Computer Graphics World - November-December 2013

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CGW November/December 2013 1

FEATURES

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PARTM

ENTS

2 EDITORS NOTEMAKING A LIST The

Oscar race is heating up which VFX and

animated films will make the nominee list?

4 SPOTLIGHTPRODUCTSNewTeks

LightWave 11.6, Nevron plug-in Dells M3800

mobile workstation Side Effects Houdini 13 Adobe/Maxons Cineware

6 NEWSRTT acquires Bunkspeed

32 EDUCATIONHow schools are helping their

graduates find employment

44 PORTFOLIODana Berry

46 REVIEWSNext Limits RealFlow, HPs Z620

48 BACK PRODUCTSRecent software andhardware releases

16 GRAVITATIONAL PULL Two films face thechallenge of animating in zero gravity.

Gravity:Keeping astronauts groundedin space

Enders Game: Going weightless in thebattle room

22 THE GOLD STANDARD The road headinginto the 86th annual Academy Awards isnearing its end. Here, we take a look at thelikely contenders in the visual effects andanimated feature races, with industry expertsweighing in.

40 BIRDS OF A FEATHER Reel FX AnimationStudios first animated feature has turkeys

as the centerpiece, requiring the studio todevise a robust feathering system.

COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD

on the COVER8WINTER WONDERLANDDisney

Animation set its latest princess movie

in a fairy-tale land of ice and snow,

requiring the studio to devise some digital

magic of its own in the form of simulation

systems and other technology.

NOV/DEC 2013 | VOL. 36 | NO. 7

| REEL FXS FREE BIRDS

| ALFONSO CUARN ONGRAVITY

| PICTURE & SOUND RESTORATION

POSTMAGAZINE.com

16 22 40

44


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2 CGW November/December 2013

Karen MoltenbreyEditor-in-Chief

[email protected]

ITHE MAGAZINE FOR DIGITAL CONTENT PROFESSIONALS

I have a confession: I make lists. In fact, I have several lists on my desk right now. A listof phone calls to be returned. A list of potential stories to check out. A list of images

I need to download today. A list of videos I need to add to the CGW website. Theres

even a list of errands I need to run at lunchtime, none of which involve food. (My gro-

cery list is on the kitchen counter.) I will spare you the details about the list making that

goes on when I have to travel. And, needless to say, my teenager bolts for the door

when he sees me coming with a list of his homework assignments.

I may be a bit obsessed with lists, but its difficult to escape them. They are

informative, and they keep things on track and in perspective. Soon the Academy

will be whittling down the list of contenders in the 2014 Oscar race. For best visual

effects, there are a number of possibilities (see The Gold Standard, pg. 22). Certain

films from this past summer looked like obvious selections moving into the fall,

but a strong year-end lineup most likely will change things up. This includes Gravity,which is pulling support in a number of Oscar categories, including visual effects (see

Gravitational Pull, pg. 16).

Another late entry that should be a big vote getter is the second film in The Hobbit

trilogy:The Desolation of Smaug. It appears that Peter Jackson and the studios find

magic in the month of December, as all threeHobbit films will be, or have been,

released in that month. The same held true forThe Lord of the Rings series. And, Walt

Disney Animation is also hoping to get studios into the holiday spirit with the release

ofFrozen during Thanksgiving weekend. The timing can be considered an early Christ-

mas presence of sorts for audiences. But, is it a gift for the studios? It seems so.

The last few Oscar winners for VFX were late-year releases: Life of Pi, Hugo, Avatar,

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Golden Compass, King Kong. As for ani-

mation, the summer seems to be the lucky season for films in this genre, especiallyfor Brave, Rango, Toy Story 3, Up, Wall-e, Ratatouille. Perhaps, though, it is more of a

Pixar thing, since all of those, with the exception of Rango, were Pixar releases.

This year, the list of animated features vying for an Oscar contains the names of

many veterans (Disney, Pixar, Sony Pictures Animation, Studio Ghibli, and Dream-

Works Animation), although there are a few relative newcomers in the hunt, including

Reel FX. In fact, Reel FX Animation Studios released its first animated feature cre-

ation, Free Birds, in November (see Birds of a Feather, pg. 40). Another list to con-

sider: Pixar films have done extremely well at the Oscars. But this year, its greatest

competition may come from within its own family, asMonsters University goes head

to head against Walt Disney Animations Frozen (see Winter Wonderland, pg. 8).

Another race that is heating up involves the new game consoles. Earlier this

year, we listed a number of new machines planned for release starting this holidayseason (see Console Wars Redux, March/April 2013). While there are a number of

newcomers stepping into the market, the big competition is between Microsofts

Xbox One and Sonys PlayStation 4. As of this writing, launch day was right around

the corner, and stories abound with commentary about which system is better and

which should be at the top of everyones wish list.

You know, the funny thing about lists is they change constantly. So, I think it's time

for me to make some new ones. CGW

RECENT AWARDS

THE MAGAZINE FOR DIGITAL CONTENT PROFESSIONALS

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFKaren Moltenbreye:[email protected]: 603.432.7568

CONTRIBUTING EDITORSCourtney Howard,Jenny Donelan, Kathleen Maher, George Maestri,

Martin McEachern, Barbara Robertson

PUBLISHER / PRESIDENT / CEOWilliam R. Rittwage

COP Communications

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Making a List
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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L I G H Tspot

NewTek Turns On LightWave

11.6, NevronMotion Plug-inThe LightWave 3D Group, a division of NewTek, has rolled out the final re-

lease of LightWave 11.6 software for 3D modeling, animation, and rendering.

Also available is the final version of the NevronMotion plug-in for LightWave

11.6, which uses the Microsoft Kinect camera to capture motion in real time

for retargeting to 3D or live-performance characters. NevronMotion alsosimplifies retargeting data from standard motion-capture files directly into the

LightWave interface.

LightWave 11.6 introduces many new ways for artists and designers to

model, animate, capture, retarget, and input and output to 3D. With the

Spline Control tool, nulls or other objects act as nodes in a spline to control

or deform objects, such as tentacles, tails, whips, or even elevators. Raycast

Motion utilizes raycasting technology to make an animated object aware of

its surroundings. And, the Compound Node feature can simplify complex

networks down to a single node.

LightWave 11.6 also helps streamline real-time virtual production, previs,

and game development through the use of Nvidias CgFX shader. The Mod-

eler in the release now includes new import and export options to supportthe popular STL and PLY file formats for 3D printing. With support for Nvidia

3D Vision, 3D Vision Pro, and HDMI stereo devices, artists can visualize high-

quality advanced stereoscopic 3D environments across multiple devices.

Meanwhile, the NevronMotion plug-in extends the softwares virtual studio

tools to: Capture live-rig motion with the Kinect camera; retarget motion

capture directly in LightWave Layout; save and adjust captured motion data

from the Kinect camera; easily adjust arm and leg mocap positions and layer

hand-keyed animation on top of motion-capture files; save and load

retargeting presets for FBX, BVH, or custom setups; preset

rigs for Kinect and motion-capture formats; and quickly bake

out motion to character rigs

LightWave 11.6 is priced at $1,495, and the NevronMotion plug-inis priced at $299.

Dell's M3800

Mobile WorkstationBlends Beauty,Performance

Dell has added a new form factor

to its family of powerful mobile

workstations: the thinnest and

lightest 15-inch true mobile work-

station, the Dell Precision M3800,

which merges beautiful design

in an ultra-thin form factor with

workstation-class performance.Less than three-quarters of

an inch thin (18 mm) and start-

ing at 4.15 pounds (1.88 kg), the

M3800 features dual-cooling and

more than 10 hours of battery life

with Nvidia Optimus technology.

The Precision M3800 is available

with Windows 8.1 Pro (64-bit) or

genuine Windows 7 Professional

(64-bit) and is loaded with up to

16GBof memory, and 4th genera-

tion Intel Core i7-4702HQ eight-threaded quad-core processor

with up to 3.2GHz clock speeds.

