Workflow

Generally the VFX process goes like this:

While in film, Production usually includes principal photography while post-production holds the VFX part, our industry is slightly different and so the stages are shuffled to reflect that.

Each section then contains certain bits that need to be executed in order before moving on to the next one:

In general some process steps can be run in parallel, for example rigging and scene setup/texturing, pre-viz and modeling while others cannot – lighting and rendering.

This is project specific and needs to be taken into account during resourcing.

Brief

The brief is the minimum set of information we require to start working on a project. If the brief is not complete (missing key info, vague) chances are the project won’t go as smooth. We’ll go into more detail in the Briefing section.

Synopsis

A synopsis is a short telling of your screen story in written form, containing both a one-line description and breakdown of the story act by act or shot by shot, for example:

Synopsis: VM0585_HAMMONDS_TV_AD

Pitch: This story is about poor use of attic space which our product elegantly overcomes, showcased in three room sets by three different characters.

Act 1:

Split screen showing the three characters entering the messy rooms (before version) showing their frustration with the mess and insufficient space.

Act 2:

A sequence of close-ups highlighting the features of our product.

Act 3:

The characters enter the newly transformed and clean rooms, fitted with our storage products seeming happier and enjoying the extra storage space.

Notes: Models to be shot live, details and contact info: Models.pdf

Storyboard + Look&Feel

The storyboard is a sequence of stills depicting each shot, the action, composition, camera move and other important to the story elements.

It gives us a better idea of the flow, sequencing and framing of the shots.

It includes information from the brief and the synopsis it also indicates technical information like shot duration, camera move, camera lens, shot transition a shot description and copy/titles/audio/voice over. Fields can be added or removed to fit the needs of the project.

The storyboard is incredibly important as it’s the first visual representation of the animation the client will see, given it’s not been provided by them during briefing.

That said, it is still part of the Pre-production stage and while if done well Storyboards can look appealing, it is also a time to work with broad strokes and keep it loose.

Depending on the project complexity storyboards can include existing shots with arrows and descriptions, hand drawn frames or CG mock-ups of the shots.

Along with the storyboard usually there is also a moodboard, which is what we call Look&Feel to help imagine things that the storyboard due to it’s usually sketch based nature isn’t good at representing i.e. style of animation, lighting etc.

Animatic

The animatic is an optional step which is literally the tiles of the storyboard put into an animation sequence. It’s purpose is to give an idea of another aspect of the animation the storyboard isn’t great at showing – the passage of time.

Informed my the storyboard we can hold each tile for as long as specified in the shot duration to get a sense of the pace and flow of the animation.

For simpler more straightforward projects this step can be skipped and move on directly to Pre-Viz.

Pre-Viz

The Pre-viz is the last piece of the puzzle before we can start full-on Production.

It is a rough CG version of the animation. Place-holders are to be used, animation can be blocked in and action/fx can be suggested in a crude way, however the aim is to be as accurate as possible having the information from the previous bits.

Composition, camera moves, camera types and lenses should be as close as final as possible. If there’s a specific sound track that the animation should be edited to, this is the time to do it, shot timing to match voice over also goes here.

While we pride ourselves in being flexible, once the Pre-viz is approved there shouldn’t be major changes to the general idea of the animation. The elements that can be changed should be the ones ahead on the timeline such as lighting and FX.

In the film industry changes to the script during Production cost millions per day.

Like mentioned before, some of the Production processes can be worked on in parallel, for example during this whole time we’ve been dealing with storyboards, animatics and pre-vizes – the modelling team and the R&D for example team could have both been busy working on known and confirmed parts of the projects. For example: the animation is about this toaster, get it modelled. It’ll be turning into a Lego version of itself – figure out how to do it.

Roto, Keying, Matchmove

As we rarely do projects that have live action elements I won’t go too much into detail here.

Rotoscopy is simply put frame by frame masking of footage.

Imagine having an actor shot in a room, but you’d like to extract the actor from the footage and put him in a CG room. In the absence of green screen rotoscoping the actor is required. It could also be in a bit smaller scale, an actor picking up a placeholder that needs replacing with a CG mug. His fingers would have to be roto-ed to hold the CG mug properly.

