From the bi-annual university TV show to the semi-regular podcast we have brought you many insights into the possibilities and tricks of TV and cinema and we will continue to bring you fascinating information on what is possible today and in the future.

The redesign of the AnimA homepage is just a first step and we will continue to evolve the site in the months to come. We will also be at the IBC 2008 in Amsterdam in september and bring you news and information from there.

A classical format theatre film, TV or DVD screenings all have in common the fact that the screen is like a window. When the format is immersive, the viewer is no longer conscious of the screen limits. The experience becomes immersive.

What does this mean for the filmmaker? How does it modify our ways of crafting a film?

Framing and composition, camera movements, editing and tempo…all basic film building blocks are affected.

Animation introduced its specific dialect

3D films are almost as old as the cinema itself.
Cinematographic language began quite modestly with the Lumière brothers, but soon after, Méliès and above all Griffith elaborated a real film syntax as complex and subtle as that used by composers.
Since then countless filmmakers from Eisenstein to Kieslowski and from Chaplin to Spielberg introduced new vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation signs making film a universal language. 3D brought visual depth, sculptural as opposed to that equally virtual but simply pictorial, depicted in classical flat cinema.

All filmmakers, film students and film lovers know the basic rules of film language. With 3D, it is simply advisable to adapt them a little. There are specific elements of 3D films: depth, or dynamics between background, mid-ground and foreground, off screen effects

The constraints

The effect of depth or the “aquarium effect ” which makes it possible to feel the various planes behind the screen plane gives the sensation of observing a magical universe as in a parallel dimension.

It does not require any major modification of the film’s construction. It is simply necessary, as with off-screen effects, to pay attention while editing in order not to splice two shots with too different depths. If the depths are too different or if one assembles an in-depth shot with an off-screen shot, it is necessary to let time so that the eyes and brain can accommodate to the depth difference. Generally, for this reason, a 3D film is assembled in an appreciably slower rhythm, with a preponderance of long duration shots. Quick edited short jerky shot assemblies completely lose their charm in 3D

Off-screen shots

Concerning “off-screen shots”, there are much more precautions to take, in particular with regard to composition and camera movement.

The edges of the screen should not crop an off-screen subject. A truncated off-screen subject loses its credibility, and we all know that a loss of suspension of disbelief will destroy the filmic illusion.

Ideally, we should be able to progressively follow the arrival of the subject from the background till it’s off-screen. The key is to give the eyes enough time to accommodate comfortably. One can achieve this in several ways:

The subject is already well framed off-screen in the shot. The subject enters screen behind the screen plane and advances progressively off-screen when entirely visible.
The subject enters or exits the frame while being truncated but very furtively. It should especially not hesitate half in and half off screen. This solution is valid for small subjects e.g. remaining of explosions.

It is necessary to exert the same care with camera movements. A truncated set element or accessory is even less credible than a moving subject.

It is particularly necessary to pay attention to the rotary movements (in CGI)! The rotation axis must be in the center of the axis between the two cameras as if they were assembled on a physical support and not in the center of the virtual optical axis of each camera.

Hyper-stereo

The 3D effect can be adjusted in either a realistic or an expressionistic manner. Realistic 3D reproduces the human vision. For this, it is necessary to respect the human inter-ocular variation, i.e. between 6,5 and 7 cm. When this variation is appreciably increased it’s called hyper-stereo. These effects are very seizing and expressionistic. Only, one must be conscious that the fact of exaggerating the stereoscopic effect gives the impression that the subject is reduced like a scale model.

To remain realistic it is necessary to be rigorous on the scale level. If one applies a naturalistic inter-ocular distance, it is necessary that all is on a “human” scale.

With regard to the scale and the space situation of the objects, 3D does not forgive anything. Any inconsistency literally jumps to the eyes. This invariably poses an additional problem for any tracking or compositing operation.

Advantages of CGI for stereoscopic productions

Until here I spoke about the constraints related to making animated stereoscopic films. There are numerous advantages to working in CGI compared to live action 3D shooting.