The M3800 is equipped with the

Nvidia Quadro K1100M GPU with

2GBof GDDR5 dedicated memory,

offering twice as much onboard

video memory as the HP Z series

Ultrabook, according to Dell. The

workstation also comes with a

15.6-inch UltraSharp display.

The Dell Precision M3800 has a

starting price of $1,799.


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8/52


Side Effects Unveils Houdini13 with Finite-Element Solver

Side Effects Software has released Houdini 13, which introduces a finite-

element solver for bending and tearing FX, a new multithreaded particle

architecture integrated into Houdinis existing dynamics context, and a new

lighting workflow to efficiently handle massive data sets.

The finite-element solver analyzes the stresses on solid objects, then

either bends or breaks each

shape. This new solver is

ideal for creating realistic

destruction shots or soft-

body FX with volume

preservation.The new particle ar-

chitecture has been fully

integrated into the dynamics

context to provide seamless

interaction with other simulation tools. This vex-based framework is multi-

threaded and allows for speeds up to 10x faster as well as cached results

for scrubbing in the timeline. There are also new particle tools and forces,

including Axis Force, which uses 3D volumes to control particles.

Houdini 13s new lighting workflow has been built to efficiently manage

huge datasets. This new workflow offers a data tree view for assigning ma-

terials and lights to the objects and groups found in Alembic files as well as

Houdinis new Packed Primitive objects.Houdini 13 can be downloaded from sidefx.com, with base Houdini avail-

able starting at $1,995 and Houdini FX starting at $4,495.

L I G H Tspot

RTT Acquires

BunkspeedRTT, a leading provider of profes-

sional high-end 3D visualization so-

lutions, has acquired Bunkspeed,

Inc. With more than a decade of

experience operating in the visual-

ization marketplace and a versatile

design tool, Bunkspeed completes

the RTT portfolio of comprehensive

products.

Traditionally, RTT has provided

enterprise solutions and servicesfor OEMs that employ digital prod-

uct pipelines. Bunkspeed repre-

sents a company with a focus on

design visualization tools. The acqui-

sition extends RTTs services to

agencies and designers by offering

this lightweight, robust design tool.

Peter Stevenson, CEO of RTT

USA, says, The addition of Bunk-

speeds specialty services and

footprint will allow RTT to provide

a broader range of capabilities toour customers.

Bunkspeed will continue to

operate under the same name and

is now a wholly owned subsid-

iary of RTT. The incorporation of

Bunkspeed will take place over

the upcoming months, and both

companies note that the clients

will continue to receive the same

support during the transition that

they have always enjoyed.

David Randle, general managerof Bunkspeed, states, The acqui-

sition of Bunkspeed by RTT will

provide major benefits to our exist-

ing and future customers. They

bring a level of global presence,

knowledge, support, and expertise

that will complement and enhance

our core offerings.

Steven Madge, managing direc-

tor of the Pasadena, California,

office has been named CEO of

Bunkspeed, Inc.

Adobe/Maxon CinewareConnection Gets TighterThe latest release of Adobe After Effects CC includes updates to

Cineware, improving the integration and performance between Maxons

Cinema 4D application and Adobes After Effects.

Since the introduction of After Effects CC, creative professionals have

benefitted from the seamless integration provided by Cineware thatestablishes a bridge between the Maxon and Adobe applications and al-

lows users to open any 3D file that Cinema 4D supports directly in After

Effects that can be edited and enhanced using the Live 3D pipeline.

Compositing passes can also be selected directly in After Effects for

editing. This version of After Effects CC includes the debut of Cinema

4D Lite, a limited yet feature-rich version of Cinema 4D integrated within

After Effects that gives artists access to a selection of the softwares

functionality.

Many updates in the new release of Cinema 4D, Release 15, are also

available in the latest version of After Effects CC. They include an Options

Dialog Box, rendering enhancements, an upgrade path to Cinema 4D.


9/52

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SIMULATION


SIMULATION

The theme of Disneys 53rdfeature animation is the power of love over fear, and its

tempting to extend that metaphor to the studio itself. With this film, Disney Animation

has fully embraced its past and skillfully incorporated the beauty and magic of tradition-

ally animated fairy tales within a truly modern feature film.

Based very loosely on Hans Christian Andersens The Snow Queen, the new Disney

classic gives Andersens villainous queen a more nuanced role, replaces the little girl

on a rescue mission with an older, spunky princess, gives the princess a good-natured

guide, and introduces a magical snowman.I remember when we were all talking about making the snow queen more three-

dimensional, says Jennifer Lee, who wrote and directed the film with Chris Buck.

Someone said, What if they [the girl and the queen] are sisters? And, everyone felt

something. I thought, Oh, gosh. I love this now.

The sisters are Elsa, voiced by Idina Menzel, and Anna, voiced by Kristen Bell. Anna

is an 18-year-old girl who calls herself ordinary, Lee says. She has a big heart, and

shes fearless. Shes also messy, talks before she thinks, and is funny and quirky. Elsa

was born with the power to create snow and ice out of nothing. When the sisters were

small, they used to sneak out at night and play with Elsas magic with such joy. But

Anna is too fearless, and she pushes too far. She gets in the way of the magic and is

hurt. The trolls save her, but they remove her memory of Elsas magic, and Elsa lives her

life hiding her powers as best she can. Her fear is that her powers will come out.


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DISNEYS EFFECTS and R&Dteams developed new tech-nology to create magical yetbelievable CG snow and ice.At far left, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff,and Sven the reindeer travel

through the result.

2013WALTDISNEYPICTURES

VIDEOS:Go to Extras in the

November/December 2013

issue box.com

Wonderland

Artists at Disney Feature Animation set an epic, magical,musical comedy in a fairy-tale land of ice and snow

By Barbara Robertson
http://www.cgw.com/Video-Center/Trailers/Frozen.aspxhttp://www.cgw.com/Video-Center/Trailers/Frozen.aspxhttp://www.cgw.com/Video-Center/Trailers/Frozen.aspxhttp://www.cgw.com/Video-Center/Trailers/Frozen.aspxhttp://www.cgw.com/Video-Center/Trailers/Frozen.aspxhttp://www.cgw.com/Video-Center/Trailers/Frozen.aspx


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SIMULATION


And then one day, Elsa becomes queen. At her coronation,

the teenaged Anna falls in love at first sight with handsome

prince Hans (Santino Fontana). After knowing Hans only oneday, she agrees to marry him. Elsas emotional reaction causes

her to lose control over her powers, and she flees. The fear

she feels has created an eternal winter, Lee says. After Elsa

accidentally turns the world cold, Anna sets out after her sister.

Anna seeks to melt Elsas frozen heart and bring summer

back to the kingdom. And with that, the movie begins in ear-

nest. On Annas journey through the snowy mountain land-

scape, she meets Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), an ice harvester

who lives with his reindeer. He offers to help her navigate

through the mountains. Along the way, they meet the magical

snowman named Olaf (Josh Gad).

What a lot of people dont know is that Elsa and Anna hadcreated Olaf when they were little by hand-rolling him out of

Elsas snow, Lee says. He represents their beautiful inno-

cence. When Elsa thinks shes a safe distance away, she builds

an ice palace, and in that freedom re-creates the Olaf from her

childhood in a song, the song Let It Go. In this film, we never

start and stop for a song. Every song is a continuation of the

plot; they drive the plot forward.

Olaf represents the love between the sisters, and in do-

ing so, has an emotional role. But, he also provides slapstick

comic relief in the film. Hes obviously made of snow, so we

had to respect truth in materials in how snow moves, says

Lino DiSalvo, head of animation. And, his arms are sticks, so

we couldnt bend them in the film. The

beauty of that is it put him in interesting

situations. Having him scratch his head or

reach for an object becomes a complex,

fun situation. How do you get a character

with straight arms on Sven [the rein-deer]? How does he poke up over an ice

bluff to see whats going on?

