V-RAY MAG 2015

2015 T N E D N E P INDE : S R E K A M FILM L E V E L T X THE NE G FEATURIN

ndays u S 's c i n a P t Pos go Kevin Mar David Levy

PLUS

o Victor Hug tudios S X X U L e Insid and more

Image Š David Levy

Image © David Levy

V-RAY MAG

2015

www.chaosgroup.com

Image © PostPanic

INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS: THE NEXT LEVEL POSTPANIC

P. 4

PostPanic Works on Sundays

DAVID LEVY

P. 6

How this concept artist dived in at the deep end of CG

KEVIN MARGO COVER IMAGE

P. 8

The creator of “CONSTRUCT” tells us about his revolutionary short film

David Levy

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

CENTERFOLD Marek Denko - Return to Prime Even

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V-RAY MAG

DIGITAL CANVAS: A CONVERSATION WITH VICTOR HUGO QUEIROZ

P. 12

Image © Important Looking Pirates

STUDIO TOUR

Image © Media Design School

STUDENT PROJECTS

LUXX STUDIOS

P. 14

HOME SWEET HOME

P. 26

MACKEVISION

P. 18

OVER THE MOON

P. 27

IMPORTANT LOOKING PIRATES

P. 20

WILDLIFE CROSSING!

P. 28

MORRO IMAGES & VFXBOX

P. 21

PAPERWORLD

P. 29

CHAOS GROUP LABS DIGITAL HUMAN LEAGUE

TUTORIAL P. 22

CREATING VICTOR HUGO'S NIGHTCRAWLER

P. 30

CONTENTS

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POSTPANIC WORKS ON SUNDAYS

By Trevor Hogg

As soon as it hit the Internet, Sundays (2015) became an instant viral sensation sparking a studio bidding war won by Warner Bros. The epic science fiction proof-of-concept short film revolves around Ben (Brian Petsos) who starts to recall his lost love Isabelle (Sofia Sisniega), which leads him to question the existence of the dark and crumbling world in which he lives. While appropriately wearing an Amsterdam beer T-shirt, I chatted via Skype with PostPanic co-owner Mischa Rozema (Stardust) and Visual Effects Supervisor Ivor Goldberg (Year Zero) about the evolution of the project that began half a decade ago for the Dutch film production company.

Images © PostPanic

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“I remember years ago working on another script that was too big for us to do at the time,” states Mischa Rozema who was going to direct the short film that explored societal behavior within the context of an imminent apocalypse. “If humanity knew the exact date when the world will end, how would it react to that? Without a social system, politics, and an economy, how would we deal with that world and what would that world look like?” The initial ideas resulted in the development of an alternative reality. “It was also going to be shot in Mexico. At the same time we got interest from Warner Bros. They were looking for directors and sent me loads of scripts but I didn’t like any of them.”

ROZEMA DECIDED TO FOCUS ON DEVELOPING HIS LABOR OF LOVE, WHICH CRYSTALIZED INTO SUNDAYS. “The post-apocalyptic thing has been stretched out of context. A long piece of the short is the dying of our world as we know it, but I needed to set the viewer in that kind of mood set. It’s a poetic ‘End of Days’ destruction. There are no screaming people or cars being lifted.”

Obvious cinematic comparisons for Sundays include The Matrix (1999) with its collapsing urban setting, and Inception (2010), which navigates dreamscape environments. “We’ve always been about making things grimy and dirty,” notes Ivor Goldberg when discussing the futuristic society.

“The machines come from the technology of our time which has been pushed forward so it’s not laser beams or thrusters or the typical sci-fi look.” The aesthetic had to be rooted in familiar elements. “We have to be able to connect with it so the funky flying helicopters are really old school Russian ones which we modified into something else,” explains Mischa Rozema, who is fascinated

by Mexico City with its Brutalist and ghetto architecture and population that is both very rich and very poor. “It’s a place where I can tell these stories that link to reality but border on the fantastic.

For me, as a Western filmmaker, to tell the same story in Amsterdam, Los Angeles or Toronto would be much less believable.”

Before the arrival of V-Ray, various renderers were utilized for their multiple strengths. “From a 3D point of view, almost all of Sundays was rendered with V-Ray. For us V-Ray is a complete

production-ready package, and in that sense it has replaced everything we used in Brazil and in Mental Ray,” remarks Ivor Goldberg.

“V-RAY REALLY ROCKED FOR US. NOT BECAUSE OF ALL OF THE AMAZING THINGS THAT IT DOES, BUT THE FACT THAT V-RAY DOESN’T GIVE YOU ANY PROBLEMS.” For example, the closing aerial mountain range shot, where the mountains slowly degrade to a low-poly landscape were all done in house with V-Ray. “It came together so fast from a displacement and rendering perspective. Originally, we were going to use projections and matte paintings which was the way we worked so much with other shots to be able to make it a faster process. But it ended up coming straight out of the renderer and into compositing. The beginning shot with the sun surface utilizes all of the displacement power of V-Ray. We had fun with it.”

Conducting principal photography in an urban home of 21 million people presented major logistical

problems. “We only had four to five days to do the whole shoot,” remarks Mischa Rozema, who filmed with RED Epic and Canon 5D cameras depending on the situation. “About half the time we were stuck in traffic in Mexico City.” Storyboarding was a huge asset in making sure that everything needed was captured.

“I love being meticulous and detailed in what you want as a director but I always leave a backdoor open. I want to leave 15 to 20 percent to making decisions while we’re there shooting. What we also did, which was a smart move, was to have a second crew carrying a 5D. Once I was in Mexico City it started talking to me. What can I use in the film? I need footage of this and portraits of people. Stuff happens. We were there during the Day of the Dead (a Mexican holiday) and we got some great footage just messing around.”

“Because so much of it was guerrilla-style we would have a butterfly green screen on standby which we would throw into the scene,” states Ivor Goldberg. “I had what I called my ‘bible’ with plans, solutions, what shots to get, etc., but despite the best planning, some things don’t work out when you get to a location.

SOME OF THE BIGGEST SHOTS WERE SHOT IN THE MOMENT QUICKLY OUT OF A CAR WINDOW WHILE DRIVING BETWEEN LOCATIONS .

Another example was shooting a rehearsal that ended up being the final take due to time constraints.

“Afterwards, we realized that the guys holding the green screen were walking with it. As the green screen at one point filled up the whole screen, it made the whole shot a nightmare. You couldn’t track it.”

“For a DOP, I chose Jon Gaute Espevold [Passion] who is Norwegian,” remarks Mischa Rozema. “I hadn’t worked with him but I have always admired his work. I could have chosen from lots of great Mexican DOPs. It was interesting because their work was fantastic but it was also the expected view of Mexico. I wanted this distant Scandinavian feel so I took a gamble on how that would work. It was a matter of very colorful versus a Northern European approach to the visuals.

A lot of the grading has been done with that choice in mind. I graded

for months while we were editing because it says a lot conceptually.

Reshoots were conducted to assist the visual effects work. “We had a lot of material,” observes Mischa Rozema. “I could make another one of these. We had to shoot some elements, like the fire that needed to be attached to the burning guy.

It was more about effects shoots than anything we had forgotten.”

The shot design continued after the principal photography. “I started off sketching on top of these stills that we made. “It was an important step between the sketch and the actual outcome.

In-between there was the concept art.” Sundays features extensive digital augmentation. “Once we came back from the shoot I'd write up my essential to-do list,” states Ivor Goldberg.

and sound engineers. “We had people doing it for love so that meant you couldn’t say to them, ‘I need this shot by next week,’” notes Ivor Goldberg. “They were doing it in their own time.” The effort paid off, with PostPanic being rewarded with a Hollywood studio deal which will see the science fiction concept expanded into a feature length film courtesy of Warner Bros. “This has been a chess game,” admits Mischa Rozema. “We were in Hollywood last year to get the lay of the land.

