Previs has morphed from an experimental tool to an integral element in the pre-production planning process for most films. War of the Worlds ™ & © 2005 Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks. All rights reserved. Image courtesy of ILM.

In the years since previs has morphed from an experimental tool in conceptualizing sequences for a handful of elite films, to now being an integral element in the pre-production planning process for most films, be it independent or blockbuster, so too has the business of providing previs services evolved. With filmmakers and studios leaning more than ever on previs to help efficiently plan their shooting, prepare for CGI elements and help contain bloated budgets, the opportunity has risen for independent previs companies to excel and adapt their skills for new applications. A number of these companies have become dominant in their field, making huge strides in forging strong business models, while carving specific niches for themselves in the industry. While big-name vfx houses used to be the source for previs work as part and parcel of a vfx bid, more of these smaller, specialty previs houses are now getting a large portion of that work and are redefining what previs means today and paving the way for the future. VFXWorld recently talked to six specialty previs companies: Attitude Studio, Halon Ent., Launch, Nvizage, Pixel Liberation Front and Proof Inc. We asked them about the focus of their companies, the challenges of competing with the bigger vfx houses and amongst themselves, and how they manage to shine in this competitive new paradigm.

Attitude Studio
Located outside of the U.S., Attitude Studio has offices in Paris and Luxembourg and works in creating computer-generated virtual characters and motion-capture animation previs for live action and animated features, and videogames. A sampling of their upcoming projects include: Renaissance, a full 3D-animated black-and-white feature that will be released in French theaters on March 15, 50 Cent: Bullet Proof, a full CG cinematic for the videogame edited by Vivendi Universal Games and Skyland, a full CG animated TV series (26 x 26 format) that will be on the air in spring 2006.

Attitude Studio’s upcoming project, Skyland, a full CG animated TV series will air this spring. In five years, Attitude has become an international 3D animation studio © Method Films, Nine Story Ent., France2, LuxAnimation.

According to Attitude’s Sandrine Nguyen, the company has thrived due to their ability to grow with the needs of the industry. “Attitude Studio is a one-stop shop. Five years after its creation, Attitude Studio has positioned itself as an international 3D animation studio. The strength of Attitude Studio is in its constant implication in technical research and development that allows serving any type of artistic style approach. The constant work on optimising the tools and improving them, allows us to keep a technical edge, as well as optimize our already extremely extensive production tools to the benefit of production. We offer the utmost quality in animation and the latest technology, and some exclusive tools. Because the company has been incredibly efficient in optimizing, creating, inventing, auditing and writing proprietary tools as they grow, it can today support a various amount of projects, from video games to feature films. The company is able to audit every job and learn from the results, as well as reuse all the new tools from production to production, implementing them when necessary.”

When discussing how Attitude specifically utilizes previs for their clients, Olivier Renouard, head of technology, explains, “Drafting is a common approach for any complex task, we have block animation before final animation, test renders and color studies before final render, and the board before the final film. Now with the board being the first visual document about how a shoot should look like, there are limitations to what you can define at that point with static 2D drawings, and you often need some intermediary steps before you can get started. The idea of test runs, rehearsals and considering several alternatives before the actual shot isn’t new, but now there are new tools that make the process much easier. What makes the current 3D modeling/animation tools particularly adapted to this task is the speed at which you can do revisions and modifications. Moving a whole building a few meters aside, even if it’s still just cubes and planes, or changing a camera path can make big differences on a shot effectiveness, and can be done in minutes at the previs stage. The key at this point being a fast turnaround and best reactivity to a director’s demands, it orients the choice towards tools permitting near realtime operation. For this reason, we built our previs solution around Alias MotionBuilder software.

“From my experience, several 3D packages already have integrated hardware rendering technologies, this being the case for MotionBuilder, that are really up to the task of providing the required image quality for previs. It might be not up to the standard of the latest game engines, but you need much more flexibility than a typical game engine can provide. You have to keep in mind that a lot of the neatest features in game engines rely on pre processing and calculation (like lightmaps and more) of a content that is fully known in advance (as a game ‘level’). It’s not as static in the previs process. This said, while I think a typical previs tool can have rendering capabilities a bit behind what a videogame engine can do, they need to keep evolving because directors play videogames too, and the level of what they expect to see rises accordingly! What we would like to see (and what we are currently working on) would be more ways to propagate and reuse the result of the previs at later stages of the production pipeline.”