The answer to the latter question is:

He pops off his head and holds it up with

his arm.

Truth in ActingOlaf is a bipedal character with the struc-

ture of a human, but animators could

disconnect and reconnect all his body

parts. The things that made him special

were out of the ordinary for us, saysFrank Hanner, character CG supervisor.

Luckily, we knew those things early on.

He was always going to be magical, and

from day one or two we had reference

designs of Olaf pulling his head off, or

melting in a corner and rolling a new body. They were fun, cool

ideas. But, it was a bit of a challenge to construct a system

that allowed any part of this little guy to disconnect and arbi-

trarily reconnect.

The rigging team devised a tool they named Spaces that

gave animators a convenient way to reconfigure the rig. He

has one rig with mechanisms for connecting and disconnect-ing, Hanner says. Working in Autodesks Maya, an animator

could click a button to have Olafs head fall off and still animate

his body walking away.

His body parts could be in world space or local space,

DiSalvo says. So, we could pull his arm off and pop it into

world space and then continue working on his body.

DiSalvo led a crew of 70 animators by casting supervisors

for each of the hero characters and then finding pockets of

animators for specific moments. Our animation department is

so fine-tuned, I felt like a conductor of an amazing orchestra, he

says. Wed be in review sessions and nine out of 10 times wed

find ourselves involved in the movie rather than critiquing light-ing or whatever. Wed all be leaning forward watching the film,

and Id think, Oh my gosh, I think we have something special.

Although all the humans, the reindeer, and, of course, Olaf,

are caricatures, the animation team strived for what they call

truth in acting. The first order of business for us was bring-

ing in the voice actors, DiSalvo says. I moderated a session

like Inside the Actors Studio, with the animators sitting

around. And, an acting coach came here early in the process

and we went through pages of the script. We wanted truth in

acting, truth in the emotion. We wanted to make sure emo-

tions crescendo at the right time. Its easy in an animated film

to put the volume on 12 in every shot, with every animator

AT TOP, OLAF CAN bend his stick arms (and not melt)only in his dreams of summer. At bottom, lighting artists

used full raytracing to render Elsas ice palace.


13/52


trying to outdo the other. But, we didnt want clichs.

Before committing to CG animation, the animators spent time

looking at hand-drawn animation. We went through explorations

of the hero characters for a year and a half, DiSalvo says. They

also shot live-action reference, drew thumbnails, and pulled

from their own life experiences to dig into that truth. DiSalvoprovides an example from his life experience that informed the

animators performance of Kristoff in an emotional scene.

In the sequence, Kristoff and his reindeer, Sven, are travel-

ling through frozen tundra. Sven slips on the ice and falls into

the water, and DiSalvo remembered a similar situation. My

dog was walking around my parents backyard and fell through

the ice in a koi pond, he says. I had to run across the yard

and jump into the frozen lake to save him. We discussed that

moment and knew that Kristoff wouldnt be just surprised or

sad. You see fear on his face. He potentially lost his best friend.

We didnt over-animate. We didnt caricature. He has a specific

expression of fear.

The crew even had a reindeer come to the studio so the

animators could research Svens movements. We got all the

70 animators outside together, DiSalvo says. We brought inthe reindeer. And he just stood there eating grass. We realized

reindeer dont do much. So John Lasseter and I started talk-

ing about what we could caricature. I talked about my French

bulldog, and John talked about his two dogs, and we started

exploring Sven as if he were a dog. Sven became everyones

favorite fun moments with their pets.

As for the lead characters: The most important thing

was bringing the nuances and subtleties of the hand-drawn

characters to the CG characters, DiSalvo says. To be able to

animate a film about love, about someone who is driven by

fear, and someone who is fearless, to have one sister want-

ing to get her sister back we couldnt wait to get a shot withthese characters. Acting-wise, there is nothing more satisfying

than animating characters with so much subtext. So many of

us here wanted to get into animation because of Beauty and

the Beast, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King. And all of a sud-

den, here we are about to animate Elsa.

Elsas MagicElsas conflicting emotions, which provided such depth for the

animators, created a flurry of challenges for an effects team

that needed to produce her magical snow and ice. Elsas

magic is emotional, Lee says. We wanted it to have a lan-

guage that was part of the storytelling and help express whenshes feeling joy, when shes gnarly, when shes grieving.

That intent was so strong the effects team became involved

with the story and animation departments early in the process.

We put the film up in storyboards every 12 weeks to get

notes from our colleagues, Lee says. We wanted to know

how they felt and what was possible. We had them hand-draw

what Elsas magic would look like, and the drawings were

stunning. Some of these hand-drawings are still in the film

because they fit so well in this magical, not real, world.

Visual Effects Supervisor Steve Goldberg, who came onto

the show soon after finishing Tangled, led the teams of artists

who would create the stunning effects. Michael Giaimo [artdirector] and Chris Buck [director], who was solo on Frozen at

the time, took me to lunch two and a half years ago, told me

about the show, and asked me to be a Sherpa guide for all

things CG. We had all worked together on Pocahontas Chris

was an animator and Mike was the art director. I thought it

sounded intriguing, but I was still recovering from Tangled.

The more Goldberg talked with Giaimo, though, the more

smitten with the project he became. The studio was interested

in what it calls creative R&D, and asked me to join with Mike on

Frozen,Goldberg says. They were having traditionally-trained

artists with little CG background do animation tests in paper

and pencil all 2D exploration. I got to work with this group and

Braid-y BunchAnna and Elsa, the two stars of Frozen, wear their long

hair in braids, and Elsa, in some sequences, braids

her hair into an elaborate updo. A lot of the hairstyles

are heavily designed, braided, or wound, says Frank

Hanner, character CG supervisor. The traditional CG

hair interaction techniques, which involve curves, digi-

tal brushes, and digital combs, didnt work well. So we

wrote a new software package we call Tonic. It gives

our hair artists a sculpture-based tool set.

Typically the modelers would first create roughproxies that showed shapes or rough directions. Once

approved, the hair artists began refining those shapes

with Tonic. In Tonic, they could see pipes or tubes that

represented hair and could toggle individual strands of

hair within to see the flow. Working with these vol-

umes gives hairstyles complete fullness, Hanner says.

Once groomed and structured with Tonic, the hair

moved into Disneys simulation package called Dy-

namic Wires. The transition is automatic, Hanner

says. But, the artists can rearrange and procedurally

regenerate subsets of data the simulation works with.

Barbara Robertson


14/52

SIMULATION


point them in directions that might influence the film.

Designer Dan Lund, for example, began drawing 2D snowflurries. We wanted our snow flurries and gusts to have a

lyrical quality, not like someone ran a particle simulation with

occasional gusts, Goldberg says. Dan came up with gor-

geous tests in 2D, experimenting with positive and negative

shapes. Elsa has a signature snowflake design that shows up

during the film. And Dans snowflakes not only had this design,

but his snow flurries formed negative shapes that had her sig-

nature design. I dont think we would ever have come across

that if someone had just said, We need snow flurries.

Working with Goldberg were Effects Supervisors Marlon

West and Dale Mayeda. Wests career as an effects artist and

supervisor stretches back to Lion King, and includes Mulan,Tarzan, Fantasia 2000,and, more recently, The Princess and

the Frog. And, like Goldberg, Giaimo, and Buck, he had worked

on Pocahontas. Mayeda has been a 3D animator and effects

supervisor on live-action films (Mission to Mars) and Disney

Animation CG features (Bolt, Tangled, Chicken Little). Together,

they helped bring the 2D design elements into the CG film.

