Hasta La Motion!

Hasraf HaZ Dulull approached The Foundry last year about creating a short film entirely inside nuke; utilising the powerful 3d compositing environment to create a sandbox film making environment.

Nuke product managers Richard Shakleton and Matt Plec supported the idea and provided support with licenses and the supply of all latest nuke builds to facilitate the production of the film. This process allowed the film to develop alongside the development of Nuke and its tools, ensuring Fubar became a testing tool as well as a short film.

The visual narrative itself was inspired by the short film ‘La-Je-Tee’ by Chris Marker; which later became the Hollywood film ‘12 Monkeys’. It was this idea of having still photography to drive a visual narrative for a film, to keep the audience engrossed throughout, is how the idea for Fubar was born.

Here director HaZ explains the process behind the making of this unusual short film:

” I said to myself if I was to make a film with a visual narrative device like ‘La-Je Tee’ today how would I do it with the vfx tools available? ” says HaZ. ” Todays generation wants to see things in the Z space and not just X and Y like a traditional image or comic book, they want to see form and feel like they can touch it!…

using VFX technology such as Nuke allowed me to push this visual narrative device to another level, I was able to dimentionalise what was usually 2D into a 3D feel and introduce a new up to date version of the visual narrative device used in La-Ja-Tee and motion comic films.

The film started off as previz produced roughly by using photography of miniature models and placed on cards in nukes 3d space, with a camera to block out the scenes, to start the foundation of sandbox idea.

The previz turned into postviz, where the look started to get fleshed out and animated elements were added and animation inside Nuke generated. (eg: using warp and displacement tools to create animated explosions and fire).

Since this was all done with compositing tools and a compositors mindset the postviz evolved into a visual style, a style which takes motion comics ( e.g: the cobal story segment on the inception DVD) to the next level and ‘dimentionalising’ a 2d style into a style with depth and energy.

A teaser with the postvis shots was shown at IBC 2010 in Amsterdam as part of a show and tell presentation with The Foundry. The teaser was received really well and many thought what was shown was the final shots.

From the post-vis the final look and feel of the film was found and not a single CG render required and was done really fast, allowing different things to be tried out in 3d space with a camera.

The workflow was very simple – take as much photography using a canon slr camera on a white background and then use nukes Roto and paint tools to extract and place on cards. Nukes keying tools made it possible to extract details from the photo shoots of the cats and dogs as well as researched images.

Then the rest is in creating the world and the imagination of the film inside nuke. It was like being a director, DOP, focus puller, set designer and vfx artist all in one go inside one sandbox environment. There really isn’t any limit on what went into the shots to create an epic grand feel to the film.. If there was a need for 20 helicopters and 30 marines I just went and shot loads of angles and poses of the marines and helicopters and then straight into nuke.

For certain things I was able to get some low polygon models made from a freelancer artist and he would export objs and I would project the photography back on top… Nuke was able to handle geometry with projections, vfx elements like smoke, fire, rain, dust with warp distort operations and tons of cards and camera with motion blur and lens effects all in one compositing environment and a single render pass generated at the end – the final shot.

At the end of the day I am using the most popular compositing tool in the industry to not just paint pretty pictures but to create a visual narrative device to tell a story, and use Nukes 3D compositing tool as a film makers sandbox to make ideas happen fast, efficiently and most of all in a fun creative way with the tools and features right out of the nuke box.. the only limit is my imagination”.

Fubar is sponsored by The Foundry with the remit that the whole film is created inside Nukes 3D compositing space. All elements were shot on a Canon 450D using still photography of miniature models and locations which later became digital matte paintings for environments projected onto geometry. Additional sponsorship includes Frishlluft the makers of the Lens Care plugin which was used heavily inside of nuke to support the cinematography.

Fubar – the short film will be released in July 2011.

