| ADAPT Friday. Finished and fried! |
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Saturday 27 September 2008 - 01:47AM
Renee Dunlop
OK, I’m tired, I’ll admit it. The last of my strength was tapped by the excitement of today. With so many killer presentations and words of wisdom to absorb, it’s a wonder my brain hasn’t churned into butter inside my skull. And word on the street is ADAPT 2009 is already in planning and expected to be bigger and even more extraordinary. You should really try to attend if there is any way you can.
Today started with Dan Gregoire from Halon, a previs studio in Santa Monica who has laid the groundwork for a list of blockbuster films. Gregoire shared definition of previs, how it’s used, why it’s helpful, and how he suspects the service will be defined in the future. Considering a shoot can cost $100,000 a day, it’s becoming a tool to streamline a process that could rapidly spin out of control. It takes a special type of person to do this kind of work, and Gregoire offered his list of golden rules for those who want to consider previs as a career. A good attitude was at the top, since previs artists are often caught between the director (creativity) and the producer (money), and therefore need to be willing to constantly rework their art until both are satisfied. Gregoire looks for generalists who have a strength in cinematic timing, an understanding of camera moves and how to use the camera to create emotion, and an understanding of how to block and frame a shot. And cinematic storytelling skills, of course.
A quick stop to see Andrew Jones at work turned into nirvana that kept me a happy prisoner of his music and art for the next hour. The man is brilliant, what can I say? He assured the room that digital art was a valid medium and to allow others to make them feel as if it had less quality than paint or charcoal, was nonsense. That concern was as silly as saying art on paper was less valid than cave drawings simply because the cave drawings were there first. He loves traditional art, but finds his passion in the digital medium. “Digital art increases my bandwidth as a human being, and my ability to communicate what is inside here out to everyone else. In situations where I am at a concert and I am doing my live painting, I have a finite amount of time. I have so much I want to express and record; I refer to myself as a cultural stenographer. There is so much I want to take in and express, and the idea of wanting to accomplish that in acrylics or paints is laughable to me. To me, the difference between digital and traditional, it’s the bandwidth. We are approaching a time where we need this ability to communicate. This is the universes way of saying you are ready.”
Over to see Tom Bussell and Rob Petrie of The Mill, who demo’d their process for two commercials. One used a parade similar to the Macy’s Day Parade with huge balloons, three characters and a Coca Cola bottle. The premise is two characters, Underdog and Stewie, breaking their chains and battling for the bottle of Coke, with Charlie Brown slipping in to steal the prize. Of course many issues were tackled over the short schedule, but one of those was the recreation of the New York street and parade crowd. Shot on the back lot of Paramount Studios, all but the live action extras in the foreground had to be rotoscopped out, an arduous two week process, and replaced with a long street filled with thousands of spectators, confetti, and atmosphere.
The last class of the day was with Marc Chu of ILM who came to demo some of the steps and statistics from Iron Man. The stats put the weight of the production in perspective the best. They had 409 CG shots, 254 shots were keyframed. The suit machine ended up having 15,461 pieces of geometry equaling 3.98 million polygons, with 1825 texture maps.
Why, that’s almost as complicated as running a week long killer event with just four people.
Related links:
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| ADAPT Thursday - Thrills |
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Friday 26 September 2008 - 06:06AM
Renee Dunlop
Thursday thrills as ADAPT brings out PIXAR's Wall•E and the 3D Masters. Word of ADAPT has spread further than I realized. Today I met two who had traveled in from afar, one man from Brazil and one woman from Egypt, a 14 hour trip. For a convention only in it’s third year, and one who this year was organized by a total of four people, it’s a testament to just how good a job those four are doing.
