In Oz the Great and Powerful, Sony Pictures Imageworks conjures a CGI vision of an iconic fantasy world. James Clarke discovers the magic behind the effects

The entertainment industry has been adapting and creatively mining L Frank Baum’s Oz books ever since a 1901 Broadway musical. The latest movie version, Oz The Great and Powerful, directed by fantasy-film veteran Sam Raimi, explores the origins of the enigmatic wizard from Baum’s original novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Sam Raimi’s prequel plays to his strengths as a director, with Oz portrayed as a rich, imaginary world that’s both bright and dark, full of fantastical characters and exciting events.

To help create this immersive world, Raimi brought in two-time Oscar winner Robert Stromberg, the production designer behind Avatar and Alice in Wonderland. Instead of relying on greenscreen technology for every scene, they decided to construct physical sets so the actors could have a visual reference. “Robert worked with artists to build things on set very early on as an art-directed stage aesthetic,” says visual effects supervisor Scott Stokdyk, who has worked with Raimi on several projects – most notably the Spider-Man trilogy, sharing an Oscar for his work on the second in the series.

To build the digital versions of all the locations and lands in the movie, the visual effects team had laser-scanned versions of the physical sets. For example, in the scene where Oz first sees the Yellow Brick Road in the company of the witch Theodora, the team scanned the environment and modified it. “The topography gives us great visual cues, which we cherry-pick and re-art direct,” says Stokdyk. The team accumulated digital assets, such as greenery, and then were able to re-dress the set digitally.

“It is harder to combine live-action and CG, but we resisted the trend to go all-CG,” says animation supervisor Troy Saliba. In all there were 1,105 shots, and Raimi demanded only the best for each. “One of the things I love about working with Sam Raimi is that he keeps you on your toes,” says Stokdyk. “He was constantly challenging us to incorporate everything he wanted, and to create a consistent tone.”

THE LANDS OF OZ

Principal photography on Oz The Great and Powerful took place in Detroit, Michigan in the second half of 2011. During this phase, Sony Pictures Imageworks gathered information and data on-set to eventually refer to in post-production, which ran for a year from January 2012.

The visual effects team laser-scanned the physical sets in order to build the digital versions of all the locations

Balancing the on-set lighting with CG lighting was an overall aesthetic goal for the movie. In collaboration with Peter Deming, the film’s director of photography, the team gathered all the necessary data for the CG lighting in post. Sony Pictures Imageworks used a Spheron HDR camera to gather its extensive library of 360-degree photographs of the set; from these they made detailed records of on-set light positions and light intensity values to translate into the CG realm.

As well as building the surreal world, the team was tasked with creating digital characters and landscapes, such as a city of teapots. “We were doing flying monkeys and bubbles flying through beautiful landscapes,” says Stokdyk. The team used the original books for reference to the surreal world, and took visual cues from the original illustrations by WW Denslow for the fantastic characters.

Stokdyk admits that they didn’t even scratch the surface in terms of creatures they could have featured. One wonderful character they decided to bring to the big screen was China Girl, but creating her was fraught with technical difficulties.

A SMASHING LITTLE DOLL

China Girl presented a unique animation challenge. After seeing the first pieces of animation for the character, animation supervisor Troy Saliba recalls how he had to tell a rather surprised animator that the animation was too articulated, and that it had to be dialled back in its expressivity, which is rather counterintuitive. Saliba explained how the creative trick with China Girl was in capturing “a childish preciousness in a little porcelain doll, with her face all one piece”. They had to address the character’s movement, but also how to best make her face move without drawing the audience away from the illusion that she was made of china. “Because of the limitations, China Girl is really unique – there’s no recognisable animation formula for her,” Saliba explains.

Animating her was not only technically challenging, but also extremely time-consuming. For a ten-second shot, such as the one of China Girl interacting with Oscar Diggs (played by James Franco), the crew would typically commit ten to 12 hours per day over four weeks to the process of solving the dynamics of movement. With work on this part of the character animation completed, animation would then be produced for the cloth simulation and the interaction of the characters.

The animators were asked to ‘dial back‘ the expressiveness of China Doll’s face to keep the illusion that she was made of china

To keep the interaction of the digital and live characters believable, Stokdyk devised the Puppetcam, a pole attached to a marionette that allowed the actors on the set to see the face of the voice actor. “Puppetcam really helped with ad-libbing and vital performance,” says Saliba. Unfortunately, China Girl was too small to use the ingenious Puppetcam, and so a marionette was used on the set, operated by talented manipulator Phillip Huber.

Getting eye levels was just one of the issues. Saliba recalls how the film’s animated character work also included significant efforts to generate a wide range of digital doubles for the human characters. Additionally, thousands of digi-doubles were generated as extras to populate the land of Oz. “The toughest ones were stunt doubles for hero characters, because they were closer to the camera than we expected,” says Saliba. The team found creating digi-doubles of the witches particularly troublesome, because they had to try to capture the attitude of each witch when they were in flight around Oz.

“For the 3D characters, we were infusing a bit of the actor into the performance,” says Saliba. “Once we have a model, we start rigging and doing the facial poses. There’s some back and forth on modelling, depending on the topology of the face.” Animation tests of each character were produced once the rigging was developed, which would then go to Raimi for approval.

STEREOSCOPIC MAGIC

By January 2012, edits of live-action footage began reaching Sony Pictures Imageworks. Simultaneously, work began on some of the film’s more complex digital environments. It was an evolving process, and part of this creative evolution was in terms of the film’s 3D demands. Scott Willman, the film’s stereography supervisor, came on board immediately after the principal photography was complete, for which the on-set 3D stereographers had been Ed Marsh and James Goldman. One of Wilman’s key responsibilities was to oversee how animated characters would tie in with the movie’s 3D aesthetic. Willman recalls that Raimi’s feedback upon reviewing the 3D footage was to “make it bigger”.

FLEXIBLE DESIGN DEPTH

Oz The Great and Powerful had always been intended as a stereoscopic film, and so it had been shot natively in 3D rather than being converted to 3D in post-production. As such, the stereo element of the film was essentially set in stone by the time the footage from principal photography reached Sony Pictures Imageworks.

