A joint effort where character modelling skills and environment creation combine to create a fun image. Buon appetito!

Artist: Amir Akbarshahi and Navid Khezli
Title: Dinner Dream
Software: 3ds Max, V-Ray, After Effects

Amir Akbarshahi says: “In my career, I work on animation and special effects projects, and have experience in other areas of 3D. I take my inspiration from life in general, and from things I see in my environment.

My friend Navid Khezli and I created this image, which we call ‘Dinner Dream’. Navid made the character model, and I created the location, shaders for the character and objects in the scene, plus I did the lighting, compositing and rendering. To composite the image, I used five render passes.

“I used 3ds Max to create the scene, composited the image in After Effects and rendered with V-Ray. I also used some models from www.evermotion.org. It took us about four days in total to finish the project. I wanted to immortalise the image of a gluttonous boy eating his dream meal!”

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Watch the fast-paced CGI animated promo piece for Counter Strike Online 2 created by the talented artists at Alfred Imageworks for South Korean developer Nexon and read about the pipeline used to create it…

Considering the Counter Strike 2 online cinematic is one of Seoul-based outfit Alfred Imageworks’ first forays into VFX, it is highly impressive.

As one YouTube user says: “It’s a shame the real Counter Strike looks nothing like this!”

Watch the action-packed Counter Strike 2 online cinematic then read about its creation…

“The cinematic is about a special force team [fighting] against terrorists who seize and attempt to blow up a public building,” says Alfred Imageworks.

They carefully considered the composition and choreography of the gun fight. “We imagined fighting against each other from upstairs to the ground and tried to make it more dimensional and exciting for the viewer,” says Alfred Imageworks.

“To do this, we designed a building that was inspired by the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the City Hall in London. [We used] those two buildings as reference because of their spiral structures.”

The lighting challenges

“Lighting in the building was the most backbreaking thing to control and calibrate,” says Alfred Imageworks.

“G.I. was the best pick for us to give the result that we were aiming for, but it required too much time to render out. That’s why we chose City Hall of London as the [reference] building: it was fully covered with glass which allows direct daylight through into inside of building. It allowed us to combine traditional lighting setting and partial F.G, it was the best pick at the right time for us to save render minutes.”

Adding hair in 3ds Max

Adding realistic hair to the characters was the most challenging task. “Mental Ray, a solution that we have been using for years, could not give smooth movement. We could not help going back to Max, that we had not used for while,” says Alfred Imageworks.

Another challenge was to create and composite the explosions and smokes. “We don’t have much experience working on VFX, since most of our previous jobs were dealing with design and graphics. We tried to add more pieces of broken glasses, but it also took too much time on render along with simulating explosive smoke data. As motion graphics studio, it was very challenging and exciting to work on this project”.

Software choices

“Maya is always the first preference for us. Since a small studio like us faces spending limited time on researching and developing. Maya’s expandability is the most necessary character for us to develop and create in wider degrees of freedom. We have not had much experience working with other software, so cannot really tell if Maya is the most innovative 3D software. As technology changes each day, leading 3D software are getting standardized by absorbing and applying each other’s strengths.”

Rigging the characters

Alfred Imageworks says HIK was amazing fit for the project: “It was really helpful for us to approach working on character animation. Once motion capture data is applied to the actual scene, unexpected problems can occur.”

“We all knew Motion Builder was the best solution at that time, but it was too late for us to teach ourselves something we have never tried before. And calibrate rigging to adjust motion data was very limited as well. HIK for Maya was not stable enough but we had no other choice to make. One of brilliant things we have achieved was to adapt and generate tuned version of Skelton Generator that was able to release axis based on our needs.”

“Then we spent time on finding the right movement for characters by repeatedly applying and removing motion capture data over and over until it was correct. That’s why we needed [to use an] automated motion applying process that would save time. Since we could not find any of document regarding HIK script, we had to go through MEL to collect all the command scripts that we needed. It was very painful process for us.”

▲ The spiral structure of the building was inspired by The Guggenheim Museum in New York. Photos of the Guggenheim and London’d City Hall were used as reference

CG spiral structures

The team was confident that the spiral structure of the building was the best way to develop the action sequence, but the structure was challenging: “First, the spiral structure was very hard to model in 3D. Second, by inclines that was created on almost every surface of spiral structure was giving unexpected results [and it was hard to animate everything] to match the characters’ feet that touched the ground,” says Alfred Imageworks.

