“After we have the basic shots worked out with the producer, we then go on location, taking our laptops. Changes are made on the fly. The director may ask us to mover the characters around several ways on the virtual set — fortunately, Character Studio captures all mouse movements and translates them into animations, which we then render and save on-site, turning off features such as smoothing shaders to save time, We use Wi-Fi connections to send our shots back home for more detailed rendering on our render farm in our company. Finally, we output each previs shot to VHS tape or a DVD for the director, so that he has a permanent record to look at.”

Tim Miller, of Blur Studios, thinks gaming engines aren’t precise enough for films.

Using Gaming Technology
The exacting nature of previs for films explains why — other than for specific rough sequences of a few films — gaming engines have not been used extensively for previs. “We even use 3ds max for creating cinematic sequences for videogames,” says Tim Miller, creative director of Blur Studios (www.blur.com), which has specialized in creative cinematics for major games. “Right now, the virtual cameras in most game engines are not accurate enough for our production demands, and we need much more precise control of the characters.” Cranford agrees. “Films tend to be extremely procedurally driven,” he notes. “A director will ask us to move a character five feet to the left, or make a precise camera move. Game engines don’t really allow that, and they don’t permit the extensive character interaction that we need.” Frankel notes that, “In the future, I think we may do previs with game controllers and let the director try more hands-on realtime explorations, but the game engines are not there yet.”

One type of movie that has used game engines to move characters around — though with compromises in resolution and detail — are the machinima-type films, which are referenced on the association’s Website, www.machinima.com, which also lists upcoming film festivals for such movies. For these short films, not only the previs, but the entire movie, is created with a game engine such as Doom or Unreal. An example of such a short film that can be viewed online is Ozymandias, by Strange Co., which is posted on its website, www.strangecompany.com.

Short film Ozymandias was created entirely with a game engine. © Strange Co. 2000.

The Future
What’s coming up down the road for previs? “I expect a much expanded use of previs — the trend is that no major movie will be made without it, and it’s being used more extensively within each movie, which means the demand for animators talented in this area will rise,” says Cranford, “Initially, some directors resisted the use of 3D because they were afraid that, ‘Someone with a computer will tell me what to do.’ They now realize that previs supervisors are artists, too, and that they are dedicated to doing whatever the director really needs, to make him feel confident when he starts shooting. And confidence — and greatly enhanced creativity within budget — is what previsualization is really all about.”

Christopher Harz is a program and business development executive for new media enterprises, working with digital animation companies around the world. He writes extensively for trade magazines on topics including the New Internet, visual effects for films and television, online videogames and wireless media. Harz was previously vp of marketing and production at Hollyworlds, producing 3D Websites and videogames for films such as Spawn, The 5th Element, Titanic and Lost in Space, and for TV shows such as Xena, Warrior Princess. At Perceptronics, as svp of marketing and program development, Harz helped build the first massive-scale online animated game worlds, including production of the $240 million 3D animation virtual world, SIMNET. He also worked on combat robots and war gaming at the Rand Corp., the American military think tank.