Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Fliparoni update
Just a note that Fliparoni (iPhone and Touch game) is available free for a very short time as a promotion on the App Store and iTunes.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Fliparoni
My newest iPhone application is now available.
Fliparoni, It's a video puzzle game for the iPhone. Improve your visual sense.
Click on the post title above to go to the website.
Now I'll be getting back to visual effects postings.
Fliparoni, It's a video puzzle game for the iPhone. Improve your visual sense.
Click on the post title above to go to the website.
Now I'll be getting back to visual effects postings.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Squiggles
For those interested I updated my iPhone/Touch paint program Squiggles.
Click the Squiggles link above to see demo video and images.
This has even more advanced paint options (paint smoothing, opacity, paint modes),
stamps (color brushes using provided images), overlays (compositing with moving layers using the provided images), Text layers, eraser and Clone tools as well as distortion and interactive image adjustments.
Click the Squiggles link above to see demo video and images.
This has even more advanced paint options (paint smoothing, opacity, paint modes),
stamps (color brushes using provided images), overlays (compositing with moving layers using the provided images), Text layers, eraser and Clone tools as well as distortion and interactive image adjustments.
Space Race
For those interested in a blast from the past (late 80's?, early 90's?) a ShowScan simulator ride I directed and Supervised is posted on the web. (Click Space Race above and scroll halfway down the page)
Showscan was a 70mm process developed by Doug Trumbull to run at 60fps. It loses a bit in the translation to 320 pixel web video. We shot this all in VistaVision at ILM and there is no CGI despite what the notes say. We built a 2-3 foot wide track that covered a 1/2 lap. This was shot motion control and redressed for each segment. All space vehicles are motion control models. This was probably the last all optical composited projects at ILM. Ned Gorman was the VFX producer (and Writer). Ned also spotted this video. Ty Ellingson was the Art Director.
The film played in both normal ShowScan theaters and in their simulator ride theaters that had motorized/hydraulic seats.
It played around the world including Toronto, Las Vegas and L.A. This was one of the most successful ride films at that time.
Showscan was a 70mm process developed by Doug Trumbull to run at 60fps. It loses a bit in the translation to 320 pixel web video. We shot this all in VistaVision at ILM and there is no CGI despite what the notes say. We built a 2-3 foot wide track that covered a 1/2 lap. This was shot motion control and redressed for each segment. All space vehicles are motion control models. This was probably the last all optical composited projects at ILM. Ned Gorman was the VFX producer (and Writer). Ned also spotted this video. Ty Ellingson was the Art Director.
The film played in both normal ShowScan theaters and in their simulator ride theaters that had motorized/hydraulic seats.
It played around the world including Toronto, Las Vegas and L.A. This was one of the most successful ride films at that time.
Friday, July 11, 2008
iPhone
I've been tied up lately with a lot of other things. (Hence the delay in getting new postings up).
One of those things is a paint program for the iPhone called Squiggles. The link above takes you to more info.
I frequently need to sketch little things to discuss with people on set or at a workstation. This also allows painting on photos so that useful for noting items. I have many more features in the work (along with others apps). Some these will probably be specific to visual effects so post a note for any feature requests to the existing app or to new apps you'd like to see.
One of those things is a paint program for the iPhone called Squiggles. The link above takes you to more info.
I frequently need to sketch little things to discuss with people on set or at a workstation. This also allows painting on photos so that useful for noting items. I have many more features in the work (along with others apps). Some these will probably be specific to visual effects so post a note for any feature requests to the existing app or to new apps you'd like to see.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Designing Visual Effect Shots
Designing Visual Effect Shots, Part 1
(This posting started getting very long and cover a lot so I’m breaking it into smaller postings. I’ll get into more specific details in future postings.)
The success of a Visual Effects shot is not only dependent on the technical aspects of the shot but also the creative aspects. It all starts with the initial shot design.
A well designed visual effects shot will have impact and help to tell the story clearly. A poorly designed shot may confuse the audience and at the very least will squander an opportunity. A poorly designed shot can actually cost more if the studio or director decides in the edit stage that it’s just not working. At that point the shot could be re-shot with a better design (unlikely) or many attempts will be made to fix the shot in post without a clear understanding of the problem.
Note that the design criteria for visual effects versus normal live action shots are primarily the same. The differences with visual effects shots are:
1. Usually the entire visual effects shot is not visible or apparent at the time of shooting. Images will be added later or the existing image will be modified. This requires pre-planning. A live action shot is usually working or not working on the set. If a camera angle makes a stunt look boring then they’ll know that when reviewing the video on set.
2. On live action the Director of Photography and Camera Operator are focused on the look of the shot in addition the director. The director respects their opinion. With visual effects the director and a storyboard artist may have designed the initial shots before the visual effects people are even hired. How much influence the visual effects supervisor and his team have on shot design depends greatly on the director and how much respect they have for the visual effects process. The better directors understand this and take advantage of the visual effects team.
3. Visual effects sometimes deal with design issues that don’t come up directly in live action. How to show the scale of smooth object floating in space? How to transform this paperweight into a creature?
4. Visual effects can be much more limitless. With live action you have set and equipment restrictions which may prevent you from doing certain types of things. A visual effects shot can have more freedom of action, movement of camera and lighting effects.
5. Visual effects can require a deft hand of design and editing just as a comedy sequence requires some finesse of timing, angles and specific phrasing.
Spider
Below are some of the many issues to keep in mind when designing a visual effects shot. These aren’t rules, just a set of suggestions.
Does the shot help to tell the story?
This should be a fundamental of any shot or scene in a film, whether live action or visual effects. Sometimes visual effects are only used as eye candy. The director wants to wow the audience with a car crash, explosion or a visual effects shot. If that can be done and still work to tell the story then that’s great. If it’s only purpose is eye candy to wow the audience then it may be a lost cause.
Audiences these days have seen a lot visuals between films, tv, video games and the internet. They’ve come to expect something new and different. Visual Effects are not as special and magical as they once were to the audience. There was a wow factor in the early days of computer graphics when things were new. It becoming more difficult to find techniques that provide the wow factor. Shot design is a major factor to making the wow factor even using standard techniques. As a case in point, THE MATRIX used ‘bullet’ time and most people thought this was the first use of it. There had already been at least one movie with the same effect (LOST IN SPACE) and a few commercials but the combination of art direction and design combined with the story made an impact.
Even in the early 80’s people thought much of what they saw was computer graphics. A number of visual effects commercials were designed to look like computer graphics even though many of these were done by traditional animation techniques. Logos would fly through the air with metallic glints. These were all done with a number of pieces of artwork and passes on an animation stand. For ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK at Dream Quest we used physical models of building painted black with white lines.
What is the point the shot has to make?
Maybe it’s to establish a castle or to show a creature emerging from a box. Whatever the reason it’s important to keep that in mind throughout the process. Given the length of time from the initial design to the completed final, the shot can veer off course quite a bit.
At the time of shooting someone may have a ‘better’ idea. Why don’t we frame it like this? Why are we wasting all of that frame area there? This is when the visual effects supervisor has to remind them that the empty area on the side will hold a creature in the final shot. Another reason why storyboards are essential is to provide a clear visual of the final shot. More likely it will be a subtle change that will have a big impact later. (Let’s put this prop here, lets add a real explosion in the foreground.)
In post production the editor may want to reframe the shot or use a different element entirely. The compositor may put in more smoke in the foreground. Everyone involved in the shot (director, supervisor, animator, technical director, etc) are likely to be focused on the details and lose sight of the purpose of the shot. In an attempt to make the shot even ‘cooler’ you lose the focus of the shot. It’s only when it’s cut in will the real problem become obvious again. The reason for the shot may now be so obscured that the audience will be confused and lost. If that’s the case it throws them out of the movie. Try to always review the shot in context and take a step back to check the intent of the shot.
Does the shot fit in the movie? Does it fit into the sequence?
Unless it’s a specific dream sequence, most visual effects shots are supposed to blend into the rest of the film. This is true whether it’s a period piece or a science fiction future thriller. The design of the shots, the camera motion and the lighting should match the live action. If you have a hand held action sequence and cut to a locked off visual effects shot, then it will stand out.