Thanks to Alfred Imageworks for the interview and Kyu Rhee for gathering the information for us. Look out for its next cinematic: the next version of Counter Strike 2. “We are trying hard to create something better than the first one by the lessons that we learned from producing this one.”

To find out what the company’s currently working on, check out: www.alfredimageworks.com
Representative: EYEQ & Company

A personality was born the day Sergey finished this render. Tzanko the Boxer could come to life at any moment – and if he did we’d run to the hills!

Artist: Sergey Samuilov
Title: Tzanko the boxer
Software: ZBrush, Photoshop, 3ds Max, V-Ray

“I work as a character artist in a videogame studio, and I also have experience of environment modelling and texturing. I’m inspired by everything around me, and also by other artists’ work.

“Tzanko the boxer took me about a month to create. The image was sculpted in ZBrush, textured in Photoshop and rendered in 3ds Max using V-Ray. I really liked creating this image, particularly the rendering and lighting, and creating the materials.”

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This new 30-second animation from international media studio Kompost introduces Viggle

Viggle is a new smartphone app that collects redeemable points while customers watch their favourite television shows. Created for US digital TV provider DirecTV, Kompost came on board with the project after the company’s creative director approached the studio’s US representative, Duck.

“The guys at DirecTV wanted to work with us on this commercial,” says Kompost creative director Oliver Conrad. “They loved our style, and felt we were an exact match for the brief.” So the team went on to design, direct and animate all aspects of the ad, using Maya and Arnold to fully achieve this.

This was the first large project the team rendered completely in Arnold, and they weren’t disappointed by its capabilities. “No production depends on anything more than its renderer,” says Conrad. “We can put in weeks of time and energy into modelling, animation and surfacing, but all that goes down the drain if the final images are not produced on time and to a high standard. We chose Solid Angle’s Arnold because it simply gets the job done. Though this piece was not in a style usually associated with physical ray tracers, it was flexible enough to produce a highly stylised look without any problems.”

Discover 20 top free 3D models at our sister site, Creative Bloq.

Updated: Watch the new trailer for Pacific Rim, Guillermo del Toro’s epic sci-fi movie here…

Updated: 17th May: Watch the new trailer here, now!

When we saw the first trailer back in December, we thought it looked a little bit Micheal Bay, but now check out the latest trailer released last night: it’s going to be like watching Transformers on steroids!

Are you excited!?

LET US KNOW WHAT QUESTIONS YOU’D LIKE TO ASK THE VFX ARTISTS AND WE’LL TRY TO FIND OUT FOR YOU

Guillermo Del Toro, one of our all time favourite directors, returns with a film about giant robots fighting giant monsters!

And we simply can’t wait, but we’ll have to, as it doesn’t hit screens in the UK until July 2013.

Oh well, it least the marketing for this film seems well underway now: first there was the release of a handful of stills, then some viral material in the form of some faux news footage and the Pan Pacific Defense Corps was launched, and now the first trailer is out:

Watch the first trailer of Pacific Rim

It’s looks a little bit Micheal Bay in the trailer. Don’t you think?

The official synopsis has also been released:

“When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju.

“On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes – a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi) – who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.”

Is Pacific Rim one of your most anticipated films of 2013?

Tell us what you’d like to know about Pacific Rim and we’ll try to find out for you. Write your comments below or via our Facebook page or Twitter…

Meet Piranha, winner of the CG Awards Arch-Viz Animation Award 2012 for The New World Trade Center project, and find out what makes a great arch-viz animation…

Founded just over three years ago, Pirahna already has a clutch of Emmys and other trophies on its award shelf, and an equally glitzy range of clients, including Nike, MTV, HBO, Microsoft and L’Oréal.

It has also further strengthened its position by forming an alliance with respected New York studio Fluid.

“We joined forces with Fluid after they reached out to us, seeking a partnership with a graphic and effects shop,” says Piranha co-founder Gaspard Giroud. “It’s a great fit.”

▲ A still from a CG and live-action brand video that was created for Verizon

The studio is very much a product of the respective backgrounds of its founders: architectural graduate Giroud and motion graphics/compositing whiz Rob Sabatini.

“The diversity of our work comes from the fact that Rob and I have different backgrounds and clients, but also, as a small business, we try to take anything that’s offered to us,” admits Giroud.