CREDITS

Director: Hasraf HaZ Dulull

Producers: Hasraf HaZ Dulull and Dan Dixon

Executive Producers: Simon Jones, Philipp Spöth (Frishluft), Richard Shakleton and Matt Plec (The Foundry)

Voice Over : Dean Jagger

VFX Support Artist: Martin Woodburn and Janice Plec

Digital Photography: May Ngo, Hasraf HaZ Dulull, Geof Wolfenden and Steve Moulsher

Digital Matte Painter: Francesca Bini

Digital Scanning of Miniatures: Duncan Lees (4DMax)

VFX, Animation and Compositing: Hasraf HaZ Dulull

Editor : Deelan Sital
Music / Score: Luis Almau

RELATED LINKS

www.hazvfx.com

http://hazvfx.com/fubar/

www.thefoundry.co.uk

”Designing in stereoscopic is very different than designing in 2D,” states Founder/Creative Director Garson Yu. ”You have to offset the conversion process and bring things closer to the audience as well as further away to create that depth and dimension. You also have to give the audience enough time to enjoy the stereoscopic sensation, so you can’t be too ‘cutty’ with scenes.”

Although yU+co. is no stranger to stereoscopic 3D, having created the 2D and 3D main-on-end title sequence to Shrek Forever After and the 3D logo for 3Ality Digital, Yogi Bear offered them the chance to accomplish more both creatively and technically in the 3D world.

‘’The initial concept was ‘Saul Bass in stereo’ — a clear use of shapes and lines that Bass’ classic designs are known for, but married to the playfulness of the Hanna-Barbera animation style,” says Art Director Synderela Peng.

‘’We decided to show only silhouettes of main characters because we didn’t want to mimic the 3D animation style seen in the film or the original look from 1960s cartoon. We knew the silhouettes would work because the image of Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo are so iconic that people would recognize them even without seeing their faces.”

Set to a rousing song by the alternative rock band Weezer, the ‘’Yogi Bear’’ title sequence begins with a series of red and orange hued vertical lines as an array of fruit falls all around. Suddenly the chase is on as we see Yogi and Boo Boo silhouetted in the background driving a cart that drags a line of picnic tables filled with food, while the alarmed Ranger tries to stop them.

The sequence cleverly uses food in every frame, such as cotton candy and popcorn clouds, trees with marshmallow flowers and giant turkey legs, watermelon slices, sandwiches, cherry pie and hot dogs that dot the landscape and serve as a surface for the credit typography.

Some of the noteworthy scenes in the sequence include a nod to the Super Mario Bros., as Yogi and Boo Boo escape the Ranger by jumping and climbing various food items; and a scene in which Yogi and Boo Boo ride a raft down a waterfall.

‘’Once we agreed on the use of the silhouette concept, the challenge became to create enough gags to carry the sequence through,” says Edwin Baker, yU+co’s writer/designer. ‘’We wanted to use the food in abstract ways that helped expand the visual language. The transitions needed to be clever, surprising and fluid. With the stereoscopic we wanted to find new ways to push the food landscape and make it more fun and exciting.’’

Among the key creative choices yU+co made was to bring a team traditional cel animators aboard to create the silhouetted version of Yogi, Boo Boo, the ranger and a new turtle character, created using Flash. While it may seem to some unnecessary to have a cell animation team work on silhouettes, Peng noted that a lot of expression needed to be conveyed in the arm and leg movements of the main characters.

‘’Because you don’t see any facial expressions, it was imperative that we work with character animators because we needed a clear articulation of what the characters are doing based only on arm and legs movements,’’ Peng says. ‘’Arms and legs had to show the emotions like joy, fear and frustration — very subtle movements and completely different from the motion graphics.’’

”Thanks to the film’s producer Donald De Line, we had the opportunity to work on this film which gave our design team another added dimension to use their storytelling talents,” comments Yu. ”As a result, we’ve developed a great 3D pipeline to produce stereoscopic work and our team can handle just about any kind of project that’s out there.”

In other yU+co news, the company recently completed work on the main-on-end title sequence for the feature length documentary Waiting for Superman, which was selected as Best Documentary by the National Board of Review and the title sequence for Universal Pictures’ recent box office hit, Little Fockers.

About yU+co:
Founded in 1998, yU+co. is an award-winning visual design and production agency with offices in Hollywood, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. yU+co.’s work encompasses a wide range of disciplines, including feature film production and visual effects, television branding and promotion, interactive and experiential design, gaming cinematics and commercial advertising.

CREDITS
Project: Yogi Bear main-on-end titles
Client: Warner Bros.