The absence of 2 cumbersome “physical” cameras; the possibility of varying the inter-ocular distance in a dynamic way (which allows for example: a tracking shot from wide establishing at “macro”. The facility of using hyper-stereo effects, and even more, micro-stereo which is possible in live action only by mounting the cameras on a microscope or binocular periscope.

Various pre-visualization possibilities of the screen plane, the possibility of pre-editing line tests in order to control the visual fluidity of the different depths and off-screen effects.

What makes a good 3D film?

3D movies are often considered as a type of bargain basement product for an unsophisticated audience. It should not be forgotten that the cinema as a whole was first a fairground attraction. There always have been and there certainly will be many poor attempts at 3D movies.

Reasons for a bad result are e.g. the absence of 3D, absence or insufficiency of off-screen effects or on the contrary too much off-screen to the point that it’s impossible to accommodate, truncated subjects, brutal editing with incompatible 3D adjustments, abrupt realignments which make for painful vision, scale model effect, strobe effect which destroys the illusion of 3D.
But especially a bad script and poor continuity of off-screen effects are a reason the audience dislikes 3D movies.

Luckily, there are also some real pearls in 3D shows, films which perfectly dose the effects as well as an exciting scenario. They manage to keep the public sufficiently off-balance in order to better surprise them with original ideas and unforeseen effects.

I advise all those who have the occasion to go to the large theme parks such as Universal in Orlando, Florida or California to discover among others Terminator 3D and especially Spiderman the 3D ride.

Like all films, a good 3D film must have a strong beginning and a good end. Moreover, the off-screen effects must be well spaced and well paced all along the film while leaving calm moments of in-depth 3D. The effects must rise naturally from the scenario and not seem contrived.

As, it never should be forgotten that 3D, considered constraining, is also an additional powerful tool in the storyteller’s toolkit.

About the author

Mr. Jerzy Kular one of the leading directors for large format film, themenpark rides and 3D films visited the fmx in Germany 2006 and gave a seminar on his work. He was involved in movies like Sea Squad, Escape from Dino Island, Mad Racers and Odyssey Into the Mind’s Eye Dino Island II 3D. You can see his work in most 3D cinemacomplexes arround the world. In Germany you can see it at the CINECITTA Nuernberg in the motionride cinema. By the way, that cinema is the most profitable movie theatre in Germany and the most amazing as well since it is completely build in the underground including an huge IMAX theatre.
A themepark attraction he did can be seen in Singapur at the Sentosa Musical Fountain. Very Asian but the people love it.

Editied by Axel Gärtner

Elements like scanned film or video, which are called plates, are placed into to composites. Also stills like photos, drawings or mattepaintings can be part of a compositing. Computer generated images (CGI) are also very commonly used to create fantastic environments. The main element or even the most important kind of tool to integrate images into another is the matte – manual created or generated automatically.

Before computers were able to handle imagedata, the process of compositing was handwork. In this article I would like to concentrate on compositing with computers. Since computers have softwaresolutions to manipulate moving pictures compositing became a major part of postproduction.
Laptop screen superimposed over a blank original

A simple compositing can already be a picture in picture image creation. Also a graphic animation with text and a background can be considered a compositing. Although mostly refered to motion graphics. The complexity starts at a very low level and anybody that used photoshop already did a compositing. The basics in photoshop are the same as they are for image sequences.

Colorcorrection is also part of standard compositing, although it is not really the combination of different kind of image but it is a very important toolset for a compositing artist.

Classic compositing can be seen in movies like Titanic, Jurrasic Park, Matrix, Hulk or Superman. Many different plates and CG Images have been combined in those movies to create a new exciting image sequence. The best effects are the ones you do not see – which is sometimes frustrating for compositing artist but is also a big reward if nobody has noticed that most part of the pictures has been artifically created.