Willman explains that across the film there was lots of flexibility to design depth, making sure that multiple camera depths still worked with the native photography.

“Shooting native on-set was James Goldman, and it was his call to set the interaxial for the on-set camera. We’re used to seeing everything in binocular, and it’s important that things have a basis in reality, so in matchmoving we make sure that the CG has the same distance from the camera as the live action. There’s a higher degree of fidelity in stereo,” he says.

The film was shot natively in stereoscopic 3D rather than being converted to 3D in post-production

The Sony Pictures Imageworks team was able to enhance the native footage with new visual effects elements and stereoscopic adjustments. Being able to direct various aesthetic choices after principal photography was a great boon.

As the crew grappled with the climax of the film, they went back to the source material. “There’s a big effects sequence at the end of the film with a giant projected holographic head,” explains Stokdyk. “We wanted it to be an original-looking creation, so we looked back at the books – and there’s a floating head over a throne graphic. That’s what we went with.”

So, in a bright new digital world the old-world inspiration endures, and as the animators and visual effects crew become more comfortable with the technology, so their creative choices expand and unfold like a Yellow Brick Road.

Discover the best 3D movies of 2013 at our sister site, Creative Bloq.

From arch-viz to visual effects, Mark Ramshaw meets the studios that made their mark on the CG industry in the last year. This week, The Senate…

Unsung hero syndrome invariably accompanies specialisation in ‘invisible effects’. Nevertheless, boutique facility The Senate has been quietly building up an enviable reputation in the last few years, delivering seamless environment and visual effects work on a series of films, while continuing to push the boundaries in the higher end of the broadcast market – an area that spawned the company in the first place when several independent artists teamed up to work on Steven Spielberg’s 2002 mini-series, Band of Brothers.

▲ All-digital library and snow (top) and Kings College Cambridge gate house, created for The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

“It’s been a conscious decision to specialise in this sort of work,” says Sarah Hemsley, CEO at The Senate. “Sadly, you often see companies take on anything and then sometimes they just can’t deliver. The best thing in business is to know your strengths and play to them, and that’s very much what we do.”

While Hemsley has been working to forge strong relationships with the major studios over the last few years – building to a recent body of work that includes 215 shots for Voyage of the Dawn Treader and 180 for Captain America: The First Avenger – she stresses that the UK remains a vital touchstone.

“We’re very keen to work on smaller UK projects. We’re currently involved with a British movie called Fast Girls, and have also worked on TV projects like Downton Abbey and Luthor. We have the ability to scale down or up to 50 seats, and so can work well with any size project and be very economical for the studios.”

This scalability, says Helmsley, also enables The Senate to avoid subcontracting. “Many people now outsource things like roto work, which is harming our talent pool. We take the approach of bringing people in-house at a roto/junior level, and then give them the chance to work up through the company.”

As for the upcoming year, the studio already has a raft of high-profile projects lined up. “2012 brings Wrath of the Titans, Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows – which has some really great work in it – and a few things I sadly can’t discuss yet,” says Hemlsey. “It’s going to be a very busy year. The future is looking rosy.”

Visit www.senatevfx.com to discover what the studio is working on right now.

From arch-viz to visual effects, Mark Ramshaw meets the studios that made their mark on the CG industry in the last year. This week, Storm Studios…

Formed in 1996, Storm Studios is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, animation facilities in Scandinavia, although it wasn’t until 2006, with Free Jimmy (the region’s first CG-animated movie) and Peter & the Wolf, that the studio began to attract serious attention in its native Norway and abroad. Since then, feature film visual effects work has been Storm’s bread and butter, with a merger between Storm and Nordisk Film in 2010 further strengthening its industry position.

▲ Storm’s matte painting expertise at work in Mathias Calmeyer’s movie Captain Sabertooth

“Merging Storm’s effects knowledge with Nordisk Film’s long traditions and post-production expertise, we’ve achieved our dream of creating a one-stop shop,” says managing director Kristin Hellebust. “We’ve also helped design one of the finest post-production facilities in Europe, in the form of Nordisk Film Shortcut, which has recently expanded to a second studio in Stockholm.”

While there are some foreign projects currently in development, Hellebust says that tangible results from acclaim for internationally well-known projects such as Max Manus and The Troll Hunter have yet to appear. The Norwegian film industry, meanwhile, remains very budget-conscious.

“It’s also often expected that the visual effects company invest 50 per cent of the honorarium in the film, with the risk of never getting a direct return on this investment,” explains Hellebust. “Of course, with a population of just five million, it’s understandable that budgets are small, and one positive consequence is that we’re used to being extremely efficient and creative.”

Following a year of investment on internal R&D, and the development of efficient pipelines, Hellebust says one of the next things is going to be to enjoy the benefits of the brand-new facilities shared with Shortcut. On the work side, in 2012 Storm will continue its recent push into commercials, while feature work will include CG environments for three children’s movies, plus a sizeable contribution to the Scandinavian/British production Kon-Tiki.

Visit www.stormstudios.no to discover what the studio is working on right now.

From arch-viz to visual effects, Mark Ramshaw meets the studios that made their mark on the CG industry in the last year. This week, Ars Thanea…

That Warsaw is home to some serious art talent isn’t in doubt. If nothing else, the work of Platige Image saw to that.

Nevertheless, Ars Thanea’s rapid rise in the space of just four years is striking. Originally the brand name for the portfolio of one of the studio’s founders (Bartlomiej Rozbicki), Ars Thanea began life focused on interactive design.

Gradually, however, it’s grown into a full-service ad agency, spread across two offices, and with departments focusing on areas including motion, mobile and still image creation.

▲ Art for Polaroid’s Grey Label line, a collaboration with Haus of Gaga

“In the beginning we were really only interested in the interactive part of the work, but as we grew we decided that to achieve the best possible quality we needed to have full production under one roof,” explains executive creative director Peter Jaworowski.

“We do still have a couple of generalists, but as the company has grown we’ve employed specialists in modelling, painting and so on more and more.”