Design/Animation: yU+Co., Hollywood, CA
Creative Director: Garson Yu
Art Director: Synderela Peng
VFX Director/Supervisor: Richard Taylor
Producer: Sarah Coatts
Effects Coordinator: Sean Hoessli
Design Team: Edwin Baker, John Kim, Daryn Wakasa, Etsuko Uji
3D Stereoscopic Compositors: Stevan del George, Mark Velacruz
After Effects: Jill Dadducci, Andres Barajas, Gary Garza, Wayland Vida, Alex Yoon
Animators: Josh Dotson, Eddie Moreno, Noel Belknap, John Dusenberry, Dae In Chung,
Ben Lopez, Pota Tseng
Editorial: Jason Sikora, Latoria Ortiz

RELATED LINKS
www.yuco.com

Throughout his effects years John worked mostly on feature films (Where the Wild Things Are, Harry Potter, Clash Of The Titans, Hellboy 2, Warhorse, Brothers Grimm); but also TV projects including Dr Who, Being Human, Skellig and In the Night Garden. Now with his own effects company in east London Nolan’s CV also includes personal projects with Chris Cunningham, Lady Gaga live shows and now the short promo ‘Runaway Robot’ with Unkle.

John Nolan explains how the Unkle Runaway Robot project came about and the process that bought the Runaway Robot to life:

“I wanted to get in touch with Unkle after seeing them at Fabric where they projected animated drawings of Futura’s robot/aliens at a launch for Never, Never Land. I knew that I could recreate something similar to the animations but with animatronics and practical effects and it would be good to build something based on a great design.

Unkle’s music and sound is perfect for this kind of video and it reflects every idea I’ve had since wanting to build robots and shoot films. Their collaborative projects with Ian Brown, Thom Yorke, Richard Ashcroft and Mike D were, to me, an example of their style and personality and I wanted to get involved with anything they were doing.

I contacted James (Lavelle) through a friend of a friend and sent him my animatronics showreel; he invited me to his studio in London to talk about a project he was putting together. I was hoping to shoot a promo or viral or anything 10 seconds long just to have the opportunity to work with their music, but it was the perfect timing for something else. They were not looking to shoot any promos but James asked if I wanted to shoot something for the Daydreaming exhibition at the Haunch of Venison.

There was no budget involved at all, it was an opportunity to work on something together where I would produce a film and Unkle would create a track. It was a great way to work really because everyone who got involved did because they loved the track and believed in the idea, everyone was enthusiastic and excited to be part of it.

I had a few ideas involving a Futura style robot and coloured light flashes, which were mostly influenced by Audi and BMW commercials and my animatronics background.

I designed the animatronic based on human anatomy with every joint and pivot point replicating that of a real person. I wanted to achieve the perfect balance between something industrial, robotic and living, organic. The robot was made from hand-machined anodised aluminium, 28 motors and sculpted, formed plastic.

Building an animatronic of this scale and complexity you have to take many things into consideration. There are issues with weight, gravity, torque, speed but the biggest challenge with creating a robot with this amount of motors is control. We have to move every motor at once to create the perfect performance but I wanted to avoid 5 puppeteers on set trying to coordinate their movements with each other.

The track is short but aggressive and energetic. I wanted the performance of the robot to have this aggression and energy with a marching stomp towards camera. This could only be achieved with the use of an audio timeline-based control system. I used creature performer Josh Head who programmed every move of the robot in time with the track using midi.

We were able to see the track at the top of the screen as a waveform and underneath the movements of the robot. We could change the movements under the track live on set but keeping the robot and audio in total sync.

Producer Ebony Maitland put me in touch with a brilliant team of people including the incredible director of photography Christopher Sabogal and brilliant Prime Focus who did an incredible job on the post.”

CREDITS
Director: John Nolan
Producer: Ebony Maitland
DoP: Chris Sabogal
Animatronic FX: John Nolan
Music: UNKLE
Additional sound: Daniel Nolan
Editor: John Nolan
Post Production: Prime Focus London

RELATED LINKS
http://unkle.com
www.streetlightfilms.co.uk
www.primefocusworld.com

At MPC the film was supervised by Adam Valdez, produced by Marianne Speight, with CG supervision by Kevin Hahn, animation supervision by Gabriele Zuchelli, and compositing supervised by Charley Henley.