“While it’s not exactly a conscious decision, we’re happy to work for different mediums and encourage the diversity.”

A short film featuring an artful blend of genuine construction footage and CG, made for Silverstein Properties to showcase the development of the new World Trade Center, is perhaps its most significant project to date.

“New World Trade Center was very important for us, both in terms of its cultural significance and because we were able produce every bit of it,” says Giroud.

He believes it’s not just each person’s individual approach that makes the studio unique, but the conflict this can bring. “We’ve been known to disagree quite a bit – sometimes in front of the client – about creative decisions.

“We learned that what may seem to be a hindrance turned out to be an asset, as once we end up agreeing on something, the project usually turns out better. New World Trade Center is very much a product of that.”

▲ Piranha was commissioned by Silverstein Properties to create a short film depicting the completion of The New World Trade Center site. Here’s a photo from their ferry shoot

The New World Trade Center

Piranha wrote, produced, art directed, filmed, and finished all VFX for this inspiring piece marking the 10-year anniversary of 9/11.

It is on display permanently at the marketing center of Tower 7.

The film was presented at a press conference at Silverstein Properties marketing center in presence of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Port Authority’s Chris Ward, architects Daniel Libeskind and Michael Arad to a crowd of international news journalists on September the 7th 2011.

The New World Trade Center animation by Piranha won the CG Award for Arch-Viz Animation in 2012. Remember to have your say on who should win this year, via the comments box below, Facebook or Twitter

The New World Trade Center film was created thanks to 3ds Max, V-Ray, Real Flow, Anima for crowd simulations, and After Effects.

“We had to use Nuke in a few scenarios that After Effects couldn’t handle. But it never saw a flame. Then it was edited in Avid. We have BOXX computers, and we have a render farm that’s all BOXX computers,” says Giroud.

We asked Gaspard Giroud ‘What makes a great animation?’

“It is easy in our industry to get caught in the technical aspects of things because there are a lot of obstacles to overcome to get just one frame right.

“Projects can get heavy and it makes it harder to dance and sing. But software settings and technical achievement should not replace the real goal.

It is important that despite these hindrances (enormous file sizes, million-polygon 3D scenes, hardware and software glitches, incompatiblities and resistances) the project remains heartfelt and light even if you are representing four skyscrapers,” says Giroud.

“It was critical to have that tool—the reliability of the BOXX machines, in order to meet the repeated deadlines of our presentations,” says Piranha’s founder Gaspard Giroud

Expert Ronen Bekerman says of The New World Trade Center:

Seeing Piranha’s ‘New World Trade Center’ video for the first time, struck a chord with me in an instant.

I shared it right there and then on my blog, stating it is “One of the best I’ve seen” and so it comes as no surprize to me it won the 3D World CG Awards 2012 / Arch-Viz Animation Award.

It is the grandeur of the subject and matching execution, both creatively and technically, that makes this a winner piece.

The unique approach of taking us for a journey in time from foundation to future completed site, seeing it reflected onto the city with great soundtrack, timing and smooth blend between real footage and CG, makes it a very powerful and inspirational video to watch.

Read more about the project and see the film here

• The 3D World CG Awards 2013 are about to get underway, so don’t forget to check back and nominate who you think should win this year’s awards.

  There are 15 catergories in the CG Awards, so whatever CG you’re into, your bound to have an opinion! Make sure you nominate to have your say.

You can expect more diversity from this exciting studio, not least with visual effects and animation work for a cable programme.

“We’re very excited to be entering that segment of the industry,” says Giroud, “for anything we can bring to the table and any other doors it could open for us.”

Visit www.piranhanyc.tv to discover what the studio is working on right now.

A steep learning curve for artist Carlos who had to really work on his cloth simulation skills to perfect this image

Artist: Carlos Ortega
Title: One Last Look
Software: Maya, Marvelous Designer, Mudbox, Photoshop, mental ray

“In my day job, I work as a character modeller in an animation studio in Mexico, and work as a freelance 3D artist in my free time. I have experience in most aspects of 3D work, including texturing, lighting and rendering. My inspiration comes from everywhere: nature, science, music, friends and my daily experiences.

▲ The artist learnt a lot about real-life pattern cutting for a natural look

“One Last Look took me about 10 days to create in my free time. Most of the techniques used were just standard modeling and rendering, but I took some textures, such as the leather and fabric, from www.cgtextures.com, and used Marvelous Designer 2 for all the cloth simulation in the scene.