My suggestion to directors is to design the shots as if everything is really there. How would you frame and shoot this in live action? There’s a tendency to treat the design of even simple visual effects as different than the rest of the film. “We’re paying for the shot and by gosh we’re going to show it off” is sometimes the approach taken. If it’s a real building they might frame it from a ¾ angle and not make a big deal of it. If it’s a matte painted building then it’s likely to be designed to be shot straight on with clouds added to the sky. All of those are clues to the audience that something about the shot isn’t right.
It’s possible for a disconnect to happen since the director usually sits down with a storyboard artist months before shooting. These shot designs may be a different aesthetic than how the director of photography approaches the live action. The director is involved with both teams but there are thousands of choices to be made that may place them out of sync. There may be times a second unit director is approaching the shots differently than the main director. Sometimes in post the director realizes he can change a lot, especially on a virtual shot Focusing on a hand full of shots may cause them to shift away from the rest of the film.
Adjust the design of the shots based on their context and what they’re supposed to accomplish. If they’re supposed to be realistic backgrounds then all the more reason to fit them into the rest of the movie and avoid drawing attention to them. Once again, how would you treat this if it really existed? If it’s a dramatic effect then design the shot to take advantage of that and push it within context of the film.
(more design posts to come)
(This posting started getting very long and cover a lot so I’m breaking it into smaller postings. I’ll get into more specific details in future postings.)
The success of a Visual Effects shot is not only dependent on the technical aspects of the shot but also the creative aspects. It all starts with the initial shot design.
A well designed visual effects shot will have impact and help to tell the story clearly. A poorly designed shot may confuse the audience and at the very least will squander an opportunity. A poorly designed shot can actually cost more if the studio or director decides in the edit stage that it’s just not working. At that point the shot could be re-shot with a better design (unlikely) or many attempts will be made to fix the shot in post without a clear understanding of the problem.
Note that the design criteria for visual effects versus normal live action shots are primarily the same. The differences with visual effects shots are:
1. Usually the entire visual effects shot is not visible or apparent at the time of shooting. Images will be added later or the existing image will be modified. This requires pre-planning. A live action shot is usually working or not working on the set. If a camera angle makes a stunt look boring then they’ll know that when reviewing the video on set.
2. On live action the Director of Photography and Camera Operator are focused on the look of the shot in addition the director. The director respects their opinion. With visual effects the director and a storyboard artist may have designed the initial shots before the visual effects people are even hired. How much influence the visual effects supervisor and his team have on shot design depends greatly on the director and how much respect they have for the visual effects process. The better directors understand this and take advantage of the visual effects team.
3. Visual effects sometimes deal with design issues that don’t come up directly in live action. How to show the scale of smooth object floating in space? How to transform this paperweight into a creature?
4. Visual effects can be much more limitless. With live action you have set and equipment restrictions which may prevent you from doing certain types of things. A visual effects shot can have more freedom of action, movement of camera and lighting effects.
5. Visual effects can require a deft hand of design and editing just as a comedy sequence requires some finesse of timing, angles and specific phrasing.
Spider
Below are some of the many issues to keep in mind when designing a visual effects shot. These aren’t rules, just a set of suggestions.
Does the shot help to tell the story?
This should be a fundamental of any shot or scene in a film, whether live action or visual effects. Sometimes visual effects are only used as eye candy. The director wants to wow the audience with a car crash, explosion or a visual effects shot. If that can be done and still work to tell the story then that’s great. If it’s only purpose is eye candy to wow the audience then it may be a lost cause.
Audiences these days have seen a lot visuals between films, tv, video games and the internet. They’ve come to expect something new and different. Visual Effects are not as special and magical as they once were to the audience. There was a wow factor in the early days of computer graphics when things were new. It becoming more difficult to find techniques that provide the wow factor. Shot design is a major factor to making the wow factor even using standard techniques. As a case in point, THE MATRIX used ‘bullet’ time and most people thought this was the first use of it. There had already been at least one movie with the same effect (LOST IN SPACE) and a few commercials but the combination of art direction and design combined with the story made an impact.
Even in the early 80’s people thought much of what they saw was computer graphics. A number of visual effects commercials were designed to look like computer graphics even though many of these were done by traditional animation techniques. Logos would fly through the air with metallic glints. These were all done with a number of pieces of artwork and passes on an animation stand. For ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK at Dream Quest we used physical models of building painted black with white lines.
What is the point the shot has to make?
Maybe it’s to establish a castle or to show a creature emerging from a box. Whatever the reason it’s important to keep that in mind throughout the process. Given the length of time from the initial design to the completed final, the shot can veer off course quite a bit.
At the time of shooting someone may have a ‘better’ idea. Why don’t we frame it like this? Why are we wasting all of that frame area there? This is when the visual effects supervisor has to remind them that the empty area on the side will hold a creature in the final shot. Another reason why storyboards are essential is to provide a clear visual of the final shot. More likely it will be a subtle change that will have a big impact later. (Let’s put this prop here, lets add a real explosion in the foreground.)
In post production the editor may want to reframe the shot or use a different element entirely. The compositor may put in more smoke in the foreground. Everyone involved in the shot (director, supervisor, animator, technical director, etc) are likely to be focused on the details and lose sight of the purpose of the shot. In an attempt to make the shot even ‘cooler’ you lose the focus of the shot. It’s only when it’s cut in will the real problem become obvious again. The reason for the shot may now be so obscured that the audience will be confused and lost. If that’s the case it throws them out of the movie. Try to always review the shot in context and take a step back to check the intent of the shot.
Does the shot fit in the movie? Does it fit into the sequence?
Unless it’s a specific dream sequence, most visual effects shots are supposed to blend into the rest of the film. This is true whether it’s a period piece or a science fiction future thriller. The design of the shots, the camera motion and the lighting should match the live action. If you have a hand held action sequence and cut to a locked off visual effects shot, then it will stand out.
My suggestion to directors is to design the shots as if everything is really there. How would you frame and shoot this in live action? There’s a tendency to treat the design of even simple visual effects as different than the rest of the film. “We’re paying for the shot and by gosh we’re going to show it off” is sometimes the approach taken. If it’s a real building they might frame it from a ¾ angle and not make a big deal of it. If it’s a matte painted building then it’s likely to be designed to be shot straight on with clouds added to the sky. All of those are clues to the audience that something about the shot isn’t right.
It’s possible for a disconnect to happen since the director usually sits down with a storyboard artist months before shooting. These shot designs may be a different aesthetic than how the director of photography approaches the live action. The director is involved with both teams but there are thousands of choices to be made that may place them out of sync. There may be times a second unit director is approaching the shots differently than the main director. Sometimes in post the director realizes he can change a lot, especially on a virtual shot Focusing on a hand full of shots may cause them to shift away from the rest of the film.
Adjust the design of the shots based on their context and what they’re supposed to accomplish. If they’re supposed to be realistic backgrounds then all the more reason to fit them into the rest of the movie and avoid drawing attention to them. Once again, how would you treat this if it really existed? If it’s a dramatic effect then design the shot to take advantage of that and push it within context of the film.
(more design posts to come)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
VES & Gnomon - Golden Compass Breakdown
Gnomon School Of Visual Effects And The VES
Welcomes The Visual Effects Team From The Academy Award Nominated, The Golden Compass
Feb 28, 2008 in Los Angeles at the Gnomon School
Academy Award nominated Michael Fink, Senior Visual Effects Supervisor, Susan Macleod, Visual Effects Producer, Bryan Grill, Visual Effects Supervisor for Digital Domain and Raymond Chen, Co-visual Effects Supervisor for Rhythm & Hues Studios will be will be discussing the planning and execution of many of the visual effects shots for The Golden Compass.
Click above on name of post for more info.
Welcomes The Visual Effects Team From The Academy Award Nominated, The Golden Compass
Feb 28, 2008 in Los Angeles at the Gnomon School
Academy Award nominated Michael Fink, Senior Visual Effects Supervisor, Susan Macleod, Visual Effects Producer, Bryan Grill, Visual Effects Supervisor for Digital Domain and Raymond Chen, Co-visual Effects Supervisor for Rhythm & Hues Studios will be will be discussing the planning and execution of many of the visual effects shots for The Golden Compass.
Click above on name of post for more info.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Depth of Field and VFX
Depth of Field and VFX
This is in response to a question from a reader about depth of field and how it relates to visual effects.
Models
With miniatures you need enough depth of field to hold focus from the front of the model to the back of the model. This means a lot of light and a stopped down lens. Lack of depth of field is one of the key things that give away the look of the model since in real life a large area would be photographed from a further distance and (possibly in sunlight) so depth of field wouldn't be a problem.
