Another trip into the AnimA archives brings you the adventures of Cevin the robot. Digitally remastered and with a new soundtrack. This is what a lone student was able to do with his trusty little Pentium 75 – ten years ago.

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.

An exhibition where media companies showed their products was set up and a big recruiting area where companies from germany were happy to interview new talents.

The new location Karlruhe might have kept away a few people but lots of local students and professional visited the event.

One criticism that people people told me was that the workshops were more used to present the company then to communicate know how. The spirit of internationality was missing completely compared to the fmx in Stuttgart.

Overall it was a professional, nice and personal event. I was happy to talk to top people from the business and also happy to see that the media industriy has regained strength compared to 2-3 years ago.

However the event was again not as professional as it should be by now: Big audio problems disturbed the event, Günther the DVD Player even crashed once. The handover of the awards lost its glamour as soon as the applaud became silent. The integration of international production into the award lost also its glamour since no one showed up. At least Bully sent a funny videomessage, although playing it twice did not make it better. The videomassage from Waltdisney was an extract from the bonus material from the Ratatouille DVD – very sad.

BUT: Most important are the cgi productions which made the audience laugh and wonder how they have done it. The award is great to get new inspirations and motivation. Meet friends from the German industry. Time will tell, where and when the next award will take place.

animago AWARD 2007 – The Winners:

VFX Bluescreen Solutions produce paints and fabrics for those parts of a movie that aren’t there.

In the workshop 120 cameramen worked with all avaible HD cameras on all kind of sets simulating most of possible filming conditions. Work with high-end postproduction equipment like the eQ, Avid Nitris, Lustre or Final Cut Pro was also part of the one-week workshop. Producers, technicians and digital artists were informed about the development in Germany at a congress from companies like Zeiss, WDR, Chroma TV, Apple, Canon, Sony, Fujinon, Quantel, Sennheiser, Arri, Band Pro and Cine Postproduction. Luckly most of the seminars were not marketing reports but packed with helpfull basics for filming with HD.

Special Guest: Michael Ballhaus

As special guest Michael Ballhaus responsible as the director of photographie in many Hollywood movies like “The Departed” (2006), “Something’s Gotta Give” (2003), “Uptown Girls” (2003), “Gangs of New York” (2002), “Wild Wild West” (1999) or “Outbreak” (1995), taught a master class using the F23 shooting a short movie. In an interview at the congress Michael Ballhaus usually dedicated to Arri said that the new sony F23 (Film 2/3″ CCD Chip) is a big step forward. Although the technology is advancing in his opinion film will always be a part of the filmindustry. It will always be a question of the aesthetics if traditional film will be used or HD equipment. Therefore cameraman have to be more skilled. Especially finding good camera assistance in Germany is almost impossible Mr. Ballhaus said. Therefore an initiative has been formed to educated this job. In the US it is a common well paid job, in Germany due to small budget the position has been rationalized. Ballhaus hopes that the media industry returnes to well educated production crews to enhance the quality.

Working with HD

“Hands on HD” was a great success. Although the TV Stations in Germany change to real HD TV (720/50p) (yes, we are so slow due to missing benefits on the audience side), most production companies know that HD is already there. HD is great, may be not for news but for series or TV movies. UHD is already in development and Digital Cinema will even more change our perception of viewing images.

By the way: All HD cameras were there, but the “RED” was missing, although the organizer had tried to get it…

ARRIFLEX D-20 is based on a normal Super 35mm camera but with a digital optical module which can save footage directly to HDCAM SR for example.

Motion control cameras and cranes for those hard to recreate camera moves are irreplaceable for VFX shots.

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

An ultra mobile remote controlled Flying Cam helicopter that can be mounted with many different types of cameras to get spectacular camera moves for movies, commercials or sports events.

The first ultra high definition television system (UHDTV) going up to a maximum resolution of 7680×4320 pixels.

Five years ago we set out to tell a classic christmal tale. This christmas we retell this story with new music and digitally remastered effects.