The studio’s client roster already reads like a who’s who of iconic brands, including Coca-Cola, Diesel, Martini and Puma, plus motor manufacturers Fiat, Mercedes and Mazda.

In technology, clients include Ubisoft, PlayStation, Orange, Nokia, and Nvidia, and in the broadcast field the portfolio includes work for Discovery Channel and SyFy.

“In the interactive division I’d say 80 per cent of our revenue comes from Polish clients and 20 per cent from elsewhere in Europe,” says Jaworowski.

“With image creation, however, around 60 per cent is from the USA and elsewhere in the world, and then 30 per cent from Europe and just 10 per cent from Polish clients. As we’re gaining more recognition and taking on bigger campaigns, it’s very much changing in favour of international work.”

The trend for servicing international clients looks set to continue with several more on the horizon in California for 2012. “We’ll see how it works out, but already we’re thinking hard about opening a San Francisco office next year. The future is actually looking very bright, with plenty of work on the way.”

Visit www.arsthanea.com to discover what the studio is working on right now.

From arch-viz to visual effects, Mark Ramshaw meets the studios that made their mark on the CG industry in the last year. This week, Fido…

In an increasingly competitive industry, it’s not uncommon for small-to-midsize studios to opt for some degree of specialisation. Even so, Fido’s reputation for photoreal creature work is quite remarkable. So too is its commitment to internal R&D, developing the tools that enable such work to stand out from the crowd.

▲ The digital fur flies with this all-CG squirrel star of an advert for Saatchi & Saatchi, Stockholm

“We’ve focused heavily on creatures and simulations of real-world elements for the last six or so years now,” says Mattias Lindahl, senior VFX supervisor at Fido. “These areas are obviously technically very challenging, so we’ve had to rely on our R&D department to push beyond the limits of what’s possible with off-the-shelf software.”

Fido effectively came into being in 2000, with the merger of four separate entities: one focused on art direction, one on post work, another on motion graphics, and another on practical effects. “Our practical workshop is another thing that makes us different from most other visual effects houses, as it gives us the ability to create animatronics, prosthetics, and FX make-up for our clients, as well as digital solutions,” says Lindahl.

The studio has just completed 150 CGI creature shots (plus 240 animatronic shots) for Sony’s German-language movie Yoko, and is now working on a Scandinavian-British retelling of the Kon-Tiki voyage.

• Read an interview with VFX studio Important Looking Pirates about its shark shot in Kon-tiki.

Moving ahead, Lindahl says a recent buyout by Forestlight means that some aggressive expansion is now on the cards.

“Fusing with Forestlight means that we can plan for the long term and think bigger than before. We currently have around 40 people, including freelancers. We want that number closer to 100 in the near future.”

Visit www.fido.se to discover what the studio is working on right now.

From arch-viz to visual effects, Mark Ramshaw meets the studios that made their mark on the CG industry in the last year. This week, Iloura…

Those outside Australia might be forgiven for thinking that Iloura is a relative newcomer, but its recent run of high-profile projects (including work on Steven Spielberg’s The Pacific mini-series and James Cameron’s Sanctum) is just the latest chapter in a 30-year-long story.

▲ Movie-level visual effects for Spielberg’s acclaimed mini-series The Pacific

“We started life as a traditional post house, and then in the 1990s began investing in visual effects tools,” explains Simon Rosenthal, executive producer at Iloura. “3D animation then became an important part of our work, particularly after acquiring a local animation company.”

Now a subsidiary of film investment and distribution company Omnliab, the studio employs around 150 people across its Melbourne and Sydney offices, with an average of 70 devoted to film, 30 to 40 dealing with advertising, experiential work, and 45 on an episodic TV series. It’s this flexibility that enabled the studio to tackle 500 shots on Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

“We hadn’t spent a lot of time developing those types of effects in-house before,” says Rosenthal. “But after meeting the challenges of the project, with the fire and so on, we’re now very strong on effects animation.”

While the movie is likely to push Iloura further into the spotlight, Rosenthal remains cautious. “We’re more interested in good opportunities, ones that challenge the artists without crucifying or tipping them over the edge. Making sure we look after them, retain them and maintain that drive is the biggest challenge we face. Expansion will happen, but we want to make sure we don’t ever lose that personal boutique feel.”

Visit www.iloura.com to discover what the studio is working on right now.

▲ Students at SCAD in Georgia, USA. Consider carefully whether you need generalist or specialist skills as you choose the right course to launch your CG career

Your journey towards your new animation or VFX career starts here. Find out how to choose the school that will give you the grounding you need

School spotlights

Media Design School
Dave School
Wacom at Sheridan College

Although you can get started with CG animation and visual effects and develop your skills with the help of training DVD, online courses, books and magazine tutorials, there’s nothing quite like the experience you get from going back to school. Schools immerse you in the art and craft of CG, giving you access to film-making facilities and software pipelines based on those of professional studios. They use teaching staff drawn from the industry, plus guest lecturers who remain active today. And perhaps most importantly, they enable you to live the life of an animator for as long as you’re on the course, sharing your experiences with other students learning in the same way.

None of this is a substitute for you doing the hard work, of course, but the best animation schools make sure their students are equipped for a CG industry hungry for new talent. “We make students employable,” says Marty Hasselbach, managing director of Vancouver Film School. “Since the school replicates a studio environment, graduates hit the ground running. We also stack the deck in their favour by making sure they have an effective reel, and by bringing in many talent-hungry industry representatives to assess student work.”

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

There are hundreds of animation courses to choose between, and even the local college down the road – never mind a top-flight academy in another city or country – represents a significant financial commitment. So being sure you have chosen the right faculty has never been more important.

Think carefully about whether you need a general grounding in 3D alongside other disciplines, in case a broad multimedia course is just the ticket; or whether only the deepest CG-only experience will satisfy your thirst for learning. Either way, you’ve immediately ruled out a large number of possibilities.

Next, form a shortlist and research each school. Ask each school about its connections with the industry. Find out what experience the staff have in the industry, and how recent that experience is – if you view the school as a route to employment, you need to be learning the latest practices.

