Insights From ADAPT 2008
View from the Whiskytree Whiskytree is a young shop that has been around since 2007. "We don't aspire to be a vfx house," Harb told VFXWorld. "We concentrate on concept art, environments, final shots, composition, and matte painting." Whiskytree is currently doing some set extensions, establishing shots and compositing for the new Adam Sandler Disney film, Bedtime Stories. The firm is also providing concept art for Terminator 4.
Halon and the Previs Biz
Jonathan Harb, CEO and creative director of Whiskytree Inc., also believes in observing and analyzing -- and creating vfx with the simplest methods possible. His presentation at ADAPT focused on making complicated things with simple techniques, and showed how impressive set extensions and other effects could be achieved by using Photoshop. "This stuff isn't rocket science," Harb said. Harb's background is in industrial design, and it shows in his analytical approach. "I'm more concerned with how consistent things are… whether they're consistently real or consistently unreal, if that's the look you're going for," he added.
Halon CEO and Previs Director Dan Gregoire returned to ADAPT this year to talk about the use of previs on DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda. He noted that yesterday's previs included creating storyboards, editing old footage and using a "lipstick cam" with scale models; today's previs includes previs for "pitch" materials (pitchvis), technical previs, on-set previs and postvis; and tomorrow's previs will give a director a "hands-on vision," likely in realtime, with AI capability.
Gregoire said that he worked on Kung Fu Panda as a freelancer, and that utilizing previs is a new process for DreamWorks. He showed in his presentation how a sequence depicting the tiger Tai's escape was first realized in previs, giving the animators options to follow or reject. "Every time we do a film, it's different," Gregoire insisted. "This was our first foray into the animation world. In this case, we were asked to be much more exploratory."
Gregoire was unable to comment on another big film he worked on -- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull -- but he did speak to VFXWorld about his work on The Spiderwick Chronicles, which was filmed in ADAPT's home town of Montreal. "I was in Montreal for six months," Gregoire explained. "It was interesting and constantly evolving. We had to do things 'on the fly' and come up with stuff, re-engineering shots and sequencing."
Gregoire noted that directors are making it a routine part of production. "It's a lot more prevalent," he said. Halon usually works on three to five films at any given time, with a team concentrating on a specific job. However, Gregoire advises that he often receives assignments on very short notice. "It may be a week or less," he offered. "Depending on who the client is, you might get a heads-up. But most of the time, you don't get any warning. You've got to be ready to go." While the lengths of jobs vary, Gregoire said, "It can be a month to nine months. For Avatar, it's been two-and-a-half-years."
Kung Fu Panda Pointers "We wanted to make it the coolest looking movie that DreamWorks had very made, and pay homage to Asian martial arts films," Parkinson added. Right from the beginning, decisions had to be made based on the budget of where money would be spent and who the best person would be to do a certain job. "If you waste money on one sequence, you can't spend it elsewhere. There's a constant rearrangement of the budget."
Alex Parkinson, vfx supervisor for DreamWorks Animation, spoke about Kung Fu Panda and said that while the movie started up production in 2004, "we had to make it 2008 good" -- reflecting on how technology can change and raise audience expectations year to year.
The movie is 3D, but Parkinson said that Kung Fu Panda draws much of its inspiration from 2D sources, including Chinese art, icons, architectures, plants and environments that were based on real-life locations. Money was spent up front on research and development on such things as feathers and a bridge so that dollars could be conserved later on.
Color plays an important role in the film, with protagonists taking on warm hues and rounded shapes while antagonists feature cool hues and spiky shapes. Parkinson advised that the Rhino designs could have been wasted do to a story change; they were originally designed as antagonists, but became protagonists. The problem was solved -- and the character designs utilized -- by turning the rhinos into guards. In the end, the rhinos play an integral role in the escape sequence that Gregoire prevised for the movie.
The lead character Po presented both color and fur challenges for the production. "Po isn't actually black and white," Parkinson said. "He's dark brown and cream." This allowed for better responses to different light sources and different colors of light on the character.
Another challenge was to make the characters behave like animals while accurately performing human functions, especially during martial arts scenes. The goal was to make the fight sequences as realistic as possible, but no motion capture was used. Instead, the animators did extensive research. "Everyone did kung fu training, and we screened martial arts movies," Parkinson added. "We needed the right weight, gravity, and for the animation to feel organic and alive."
The Manufacturing of WALL·E
Disney/Pixar's first science-fiction film, WALL·E, presented different challenges. Animator Michal Makarewicz said that he was "excited to work on the project, because as an SF geek, he got to work on a movie where a robot falls in love."
However, robots do not communicate the same way that humans do, so Pixar looked to early silent films for inspiration. "We watched Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, especially the love scenes," Makarewicz added. The services of sound designer Ben Burtt were engaged to create the sound fx, which were inspired by the "beloved walking trashcan" R2D2.
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