THE RENDER WARS A look at multiple render engines
ANIMATION FOR TRAINING
Benefits of training with animation
A NEW DIRECTION An inspiring story of an animation student
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contents October - December 2017
Cover Art Model & background by: Sergey Nivens Art license obtained at: stock.adobe.com
Cover Stories 28 | A New Direction
An inspiring look at the struggles and victories of a 3D animation student, from a destructive past to a life of purpose and hope.
40 | The Render Wars
An in depth look at multiple render engines and their strengths and weaknesses.
58 | Animation for Training
The benefits of using animation for training.
14 Projects 54 | Contre Temps
22 | Twisted Mind
14 | Garden Party
62 | Realtime vs VR
A short film of a post apocalyptic world and the surprise one man finds. A touching tale of the meeting of two character by Lucas Veber.
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Insights
A behind the scenes look at the making of a 3D mystery short film. An mystery backdrop hidden in nature, wrapped in a love story.
Inside the twisted mind of an Indie game developer, Marc Florestant gives a brief snapshot of what makes him do what he does. VR technology is taking stage when business want to give clients a tour, but is it the best way?
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50 | Glen Keane
A short interview with Glen Keane and tips for new animators.
12 | AJet-100
Concept jet art by concept artist Lee Rosario.
34 | Tempest
An inspirational story of a sailer reflecting upon a life of loss and regret. A bold new project from Brazen Animation.
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Model created by Lee Rosario Lee is an industrial design major based out of Orlando, Florida with a passion for concept transportation design in the fields of land and aeronautical vehicles. http://leerosario.com Inspired by classic and modern airliner designs, the AJet-100 is an all electric concept private and commercial airliner that proposes to take advantage of emerging and developing high output battery technologies and slowly move away from traditional aviation fueled designs. Moving to an all electric platform ensures minimal environmental impact, unprecedented quiet flight and total imersion in the flight experience. The AJet proposed features include: • • • •
Rolls Royce high output electric engines powered by a variation of advanced solar and lithium battery technologies. Ultra light and durable composite plastics and metals for superior power-to-weight ratio. Projection technologies used to project real-time outside video or preloaded video into fuselage floor. Advanced aerodynamic design for improved battery efficiency.
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Garden Party The Making Of
By Victor Caire Garden Party is about frogs running around in a deserted villa, turning into detectives in spite of them being driven by their primary instinct. The idea was inspired by a short that Gabi had released 2 years ago, called Locked up, where two toads are trying to swallow a fly in a stream. We liked the carefree and fabulesque style of the story and we wanted to take it further by mixing genres. The team federated early around the animal world and realistic issues. We loved this vision of the animal’s life, how it comes into perspective with ours. Animals are more innocent, simpler and more direct, making it a strong subject for a film. Amphibians correspond quite well to this primitive aspect, their stiffness and fairly binary behavior, which makes them inherently comic. http://mc3dmag.com
We wanted to put it all in value, and the idea of the crime scene in a double narrative was a very interesting way to create strong contrast and fun at the same time, blending lightness and tension. By immersing these toads in a human environment, we had a great opportunity to mix both worlds and create truly original images. Transforming these amphibians in a kind of witness to a crime they did not realize was the project’s main idea. It is through their adventures in this huge villa that we gradually understand that something strange happened. This double narrative was a major challenge of the film. It forced us to study the detective and thriller aspects, which we did not know very well. We had to figure out how to manage the tension, suspense, rhythm, but keeping the frogs as our guiding thread of the story. The idea was to succeed in portraying the owner by visiting his house and exploring his world, his privacy, and keep it in the background throughout history. http://mc3dmag.com
We had a great time with movie shots, which allowed for the film to be stronger and symbolic, and easier to read. The wealth and human greed displayed in the setting offered a nice contrast to the animal world, which has a different vision of life and it brings a reflection to the film. Another issue from the scenario was the recognition of the characters. We spent a lot of time searching the protagonist’s appearances and distinct personalities, not to lose the viewer between the two adventures, at the same time bring rhythm to the story. We had this unexpected couple between a toad and a beautiful frog, a little fabulesque, the yellow frog, more childlike, more nervous hunting a butterfly, and this big toad who was fat and greedy. We tried to represent major themes as seduction, gluttony, or childhood, to translate something timeless in the narration. Switching from one character to another, changing rooms and atmosphere was always difficult, and it took a lot of work in storyboard and previz for smooth playback of the film to take the viewer into the story. The pre-production work was long and hard before finding the perfect vantage point between nature documentary and movie clichÊ, to have a solid structure. The previz played an important role in the transition from drawing to 3D. It is a period of the project where you have to be careful about not losing the intention at the time to lay the layout, the first 3D camera. It is also a useful step to test rigs and begin to shape the workflow for the rest of the production. PICTURE We knew that the pictures would be the biggest challenge of the film. It took a lot of time to create sets with details to get rich images. The macro effect to translate the scale of amphibians has allowed us to guide the work on the details by locating in specific areas. The very low depth of field was a precious key in both aesthetic and technical ways. We started collecting references. We shot a lot of gardens, pools, positioning the camera on the ground, to increase awareness of the scale. We also recovered from internet videos of interior villa to learn from this kind of architecture. We even installed 2 vivarium in our roommate to watch real frogs throughout the prod. All this helped us a lot later in all stages of the project. To obtain a level of very thorough detail, October - December 2017 | MC3D | 15
we developed our own 3D scanner, based on photogrammetry. With a handful of cameras and a software named “Capturing Reality”, we could scan a large number of assets like stones, plants or objects from home, everything would be present in the plans. We then had to develop scripts to make the bridge between scanned assets and 3D scenes, to quickly create a library that could be used by the whole team. The device was a little long to set up but we subsequently saves a lot of time on modeling and textures.