The result of a compositing is a visual effect – VFX. VFXs are part of the special effects. All effects that can be achieved while filming like explosions, lenseeffects or backprojections are called practical effects. However, practical effects in credits of feature film movie are often called special effects. Its just a therm, so I do not want to be picky. And one more thing: Explosion, lenseeffects or backprojection can of course also be created in 3D with e.g. particles. However always do as many effect in-camera, they are probably more convincing and more cost-effective.
Different passes for compositing

As stated at the beginning the basic element is the combinations of layers with somekind of blend mode or stencil mask, matte, transperency channel or alphachannel. Often information beyond the given image has to be provided to do a convincing compositing – especially important for classic compositing. Therefore different passes are recorded while shooting with e.g. a motion control camera. Passrendering is also done within 3D animation work. Passes like shadowpasses, highlightpasses, volumelightpasses, beautypasses etc. It gives the artist the best control over several parameters. Information about the lighting situation, the distance of the object to the camera as well as the reflexionenvironment has to be considered when combining all elements into a perfect composition. The perspective has to be perfect. The light should be set on the elements as desired and color should match throughout the new picture.

Main function used while doing compositing are keying, tracking and stabilzing, colorcorrection, rotoscoping and filtereffects like blur, glow or seldom emboss.

Special software and/or hardware has been devoloped to achieve those amazing effects reaching from simple camera rig removal to science fiction world crowded with futuristic cars and aliens. The power of those systems differ in detail. All of them have one thing common: They combine and manipulate digital images. To find the correct solution, systems should be checked on every detail. There might be differences between the keyer, or the user interface. Functions might be missing or they might be better than in other systems. Always consider the problem of getting different kind of footage into the machine and out of the machine. The philosophy might be node based or layed based or even both. The prize reaches from freeware to more than a million euros. Support and the user community are always also very important to take a look at.

Deciding on one tool is never easy, but knowing many systems is always an advantage. There are standard tools in the industry and there are underdogs, but you never know what will be in the future. But never forget they are just tools. The artist has to have the talent and skills. Any UI can be learned within weeks. Knowing the basics and having the talent and drive are the keys for being a successful composititing artist.

Written by Axel Gärtner

Sources:
Ron Brinkmann: The Art and Science of Digital Compositing. Morgan Kaufmann
Thomas Mulack / Rolf Giesen: Special Visual Effects. Bleicher Verlag, Gerlingen.
Axel Gärtner: „Programmierung eines VR-Postproduction-Moduls für Maya 2.5 in der Skriptsprache MEL für den Import und die Weiterverarbeitung von Trackingdaten aus dem ORAD-Cyberset-System“. Diplomarbeit. TU Ilmenau, 2000.

Nowadays, many effects can easily be achieved with an ordinary PC or – of course – MAC. But people can identify who worked overnight or who just convinced the unexpirienced or poor producer that this is a good visual effect. These effects take you out of the story right away.

Watching Zarthura, I feld like watching a movie when Steven Spielberg was still my idol- and still is. All the images had a heart and I thought the CG artists did a great job.

I love to watch the “Making of” to catch some new things and even learn from them. Taking a look to the “Zarthura Making of “ I was surprise, how much was done with miniature: A perfect harmony of traditional and CG effects. The actors had not the problems to be scared since there were real monsters, real fire, real laser blasts destroying the walls. The environment became an actor and it was treated as such.

The whole set was built on a gimbel arm – a huge platform moving 45 degrees in all directions. The actors had to fall or react to the movement – extremely good for the young actors. Still green- and bluescreen has been used and wonderful digital environments have been design.

CG vs. practical effects is often discussed like photo or digital photography, HD or film.

Talking to many people from the postproduction business, listening to lots of lessons on conference like the IBC or fmx and watching thousands of “Making of”, I am still convinced that CG is perfect to make everything happen. But using all possibilities to realize an effect on set should always be considered – also for fun reasons. CG gives excellent control over anything happening, but reality might show the director things he was not considering but pushes the effect beyond expectations.

2006 I listened to a cameraman on the IBC. He worked on the project “Phantom of the Opera”. He sounded kind of frustrated that most people do not know which lenses are perfect to achieve a certain effect. Without digital manipulation the form of the streaks when a candle light hits the camera can be realized with the right choice of lenses. This effects can be done and controlled on set and might even safe time and money.

Directors and producer tend to say: “Lets fix it in the post”. If the images has been poorly arranged, even a highly skilled postproduction facility might have a hard time to fix the problem. And where is the talent on set when the post has to fix everything?