We had the two teasers out there, and our agents and management made appointments with studios that might be interested. We left with a good feeling. We went back again to see if people were still interested and it turned out within a couple of days the whole thing blew up.”

”THERE WERE OVER 100 VISUAL EFFECTS SHOTS FOR A 14 MINUTE FILM. IT WAS RIDICULOUS BUT AMAZING.“

"I can’t wait to get working on the feature. The story in the feature film will be different but it will definitely connect to the world in the short.

We’re going to try to make it even better” says Rozema, who is not too sure about developing a trilogy like The Matrix, whereas Ivor Goldberg muses, “Seven days a week, a franchise is just waiting!”

Public support was critical, such as the Kickstarter campaign that raised over $50,000 US for the principal photography, as well as volunteers who donated their artistic talents such as compositors

Learn more at: www.postpanic.com

INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS

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DAVID LEVY HOW THIS CONCEPT ARTIST DIVED IN AT THE DEEP END OF CG

by Henry Winchester

David Levy’s PLUG tells the story of a girl raised by robots who finds out that she’s not the last human on the planet. It achieves what many short films fail to do: confidently telling its own story with a tantalising peek at a bigger universe. Equally impressive is the fact that it feels like it’s made by someone with 20 years of filmmaking experience, even though it was actually Levy’s first time behind the camera.

“It all began at a coffee shop with a friend,” says Levy. “Co-writer Hatem Benabdallah and I were fantasizing about a sci-fi universe around croissants and coffee during brunch.

Then we decided to do a 30-second visual teaser, but the universe was so exciting that we decided to expand it. We ended up with a twenty-page script.”

Levy and Benabdallah were a dream team. Levy’s experience as a concept artist on TRON Legacy, Prometheus and Ender’s Game made him a natural choice for art direction, while Benabdallah’s background in effects for The Ring and The Weather Man meant that he could wear the VFX supervisor hat. However, a family issue caused Benabdallah to drop out and Levy was forced to take on his role.

Images © David Levy

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V-RAY MAG / INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS

Initially the task felt like too much for Levy. “At first, I simply gave up,” he explains. “I knew how much work, experience and knowledge working in VFX demands, and I thought I just did not have it in me. I kept walking by my Drobo hard drives and moping about it for months. It was as if every time, the Drobo was begging me to not abandon him. And so many people had supported me during the physical production; I felt I would have abandoned them too.”

Eventually, Levy came round to the idea of taking on the whole project himself. “I decided to put my job aside for a few months until I ran out of money, lift my sleeves, and pick up VFX for my indie sci-fi film!” The problem, though, was that he had little experience in creating effects - but he got by with a little help from his friends.

“Despite a lot of advice not to, I went with 3ds Max,” Levy says. “I come from videogames originally, and it’s the pipeline I know best. Ray Pena, co-owner of Moonlight Studios and a good friend of mine, prepared all the robot rigging and animation for me, so I just had to light, create shaders and render passes for the robot sequence.

I should also mention Torey Alvarez, who unknowingly became my first compositing teacher!”

EQUALLY IMPRESSIVE IS THE FACT THAT IT FEELS LIKE IT’S MADE BY SOMEONE WITH 20 YEARS OF FILMMAKING EXPERIENCE, EVEN THOUGH IT WAS ACTUALLY LEVY’S FIRST TIME BEHIND THE CAMERA.

Shooting the film was a literal breath of fresh air for Levy. For once, the deskbound concept designer was about to go outdoors and scout for locations, meet new people, learn new skills such as welding, and speed across the desert in a buggy. Of course, it wasn’t always easy, with frequent problems which needed quick decisions. Levy describes the experience as like trying to “sculpt a giant piece of jelly.”

When it came to rendering there was only one choice: V-Ray. “The camera system is perfectly identical to the still DSLR cameras I used to shoot PLUG,” Levy says. “I love how you can parameter them like real cameras and tweak details like shutter speed, aperture and ISOs in a very subtle manner. Also, the fact that I could tailor each scene to my ideal rendering time situation allowed me to have some of the shots rendered very fast, so I could test them right away in the edit.

And I love V-Ray for its reliability - there are no bad surprises and the online support for 3ds max is excellent.”

Levy’s got some big projects to complete concept work on at the moment: the next film in the TRON series, and the sequel to Avatar.

But he’s not ruling out a return to directing. “It took me many years to become a professional concept artist and I know that becoming a director will also take me years,” he says. “For the time being, I will keep financing my directing passion, with my other passion, concept art. And who knows, maybe one day I will find a way to combine them both…”

Learn more at: www.vyle-art.com https://vimeo.com/109873939

“BEING ABLE TO FOLLOW THROUGH AND FINISH IT IS MORE IMPORTANT TO ME THAN ANY MOVIE OR VIDEOGAME I HAVE EVER WORKED ON.”

Despite Levy’s struggles to get to grips with unfamiliar software and new processes, he still managed to create a stunning short film. “Being able to follow through and finish it is more important to me than any movie or videogame I have ever worked on,” he says. “I created a universe. That was my proudest moment.”

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KEVIN MARGO THE CREATOR OF “CONSTRUCT” TELLS US ABOUT HIS REVOLUTIONARY SHORT FILM

by Henry Winchester

Images © Kevin Margo

THIS SMALL FILM IS POWERED BY BIG IDEAS

To describe “CONSTRUCT” as a short film feels like a disservice. Yes, it’s a 10-minute tale of suspense and deception on an android-powered construction site - but it’s also a production that is pushing technology forwards. So far in fact, that the techniques employed promise to change how visual effects are produced forever. This small film is powered by big ideas.

“We’re rendering everything on the GPU,” explains Kevin Margo, “CONSTRUCT” creator. “For a production-quality short film, this method is unheard of. We’re also bringing real-time ray tracing into a motion capture setting, so that when the actors perform on stage, we can be filming them and see V-Ray path tracing inside MotionBuilder. This lets us visualize the performances on these digital models with the lighting and shading that V-Ray offers at interactive frame rates.”

This new way of visualization has the potential to revolutionize Hollywood. Even the most technophobic of directors can finally see almost exactly how an effects shot will look in the finished film, rather than having to wait months for postproduction. Without those hours waiting in the wings, the entire production cycle of effects-based films will change, adapting into a new normal that is faster and more efficient.

“Trumbull’s whole thing is, ‘How do you create the biggest, baddest, grandest theatre experience imaginable?’” explains Kevin.

“With modern technology he got really interested in seeing how you could take advantage of all this potential and turn it into a better cinema experience. He came up with a way of achieving 120 temporal samples for 60 frames per second per eye, so the viewing spec is 4K, 60 frames per second per eye in stereo.”

Termed MAGI, Trumbull’s tech proved a perfect fit for Kevin’s CG world of “CONSTRUCT”. Together, the pair collaborated on rendering the “CONSTRUCT” teaser to MAGI specifications - a feat, which would have been impossible without help from NVIDIA and Chaos Group. “It was an insane amount of pixels to render,” says Kevin.

“We did some math, and one minute of ‘CONSTRUCT’ at Doug’s MAGI spec is equivalent to 20 minutes of typical 2K mono feature film. It’s a lot of rendering - and GPU rendering is the only real way to achieve it. Using NVIDIA’s cluster, we rendered it in one week.”

Unsurprisingly it’s attracted the attention of Hollywood, which is ever eager to find more efficient pipelines. One of its biggest proponents has been Douglas Trumbull, the man responsible for the eye-popping optical and miniature effects in “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Blade Runner”.

INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS

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THIS NEW WAY OF VISUALIZATION HAS THE POTENTIAL TO REVOLUTIONIZE HOLLYWOOD The NVIDIA cluster was another key component in helping “CONSTRUCT” achieve its ambitious production goals.

The graphics chip company’s render farm consists of about 150 GPUs stored in a number of NVIDIA Visual Computing Appliances (VCAs), which are stored in a render farm in Santa Clarita, about 30 miles from Blur Studio’s headquarters in Culver City. Thanks to the wonders of broadband, distance wasn’t a limiting factor, enabling Margo to render "CONSTRUCT" live and on location.

“CONSTRUCT”, IT SEEMS, HAS BECOME A GO-TO TEST BED FOR CUTTING-EDGE INDUSTRY TECHNIQUES, BUT DESPITE ITS USE OF CLUSTER RENDERING TECHNIQUES AND ABSURDLY HIGH-PIXEL COUNTS, KEVIN’S NEVER LOST SIGHT OF ITS ORIGINAL CONCEPT.

“We were sending the updated data from MotionBuilder in real-time up to NVIDIA’s GPU farm, rendering those updates at 24 frames per second, and then streaming them back down to my virtual camera that I had in the motion capture volume,” Kevin explains. “There was probably a couple hundred milliseconds delay between the performer doing his thing and me seeing the movement on the virtual camera. It’s noticeable but not crippling.”

“It’s almost like, at the end of the day, it will be an afterthought of all this stuff,” he says.

“Not to diminish the short film itself, but it’s really opened my eyes to how much more possibility there is with GPU and cloud rendering.”

Kevin is confident that he’ll finally be able to put the finishing touches to the film soon, too, with seven-and-half minutes of the projected ten in the can. “Even with all this awesome render power, it’s still an immense undertaking that requires a lot of artist time and energy,” he explains. “This is kind of a side project - it’s a lot of friends’ nights and weekends outside of work doing their thing.

The process has been great and I’m looking forward to seeing where it takes us.”

Images © Kevin Margo

Learn more at: constructfilm.com

INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS 11

DIGITAL CANVAS:

A CONVERSATION WITH VICTOR HUGO QUEIROZ

by Trevor Hogg

“EVERYONE HAS SOMETHING TO LEARN. EVERYONE HAS SOMETHING TO TEACH.” After spending a long time working for studios in his homeland of Brazil, Victor Hugo Queiroz is pursuing a freelance career as a 3D artist / CG Generalist. The 28-year-old artistic talent is a strong believer in the idea that “Everyone has something to learn. Everyone has something to teach.” Recently, Trevor Hogg had a chat with Victor where they discussed his background, creative process, photorealism versus stylized animation, and his fascination with a certain superhero who struggled with his newly acquired powers…

“My mother was a great illustrator as a teenager but unfortunately she didn’t develop her skills,” notes Victor Hugo Queiroz who comes from a family of engineers and accountants. “My first contact with a 3D program happened when I was 13 years old. My dad gave me a 3ds Max trial version to ‘start creating those things you play on video games.’”

The native of Sao Paulo, Brazil received no formal training when it came to creating 3D art. “In my opinion, a great illustration is the one that you can’t exactly define which technique was applied, whether it's 2D or 3D digital, or traditional. It’s just pleasant to the eye."

ZBrush, 3ds Max, Photoshop, and V-Ray are the digital tools of choice for Victor.

“For me, the big deal about V-Ray is its versatility. I started my career working in arch-viz 10 years ago, and at that time people used to say, ‘If you’re doing archviz, go for V-Ray, but for characters you are going to have to change to Mental Ray.’ But I always liked how I could shift between realism and non-photorealism. That freedom of choice is what makes me love V-Ray. As I said, a great illustration is the one where you’re not tied to your technique. Sometimes I want something really realistic but with one object bouncing more color than the others.

“V-RAY GIVES ME THE FREEDOM TO DO THAT WITHOUT CARING IF IT’S 100% REAL OR NOT.” Images © Victor Hugo

12

As for his creative process, Queiroz tries to avoid using the general ‘stand pose’ in developing a new character design.

“I usually start with some background research such as motivations, backstory, and relationships.” A simple sketch is then sculpted with ZBrush to discover the proportions and overall look. After that, it’s just like what most artists do: retopology, detailing, texturing, and shading – but always looking at good reference material.

Queiroz has created a number of gorgeous magazine covers, which isn't as easy to achieve as you might think. “Covers can be tricky, since you’re not only dealing with an impactful illustration, but you have to take care with the magazine title, text and other things that will be added after your work is finished. It is helpful to have a look at previous editions.”

As for inspiration, “most of my favorite artists are 2D artists, like Skottie Young, Cory Lofits, Lois Van Baarle [Loish], Serge Biraut, and Goro Fujita among many others. I admire some other 3D artists like Carlos Ortega Elizalde and Alessandro Baldasseroni. I don’t have a favorite animator, but I have a strong passion for the stylized look of Japanese Anime,” notes Queiroz. “I used to work with photorealism in advertising for almost seven years. It was a great experience, and I improved my shading/lighting skills. But when it comes to photorealistic characters, I’m not sure if it’s something that I want to do. Not that I don’t like it. It’s awesome and really challenging, but I’m looking to develop my own style, with that cartoony approach.

This is what I love and what drives me to create new pieces.”

In addition to anime, Queiroz is a fan of Marvel comics. When asked what superhero he'd like to animate, he expressed his interest in the teenager behind the mask of a certain web slinger.

“I would love to create something based on Peter Parker’s early years and his having to deal with the fact that he's a superhero on top of the problems of being a teenager.

People forget that he became Spidey when he was 15 years old.” Selecting a favorite comic is difficult for Victor, “I always liked teams more than solo heroes, like X-Men

and Avengers, although right now my favorite is the new Spider-Man: Miles Morales."

As for him feeling any creative connection to the French author responsible for The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables, Victor Hugo Queiroz chuckles, “Maybe at most we share a passion for art.

Victor Hugo was a brilliant writer who wrote stories that will be remembered forever.” The Internet has revolutionized the ability for artists to promote themselves. “Today, with the rise of social media, it’s pretty easy to get your work featured somewhere and having a lot of praise. Don’t let your ego consume the passion that drives you. If you do something just to get likes, dude, you’re in the wrong place."

“IF YOU DO SOMETHING BECAUSE YOU LOVE IT, YOU WILL PUSH YOURSELF TO ALWAYS BE BETTER AT IT. AS YOU IMPROVE, PEOPLE WILL START TO NOTICE YOUR WORK. WHEN PEOPLE NOTICE IT, THEY WILL START TO HIRE YOU TO DO THAT. DO IT FOR LOVE. THE REST IS PURE CONSEQUENCE.” Learn more at: vitorugo.com

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PRIZES THU ticket+ Flight Plan and lodging+ Much more

submissions from 4 march until 20 may more info at challenge.cgsociety.org/thu2015

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V-RAY MAG / ARTIST SPOTLIGHT 13

FROM THE WHITE HOUSE TO THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

Images © LUXX Studios

A CONVERSATION WITH ANDREA BLOCK AND CHRISTIAN HAAS, FOUNDERS OF LUXX STUDIOS

by Henry Winchester

14 V-RAY MAG

White House Down

Grand Budapest Hotel

Manou the Swift

Washington, DC. Three helicopters swoop majestically over the city, bank past the Capitol, and cause ripples in the Reflecting Pool as they approach the Washington Monument. These atmospheric scenes, created

by German effects company LUXX Studios, are the beginning moments of Roland Emmerich’s 2012 movie “White House Down”. For co-founder Andrea Block seeing them at the film’s premiere was emotional. “I was moved to tears when I saw our imagery on the big screen,” she says. “It’s one thing to see something on a small screen, but when it’s up there in its final form, you see how much the hard work has paid off.”