For the characters, the realistic style of the film greatly reduces the design phase, which was both a strength and a weakness. Modeling was quickly able to start on the basis of real specimens without distorting reality, but it was complicated at the same time to bring out a specific personality for each protagonist. It took play on many details such as color, morphology, eyes, etc. The choice of specimen has been instrumental on each character. Many very sophisticated details were carved on ZBrush, and textures were made with Mari. We had the chance to work on Arnold for rendering images. It was our first time with this engine, we had to get used to, but it quickly took our brands. It could save a lot of time to set human calculations, and leave the work to computers. The 16 | MC3D | October - December 2017
school had put a renderfarm available to students for better comfort of calculation, with the deadline software to manage visited network across all machines. You could quickly detect various bug and computer problems due to the large numbers of details about each sent tasks. ANIMATION Given the aesthetics of the film and the realistic ambitions, the animation was going to follow. Vincent worked on the rigs full time throughout the pre-production. It allowed us to see in advance potential problems before the animation process. It took a lot of observations to analyze amphibian movements, their facial expressions, and adapt the rigs. Vincent was able to automate a large repetitive animation process, like breathing, goiter and eye blinking, to make life easier for animators. The rigs also had to provide flexibility in relation to real life, to have more freedom in animation, and intensify the various behaviors of the characters. We could not really shoot for animation reference, since the morphology of amphibians is still very different from ours. Again a lot of observation after references and patience were the key. To give heart to the story, you had to make them endearing characters, give personality despite realism. The female frog has been a real puzzle to that level. Make a sexy frog is quite a challenge. Sadly we can’t differentiate the sexes in these animals. It’s the character we have most cheated with, between design, animation, and sound. Efforts were also made to add a lot of insects and beetles in various plans to put more life in the images beyond the protagonists. POST PROD The compositing work was quite big. That’s where we added the depth of field, and also many stock shots filmed in the wild, like branches or insect. Care was taken to drive it a little too perfect side 3D images, to be closer to taking a traditional view, adding optical deformations, dirt lenses or lens flares. We also added a slight grain trailing to give a little more cachet. The end of the film was really difficult to manage technically and narratively. We had to http://mc3dmag.com
feel the apotheosis, the change of atmosphere to something festive and cheerful. It took being generous in the pictures, put the movement through the water jets, lights and the population of frog that comes out to enjoy the show. We tried to arrange the schedule for any time on this sequence, treat images and create many FX present in the plans. Most water jets have summers made with Bifrost in Maya. It remained in the same software, so it was quite comfortable for the rest of the pipeline. The arrival of the corpse at the end had to be surprising and spectacular. It was the biggest shot of the film, and the first human presence since the beginning. It was a striking depiction. The corpse was given great care to sculpting and shading. Although it seems not to be a very dashing image, it creates a paradox in the scene. It’s hard to go bad. This film really meant something to us. It was our graduation film study and we wanted to prove that we were able to captivate the viewer with images, take him into the story and surprise him. We had the chance to work with a team of friends. It was an amazing experience, with lots of sharing and good times that lasted one year We hope to continue working together in the future.
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Orlando Rosu--December stock.adobe.com 18 | MC3DFlorin | October 2017
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Rob Byron - stock.adobe.com Miguel Aguirre -2017 stock.adobe.com October - December | MC3D | 21
marc florestant
Garrincha - stock.adobe.com
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Inside the Twisted Mind of an Indie Game Developer By: Marc Florestant Whistle while you work. For anyone that has ever created a game, there is a section between unrestrained exuberance at the start of a project and the satisfying exhalation that comes at the end of a project, when you step back and survey all that you have accomplished. This “Middle Time” seems, somewhat, like the burden that Sisyphus was tasked with. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a king of Ephyra. He was punished by having to roll a boulder up a hill forever for his crimes. This is a time in the project when your life seems like that of Sisyphus and all you see in front of you is work with no end in sight. That time is usually referred to as “The Grind,” but I’ve come to know it as one of the seven circles of hell. Toiling away in my workspace, the endless amount of small details that go into the quality game that I am assembling can seem to stretch on with no end. One must truly hate oneself to put http://mc3dmag.com
themselves through something like this without being coerced, but I can’t seem to stop myself. Not only am I drawn to work on this game but I have so many ideas that want to come out that it sometimes feels like the pressure will make my head explode. All of my game ideas are fighting for my attention and jockeying for position in the pantheon of creations. They all want to come out at once, but it’s my job to hold them at bay, like a lion tamer directing the actions of the pride of lions that only cooperate because they still haven’t realized that the lion tamer is, in reality, fragile. What would make someone want to take up such a grueling endeavor to begin with? In The Beginning… When I was a kid growing up, one of my favorite pastimes was going to the arcade and spending an entire Saturday feeding quarters into those electronic monoliths and improving my skills on the latest games. Weather it was defending the earth against a hoard of renegade aliens, or drifting around a tight turn in an overly powered muscle car. I was the ruler of my little world for as long as I could make that quarter last. Needless to say, over time I got very good at crushing my enemies and seeing them driven before me and hearing the lamentations of their women. The end result was that I had to spend less and less money dumping quarters into those hypnotic fun boxes, to the dismay of many an arcade owner. My addiction started, as all addictions do, as a fun, innocent diversion, something that friends introduced me to. We would get together on the weekends and while away the time, doing nothing in particular, until someone would say ‘Let’s go to the arcade!.’ Like well-trained soldiers, we would march towards that magical place where a young man could lose himself for an entire day. A Never, Never Land of flashing lights, blaring sounds, and garish colors all blended together with the faceless huddled masses that were crowded around each machine. Like royalty, the game masters, those that consistently placed in the top 10 of high scorers, would hold court as the hustlers, wannabes, and fool sycophants stood close by to bask in their greatness and perhaps to glean some of their secret knowledge that would propel them to the same lofty heights, or at the very least, take over an abandoned game that one of the masters grew http://mc3dmag.com
tired of and cast aside. What started out as a minor diversion on weekends became an all-consuming daily passion, sacrificing my piggy bank to the gods of games to get to those shiny offerings inside, each one a silver ticket that gave me passage to another world. I would soon realize that I just didn’t have enough money. I had to feed my addiction so I did what any other junky would have done. I stole. I stole from my siblings piggy banks. I stole from the comic book store, sold the comics and used the money to play more games. I even stole money from my mother’s purse. I was shameless and I was good. I never got caught and I never slipped up. I took just enough so that none would know, or at the very least, they would know that something was out of place, but couldn’t quite put their finger on what it was. As a 10 year old, I was improving my skill at video games, as well as my skills at thievery. Such was my sickness that I didn’t stop until two years later when I got my first official job as a paperboy. Once I realized the hard work that went into making a dollar, I stopped and never went back to my life of crime. If you build it they will come. Video games are my first love. As a kid, I would stay after school for hours tapping away at the Commodore PET computer that was in the corner of the classroom, trying to figure out how to make stuff work. The teacher would sit at the front of the class, periodically peering over the papers that she was grading to give me a quizzical look, wondering why I haven’t gone home yet. There was no way I could leave. How could I go home? I was going to make the next Donkey Kong or Pac Man. It didn’t matter that I was only seven years old. I had work to do and nothing was going to stop me from doing it. My mother was concerned that I was getting home from school way too late for a child my age, which was 6pm, to be exact, so she bought me my first computer so I would come home earlier. My first computer was An Atari 800XL and I was in love! Back in those days, there were a few different camps of computer nerds that you could belong to. Besides the kids that were the Atari faithful, you had the kids that were die hard Commodore 64 fans. October - December 2017 | MC3D | 23
Then you had those that were loyal to the Apple IIe for some reason, and then there were a few kids who were able to get their hands on an IBM PC because their fathers had one at home for work. There was a smattering of other computer enclaves as well. TRS 80’s, Texas Instruments, Vic 20’s and a couple of Timex Sinclairs in the mix, but the kids that advocated those other machines were often looked upon with pity and shame and were the subject of derision. Armed with my copies of Antic Magazine, I proceeded to stay up late into the evening entering in line after line of game code in basic. The joy I felt after I had, entering in and debugging those little gems that I would play and then pull apart to try to understand exactly what it was I had just created, was indescribable. In my mind, I was on my way to a career in video games. I was going to work for Atari, or Activision or maybe some other company. My path was true and righteous and my steps were sure; but I was pulled off my path and my game making skills atrophied. By the time the 90’s rolled around, I got the itch to start making games again, but with a full time job and little free time, I soon realized that making games on my own was a dream that I could no longer entertain. I tried, several times, to collaborate with other artists, but it soon became clear that everyone had a different idea of what committing oneself to a project actually meant, so I was back to square one. Video games are what got me into computers and computer graphics to begin with, but I didn’t seem to be able to get back to the core. I gave up…for a long time. It wasn’t until around 2008 that an architectural firm that I was freelancing for wanted to be able to make their visualizations interactive that I started looking at different tools to help with that goal. Every other engine that they were looking at was either too primitive or too expensive. I then happened upon Unity. No, I’m not advertising for them but that technology did make the prospect of making games more accessible. In an instant, I realized that I didn’t have to be a master programmer. I didn’t have to make my own game engine and most importantly, I didn’t need to rely on anyone else. All at once, I realized that my dream was not dead. It was just sleeping for a while. I could make games again and I was hooked.