Keying is pretty much the same thing, extracting a live action element from a plate (raw footage), this time made automatic because of the blue/green screen. In software we can pick the BG colour and mask it out leaving only the element we need.

Matchmoving is a collection of techniques that aid the insertion of CG elements into live action footage. This includes camera tracking, camera projection, set extension etc.

Imagine a hand-held shot of an empty street on which we have to put a CG car. For the shot to look real we have to capture the movement of the real camera and our virtual camera so the CG car moves correctly relative to it. We need a shadow catching ground plane for the shadows of the car, an HDRi of the environment to mimic the lighting scenario, however that’s outside of the scope of the matchmove now.

R&D – Research and Development

My favourite part! This is relatively self-explanatory.

If we’re tasked with a project which includes elements we’re not quite sure how to do, or needs more tinkering and experimenting to get right or more realistic – it needs R&D.

As with most things it can range from directable flying cloth, dynamically embedding particles into a floor mesh or something as simple as a glass shader and how to properly add dirt marks, greasy fingerprints and fine scratches to push the level of realism of what we’ve done so far.

R&D makes everything better, even if the end result isn’t satisfying the process itself is educational and most times applicable to future projects. Whenever we can budget time for R&D – we should. There are curtains in the set, we’ve done plenty of them, yet the often times don’t look quite right – do R&D, figure it out, devise best-practices and spread the knowledge while recording it for future generations!

Modeling

If we need to explain that one, you’re probably in the wrong business. :)

Scene setup

Scene setup or layouting is the process of building up the set, organizing the scene, gathering the assets and putting them in place, setting up cameras, render passes, blocking up place holders and first simple lighting pass.

Often overlooked in exchange for quick draft, the time put in here can save hours and even days later in the process or when someone else revisits the project months later.

No two artists work the same way, and not everyone is as pedantic even so there are some ground rules to make everyone’s life easier.

Rigging and Animation

In larger studios these are two separate departments and two separate roles. Since we’re not rigging quadrupeds with muscle systems and skin sliding solutions – we’ll keep them as one.

Rigging is the process of making compound models ready for animation.

In our case these can be complex hinges, magic corner units, soft-close drawers or Adidas shoes of course.

Simulation/FX

As the name suggests, this includes anything that needs to be simulated, turned into smoke. Curtains blown by the breeze, tap water, shower steam. This is usually closely tied to the R&D stage, though nowadays we have amassed enough collective know-how that we can set up certain things rather quickly or reuse old setups. Some FX elements are also more suitable done in post-production.

Shading and Lighting

Up until now we’ve been looking at grayscale drafts, technical previews and simulation caches, with the exception when during R&D there’s something to do with the look of the assets. Now, we get to apply materials, textures and illuminate the set and make things look pretty.

Another nod to the time put in upfront while building the brief, the Look&Feel is key here, as well as product reference material.

Rendering

Apart from the process itself this also includes all the setup required for the shots to go through the farm and output all necessary elements/passes for the next stage.

The output of this stage when it comes to animation is image sequences for each shot, for each pass and for each mask.

Compositing

This is the polishing stage. Images straight out of the renderer might look okay, but they need that extra care to make them look great.

Also at this stage we put all the passes together, the plates, vfx, life action elements, post-effects. We tweak colours and adjust the look of products...and yes, fix small things that have been missed or changed since the last render but can still be saved without re-rendering.

While there’s a lot that can be fixed in post, it is often akin to changing the foundations of a house after it’s been already built – a bit tricky.

Editing and Grading

Now that we have the sequences looking nice, it’s time to put them in order as per the storyboard/previz, grade them (if we haven’t done that during compositing), add titles, opening titles, shot transitions and soundtrack/voice over. Questions like “what resolution are we exporting?” should be asked and answered during the briefing and there shouldn’t be any unknowns at this stage other than “is the client happy with the stock soundtrack we’ve gotten or do we need another one?”.