3D artists Carlos Baena from Pixar and Shawn Kelly from ILM, co-founders of AnimationMentor.com, shared a pile of character animation tips and tricks to a room filled with artists bent and furiously scribbling notes. The eye animation notes alone could fill volumes, but to show what information was offered in just about three minutes, here are a few: 1) When the eyes lead, it’s best to start moving the eyes two frames before the head turns. There are exceptions, such as when you want a dramatic effect or a different focus of attention. 2) When it comes to arcs, only ‘smooth pursuit’ eye animation would utilize a notable arc, though often you can use several short movements in succession to create the effect if you desire. Adding an arc in an eye dart will tend to look like a mistake. 3) If needed, cheat your eye-line to look good for the camera. 4) To avoid ‘doll eyes’, use an eye target to give the character a feeling of life- unless the character is flying through an environment or doll eyes are a desired effect.
Now, imagine what you could learn in an hour and 45 minutes. It would be enough to make your brain explode.
Just as yesterday’s 2D Masters panel was moderated by our own Paul Hellard, so was today’s 3D panel. Panelists were Shawn Kelly, Steven Stahlberg, Nick Parkinson, Marc Chu, Carlos Baena and Timur ‘Taron’ Baysal. Contrasting with the results from the joint survey between 3DWorld and CGSociety for the latest emerging technology with the most impact, several artists felt the largest impact for them was coming from the move towards stereoscopy. When asked how they use their time off and regenerate mental creativity for their next day, week, or project, Taron earned a chuckle with his reply. “I have developed a very unfortunate contentment with being a zombie,” he said. But his logic is something many can relate to. “I’ve always had a passion to explore, and the computer is one heck of a medium to never stop. It caught me all the way.” He pursues his pet projects such as creating music to “recover the spontaneity, because sometimes when you do these arduous tasks, they take away a little of the creative flow.”
But when Hellard posed the question about shortening deadlines and reduced budgets, the room seemed to collectively hold its breath. Shawn Kelly of ILM said he was definitely working faster now than when he started, but suggested a positive spin by saying it made him more competitive. The drawback was the work didn’t always look its best. Taron pointed out how novice clients find their way into the FX industry without really knowing what was required or when, often adding unnecessary pressure to an already difficult deadline. Another suggestion was the kickback from outsourcing FX work to various countries has forced the cost to drop here. And yet another point was competitive bids are healthy, but some studios will choose an FX studio who is bidding ridiculously low, but when that FX studio can’t finish the project, the main studio is forced to turn to a house like ILM for a “911”, requesting immediate help, a trend that often costs far more than accepting the more realistic bid to begin with.
The last session for the day was Pixars’ Michal Makarewicz, covering what he called the ‘silent film’, Wall-E. Sourcing inspiration from Buster Keaton films and characters like R2D2, Pixar managed to tell a story with almost no dialogue. It was Makarewicz’s job to animate the Captain, an overweight muscle atrophied blob of a character. To fully understand the movement of someone that size, Makarewicz requested the purchase of a pregnancy suit. Further research included fun trips to the dump, a far cry from the scuba diving done for Finding Nemo or the fine dining research for Ratatouille.
Later in the evening was the ‘GetFrisky’ party, with music provided by DJs Max Graham and Sultan considered number 13 in the world. Bathed in red and blue light, the dance floor surrounded by bars began to hop under the DJ’s music while Andrew Jones provided visual entertainment, the beer and drinks were flowing and the crowd mingled with happy laughter.
The week has been a blur and now some badly needed rest is on the schedule. Check back tomorrow to hear all about the last day.
Related links:
ADAPT 08
SLIDE SHOW
GETFrisky SLIDE SHOW
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| ADAPT Wednesday - Wow! |
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Thursday 25 September 2008 - 07:47AM
Renee Dunlop
I am stoked! This has been one of the best days ever at any convention I’ve attended.
The classes, the locale, the camaraderie and the opportunities have been nothing short of astounding.
Taron, in his individual style, showed the complete process of creating a digital marine environment using the combined elements of NewTek LightWave, pmG's Messiah:studio and Pixologic's ZBrush. His presentation was peppered with anecdotes and crazy little stories and a few cool unscripted effects. It's always great to watch Taron at his best.