Greenscreen/Bluescreen
If you're shooting a greenscreen then you'll typically want to make sure all the foreground people and objects are in sharp focus. This is easily and frequently overlooked, especially by directors of photography. (And at times by the VFX supervisor) If you have a sunlit, exterior background image then it's likely to be shot at f8-f16. This provides a reasonable amount of depth of field. But when the DP lights the stage he probably won't be lighting to same intensity levels. If the lack of depth of field is apparent then it causes two problems. If the back end of the foreground is soft then you're forced to blur the background even if there's something important to see. It's impossible in real life to have only a mid-section that's blurred. If the director really needs to see what's back there then you're forced to try to sharpen the edges and back detail of the foreground. The end result will never appears natural. The other problem is the audience senses that this is unnatural (i.e. they only see this in vfx shots). An 'exterior' scene in bright sunlight with a normal or wide angle lens should be in focus throughout a normal shot.
You'll see animated films where they have cheated the depth of field. I find it best if you want your vfx or animation to appear natural is to use the guidelines and restrictions that a normal movie has. (depth of field, camera movement, etc)
Markers
The other depth of field issues for VFX people is soft tracking markers and very soft edge mattes. If you're on a stage shooting a greenscreen with a long lens then the markers may be so out of focus as to disappear. This is a big problem, especially if you're shooting a character from the waist up who's moving and jumping around. Since the markers are invisible, you have no easy way of distinguishing the camera motion from the character motion. Someone will have to manually work on that shot by eye until it looks reasonable. This can be very time consuming and require a number of takes.
Note that LED markers tend to hold up better for out of focus shots. These are markers using key ring lites (possibly modified) you see in the store. The point source of a red LED holds up better than an X piece of tape.
Mattes
The soft edges of the greenscreen matte (or a place you want the roto matte) will require delicate settings of the key. Any blur (from depth of field or motion) will cause some of the background to bleed through that area as if it were partially transparent. The blurred area then becomes more contaminated with the greenscreen. When rotoing a blurred edge it's sometimes a subjective question where the blur stops. If you include all of the blur then you'll be including some of the original background. If you clip off too much of the blur then it will look incorrect in the composite unless you blur the edges of the matte similar to the original. Fortunately software like Commotion could deal with natural motion blur so it was less of an issue. If you shot someone slightly soft in front of bright points of light (city, Las Vegas, etc) then in the edges of the blur you would have points of light that likely aren't in the new background. In these cases you may have to clamp down or paint out the offending lights.
This is in response to a question from a reader about depth of field and how it relates to visual effects.
Models
With miniatures you need enough depth of field to hold focus from the front of the model to the back of the model. This means a lot of light and a stopped down lens. Lack of depth of field is one of the key things that give away the look of the model since in real life a large area would be photographed from a further distance and (possibly in sunlight) so depth of field wouldn't be a problem.
Greenscreen/Bluescreen
If you're shooting a greenscreen then you'll typically want to make sure all the foreground people and objects are in sharp focus. This is easily and frequently overlooked, especially by directors of photography. (And at times by the VFX supervisor) If you have a sunlit, exterior background image then it's likely to be shot at f8-f16. This provides a reasonable amount of depth of field. But when the DP lights the stage he probably won't be lighting to same intensity levels. If the lack of depth of field is apparent then it causes two problems. If the back end of the foreground is soft then you're forced to blur the background even if there's something important to see. It's impossible in real life to have only a mid-section that's blurred. If the director really needs to see what's back there then you're forced to try to sharpen the edges and back detail of the foreground. The end result will never appears natural. The other problem is the audience senses that this is unnatural (i.e. they only see this in vfx shots). An 'exterior' scene in bright sunlight with a normal or wide angle lens should be in focus throughout a normal shot.
You'll see animated films where they have cheated the depth of field. I find it best if you want your vfx or animation to appear natural is to use the guidelines and restrictions that a normal movie has. (depth of field, camera movement, etc)
Markers
The other depth of field issues for VFX people is soft tracking markers and very soft edge mattes. If you're on a stage shooting a greenscreen with a long lens then the markers may be so out of focus as to disappear. This is a big problem, especially if you're shooting a character from the waist up who's moving and jumping around. Since the markers are invisible, you have no easy way of distinguishing the camera motion from the character motion. Someone will have to manually work on that shot by eye until it looks reasonable. This can be very time consuming and require a number of takes.
Note that LED markers tend to hold up better for out of focus shots. These are markers using key ring lites (possibly modified) you see in the store. The point source of a red LED holds up better than an X piece of tape.
Mattes
The soft edges of the greenscreen matte (or a place you want the roto matte) will require delicate settings of the key. Any blur (from depth of field or motion) will cause some of the background to bleed through that area as if it were partially transparent. The blurred area then becomes more contaminated with the greenscreen. When rotoing a blurred edge it's sometimes a subjective question where the blur stops. If you include all of the blur then you'll be including some of the original background. If you clip off too much of the blur then it will look incorrect in the composite unless you blur the edges of the matte similar to the original. Fortunately software like Commotion could deal with natural motion blur so it was less of an issue. If you shot someone slightly soft in front of bright points of light (city, Las Vegas, etc) then in the edges of the blur you would have points of light that likely aren't in the new background. In these cases you may have to clamp down or paint out the offending lights.
Monday, January 21, 2008
VFX Schedules
More reader questions regarding schedules
What is a 'Shot Timeline'...is this some sort of
device used to tell the amount of time the shot should
last for or what. You also made mention of some types
of, magnetic boards, modified storyboards or computer
software which is most effective.
Scheduling is a big issue since you have a lot of resources and need to deliver in a timely manner.
There are at least 4 types of schedules. They can be corkboards, on the computer, magnet strips, etc. The specifics are
up the vfx production team (producer and supervisor)
1. Schedule of the shots. This is the true linear time estimate and is usually in a timeline. That timeline will be the length of the production.
It may list that shot KR030 starts June 14 and completes August 19. The shot itself is likely to be budgeted for less time but you have to take some delays into account. (changes from the director, waiting for feedback, shooting an extra element, etc)
Each shot laid out may also show the different stages (animation, TD, roto, etc)
2. Target shots - These are shots due in the next couple of weeks. These may just be names of the shots or their storyboards on a simple wall chart that's broken down by days.
The production team can review this and say next week they expect to complete KR040 on Wednesday. If shot RM125 won't be done this Thursday as planned then it will be moved to the next week at the likely day. This is so the team can focus on the immediate needs.
3. Storyboards - This is all the storyboards laid out in film order. Each has a breakdown of the different tasks and the initial scheduled dates. As work is done a colored dot may be applied that indicates which stage is done. (i.e. finished with matchmoving and layout, ready for animation) Red dot signifies a completed (finaled) shot or folding up the corner of the storyboarded breakdown. The storyboards may be replaced or augmented by stills from the actual footage. Most productions attach bulletin boards in the production office for this. This allows everyone to see the big picture. You get a true sense for what's been done, how much work remains and if there are some shots that are being overlooked.
4. Schedule of artists - Your key resources are the artists. There's a timeline with each artist (TD, animator, compositor, etc) that lists what shots they're scheduled to work on and when. An artist may be working on 1 to 5 shots at a time. After completing a shot the next shot for them is already scheduled. If a director adds a additional shots or something changes in the schedule then the production team will review this board/timeline to see who's available and what they should re-assign. If they need a shot sooner than expected it may have to be moved forward in the schedule and given to a different artist.
How are 'final shots' determined. If the feature
film has about 25 effect shots how can I conclude that
I am expected to get 5 final shots a day for 5 days.
Also, what happens if the finals isn't what the
director had in mind...will the shot be repeated and
isn't this waste of time.
A shot may be internally finaled by the supervisor but it's not truly finaled until approved by the director.
It's important to understand the director was involved in all stages of the shot (from the original design, the shoot and now post production) The director will have seen the shot tests from animation and at least preliminary renders and composites. This has to be done so they can cut it into the film and judge it context. Changes can occur at any point. If the director doesn't final the shot when it's expected to final it's usually because the final polish hasn't been done to their liking. Note that even after a director has finaled a shot it could still be unfinaled at some point later (studio hates it, new concept). In these cases that's a major change order (time and money).
