Hasta La Motion!

One of the most anticipated movie of 2016 that’s based on Blizzard Entertainment’s game, Warcraft that’s set to hit the big screens on 10 June, tells the story much before World of Warcraft takes place. Since the game showcases the worlds of orc and human clash, the question arises how did director Duncan Jones and his collaborators craft a race of orcs, taller and more muscle-bound than humans, and feature them not just in ferocious mega-battles, but also reveal their more subtle and nuanced emotional lives?

The answer is quite simple. Visual effects and use of computer generated images helped the director and the production house to bring this game story arc to life. And this couldn’t have been possible without the use of motion capture and virtual production tech. Animatric was roped in to supply camera tracking, motion capture suit and simulcam technology that enabled complicated and realistic on-set performances from the orc performers. This data in turn aided visual effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer and VFX studio ILM easily transfer those performances into the digital realm, creating the photoreal orc ‘digi-likenesses’ witnessed in the final film.

Animatric, president and CTO Brett Ineson

“Warcraft was the largest virtual production Animatrik has ever been involved with,” says Animatric, president and CTO Brett Ineson. ”The production had eight different stages over five months of shooting. Some were 300 feet in length, and there were even outdoor stages where the team had to film in the rain!”

Compositing orcs in real-time

Animatrik delivered several motion capture services throughout production. Ineson explained that Animatric supplied tracking cameras, tracking weapons and props, all were integrated with live action sets and live action actors, which were later integrated with the CG sets and actors.

“The idea was that as we were filming you could see everything happening through the eyepiece of the movie camera – all the backgrounds, orcs and creatures composited in real-time with our tracking tech.”

Animatrik deployed two kinds of motion capture camera technologies – NaturalPoint and Vicon cameras and a SolidTrack system.

The first tech setup was coined ‘outside in’, and relied on capturing the motion of performers in motion capture suits along with the main film camera. This provided a real-time simulcam composite of the characters and their backgrounds.

Integrating simulcam

There have been situations when no motion capture equipment were there on the set or where the cameras could not see the actors. So to solve that issue, Animatrik used an ‘inside out’ approach.

“We’d mount a small vision survey camera to the movie camera,” explains Ineson. “This camera would integrate with a system called SolidTrack, which would lock onto every pixel it sees and calculate its 3D position to the world around it. We could then work out the offset between that camera and the movie camera for the simulcam view.

“Having that simulcam view was so valuable for everyone on set,” adds Ineson. “It really helped with things like framing, since the orcs, for example, might be up to 12 feet tall. Knowing that on set meant the camera operator could re-position for the best angle.

The production house was able to shoot Warcraft as if it were a normal movie, thus drastically reducing the changes which were necessary on the back end.

The great outdoors

Outdoor shooting is part of the filming stage of most of the movies and can’t be avoided. But what’s challenging in a film like Warcraft that requires motion camera is the fact that the there’s no control over the environment.

However, Animatric overcame it by using active marker suits fitted with LED lights developed with Standard Deviation to achieve highly accurate motion capture. “Because of the outdoor sets, light pollution and rain, we needed to create LED suits for the actors to wear because we knew we would have trouble bouncing light from the camera to do a traditional motion capture,” says Ineson. “The LEDs are synchronised to pulse in time with the motion capture camera and therefore not impact on the main photography.

This not only allowed for much more precise outdoor performance capture but also added a more realistic performance from the actors themselves, who could more realistically place themselves into the scene.

The subtlety of facial performance

If we see the trailer, we can observe that orc’s facial expressions resemble that of the actors to some extent. To achieve those emotive performances, the on-set actors wore a helmet camera system developed by Technoprops, consisting of a pair of stereo cameras that delivered two streams of video. These cameras caught every nuance and subtle shade of emotion that passed across the actors’ faces as they performed.

“Animatrik’s role in the facial animation was in the post process tracking of the data that came off those cameras,” describes Ineson. “The stereo cameras meant we could track the data in 3D as opposed to 2D. We would track the facial marker set into 3D and then deliver that data over to the VFX vendor, in this case ILM who then worked with it in their their proprietary facial animation solver.”

Seeing the final result of the credible work pulled off by Animatrik, a happy Ineson expounds, “It was just so complicated. It’s one thing to capture performances but when you have nine orcs fighting nine humans with moving cameras and all that action happening, the fact that the cameraman could see this all in his camera in real-time, was so great.”