This was a rare film in which effects came into the process

early on, West says. We did a lot of 2D tests to suggest

things Elsa could do with her magic. We did proof-of-concept

tests. We had an effects artist embedded in layout who did

previs. We put 2D drawings on cards, and character animators

acted to some of them. And, we did 2D animation that drove

CG geometry. Every time Elsa freezes a

surface, its 2D artwork that we took into

[Side Effects] Houdini and made ice with

it. We had to show who she is at differ-

ent times of her life, when she is happy,

sad, angry. She creates mini-weathersystems from her being. We didnt want

snow shooting out of her hands.

In one sequence, for example, a

panicky Elsa backs up against a water

fountain. When she touches it, a frost

pattern shoots across the edge, and the

water in the fountain freezes.

The effects artists previsd the whole

thing in 2D, Mayeda says. When the

effects animators began looking at it,

they realized they could grow it procedur-

ally with particles, but the growth patternwould be too realistic. So instead, they

used the designer-drawn 2D artwork

to drive the shape of the frost patterns

formed in Houdini and the timing. The

timing from the 2D artwork was snappy

rather than linear and procedural. We spent a lot of time on

this show incorporating hand-drawn artwork.

Emotional EffectsDuring the testing stage, Michael Kaschalk, a studio leader in

the effects group and former effects supervisor on Tangled,

played around with the idea of capturing designs that Elsamight generate. He went to our camera capture stage, which

we use for digital scouting and handheld camera work, Gold-

berg says, took a wand, and drew arcs like someone with a

sparkler on the Fourth of July. We tracked those arcs in space.

So, rather than having someone draw curves on the computer,

we got interesting shapes and double, triple, quadruple paths.

We used these lyrical shapes as forces in a particle system. We

ended up not using many of the results, but they informed the

simulation that we used later.

Capturing the wand in space also helped the artists create

snow flurries that wrap around Anna when she falls down a

cliff and lands in a snowbank. We had someone sit on themotion-capture stage while we wrapped the wand around and

around her, Goldberg explains. The main path gave us an

overall sense, and then Michael [Kaschalk] played around with

aesthetic ideas for smaller tendrils that branch off, working

back and forth with the directors and John Lasseter.

Throughout the film, snow supports the storytelling and

Elsas emotions. All the snow is tied to Elsas mood, so it has

an emotional beat to it the turbulence as it falls, the angle,

West says. We ended up with 20 kinds of snow falling in the

film. And, all the snowflakes that fall are unique. Our snow-

flakes follow a path like in nature, with a particle that branches

and forms plate-like crystals. Even in Elsas magic, which has a

AT TOP, ANIMATORS REFERENCED their pets to giveSven an appealing personality. At bottom, a fight with

a giant snowman is the only scene in which characters

move on hard-packed, rather than soft, snow.


15/52


pixie-dust language, the snowflakes dont pop on and off. They

grow like snowflakes in nature. Our snowflake simulator cre-

ated 2,500 unique snowflakes.

Snow Tech

All those falling snowflakes created ankle-deep powderthrough which the characters in the film walk, and which the

effects team created. Only one sequence, an action sequence

with a giant snowman, put the characters on hard-packed

snow. The rest of the time, they move through softer snow in

various depths.

When characters walk through the snow, the only limit

should be on how fast they move, and that is dictated by the

story, Goldberg says. How fast they move tells us how deep

the snow should be. It freaked people out a little at first. There

are some shots with snow up to the characters mid-thighs

and in those shots Anna has to hold her dress up.

To research shots such at those, Disney sent the animatorsand effects artists on a field trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

We had everyone wear a dress just to get their minds around

the hard work it is walking through the stuff, Goldberg says.

Were in Burbank, California. For us, snow is magical.

To create the snow and manage the interaction between

snow and characters, the team developed two systems: Snow

Batcher for shallow snow, and Matterhorn for deep snow and

close-ups.

We knew a good portion of the film would be outdoors and

that the characters would walk through ankle-deep and deeper

snow, Mayeda says. The standard slight [foot] impressions

wouldnt work, so we created our Snow Batcher pipeline. Itcould define which characters disturbed the snow and how

deep, automatically create foot impressions, add additional

snow, and kick it up. We put a lot of information into the data-

base for each shot.

Snow Batcher worked for shallow snow, but not for the

knee-deep and deeper snow the characters trudge through in

some scenes, for close-up shots, and for scenes in which a

character moves a hand through the snow.

We looked at all the tools on the market, but nothing really

does snow that looks like snow, Mayeda says. So, Andrew

Selle and his team spent a good amount of time creating Mat-

terhorn, a snow solver. We thought wed use it on only a fewshots, but they worked with [Effects Animator] David Hutchins

to productize it, and we used it for 40 shots in the film. Its the

most amazing stuff Ive seen in CG.

West provides some examples: We used Matterhorn in a

sequence where Anna walks through almost waist-deep show,

a blizzard when a ship tips over and dumps tons of snow, and

other shots, he says. We sprinkled it on Kristoffs feet.

Snow can be both solid and pliable it can clump and break

apart, or cling to itself when wet. Its neither fluid nor rigid

body, so neither fluid or rigid-body simulations would do. Selle

and his team needed another type of simulator, one that could

handle elastic to plastic materials.

Snow Batcher allowed us to do shots farther away where

we couldnt tell it was an approximation, Selle says. But up

close, the snow looked like packing peanuts. So we stepped

back and looked for research on snow simulation. We couldnt

find any papers.

What they did find, however, was research into material

point methods (MPM) of simulation. The material point

method was the basis, Selle says. Then we determined rules

for the continuum mechanics.

Continuum mechanics considers the physics of materials

Clothes EncountersWith 114 characters in the film wearing winter clothes,

the CG character team had a great excuse for not

simulating every costume in the film. But, we didntgo down that road, says Frank Hanner, character CG

supervisor. Rather than do little CG cheats, we decided

to simulate every piece of clothing. We wanted fully

dynamic, fully simulated wardrobes.

The design comes from bunad, a style of clothing

based on traditional Scandinavian folk costumes. It

features a lot of heavy wools, multi-layered, pleated cos-

tumes with intricate embroidering, and the Norwegian

decorative trim pattern called rosemaling, Hanner says.

There are so many elements in these bunad designs

that the artists couldnt approach them in a traditional

CG sense, so they learned how to tailor a real-worldcostume. We started with a sculpted shape and then cut

it into flat patterns that we put into the simulator.

Disney uses a custom cloth simulator called Fabric

that they updated to handle the bunad costumes. We

needed to implement a distinction between warp and

weft stretch forces and sheering forces, and to sup-

port pattern-based designs where we cut fabric along

the bias, which is important with tight-fitting, stretchy

fabric, Hanner says.

By the end of the film, the team had created 245 simu-

lation rigs for the clothing, more than double the num-

ber used for all their previous films combined. Barbara Robertson


16/52

SIMULATION


modeled as a continuous mass rather than discrete particles

elastic materials that return to their rest shape, and plastic

materials that permanently deform.

Selle and a team of mathematicians from UCLA became the

first to apply this type of simulation to computer graphics. The

teams effort produced the technique used in Frozenfor deep

and close-up snow, and resulted in a 2013 SIGGRAPH paper

A Material-Point Method for Snow Simulation by Alexey

Stomakhin, Craig Schroeder, Lawrence Chai, Joseph Teran, and

Selle. The papers subtitle is: Combining a Lagrangian/Eulerian

semi-implicitly solved material-point method with an elasto-

plastic constitutive model to simulate the varied phenomenaof snow.

When you pull on a clump of snow, it breaks apart, Selle

says. If its wet, it sticks together. We considered all these

properties and found a model that allowed us to represent

them. The program knows how to compute solutions in which-

ever is more appropriate particles or grids and integrate

the equations. We can represent all the pieces of snow as par-

ticles, and unlike normal particle-based systems, each particle

can have properties that represent its state; that is, a measure

of is deformation, how much it stretches and rotates. In addi-

tion, we have parameters to control intrinsic properties such

as stiffness and resistance to compressibility, and these thingscan change over time and space. Different parts of snow can

have different properties a top layer that freezes overnight

and forms a crust over a soft interior.