Use YouTube and Vimeo to check out showreels and shorts produced by both current students and graduates at your target schools. Obviously you want to assess their technical quality – but more crucially, use the shorts to get a flavour of the type and variety of work a school’s students are producing, and ask yourself which school is making the work that you want to create as well.

Although your school of choice should be well equipped, the intangible qualities and culture of a school matter more than whether they offer Cintiq touchscreens to work from. “If you focus on what you love, rather than follow industry trends, you’ll find the right program,” says Marianne Reilly, who heads Vancouver Film School’s one-year 3D Animation and Visual Effects course. “It’s all about where your passion lies!”

Passion is also the key word for Peter Weishar, dean of SCAD’s School of Film, Digital Media and Performing Arts. “When you go to art school, you really have to love what you’ll be doing, and be willing to work on it day and night,” he says. “That passion has to be there.”

LANDING A JOB

Most people applying for animation school view it as bridge to employment in the CG industry, so you also need to find out what your target schools do to help you get that first job. If a school doesn’t publish its graduate employment rates, ask for them. If they can’t provide those figures, ask them why not.

More intangibly, try to get a sense of how well each school might prepare you for work. For Peter Weishar, it means equipping students with the right attitude and approach to their craft, which goes beyond knowing which keyboard shortcut to use. “Different studios do ask for different things, but usually what they’re really after is a great aesthetic and an understanding of animation. VFX is a little different, in that the reel needs to demonstrate problem solving, whereas when it comes to animation it’s really all about story and character. However, I think the days are gone when they would hire somebody based on raw talent, and then teach them how to use the computer later.”

If you want to get into the best animation schools, you need to be ready to give as much as you receive – and for the best students, that hard work starts before they complete the application form. Marty Hasselbach stresses how important it is to do your homework. “Ask questions; talk to students, graduates and industry,” he advises. “No two schools are alike, and a student needs to find the one that best suits their learning style and career objectives.”

▲ Created by Media Design School students Arun Gnanasekhar, Andrew McCully, Jayson Simpson and Jacob Tuck, Funeral Home Pinatas is a dark mock commercial. Watch it at http://vimeo.com/45806376

Advertising feature: With a range of courses designed to make students work-ready and a roster of experienced lecturers, this New Zealand institute is a force to be reckoned with

www.mediadesignschool.com/studynz

To discover just how closely and successfully academia can work with the computer graphics industry, look no further than the award-winning Media Design School. Located in downtown Auckland – the largest city in ‘the home of Middle Earth’ – it’s hard to imagine an institute better placed to both draw from and feed into what is undoubtedly one of the world’s most exciting digital talent pools.

Founded in 1998, Media Design School was one of New Zealand’s first private tertiary education providers to offer world-class, government-approved qualifications in the digital creative sectors. Since then, the school has grown in tandem with the area’s burgeoning film, entertainment and CG industries. Having previously focused on industry training, Media Design School introduced four degree-level programmes in 2012 – with the Bachelor of Art & Design (3D Animation & Visual Effects) and Bachelor of Creative Technologies (Game Art) the first of their kind in the country.

▲ A still life by former student Donald Bradford. After graduating from Media Design School, he is now working at Weta Digital

“Degree-level study allows students the opportunity to learn the broad fundamentals of art and design, while developing their understanding of specialist areas in more depth,” says Jackie Young, Marketing and Admissions Director. “This offers graduates the ability to adapt to the inevitable changes that will come to the tools and technology that are used in the craft. And of course, bachelor degrees offer global mobility, giving graduates the ability to work right around the world, wherever their skills are in demand.”

Graduates also have the option of enrolling for further studies at Media Design School, via a graduate diploma in Creative Technologies. With specialisations focusing on either Visual Effects and Motion Graphics or Advanced 3D Animation, the graduate diploma gives students the freedom to further research areas of special interest.

The introduction of the new three-year degree courses follows closely on the heels of Media Design School’s integration with Laureate, a network of more than 65 accredited campus-based and online universities. “Within Laureate International Universities, Media Design School is considered a ‘centre of excellence’ for art, architecture and design, along with Domus Academy and NABA in Milan, the NewSchool of Architecture and Design in San Diego, and the Santa Fe University of Art and Design,” says Young. “As part of the Laureate network, students have opportunities for international study and building ties with institutes around the world.”

• Watch Shelved (MDS’ latest critically acclaimed student film) right now!

BUILDING INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS

Building ties is something Media Design School clearly excels at. For every qualification taught, there’s a panel of industry representatives from prominent studios in the corresponding creative sector. These panels not only help shape each curriculum by keeping the school abreast of trends, hardware and software developments, but also offer help with mentoring, lecturing and final grading of student work.

“We’ve always maintained close ties with the industry,” says James Cunningham, Senior Lecturer in 3D Animation. “The 3D animation and visual effects sector is maturing and becoming increasingly sophisticated, and so too is specialised education for the industry. There’s an expectation that digital artists are able to hit the ground running when they join a studio, and by working closely with professionals we can ensure our programmes produce graduates who are industry-ready.”

On the international front, the school has forged connections with and attracted guest speakers from many leading animation, visual effects, games and advertising companies, including DreamWorks Animation, Pixar, ILM, Framestore, Blizzard, and Massive Black. More locally, meanwhile, the proximity to Peter Jackson and his filmmaking empire – largely responsible for putting New Zealand on the map for world-leading post-production – provides both school and students with a truly unique opportunity.

▲ Work by Sergej Zlahtic, who graduated in advanced 3D productions

GET YOURSELF CONNECTED

“We’re incredibly fortunate to have Weta Digital here in our backyard,” acknowledges Cunningham. “It creates job opportunities for junior artists, and because the company attracts top talent from around the globe, the school benefits from amazing connections with the best in the world. We regularly have VFX and animation supervisors giving talks at the school. Students have the advantage of getting feedback from leaders in the field. And we also have a good relationship with the HR department – they really seem to like our graduates.”