Time - If you have 25 shots due in 5 days then you have to final an average of 5 shots a day. To calculate this you take the the number of shots left to do and divide by the remaining time you have (assuming 5 day week that the director can approve them). This will give you the average number of shots per day. You can just as easily calculate number of shots per week or average days per shot. The initial time is based on the date when you have the turnover of the shots (when they've been edited and production tells you these are the takes, shot numbers and details).
You're likely to start off woefully less than the average at the start of post production since you have to fill the pipeline and it can take some time to get the film scanned, cleaned, matchmoved and ready to work on. The number of shots actually finaled rises exponentially as you get closer to your finals date (contractual day you have to complete so they can get it in theaters). More things will have been worked out, the crew has hit their stride, the director and supervisor are now seeing through new eyes (200 shots in the next two week, akkkk!), you're waking up in a cold sweat at night and hopefully the studio has stopped fiddling with the shots.
Related:
Time's a wasting
What is a 'Shot Timeline'...is this some sort of
device used to tell the amount of time the shot should
last for or what. You also made mention of some types
of, magnetic boards, modified storyboards or computer
software which is most effective.
Scheduling is a big issue since you have a lot of resources and need to deliver in a timely manner.
There are at least 4 types of schedules. They can be corkboards, on the computer, magnet strips, etc. The specifics are
up the vfx production team (producer and supervisor)
1. Schedule of the shots. This is the true linear time estimate and is usually in a timeline. That timeline will be the length of the production.
It may list that shot KR030 starts June 14 and completes August 19. The shot itself is likely to be budgeted for less time but you have to take some delays into account. (changes from the director, waiting for feedback, shooting an extra element, etc)
Each shot laid out may also show the different stages (animation, TD, roto, etc)
2. Target shots - These are shots due in the next couple of weeks. These may just be names of the shots or their storyboards on a simple wall chart that's broken down by days.
The production team can review this and say next week they expect to complete KR040 on Wednesday. If shot RM125 won't be done this Thursday as planned then it will be moved to the next week at the likely day. This is so the team can focus on the immediate needs.
3. Storyboards - This is all the storyboards laid out in film order. Each has a breakdown of the different tasks and the initial scheduled dates. As work is done a colored dot may be applied that indicates which stage is done. (i.e. finished with matchmoving and layout, ready for animation) Red dot signifies a completed (finaled) shot or folding up the corner of the storyboarded breakdown. The storyboards may be replaced or augmented by stills from the actual footage. Most productions attach bulletin boards in the production office for this. This allows everyone to see the big picture. You get a true sense for what's been done, how much work remains and if there are some shots that are being overlooked.
4. Schedule of artists - Your key resources are the artists. There's a timeline with each artist (TD, animator, compositor, etc) that lists what shots they're scheduled to work on and when. An artist may be working on 1 to 5 shots at a time. After completing a shot the next shot for them is already scheduled. If a director adds a additional shots or something changes in the schedule then the production team will review this board/timeline to see who's available and what they should re-assign. If they need a shot sooner than expected it may have to be moved forward in the schedule and given to a different artist.
How are 'final shots' determined. If the feature
film has about 25 effect shots how can I conclude that
I am expected to get 5 final shots a day for 5 days.
Also, what happens if the finals isn't what the
director had in mind...will the shot be repeated and
isn't this waste of time.
A shot may be internally finaled by the supervisor but it's not truly finaled until approved by the director.
It's important to understand the director was involved in all stages of the shot (from the original design, the shoot and now post production) The director will have seen the shot tests from animation and at least preliminary renders and composites. This has to be done so they can cut it into the film and judge it context. Changes can occur at any point. If the director doesn't final the shot when it's expected to final it's usually because the final polish hasn't been done to their liking. Note that even after a director has finaled a shot it could still be unfinaled at some point later (studio hates it, new concept). In these cases that's a major change order (time and money).
Time - If you have 25 shots due in 5 days then you have to final an average of 5 shots a day. To calculate this you take the the number of shots left to do and divide by the remaining time you have (assuming 5 day week that the director can approve them). This will give you the average number of shots per day. You can just as easily calculate number of shots per week or average days per shot. The initial time is based on the date when you have the turnover of the shots (when they've been edited and production tells you these are the takes, shot numbers and details).
You're likely to start off woefully less than the average at the start of post production since you have to fill the pipeline and it can take some time to get the film scanned, cleaned, matchmoved and ready to work on. The number of shots actually finaled rises exponentially as you get closer to your finals date (contractual day you have to complete so they can get it in theaters). More things will have been worked out, the crew has hit their stride, the director and supervisor are now seeing through new eyes (200 shots in the next two week, akkkk!), you're waking up in a cold sweat at night and hopefully the studio has stopped fiddling with the shots.
Related:
Time's a wasting
Thursday, January 17, 2008
VFX management
Here are a few reader questions. As I’ve said before each company and each production is a bit different. There are no standards of operation so there will exceptions to everything below.
How much management is needed for a small, medium and big sized operation?
In a small shop, management also works hands on. We had 6 people when we started Dream Quest in a garage, all of us co-owners. The amount of management of course varied per person. I was the president and would make sales calls as well and vfx supervise. We had over 60 employees when I left Dream Quest. ILM had about 120 at that time. (1985) Later ILM had more than 1200 people working at one time.
As a company gets larger you start getting more support people and employees. It also becomes more difficult to balance managing and working hands on shots. Legal paperwork, payroll, computer support, coordinators, etc. start requiring a management structure in place.
Small companies are more likely to have people who are multi-purpose. The individuals may do everything on the shot from start to finish. As a company gets larger you’re more likely to go to specialists for each craft. Typically you’ll have multiple departments or groups of people as you get larger ( Technical directors, compositors, roto artists, animators, etc.)
If the size of the company is only working on one project at a time then you may have a lead per department that balances working hands on as well as managing the people within his group. As the company gets larger and works on multiple projects at a time (a large company may be working on as many as 6 to 8 projects at once) then a department head will be assigned to each department. This person may also be a lead on a specific project or may strictly be a manager with no hands on activity.
Note that most companies consider supervisors and producers managers in addition to department heads. An added benefit for the company is they don’t have to pay overtime to any ‘managers’.
The greater the size of management the more overhead the company has to add to the budget. It’s easy for companies to become too top heavy with management (in some cases several levels deep from the company headto the artists). Since management controls employment they’re much more likely to layoff the actual artists than management. Most of vfx management is made up of people who were once vfx artists or vfx producers themselves. Not everyone who’s a good vfx artist makes the transition to manager since it’s a different skill set. Unfortunately some people are promoted to a job they’re unable to do well. This can be a real problem.
How many leads?
Number of leads is dependent on size of the show. If it’s a large show with big sequences you may have a sequence lead for each sequence. You may also have a lead for each discipline. An animation lead for each sequence or for each main character, a compositing lead, a TD lead, etc. A lead may be assigned a different sequence after they complete their first one assuming they’re not concurrent.
How do you balance between creativity and the budget?
A few key things to note here:
Creativity isn’t directly proportional to budget. We’ve all seen very expensive movies with little creativity and visa versa.
Budget does provide: More R&D for new vfx, more concept work, more shots and/or more complex shots, more time and effort to finesse the shots.
The director controls the creativity and the visual effects team serves the director. Some critics and internet users think the vfx team does it’s own thing and just delivers it at the end as if the director has no involvement. The director is very much involved in all designs, all the shooting and all the post. The only time this doesn’t happen is if the project is over-schedule and/or over-budget (or if it’s with a specific, nameless studio where the studio executives control all the vfx) The other case is when the director turns over all the action design and execution to his 2nd Unit Director. Since the 2nd unit director usually isn’t involved in post production this can be a problem.
In commercials and television work the director usually isn’t involved in post production. It’s in the hands of the creatives at the advertising agency for commercials and with the producers/writers for television.
From a VFX standpoint we work with director in pre-production to create concept art for what the final shots will look like and what the creatures/objects look like. We also try to be heavily involved in the storyboards and previs work. Many directors are very eager to get the most out their vfx and vfx team and this works very well. They’re open to new ideas and the vfx team is more than hapy to help. In other cases you can provide a totally new concept or idea that would be a perfect fit with the movie but it’s ignored.
My suggestion is to initially design as if the budget didn’t matter. Brainstorm working with the director and come up with the most powerful shots for the movie. If the budget doesn’t support that then the director will have to reduce the number of shots, ask the studio for more money (which the concept art may allow them to do) or be willing to simplify the shots.