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The end of the beginning. Now that I’m getting close to shipping my second game, one of the things that I’m worried about is having my creation lost in the miasma of abandoned games on the various app stores. It happened with my first game, so I expect the same thing might happen to my second game if I’m not careful. Making those, who would appreciate my progeny, aware of its existence is job number one. Long gone are the days when merely making a game and uploading it to the app store would ensure its success, one must mount a promotions campaign equivalent to that of a presidential candidate. At this point, I can say that the actual game could be as little as 30% of the work making a commercially successful title. There are a multitude of fantastic titles in the various app stores sitting undiscovered, untouched and unloved. There are also several mediocre titles that are pulling in the big bucks. What is it that makes fortune shine on some while giving so many others the cold shoulder? Marketing. Marketing is the key but how do you market effectively with little to no funds? I guess this will always be the problem for those in the early stages of building their first, second or, even third game. To answer the question I posed earlier as to why anyone would put themselves through this is difficult to answer and is different for everybody. As far as I’m concerned, I guess that inside I’m still that seven year old boy that stays up late making games just because it’s fun.
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A New Direction
katey murray
Animation & Purpose
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To the outside world, the onlookers watching animators and artists toil over their work, animation may be no more than a mere hobby. To others, however, it’s not only a career, but a saving grace. We watch the movies and praise the actors who’s voices we have become all too familiar with, not considering what is involved in the process, or WHO is involved in the process. How many times does the average movie-goer stop and consider the trials an artist has overcome? Not just in getting the position they had been working their whole lives to achieve, but perhaps the personal hurtles, the metaphorical mountain they had to leap? I spoke to one such aspiring artist, Katey Murray, a student at Rocket Sky 3D Animation School. Although she hasn’t obtained that coveted position of cinematic stardom (yet), her story is an inspiring one. A life spinning out of control, destructive and bleak, given purpose through her love of animation. We talk with her in a Q&A session where she gives us a glimpse of her past and what her new studies have done to change her life. Katey Murray Q&A:
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MC - Before you started learning animation, what kind of work or study did you do? KM - I had just left the university with a degree in nursing with registration as a children’s nurse. I started my first job as a nurse on a children’s cancer ward. MC - In our previous discussions, you were telling me that you were in the hospital for some time. Can you tell us about that period in your life? KM - I had been struggling for some time for emotional difficulties which was leading to some self-destructive behavior in the form of selfharm. I got admitted to the hospital after a few self-harming incidents and was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. At the time that I was diagnosed, it was a condition that had very little understanding. It was not really understood what the best treatment was, so I just ended up in a cycle of self-destructive, self-harming behaviors. The only real option then was to just have continual hospital stays, which just made the disorder more severe. It became a case of not one step forward and two steps back, more just continually going backwards. It was some of the darkest periods in my life, where there was no light at the end. MC - From what I understand, you actually started studying animation while you were in the hospital. How did that come about? KM - When I first went into the hospital, I met a lady who was an amazing pastel drawer and she actually started teaching me how to do pastel drawings. As soon as I started I became hooked. It was a great way to pass the time and to distract myself. I became very good friends with a lady who was obsessed with Disney and I used to just watch endless Disney films with her. I liked to make her laugh so I used to make little flip books of drawings and make up little stories as I was doing it. I don’t think they were any good, but she liked them. It was around this time that I was thinking of going into gaming as a new career option, as I’m also a very avid gamer. When I moved to a more residential setting, I started at the local college doing a level 1 http://mc3dmag.com
in creative techniques, which I passed with distinctions and was given a place on a foundation studies in art and design. I had to postpone studying by a year to complete a therapy program and during this program I was given the opportunity to create a short stop motion animation, telling my story. I naturally jumped at the chance as the friend I used to do the flip books for had recently died and it seemed like a great way to tell our story of destruction and friendship. I finished the film, fittingly titled ‘one-minute left’ and went on to college to start my foundation studies. MC - You didn’t continue with those studies though. Why did your studies stop? When I was first admitted to hospital I had only been working as a nurse for a couple of months. Due to the nature of the illness, I had my contract terminated. Not because I did anything wrong, but they needed a member of staff that would be there. Due to the nature of nursing, as I had been in hospital for so long, I had my registration as a nurse suspended for 5 years, but it was around this time that I was really getting into art and had to make a decision, whether I was going to re-train in nursing or see where the art would take me. I didn’t just choose the art because of how much I was enjoying it, but one of the parts of nursing I enjoyed was distracting the children from what was going on. I looked after a 10-year-old girl who only had days to live and we used to just sit and laugh at cartoons together. I remember so clearly just watching the hunchback of Notre Darn with her and at the end of the film, her saying ‘thank you for being so kind to me’. She died a couple of days later. I’ve never forgotten this young girl and when changing careers to animation, part of the reason was not only did I love doing it, but it has such an ability to provide entertainment even to those who really need it. MC - Now you study at Rocket Sky after meeting Garth. How did you meet? KM - I had a difficult time when I finished my foundation studies at college. I couldn’t go on to the university as I couldn’t get any funding due to already having done a degree. I was being turned down for internships; I couldn’t even get voluntary October - December 2017 | MC3D | 29
work as a colorist on a student film. I was becoming so disheartened it was leading to a bit more self-destructive behavior, because I was starting to lose direction. It wasn’t until my sister started to help and recommended I started to follow animation on twitter. It was here when I found rocket sky and Garth and he gave me a lot of support and was very patient while I had to sort finances out to pay the tuition fees. MC - Has studying animation changed the way you see the world? If so, how? KM - I used to see the world as a very dark and bleak place. I would walk down the road looking at the floor because I didn’t understand what was around me. Now I walk down the street like some sort of meerkat looking at what’s going on around me, because everything has the potential to be a story. I analyze everything, being a character animator, I see everyone as a character for watching how someone is walking or how they are standing. I sat on a tube yesterday and was just watching people around me from how they were sitting, to how they moved, thinking about what sort of character they would be. If I was to put them in a shot, what would they be doing? Everything I see around me, I see the potential as a story. A good friend once said to that “even the biggest catastrophe is a lesson well learnt and a story