“Grand Budapest Hotel”, LUXX’s next Hollywood project, couldn’t have been further removed from Emmerich’s presidential adventure, both physically and in terms of tone and style. The team was asked to create effects for Wes Anderson’s Central European caper, but initially the project ran into a clash of cultures.

Through working with Hollywood talent, LUXX Studios has achieved what most visual effects companies can only dream of, but Haas and Block are aware of the precarious nature of the industry. With more teams competing for work than ever before, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Block met fellow visual effects artist Christian Haas at Germany’s prestigious Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, near Stuttgart. After stints freelancing for the country’s various visual effects houses, the pair formed their own company in 2006 to create effects for historic dramas. They broke onto the big screen with their recreations of 1930s German stadiums for the 2009 boxing biopic “Max Schmeling”. The success of that project, led to an effects request from the producers of “White House Down”.

“When they first asked for some bidding, we thought they were just checking out the prices in Germany, we never thought that they would consider working with us,” says Block. “They did, and here we are. “For us it proved that our work was comparable to not just the rest of the market, but the rest of the world. It was super exciting to be on such a movie.”

At first LUXX’s task was simple: to create the CG helicopters for background plates being shot around Washington DC. But when the production team was refused permission to shoot around the securityconscious capital, the brief was upped considerably.

“They wanted a full-CG environment of Washington,” says Haas. “We had to think about it, since our team was quite small for this project and it was a very short amount of time. But we finally agreed.”

Despite their trepidation, LUXX’s first big Hollywood project ran smoothly. White House Down's visual effects supervisors – Volker Engel and Marc Weigert – had prevised everything in a simple, yet extensive form in 3ds Max. LUXX Studios had to fill in the rest, taking on the creation of Washington’s key buildings and areas, such as the Lincoln Memorial, The Mall and part of the Capitol. There was very little back and forth, and the team even found it had time at the end to add a few extra layers of polish.

Luxx’s pipeline consists of 3ds Max with V-Ray, and NUKE for compositing, with lots of commercial plugins on hand for specific needs. The company has a small in-house pipeline development team which Haas describes as “shotgun, but tailor-made for our needs.” Nevertheless, the company picked up important working practices from its involvement with a well-oiled Hollywood machine. “We learned a lot, from better naming conventions to new structures for AAA projects.” says Haas. “It was a valuable experience.”

“Anderson asked for some beautiful matte paintings of the mountains, with the observatory,” says Block.

“To start with, we just tried to make it look like it was real; a lot of lighting, a lot of volumetric things to go with the snow and fog. We were proud of it. But he just sent it back with a note like, ‘No. We are not doing anything like Roland Emmerich. We are doing a Wes Anderson movie.’”

The effects company came around to Anderson’s lofi aesthetic, embracing the director's distinctive mix of stop motion, scale models, digital mattes and set extensions even when it proved challenging. They even managed to incorporate some effects without the director noticing.

“Wes Anderson is not a big fan of 3D; he likes his models,” says Haas. “We had the downhill racing sequence, where they shot real models ten feet tall in studios, running across them with the camera. They put some bluescreen behind them, but the bluescreen wasn’t high enough, so we had models over the top, which were very difficult to extract. After a while we decided that we’d rebuild the whole forest area in 3D. We think that Wes Anderson didn’t recognise that in the final movie, but there’s no real footage anymore - it’s all our 3D!”

IF PULLING ONE OVER ON ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST RESPECTED DIRECTORS WASN’T ENOUGH, LUXX STUDIOS WAS OVER THE MOON WHEN THE FILM PICKED UP AN OSCAR FOR BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN.

LUXX’s solution is one that’s becoming more common in the industry. “In 2012 we founded our second company, LUXX Film,” says Haas. “It’s a production company which creates and produces both visual effects and animated movies.

“WE RECENTLY DEVELOPED OUR VERY OWN STORY, AND WE ARE RIGHT ON THE PRE-PRODUCTION OF OUR FIRST MOVIE, ‘MANOU THE SWIFT’.”

“We wanted to be part of the process of which story is being told with our effects and our animation. We wanted to make it a subject which is really worth telling, and also we wanted the effects to be part of the story, that way they cannot be cut out” says Block.

“This way we get complete control, and in the end, when it makes a profit, we get more out of it than we would if we were just doing the visual effects work.”

Of course, it’s not entirely about money – it’s about creating a piece of work which will elicit a similar response in Block to seeing those choppers navigate the Washington skyline in “White House Down”.

“As LUXX is in Europe, it’s very hard to get hold of the huge budget that Pixar or DreamWorks has for producing an animation movie,” she says. “But we want to show that we are up to that level, and that we can tell thrilling stories, too.”

Learn more at: www.luxx-studios.com

“We were very happy with the win, since production design has to do with the look and the artistic imagery of the whole movie," says Block. “For that, we feel that we at least have a little bit - like the toe - of the Oscar due to our work.”

Chaos Group is a proud sponsor of the 2015 ARCHITECTURAL 3D AWARDS in the student category.

2014 WINNER Henlly Mo Chongquing University China

3dawards.cgarchitect.com

STUDIO TOUR 15

Image Š Marek Denko

MAREK DENKO Return to Prime Even Software: 3ds Max, V-Ray marekdenko.net

Image Š Marek Denko

V-RAY MAG / CENTERFOLD

MACKEVISION

by Annette Parks

IN THE WORLD OF CG, THE EMMY AWARD WINNING GROUP MACKEVISION HAS TRULY DONE IT ALL . FROM THEIR BEGINNINGS IN GLOSSY ADVERTISING, TO THEIR WORK IN POPULAR TV SERIES AND FEATURE FILMS, THEY HAVE PROVED THAT THEY CAN PRETTY MUCH DO IT ALL, AND MAKE IT LOOK EXTREMELY GOOD.

Considered to be a global market leader in computer generated imagery, they design and produce high-end 3D visualizations, animations, and visual effects for interactive applications, images, and films.

While producing images, Mackevision also focuses on imagining and developing technological solutions for generating images. The group takes care of the entire CGI process, offering their diverse clients a data-based visualization solution that produces remarkable results.

Popularly known for their automotive work, you will also recognize the amazing visual effects that Mackevision has created for the television show Game of Thrones. With over 330 specialists, Mackevision caters to clients around the globe, creating computergenerated realism that is combined with visual effects and live sequences.

Constantly riding the edge of what is technically feasible, they seek to create images that are remarkably realistic. Even though perfection is seemingly unattainable, it is the goal of Mackevision’s team, and they’re coming as close as possible. Using software such as V-Ray, their visual effects are increasingly a vital presence in movies, TV series, and ultra-lux commercials.

When it comes to creating digital environments that literally jump off the screen, Mackevision is leading the way.

Learn more at: www.mackevision.com

Images © Mackevision

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STUDIO TOUR 19

IMPORTANT LOOKING PIRATES

by Annette Parks

Featuring one of the most talented and inspired visual effects and digital animation teams in the business, ILP uses the latest technology and techniques for their work in commercials, TV, film, web, games, and print. Located in central Stockholm, ILP is a team of artists that is driven by passion and always seeking new innovations, and with their VES-nominated TV show, Crossbones, they’re proving to the world that their stunning visual effects are at the cutting edge of what’s possible.

WITH OVER 100 SHOTS AND SIX STUNNING EPISODES, CROSSBONES COMES TO LIFE WITH BEAUTIFULLY RENDERED DIGITAL SHIPS AND FULL CG ENVIRONMENTS THAT MELD SEAMLESSLY WITH LIVE ACTION. From concept to storyboard, through visual effects and post production, ILP was able to create a high volume of shots in a cost effective way. Undertaking animation of a 500 frame cycle of five different hero ships with remarkable cloth simulation, water simulation, different wind directions, and a passionate crew on hand, Crossbones is now an example of the perfect marriage between live action and stunning digital effects. We interviewed the leaders of ILP on our popular CG Garage podcast to learn more about how technology such as V-Ray helps them to make their process easier, cost effective, and more visually brilliant. By creating some of the most visually realistic and exciting high seas in recent memory, the remarkable NBC hit show is enchanting a nation.