Who is responsible for what?
Each vfx artist is responsible for the specific work he’s been assigned on a shot or model.
What are their roles specifically?
There’s an endless list of jobs and job descriptions. Here are some of the common ones: Technical director (lighting and rendering of 3D), Compositing (combining multiple images), animator (animation of a character or object), roto (someone who traces to creates mattes), painter (painting out unwanted items in frame, fixing frames), 3D modeler (builds the model), texture painter (someone who paints the 3D models), model maker (builds physical models), rigger (builds the 3D skeleton for the characters), skinner/enveloper (works on the skin of the characters (flexibility)), dirt removal (paints out scanned dirt on images), layout/matchmove (creates 3D representation of the live action), particle animator (works specifically with partical systems), previs artist (creates simplified animation before production), motion capture actor (creates moves the animators can use for a character), motion cature artists (work with the data from motion capture), set surveyor (record information when shooting), coordinator (gathers and disperse information, help with schedules), Production assistants (anything)
Does the vfx supervisor worry about the creative only?
No. We worry about everything. Supervisors are always very involved technically and at the end of the day they have to be worried about the budget and schedule even if these are directly overseen by the VFX producer. If you run out of time or money because of previous choices then you won’t be able to complete the project.
Is the supervisor responsible for managing his crew directly?
The Supervisor reviews the dailies of all the TD’s and Compositors and provides both creative and technical feedback. An Animation Supervisor reviews the animation dailies. These artists consult with their leads to discuss details or solutions. The supervisor provides the creative guidelines for the artists (based on the directors vision) and deal with the large issues. The supervisor may only be able to interact with a specific artist once or twice a day (such as dailies). This is because there are a lot of artists and there may be many meetings. The leads have less people under them so are more likely to check in on all their artists more frequently.
Does the supervisor have a say about workflow and how things should be done technically - or he/she responsible solely for the creative side of effect?
It’s all a question of details. Normally the supervisor oversees the basic technical aspects of the shots but the specific settings and details are guided by the CG supervisor or leads. The supervisor is usually the one to define the basic approach to a sequence or the shots. (i.e. matte painting or model, greenscreen or CG, etc) Whether to use a specific plugin or version of software is up to the department, lead or the artist.
In solving problems and making decisions, how does the crew structure help?
When bidding the supervisor meets with his leads or department heads and discusses his proposals. If there’s a better solution or alternatives those are discussed. During post production the artist works out the details of a solution themselves. They decide to use another mist element to blend on top to give some depth to a shot. If there’s a problem with a roto then the compositor or TD talks to the roto artist. If they’re having difficulty getting the look correct then they’ll check with their lead or a fellow artist. If that’s unable to resolve the issue then it’s brought to the supervisor.
What are the limits for the crew members themselves, their responsibilities?
The crew member is responsible for taking the elements provided and completing their aspect of the shot. They will make adjustments themselves based on what looks correct as well as feedback from dailies. If there’s a serious subjective or creative decision they’ll call on the lead or the vfx supervisor to make a decision. They can also opt to do it the way they think is right and review in dailies. If there is technical problem they may check in with the lead first.
Can you talk more about production vs. creative process?
Part of the issue is when is a shot is done? From a creative standpoint you could tweak a shot for months to make slight improvements. From a production side you want it to be complete and approved by the director as quickly as possible. What if there’s a better idea halfway through completing a sequence? Is there time to do it? Is there money to do? Filmmaking at some level is always a compromise.
What about chain of command?
Top level: VFX Supervisor (creative and technical), Animation Supervisor (animation), VFX Producer (schedule and budget)
CG Supervisor (big picture view of the computer resources required and how to achieve the different looks on the computer)
Leads (specific to a sequence or task, oversees the people working in that area and helps to mentor the artists)
Artists (These are the people doing the actual hands on work)
Related links:
VFX Producer
VFX Supervisor
Visual Effects Positions
Bad Visual Effects Business Practices
How much management is needed for a small, medium and big sized operation?
In a small shop, management also works hands on. We had 6 people when we started Dream Quest in a garage, all of us co-owners. The amount of management of course varied per person. I was the president and would make sales calls as well and vfx supervise. We had over 60 employees when I left Dream Quest. ILM had about 120 at that time. (1985) Later ILM had more than 1200 people working at one time.
As a company gets larger you start getting more support people and employees. It also becomes more difficult to balance managing and working hands on shots. Legal paperwork, payroll, computer support, coordinators, etc. start requiring a management structure in place.
Small companies are more likely to have people who are multi-purpose. The individuals may do everything on the shot from start to finish. As a company gets larger you’re more likely to go to specialists for each craft. Typically you’ll have multiple departments or groups of people as you get larger ( Technical directors, compositors, roto artists, animators, etc.)
If the size of the company is only working on one project at a time then you may have a lead per department that balances working hands on as well as managing the people within his group. As the company gets larger and works on multiple projects at a time (a large company may be working on as many as 6 to 8 projects at once) then a department head will be assigned to each department. This person may also be a lead on a specific project or may strictly be a manager with no hands on activity.
Note that most companies consider supervisors and producers managers in addition to department heads. An added benefit for the company is they don’t have to pay overtime to any ‘managers’.
The greater the size of management the more overhead the company has to add to the budget. It’s easy for companies to become too top heavy with management (in some cases several levels deep from the company headto the artists). Since management controls employment they’re much more likely to layoff the actual artists than management. Most of vfx management is made up of people who were once vfx artists or vfx producers themselves. Not everyone who’s a good vfx artist makes the transition to manager since it’s a different skill set. Unfortunately some people are promoted to a job they’re unable to do well. This can be a real problem.
How many leads?
Number of leads is dependent on size of the show. If it’s a large show with big sequences you may have a sequence lead for each sequence. You may also have a lead for each discipline. An animation lead for each sequence or for each main character, a compositing lead, a TD lead, etc. A lead may be assigned a different sequence after they complete their first one assuming they’re not concurrent.
How do you balance between creativity and the budget?
A few key things to note here:
Creativity isn’t directly proportional to budget. We’ve all seen very expensive movies with little creativity and visa versa.
Budget does provide: More R&D for new vfx, more concept work, more shots and/or more complex shots, more time and effort to finesse the shots.
The director controls the creativity and the visual effects team serves the director. Some critics and internet users think the vfx team does it’s own thing and just delivers it at the end as if the director has no involvement. The director is very much involved in all designs, all the shooting and all the post. The only time this doesn’t happen is if the project is over-schedule and/or over-budget (or if it’s with a specific, nameless studio where the studio executives control all the vfx) The other case is when the director turns over all the action design and execution to his 2nd Unit Director. Since the 2nd unit director usually isn’t involved in post production this can be a problem.
In commercials and television work the director usually isn’t involved in post production. It’s in the hands of the creatives at the advertising agency for commercials and with the producers/writers for television.
From a VFX standpoint we work with director in pre-production to create concept art for what the final shots will look like and what the creatures/objects look like. We also try to be heavily involved in the storyboards and previs work. Many directors are very eager to get the most out their vfx and vfx team and this works very well. They’re open to new ideas and the vfx team is more than hapy to help. In other cases you can provide a totally new concept or idea that would be a perfect fit with the movie but it’s ignored.
My suggestion is to initially design as if the budget didn’t matter. Brainstorm working with the director and come up with the most powerful shots for the movie. If the budget doesn’t support that then the director will have to reduce the number of shots, ask the studio for more money (which the concept art may allow them to do) or be willing to simplify the shots.
Who is responsible for what?
Each vfx artist is responsible for the specific work he’s been assigned on a shot or model.
What are their roles specifically?
There’s an endless list of jobs and job descriptions. Here are some of the common ones: Technical director (lighting and rendering of 3D), Compositing (combining multiple images), animator (animation of a character or object), roto (someone who traces to creates mattes), painter (painting out unwanted items in frame, fixing frames), 3D modeler (builds the model), texture painter (someone who paints the 3D models), model maker (builds physical models), rigger (builds the 3D skeleton for the characters), skinner/enveloper (works on the skin of the characters (flexibility)), dirt removal (paints out scanned dirt on images), layout/matchmove (creates 3D representation of the live action), particle animator (works specifically with partical systems), previs artist (creates simplified animation before production), motion capture actor (creates moves the animators can use for a character), motion cature artists (work with the data from motion capture), set surveyor (record information when shooting), coordinator (gathers and disperse information, help with schedules), Production assistants (anything)
Does the vfx supervisor worry about the creative only?