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worth telling.” I don’t think I really understood that until I started animation MC - How has your life in general changed since you started studying animation? KM - Animation has given me the direction in life that I needed. I was lost without it. When I started at Rocket Sky I was still living in a type of supported accommodation, as I had only just left the hospital. I lived on my own but someone would come around once a week to make sure everything was going ok. I was still engaging in some self-destructive behaviors, but as soon as I started with Rocket Sky it all stopped. I started to just want to be animating all the time and even when I wasn’t, I would use time to catch up on some drawing practice, or watching films I’ve not seen. The amount of support that I received from Garth and Rocket Sky was, and still is, amazing. Any issues I’ve had, I’ve been fully supported in solving it, as I always been told ‘there are no problems, only challenges’. Due to how well I have done with Rocket Sky by showing commitment and discipline and dedicating my time to something, I finally got accepted to the housing list and am now living fully independent in my own flat, which I was told would never happen. Studying with Rocket Sky reignited my passion for animation and even when I’ve had any self-
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doubt, it has been worked through. I’ve managed to form much stronger friendships with positive people, re-build my relationships with family and live a much more meaningful life where I’m excited about the future and I will always be grateful to Rocket Sky for giving me the chance. They gave me so much hope, that I had the school name tattooed on my arm over some old self-harm scars, because I want to remember that hope every day and never forget who gave it to me. Due to the fact that I continued with study with Rocket Sky, I had my first animated film shown at the Tate Modern gallery, which was an amazing moment, to have my work shown alongside some of my favorite artists. For example, Louise Bourgeois spider was just down the corridor. MC - What are your plans after you graduate from Rocket Sky? KM - It will be to hopefully get a job in animation. I really want to do feature film animation, so maybe working on a film. When I went into animation I always wanted to work for Pixar. That’s still part of the plan, but hopefully I can gain some experience in London first and then I’m hoping to apply to some studios in Canada. The joy of animation is that it’s all over the world and one of my life goals is to travel and experience different cultures, so I hope that I will get to do that. MC - I’m sure there are many people who are as you were, perhaps trying to find their place. What one piece of encouragement or advice would you give to a younger, pre-animation you? KM - It would be to be honest with yourself and allow others to help. The biggest mistake that I made was not asking for help soon enough. If you’re struggling, then tell someone. It’s easier to solve a problem with the help of someone else than it is to try and do it on your own. If you have a passion for something, then follow that passion even when everyone around you tells you it’s not going to be good enough. The most important thing of all is never allow someone to tell you that you can’t do something. I honestly believe anyone can do anything they want and if you work hard enough you can achieve anything.
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A Bold New Project Tempest
tempest
By CG+News Team
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Brazen Animation has released Tempest, a teaser for the Dallasbased studio’s first original content offering. The three-minute teaser follows a grizzled sailor reflecting upon a life of loss and regret. The narrative reveals the lone sailor facing his fiercest adversary. Brazen self-funded and internally developed the intellectual property, utilizing the studio’s in-house team. The Tempest teaser will be available on May 23, 2017, at http://brazenanimation.com/tempest Tempest represents Brazen’s mission: to tell inspirational stories with meaning and purpose, impacting the lives of their audience. Brazen is currently seeking development partners to produce a longform version of Tempest. “Between servicing our commercial clients and partners, we created Tempest as a sincere attempt to test the conventions of animated storytelling and what our incredibly talented team can achieve,” said Bryan Engram, Brazen CEO and director of Tempest. “We want to boldly tackle subject matter and styles not represented in typical animated fare.” Before founding Brazen in 2014, Engram previously served http://mc3dmag.com
as director of studio animation, animation director and supervisor for films and theme park experiences including The Wild, Everyone’s Hero, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Open Season 2 & 3, Looney Tunes theatrical released shorts, The Simpsons Ride and Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. To achieve the moody visuals and striking purposeful symbolism, Engram and the Brazen Animation team merged the artistry of CG animation with the visual sensibilities of 2D animation, drawing from a variety of influences to achieve its unique look. Engram cites the lighting in classical theatrical productions, allegorical references to Moby Dick, and classic animation styles among the influences for Tempest.
“For Tempest, we were inspired by cinematic realism and exaggerated animation and design sensibilities. There’s no ‘house style’ at Brazen. We craft a look and feel for each piece of content based on what best serves the story, “ said Engram. About Brazen Animation With a clear vision, fearless approach and passion for storytelling, Brazen Animation creates impactful work that motivates audiences to lead a purposeful life. Boasting industry veterans from Disney, Fox, Blue Sky, Sony, ILM and Reel FX, Brazen has produced animation for a wide range of clients, agencies and other studios, brands, including The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Riot Games, Telltale Games, Dreamworks, Ford and Hasbro. For more information on Brazen Animation, visit: http://brazenanimation.com
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October - December 2017 | MC3D | 37 Lee Rosario - http://leerosario.com
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The render wars with Chad Ashley
by Sekani Solomon Having been a C4D user for the past seven years, I’ve seen the render landscape transform drastically, especially in the last few. When I began my C4D render journey, render selection was simple, you either choose Cinema’s built in renders (standard or physical) or Vray. Fast forward to 2017, you have several renderers to choose from. These include Arnold, Octane, Redshift, Cycles, Corona, Maxwell and Maxon’s upcoming AMD Pro Render, with the first three being the most popular of the bunch. While ultimately beneficial to the end user, choosing the right render tool can be a bit confusing for a newer artist and studios in general. For this discussion, we’ll be chatting with Greyscalegorilla’s very own render guru and former Digital Kitchen Creative Director, Chad Ashley. We’ll take a look at Arnold, Octane, Redshift, Cycles, Physical http://mc3dmag.com
Render and break them down in terms of their Speed of convergence(ability to turn around a render), image quality and production features/ scalability and also who we think they are best suited for. Who is Chad? For those who may not be familiar with you and your work Chad, can you give us a brief background with your experience with rendering? I’ve always had a love for 3D rendering. I guess it stems from my love of film/fine-art and my formal education. My drawing skills were always far from perfect (very far), so 3D rendering allowed me to create engaging visuals without having to pick up a pencil or paintbrush. I took to it immediately. One of the reasons I made the switch to Cinema 4D from 3ds Max was the abundance of rendering choices coming up. As I learned Cinema, my love for third party rendering grew into somewhat of an obsession. Then, as the Greyscalegorilla Podcast started up, we began joking about all these renderers and lovingly referred to the situation as “The Render Wars.” Before we jump in, I wanted to state that my opinions are all from my POV. A point of view that is founded in need to create production quality animations (mostly photo real) on time and on budget and hopefully with little to no issues. Not all of this info will apply to you, but there is still plenty of crossover in requirements when choosing an engine.
