Introduction

Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet is a computer generated television serial which follows the exploits of a peacekeeping organization called Spectrum led by Captain Scarlet. I will now talk about the computer graphics and animation methods that were used by the creators of this series and whether they were successful in achieving the desired effects. I will also talk about the CG effects that worked in a 30 sec selected scene from the episode and those that did not work and ways in which to improve those that did not work.

A brief description of the Scene

The scene is a 30 second interval in the episode titled "Syrtis Major" beginning from 17:18 mins. Captain Scarlet is accused by Captain Blue of having become a Mysteron and is attacked by him. The scene continues till the point where Doctor Gold is about to explain the mystery of Syrtis Major to the audience as well as to Captain Ochre.

The video can be found here.

Computer Graphics and Animation Techniques Used

The various Computer Graphics and Animation techniques used to develop the scene can be classified into the two following broad catagories;

• Computer Graphics and Image Rendering: This area can be further subdivided into the following different aspects;
  
  • Modeling: The models that are used in the scene are all of high detail, although the choice of materials and some modeling decisions take away from the realism of the overall scene. I will talk about this in detail later.
  • Rendering: The actual method used to render the scene is based on Raytracing coupled with Radiosity. Shadow, calculation and rendering seems to be used on a need basis in some of the scenes.
    
  • Particle Systems: A fairly primitive particle system is used in the animation sequences. This simplicity may have made the job of rendering the scene a lot easier and faster, however, the resultant effect is something that is lacking in realism. Since, the scene selected does not have any particle systems used, I will not go into detail on this aspect of the CG.
  • Fog: Foggy effects have been used in the cave system liberally to give the feel of a dynamic environment where something is always happening.
    
  • Backgrounds: The scene involving the conversation between Doctor Gold and Captain Ochre has a pre-rendered background image that is composited onto the animated action. I will be speaking of some of the advantages and disadvantages of such a method later on.
    
  • Compositing: The pre-rendered background images used in the conversation sequence mentioned above has been composited fairly well along with the live animation, although, this composition could have been better as we will see later on.
    
• Animation: There are various ways in which a model or character can be moved. The method to choose depends on the realism of the action that needs to be captured in the scene.
  • Eg: A walk animation is far less simpler than a fight sequence which involves moves and countermoves which need to look real for the fight to look convincing enough for the audience to appreciate it.
  • Keyframe: Keyframing is the default method of animating any character model in a scene and this has been used extensively for the walk animation sequences and also for the translation of the models spatially. Since, keyframing is an imprecise method of animation anything, the results are not as real as possible as compared to other methods of animation such as motion capture. This is apparent in the scenes where the Doctor is gesturing while speaking. The lip movement and facial skin deformation of all the characters is also implemented via keyframing.
    
  • Motion Capture: This is a far more superior method of animating an object, although, it involves capturing the live action carried out by a human actor in a motion capture studio. The motion capture is then plugged onto the actual character model and it is then moved. This type of animation has been used in the fight sequence where Captain Scarlet disables Captain Blue. I will talk more about this segment and why it works very well for the scene later on.
  • Physics: Physics seems to be a highly ignored part of the animation, probably due to time constraints. Although, one would expect them to have implemented a rudimentary physics model at least, for the animation. There are scenes where the lack of any physics model gives the objects an apparent weightlessness.
  • Inverse Kinematics: This technique has been used in various situations where different parts of the body are moved as a secondary effect of the primary motion of the body itself. Eg: Destiny Angel's hair is animated this way.
    

Effects that really enhanced the scene

Various effects were used to generate the scene and a few of them that were most effective were;

• Reflections on body armor: This was an overused effect in most of the previous scenes due to the fact that there were too many lights in the previous scenes. However, this effect really enhances the feeling that you are in a dynamic environment in the cave where the reflections are from fewer light sources. The reflections are not many to be chaotic but are just right to give that feel of shiny armor.
• Motion captured fight sequence: This worked very well for the scene as it brought fluent motion to the scene and made it look real. There were no defects in the actual animation of the fight itself. Minor details such as Captain Blue's head reacting to him being hit by Captain Scarlet are shown in a realistic manner. The choice of using motion capture was a good one as it really enhanced the overall effect of the fight sequence. 
• Smog: The smoky effect of the air in the caves and the caverns gives the environment a dynamic feel. It also enhances the scenes inside the cave giving them a creepy quality which is necessary for the scene to unfold.
  