Media Design School’s own faculty also brings a great deal of experience to the table. Cunningham worked on the Lord of the Rings franchise at Weta, as did Brian Samuels, an industry veteran with experience running the digital effects team over at Boss Film Studios. Senior Lecturer Paul Swadel remains actively involved in the New Zealand film industry, via Blue Harvest Shorts, while fellow lecturer Roger Feron runs the successful NZCGI forum at www.nzcgi.com.

Over on the games side, the faculty includes Microsoft and Rockstar Games veteran Mike Porter and David March, whose software credits include Far Cry, BioShock and Duke Nukem Forever. Ties with the games industry are further strengthened via regular meet-ups for the New Zealand Game Developers’ Association at the school, plus hosting of the Auckland edition of the Global Game Jam for the last few years.

INDUSTRY-READY SKILLS

“This February we also held the MDS Games Summit, the first of what is intended to be an annual event,” says Young. “The first summit included a three-day LAN party, a two-day conference with international guest speakers from Valve and Blizzard, plus local talent from Grinding Gear Games and Ninja Kiwi.” Meanwhile, the Media Design School alumni network continues to grow, with graduates working at leading games, effects and animation studios, contributing to recent blockbusters including The Avengers, The Hobbit, Prometheus and X-Men: First Class.

Working with industry-standard tools including Autodesk’s Maya, Chaos Group’s V-Ray and The Foundry’s Nuke, and with most tutorials limited to around 20 students per class, Cunningham says the highly-specced environment at Media Design School is designed to emulate the layout of a professional studio. “Media Design School focuses on specialist creative areas that are related to film, but we are not a traditional film school,” he stresses.

“Students are pushed during the course of their studies to get their work up to a professional level. The final group production replicates a small production studio and gives students the opportunity to work with other professionals to raise the quality bar. Teaching what it takes to produce quality is one of the intangibles we try to achieve through the experience of a big team production. The students then get to make their own films off the back of that experience.”

▲ Students are taught a valuable mix of creative skills and art theory

“Along with practical and traditional art classes, theory classes provide our students with the tools to analyse a creative problem and develop solutions using a framework based on design or cinematic principles and practices,” adds Steve Dorner, Programme Leader for the Bachelor of Art & Design course. “Our goal is to produce graduates who can contribute creatively as well as execute technically.”

While the school has built up a diverse faculty that contributes a blend of skills across all key areas, Dorner says that combining a broad-based arts education with targeted, work-ready skills is a fine balancing act. “One of our biggest challenges is to not rely too heavily on technical tool-based learning, providing skills that could become obsolete in the foreseeable future. Studios still require our graduates to be technically proficient, but we have an obligation to our students to ensure they are critical thinkers and are able to adapt to change,” he adds. “Critical thinking skills not only allow graduates to research and self-teach in technical areas as new tools emerge, but these skills also allow for higher thinking on a creative level.”

While once perceived primarily as a preferred destination for local students, Media Design School now attracts between 15 and 20 per cent of its students from countries as far afield as Sweden, Mexico, Japan, Russia, India, Vietnam, Iceland, Macedonia, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.

“New Zealand offers a great alternative for international students who want to experience a different country that boasts a great environment, a vibrant creative sector and close ties with globally recognised studios,” says Dorner.

“Having emerged as a major global player in visual effects and CGI – with Peter Jackson and James Cameron working on projects here – the country has access to major talent, innovation and fantastic resources.”

▲ A beautiful image of armour by first-year student Terai Tauvavau

For international students, the ability to study in one of the industry’s creative hotspots is not the only draw. Thanks to the New Zealand Government’s Study to Work visa program, they also have the opportunity to get a foothold in that local industry after their study ends. “Study to Work provides students with the option to work or look for work related to their chosen field of study,” explains Young. “Students who complete a NZQF Level 7 qualification – including a Bachelor’s Degree or a post-degree Graduate Diploma – are eligible for a Graduate Job Search Visa for up to 12 months or a Graduate Work Experience Visa, valid for up to two years.”

Looking ahead, Dorner says that the school continues to examine how best to offer education that helps to drive innovation in the industry: “We’ve just announced an exciting partnership with Saatchi & Saatchi to open The Graduate School, which will be located in Auckland’s new waterfront Innovation Precinct. Additionally, we also have a partnership with the Laboratory for Animate Technologies. Fronted by multiple Academy Award-winner Dr Mark Sagar, the Laboratory is leading the way in interaction design, creating ‘live’ computational models of the face and brain by combining bioengineering, neuroscience, computational intelligence and interactive computer graphics research.”

Back on campus, meanwhile, plans are afoot to extend the depth and breadth of training even further, with a one-year Master’s Degree course in Interaction Design, boasting a curriculum developed in conjunction with Milan-based sister school Domus Academy. Like the vibrant digital arts and entertainment sector that it has become so effectively aligned with, Media Design School is an ongoing New Zealand success story of global significance.

▲ Students produced spherical HDR images to generate the photo-realistic lighting for Shelved’s CG robots

STUDENT VIEW

Sergej Žlahtic
This advanced 3D Production Studies graduate calls studying at Media Design School “a life-investment experience”

“Studying at MDS was an amazing experience. Being part of such a creative environment definitely gave us an advantage, and studying there provided the opportunity to meet up with world-leading CG artists from films like Avatar and Lord of the Rings. I was one of a group of 11 students who worked on the short CG film ‘Dr Grordbort Presents: The Deadliest Game’, executive-produced by Weta concept artist Greg Broadmore. It involved a great volume of work over 22 weeks, but it all paid off – the final film was even presented in Wellington to Sir Richard Taylor, head of Weta Workshop. It’s difficult to believe how well the school trains you in such a short time. It’s an intense, life-investment experience – and, for me, one that paid off very quickly.”

Q&A

Shelved
Shelved director James Cunningham discusses Media Design School’s latest critically acclaimed student film

3D World: How many students got involved with the making of Shelved, and how long did it take to complete?
James Cunningham: The entire project took about 12 weeks from ideation to final comp and grade. 11 Media Design School animation students worked on the production, which included 5,460 hours of rendering and 6,300 hours of work for five minutes of animation.