version has been teased and is coming soon) that has been around for over 15 years and has been used in many fully animated feature films as well as it’s been THE renderer for many high-end film VFX shops. When you have a production renderer that’s been battle tested for as long as Arnold has, coupled with a solid development team, you end up with a renderer that is tough to beat. The speed of convergence: Because Arnold is currently a CPU only renderer, it sometimes gets a bad rap from motion designers who come from Octane, saying it’s “too slow.” Though admittedly Octane is faster, the problem usually stems from someone who built a machine with moderate CPU specs choosing to spend their cash on GPU. I guarantee if those same folks invested the same amount of money into their CPUs, speeds will be become faster and at times comparable. I always say that Arnold is fast for a CPU renderer. If you understand how it works and how to optimize for it, it’s speed will surprise you. Image Quality: Extremely high-quality images are possible with Arnold. If you’ve seen any summer blockbusters over the past five years (Gravity or Guardians of the Galaxy are a fine examples) you’ve already seen what it’s capable of. It’s a hybrid biased/un-biased renderer with a very cinematic look. It’s also extremely predictable (this is good). Production features:
Arnold Let’s begin our render discussion with Arnold (one of your personal favorites I know). It seems to be quite popular with larger shops for it’s robust, reliable pipeline tools, ability to handle insane amounts of geo and photo realistic render quality. Can you speak more to this? Arnold is currently a CPU renderer (a GPU http://mc3dmag.com
C4DtoA (Arnold’s Cinema 4D Plugin) rules in this category. No other renderer that I’ve tested has as many production features. Full AOV (multipasses) workflows, light groups, LPE’s (Light Path Expressions), and tons of click saving goodies. That on top of rock solid stability makes it perfect for getting shit done. Who would I recommend Arnold to? I recommend it to those individuals/studios who demand high-quality images and who value stability. Arnold is also perfect for those who are not quite ready for GPU rendering but are looking for something beyond the Physical October - December 2017 | MC3D | 41
renderer in Cinema 4D. It’s also ideal for individuals or studios that have not yet made the switch to PC as Arnold will run on either Mac or PC. If you are an individual artist or a studio running lots of different sort of jobs (volumes, particles, large data sets) Arnold is the right choice for you. If you are studio with mixed 3D host applications Arnold’s proprietary .ass format is interchangeable which can be a great benefit. Arnold coupled with render farm solutions out there such as Pixel Plow is a potent combination. Arnold and cloud rendering gives small studios and independent artists as much firepower as most large studios. All things considered, Arnold is one of my most recommended renderers. Strengths: Killer development team, Deep feature set, Custom AOV’s, Light Groups, LPE, frequent C4D plugin updates, simple settings, x-particle support, supports both Mac/PC, same engine in multiple host applications, scalability, stability, Many speed enhancing short-cuts and workflows Weaknesses: Expensive (compared to competitors), confusing license system, CPU only, Slow compared to most GPU renderers, owned by Autodesk (bad track record of acquisitions), poor choice for interior rendering, caustics.
Octane Next up we have Octane, which was my first introduction to GPU rendering. Coming from V-ray where you had to wait minutes to get render feedback, having the ability to get feedback instantly was a significant evolution in my work process. Talk to us about your experience with the renderer. When I first used Octane, I was blown away at the sheer speed of the IPR ( the IPR being a 42 | MC3D | October - December 2017
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fast, progressively rendered preview of your 3D image). In fact, it still astounds me. Over time the thrill of the IPR speed faded, and I was frustrated with problem after problem in trying to use it in production. All that speed came at the cost of flexibility, features, and an inability to scale. These are not tolerable issues for advanced CG artists and power users delivering large CG jobs with a small team and tight deadlines. So, my use of Octane trickled down to a drip. OTOY as a company has been falling out of favor to motion designers as well. On the Siggraph show floor this year, numerous motion designers vented to me about various frustrations with the company. Years of ignoring requests and not making good on promises have left many Cinema 4D Octane users very frustrated. Though some of the more vocal user base is frustrated, I continue to see great projects utilizing Octane and pushing it to its limits.
as many animated Architecture interiors being rendered or intricate pieces where Octane is utilized. This is not without good reason. Production features: In my opinion, production features are the Achilles heel of Octane. It lacks even the most fundamental production features such as not being able to exclude/include an object from a light source. I’ve found it to have less impressive production features overall, but I will say that I do enjoy its node editor more than those who use C4D’s built in Xpresso UI. But an excellent node editor does not make up for the huge list of production flaws in Octane. Who would I recommend Octane to?
I think Octane is perfect for an art-director that is designing frames or doing basic look dev. It’s fast The speed of convergence: IPR, and simple UI will make it easy for a designer to create imagery, given they have the GPU power If there is one thing Octane has, it’s speed to run it efficiently. I’ve seen Art Directors have (in most situations and mostly regarding its IPR). great success with Octane. Do boards with Octane, The more Cuda Cores (Nvidia GPUs), the faster then move to a production renderer to finish the it’ll go. But this criteria is not just about speed; it’s job. Octane is also useful as a “daily render” tool. about speed to converge on a clean image. That I’ve often joked on our podcast that Octane should is always a tricky thing in Octane. If it’s a simple have a “send to Instagram” button as it seems to scene with moderate lighting complexity, it can be used more on that platform than any other. usually converge on a clean image rather quickly Not sure if that’s good or bad. Up to you, I guess. (assuming you have more than one GPU). It’s when I should also add that Octane is a fine choice for you push Octane just over that moderate threshold those doing primarily exterior architecture renders. where it gets tricky for it to converge. Ever hear an Octane user complain about fireflies or small lights Strengths: with atmosphere? Easy photorealism, IPR Speed, IPR window Image quality: features, speed of rendering (up to a certain level of complexity), simple settings, custom material I’ve not heard anyone complain about the node interface, Octane Scatter Utility, tri-planar quality of a finished Octane animation or render. mapping It does photorealism very fast and simply. It’s not the most accurate or easy to predict renderer Weaknesses: out there, but it can quickly deliver nice looking frames. As image quality is subjective, I’d say that I Limited by GPU memory, Stability, scalability, can usually spot an Octane render with better than no custom AOVs, no light linking, inconsistent/ average consistency. Not because of any “look” or delayed updates, limited maps/materials, layering distinct flaws but usually, the subject matter is the multiple materials is cumbersome, “Octane Effect” dead give away. Because of its many limitations, (see GSG Podcast). many Octane renders fall into the category of “object in a void.” There are plenty of fantastic examples of non-void Octane renders. The majority of these examples tend to be stills. You don’t see http://mc3dmag.com
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The speed of convergence:
Redshift Redshift seems to be the new kid on the block. Personally, it’s my favorite render right now. It combines the speed of Octane with the production flexibility of Arnold and V-ray. It bridges the best of both worlds. What’re your thoughts of this renderer? Redshift is the new GPU renderer I’m most likely to recommend to artists right now. I had first become aware of it a couple of years back when it came out for Maya and was very intrigued by the idea of a biased GPU renderer with unified sampling, something I loved about V-Ray in 3ds Max. The images I saw out of it were also gorgeous. As soon as the alpha was available for C4D, I joined up. Since then, I’ve been testing and helping to shape the plugin with the Redshift team. It’s been a blast watching it take shape. Plus, now Pixel Plow announced it is now supporting Redshift making it an excellent choice for the individual artist or studio.