In practice, the artists started with an initial preview based

on Snow Batcher. The first thing we needed to do, Selle

says, was to make sure the animators could see where the

snow would be even if it wasnt final snow. Snow Batcher gave

us that quick preview.

If, for example, a character was stepping into knee-deep

snow, Snow Batcher would carve out part of the snow. It

deforms the base-level surface and creates a cavity, Selle

explains. In this hole, we seed the active snow. We make an

implicit surface of that space. That gives us our initial mate-

rial points. We set the material properties based on what the

snow needs to be powdery or stiff. Then, we bring in the

character as a collision object into the simulator, hit Run, and

get snow interacting with the character.

At the end of the simulation, the team would sometimes

create an implicit surface and mesh from the particles for ren-

dering; other times theyd produce a density field and render

the result as a volume. One of the interesting things about

this simulation is that the properties stayed the same whether

we ran it at coarse resolution or higher resolution, Selle says.

Higher resolution produced more interesting chunks, moreinteresting pieces that resolved more, but we could get a good

preview at low resolution.

That meant the team could run quick sims in 20 or 30

seconds a frame to have a good idea what higher-resolution

results that might take overnight or longer would produce.

We were impressed that it scaled really well, Mayeda

says. We could run the simulation and it would give us the

results we wanted to see.

Snow BlindMohit Kallianpur, director of cinematography for lighting, led

the team of 68 artists who created the look of the snow thatthe audiences see in the film. As with many on the crew of

Frozen, Kallianpur moved onto this film after finishing work on

Tangled.We knew that one of our big challenges would be

large-scale environments with snow, he says.

Disney uses Pixars PR RenderMan and had moved to Ver-

sion 17 for this film. We knew we had to raytrace a chunk

of the show, but we didnt want to raytrace the entire show,

Kallianpur says. We used raytracing for the large ice-palace

environments, which were very, very expensive. For the snow,

we generated large point clouds for subsurface scattering and

used deep shadow maps.

To create new snow shaders, the team in Burbank worked

ELSAS MOOD determined thetype of snow created for a scene.


17/52


with Disney researchers in Zurich, Switzerland where its

easier to get snow, Kallianpur laughs. There, the team mea-

sured the diffusion profile of snow with lasers.

We had weekly meetings with them and our shading

department to talk about the technical aspects of rendering

snow, Kallianpur says. We ended up shaping shallow anddeep subsurface scattering lobes according to real data and

then combining the two different effects. It isnt raytracing

through a volume; its an approximation. But, we got a nice

lighting effect.

All the hero characters benefited from the R&D into subsur-

face scattering, as well. We used a similar technique for their

skin with shallow and deep subsurface scattering, but with

different lobes than the snow, Kallianpur says. For the deep

snow and snow that the characters interact with, the lighting

team used a completely different shading system that lit the

snow as if it were a volume.

Olaf, however, provided a unique challenge: Hes a snowmanin snow. We used a cheat to make him stand out, Kallianpur

says. We always made him pop by using value hes a little

brighter than the background behind him, or we placed a shad-

ow behind him. Or, if hes in a saturated environment, he might

be slightly more neutral. And, we always had rim light on him.

Throughout the film, the lighting artists took care to use

hues and saturations that kept the film from looking too white,

and at the same time, made sure the snow never turned gray.

Even in our bleak scenes when the directors wanted the

mood dark and gray, we play our grays slightly blue-violet,

Kallianpur says.Kallianpur stayed involved with the look of the film all the

way through color timing, and is thrilled with the result. I have

seen this film I dont know how many times, and its just amaz-

ing, he says. Im biased, but its really the most beautiful CG

film I have ever seen.

By successfully integrating 2D traditions into a CG world,

one filled with technical challenges, the Disney artists have

created a unique film and a certain classic.

I felt like a gift had landed in my lap, Goldberg says. One

of the reasons I came to Disney was the promise of apply-

ing and blending the fantastic 2D aesthetic and design, those

design principles, in a CG 3D medium. I felt we achieved thaton this show. CGW

Barbara Robertsonis an award-winning writer and

a contributing editor for CGW. She can be reached

at [email protected].

ANIMATION& VISUAL EFFECTS

Vancouver Fi lm School
mailto:[email protected]://vfs.edu/cgwhttp://vfs.edu/cgwhttp://vfs.edu/cgwhttp://vfs.edu/cgwmailto:[email protected]


18/52

ANIMATION


VIDEO:Go to Extras

in the November/December

2013 issue box.com

IN TWO FILMS THIS YEAR, WE SAW ACTORS

PERFORMING IN ZERO GRAVITY, WHICH IS, OF

COURSE, SOMETHING IMPOSSIBLE TO FILM.

Director Alfonso Cuarns Gravitysends two astronauts (San-

dra Bullock and George Clooney) orbiting in outer space with-

out a vehicle. Their space suits are low on oxygen, and debris

from an explosion flies toward them. We watch Clooney driftaway, and then for the rest of the 90-minute film, the camera

follows Bullock as she tries to find a way home. There are only

a few scenes in which Bullock is not in zero gravity.

In a second zero-gravity film, Writer/Director Gavin Hoods

Enders Game, a brilliant young teenager spends time weight-

less in a battle room learning how to lead a team that will

fight a forthcoming alien invasion.

Artists at Framestore handled 95 percent of the visual

effects in Gravity. Similarly, Digital Domain artists provided the

visual effects for Enders Game.To sell the illusion of weight-

lessness in the actors performances, the two studios used

two very different approaches.

Tim Webber was visual effects supervisor for the film; Max

Solomon was animation supervisor and previsd the opening

sequence. We caught up with Solomon at the VIEW Confer-

ence. Alfonso [Cuarn] conceived the film as traditionally

filmed, with actors on sets and on wires, he says. But, he

has a very particular style: His films are immersive, with longtakes, and early tests showed that a traditional shoot with post

wouldnt work. Tim [Webber] suggested using CG. Alfonso

was skeptical, but there was no alternative.

Thus, the team developed a plan in which they would move

the actors only moderately and have a camera and lights orbit

around them.

Alfonso wanted total freedom of motion, Solomon says.

There would be no sense of horizon. The characters would be

free to move and shift in any direction, and the camera needed

to move all around them.

But, while it was possible to imagine moving a camera

around the actors, moving lights large enough to represent
http://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/In-Focus/2013/Out-of-the-World.aspxhttp://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/In-Focus/2013/Out-of-the-World.aspxhttp://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/In-Focus/2013/Out-of-the-World.aspxhttp://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/In-Focus/2013/Out-of-the-World.aspxhttp://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/In-Focus/2013/Out-of-the-World.aspxhttp://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/In-Focus/2013/Out-of-the-World.aspx


19/52

INGRAVITY, previs often drove thecameras, lights, and sometimes even

the actors motion on set.

2013 WARNER BROS.

light emanating from Earth presented a problem. The Earth

provided much of the light, and it would be colossal in frame,

Solomon says.

In early 2010, long before production started, Paul Debevecs

group at ICT/USC had demonstrated a light stage system in

which light from LEDs surrounding an actor provided changing

lighting conditions, while high-speed cameras captured theactors face. Later, Director of Photography Emmanuel Lubezki

saw images created with LEDs on screens behind performers

at a rock concert. The ideas coalesced and evolved into a light-

box that Webber designed, a cube within a cube covered with

LEDs that Framestore eventually programmed with images.

The outside cube was 20 feet high to provide room for a tilt

rig beneath and a camera to move below. The actor performed

within a smaller cube inside that was typically 10x10x10 feet;

however, it could change shape and size, and walls on sliders

could move in and out. Actors inside the box could see images

created with the LEDs. Light, which could change in color and

brightness, appeared to move around the actor inside.