Learn more at: goo.gl/lGcsuc ilpvfx.com

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Images © Important Looking Pirates

MORRO IMAGES & VFXBOX

by Annette Parks

Images © Morro Images & VFXbox

WITH THE HELP OF V-RAY FOR MAYA, THE CREATIVE TEAM IS CREATING GROUNDBREAKING SHADING, LIGHTING AND RENDERING ON THEIR FANCIFUL PROJECT “SERENA & THE ENCHANTED ISLAND.” Specializing in creating 3D/CGI full length animated features, Morro Images develop their own proprietary tools with international advisers from Pixar, DreamWorks, Blue Sky, and ILM contributing to their creation. With these state-of-the-arttools, Morro Images, together with VFXbox, a studio specialized on FX and fluid simulations, are able to make innovations in key processes like cloth, hair and character rigging, taking hyper-realism to a whole new level. With the help of V-Ray for Maya, the creative team is creating groundbreaking shading, lighting and rendering on their fanciful project “Serena & The Enchanted Island.” Set in mystical Venice, the story resembles Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and follows the curious, loving, young Serena whose imaginative world comes to life with stunning visual clarity and whimsicality. The first original REX/Morro princess, Serena is brought to life by Morro Images & VFXbox for an entertaining and educational experience the whole family can enjoy.

With projects like “Serena & The Enchanted Island”, the studios prove that they are devoted to improving production processes and pipeline.

Even with constrictions on time and budget, the artistic team reaches the highest quality standards for not only visual excellence but also quality content engineered to enchant. It’s only by using the quality tools that they create, and the innovative software that they employ, that Morro Images & VFXbox are able to reach new heights in their field.

Learn more at: www.morroimages.com www.vfxbox.de

STUDIO TOUR 21

DIGITAL HUMAN LEAGUE CHRISTOPHER NICHOLS TALKS ABOUT THE CREATION OF BELIEVABLE DIGITAL HUMANS

MATHIEU AERNI Studies of a digital Paul Debevec Work in Progress

CHRISTOPHER NICHOLS Chaos Group Labs

“THE FORMATION OF THE DIGITAL HUMAN LEAGUE STEMMED FROM SOMETHING A LOT OF ARTISTS AND DEVELOPERS HAVE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO: THE CREATION OF BELIEVABLE DIGITAL HUMANS. AS WE STARTED TO INVESTIGATE, WE SAW AN OPPORTUNITY TO FORM A GROUP OF PEOPLE THAT SHARED IN THIS INTEREST AND WERE PURSUING THE SAME GOAL, BUT FROM DIFFERENTDISCIPLINES AND PERSPECTIVES.”

Traditionally the challenges and problems surrounding digital humans have been tackled by individuals (people or companies) with little knowledge shared across the board. It became clear that once we formed the Digital Human League – a group made up of artists, developers, scientists, and academics – everyone had a different perspective on the challenges and tackled them differently from each other.

THE FORMATION OF THE GROUP WAS A WAY TO OPEN UP THE DIALOGUE, AND START REVEALING NEW CHALLENGES AND IDEAS.

We wanted to start acting on these ideas, so we started the Wikihuman Project.

The idea behind this project is that we could explore these challenges together, feed off each other’s individual strengths and see if we could better understand the field. In doing so, we hoped to remove as many of the emotional barriers that surround the issues of digital humans as we could. Right now, there are conflicting ideas of how to even approach this issue, which makes finding the right balance between art and science extremely important. We wanted to find this balance and then share our results.

ICT CAPTURE SESSION Emily O’Brien on the lightstage at the Institute of Creative Technology

V-RAY MAG / CHAOS GROUP LABS 23

NICK GAUL ›› Portrait

LUC BÉGIN Work in Progress

It was important to us that any data we acquired from real human scans was as high quality and objective as possible. We wanted to create a better understanding of what that data was, as well as the proper way to use that data. By doing this, we could eliminate the need for interpretation when none should be used. Once we collect the data, we will be sharing it with the community so that anyone that wants to explore, study, or even contribute to the discussion, can do so.

As many of you are aware, one of the most challenging aspects that DHL will be facing is the subject of the Uncanny Valley. It’s complex, but the basic idea is that when digital humans look too close to humans, but aren’t close enough, they actually create a very negative emotional reaction in the viewer.

Besides trying to overcome this negative effect, the DHL would like to study what causes this effect, what triggers it, and how different people interpret the problem itself.

LUKÁŠ HAJKA Eye studies of digital humans

AMONG THE MANY CHALLENGES THAT WE WANT TO TACKLE ARE THE DIFFERENT WAYS WE CAN ACQUIRE AND USE DATA FOR DIGITAL HUMANS, AND THE DIFFERENT WAYS OF USING THAT DATA THROUGH MODELS, TEXTURES AND SHADERS. ALSO, HOW DETAILS AFFECT REALISM AND DIFFERENT WAYS OF PRODUCING ANIMATION FROM THE DATA.

In the end, the Wikihuman Project is not simply a way to recreate another digital human, but more of an opportunity to understand what makes a synthetic human look and feel more human. We look forward to sharing what we find.

DAN ROARTY Self Portait Work in Progress

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Learn more at: www.wikihuman.org

Special thanks to our partners at HP for their support with FMX 2015

CHAOS GROUP LABS 25

HOME SWEET HOME A Sweet Tale of Friendship and Loss

by Angelina Penkova

Interview with Stéphane Paccolat, Graduate of MOPA (Supinfocom Arles)

Students from the French school Supinfocom Arles created a touching graduate project that has won multiple awards in top festivals.

Supinfocom Arles students Pierre Clenet, Alejandro Diaz, Romain Mazevet and Stéphane Paccolat created an extraordinary story with amazing computer graphics for their graduation project “Home Sweet Home”. The film was named Best Animated Short at the SIGGRAPH 2014 Computer Animation Festival and has helped its artists put the crafts they learned at university into practice.

The 10-minute short tells the story of a house, set in a decaying, abandoned small town, that uproots itself trying to escape its demolition, heading off into the unknown while inspiring others to join along. The ideas of friendship, travel and death are the basic themes of the short, and the team aimed to create a simple, yet touching story to channel a remarkably impactful message.

A Team Effort

care of the narration, the layout and staging as well as creating the different animatics and sound design for the movie. Everyone helped the other team members at all times as this small team had to accomplish the incredibly challenging task of delivering a high-quality, powerful animation in a short amount of time.

Developing a compelling storyline while dealing with technical challenges Developing the storyline was one of the hardest tasks. Usually student movies from Supinfocom are 5 to 7 minutes long. However, this movie was 10 minutes long and could have been longer if the team hadn't trimmed it.

THE CHALLENGE WAS TO TRY TO KEEP THE MOVIE SHORT WHILE KEEPING THE BEST IDEAS, AND MANAGING TO CREATE A CREDIBLE BOND BETWEEN THE TWO HOUSES AND THE VIEWER. IT WASN'T ALWAYS SIMPLE TO NARRATE EFFICIENTLY. Technically, the team faced challenges with the huge number of parts the houses were made of.

“You are not used to so many objects being part of a character. Especially for the animation which had to be imported from Maya to 3ds Max. We also had some trouble with the GI but managed to get away with it thanks to the frame blending integrated into V-Ray and some help from NUKE,” Stéphane shares.

Another tricky aspect was the fur on the old houses.