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Because Redshift is a biased renderer and it features unified sampling, it is the fastest GPU renderer I’ve ever tested. The beauty of biased with unified sampling is that Redshift can drastically reduce samples in areas of the image that don’t need it and focus all of its power on areas of the frame that does. Or, if you’d like to put samples exactly where they make the most impact (lights, specular glossy, etc.) you can make renders scream. Image quality: Next to Arnold, Redshift is my favorite looking renderer. It has a natural sexy raw look (drops filtering) and features photographic controls that offer you just enough control over the look but not as heavy handed as Octane’s Camera Imager. The SSS is beautiful and natural. It has a realistic, clean look with very little grain and the atmospherics look superb and have minimal impact on render times. Production features: Redshift touts itself as a final frame production renderer so it should be no surprise that it excels in traits that will help you get stuff done. I often tell people that Redshift is like Octane and V-Ray (3ds Max Version) had a baby. A speedy/affordable baby. Take the speed of Octane and the feature set of an Arnold put it on Nvidia GPU’s, and you’ve got Redshift. Oh, and only charge $500 for access
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to the plugin from any 3D host application. It’s also worth mentioning their Proxy and Instance workflows. The Redshift proxy file works very much like Arnold’s .ass file (with a much less ridiculous name). Who would I recommend Redshift to?
All I had known until then is that it was part of Blender which is a free open source 3d application that’s been around for some time. I will say, Insydium created a robust and fluid integration into Cycles, tying it deeply with their highly successful X-Particles plugin.The things I’ve seen Mario Tran Phuc do with it are astounding, but the integration is not where the issues lie with Cycles4D. The issues are foggier and not always technical.
I recommend Redshift to anyone running Nvidia GPU’s and who is looking for a stable production renderer and isn’t afraid to jump into some settings to squeeze out every ounce of speed The speed of convergence: out of your frames. It’s very well rounded and versatile able to handle arch-viz interiors, intricate From what I’ve tested and seen, Cycles4D’s character work, product viz, or complex VFX. ability to converge on a clean grain-free image is slower than Octane and Redshift. I’ve also had a Strengths: hard time in my early tests getting it to clean up a very high-frequency grain that always plagued my Balances load between CPU and GPU, Very renders. I’ve seen that it has improved significantly Fast, production focused features, biased engine, since then, so this may no longer be an issue. unified sampling, great uber shader, tons of map types, and a responsive development team Image quality: dedicated that shows up on forums and answers questions, Redshift Proxies/Instances, and To check the quality of Cycles4D, all you need X-Particles support is growing. to do is see the amazing work by Insydium’s own Mario Tran Phuc. He proves that this engine is Weaknesses: entirely capable of making stunning images. Though I must admit, outside of X-Particles renders AOV workflow is convoluted, no ability to I’ve not seen an abundance of killer examples. I’m texture lights beyond images, not as many useful not sure if this is due to the renderers limitations or utility nodes as other choices, no support for because the C4D plugin is doing very much what it X-Particles trails (or splines at all), higher learning was designed to do. Become the best renderer for curve (Redshift is still in alpha and many of these X-Particles. features are on the roadmap to be implemented). Production features:
Cycles Then we have Cycles. This is the only one from the pack I haven’t really played with. It sells itself on its great integration with X particles. I only became aware of Cycles when Insydium began their integration plugin for it a while back. I had seen some things in the press about it, but honestly never looked at it seriously until recently. http://mc3dmag.com
Cycles4D does not lack features. Let’s get that out of the way right now. The node based material editor designed by Insydium is a dream to navigate, and other render engines could take a few pointers here. Cycles has plenty of maps, knobs, and features though not as fully developed as some of its competitors (Arnold, Redshift). Who would I recommend Cycles4D to? Anyone who’s work is primarily X-Particles based would benefit from Cycles4D. It’s CPU/GPU flexibility, and low price would make it an excellent choice for those on limited hardware/budget.
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Strengths: Works both on CPU and GPU, tons of features for rendering X-Particles, affordable, great node material editor, plenty of learning resources. Weaknesses: Cycles is developed by the Blender Foundation and not Insydium. The open source nature can scare large studios who are looking for deep customer support and accountability. I’ve found that it also a bit cumbersome on seemingly simple shading/lighting tasks. AOV’s are also a bit lacking.
optimize (we’ve done our fair share of tutorials on the subject), but you cannot avoid the fact that Physical is a CPU renderer that just isn’t quick. Image quality: The Physical renderer looks fantastic. No one would ever doubt it’s quality (especially if you’re not cutting too many corners with optimization). I enjoy its overall look and find it very similar to Arnold. Must be a Monte Carlo thing. Production features: Well, Physical is hard to beat in this category (sort of ). It’s built into the core of Cinema 4D for crying out loud. You get all the standard maps and noises, materials display correctly in the viewport, and it’s all very intuitive. Still, it’s features are outdated. No node based material editor, no true tri-planar mapping, no curvature map (and sorry, inverse AO is NOT true a curvature map), no custom AOV’s, I could go on and on here, but you get the point. Who would I recommend Physical to?
Physical Render Lastly, we have the Physical render. I know artists like Jeremy Cox that swear by it. It’s free as it ships with Cinema and quite reliable. For me though, it can be pretty slow when it comes to making things photorealistic. Contrary to what most people think, Physical is a fast and capable CPU renderer and a great inapplication engine (running on both Mac/PC). It’s a bit confusing to get the settings right, and the lack of a node based material editor makes it fairly limiting, but all in all, you can still deliver great looking images with it. The introduction to Reflectance brought the ability to layer shading/specular models uniquely, but often increases render times. As convenient as a built in render engine can be, however, once you’ve tasted the real-time IPR of Redshift, Arnold, Octane or the likes, it’s nearly impossible to go back. The speed of convergence:
I suggest you stick with Physical if you are tied down by hardware/OS and haven’t a budget to upgrade to anything else. It’s also entirely satisfactory if you don’t find yourself rendering any complex photo-realistic animations on a regular basis. It’s quite adequate on stills and can even handle distributed rendering with TeamRender to Picture Viewer. Strengths: Built into the core of Cinema 4D, tons of tutorials out there (wink-wink), good representation of materials in the viewport, great for stills, reflectance is quite robust, awesome noise maps. Weaknesses: Slow, No IPR, lacks strong pass (AOV) system, needs node material editor, no curvature map, no real tri-planar map, not receiving regular updates, lights are in need of a serious upgrade, no dome light.