Then came Kelly Shea of The Jim Henson Company for SID the Science Kid. Digital characters designed on paper are then molded in clay and perfected until approved. That character is scanned into the computer where it’s refined, then rigged and sent to a digital puppeteer where it is tested and tweaked so it can be puppeteered with the full range of motion. The character then passes through full look-dev, and finished shaders are applied. Kelly Shea is amazed about where they are as a digital puppetry studio. “Two years ago we could do two characters. Now with Sid the Science Kid we can do five, in real time, with the kids in the kitchen or wherever in real time. To be able to do that in editorial blows me away.”
For those of you who remember the Delgo project, a feature film whose entire production process was posted on line for the world to see, you will be pleased to know it hits theaters in the US and Canada this December and hopes to settle international distribution soon. It has been a long road for this independent crew of artists that worked interactively from around the world, managed without Hollywood “assistance”. Today, Animation Director Warren Grubb of Fathom explained how they created the film that required a method of thinking far outside the box, utilizing shortcuts such as reusing the same rig for the characters and accommodating changing Maya software over the many years in production. Though the film is not refined at Hollywood level, but is certainly pleasant to view and is a testimony to what can be done by a dedicated group of artists without the backing of big studios. For that accomplishment alone, I plan on purchasing a theater seat.
At the same time, Disney was offering portfolio reviews for a limited number of people. Each portfolio was presented to the room and the Disney supervisors pointed out strengths, gently suggested improvements, and helped find the submitting artists’ personal strength according to the Disney style so the artist knew where to focus. Though other studios might follow different criteria, the information could easily apply to them as well. Suggestions focused on one artist’s strength in lighting, another whose portfolio covered several aspects but noted each required a passion for problem solving, and still another had nice character sketches but details such as shoulders and eyelines weren’t varied enough to really shine. As each review was finished, the submitting artist returned to their seat glowing under a round of applause. What could be better for any aspiring artist?
The highlight of the day was the 2D Masters Panel, mediated by none other than Paul Hellard, editor of CGSociety. The panel included Syd Mead, Craig Mullins, and Jason Manley and Andrew Jones of Massive Black. The brilliance on that stage needed little light to shine. Pearls of wisdom included “ask not what your software can do for you, but what you can do for your software, because it’s up to all of us to push and expand this medium” from Andrew Jones, or from Syd Mead, “We will eventually learn to control gravity. Gravity is the least understood force in the universe, it’s the great conundrum of cosmic science.” The panel of industry beacons gave their opinions on inspirations, feedback and even explained the benefits of creative procrastination. I knew there was a good reason for that to exist!
Related links:
ADAPT 08
SLIDE SHOW
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| ADAPT Tuesday |
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Wednesday 24 September 2008 - 05:13AM
Renee Dunlop
Geeks swarmed the Pepsi AMC Forum today as ADAPT hit full mode. From the fourth floor I could see them travel in Escher-like formations in glass elevators and overhanging escalators from floor to floor and class to class. The stream of packsacks and briefcases was endless.
My own journey took me to the lower level where I caught the end of McFarlane Toys with Adam Ross and Eric Schall. In a course on modeling for the collector toy industry, they shared how they use ZBrush for its UV tools, and Silo and Maya for base mesh modeling of character models destined for stereolithography output. Since the cost of a five-inch figurine can run about $300, saving cost by finding the optimal wall thickness becomes a worthwhile consideration.
Filling the bulk areas such as the torso, thighs and legs with a lighter support material can greatly benefit the stability of certain action poses while reducing cost. For your average 12-inch figure, three to five millimeter thickness is typically the best considering, per gram, modeling material is about 0.25 per gram while support material is about 0.07 a gram.
One room over, I caught the EA demo of Army of Two. Francois Pelletier discussed how the all-male team of 18 had trouble finding an appropriate look for female character Alice Murray. After studying hair-styles, clothing and makeup, the resulting female fighter image is the most frequently downloaded of the three main characters. All the animation is key-framed, preferring that method to MoCap because of the freedom it allowed. Louis-Alexandre Lord, part of the compositing and cinematics team, gave a brief but excellent talk about comping 300 shots for the cinematic. They used Vue from e-on software for the backgrounds, and comped in explosions from Artbot.