Pierre spent a lot of time stylizing it and getting the right painted look but since it used opacity maps it took a long time to render. Luckily, Supinfocom Arles had acquired a render farm, so the team took advantage of it for the longer renderings.

“WE WANTED THE LOOK OF THE MOVIE TO HAVE A PAINTED FEELING BUT ALSO TO REACT REALISTICALLY TO LIGHT. IF YOU TAKE THE FUR OF THE OLD HOUSE AS AN EXAMPLE, IT IS CONSTITUTED OF RANDOM STROKES OF BRUSHES BUT IS ALSO SCATTERING LIGHT WHEN THE SUN'S SHINING THROUGH IT. FOR THAT USE, V-RAY WAS QUITE USEFUL.”

Great Education Makes Great Professionals Unsurprisingly, the school had a decisive role in shaping the skillset of everyone involved. During the first two years students sharpen their artistic background and learn the basics of 3D. In the third year they make their first short movie and during the fourth year they go further in the 3D field and specialize in animation, 3D or directing.

The team behind "Home Sweet Home" came together almost as a matter of coincidence. As Stéphane recalls, “during the fourth year of studies we all select a specialization. The team had to have someone from each specialization stream. Romain and Pierre were from the 3D stream, Alejandro from animation, and I focused on directing. We all had the same desire to create an adventure movie with lots of emotions and a beautiful artistic style. So the team formed itself quite naturally.”

“SUPINFOCOM ARLES WAS AN AMAZING PLACE TO STUDY AT. AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THE SCHOOL IS THAT IT PUTS A LOT OF EMPHASIS ON DIRECTING SKILLS.”

THE TEAM DREW INSPIRATION FROM CLASSIC MOVIES LIKE SCARECROW AND EASY RIDER AS WELL AS ANIMATED FILMS LIKE UP. THEY ALSO TOOK A LOT REFERENCES FROM DETROIT AND ITS URBAN CRISIS.

Stéphane’s advice to all aspiring young artists is: “Don't be too proud, be open-minded and remind yourself that you are not alone doing the movie. A lot of work can go to waste just because of lack of communication. You shouldn't take criticism as a personal offense but as a new point of view and a way to improve and to become a better artist.”

Pierre was in charge of the whole movie pipeline, Romain was in charge of the texturing and modeling, and Alejandro took care of rigging as well as half of the animation. He also did a lot of matte painting and character design. Stéphane took

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Having won international awards, the team was really thankful for gaining so much recognition.

Since the film was screened in a lot of studios, this helped the young artists to attract the attention of multiple recruiters who had seen it.

Learn more at: vimeo.com/113868429 Images © MOPA (Supinfocom Arles)

HOME SWEET HOME QUICK FACTS We used 3ds Max for the layout, the animatic and the staging.

ZBrush was used for modeling MARI for texturing using a set of brushes to give a painted look to objects.

Maya was used for the animation because its referencing system was quite powerful to begin animating at an early stage of the production. The animation was then imported into 3ds Max for the lighting and rendering with V-Ray. V-Ray was the main rendering tool. We wanted an engine capable of fast ray tracing and handling a lot of polygons as well as giving us enough tools to tweak the shaders and lighting so that we could get the look we were aiming for.

After Effects was the main compositing software since we used a lot of its motion graphic tools to animate the painted backgrounds, but we also used NUKE a bit to remove noise and flicking.

We used Photoshop to paint over static background for extra details and get back some of the painted feeling into the picture.

JAMES CUNNINGHAM IS A DIRECTOR OF OVER A DOZEN AWARD-WINNING SHORT FILMS. HE HAS MORE THAN TEN YEARS OF INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE INCLUDING WORK ON 'LORD OF THE RINGS, FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING'. CUNNINGHAM CONTINUES TO BE INVOLVED IN ANIMATED SHORTS AS THE INSTRUCTOR OF THE 3D ANIMATION COURSE AT AUCKLAND’S MEDIA DESIGN SCHOOL. AMONG HIS GOALS IS MAKING SURE THE WORK OF STUDENTS WINS INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION. Images © Media Design School

Media Design School is

OVER THE MOON About Their Most Ambitious Student Project

by Angelina Penkova

A Q&A with James Cunningham, award-winning director and teacher at Media Design School.

Award-winning director James Cunningham, with the talented visual effects students at Auckland's Media Design School, brought The Comic Book Factory heroine Connie Radar and her bumbling sidekick Julius to life for the intergalactic comedy, “Over the Moon”.

"Over the Moon" seems to be Media Design School's most ambitious project to date, and the delightful short grabbed the Jury Prize at Siggraph Asia late last year.

During the shoot the professional crew of camera operators, actors, costume makers and makeup artists numbered 14, with two local professionals brought in to work on the final sound and music elements. A total of fifteen students worked tirelessly on the set, performing many art department tasks and helping with lighting and sound recording. Numerous students also handled post production elements in class.

As a teacher at Media Design School how many graduation projects have you supervised and do you notice any difference between students as you observe different “generations” of graduates?

There have been nine projects I have supervised in my 5 years at the school. They are all quite different and were custom created for each class, but some

OVER THE MOON QUICK FACTS Modeling was a mix of Maya and ZBrush depending on the asset.

Texturing is done in MARI. Rigging and animation in Maya.

Lighting using V-Ray for Maya. V-Ray was responsible for all our rendering and physically accurate lighting.

The edit and online was managed in HIERO. Tracking was done in Syntheyes or NUKE.

that have found the biggest audiences or resonated with people the best were ‘Das Tub’, ‘Rotting Hill’ and ‘Shelved’. Rotting Hill is by far the most successful online. It has nearly 1.5 million plays.

Each class does seem different but the biggest difference is the numbers of students in each class.

Now that we are teaching degrees the numbers are larger and the skills developed. In turn we keep lifting the bar on quality and complexity.

How did you come up with the concept of ‘Over the Moon’? What was your inspiration?

This was based on a comic series by a New Zealand comic artist Karl Wills, called 'Connie Radar'. Connie is a superhero and her super power is her brain.

She created her long suffering robot Julius and they have many adventures together. In this case Karl had three panels of Connie and Julius that were not part of a story, just her firing a gun out the window of her spaceship, and then yelling at Julius. Those panels inspired the question what are they firing at the Americans and the Apollo 11.

What was harder for the team in ‘Over the Moon’ – to develop the storyline or the technical aspects of the project?

For me the story is always a hard one. In this case Karl and I started months before the students started production. We came up with an entire other script that we threw away after 3 months.

However, for the students the hardest things were the technical challenges.

What challenges did you face during the project?

The biggest challenges were creating the moon scape terrain - that fine dust and matching it back to the NASA photography, the lighting on the moon with a pure black sky and a harsh point of sunlight.

The lighting and GI took some time to refine, animating over the actors and then tracking the actor heads back into the CGI astronaut suits - that was not easy.

I remember the day the trailers for Gravity come out, which was halfway through our production.

We all groaned and knew we have to lift the quality of our CGI astronauts. It was lots of fun going to rent the guns for the shoot. A guy I know rents them out for films and has hundreds of weapons of all sorts. We used a couple of replicas but they look

completely real on camera.

DURING PRODUCTION I CAME UP WITH A SYSTEM OF TRACKING SHOTS USING CARDS. THE UNEXPECTED SPIN OFF FROM THIS WAS AN IMMENSE SENSE OF SATISFACTION FOR THE STUDENTS WHEN THEY HANDED IN A CARD TO FINAL A SHOT. BIG CHEERS ALL AROUND THE ROOM! How does education at Media Design School help students master both technical and artistic skills?

Which classes are most useful for students?