No. We worry about everything. Supervisors are always very involved technically and at the end of the day they have to be worried about the budget and schedule even if these are directly overseen by the VFX producer. If you run out of time or money because of previous choices then you won’t be able to complete the project.
Is the supervisor responsible for managing his crew directly?
The Supervisor reviews the dailies of all the TD’s and Compositors and provides both creative and technical feedback. An Animation Supervisor reviews the animation dailies. These artists consult with their leads to discuss details or solutions. The supervisor provides the creative guidelines for the artists (based on the directors vision) and deal with the large issues. The supervisor may only be able to interact with a specific artist once or twice a day (such as dailies). This is because there are a lot of artists and there may be many meetings. The leads have less people under them so are more likely to check in on all their artists more frequently.
Does the supervisor have a say about workflow and how things should be done technically - or he/she responsible solely for the creative side of effect?
It’s all a question of details. Normally the supervisor oversees the basic technical aspects of the shots but the specific settings and details are guided by the CG supervisor or leads. The supervisor is usually the one to define the basic approach to a sequence or the shots. (i.e. matte painting or model, greenscreen or CG, etc) Whether to use a specific plugin or version of software is up to the department, lead or the artist.
In solving problems and making decisions, how does the crew structure help?
When bidding the supervisor meets with his leads or department heads and discusses his proposals. If there’s a better solution or alternatives those are discussed. During post production the artist works out the details of a solution themselves. They decide to use another mist element to blend on top to give some depth to a shot. If there’s a problem with a roto then the compositor or TD talks to the roto artist. If they’re having difficulty getting the look correct then they’ll check with their lead or a fellow artist. If that’s unable to resolve the issue then it’s brought to the supervisor.
What are the limits for the crew members themselves, their responsibilities?
The crew member is responsible for taking the elements provided and completing their aspect of the shot. They will make adjustments themselves based on what looks correct as well as feedback from dailies. If there’s a serious subjective or creative decision they’ll call on the lead or the vfx supervisor to make a decision. They can also opt to do it the way they think is right and review in dailies. If there is technical problem they may check in with the lead first.
Can you talk more about production vs. creative process?
Part of the issue is when is a shot is done? From a creative standpoint you could tweak a shot for months to make slight improvements. From a production side you want it to be complete and approved by the director as quickly as possible. What if there’s a better idea halfway through completing a sequence? Is there time to do it? Is there money to do? Filmmaking at some level is always a compromise.
What about chain of command?
Top level: VFX Supervisor (creative and technical), Animation Supervisor (animation), VFX Producer (schedule and budget)
CG Supervisor (big picture view of the computer resources required and how to achieve the different looks on the computer)
Leads (specific to a sequence or task, oversees the people working in that area and helps to mentor the artists)
Artists (These are the people doing the actual hands on work)
Related links:
VFX Producer
VFX Supervisor
Visual Effects Positions
Bad Visual Effects Business Practices
Monday, December 17, 2007
Close Encounters Book
There's a new book on Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This was the first film I worked on and the author covers the behind the scenes, including the visual effects. I still have to get around to covering some of the vfx on this blog, including the cloud tank but he's got most of it covered.
[My cloud tank effect posting describes how we created the clouds in Close Encounters]
Close Encounters VFX Video 1
Close Encounters VFX Video 2
[My cloud tank effect posting describes how we created the clouds in Close Encounters]
Close Encounters VFX Video 1
Close Encounters VFX Video 2
VFX Supervisor article in Variety
Click on the post title to go to an article in Variety about visual effects supervisors. Some productions are catching on.
Here's the link if you have trouble:
http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_article/VR1117977459.html?nav=news&categoryid=1985&cs=1
link
Searching for VFX supervisor may bring you to this page but a more in-depth article is here.
Here's the link if you have trouble:
http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_article/VR1117977459.html?nav=news&categoryid=1985&cs=1
link
Searching for VFX supervisor may bring you to this page but a more in-depth article is here.
Visual Effects in India
NPR did a story on vfx animation in India last week. Click on the Post Title above to go to the article or use the link below.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17103636
There's text and a 7 1/2 minute audio interview primarily focused on Rhythm & Hues's group in Mumbai.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17103636
There's text and a 7 1/2 minute audio interview primarily focused on Rhythm & Hues's group in Mumbai.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Audio Reminder
This is just a reminder for those who subscribe to the audio feed to check out the latest articles posted here.
http://www.effectscorner.com is the base address that links to this blog.
I have a few other articles in progress as well as outlines for some video blogs. We'll see how much free time I have available.
I also sould mention I've made a few additions and changes to the links on the lower right and added a few items to the stores for crew gear.
http://www.effectscorner.com is the base address that links to this blog.
I have a few other articles in progress as well as outlines for some video blogs. We'll see how much free time I have available.
I also sould mention I've made a few additions and changes to the links on the lower right and added a few items to the stores for crew gear.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Comparisons
When you go to an eye doctor he asks you to compare two different lens choices. “Is this better or this better?” Step by step he refines the specific lenses that you need. The visual effects artist goes through similar comparisons to arrive at the final shot. They compare their shot to real references, they compare the shot to surrounding shots and they compare of changes while they work on a shot.
If you don’t have any reference to compare you may drift off course and end up with something that doesn’t work
Real References
During each step in the process the VFX artist should be comparing their work with any real references from the original shoot or research references (stills, video). What needs to be done to match this reference? Does the creature move like the real creature reference? Does the lighting match reference photos?
Sequences
You also want to be able to reference your shot in comparison to others in the sequence. Cut the shot into the sequence and view in context. Does it match the other VFX shots? Does it match the live action shots?
Color
For color balancing, film clips are sometimes filmed out as a wedge. These show a range of color and brightness values and will be used for digital color balance reference. The DP or supervisor may make a selection to use as a guide for a sequence. This is similar to doing color variations in Photoshop. What looks good by itself may not look like the best choice when you can compare it to other variations.
Within the Shot
In the pre-digital days the visual effects artist would create wedges and shoot film tests. These might be checking settings, changes, exposure, and focus or animation tests. It’s still done for miniatures and other photographic effects.
With digital effects you have the advantage of saving multiple versions, undoing/redoing and seeing the results instantly in many cases. The VFX artist takes advantage of this by experimenting and refining. If you add a filter or element you can toggle it on and off to see the result even on a single frame. This would be like the Preview button in the filter dialog within Photoshop or the layer visibility. You also have the option to Undo/Redo to compare any change you just made.
Depending on the software you can load in a previous version or take a snapshot and do the comparison. Some software allows you to do a split-screen to compare 2 versions of an image within one image.
All of this allows the VFX artist to refine their work and make choices.
Changes
When a director or supervisor asks for changes it’s important to make large enough changes so it’s evident looking at the shot. Many artists will make minimal changes and slowly build up to the desired look, take after take. Unfortunately this wastes quite a bit of time. Comparisons are good for you but if it’s not possible for the director to tell the difference without seeing them side by side then it’s not a large enough change.
It’s best to make large steps, which ideally includes going too far. If you had to blur something instead of going by single pixel increments for ten images, it would be better to go by 10 pixel increments. By coming up with an image that goes too far (this could be color, speed of animation. filter, etc), it will allow you to know the range to work in and get a better idea of what the director wants.
A typical phrase in VFX is to “split the difference”. (ILM even had a comic poster of this). This is likely when you’ve gone too far but the previous version or another test didn’t go far enough. In this case split the difference is a way of balancing those two. From that result you might need to split the difference yet again. This is actually a fast way to hone in on the desired look and uses the same algorithm as some computer sorting routines. As you proceed with these adjustments you’ll be comparing the previous versions. If you get to the point where you can’t see the difference without doing a split then you’ve hit the point of diminishing returns.
If you don’t have any reference to compare you may drift off course and end up with something that doesn’t work
Real References
During each step in the process the VFX artist should be comparing their work with any real references from the original shoot or research references (stills, video). What needs to be done to match this reference? Does the creature move like the real creature reference? Does the lighting match reference photos?
Sequences
You also want to be able to reference your shot in comparison to others in the sequence. Cut the shot into the sequence and view in context. Does it match the other VFX shots? Does it match the live action shots?