Craig Mullins was next on my list. An incredible artist and philosophical speaker, he spoke about the perception that learning to draw photorealism was confused with the final step in becoming an artist, but he considered this to be the earliest hurdle to achieve. “What is beyond here is the expression, the imposing the equation of you as a person of long experience," he said. "It is inevitable. You can’t express that in words, that is why you draw.”
The final session was with Disney Animation’s Bolt trio of Philippe Brochu, Clay Kaytis and Hidetaka Yosumi who worked on Rhino, the hamster. The unique challenges of the quadruped locomotion on the biped action led to them redesigning the rig, thus creating PSD, or Pose Shape Deformers, a program that is currently patent pending. Prior to this, it took the animators 31 steps to move the character from four legs to two, and there were still issues with creasing.
PSD basically works with mesh based distance locators that replace the deforming regions in joint areas that overlap, doubling the creasing. The distance locators use distance values for the PSD driver, plus can be dialed in an out as needed. They even added the feature of “granny arms”, the loose sagging skin that hangs and swings from the upper arm.
At 7pm, the Sports Bar at the top of the escalators in the Forum opened up for the ADAPT Network Event. Recruitment staff from some of the local game and VFX studios mixed it with a ready crowd of 550 artists. Washed in the deep red ambience of a thumping club, the location was alive with music, lots of new faces with smiles, some drinks and even the odd bowling alley thrown in.
Related links:
ADAPT 08
SLIDE SHOW
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| ADAPT Monday |
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Tuesday 23 September 2008 - 06:28AM
Renee Dunlop
The third annual ADAPT conference is looking promising indeed. Though still a small event focusing on networking and training by and for professionals, it has gone through some changes from last year. A new location allows for greater access to the variety of courses and mingling, and attendance appears to be up. More will be revealed tomorrow when classes get started. Today was for registration, the VIP Cocktail party, and the week's Keynote.
Hors do'eurves and drinks were served in the Art Gallery, where guests were surrounded by suspended poster art in every style imaginable. Corel sponsored the gallery for the second year, pulling the best from roughly 200 submissions. One wall was dedicated to the week's speakers. The party closed with comments from some of the organizers including Emile Ghorayeb, who stated that “this was a place for talent, but also to develop new talent,” and said that Montreal was ready, able, and willing to expand its digital community.
On to the Keynote with Andreas Deja from Disney. With a staggering collection of sketches from the Nine Old Men, Deja shared some of the history of their groundbreaking work and how it laid the groundwork for our passions and careers today. But even perched on the backs of such famed animators as Ollie Johnson and Frank Thomas, Disney would have failed had Cinderella and later 101 Dalmatians not been a success.
Rough concept sketches can really demonstrate an artists’ method. Simple lines and shapes creating volume and weight. Clean lines and minimal detail were used to define character expressions and postures. One of the Seven Dwarves had a belly that filled the screen, but the lack of detail and presence of clean lines drew your attention to his facial expression tucked in the upper part of the frame. While the art appeared simple, every frame had life and when run in sequence, portrayed a clear message with a single gesture.
Beautiful concepts from the hands of less experienced artists were shown followed by the redeveloped character from the hands of the skilled animators. Though the list of changes seemed short, viewing the results was impressive. A tuck of the chin, a turn of the eye, and the character became someone rich with personality. Some of Ollie Johnson’s first passes were so solid there seemed little more to do than ink the character in. Johnson, because of this skill, was one of the fastest artists in the studio.
Deja shared how in his earlier years he purchased a stack of Disney sketches from a collector, sketches that appeared to be easy to recreate. It wasn’t until Deja shot them on film and played the scene that he realized the quality of the work. Subtle shifts in weight, volume, squash and stretch were all there. “You might be funny, you might be entertaining, but the presence of the character is not going to work on video until you pronounce the weight of it. Every step has to have weight that is appropriate.”
Related links:
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