By ADAM MAIER and PAUL FLESCHNER, Reel FX, and CONNOR MURPHY, The Third Floor
Edited for this publication by Jeffrey A. Okun, VES Abstracted from The VES Handbook of Virtual Production Edited by Susan Zwerman, VES and Jeffrey A. Okun, VES
Introduction: The Creative Story Process
At its heart, this is a conversation about the creative story process itself. The use of real-time tools in animation enables the convergence – or intersection – of animation and live-action techniques. Many trailblazing films have led the way, from Beowulf (2007) to The Adventures of Tintin (2011), all before the advent of real-time technology as it exists now. Over the last decade, there have been significant advances in game engines’ readiness for real-time (live) visualization on set and in camera and, in some cases, “final pixel” applications. Stylized hand-key animation can also be produced with this approach.
As real-time tools improve, their artistic and workflow benefits become impossible to ignore. The development of Virtual Production for animation, or “real-time animation,” can be viewed as a new and complementary toolset for the animation professional. The framework of understanding also needs to integrate the impact of cinema’s live-action heritage suddenly made available to the animation professional. This live-action mindset will not be right for all animated projects, and great content will continue to be made in the traditional way. Whatever the approach, the benefits of real-time are compelling enough for a deep investigation. Ultimately, the goal of animation is telling a good story with nice pictures. Real-time animation offers a new road to that end, with some surprising benefits.
Figure 4.2 Super Giant Robot Brothers! (2022). (Image courtesy of Reel FX Animation)
As the name implies, real-time animation accelerates the production process, which can lead to creative and/or cost s avings. This acceleration does not equally impact every phase of production, but it does affect most and ripples through the entire production. There are three primary means from which this acceleration occurs:
The first (and the catalyst for the rest) is the immediacy of visualizing and/or rendering using a real-time renderer that renders frames in milliseconds, allowing artists to work without waiting, saving time and money. Final renders for an entire 22-minute episode of Super Giant Robot Brothers! (Reel FX/Netflix 2022) finished overnight on five workstations, as opposed to the traditional 500-node render farm. It is worth noting, however, that final frames can still be rendered with a traditional renderer. While real-time renderers cannot yet achieve the quality of an offline renderer, they inch closer every day. Visualizing in real-time and translating those decisions to an offline renderer can become quite complex, and speed will be lost in later departments as they lose these real-time render speeds. Take all factors into consideration when choosing the final renderer.
The second acceleration is the reduction of the time between creative iterations. The underlying assumption is that more iteration will lead to a better story/product. It can be said that this rapid visual ideation provides a creative team with “more bites at the apple.”
The third acceleration is improved context when making collaborative creative decisions. Teams can collaborate live and parallelize tasks with a real-time workflow. This saves time. Because renders are instantaneous, live “real-time” reviews are possible. Creative work that was previously accomplished asynchronously can now be realized simultaneously, and artists can react to one another. For example, camera work can interplay with performance during motion capture, or lighting and camera can interplay during the virtual camera phase. Decisions are made with more context up front, leading to fewer changes and surprises downstream.
Members receive a 20% discount with code: HVP23 Order yours today! https://bit.ly/VES_VPHandbook
;