Effects that were not pulled off right

Some of the effects that were used to build the scene made the scene look more unrealistic than necessary. Instead of enhancing the scene, these effects had a negative effect.

• Staging: The conversation scene is a still scene and staging it better would have enhanced the effectiveness of the scene. Eg: The camera used just two default positions to view Doctor Gold and Captain Ochre while they are conversing.
  
  • The camera should have been placed at various distances to focus on the character and the character's secondary motion, if there was any. Focusing only the face, which moves very little, draws attention to how the scene looks rather than what is being said in the scene.
    
• The Facial Texture of Captain Ochre: The texturing of Captain Ochre's face is something that immediately makes you realize that she is computer generated. The texture used on her face is too shiny. Specularity is something that is generally not associated with human skin and this is something that the modelers seem to have overlooked. This is a significant issue because the scenes involve closeups of the characters in conversation.

  

  • The addition of slight blemishes onto the texture and also making the texture more rough would have made it look more realistic than it is now. Using a smaller or no specular component in the lighting of the face would have helped by a great deal. This can be done in a half hour and the improvement that it provides to the scene is very significant.
• Facial animation of Captain Ochre: Although it seems like the Hypermarionation technique used by the series is capable of mesh deformation, it is sparsely used and to ill effect. This is especially so in the conversation sequence where close-ups of the face of Doctor Gold and Captain Ochre are involved. Although, the face of Captian Ochre does deform to a certain extent, it is hard to make out as there are no shadows caused by the deformation. Eg: The scenes where Captain Ochre is accusing Doctor Gold of being a Mysteron.

  

  • The animators should have used a 'hard' shadowing technique for the face to highlight the furrows formed on the forehead of Captain Ochre.
  • An important but easy to implement effect that would have enhanced her animation would have been blinking of eyes. During the entire conversation sequence her eyes do not blink. This is probably an effect of the lack of attention paid by animators towards this scene. This is a costly oversight as the scene involves a lot of closeups and non-blinking eyes in a cave filled with smoky air is something that would seem unrealistic to any viewer.
  • Yet another nice touch that would have added to Captain Ochre's facial animation would have been the movement of her strands of hair falling on her face. Since, they have already done it with the use of Inverse Kinematics on Destiny Angel, it should be a fairly simple task to do it for Captain Ochre too.
    
• Lip Deformation: The lip deformation of Captain Ochre in this scene has obviously been implemented through key framing and it really falls apart as the lips move a lot horizontally and very minimally in the vertical direction, while in a human, vertical movement of the lips is more prominent. Since, this is a close up shot, it is all the more important to have got the lip movement right.

  • Better movement could have been achieved if they had used the 'Y' elongation more of the lip to syncronize with the use of vowel sounds in her dialog.
• Lack of Secondary Movement: The conversation scene is one in which there is a lot of aggression on part of Captain Ochre and a lot of tension because of the anticipation of what might happen. But, the execution of the scene is such, that the result is a conversation which looks like they are just talking trivial stuff. What really would have enhanced the conversation scene is the addition of exaggerated secondary movement, coupled with a farther camera angle, along with the main facial animation of Captain Ochre. Eg:
  

  • Instead of conveying the air of suspicion and intent to kill by Captain Ochre through facial expressions which are not that realistic, the animators should have used exaggerated body movements to convey that, which would have actually been easier and probably more effective in conveying the mood and tension of the situation.
  • Movement of the shoulder blades in conjunction with a wider movement of the neck as she accuses the Doctor.
  • Movement of the gun towards the doctor as a gesture of pointing or accusation when she says that he is a Mysteron Agent.
  • We notice fine movements of her face while she is saying her lines, but these movements would have been more effective in conveying the aggressive nature of the emotion if they were a bit more exaggerated. Eg: The tilting of the head would have looked more realistic than it is now.
    