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Final Thoughts Do you have any final thoughts on the topic? Do you see any of these renderers dominating like V-ray once did? I think this is an exciting time to be a part of this industry. Even five years ago the choices in rendering made the entire process painful and expensive. Now depending on the work, you do and your hardware situation there are now many options for you to check out. I want to end by saying thank you for giving me the opportunity to share what I’ve learned. My findings and thoughts are just that, mine. I urge everyone reading this article to look at the work you are making and try the renderers that make sense for you. Also, be sure to visit Greyscalegorilla.com and check out our tools, training, and plugins for all things motion design. We also have the Greyscalegorilla Podcast, a weekly show that will keep you up to date on all this stuff. You can find it on iTunes and Google Play. If you are interested in keeping up with the render wars, Be sure to check out our page called “What Renderer should I Use?” which we are keeping up to date as new information and new renderers pop up. You can also find me on twitter at @cgpov. Thanks for sharing this information, Chad. We tend to have these discussions amongst ourselves almost daily and it’s awesome to share this with the community. At the end of the day, we all win, as everyone is racing to make the tools better for the artist. About Sekani Solomon http://sekanimotiondesign.com Sekani Solomon is a freelance Senior Cinema 4D Generalist/Designer based in New York City whose work has earned numerous awards including a Primetime Emmy Award. Hailing from the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Sekani’s diverse skillset in Design, Animation and Compositing allows him to work at any stage of the production pipeline with a high level of proficiency. When he’s not pushing pixels, he’s probably hitting drums, drinking beer or both.
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Glen Keane: Part 1 an infinite number of those there is no formulas to anything, –anticipation: maybe sometimes you don’t want anticipation it just it’s gotta happen like without an anticipation but there’s times where the body has to prepare for something it’s got to come through observation and in real life.
Screen shot of Glen Keane during the interview.
By: The Adventures of LollypopMan https://lollypopman.com Interview Question: “What are the best things that a new animator brings to the table that you think that they should try and care to maintain during their career?” Glen: On tangled, I was watching animators come on and make the same mistake: that they want their animation to look like good animation and they show me the work and I say yeah that looks really like a nicely animated scene and that’s the problem, it looks like animation!, and that character is real it doesn’t feel… it feels like something I’ve seen before. I want to see you!, I want to see what- how you feel about this moment, I want you to live in the skin of that character. I don’t want to feel like I’m looking at something that I’ve seen before, this is, this is fresh this is new like…
In CG animators are going so much further than I think traditional animators in: observing, They’re filming themselves they’re studying little nuances that they do and they’re bringing some sophistication to the acting, it’s absolutely beautiful I am in love with that. I love in “Sing” the animation of the gorilla Johnny as he’s singing and the tilt of the head and the way the characters singing– this was so well observed! by whoever animated that. I know Patrick Delage was an animator working with me on Tarzan is working with the team there and I saw a lot of his influence in that but it was his influence in terms of observation or others are replicating that… but I love that when I see that happening in CG . >> End of Transcript << We hope you have enjoyed getting some wisdom from Glen himself!. If you like, share with the world! Now back to animating!
I remember one time student asking me how many takes are there in animation?, so takes what do you mean?.. you know like a “take” like a “whoa”. First of all there is no such thing as a take that is a term what is it take it’s you are startled your body is not expecting something and it reacts the muscles contract and you turn around and you look and your shoulders drop down as you see what’s happening out there but that’s and there’s 50 | MC3D | October - December 2017
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contre temps 54 | MC3D | October - December 2017
Contre Temps Short Film
Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m Lucas Veber, 28 years old, living in France. Being passionate for drawing, 3D animation and technology, I entered a French computer graphic school (MOPA) when I was 18, for a five years course. Students there are first thought to paint and draw still life before working on computers. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s probably one of the reasons why many short films made in this school have a graphical singularity, for example painted texture, or old stop-motion animation style... I was part of a six student team to direct an 8 minutes long film, for one year. My role was primarily to animate the characters, and simulate the massive water motions, using Realflow. I did various other works though, props modeling, art development, and scripted a few tools for 3dsMax. The movie is about a lonely man living in a post-apocalyptic http://mc3dmag.com
flooded city. One day he makes an important discovery... I had the chance to work with talented people, the poetic atmosphere conveyed by the stunning, colorful hand-painted backgrounds and great music gives a unique style to this film. To consolidate my animation skills, I attended the Gobelins school for one year, and had the opportunity to work at Illumination Mac Guff studios (Minions movie, Secret life of pets, Despicable Me 3) right after. I learned a lot from this experience. Working as an animator on big movies production was a good way to learn how to polish the final details, try different acting ideas, undo and redo... Also it’s interesting to learn the data management, since we have to deal every day with hundreds of assets (making the 3d viewport so laggy)! For example, when working as a crowd animator on Minions, I was in charge of thousands of minions, animating each of them almost individually, without crowd simulator tools. So an important part of the job was handling these
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technical things. Meanwhile, I was working part-time as a freelancer artist and developer for various clients. And finally decided to go full-time after three years at Illumination, to work on various projects/ tasks, wich was my primary ambition, such as design, modeling, rigging, animation and code together! So I was lucky enough to be part of great projects where I was in charge of the full characters development from design to final animation, and developed a set of tools to speed up the rigging process in the Blender software, as an add-on in python called “Auto-Rig Pro”. Another one, “Skin Selection”, enables the rig controller selection directly by clicking the mesh surface, somewhat similar to the “Presto” in-house tool of Pixar. Later, I plan to make a small video-game, with a small team, maybe a platformer using Unity. Would be a cool new adventure, but nothing is done yet!