Importance of PrevisIn 2010, when Solomon began working on the previs, two

artists worked with him, but that team soon grew to 30

animators, and The Third Floor contributed previs. Initially, we

thought the previs would be a guide, but as we developed it,

we realized previs would drive the lightbox and cameras onrobots. It would need to be technical and precisely planned.

Alfonso realized that this is where he would make his film.

To understand how people move without gravity, the anima-

tors spent time studying reference material from NASA, run-

ning simulations, and talking to astronauts. They mapped out

the shot structure, working from storyboards.

Alfonso is one of the rare directors who imagines some-

thing and takes it all the way through, Solomon says. The

ideas were all there in the original storyboards.

For one shot during the opening sequence, however, the

previs artists had to deviate from the camera motion planned

in the storyboard. In the shot, the space station has been hit,


Visual effects

artists put actors in

zero gravity for two

films: Gravity andEnders Game

By Barbara Robertson


20/52

ANIMATION


and Bullock, who is outside in a space suit, grabs onto an arm

projecting out from the station. The camera was discon-

nected from Sandra [Bullock], and it was confusing, Solomon

says. We found that in all the shots, there is no context. So,its hard to assess whats happening, and that can make you

nauseous in stereo. Its better to have one thing move. In this

case, the previs artists designed the shot with the camera

locked onto Bullock while debris spins around her.

Two months before production was due to start, the artists

switched from previs to technical breakdowns. In this tech-

vis process, the team assessed shot methodology and shoot

feasibility, and then did a breakdown of camera and actor

motion and lighting. For many of the shots, the team pre-

programmed the camera and lights based on decisions made

during previs, and for some, even the movement of the actors.

On SetWe had three shoot methodologies, Solomon says. One

was traditional with the camera on a crane and actors on wires

or dollies. The second used the lightbox and motion control. In

the lightbox, the crew could adjust the master controls for the

specially designed camera and offset Earth and sun spheres

created with LEDs driven by previs. The hue, brightness, and

saturation of the 1.8 million LEDs were individually controllable.

We shot at half-speed because of limitations on how fast the

camera could move, Solomon says. Then we retimed after.

Motion control drove the third method of shooting. We had

the actors, lights, camera all on motion control, Solomon says.

It was the least efficient and

the least flexible, so we used it

for only one or two shots.

Meanwhile, at Framestore,

artists did modeling and lighting

tests for the CG space suits.

We saw them as a third charac-

ter, Solomon says. We based

them on real suits, but they

needed greater range of motion.

We simulated the cloth to fold,bend, and crease realistically.

In all the exterior shots, the

actors are digital characters

except for their faces. After the

shoot, the work on tracking the

cameras, the helmets, and the

bodies began. It was a massive

headache, Solomon says. We

rebuilt the previs with all the new plates, managed and adjusted

the timing, then began the process of re-animating with San-

dras and Georges performances. The performance was all in

the face. By chance, the lightbox was the perfect environment.It was isolating and confusing for the actors all the emotions

they needed to express.

In Enders Game,Asa Butterfield, the actor playing the lead

character Ender Wiggin, trains in a zero-gravity room during

battle school. Digital Domain provided the effects for this

sci-fi action/adventure under the leadership of Visual Effects

Supervisor Matthew Butler. The studio had three big advan-

tages: First, Digital Domain was a co-producer, which gave it

early involvement in the planning (see Moving On Up, pg.20); second, Butler has a masters degree in aeronautics and

astronautics from MIT; and third, his roommate in college is

Astronaut Gregory Chamitoff, who had flown on the space

shuttle Endeavorand spent months at a space station.

Butler worked with Garrett Warren, the stunt coordinator and

second unit director, on solving the zero-gravity problem. Its

tricky, Butler says. Its important to show your real actors and

actresses, your heroes, so wherever possible, we wanted to

shoot them for real. But, there is no zero-gravity place on Earth

we could use. We wanted to shoot live-action faces, but we

faced the physical limitations of reality.

The solution was what Butler calls a smorgasbord of solu-

At top, an actor in thelightbox could see images

created with LEDs. At bottom,

Framestore artists worked

from previs to animate the

wide, all-CG shots.

ARTICLE: Go to Extras in the

November/December 2013 issue

box for a story on Gravitys 3D.com
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21/52


tions. Some shots were fully CG, which removed the problem

of physical reality. For some, they could use live-action shots

of the actor. But more often than not, they photographed But-

terfield, and we manipulated the content back into a physically

realistic situation, Butler says. When the actors are in the

middle of the battle room, their center of mass is where it is. In

zero gravity, you still have a center of mass mass and gravity

are completely independent. But, you have no weight. And,your center of mass cannot move without force. What it means

is that the actors pivot point should be at a fixed point in space,

not a fixed point on the body. Theres no point on the body that

is a pivot point. But, we still have the same inertia; Newtonian

physics still applies, and we had to abide by all those rules.

On set, Warren had rigged wires and armatures to move But-

terfield. In tight shots when you couldnt see anything other

than his head and shoulders, he was on a bicycle seat on an ar-

mature, Butler says. If he needed to leap, Garret would move

him on wires. The problem is that penduluming is a function of

gravity, so it was hard to move him at a constant speed.

The stunt coordinator also put Butterfield in a tuning-fork-like

apparatus that held him at the waist, and used a dual-axis har-ness to rotate him. But again, it didnt allow for a correct pivot

point, Butler says. We did our best, and then wed get back

to the ranch here, to Digital Domain, copy what we photo-

graphed, and look at what was wrong with it.

Pivot PointThe first step was to move the actors in the footage as much

as they could to try to approximate zero gravity. Next, they roto-

DIGITAL DOMAIN corrected footage of actors on set to

give the correct pivot point for movement in zero gravity.

VIDEO:Go to Extras

in the November/December 2013

issue box.com

2013SummitEntertainment.

These are some of the exciting topics that will

be covered in the January/February issue of

Computer Graphics World magazine

GAMING: A new standard for graphics in games

MODELING EVOLUTION: Blending science and art to create

Jurassic models

FANTASY CREATURES: Challenges in modeling, simulation, and

animation for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

SHORT AND SWEET: Techniques that raise the bar for CG in

short films

STORAGE: The state of storage in the studio

AND MORE

COMPUTERGRAPHICSWORL

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22/52

ANIMATION


mated the resulting images and copiedthe movement onto 3D characters.

Then, using custom tools, they com-

puted where the center of mass would

be at any time to see how much it

deviated from what it should be. If the

difference was marginal, they used the

footage. If not, they fixed the motion.

We calculated the correct pivot point, Butler says. Its a

complex problem to solve with a skeletal structure, but thats

what computers are for. The tools let the performers and ani-

mators do what they wanted, then we computed the motion

of the center of mass. The tool came up with new animationthat satisfied the laws of physics in zero gravity and kept

the head pointing back to camera in the same orientation as

when the actor was photographed, Butler says. That was

important.

The artists projected texture detail from the photographs

onto the geometry the 3D characters and re-rendered thecharacters. It was important to get footage as close as possible

ANIMATORS could move digitaldoubles freely and use a tool later to

correct the pivot point and stabilize

the character in 3D space.

The visual effects studio Digital Domain was a co-producer

of the film Enders Game. We asked Writer/Director Gavin

Hood about the impact of having a VFX studio involved inthe production from the beginning. Prior to Enders Game,

Hood most recently directed the films X-Men Origins:

Wolverine, Rendition, and Tsotsi, for which he received a

BAFTA nomination.

Visual effects play an important role in Enders Game, as

they have for some of your previous films. Did having Digi-

tal Domain onboard as a co-producer make a difference?

It made a huge difference. I know that without them in the

early phases, this film would not have been made.