If you come to Media Design School to learn about animation and visual effects the course of study is planned for you, so the whole degree is the most useful. We do focus a lot on the technical as this industry does require a solid technical understanding of the theory and processes so you can keep learning and adapting as you move into industry. However, we make sure across all the years that as students are learning they are given chances to express their creativity. I have always felt the best artists in this industry are the ones who can solve problems (technical) and can make pretty pictures (artistic).

Several of the students who worked on ‘Over the Moon’ were hired at Weta Digital where they worked on the last of ‘The Hobbit’ trilogy. In what way do graduation projects help students land their dream jobs?

The feedback from employers, including Weta, on our graduates is that they adapt the best to the challenges of industry. They have been through a production, experienced a real pipeline and understand how it all goes together.

What’s your advice to anyone who aspires to work in digital arts?

It is a great industry to get into but make sure you are passionate about it. Look beyond the obvious dreams of being a modeler and texture artist.

THERE ARE SO MANY ROLES IN THE PROCESS, SO BROADEN YOUR SCOPE AND LOOK INTO LIGHTING, DYNAMICS, FUR...

LOOK AT WHAT OTHER SKILLS YOU HAVE AND SEE HOW THEY APPLY. Learn more at: https://vimeo.com/108943364

Dynamics was a mix of Maya or Houdini, depending on the complexity of the shot.

STUDENT PROJECTS 27

Interview with David Tousek, Founder of ANOMALIA Labs

ATTENTION: WILDLIFE CROSSING!

by Angelina Penkova

Images © ANOMALIA Labs

The charming town of Litomyšl in the Czech Republic hosts a one-of-a-kind animation school where young talents experiment with innovative approaches and learn from industry-leading artists to create engaging and fun animation. Anomalia Labs founder David Tousek shares the team’s experience with their latest project Wildlife Crossing.

An animation community in the heart of Europe 3BOHEMIANS is a Prague-based animation production studio established 10 years ago out of passion for modern animated films and cross-media projects. The studio’s founders spoke with local schools about new technologies and animation techniques, but hit a wall when the schools refused to adopt digital animation as part of their curriculum. In response, 3BOHEMIANS established ANOMALIA to encourage professionalism, artistic growth, and learning opportunities in the animation field. Founder David Tousek shares, “To our understanding, ANOMALIA is currently the only major organized platform that tries to address working professionals and experienced artists in the entire European Union, because our summer event takes 3 months and is purely exercise based.“

7 YEARS LATER ANOMALIA HAS EVOLVED INTO A RECOGNIZED SUMMER EVENT, WHICH FOCUSES ON LEARNING AND SHARING ADVANCED CG ANIMATION KNOWLEDGE WITH ARTISTS WHO WANT TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP TOWARDS BECOMING ADVANCED PROFESSIONAL ANIMATORS.

Creating a funny action short A total of 58 animation artists participated in the creation of ANOMALIA’s latest student project - a funny action short film named "Wildlife Crossing". The author and film director Noro Držiak found inspiration during a bus ride in the Czech countryside, where he noticed a “Wildlife Crossing!” sign next to a frog on the road. “We wanted to make a funny action short film and turn it into a learning experience, so this sounded like a direction we wanted to explore further. Our storyboard artist Matouš Liesler teamed up with the director and quickly prepared a storyboard. From then on we stayed loyal to the original concept to the very end, and updated only the storytelling fashion as dramaturges shared their feedback with us,” Tousek recalls.

Learning from the best For this project, ANOMALIA attracted a number of animation professionals, including Anthony Wong from PIXAR, who arrived in Litomyšl to manage the team of animators onsite. Keith Lango from VALVE helped with scripting pipeline tools for generating sequences inside of Maya. Josh Carey from REEL FX was the main rigging supervisor and his fellow

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colleagues from Rigging Do Jo put together a team of riggers as part of their training course.

THERE WERE 20 YOUNG PROFESSIONAL ANIMATORS WITH VARIOUS LEVELS OF EXPERIENCE AND TALENT SEEKING A NEW PRODUCTION EXPERIENCE, AND WORKING TOGETHER WITH PIXAR’S ANTHONY WONG REALLY TURNED THE EXPERIENCE INTO SOMETHING SPECIAL. ANOMALIA wanted to explore the talents of young artists with little experience and challenge them.

There were 3 concept artists for whom this was their very first experience designing for a CG film, and several top CG artists from the Czech Republic who took care of the 3D modeling, lighting and rendering tasks, and turned the final product into a beautiful color film.

“We spent five months preparing all the assets, story and scenes for the animators. The animation took two weeks of hard work and we also decided to clean up some shots and added some new shots to the sequences after we were about 95% finished.”

The finishing touches took about three weeks with five animators collaborating online.

The lighting, rendering and compositing stages went smoothly thanks to the talented artist Jan Jinda, whom Tousek labels as a CG Guru. “Jan had prepared the lighting and compositing pipeline in advance, so when we handed the shots to him, he had the entire logic figured out, pipeline set, and extra scripts written to ease the production as much as possible. He was able to do the lighting rendering - compositing as a one man show, while the rest of us helped manage the render farm, do animation caching, art direction and give feedback.

There were times where we gave ourselves more time than initially expected but the overall goal was to produce it under a year.“

“V-RAY WAS OUR LIGHTING AND RENDERING ENGINE FOR THIS PROJECT. IT WAS USED IN MAYA TO SET UP THE LIGHTING SCHEME, AND RENDERING USING V-RAY STANDALONE WITH THE UBERWARE SMEDGE RENDERING MANAGER. V-RAY WAS VERY IMPORTANT AND PLAYED A KEY ROLE FOR THE FINAL LOOK, IN COMBINATION WITH NUKE. MICHAL MOCŇÁK WORKED WITH COLORING IN DAVINCI RESOLVE. EXPORTING INTO V-RAY STANDALONE PROVED TO BE PARTICULARLY USEFUL WITH EXPORTING LARGE SCENES AS ONE PACKAGE.”

Finding the balance There are always artistic challenges and technical complications one has to deal with in animation production, and "Wildlife Crossing" was no exception. One of the main challenges was to keep up with time. David says that at one point it became

a guerrilla-style warfare as the team had to provide the director enough time to control the story and manage other important aspects of the production.

“There were some key people on the team who took this short film as their opportunity to shine and grew tougher with the film both personally, as strong professionals, as well as earning a valuable production and team experience.”

Teaming-up young artists with experienced veterans is the key to the success of ANOMALIA’s training course. Tousek thinks that technical skills are not the only skills professionals pass on to young artists. Finding the delicate balance between deadlines, differences in opinions, and keeping the story engaging are the intangible assets that veterans teach trainees during the 3 months of summer animation madness.

AS ANTHONY WONG POINTED OUT ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS, EVERY TIME YOU ARE MOVING FORWARD FROM ONE STAGE TO ANOTHER, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, BEATS CAN BE LOST WHEN A FILM GOES FROM STORYBOARDS TO ANIMATION, ESPECIALLY THE JOKES. SO WE WERE TRYING TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF IDEAS AND COMPLEXITY TO WHAT WE THOUGHT WAS NECESSARY TO TELL THE STORY, YET ALSO BE ABLE TO PRODUCE IT UNDER ONE YEAR MAINLY TO ANIMATE IT IN TWO WEEKS. THIS IS ALWAYS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE. Learn more: www.wildlifecrossing.eu labs.anomalia.eu

WILDLIFE CROSSING QUICK FACTS Autodesk Maya The Foundry MODO, MARI, NUKE Pixologic ZBrush V-Ray Uberware Smedge Avid Media Composer Blackmagic Da Vinci Resolve Pose Library (a free Maya script for saving character poses and animations) The team also scripted their own pipeline tools to make repetitive tasks work automatically, such as animation caching, and worked with Keith Lango to use his tool for generating a layout for sequences and exporting individual animation scenes for animators.

