Swedish animation studio Meindbender has finished a one-minute promo for Cartoon Network, featuring complex cloth, fur, and water simulation in each shot
The studio first pitched the promo, titled ‘The Pirate’ three years before production, but once Cartoon Network had commissioned the promo, Meindbender were given full responsibility in script, design and execution.
The spot is ambitious too – every shot contains cloth, fur, and water simulation, alongside some highly complex character animation, giving the promo a unique style, surprising some viewers that learn it is entirely CG.
Including so many simulations provided the biggest challenges for the studio. The team spent plenty of time ensuring that all the elements would keep working within the same Maya scene.
Creative director Olov Nurman explains: “We did the separate simulations in different scenes and combined them right before we started rendering.”
“We also wanted the world to be curved and this made the water simulation quite tricky,” he adds. “In the end, for the sake of efficiency we did the simulation in a flat world before bending it into position with a lattice.”
Meindbender’s pipeline also consisted of modo, Mudbox and 3D Coat for modelling and sculpting, before rendering the project using the Maxwell Renderer.
The studio found that compared to other physically correct renderers, they were able speed up the rendering times due to the easy setup of Maxwell, and by controlling the total production time in regards to lighting, shading and rendering.
“We also used the multi-light feature, which mean that we didn’t have to decide on the light setup before firing off the renders, controlling them in post instead,” adds Nurman.
Posted on Tuesday, April 26th, 2011 at 12:39 pm under Commercial, Showcase. You can subscribe to comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
Tags: Animation, cartoon network, cloth, fur, Meindbender, water
The world's leading magazine for CG artists Subscribe Now