Color
For color balancing, film clips are sometimes filmed out as a wedge. These show a range of color and brightness values and will be used for digital color balance reference. The DP or supervisor may make a selection to use as a guide for a sequence. This is similar to doing color variations in Photoshop. What looks good by itself may not look like the best choice when you can compare it to other variations.
Within the Shot
In the pre-digital days the visual effects artist would create wedges and shoot film tests. These might be checking settings, changes, exposure, and focus or animation tests. It’s still done for miniatures and other photographic effects.
With digital effects you have the advantage of saving multiple versions, undoing/redoing and seeing the results instantly in many cases. The VFX artist takes advantage of this by experimenting and refining. If you add a filter or element you can toggle it on and off to see the result even on a single frame. This would be like the Preview button in the filter dialog within Photoshop or the layer visibility. You also have the option to Undo/Redo to compare any change you just made.
Depending on the software you can load in a previous version or take a snapshot and do the comparison. Some software allows you to do a split-screen to compare 2 versions of an image within one image.
All of this allows the VFX artist to refine their work and make choices.
Changes
When a director or supervisor asks for changes it’s important to make large enough changes so it’s evident looking at the shot. Many artists will make minimal changes and slowly build up to the desired look, take after take. Unfortunately this wastes quite a bit of time. Comparisons are good for you but if it’s not possible for the director to tell the difference without seeing them side by side then it’s not a large enough change.
It’s best to make large steps, which ideally includes going too far. If you had to blur something instead of going by single pixel increments for ten images, it would be better to go by 10 pixel increments. By coming up with an image that goes too far (this could be color, speed of animation. filter, etc), it will allow you to know the range to work in and get a better idea of what the director wants.
A typical phrase in VFX is to “split the difference”. (ILM even had a comic poster of this). This is likely when you’ve gone too far but the previous version or another test didn’t go far enough. In this case split the difference is a way of balancing those two. From that result you might need to split the difference yet again. This is actually a fast way to hone in on the desired look and uses the same algorithm as some computer sorting routines. As you proceed with these adjustments you’ll be comparing the previous versions. If you get to the point where you can’t see the difference without doing a split then you’ve hit the point of diminishing returns.
Friday, November 23, 2007
LA Shows - Matte Painting, Illustrations
The Academy is having a couple of events in the next 2 or 3 weeks of interest.
Motion Picture Illustrators exhibit in their gallery until Dec 16.
Matte Painting show by Craig Barron Dec 10 at the Linwood Dunn Theater. $5 There will also be exhibits in that lobby.
Click on links for more details.
Motion Picture Illustrators exhibit in their gallery until Dec 16.
Matte Painting show by Craig Barron Dec 10 at the Linwood Dunn Theater. $5 There will also be exhibits in that lobby.
Click on links for more details.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Mac Widget for Effects Corner
Click the link of the title and download a Widget for the Mac to display the highlights of the last 10 postings here. Click on the article title in the widget and it takes you to the page.
Photo Real and Realism in Visual Effects
At the start of most projects every director requests their shots be photo real
What does Photo Real mean? Are realistic vfx shots a lot more difficult than fantasy shots?
Photo Real means to create a shot that looks as real or true to life as it possibly can. It can mean that the visual effect is so totally convincing that the audience doesn’t see it. Another term for this is Invisible effects.
The lighting, textures, detail and compositing try to mimic a scene that the audience will think is real. To do this the visual effects supervisor shoots as much reference as possible when shooting the plates (live action footage that will be augmented or modified with visual effects). This may mean filmining a physical prop in the same lighting and setup. The clock in The Mask and a piece of fur for Van Helsing were photographed for the TDs (Technical Directors) to use as a look and lighting reference.
As much information is recorded at the time of photography as possible. This includes lighting diagrams, measurements of the set, camera and lens information as well as filming of the chrome and gray spheres.
All the vfx artists that work on the shot will have access to that material and be able to use it directly as well as to use it as a comparison. From this they try to create and integrate the images as much as possible.
The visual effects animator may film or obtain reference footage of people or animals moving to use as a guide, even if it’s a fictional creature.
The trouble is you may not even be creating a shot that will ever be believed.
No matter how well the animator, TD and compositor do their job if the script calls for a pink feathered whale in the sky it still won’t be considered Photo Real by the audience. There’s nothing wrong with creating shots like this since that’s the requirements for the film. The vfx artists try to add as much of real life as they can into shots like this to give it a more solid foundation. This may mean moving the whale slowly and adding in a haze layer to set the scale.
This leads to our second question regarding the difficulty of creating realistic effects.
There’s the impression that realistic effects are very difficult and much harder than shots dealing with fantasy or science fiction. Yes, realistic effects are difficult when you’re trying to create something very complex such as a held close-up of a human, moving cloth or flowing hair. But the difficulties of a shot are usually more dependent on the specific shot and less on the context of the content.
Let’s consider an effects shot: a man on crutches coming toward camera and is missing one leg. The audience will easily accept the man missing part of his leg, especially if it’s an unknown actor. The audience knows this could be real and doesn’t require a suspension of disbelief. Now consider the same shot but instead of missing the leg this man is missing his head. The headless man however doesn’t exist in real life so the audience instantly knows it not real. It will be in the back of their minds no matter how well the vfx are done. A large part of the reality of a shot is based on the perception from the viewer. From a difficulty level these are similar and use the same techniques. The headless man is probably more difficult because you have to create and track the inside of the collar.
Suspension of disbelief plays a large role in film. To some degree everything is a bit unreal in film. The basic story is a fabrication and the dialogue is hand crafted. The director of photography doesn’t necessarily match real life. He lights it to go for a specific style and to make it cinematic. Note that this can be a real problem when you’re trying to match greenscreen people with real outdoor backgrounds). Stunt people rig ramps to make cars spiral in mid-air. Not necessarily real, but certainly visually exciting (cinematic). This is the same thing with the winged spaceships and hearing explosions in the Star Wars films. Not real but cinematic.
Hopefully the story will keep the audience engaged and there will be nothing to force the audience to fixate on the effect. Anytime you give the audience a reason to suspect something, they will find it. You could have a real shot and if the audience thinks something has been added they’ll happily point out several things that are wrong with the shot. A real shot can seem fake under the certain circumstances.
People think since something exists and they know what it looks like they could certainly judge the quality. The reality is most of these effects when correctly deigned pass by audience members unless they’re very poorly done or there’s something to arouse their suspicion.
If you have a matte painting of a stylized or haunted house and center it in frame as the only thing in the shot then it’s going to be suspect. If you add a matte painting of a normal house to fill in a vacant lot on a street and then have the actors in the foreground the audience is unlikely to think about the matte painted house, especially if it doesn’t play a promenant role. Most people think a matte painting has to be super detailed but the primary issue with matte paintings is to get the lighting and perspective right.
The advantage of creating something real is you have reference of the real object or creature to constantly compare to while working on the shot. It may take a lot work to get your CG model or other items to match the real thing but you always know how close your are and where it falls short.
With imaginary shots there are frequently doubts and changes to the design since you don’t have anything to compare to. Some people think the creature should move it’s arms in one way and another group thinks it should move them in a different way. The director may switch his/her thoughts as well. A real reference gives everyone something to lock into.
If you recreate one of the NASA rocket shots now you have reference to the original material and people will accept it. They may know that you created it but it won’t remove them from the movie. If you showed the same footage 50 years ago people wouldn’t accept it as real since they had nothing to relate to.
Old movies had shots done on stage sets that were supposed to be outside. People in cars were placed in front of a rear projection screens. By today’s standards those shots don’t hold up as well because we have a different level of realism in films. It’s not that people at that time thought they were real, it’s that they accepted it much as a theater audience accepts a stage play in front of single sheet sets.
This also applies to camera moves. If you move around a model like a helicopter then the audience will accept it more than if it’s totally static from 1000 feet up or if it moves a mile in 2 seconds. The director may have wanted a photo real effect but in the effort to spice it up by moving the camera faster and further than it could in real life, you destroy the illusion of reality you had created. If you zoom out to space and then back down thousands of miles away like on Google earth then that a style decision but not one that will help the feeling of realism.
The ‘though the engine’ shots in Fast and Furious or the slit-scan shots from 2001 are pure stylized shots. They may have had a high tolerance as to what they looked like but they would still require a fair bit of effort to make work.