Not only was Warcraft an evolution of Animatrik’s craft, but it also helped the team make a major leap in the services the company now offers. For a movie like Warcraft a lot of R&D had to be involved as a lot of things had to be custom built and team Animatrik gave their 100 per cent and delivered their best.

Written by Charles Leavitt and Jones and produced by Legendary Pictures, Blizzard Entertainment and Atlas Entertainment, the movie is slated to hit theatres on 10 June.

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‘Time is immeasurable, indestructible and inevitable. If you don’t control it, one day it will control you’. Playing with time can work against you for when you can freeze time, you can change the events and create a different result. Director Vikram Kumar has played with this similar feature of time in his recent film 24 starring the Tamilian veteran actor Suriya Sivakumar.

It’s a science fiction film and science has its own complications with complex formulas and intricate elements. In fact, the film features three different avatars of Suriya and his outrageous invention which later becomes the main cause of the chaos. Creating these elements in a realistic way to convince the viewers was done by the Mumbai based VFX studio – After.  

Along with other major VFX studios like Prime Focus and Riva Animation & VFX working on this film, After studio itself delivered around 1100 VFX shots in just two months.

After, VFX supervisor, Vishwas Savanur says, “In the pre- production stage of VFX, we had about 70 artists working on the film for 15 days, and by the end of the project, the number grew up to 200.”

Being involved in the film from mid way, the team of After delivered all kinds of work like CGI , dynamics, green screen composition, cleanups and beautification. “Even though it is a science fiction film, this kind of work was never attempted before and thus referencing was not really helpful. Every sequence was storyboarded and concept drawings were created. Every shot was designed according to the concept drawing,” adds Vishwas.

The plot of the film follows back and forth in time with the three avatars of Suriya racing against time due to the creation of a watch that controls time. All the scenes had CGI added into live shoot, which was difficult as the team had to create visuals which were against nature’s law, still had to look convincingly real.

Vishwas and CG head Priyaal Mhardolkar explain the major VFX sequences, “In the film the protagonist has a watch which has power to freeze time, go forward in time or go back in time. Some of the major sequences were:

The Rain sequence where the protagonist freezes rain. It was conceptualised and executed using CGI. We created multiple layers of frozen rain drops as Suriya freezes rain and interacts with the rain drops.

One of the shot where the camera pulls back from a room to reveal Chennai city was recreated using complex CGI.

The stadium sequence where Suriya goes back in time to freeze time and help India win the match has elements like popcorn, water, drinks, smoke, flags which have been rotoscoped and frozen. Even crowd multiplication and creation of various background elements is a major portion of the film.”

Apart from this, there are various sequences like the axe sequence where the villain cuts Suriya’s hand, feather floating in the air and acid fumes on the wooden floor that are created using CGI, along with other cleanup and removal of the chroma screen shots.

The film featured major freeze sequences along with face replacements that were achieved using prosthetics to portray the different avatars of Suriya distinctly.

Softwares like Maya, 3D Max, Realflow, Nuke, Silhouette, Photoshop and After Effects were used to create the CG elements and visual effects for the film.

The film has gained decent reviews because of its art of storytelling and visual appearance that has quite realistically portrayed the tentacles of science fiction. Moreover, the music of A. R. Rahman has added an extensive factor which builds up the thrill for the mystery.

As far as the work of VFX is considered, After has leaped miles ahead in its quality and quantity of work as compared to its previous works in Jai GangaaJal and Ghayal Once Again. In this film, After has tried its hands on time freeze and CG creation of varied elements thus displaying a hypothetical situation but in a realistic manner.

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With an aim to engage digital enthusiasts, Reliance Games today announced the official game for the movie TE3N, launched in the presence of the cast and crew of the movie including Bollywood stalwarts Amitabh Bachchan and Vidya Balan. The game features Amitabh Bachchan as the lead protagonist, playing the gamified ‘infinite runner’ from the movie TE3N. Gamers will get an opportunity to embody their favorite star, Amitabh Bachchan, bringing alive the excitement of the upcoming thriller and enthrall audiences in a challenging chase to unravel clues related to the movie.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan himself spearheaded the first-of-its-kind digital campaign by inviting fans to share their suggestions to create posters, vote for their favourite songs and list their game preference. The contest saw participation from a whopping 45,000 participants visiting the official website ‘te3nitaround.in’ to give their preferences. The contest invited visitors to vote for their favourite genre – hidden object game, infinite runner game and side scrolling platform game. Of all the votes that came in ‘Infinite runner’ game garnered 61 per cent votes.