3D World: How did the concept evolve?
JC: We’d been toying around with the idea of some loser robots going to a convenience store and causing chaos. Greg Broadmore, a concept artist friend at Weta Workshop, sent designs for a few robots he’d been working on and we took it from there. Once we had the characters in place, we worked with New Zealand writer Kathryn Burnett, and our robots became factory workers in a supply warehouse.

3D World: Is the involvement of industry professionals the norm with these projects?
JC: Rather than sending students out to do internships we bring the experience of industry into the school. Students get to be involved in various aspects of the production while working with professional writers, designers, cinematographers, actors and so on.

3D World: How much of a challenge was it to build models that would look original, while also allowing for a good performance and good degree of character?
JC: The complexity of the two robots Greg sent over set the standard. The students were able to research various robot styles, but they needed to work with the leads. Speciality equipment inspired several of the designs. For example, Otto, the big claw and foot bot, was based on logging and mining equipment. His rig had to be carefully balanced so that he looked big and powerful but could hold a pen daintily – a great gag from one of the students.

3D World: What tools and reference data did the students have to work with on the project?
JC: We had the help of local company Toybox, which let us
use its HDRI robot. We also have a nodal head and fisheye lens, which is more manual but faster to use. Software used for this project was industry-standard, including Maya, V-Ray and Nuke. We also used SynthEyes to do our 3D object tracks of the actor’s LED helmets. That gave us a budget form of motion capture from one camera.

3D World: Can you talk us through the division of labour and how you ensured consistency?
JC: All students have the opportunity to work on various aspects of the production. With this film, four artists did the bulk of the modelling and texturing, and two did most of the rigging.
One student worked on the cloth simulations – he was determined to nail it.

▲ The Shelved production team on set for the filming of live-action elements

QUALIFICATIONS OFFERED

• Bachelor of Media Design – with majors in Interactive Design, Motion Design, and Graphic Design (February intake only)
• Bachelor of Art & Design (3D Animation & Visual Effects)
• Bachelor of Software Engineering (Game Programming)
• Bachelor of Creative Technologies (Game Art)
• Graduate Diploma in Creative Technologies – a one year post-graduate qualification that supports research projects and investigation in 3D animation, visual effects, video game art or interactive design
• The school also offers specialist qualifications in creative advertising, and a foundation programme in digital creativity

▲ A still from a DAVE School block four student project, The Good Lifers

Advertising feature: A new DAVE is dawning as this well-respected Florida-based school reboots itself for an ever-changing learning environment and industry

www.daveschool.com

This is a year of expansion and new beginnings for DAVE (Digital Animation and Visual Effects) School, as its staff prepare to bring three new programmes into the curriculum: game art, character animation and working with 3D printing. The school is now in its 12th year of delivering a high-calibre, leading-edge student experience.

“We’re on the backlot of Universal Studios, Orlando, on Soundstage 25,” says Jeff Scheetz, founder and Executive Director of DAVE School. “We have an 11,000 sq ft soundstage and a motion-capture stage. We frequently shoot films on the backlot and on the Islands of Adventure.”

Life of Pi, The Hobbit and Captain America: The First Avenger are just some of the recent movies that DAVE School graduates have worked on. “Our big claim to fame is that five movies nominated for Oscars in 2013 had a DAVE School graduate working on them – that’s 58 students across the five films,” says Scheetz. “It’s getting very common to have DAVE School alumni on Emmy Award-winning projects, too. They have made profound work.”

▲ Traditional films studies help students put their own work in context

DAVE traditionally trains students in LightWave for companies working on VFX for TV, but Scheetz says the new programmes broaden the school’s range. “We’ve expanded, retooled and gone mainstream. What we’re doing is aimed at the mainstream industry, and I think we will be quite a powerful training centre.”

DAVE is now an established VFX training school, and is committed to training its students in character animation and videogame art. As with its established teaching and learning programmes in visual effects work, the new courses will make group projects key to the study of each discipline.

With an 85-per-cent placement rate for graduates in the film and TV industry, DAVE School is very much a part of the digital media landscape in filmmaking. By embarking on the new programmes, DAVE School will provide students with the chance to work with industry-standard software, including Maya and V-Ray. Furthermore, alongside its core image-making education and training, DAVE School is also anticipating offering a programme in screenwriting.

The impulse underpinning the significant growth in DAVE’s programmes, explains Scheetz, is that DAVE School works back from what employers want. “I was a VFX artist in LA, where I took Foundation Imaging from having five or six artists to having 200. I was going through so many resumés as an employer that this was where the original concept for DAVE School was born.”

▲ DAVE students Any Chen and Michael Amato created The Good Lifers in their final year

The school consults with various companies and practitioners to ensure that the teaching and learning is current and forward-looking. In keeping with the new sense of direction for DAVE School, in 2012 it hosted the First Robotics Competition.

This served as a training event for students to use Creo, a 3D modelling application used in the engineering industry. This broadening in the remit of how visual effects and animation production can be applied beyond the world of movies offers intriguing prospects.

ANGLES ON LEARNING

A typical class size at DAVE School consists of between 20 and 30 students. Throughout their training, there are numerous opportunities for the students to collaborate. Students also conduct project analysis and review their works in progress, as well as work completed in order to take lessons through from one project to the next. Students attend classes in film studies to learn from the traditions of filmmaking and put their own work into context. By offering a rounded view of film production, DAVE School allows students to create a balance between personal work and the needs of the industry.

The courses students undertake at DAVE are structured around four subject blocks. First up is digital modelling and texturing. This block leads to a second focusing on the fundamentals of computer animation – rigging, posing, facial mocap and animation for computer games. The third block allows students to transfer many of the skills they learnt in the first two blocks into the realm of visual effects. Finally, the fourth block of study gives students the opportunity to work with stereoscopic 3D.