Images © MOME

PAPER WORLD Interview with Laszlo Ruska and David Ringeisen, Graduates of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME)

by Angelina Penkova

A story about the delicate balance of nature, Paper World won the Jury Award at SIGGRAPH 2014 and a gold medal at the New York Festival.

Your final student project is the most daunting. It’s your last opportunity while in school to catch the attention of festivals in the student category and hopefully kick-start your career. Laszlo Ruska’s and David Ringeisen’s graduation project Paper World not only achieved these goals but also managed to attract international viewership. The two graduates of the Budapest-based Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) approached the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) in Hungary and proposed to create an imaginativ film about the delicate relationship between the human environment and the natural world.

“WE DECIDED AT AN EARLY STAGE OF PRE PRODUCTION, THAT WE’D LIKE TO MAKE A GRADUATION FILM THAT COULD REACH AUDIENCES BEYOND ANIMATION FESTIVALS. THEREFORE, WE DECIDED TO GO FOR A COMMISSIONED FILM AND APPROACHED WWF HUNGARY WITH OUR IDEAS.” Luckily the WWF was quite supportive and gave Laszlo and David a lot of freedom in terms of story and design. The students saw this as a great opportunity to experiment creatively, while keeping in mind the objectives for a film about raising awareness. While striving for novel content and look, they emphasized the goals of the organization, and its key message.

Paper World is a journey through a world of visual metaphors communicating WWF’s pivotal messages.

The motif of folded paper animals was part of the concept at the earliest stages. “It was an obvious

LASZLO RUSKA Co-Director of Paper World in charge of Editing, Layouting, Shader setup, and Post-Production Supervision.

DAVID RINGEISEN

choice to grant a leading dramatic role to paper; it’s a material that is used in many shapes and sizes, easy to fold, bend, cut and crumple, it can be strong but at the same time very vulnerable,” Laszlo says. “All in all it felt like a great metaphor for nature around us. We put the keyboards aside and started brainstorming by folding, cutting and burning animal figures. From those ideas we roughly built the story arc. Along with it came the idea to have the setting be a single desktop, as it would be a familiar environment for all, something we could relate to, while it could also symbolize the entire world in itself.“ One of the major challenges was to visualize the traits of real life paper in CG. The characters were very simple hard-edge models, that were cut at the most important joints for the sake of animation.

Nonetheless, some tricks had to be used at those parts: the rigs basically moved rigid segments, while making deformations only at the most inevitable places. Thus the team could achieve an optimal balance between the rigid look that came from character design and the practical requirements of realistic character animation.

Most of the production part took place at the university, Laszlo and David used very basic models due to resource limitations. The details were coming from normal maps that were baked from high res sculpts. They also had similar issues while finetuning shaders and textures.

“HOW COULD WE ACHIEVE A CONVINCING ‘PAPERISH’ LOOK WHILE SAVING RESOURCES? IT TURNED OUT VRAY2SIDED MATERIAL COULD DO THE TRICK. IT WAS A CONVINCINGLY FAST AND EASY WAY TO IMITATE PAPER’S CHARACTERISTICS.” The team chose V-Ray because of its quick and easy solutions to set up photorealistic scenes. Global Illumination was used generally with Irradiance map and Brute force. “Vray2Sided material along with Blend was also a great addition. Not to mention VFB which is an amazingly handy feature, with which we could manage and modify lighting and shading quite interactively. We also utilized some of the available passes, amongst others Velocity and Z-depth were a must,” David shares.

courses and visited art camps. I went to an Arts High School, where I studied various art techniques. The interest for animation also dates back then, when I had the chance to try traditional animation,” Laszlo says and David adds: “My passion for arts comes all the way from kindergarden I think. I was an introverted child with a vivid imagination so I piled up huge mountains of drawings during the years.”

Their university education at MOME seems to have played the decisive roles for both young talents.

David shares, “During my years at MOME I went through a strange unconscious transformation that I only realize now as I look back on my studies. When I was admitted to MOME, on one hand I was involved in traditional arts: drawing, painting etc. and on the other hand I was a self-taught 3D artist, aiming to produce ‘professional’ stuff. Or so I thought! Then in the first years I completely turned away from CG only to submerge in traditional animation techniques, classic film craft and storytelling.”

“LATER, DURING MY MASTER YEARS CG SLOWLY CRAWLED BACK BUT WITH A DIFFERENCE. IT WASN’T THE PURPOSE ANY MORE, BUT ONLY THE MEANS OF EXPRESSION, A TOOL TO CREATE SOMETHING, THAT IS BEYOND THE TECHNICAL BRAVADO.” Paper World has brought different dimensions of success to its creators but most importantly it managed to convey the message that any project inspired by a true cause can win the hearts and minds of the audience.

Learn more at: www.facebook.com/paperworldfilm

A great passion for arts combined with relevant education seems to have worked the magic for both Laszlo and David. “During Primary School I joined art

co-director of Paper World in charge of Art Direction, Cinematography and Project Management.

STUDENT PROJECTS 29

CREATING VICTOR HUGO'S NIGHTCRAWLER FOLLOW ALONG AS WE RECREATE VICTOR HUGO'S VERSION OF NIGHTCRAWLER USING V-RAY 3.0.

In the process of creating this character, we'll start with a sketch and end with the finished render following these steps: modeling, lighting, hair styling, shader creation, and render setup.

Special thanks to Victor Hugo for contributing his Nightcrawler scene for V-Ray training and tutorials.

1. CONCEPT The first step is to come up with your idea. Theme, colors and expression are all part of the concept.

Victor Hugo's Nightcrawler is based on Randy Bishop's sketch.

2. MODEL Use sculpting software to create a low-poly model from scratch. Because of the great amount of polys and the triangulation in these programs, it's good to retopologize and extract a Displacement Map and Normals Map from the highest level. These maps add fine details to the lowest geometry level that will be used in the scene.

3. COMPOSITION When creating a render,it helps to think like a photographer. Pick your lens, position and shooting distance just as if you were holding camera in your hands. All of the details will contribute to the portrait and will help you get the right expression.

To easily separate the foreground from the background you'll need the right lens and aperture.

4. LIGHTS You've got your lens and you're in position. Now we establish the lighting. Every light has a specific purpose, lighting ratio, lighting pattern, facial view etc. all of which contribute to the end result. Three different types of lights are used in this scene for key, rim, and fill lights (plane, sphere, dome). The difference in the intensity and the color of the lights make the subject smoother and emphasize the mimic. Have you noticed the bright spot in the eyes?

It is known as "catchlight" and is used to add life and realism.

5. STYLING To make impressive hair, it helps to study how it looks in real life. V-Ray RT will help you get instant feedback while modifying and styling the hair.

Add different lengths, frizz and clustering for best results.

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6. SHADERS

7. RENDERING SETUP

Shading skin, hair, and other body parts is easily achieved with V-Ray 3.0.

With V-Ray 3.0, you don't need to worry about settings and subdivisions.

Use the Progressive Image Sampler to easily set it up. With V-Ray Frame Buffer you can save the progress of your work in the History and compare the results.

You can even make different types of color corrections and save them for future use and reference.

The new VRaySkin Material has three basic layers. Set all values to 0, except for the shallow one. First, plug the texture for the shallow look and adjust the radius of the hardness. Next, plug the texture for the medium part of the skin and adjust the value and the radius. Then, adjust the value and the color of the deep tissue. Finally, you need to set the reflection layer.

Rendering hair is now faster and more memory efficient with the VRayHair Material.

8. RENDER ELEMENTS Using render elements can be extremely helpful for compositing the render with post production tools. It gives you flexibility and lets you easily experiment with the overall look of the image.

See you at SIGGRAPH 2015

www.v-ray.com