Lucy and Edmund Pevensie return to Narnia with their cousin Eustace where they meet up with Prince Caspian for a trip across the sea aboard the royal ship The Dawn Treader. Along the way they encounter dragons, strange islands, and a band of lost knights, before reaching the edge of the world.

MPC’s main challenge was to create some of the key characters for the film. MPC’s team of animators was once again performed the role of Reepicheep the mouse, voiced by Simon Pegg. Reepicheep – a courageous knight of Narnia – accompanies Caspian on his voyage in the hope of finding Aslan’s Country at the end of the world.

To make sure Reepicheep’s sword skills were unrivalled, MPC’s Animators took fencing classes to learn the moves and tricks of the trade. With over 200 hero shots, Reepicheep was upgraded to take the spotlight. MPC’s art department designed subtle changes for a wiser and more mature Reepicheep. MPC’s Furtility was once again the grooming tool of choice.

When Lucy and Edmund’s cousin Eustace steals a piece of a dragon’s hoard, he is transformed into a dragon himself, with MPC supplying this performance. Without being able to speak, Eustace the Dragon needed to convey subtle emotion through facial expressions alone. Reepicheep and the Dragon have several virtuoso acting moments in which their friendship is bonded.

For the Dark Island sequence, extensive environment and character work was carried out. The 180-shot sequence shows the Dawn Treader sailing into an island of evil mist and being attacked by a giant sea serpent.

The Sea Serpent was designed by MPC’s Art Department, down to hundreds of articulated “feelers” and blubbery skin. For the serpent’s interactions with the sea, ocean surfaces and splashing water effects were generated by the FX team.

The Evil Mist environment consisted of giant branching pillars of fog and flickering green pulses of energy, realized through intensive 3D particle simulations, with final layouts and mood established by the compositing team in Nuke.

MPC also created the Dawn Treader herself. For some scenes this entailed providing the land-based set build with a full sail and ocean surfaces surrounding it. In other shots the ship was a created completely at MPC, including the ship’s crew. Many have commented that the film does feel like a voyage at sea, a testament to the excellent planning and eye of the film’s supervisor Angus Bickerton.

RELATED LINKS
www.moving-picture.com
www.narnia.com

One of the biggest challenges for MPC was the transformation sequence, where six members of the order of Phoenix take a polyjuice potion to assume Harry’s form and confuse Voldemort. MPC was responsible for the digital transformations, creating fully CG versions of the six characters and animating them for a full screen performance.

MPC’s concept artists explored different combinations for the transformed characters, blending features, sizes and skin textures from Harry and the other characters to create six different hybrid designs. The seven actors were shot motion control and a facial motion capture shoot was organised to obtain extra detail.

MPC’s 3D team had to create digi-doubles for each of the actors, modeling and texturing photoreal heads and blending them with a CG model of Harry’s head. A custom rigging system was used to blend the data from the facial capture shoot, allowing animators to keep control of the fine details.

Once out of Privet Drive, the seven Harrys fly over London to escape the Death Eaters. MPC had to create CG thestrals – a cross between a horse and a dragon – and extend Privet Drive’s set. Green screen rider elements were combined with the CG creatures, digi-doubles and live action footage.

For the Death Eaters’ chase, MPC created over 100 CG characters, including full screen digi-doubles for Harry, Hagrid and the Death Eaters. The environment work included a CG aerial cloudscape, cityscapes and various set extensions. The chase culminates with a wand duel between Harry and Voldemort, with fx work including explosions, wand effects, CG water and the bike crash. Other work for this sequence included fire, a crashing caravan and CG traffic.

MPC animated Voldemort’s giant snake Nagini, redesigning the old snake to achieve a more naturalistic look. Referencing a python, the 3D team re-rigged and textured Nagini and animated it following the dynamics of vipers, cobras and pythons. Nagini attacks Harry in Bathilda Bagshot’s house, biting him and wrapping itself around Harry. For this sequence MPC had carry out body replacements to enhance the interaction between Harry and the CG snake.

MPC also worked on the apparating sequence; full res digi-doubles were created and rigged to be later twisted and stretched showing the real agony of this way of travelling. The Deathly Hallows Part 1 was released on 19th November in the UK and US.

RELATED LINKS
www.moving-picture.com
http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com