For the first time Aardman Animations creates a movie done completely in 3D. We ask how the did it and where Aardman is heading next.

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.

This Years IBC at the RAI Center was as always spoiled with good weather and you could feel that companies are willing to invest again. This spirit could also been felt at the official IBC party, which was great especially the band and the finger food. Also eating some pepperoni instead of a sweet byte of cake – what it looked like- was confusing sometimes. At 11pm the light was turned on and the party people had to move back to their hotelrooms to prepare for the next party next day. IBC is not only showing what is going on in the market but also bringing the media people together. Of course content providers are not the people that have a booth, but they were among us.

As you see we did quite a few very interesting interviews on the IBC, showing the vast range of products. What was for me most amazing is the battle of resolution. There is no useable cam around yet that can make 4K pictures – mab the RED Cam. Well, the Japanese say why 4K, lets do 8k! Yes, live and in color at the IBC. They invest in the future. Although nobody knows what the future will bring. I am personally waiting for 3D beamers like the ones in Minority Report. I have not found any innovation for that. But there is another trend: businesses that provided product for a small buyer group now aim toward the low budget market. Also today everybody can produce media content fortunely there is still a lot of know how involved to create great things. At least this time every system was involved in the Da Vinci Code – which might assume you need it all for doing a Hollywood movie.

So when you look to see, what is possible concerning media technology never miss the IBC when you are from Europe. We will all be back in the RAI Centre from 6 to 11 September 2007. I guess, going to the NAB would also be as exciting.

The Quantel EQ – one machine to do it all.

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.

ClayTools 3D pen input device with force feedback from SensAble

Interview with Professor Haegele, director of the fmx fair.

Realtime colour correction with Speedgrade DI from Iridas

Footage was shot with HDCAM in a studio in Berlin. Michael Labs was present on set as vfx supervisor to make sure everything was going smoothly for the post production process. A bluescreen set was used because nearly all surrounding elements were going to be created digitally, with the exception of special props like the bicycle, sand and the spaceship door. Jonathan was suspended from a wire rig to simulate a zero gravity environment inside the spaceship. All the effects were manageable for a company like Capture Berlin: keying, wire removal of the rig, creation of several 3D backgrounds as well as 3D animations and 4 point tracking for the insertion of the picture on the polaroid photo were just standard tasks that hat to be done in a short timeperiod.

Music videos are usually created with a very short production time. Before the first shot has even been filmed the animations are prepared and coordinated. Postproduction started right after the first edit of the video had been approved. Time was not on our side. Capture Berlin had 10 days to create or edit 80 shots. 8-9 people from 3D, compositing, editing and project management were working on the project and first estimates looked grim.

Tight organisation and established project management structures enabled us to eliminate misunderstandings and coordination problems. Strict file naming and placement conventions as well as the use of our internal intranetbased storyboard system were the main factors that helped us to concentrate more on getting all shots done. The time constraints made it necessary for us to create several shots in 2D as opposed to proper 3D shots. The photos drifting inside the spaceship were 2D layers and the desert was a matte painting.
In the end we were able to stay within the schedule and even do some additional changes.

Productions like these require a good collaboration with the director to create good visuals.
3D artist Klemens Neumann created the spaceship set segment by segment in 3D Studio Max. Afterwards Sobelfilter and a light colour correction were applied in Digital Fusion to created the desired look.

The bicycle scene was created by compositing supervisor Axel Gärtner with just a single 3D palm tree and several generated blades of grass in the style of a No Doubt music video.

Creating the right look for a scene always requires several iterations which can take up to several days. This is a creative process that combines the inputs from all people that are involved in the production into an exciting result. Participating in this process are the artist, his supervisor, the musician, the record label and the management of the musician. This accumulates to many opinions with some having more others less weight which can make the work on a music video very easy or much more complicated.

After several nightshifts a new music video was created that will be shown on VIVA or MTV. For a digital artist this is a big part of the reward for all the energy and sweat that has poured into the project.
A big “thank you” to all the staff members and freelancer that worked on this project.