“The cloth creation was different from my usual workflow, but it was a fun, intuitive and educational process. I learnt a lot about how a real-life pattern needs to be cut in order to get a natural look when sewed and folded. At the end I got a smooth integration between the different software applications.”

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Here we meet Tyler Russo – a young talent whose work Frank the Death Knight totally impressed us. Read on to find out how such a young person came to be producing 3D art that wows like this does

3D World: When did you first discover your talent and decide to become a 3D artist?

Tyler Russo: I’ve been doing traditional sculpture for the larger portion of my life and I have a fairly zealous love of video games and cinema. 3D modelling felt like a natural transition. I started messing with ZBrush a little over two years ago, and I’ve been focusing on expanding my technical know-how ever since.

3D World: Do you remember what your first piece of CG was?

TR: I certainly do. I would have posted it, but the cringe down my spine after unearthing it was way too much! It’s this blobby grandma alien thing. I didn’t know how to use anything in ZBrush besides the Move tool, Standard brush and Inflate. If you were to place a fairly overtired 18-year-old kid with too much green tea latte in his blood under the same conditions for a three-hour period, you could probably replicate it pretty easily!

3D World: Where do you find inspiration?

TR: I’m really into classical sci-fi. Asmiov, Vonnegut, Phillip K. Dick, those kind of guys. Visually, Blizzard games have had a huge impact on my life ever since I stumbled upon a copy of Warcraft III for my 11th birthday. And a lot of film too. Terry Gilliam, Stanley Kubrick (who doesn’t love him?), and Don Hertzfeldt are among my favourites. I’m typically into anything with Charlie Kauffman’s name on it too. And did I mention that Warhammer had a drastic impact upon my early teenage years, too. I have stacks and stacks of reference codexes adorning my work space.

3D World: Who or what has influenced your work?

TR: Kurt Vonnegut is largely responsible for why I’m pursuing narrative story telling. Kurt Vonnegut is also probably largely responsible for why I am who I am today. Of course, my fantastic parents have been a big influence. They have always been nothing but 100% supportive for whatever creative endeavour I choose to pursue, as have my sister, my friends, my extended family, my dog, my cat, my goldfish, the squirrel who lives in the gutter rails above my house, Douglas Adams, Death Metal, Thrash Metal, every kind of metal, and Jean-Paul Sartre.

▲ This render appeared previously on CGHub

3D World: Do you think you have developed a certain style of work? Please describe the style of your work.

TR: My style jumps drastically depending on the medium in which I’m working, or what kind of atmosphere I’m trying to create. I love skulls and demons, aliens, epic fantasies, orcs, dragons etc, but heavily stylised, heavily simplified comedic work is also dear to my heart. Everything from mock Don Hertzfeldt and Terry Gilliam to Adrian Smith meets Skinner-in-a-Shredder goes. Xavier: Renegade Angel is one of my all-time favourite shows. Stuff like that and Tim and Eric come in to play a lot. When they all shake hands and have a slumber party, my style is born.

3D World: What is your favourite 3D software and why?

TR: ZBRUSH ZBRUSH ZBRUSH ZBRUSH! The intuitive sculpting power it brings is so, so beautiful. My background is definitely more art-centric than computer-centric. ZBrush‘s artist-friendly interface is responsible for much of my interest in CG.

If you’d like to try your hand with ZBrush, have a look at this tutorial on how to create an insectoid alien with ZBrush

3D World: What’s your favourite film and why?

TR: If I had to pick, it’d be Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Every Monty Python film ties for second place.

3D World: What’s your favourite animation and why?

TR: Don Hertzfeldt’s Trilogy (It’s Such a Beautiful Day, I’m So Proud of You, Everything Will Be Okay) wins. Hands down. Mary and Max, The Simpsons, and Tom Goes to The Mayor (if that even counts) are all dear to my heart. But that trilogy I mentioned really changed my life.

3D World: What’s the best critique you have received?

TR: “Don’t feel the industry you work in defines you as a human being”. My friend told me that after a long evening of life planning, contemplation and root beer. Art is important, but never put your life experiences on the back burner. Take a break now and then.

3D World: Have you any words of advice for aspiring artists?