▲ Students train using industry-standard technology

Significantly, students are encouraged to develop a wide range of skills and capacities in visual effects and animation rather than specialising in particular disciplines too soon. The idea is to equip students with a diverse skillset that will offer them more opportunities as they venture into the worlds of film and gaming content production. In pursuing filmmaking, animation and visual effects ambitions, there are technological skills and aesthetic rules to be understood that will allow you to achieve the most memorable and vivid images in your portfolio of work, and DAVE’s commitment to pre-viz is key in this. Pre-viz technology and process is seen as a way to engage students with the animation production pipeline, and also to develop students’ understanding of cinematic language.

“We provide training about industry expectations regarding demo reel content and presentation,” says Jeff Scheetz. “We’ve tried to shorten the distance between LA and Orlando by visiting several pre-viz and games companies. I think we’ll be a great choice for gaming.”

At DAVE School, students have direct access to a career services director for demo reel critique and feedback. And as a standard part of preparing its students for work, each programme at DAVE School includes a run of mock interview situations. Also, hiring studios visit DAVE School to meet graduates face to face.

As it prepares to initiate and deliver the new programmes, DAVE School has recruited several new instructors, several of whom previously worked at Florida-based effects and animation studio Digital Domain.

▲ An instructor leads each class and is supported by teaching assistants

LIFE AFTER DAVE

A number of DAVE School graduates are currently working at Weta Digital. Because of the college’s prime location, DAVE is able to readily provide connections and support for students in terms of industry placements. DAVE enjoys a consistent range of student successes on many high-profile projects. For an insight into their work, check out the DAVE School YouTube page. Alumni graduates also use social media to keep in touch, so it’s worth checking Facebook.

A recent DAVE graduate did paintwork on Life of Pi, and a significant number of former DAVE students have worked on effects and animation for recent Marvel movie adaptations (including Iron Man, Captain America and The Avengers). DAVE School has been the main supplier of trained depth artists for 3D conversion house Stereo D, in Burbank, California, which has recently converted Titanic and Jurassic Park to 3D. “We have a few graduates working with some of the greatest Directors in the world. They are literally face-to-face collaborating with Steven Spielberg and James Cameron,” says Scheetz.

▲ DAVE School is located in Sound Stage 25 on the backlot of Universal Studios

GETTING IN THE FRAME

▲ The curriculum focuses on giving students a wide range of skills in VFX and animation

Jeff Scheetz’s advice for students considering an application to DAVE School is to take the longer-term view. “You’ve got to think about what employers want. Are you the solution to their problems? Read up on what the companies out there do, and then say to yourself ‘that’s what I need to be’. We expect people to love this stuff as much as we do. People who travel thousands of miles to be here are usually very serious. We’re looking for people who do this for fun. If you’re interested in coming here, you’re one of us.”

Applying for a place at DAVE School is straightforward. Prospective students must provide proof of a secondary school diploma or equivalent. If an applicant is under 18, they must provide written consent from their parent or guardian. Applicants should also possess basic computer and internet usage skills, and they should be ready to respond to DAVE’s request for a Sample of Creativity, which could range from a short film project or a short story to a digital photograph. The answer is in the question, of course: show them the best example you have of your creative energy.

DAVE School is notable for its diverse international student cohort, with students electing to study there having travelled from Australia, England and Nigeria, among other countries. Scheetz is pleased to note that “right now, we have three students from Saudi Arabia studying with us”.

A member of the Visual Effects Society, DAVE School educates its students in the various related disciplines that comprise animation and visual effects production for the always exciting – and increasingly convergent – worlds of film, TV and computer gaming. “We’re less like an art school and more like training for a job,” Scheetz explains. “A huge part of this is the commerce and business of it all. I’m fired up to push the school to new heights. It’s time for the games industry to hear about DAVE School.”

▲ The green screen stages are installed with Keno-Flow lights

EDUCATOR VIEW

“We’re the school that makes movies”

“We have a tagline: ‘We’re the school that makes movies’,” says DAVE School Executive Director Jeff Scheetz. “These aren’t student films. These are films produced by the school and staff, and the students are working on them. At the end of a block of study, everyone works on the production of a short film. We let them work together, going from pre-viz to rendering to seeing it all come together. This will also be true for our planned game art and character animation programmes.”

DAVE School puts increasing emphasis on the importance of using pre-viz software as a pipeline tool. Pre-viz allows students to explore issues of pace, composition and graphic impact. “We’re crash-coursing the language of cinema using stock objects,” says Scheetz, noting that understanding the benefits of pre-viz is a sensibility that can be transferred across disciplines.

DAVE School’s programme will also begin to train and guide students in the world of 3D printing. “We’re adding character building for 3D printing, and for this we’re offering short-term courses. Our instructors are so excited,” says Scheetz.

▲ Sheridan student Tim Melnyk created this course animation with the assistance of Wacom Cintiq tablets

Advertising feature: The prestigious Sheridan College has a reputation for excellence in animation production – and Wacom tablets help give its students a creative edge

Sheridan College is one of the oldest and most prestigious animation schools in the world, and offers undergraduate and postgraduate students what DreamWorks CEO and founder Jeffrey Katzenberg once described as “the best in animation training”.

Founded in 1967, and offering animation courses since 1971, Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario attracts animation students from all over the world. After graduation, students go on to secure jobs at leading studios including Pixar, DreamWorks, Nelvana and Electronic Arts.

Along with a one-year postgraduate visual effects programme, Sheridan offers three animation courses: a four-year Bachelor of Animation degree, a one-year postgraduate programme in Computer Animation, and a one-year postgraduate programme in Computer Animation (Digital Character Animation).

▲ “I primarily work on Wacom products now the industry is mainly digital,” says Miranda Quesnel. “At home I use an Intuos5, but our labs at Sheridan are equipped with Cintiqs”

BA Animation coordinator Mark Mayerson explains that Sheridan’s teaching philosophy is to produce graduates with all-round filmmaking skills to give them the best chances of success in the world of work. “We produce generalists. Students learn to make a complete film by themselves, starting with nothing. We believe that this maximises our students’ chances to stay employed in a constantly evolving business. They go on to work in features, videogames, TV series and mobile apps, and their jobs run the gamut from design, storyboarding, modelling, rigging, animation, lighting and compositing.”