However, at the end is a budget decision. Many TV series like “Battle Star Galactica”, or “Atlantis” work great, since they work with environments the audience is not used to and the whole look has been adapted to the CG look and feel. “Surface” or “4200” could not be done without CG but take you out of the story since CG and the real world do not work together. Of course the stories where also not as good.

I love the effect of this famous Hitchcock movie, just seeing the knife in the shadow and hearing the scream – that’s emotions without special effects.

The company

Be informed

Find out what the company does, who you will be working with and who the person is who will handle your application. Be informed because it shows that you personally care about the people you are dealing with and that will make those people more likely to care about you.

Make sure that you fit the company/job profile

Most companies have a website with their portfolio. Therefore take the opportunity and check if the things they show are the things you find exciting. If you find a job advertisement, all the better for you.
All the information you find on the website should be noted as criteria so that you can make a prioritised list of all companies that come into question.
You can always try to get into a company via a different job or an internship and later change into the job of your dreams inside the company. But you should always show enthusiasm even in these entry jobs as you may just as well be demoted out of the company instead of being promoted into your dream job.

Tell them exactly what you want to do

It frequently happens that people applying for a job simply state that they want to work in the glamorous world of TV and cinema but don’t know what the specifically want to do or what they are good at. This is an absolute no-no as the interviewer will not have the possibility to judge you and your value for his company. Another problem is that a jack-of-all-trades will be difficult to place inside larger companies as many people will be experts at the stuff they do and you will be a good allrounder but nowhere near anywhere those people are.

Be a team-player

A company usually consists of many individual personalities that all work away at getting jobs done for clients. To be efficient at this the employees have to communicate with each other and work together as a team. If somebody acts as a lone wolf he will not be able to get his things done as he will have difficulties integrating his work into the works of others, even if he excells at the things he does. This will inevitably pull down the whole team.
The person in charge of human resources will not want to have this. He will look for people who will complement his team and make it strongen. It is therefore important that you can work as a team, contribute productivly and still take criticism and advice from colleagues and superiors positivly.

The job application

Physical presentation matters

Before the showreel is swallowed by the DVD player the job application has to make it past the desk of the human resources person. While the showreel would be the most interesting part of your application the rest should not fail to meet a certain presentation standard.
A piece of paper with handwriting on it may be more personal but it will not look very professional in the eyes of the recipient.
A standard job application folder that can be bought at every stationary shop, on the other hand, will have a similar effect. In an industry where creativity is a big part of the job this sort of application will not look very creative. This is the reason why it is important to get the formalities right for your cover letter, application and curriculum vitae and at the same time to be original and creative with your presentation so that you stand out of the crowd and that your application sticks in peoples minds.
At the same time you shouldn’t overdo it. The contents of your application should not be harder to reach than the gold in Fort Nox (this goes for the content of your package as well as the navigation in your DVD or website)

Write your name and address on everything you send

It can always happen that parts of your application get split up at your recipient. Your letter may get left somewhere on a desk while your DVD is screened in another room and then your disc gets mixed up with the DVDs from other applicants and nobody knows which showreel belonged to which sender (and you can’t always rely on the person to watch the DVD a second time until the end to check who made it).
That is why you should write your name, phone number, email address and just to be on the safe side your postal address on everything that you send.

Showreel

The first 15 seconds of your showreel have to convince

You will always be dealing with people with very busy people inside the media industry and they will very probably not have the time to watch a 10 minute movie that you send them. You will have to put your best work right at the beginning of your reel so that the person reviewing your application doesn’t have a chance to switch it off before your good stuff is shown because he isn’t convinced by the things he is seeing.
You can of course show more things later in the reel after you have won the reviewer over.

Don’t put poor examples into your reel

Poor examples will always pull down your showreel and can make a dent in the impression that you are making. Some people will even be looking specifically for mistakes or poorly realised examples. Therefore you shouldn’t give these people too much to find.

Clear out your showreel

Have you made lots of movies during your university time that you are really proud of? Always check if the still stand out and represent what you are capable of today. If they don’t then don’t hesitate to through them out. As stated previously, your should rather be short and precise.