How did having Digital Domain involved in the earlyphases help?

This wasnt a film everyone wanted to make; it would

always be what it became an independent movie. So,

we needed to convince investors. For the battle room

sequences, the only thing we built was the gate. When

the kids jump out, theyre on wires on greenscreen, and

there was a lot of concern about these sequences with

four kids flying around in zero gravity. So, early on, I wrote

a 45-second teaser and then designed a full version in the

computer in 3D with Ben Proctor [production designer

along with Sean Haworth]. And, of course, we brought

in [Visual Effects Supervisor] Matthew Butler, who really

understood zero gravity from an engineering and physics

point of view. Then, a team of six or eight artists, includingPrevis Artist Scott Meadows, worked together at Digital

Domain to previsualize every battle sequence. We put it

together using animated characters in the proper space,

and this is what I took to investors; we showed it to 250

buyers at Cannes.

Did you previs the entire film?

We fully previsd every scene in the battle school, every

shot. On set we could show it to our stunt coordinator

so he could rehearse. The previs was about blocking and

camera angles, and about saying to the stunt depart-

ment, This is where I see actors faces. The stunt depart-ment had amazing rigs, but at some point, we had to let

the CG guys replace the bodies to have real movement

in zero gravity. The key was having previs done well. With

the previs, I was able to more accurately show what I

wanted to achieve and could divide the work between

the departments.

Did you have lighting in previs?

No. But, we had the visual effects department involved

on set. The battle room has a glass dome with reflections,

and we wanted each of the four scenes to be lit differently,


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to what we wanted to achieve, Butler says. So, thats what

we did, and I believe it worked. We repaired all the shots that

were wrong, which was probably about half of them. In tight

shots, you couldnt really tell they werent in zero gravity. In the

medium-wide shots, we replaced nearly all of them. In the big,

wide shots, they were fully synthetic.However, even those entirely CG shots needed refining, as

well. We didnt constrain the artists, Butler says. They were

free to move the characters where they wanted, and then we

wrote a tool that corrected the pivot point and stabilized the

character in 3D space.

Facing RealityTo reproduce the actors faces, the team relied on scans from

ICT/USC to capture data that represented the features geo-

metrically and to replicate the light. The CG characters didnt

need complicated expressions; when the actors needed to

deliver lines, the crew filmed them and used that footage.On one extreme, you have fully CG characters and can

make sure the physics are correct, Butler says. On the other,

you have human actors, and we were at the peril of making

what we shot dynamic. We rocked and rolled between the

two and picked our sweet spots. Im a firm believer that if you

can shoot something, you should shoot it, so thats what we

did even if wed have to manipulate it. Were not doing visualeffects for the fun of it any more. I believe the work is success-

ful because we had a successful marriage between live-action

stunt work and synthetic manipulation.

In visual effects, we model reality, Butler says. We

look at whether something behaves the way were used to,

and what were used to is physics and optics. So, we write

renderers and simulators. They look beautiful because they

follow physical rules that define behavior. We followed the

same guidelines. CGW

Barbara Robertsonis an award-winning writer

and a contributing editor for CGW. She can bereached at [email protected].

appropriate to the mood. We had a morning scene with

the blue Earth below. Next, a romantic scene with the sun

eclipsed by the Earth. Next, we see shafts of warm amber

sunlight. And next, a film noir look. We couldnt ask the

visual effects department to just copy and paste the light-

ing. The more complicated your work is, the earlier you

want them involved.

For the battle room, we built the gate and some silverdiamond-shaped things the kids hold onto. The lighting

had to be carefully worked out. We had an amazing col-

laboration between the physical lighting team and the

visual effects lighting team. They were in sync, so the final

design would include all the lights and reflections.

Would you want the visual effects team involved early,

even if the VFX studio werent a co-producer?

Many studios think you should shoot a movie and then do

the visual effects. I think thats crazy. You only have green-

screen. You still have 50 percent of the movie to shoot. You

cant edit the movie without seriously done visual effects.So, instead of shooting actors first and then visual effects,

how about doing the visual effects first? Get the action

first and then shoot the actors, and we worked substan-

tially that way. The battle room went like a knife through

butter because of how well we prepared. The only mistake

we made, and Ive definitely learned, is that the start date

was shifted forward and we didnt properly finish the

previs of the final act. It meant the stress was greater in

shooting and we had to shoot a lot more coverage. Of

course, you dont need to do research for a film with only

enhancement work. But, for a film like this with more than

half the shots involving considerable visual effects, its

critical and wonderful.

How early should the studio bring in a visual effects team?

This is an era in which 50 percent or more of some films

are VFX-based. What I will take with me going forward

from this film is that its really important to work with

your VFX team in pre-pre-production. Thats what I wasable to do because one of the producers was a VFX com-

pany, and thats what I really enjoyed about working on

this show.

In a perfect world, just as you bring a cinematographer

on in pre-production, I think the visual effects supervisor,

who is the head of a department, is as important to bring

on early and, in some cases, more important. You can do

that whether you have a freelance supervisor and mul-

tiple houses, or one studio. I liked the fact that we had a

powerful one-stop shop, and I had the benefit of Matthew

[Butler] knowing the artists really well. Half the problem

in making films is relationship-building. I hooked up withMatthew, he hooked up with the people on his team,

and by the time we got to the set, we knew each others

quirks. I made changes to the script based on thoughts

Matthew had about the way ships move in space.

For me, visual effects is no longer something that you

tack onto the end of the film. Filmmaking is a massively

collaborative experience. We should build visual effects in

at the beginning. Its critical for them to be with the cin-

ematographer, the set designers, the costume designers,

so we can all understand the various problems. Build them

in, not bolt them on. Barbara Robertson
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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VFX ANIMATION


VIDEOS:Go to

Videos in the top

navigation bar for

clips associated

with these films

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When looking back at the movie releases from this past

year, theres one thing thats certain: The box office sure is

unpredictable. Some highly anticipated films failed to live up to

their hype; some features seemingly emerged out of nowhere

and took theaters by storm.Just what makes audiences fall in love with a film? Or give

it a cold shoulder? If there were a true formula for predicting

a films success stars versus unknowns, sequels versus

original plots, so-called chick flicks versus action movies, visual

effects versus dramatic story, real-life tales versus fantasy

Hollywood would have bottled it up for sale long ago. Indeed,

certain attributes can help a films chances with voters and

audiences. But then again, there are always exceptions to the

rule, and during Oscar time, those exceptions can win gold.

The year 2013 started off slow. But by spring, a number

of films brought some excitement to theaters, including Oz

the Great and Powerfuland The Croods. By summer, the boxoffice was heating up with VFX-heavy titles, such as Star Trek

Into Darkness, Fast & Furious 6,and the long-awaited World

War Z. In fact, May, June, and the first week of July brought

the biggest weekends at the box office. Those numbers spiked

again in October with the release of Gravity, and will likely do

so again during the holiday season.

The Visual Effect

Throughout the year, superheroes were, well, super with view-

ers: Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, andThe Wolverine. No doubt

Thor: The Dark World(which had not been released as of this

writing) will do so, as well. All those characters have enjoyedbig-screen stardom before, and obviously audiences never grow

tired of their exploits as they save the universe from evildoers.

Just recently, Gravity hit theaters, and it is taking the box

office by storm. And, there are still a number of highly antici-

pated films that have not yet been released but are expected

to be well received, including The Hunger Games: Catching

Fireand The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Filmmaking is a sophisticated medium for storytellers. This

Oscar season, I believe Academy members will reward those

films and filmmakers who leveraged every tool at their dis-

posal to service their stories. This includes the clever use of

digital visual effects to further the plot and enrich our under-

standing of each characters emotional journey, says Chris

Edwards at The Third Floor. One film accomplished this with

such precision that I believe it will not be overlooked on Oscar

night: Alfonso Cuarns Gravity.