Commenting on Reliance Games’ association with TE3N, Reliance Entertainment – Digital, CEO, Amit Khanduja said, “We are thrilled to associate with an ambitious movie like TE3N and create a unique game which promises to take gaming to the next level; given its sheer intensity, edginess and introduction of new elements replicating the excitement and thrill of the movie. The collaboration with TE3N deepens our association with the Bollywood to develop movie based thematic games which gives Bollywood lovers an opportunity to combine their love for movies and games. We are confident gamers will enjoy experience and the adrenaline rush it offers.”

Speaking to AnimationXpress’ Krishanu Ghosal, Amit Khanduja asserted that it took a team of around 15 people from their Pune based studio to churn out the game in an average time of three months and it will be different from any other infinite runner games as it resonates with the characters and backdrop of the film which makes it more realistic. The game is set in surroundings just like the movie, including a ‘Howrah Bridge’ stage.

“The revenues will be shared by the Studio and Production company. The game will have constant support for the time being, with no plans of placing in app purchases for now”, informed Amit Khanduja. Although no figures of the revenue have been revealed.

During the launch event, the actor Amitabh Bachchan also mentioned that as they did not have a hefty budget for the film’s promotion, they let the consumers decide what they would like to see, from the game to posters of the movie and more. With a large amount of entries from across the globe, a few winners were chosen who got a chance to meet and greet the cast at the event.

In the past, Reliance Games has associated with other high profile Bollywood movies like Singham Returns, Bodyguard, 3 Idiots, Wazir, to develop customised mobile games around their movie concepts although this seems to be an innovative strategy to incorporate the consumer opinion into the promotion of a film.

Game Features:

• Ride as John Biswas (Amitabh Bachchan), driving on his trusted scooter
• Ride in the streets of Calcutta searching and collecting clues to uncover the mystery
• Collect Clues to solve this gripping thriller
• Score high on the leader-board to be the best investigator
• Designed to engage and reward fans of the movie, the game is pick up and play in nature

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Sequels don’t always work and franchise often bears the brunt of the performance of its various ventures. Paramount and Nickelodeon Movies’ recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 (2016) which released on 3 June, 2016 earned $35.3 million in its opening weekend at the domestic box office (North America). However this was roughly half of the $65.6 million that its predecessor, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2014 grossed in its opening weekend thus, illustrating that not all sequels necessarily perform well.

Also, this opening was around 45 per cent down from the 2014 film. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 has grossed $35.3 million in North America and $34 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $69.3 million.

Paramount spent $135 million on this film and released the movie across 4,071 locations. With an average opening for the film in its opening weekend, recovering the budget seems to be a task for the franchise.

Speaking about the franchise, the 2014 film earned $191.2 million in North America and $302.1 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $493.3 million. The film got such a leaping response as audiences both young and old had not seen a new live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in 21 years. The budget of this film was $125 million and with the extensive returns, the franchise set its foot to build its name.

The 2016 film has opened in 40 international markets, including Russia, Mexico and the United Kingdom till date but still there are several major territories left to open, the biggest being China on 2 July, 2016. Therefore, this film still has some hope and opportunities to strike in order to come in par and stand true to its franchise.

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The year 2016 is to be the year when most of the major players in the gaming industry have or will release their Virtual Reality headsets and platforms for consumers. The year will be sort of a second innings for VR to come back into gaming scene after the disastrous debut in the late 80s with Nintendo and Sega systems causing dizzy and non-enjoyable experience.

The platform revived after Palmer Lucky started a Kickstarter campaign in 2012 for mass production of his version of VR headset ‘Oculus Rift’ which was supposed to cause a stir in the gaming market in the years to come. Today, there are at least half a dozen big companies fighting the VR headset war to capture the market and have a sizeable lead in the VR race.

However, to capture the market and draw the user’s attention, the consumer/gamer needs to have big pockets or a very powerful PC to run such graphic intensive VR games. With the minimum requirements of 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 970/AMD 290 or equivalent, Intel i5-4590 processor equivalent plus Windows 7 SP1, this will cost you anywhere between $600 to $1000. In addition, VR headsets like Oculus cost you another $599 plus shipping costs if you are not in America. So if you want to play the new age VR games you need to have deep pockets and some place in your home to setup a dedicated VR unit.