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ANIMATION FOR TRAINING The Benefits
By Jamie Denham There are as many ways to implement a training program as there are things to train—but not all are equally effective. Animation is an extremely efficient, effective, and enjoyable tool for teaching. Here’s why.
training
Animation can set the tone
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As an audio-visual medium, and one over which the creator and client have complete control, animation is ideal for setting the desired tone for the training session. The right music, character design, voice overs—all of these things combined can set a very particular tone: the tone the client wants for their training session. Animation is an exceptional way to create atmosphere. Animation is both engaging and memorable If there are two things we hope that a training session accomplishes, it’s to first engage the trainee and to help them integrate the imparted knowledge into their long-term memory. Animation is great for both. http://mc3dmag.com
Animation can make use of attention grabbing elements, including visual effects that many other types of media simply can’t replicate. Humour, exaggerated character design, and unique environments are all ways in which animation can be used to captivate the viewer. These same elements can be very effective as mnemonic devices. It might not be easy to remember the three steps of an otherwise dry and uninteresting policy when reading them off of a printout, but when they’re animated and seen in action, it’s a different story. It’s entertaining In addition to catching one’s attention, it’s also important that your training medium of choice be able to hold the trainee’s attention. Colour, effects, music, and humour can be enormously effective at this. A face-to-face human trainer can’t always be “on,” but an animated character doesn’t have that problem. Many man hours go into ensuring that each minute of the video is entertaining—and that video can be used over and over again, recouping that investment. Animation improves the viewer’s ability to access the knowledge.
is always intuitively available to the trainee. There’s a good reason we use the term “illustrate” to explain—and animation can go a step further, by not simply illustrating but using motion and sound to illuminate. Instead of stranding the trainee, an active participant, with a passive tool like a manual, the trainer that utilizes animation makes the training program itself active. Traditional textbook learning methods are becoming less effective With the new generation of employees growing up in the digital age, traditional methods of learning are no longer a sufficient answer to their training needs. Animation creates a sense of involvement with information, and when coupled with interactive elements, the result is a more stimulating for the learner. Animation transmits messages to the brain 60,000 times faster than text, proven by the fact that we can see images that last for a minimum of 13 milliseconds. Because of the way short term memory works, visuals and video have a higher recall rate that text. This is because they help the viewer to understand the content, and directs their attention towards the intended information with no distractions.
A static graphic or chart may have plenty of information, but that doesn’t mean that the data
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The House Mouse The house mouse, a mighty adversary of home dwellers. Its beady little eyes and its deceptive harmless style, make this bundle of germ filled hair play havoc on household occupants. Screams from a girly-man in the next room tells the tale of horror as it plays on our primal fears. The way it scurries across the floor watching us--watching every move we make, measuring our abilities, sizing up our childlike intellect before making its crucial move. The tiny little brain proves to competent for our feeble attempts to rid ourselves of the vermin. We chase and swing and throw and kick, but our energy goes to waste as the small invader escapes into the blackness of the inner walls. Though we tell ourselves we are superior in the animal kingdom, alas, we must humble ourselves to a force far mightier than our own. It is the mighty house mouse, master of the milieu. 60 | MC3D | October - December 2017
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Sarah Holmlund - stock.adobe.com
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Realtime vs VR
vr & realtime
For business
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By: DO Digital Realities IS REALTIME MORE IMPORTANT THAN VR? If your industry is Design and Build (D&B) then maybe VR isn’t for you. We explore the VR phenomenon and look at it’s use in D&B. We also consider how for the first time since the Virtual Reality (VR) revolution started, there are rumblings that things are not going to plan. As a business who loves VR and the exciting possibilities both Realtime and VR offer, we have noticed a few signs that VR might not be all it’s cracked up to be. There is no doubt that most people are still on a journey of discovery when VR is concerned. Most people want to use it, particularly in the design and build world (D&B) but they just don’t how to implement it into their presentations and bids. The tight deadlines and design changes require a quick turnaround solution. CGI can just about keep up the demands. Delivering super effective images and giving designers the chance to develop and refine the design schemes. VR and Realtime technologies require certain criteria to be able to deliver these solutions, including signed off layouts and fully completed design schemes. Optimisation is the key, as low poly http://mc3dmag.com
count models are not yet readily available. As the visualisation industry develops these models, the creators of VR and Realtime will have access to them. With all these considerations aside there still seems to be a few signs that VR remains to be a tricky sell. At present we have been offering Realtime over VR. Concentrating on the REALTIME interactive and collaborative solutions. There is no doubt that VR as it currently stands is a very personal and intimate experience and there lies the problem. LOSE THE ROOM Customers who have been early adopters of VR for their presentations are unsure of its future. When trying to sell and communicate a complete building design layout and concept, the inability to control the viewers’ attention and focus on your specific details is difficult. Eight potential customers all viewing a space in VR, with their mouths open wide and heads spinning in different directions is a challenging situation to manage. I believe that we like to interact and share experiences. The intimate nature of VR reduces our awareness of others and limits your understanding of their reaction to your design. We are now advising our clients to concentrate on the REALTIME collaborative presentation over VR. Allowing you the presenter full control and enabling you to dictate the message. FEAR OF TECH As different generations use and adopt tech, their levels of ability becomes more apparent. This can also be difficult to manage and anticipate. An audience of eight who have different levels of comfort and knowledge requires forethought and planning. The intrusive nature of VR headsets is difficult to over come. Will it spoil my hair? This might seem trivial but in the professional and corporate world this does matter. If you’re making your audience uncomfortable then you’re immediately on the back foot. These small but negative experiences can make all the difference. I feel sick. Nausea is still a major concern for VR leaving the user with a negative experience which can overshadow your message and pitch. Which button do I press? I can’t see the controller. Unless you’re fully conversant with the hand controllers http://mc3dmag.com
then this adds to the problem. The opportunity to present your presentation which has taken huge resource and cost deserves a slick and trouble free experience. If VR makes this process more difficult then an alternative solution is required. SO WHATS THE ANSWER? We call it REALTIME. Fully interactive and collaborative experiences. Allowing you - the presenter - the ability to control and tell your story. Offering a fully interactive and flexible presentation. By showing your REALTIME project on a large screen it allows your audience to enjoy a collaborative journey. If VR is still required, let it be part of the after sales pitch. Allow people to use the system at their own pace and comfort level. It is important to add that all of our REALTIME solutions are VR compatible. We still feel that VR it is a very powerful tool and we will continue to offer it to our customers, but we believe a successful partnership allows us to advise and inform. Realtime and VR can work together and we don’t want Realtime advantages over traditional animation or for CGI to be inhibited by any VR disasters. REALTIME offers many great and exciting possibilities. Realtime configuration, screen grabs, predetermined paths, explorer modes, day to night. You decide on the best features and we’ll build the presentation to suit your audience. The most impressive part to REALTIME, it’s all created on the fly in realtime. REALTIME rendering. Capture your animated walkthrough in minutes at high resolution. We believe REALTIME & GPU rendering is here to stay. We offer many different levels of interaction. Not all REALTIME projects have to be photo-real. Why not try a more informal and conceptual look. The project below echoes the look and feel of SketchUp. So take off the headsets and concentrate on REALTIME over VR. Let us demonstrate its potential. There are so many things we can allow you to do in a realtime project. Just ask and we can DO it.
October - December 2017 | MC3D | 63
64 | MC3D | October - December 2017
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http://mc3dmag.com
storm - 2017 stock.adobe.com October - December | MC3D | 65