Concentrate on showing examples of work that you are also applying for

If you are applying as a character animater then show a couple of walkcycles and several gestures. If you are applying as a modeler then can simply show some turntable animations of your models and wireframes of your meshes.
The people responsible will judge your work more in relation to the job they want to hire you for. You won’t have to create a big animation with intricate storyline and everything. If you already have something like that you can simply put selected shots of it into your reel that show those skills that are going to be required for the job. As a bonus you can always put the complete move at the end of the reel or as a seperate track.

No sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll

Imagine it is 10 o’clock in the moring, the mail has just arrived and your application is the first one that is reviewed. It may very possibly be a woman and she may have just poured herself her first cup of coffee to get awake properly. Do you think this person, who will be responsible for your career, will be thrilled to see a big breasted 3D amazon queen doing stretch workouts. Probably not.
The same thing goes for montages of your last student party. They only seldomly show yourself in a positive light, even if the editing is spot on.
Therefore: always have in mind who will be reviewing your application later on. (regarding the amazon queen: she would be ok if you were going the apply for a job at a gamescompany like Blizzard that specialises on this medieval theme)

Sound doesn’t matter

It is commonplace for showreels to be screened without sound. That’s the reasy why you should make sure that you don’t put more work into your sound and musik than you put into your pictures because the possibility is high that the sound will be switched off anyway.

State which parts were yours

Sooner or later it will happen that you will include stuff in your showreel that you didn’t do by yourself. You should therefore include a description in your application what you did on the specific shots or the viewer may get a false impression.

Don’t take credit for other peoples work

Never take credit for something that you didn’t do. Our industry is small and something like this is likely to get noticed some day and that will go down very bad on your reputation.

General

Don’t be annoying

Leave the person responsable enough time to have a look at your application. A week should be ok.
It doesn’t help if you call the person every day to ask how far your application has come. This will only make the person annoyed which in turn makes your chances at getting the job more difficult.

Hang in there

If the company currently doesn’t have any job vacancies this doesn’t mean that you don’t have a chance to get a job there some time in the future. It can pay off to apply again in regular intervals (after approx. 6 – 12 months for example). Not all companies will have an extensive application archive where they can find everybody that ever applied there. If you are extremely good they may contact you right away just to make sure you are on the team when the next job comes but not everybody is extremely good or able to present himself that way. In most cases the company may just take a couple of applications from the top of the pile that applied during the last months and that will have to be the moment where your application is fresh on that pile.
In addition to that you will always have the chance (or duty) to keep your application up to date with new information and footage to show your progress.

Get to know the people

Exibitions and conferences are good opportunities to get aquainted with people from the industry and from the company that you want to get into. This is of course especially a challenge if you are rather the more humble or shy type but it pays off in the end.
If you know the people and those people know your work then they can recommend you next time a job is vacant. For the company you are not an unknown variable and your chances getting the job are much better.

Watch your reputation

Beware, the same also works the other way around. If you behave badly towards others, especially in forums and blogs or people know you from other companies then this will also affect your chances. Possibly even more than any other factor in your application.
Again, the media industry isn’t that large and a lot of people know each other and will talk. This is very important to remember.

Don’t cling to your application

Companies usually receive many applications which is why it is simply out of a commercial point of view not possible to send everything they receive back to you. If you do send an application that you have to have back then include a self addressed envelope with postage payed. You may also contact the person in charge an arrange it that you can recollect your application in person.
It may still happen that you don’t get your application back, even if you included a self addressed envelope. Because of this you should never send original documents with your applications.
Another reason not to send originals would be that you cannot apply at several companies at the same time if you only have one set of documents.
If required you can always bring the originals with you when you get your job interview.

Send the application to the right company

It may be hard to believe but it regularly happens that applications appear where the covering letter is addressed at a different company. In addition to this beeing a very embarrassing mistake the company now also knows at which other company you are currently applying for a job.
Applying for a job is always a very time consuming and you have quite a job coordinating everything but you should make absolutely shure not to fumble on the last few steps by getting these simple things wrong.
Therefore check every part of your application before you send it out. The best thing is to make a checklist that you can tick off with every application. This way you will also reduce the risk of forgetting any documents in the heat of the moment.