• The modeling of teeth: Another improvement that they could have done was to remove the black shadows or black lines between the teeth of the models. This could have originally been added to distinguish each tooth from another, but the overall effect is jarring and the viewer finds himself asking the question, "Why do they have such dirty teeth?". This is an important defect to rectify as the teeth are constantly shown in each frame of the conversation when a closeup is involved and they draw too much attention to themselves.   
• The teeth themselves must not touch each other when the character is talking, but should go behind each other.
  
• Use of a pre-rendered background: This was most definitely an optimization to cut down render times. However, the mistake that the animators did was to use pre-rendered background images in scenes which involved close-ups of these backgrounds. These images lack detail even though the background is supposed to be very close to the characters in the scene. The conversation scene between Doctor Gold and Captain Ochre is a very good example of this fact.

• A simpler solution would have been to use a more detailed image of the background and to not use the same camera angle to view the character's face. Different camera angles would have shown different parts of the background to the viewer making it hard for him to see any anomalies between frames.
  
• Shadows:

  • The shadow of Doctor Gold in the conversation sequence is pre-rendered onto the background with the Doctor standing in an initial position and it is not updated with the movement of the Doctor's arm as he is gesturing. This is an effect that really stands out as the conversation sequence is fairly long and quite a few seconds are spent focusing on the the Doctor while he is talking.

• Another part where the shadows just failed completely is during the fight sequence of Captain Scarlet and Captain Blue. There are a few frames of the animation sequence where lights which ought to be clearly visible are shadowed by Captain Blue's model. The above screenshot illustrates this point;



• Stalactites and Stalagmites: The environment in which the conversation scene is set is a cave with hanging stalactites and stalagmites. There are artifacts or cracks on all the stalactites and stalagmites that appear pink in color and are in sharp contrast to their surrounding textures. This apparently is an intended effect. Although, it distracts the viewer by making him/her guess what they are, since, they are not blended very well into the background and stand out abruptly.
  • An easy way to rectify this would have been to simply remove the cracks or features of the stalagmites and stalactites. 
  • Another way would have been to blend them better into the landscape that they are in, with shadows and the colour of the Martian soil affecting them.
• Smog: Although the smog and smoke effects give a dynamic feel to the environment as mentioned before, they are repeated small animations that are composited into the scene and this repetitiveness is clearly visible as the camera angles remain the same during most of the scenes.
  • Using a longer animation loop for the smoke would have solved this problem.
• Gravity and Physics: It should be noted that they are on Mars and Mars has a gravity that is a third of the Earth's. This affects everything in the environment and is something that the animators have completely overlooked or ignored. The effect of incorporating a lesser gravity would have really heightened the sense of being on another planet like Mars.Eg: The speed with which Captain Blue falls to the ground after being hit by Captain Scarlet is very much like how he would fall on Earth.
  
  • Considering implementing gravity would have been a difficult task due to the lack of a physics engine. The key framing would need to have been redone and also the motion capture would have to be redone at a slower pace.
  • Also, Captain Blue just sticks to the ground the moment he falls, without bouncing or even showing any obvious effect of hitting a hard surface. This could have been rectified by a few more keyframes that made him jump up a little after impact. 

Summary

Although, there were many areas of improvement for the CGI that was used in the making of the scene. The end product does a decent job considering the target audience. However, I feel that the results could have been better with a few changes in the way the scenes are viewed, such as, using different camera angles and introducing more secondary motion to the characters during the long conversation sequences.

The single greatest improvement that the animators can do for the

series is use a decent physics engine which can affect bodies based on forces such as gravity. This is important in the light of a series that has scenes that take place on different planets and therefore different physical environments.