Playstation VR unit

Not only these, there are some AAA publishers and developers who have resorted to wait and watch game when it comes to jumping on the VR bandwagon, and see the response the platform will get once it is out of its early stage. One such person is Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick who recently voiced his concern about VR at the Cowen and Company 44th Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. He said VR’s current asking price $2,000 (when you factor in high-powered PC costs) and need for a dedicated play space, limit the potential for mass appeal.

“We have $300 to spend on an entertainment device and we do not have a dedicated room,” he said. “We have a room for a screen, a couch, and controllers. We don’t have something where you stand in a big open space and hold two controllers with something on your head and, you know, not crash into the coffee table. We don’t have that.”

“We’re not incentivised to be at the frontline of (VR) development,” Zelnick said. “We are actually incentivised to wait and see a bit if there’s an installed base, let the format settle down, and let other people test the market. We’re quite happy to be a free rider—if there’s a market, we’ll get to the market in six to twelve months and we’ll be just fine.”

Zelnick is not the only one who seems to be unenthusiastic about the current scenario of VR and not be a part of the format. Others big game developers and publishers too have been sceptical like Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg said in an interview last year, “We don’t say, OK, there’s this new technology, this new platform, let’s go design new games for it, anymore than we did with the Move or Kinect. There are some ideas where it’s a lot more natural to imagine and some that aren’t.”

There are more names in the list who have been sceptical when it comes to VR. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said that VR is not fun at the moment. He said that for VR to be a fun experience for the players, it needs to be more social and engaging. The scoffing does not stop at the gaming industry big-wigs. One of the biggest directors, Steven Spielberg too has been questioning the over reliance and over enthusiasm of the VR platform and suggested that VR as a means of creation could be dangerous for the future of storytelling.

Such a stance by the industry leaders will stir trouble for VR platform which has been quite an interesting platform since it has started to gain traction for all quarters not only gaming. If game developers and publishers keep away from the platform it will give out wrong notion to consumers and people who want to be early adopters of this new tech. With a limited audience attraction, these devs/publishers will keep sitting out, creating an unwanted cycle until VR becomes a technology that comes, sees and conquers.

AMD Radeon RX 480

There are a few signs that people who want to adopt the technology early will have the option to spend a little less. Tech giant Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) recently introduced a $200 AMD Radeon RX 480, which the company claims that it can handle all the requirements for running VR headsets and one does not need $500 – $600 expensive graphics cards. This is just a start for the platform and as it starts maturing, the costs are likely to come down. However, for that to happen, the developers and publishers too need show interest and announce big ticket games to attract more people to the platform. For the platform to gain momentum and become big, this will always be the case.

Not all big name publishers have shown hesitancy on the mention of VR. Names like Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Square Enix, Bandai Namco, Capcom 2K Games, Warner Bros. Interactive have been planning to come up with VR content in a big manner. Ubisoft has promised to port major of its franchises to VR. Valve too is betting big on virtual reality and may ship a number of its titles for its Vive headsets.

Sony’s PlayStation VR also could mean more affordable VR experience as the headset directly connects to PS4. Sony has said it is bringing in more AAA developers to VR space thanks to its close ties with major studios. Sony claims that more than 200 developers are on board developing content for PlayStation VR software. When Sony has plans for VR, one cannot keep Microsoft out for long. Microsoft announced that its opening up its HoloLens so that more people can pick up the headset and start making their own versions of the holographic lens which could draw more attention to VR.

Although in its nascent period, VR has taken big leaps in being one of the most exciting things in the technology space in the recent times. Distance from the industry leaders will only pull the platform back. Support will not only help the platform but will also bring in the new verve from the audience towards these new titles from publishers and developers.

If the companies want numbers, HTC Vive sold more than 15,000 headsets since it’s launch and Oculus is giving out strong numbers but is currently facing issues due to component shortage which has delayed its shipping further. Sony and Microsoft too will soon follow the suite, giving all big players in the gaming industry, a tough competition in the VR space. It is certainly an exciting time to be a part of the VR space and it has a great potential not only for the games but also for the film, medicine, defence, design sectors to name a few. VR cannot survive on a few big names and a lot of indie developers. It has to have major developers/publishers backing it up and throw some weight behind it.

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