Some of this years movies in the Oscar hunt contain in-your-face effects, while others take a subtle approach. In past

years, VFX spectacle might have been enough to win the

Academys favor, but this year the real winners should be the

actors and filmmakers who made audiences forget that there

was any Hollywood trickery at all, Edwards says.

No doubt, the haunting situation immediately before and

after the 2013 Oscar ceremonies (and throughout the year) still

weighs heavily on those working in the industry. This year

saw the closing of more US VFX facilities, and protests inside

and outside the Kodak Theatre during the Academy Award

ceremonies where VFX awardees for Life of Piwere orches-

trally swept from the stage and neither mentioned nor thankedby the films director or cinematographer in their own Oscar

acceptance speeches. There is an industry-wide dissing of VFX

teams, upon which so many movies depend for their exis-

tence, VFX Director Rick Sander of HOAX Films reminds us.

That said, there are numerous films in this race, once again,

that rely on VFX not just for the flash, but also for the es-

sence of the movie. And, hopefully, the artists responsible will

receive their proper recognition.

So, who will be recognized thisyear? You can bet Neill

Blomkamps Elysiumand Alfonso Cuarns Gravitywill be on the

list, says Sander. The latter director was asked during his first

presser, How did it feel to shoot a movie in space? (That saysit all.) That leaves one more slot. Will it be The Hobbit? Peter

Jacksons Weta Workshop team has been nominated six times

and won five. The inside joke about the first Hobbit movie was

that it should win for Most Visual Effects never a good sign.

With zero percent certainty, the smart money for the third nomi-

nee is on either Joseph Kosinskis Oblivionor the great Zack

Snyders Man of Steel. Both featured incredibly visual design

choices, fantastically executed in a way that made the storytell-

ing possible and supported the underlying sense of realism.

Sander notes there is a chance of some balancing wild cards

in the mix, however. Traditionally, a film with on-set explosions

and well-made physical model-making would make the nomi-


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VFX ANIMATION


nee list. Such films are being replaced by all-greenscreen ex-

travaganzas, such as previous VFX Oscar winners Life of Piand

Alice in Wonderland, which have their origins in the cult-favorite

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow a movie so visionary

and so unsuccessful that Director Kerry Conran has not been

heard from since. So, productions like Great Gatsby or Oz theGreat and Powerfulmight have a chance. Dont expect Enders

Gameor World War Zto make it past the bake-offs, which

seem to be more about algorithmically programmed flocks of

spaceships and crowd-simulated undead lemmings.

Animated Entries

On the animation front, three movies made their return to the

screen with phenomenal box-office success: Despicable Me 2,

Monsters University, andCloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

2. Earlier in the year, Epic was warmly welcomed, as was The

Smurfs 2during the summer. Finishing out the year will be

Free Birdsand Frozen. Some say the latter is the one to beatin the animation race. Could this really be the year that Disney

beats out its seemingly invincible little brother, Pixar?

This has been an interesting year, and a year that has been

coming. Interesting in that for a few years we have had lead-

ers such as DreamWorks, Disney, Pixar, and then the other

studios. But, we finally hit a point with CG animation where I

believe everyone is on an equal playing field now for the tech-

niques that are used, the character animation, and the overall

professionalism, says Jerry Beck, an animation historian and

cartoon producer. The bar has been set high by the people

at Pixar in the past, but we now have Universal, Illumination,

Sony, and other studios, including Reel FX with Free Birds,thathave reached the same bar. They are all clever, creative, and

innovative in terms of their techniques. Now, it is about story-

telling, the character animation, the personalities, and other

aspects other than the technical achievements.

As Beck points out, looking back at 2008, some films, like

Wall-e(Pixar) and Kung Fu Panda(DreamWorks Animation)

were front-runners, far ahead of the pack. But now, just a few

short years later, the field is open with films like Epic (Blue

Sky/Fox), Monsters University (Pixar), Despicable Me 2 (Illumi-

nation Entertainment/Universal),Turbo (DreamWorks), Cloudy

with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (Sony Pictures Animation), and

Frozen (Disney) all of which have a very high artistic andtechnical level. So you have to look at things that might give a

film an edge, he says. The trick is a lot of

these films have incredible things in them

that give them their own aesthetic edge.

While 2012 brought competition in

animation from a number of stop-motion

movies, this year the field looks wide openfor CGI. Yet, the manga style of famed Jap-

anese Director/Animator Hayao Miyazakis

The Wind Rises, which Miyazaki says

will be his last movie, could pose outside

competition to the typical CGI features

maybe. The Wind Rises is an adult film.

Its about a real-life person, about an important part of Japans

aviation history, but its not for family audiences, says Beck.

In looking back over the year, Beck points out that many of

the animated films this year were aimed solely at children,

which has the same issues as an animated film that plays

strictly to adults. We didnt have that problem in previousyears, he says. For example,Kung Fu Pandaplays for any audi-

ence: Kids can get it, but adults get it, too. A few years ago,

the same held true for Puss In Boots, which was sophisticat-

ed and done well. Also, Rango. Kids got it, and the film had an

adult sensibility. And, it won the Oscar that year. It did not play

down to kids; it played for the general audience. That is what

the best Pixar films do Ratatouille, Up.But this year we had

Planes, Smurfs, even Monsters University, all aimed more at

children than grown-ups. That was the trend, and I personally

do not like it. I like the animation aimed a little higher.

The Race Is OnWhile many were caught unaware with Gravity, there were

some films that received a lot of hype but failed to thrill audi-

ences: After Earth, The Lone Ranger,and the CG Planes.

Meanwhile, Pacific Rimstarted off a little slow but soon had

people caught in its wake, and by the start of November, was

number 10 on the years highest-grossing list. It joins these

releases in order from the top spot: Iron Man 3, Despicable

Me 2, Fast & Furious 6, Monsters University, Man of Steel,

The Croods, World War Z, Oz the Great and Powerful, and Star

Trek Into Darkness. Yet, with a number of studios gearing up

for holiday releases, theres sure to be movement on this list

before year end. Until then, Iron Man 3sits comfortably at$1.2 billion worldwide, making it the fifth highest-grossing film

of all time and the 16thfilm to surpass the billion-dollar mark,

according to published figures. Despicable Me 2has grossed

over $900 million, making it the fifth highest-grossing animated

film of all time.

Which visual effects and animated features will make this

years Oscar shortlist? Its difficult to tell. However, some

experts in the industry have offered their thoughts on the

subject, particularly why certain scenes or the film in general

should at least be looked at during the awards season.

.com

ARTICLE:Go to Extras in the November/

December 2013 issue box for an extended

story with more movies and commentary


27/52
http://okino.com/mailto:[email protected]://okino.com/


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VFX ANIMATION


ELYSIUM

Release date: August 9Production companies: TriStar Pictures, Alpha Core, Media

Rights Capital, Sony Pictures Entertainment

In the year 2159, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy, who live

on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live

on an overpopulated, ruined Earth both required extensive VFX.

Elysium showcased Neill Blomkamps eye for a grittier type of VFX,

along with Syd Mead-type space designs in a fresh way, says Sony Pictures

Imageworks Senior VFX Supervisor Scott Stokdyk, an Academy Award winner

(Spider-Man 2)and three-time Oscar nominee.

John Fragomeni, president of Mirada and a visual effects supervisor, finds

it exciting to see how Blomkamp has developed and expanded his gift for

combining practical and visual effects. He creates a credible dystopia. Youfeel a sense of realism down to the most granular level; you see that same

VFX attention to detail and engineering precision that was so strong in Dis-

trict 9 but here its opened up onto a larger canvas and the overall impres-

sion of authenticity becomes all the more impressive for it, says Fragomeni.

Everywhere you look, its just a smart, subtle blending of live-action p

Documents

Computer Graphics World - November-December 2013