TR: The best artists are the ones that never give up, and dedication will always ultimately surpass natural talent. Keep working at it, but don’t ignore your personal life. Find a good balance between the two extremes.

3D World: What are you currently doing and where?

TR: I’m a student studying Experimental Animation at Calarts in Valencia, CA. I’ve been doing freelance work on the side for various action-figure, model-kit and toy companies, and I run a part-time miniature company called Agnostic Giraffe:

School-wise, I’ve really been focused on film-making and 2D/stop-motion animation. I’ve produced four animated films since arriving at Calarts, and a few live-action shorts. Satire and black comedy find their way in a lot.

3D World: What’s next for you?

TR: I’m going to Disneyland.

3D World: What would you do if you could?

TR: My dream job would be writing my own television series or feature film. Mike Judge and Tim Heidecker are idols of mine. I absolutely love Blizzard and Games Workshop too, which is what the work here is much more reflective of.

But really, at the end of the day, I think I just want to make art of which I can feel proud. That’s the important thing – the medium is less so.

▲ Tyler has a real mix of inspirations, not least Kurt Vonnegut, his dog, sister, Douglas Adams.. oh, and the squirrel outside his window!

About the art

Here we hear a bit more detail about the Tyler Russo image that caught our eye – Frank the Death Knight.

What software did you use to create Frank the Death Knight?

TR: ZBrush, After Effects and Photoshop. The model was sculpted and rendered in ZBrush, particle effects (snow, cloud grain, a little dirt) generated in After Effects, and everything was composited together in Photoshop with a heavily modified picture of the inside of a cave for the background.

3D World: How long did it take you to create the image?

TR: It took four days to sculpt, one to composite and render. Probably around 20-25 hours total. I usually work on two sculptures simultaneously. Death Knight and the Overlord were done simultaneously.

3D World: Did you use any unusual or notable techniques?

TR: Nothing too out of the ordinary. It was a huge experiment for me, but everything was modelled and rendered using normal techniques. I used Zsphere Base Mesh for the knight, the Extract tool to produce the armour, Standard Brush and Trim Dynamic to add detail to the armour, tons and tons of polishing, a little Claybuild Up and Move here and there, and standard Insert tools for a lot of the rivets.

Badking.com.au provided the base Insert Brush for making the chains and a few of the rivets for the shoulder pads. It’s a fantastic site: If you’re into ZBrush, pay it a visit as a lot of the tools are free downloads.

The image was rendered in ZBrush with a series of BPR renders stacked on top of each other in Photoshop. An Ambient Occlusion pass, a few different metal textures, a painted colour pass, a glowing pass for the eyes, two or three rim lit passes, and a depth pass were used. I have honestly forgotten the order of the layers. Usually it’s a process of trial and error for me. Radial blur, Grain and Unsharp mask were all used in Photoshop.

3D World: What did you most enjoy about creating the image?

TR: Definitively scheming out concepts. I tend not to work from a particular external image for my work. I’ll do a little sketching and visualisation beforehand, but most of my sculptures are heavily improvised. Designing the initial concept is one of my favourite elements of sculpture. The Overlord is an obvious exception, but I tend not to copy from anyone else’s 2D designs for my concepts if it’s personal art. Compositing the render is always a fulfilling moment too.

3D World: Did you learn anything new while producing the work?

TR: Tons and tons and tons about rendering. I followed a few dozen tutorials and tried half a dozen pieces of software before ultimately deciding to use the ZBrush rendering engine. V-Ray and Mental Ray are both great, but the ZBrush render system feels a lot more intuitive to me.

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.

An image based on a game character from the game AVA Online – meet the gun-toting Ginny

Artist: Jeongah Kwon
Title: Ginny from AVA Online
Software: 3ds Max, ZBrush, Photoshop

“I work as a 3D modeller at Red Duck, a Korean videogame publisher. The company released its flagship title AVA Online in 2007, and it has since gone on to be an enormously popular MMOFPS game. This image is based on a character in the game, Ginny.

“I mainly modelled the character in 3ds Max, importing it into ZBrush to create a high-poly mesh and then working on the textures in Photoshop. I rendered the final image using the SSS shader in 3ds Max. In all, I think it took me about two months to create the image.

“I thought the concept was strong, and that it would be a challenge to give an attractive special agent some interesting facial expressions. Like many artists I find my inspiration all around me, in the people I come across in my daily life and out
on the streets.”

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