Sheridan’s training environment is both formal and studio-like, tailored to the needs of the class and the projects. “There are lectures and demonstrations,” explains Mayerson, “And the students have studio spaces to do their work and where they can interact with instructors on a one-to-one basis.”

As students progress through their course and the demands on their creativity and productivity grow, Sheridan ensures that they have access to pro-level equipment – including graphics tablets to help them interact with software in a more natural way.

“The third-year studio is divided into ten ‘mini studios’ to facilitate the third-year group films,” says BA Animation technologist and instructor Mario Positano. “Each mini studio has four high-performance computers and four 21-inch Wacom Cintiqs. Fourth-year students are required to complete a thesis film, so their studios are more open, and equipped with over 50 computers and 50 large Wacom Cintiqs.”

Sheridan has 150 21-inch Cintiqs, 10 12-inch Cintiqs, and 35 drawing tablets available to its animation students. “We started with the small 12-inch Cintiqs over five years ago,” says Positano. “These Cintiqs are still being used, but we’ve added a sea of the large Cintiqs and keep adding more every year. Right now we’re planning some more changes for September, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see more Cintiqs on the list. They are a critical tool to our studios and our students’ future.”

▲ “This year we have nice 21-inch Cintiqs in our studio,” says third-year Bachelor of Animation Tim Melnyk. “They feel so natural because you are drawing right on to the screen”

PROFESSIONAL SETTING

“Cintiqs were turning up in many studios,” says Mayerson, “so they allow our students to work in an environment closer to the professional environments they’ll experience after graduation. Also, the majority of students prefer to be working on a tablet and drawing directly into their software package of choice. There’s no longer a need to scan drawings or to shoot drawings on linetesters if the drawings have been done directly on a computer using a tablet.”

“An unexpected benefit that has surfaced is the use of these Wacom Cintiqs beyond 2D digital animation,” adds Positano. “More and more students are gaining an interest in 3D modelling with ZBrush as well as painting 3D models. Speaking to some of these students, they mention that the process feels more organic with the Cintiqs.”

THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE

Third-year Bachelor of Animation students Tim Melnyk and Miranda Quesnel have found that Sheridan’s generalist approach to training has enabled them to grow as artists, and are confident that they are learning the techniques they’ll need to eventually break into the industry. “Sheridan offers a diverse combination of courses, so we get to do a bit of everything, from life drawing to animating to layouts and painting,” says Melnyk. “I think it’s important to be versatile, even though I prefer certain fields over others.”

▲ Work by Quesnel. “I’ve fallen in love with the collaborative process”

“I’ve really fallen in love with the collaborative process that animated filmmaking is,” says Quesnel. “I love that I’m still constantly learning and figuring out better ways to communicate visually. I probably will still be learning for the rest of my animation career, and I think that’s fantastic.”
“The most satisfying aspect is definitely seeing how far myself and my peers have come since we started our journey into animation just a few years ago,” adds Melnyk. “I discovered a huge pile of sketchbooks the other day with all of my old work. I was a little bit horrified at what I once thought was good, but then it puts everything in perspective and shows you how much you’ve grown, as a person and as an artist.”

Both Melnyk and Quesnel enjoy regular use of Wacom equipment as they develop their projects. “Wacom tablets have been an amazing tool that I couldn’t imagine working without,” says Melnyk. “My main passion lies in painting backgrounds and environmental concept art, and the tablets allow me to work far faster and more accurately than any other tool I’ve worked with. There’s no disconnect between the hand and monitor, since you’re drawing directly on the work space, so I have total control over line quality, just as if I were drawing with pencil on paper. This makes tasks like sketching or animating on the computer a lot more comfortable and accurate. Most importantly, it’s an extremely fast and intuitive way to work, which means less time fiddling over things and more time making art.”

“I use Wacom tablets to animate, draw, paint, and composite,” adds Quesnel. “Basically, anything I do for my programme, I do on a Cintiq now. I sketch using them, storyboard on them, animate with them – all of the artwork is done on either a Wacom Cintiq or a Wacom tablet. They’re fast, intuitive, and an essential part of my workflow.”

BEYOND SHERIDAN

Given Sheridan’s 40-year endeavour to provide its students with the best animation tools and techniques, it’s no surprise that graduates have no trouble finding work in some of the industry’s best renowned studios. Mark Mayerson says that Sheridan has a tried-and-tested routine for helping its animation students to achieve their desired job roles. “We have a co-op for the summer between years three and four, and an industry day at the end of year four where student films are screened for industry guests.”

“We also host an online portfolio system to which students can post their art, animation and demo reels,” adds Mario Positano. Instead of displaying the artwork in a blog form, it has 30+ categories a student can post to. An interested studio will have access to the individual student’s portfolio, and only see the categories the student has used. This has proven to be a useful tool for both the co-op process and for graduate employment.”

▲ Background painting by Tim Melnyk. “We get to do a bit of everything”

“Sheridan has a lot of great connections, and relationships with small and large studios, which is great when the time comes to find a job,” says student Tim Melnyk. “It’s a very competitive industry, and ultimately it’s up to the individual, but having a name like Sheridan in your corner certainly doesn’t hurt!”

NEW RELEASE

Meet the new Wacom Cintiq 13HD

The latest interactive tablet to join Wacom’s Cintiq family is the 13HD, which combines high-definition resolution with advanced controls and comfort to enhance your 3D and 2D creative work. Its best-in-class interactive screen is able to display 16.7 million colours at a true HD resolution of 1,920×1,080 pixels, enabling you to enjoy rich, detailed graphics as you work. There’s a choice of four viewing angles using the supplied stand, and the screen has a comfortable viewing angle of 178 degrees.

The Cintiq 13HD is accompanied by a battery-free Wacom Pro Pen, with 2,048 levels of pressure and tilt sensitivity. The ergonomic design gives you comfortable and precise control. A complementary case stores the Pro Pen and any spare nibs. Enhancing your control further are a Rocker Ring and four ExpressKeys, each of which you can customise with a keyboard shortcut equivalent for triggering favourite commands in an instinctive way.

The Cintiq 13HD is available at the beginning of April from selected retailers and your regional Wacom eStore.