh, should I learn Houdini? Should I learn actual programming like C++ or something?" But then I remembered that Autodesk was rumored to be working on an ICE port soon to be in Maya. I tried to get in touch with Bifrost's original product manager back then. I sent him an email like: "I'm really interested in testing the Bifrost visual programming environment. I think I could be useful to the beta."
A few weeks later, he granted me access to it! Since then, I've used Bifrost every day. From day one, it was an absolute pleasure to work with it. It also reminded me quite a lot of both Fabric Engine and ICE. Bifrost is something that combines the best of both worlds.
I started by converting the tools I had already made in other software but in Bifrost. I also made quite a lot of new tools. Eventually, I built my own compound library, which is now public and operates on the web – the MJCG Compound Library. There are many tools, from low-level nodes to ones that manipulate RAs or generate IV growth or venation. There are also some quick rigging solvers, geometry modeling, and more.
You're not just making these tools for yourself; you're also making them publicly available. Why is it important for you to make these kinds of resources and tools available to other people for free?
Maxime: Everything inside the MJCG Compound Library is made in my free time and for my own pleasure. I wanted to create something new. The biggest project in there was probably the Ivy Generator. I spent quite a lot of time on that, and it was just for my pleasure, you know? I was already doing the research. "How does this work? How should things be implemented? How should it be interfaced for users in Bifrost?" Just thinking about it is quite a pleasure. Once you start to have your prototype working, you can polish it, publish the compound, put it on the web, and everyone can use it. Everyone can try to grow IV by loading the compound, importing this geometry, and pressing play.
What do you think sets Bifrost apart from the other environments you used to use?
Maxime: That's a good question. Well, the good thing about Bifrost is that it followed the same path as the Fabric Engine in that it's built around the compiler. Everything you do in Bifrost is actually code that gets compiled, which means that whatever you make depends on what implementation you choose to do, but it will run really fast, almost as fast as standard C++ code. To me, it's the most important thing because I value performance a lot.
Another thing that is quite interesting about Bifrost is that it's flexible, but at the same time, it's still quite artist-friendly. The UI also has many programming-related features designed to make life easier for artists—for example, auto-ports and compounds. The user doesn't have to worry about what kind of data they should plug in since the component allows them to plug things without worrying too much about defining types everywhere. You also have auto-looping, so you don't have to create a loop compound yourself. Instead, you plug it into the node, and Bifrost does the operation for you. There are several features like this, which I have always found interesting about the visual programming environment.
What are you most excited about for the future of Bifrost and contributing to its development?
Maxime: I'm looking forward to integrating Bifrost even deeper into Maya as part of the Maya integration and keep creating new programmer- or artist-related tools. I also hope to make Bifrost more accessible to people who are still a bit afraid to use it. They may think it is still quite technical, but I hope I can change the mind of these users. I'm also looking forward to adding more tools inside of our libraries and shipping them so that everybody can make great things in Bifrost. As long as Bifrost helps them achieve what they want to do, this is all I care about.
*This interview was been edited and condensed for clarity
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