Some directors want to try to convince the audience that something is real by focusing on the effect and doing what they can to show it off. In the headless man shot they want the camera to fly around the man and then down through the collar to prove that there’s nothing there. This is like the magician that moves the hoops over the levitated assistant floating over the floor. But the difference is most of the time the visual effects are used to tell the story. By trying to convince the audience the shot may actually come across as more fake.
In summary, the vfx artist tries to make every shot as real as possible. In some cases that may not be possible due to the subject matter itself and in other cases may just be a style choice. Creating invisible effects is usually more dependent on the subject matter and the design of the shot than the execution difficulty.
What does Photo Real mean? Are realistic vfx shots a lot more difficult than fantasy shots?
Photo Real means to create a shot that looks as real or true to life as it possibly can. It can mean that the visual effect is so totally convincing that the audience doesn’t see it. Another term for this is Invisible effects.
The lighting, textures, detail and compositing try to mimic a scene that the audience will think is real. To do this the visual effects supervisor shoots as much reference as possible when shooting the plates (live action footage that will be augmented or modified with visual effects). This may mean filmining a physical prop in the same lighting and setup. The clock in The Mask and a piece of fur for Van Helsing were photographed for the TDs (Technical Directors) to use as a look and lighting reference.
As much information is recorded at the time of photography as possible. This includes lighting diagrams, measurements of the set, camera and lens information as well as filming of the chrome and gray spheres.
All the vfx artists that work on the shot will have access to that material and be able to use it directly as well as to use it as a comparison. From this they try to create and integrate the images as much as possible.
The visual effects animator may film or obtain reference footage of people or animals moving to use as a guide, even if it’s a fictional creature.
The trouble is you may not even be creating a shot that will ever be believed.
No matter how well the animator, TD and compositor do their job if the script calls for a pink feathered whale in the sky it still won’t be considered Photo Real by the audience. There’s nothing wrong with creating shots like this since that’s the requirements for the film. The vfx artists try to add as much of real life as they can into shots like this to give it a more solid foundation. This may mean moving the whale slowly and adding in a haze layer to set the scale.
This leads to our second question regarding the difficulty of creating realistic effects.
There’s the impression that realistic effects are very difficult and much harder than shots dealing with fantasy or science fiction. Yes, realistic effects are difficult when you’re trying to create something very complex such as a held close-up of a human, moving cloth or flowing hair. But the difficulties of a shot are usually more dependent on the specific shot and less on the context of the content.
Let’s consider an effects shot: a man on crutches coming toward camera and is missing one leg. The audience will easily accept the man missing part of his leg, especially if it’s an unknown actor. The audience knows this could be real and doesn’t require a suspension of disbelief. Now consider the same shot but instead of missing the leg this man is missing his head. The headless man however doesn’t exist in real life so the audience instantly knows it not real. It will be in the back of their minds no matter how well the vfx are done. A large part of the reality of a shot is based on the perception from the viewer. From a difficulty level these are similar and use the same techniques. The headless man is probably more difficult because you have to create and track the inside of the collar.
Suspension of disbelief plays a large role in film. To some degree everything is a bit unreal in film. The basic story is a fabrication and the dialogue is hand crafted. The director of photography doesn’t necessarily match real life. He lights it to go for a specific style and to make it cinematic. Note that this can be a real problem when you’re trying to match greenscreen people with real outdoor backgrounds). Stunt people rig ramps to make cars spiral in mid-air. Not necessarily real, but certainly visually exciting (cinematic). This is the same thing with the winged spaceships and hearing explosions in the Star Wars films. Not real but cinematic.
Hopefully the story will keep the audience engaged and there will be nothing to force the audience to fixate on the effect. Anytime you give the audience a reason to suspect something, they will find it. You could have a real shot and if the audience thinks something has been added they’ll happily point out several things that are wrong with the shot. A real shot can seem fake under the certain circumstances.
People think since something exists and they know what it looks like they could certainly judge the quality. The reality is most of these effects when correctly deigned pass by audience members unless they’re very poorly done or there’s something to arouse their suspicion.
If you have a matte painting of a stylized or haunted house and center it in frame as the only thing in the shot then it’s going to be suspect. If you add a matte painting of a normal house to fill in a vacant lot on a street and then have the actors in the foreground the audience is unlikely to think about the matte painted house, especially if it doesn’t play a promenant role. Most people think a matte painting has to be super detailed but the primary issue with matte paintings is to get the lighting and perspective right.
The advantage of creating something real is you have reference of the real object or creature to constantly compare to while working on the shot. It may take a lot work to get your CG model or other items to match the real thing but you always know how close your are and where it falls short.
With imaginary shots there are frequently doubts and changes to the design since you don’t have anything to compare to. Some people think the creature should move it’s arms in one way and another group thinks it should move them in a different way. The director may switch his/her thoughts as well. A real reference gives everyone something to lock into.
If you recreate one of the NASA rocket shots now you have reference to the original material and people will accept it. They may know that you created it but it won’t remove them from the movie. If you showed the same footage 50 years ago people wouldn’t accept it as real since they had nothing to relate to.
Old movies had shots done on stage sets that were supposed to be outside. People in cars were placed in front of a rear projection screens. By today’s standards those shots don’t hold up as well because we have a different level of realism in films. It’s not that people at that time thought they were real, it’s that they accepted it much as a theater audience accepts a stage play in front of single sheet sets.
This also applies to camera moves. If you move around a model like a helicopter then the audience will accept it more than if it’s totally static from 1000 feet up or if it moves a mile in 2 seconds. The director may have wanted a photo real effect but in the effort to spice it up by moving the camera faster and further than it could in real life, you destroy the illusion of reality you had created. If you zoom out to space and then back down thousands of miles away like on Google earth then that a style decision but not one that will help the feeling of realism.
The ‘though the engine’ shots in Fast and Furious or the slit-scan shots from 2001 are pure stylized shots. They may have had a high tolerance as to what they looked like but they would still require a fair bit of effort to make work.
Some directors want to try to convince the audience that something is real by focusing on the effect and doing what they can to show it off. In the headless man shot they want the camera to fly around the man and then down through the collar to prove that there’s nothing there. This is like the magician that moves the hoops over the levitated assistant floating over the floor. But the difference is most of the time the visual effects are used to tell the story. By trying to convince the audience the shot may actually come across as more fake.
In summary, the vfx artist tries to make every shot as real as possible. In some cases that may not be possible due to the subject matter itself and in other cases may just be a style choice. Creating invisible effects is usually more dependent on the subject matter and the design of the shot than the execution difficulty.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Visual Effects Society
Just a reminder to check out the Visual Effects Society (VES) sometime. If you're a professional with 5 years or more experience then you can qualify for membership. They have member inductions twice a year. There are now additional sections in London, Vancouver and San Francisco area.
Students and others interested in visual effects might want to check for events in your area. There are presentations and other events during the year.
If you're a student in the L.A. area then check into the mentoring program. I and a few others spoke to a group of students last weekend.
There's also the VES award submission coming up in 2 or 3 weeks. More details here: http://vesawards.com/
Students and others interested in visual effects might want to check for events in your area. There are presentations and other events during the year.
If you're a student in the L.A. area then check into the mentoring program. I and a few others spoke to a group of students last weekend.
There's also the VES award submission coming up in 2 or 3 weeks. More details here: http://vesawards.com/
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Budgeting VFX
Budgeting VFX
I covered some of the basics of this in the post/podcast Bidding and Preproduction
I’ll be going into more detail in this posting.
As previously discussed budgeting visual effects can be very difficult. You have the possible issues of developing new looks and techniques. How long will this take and how many people? Add to this mix the director’s creative changes that happen on any film project. Should you calculate 2 takes? 5 takes?
I’ll be discussing feature films here. Budgeting is somewhat the same for television or commercials with a few key differences. Television shows may have a small permanent staff (or at least an assigned vfx company) if they’re vfx heavy. They also tend to have very little time or budget. There’s usually no time for storyboards in television. In many cases they’re told what has been budgeted for the effects and have to work within that. On a commercial much of the final work may be done on a Flame™ or similar system. These are expensive high-end systems where the client sits in the room and guides the artists to achieve the effect they want. Note that feature films use Flames and other equipment as needed where the vfx supervisor is the client. For high-end 3D work it may go through a similar pipeline as a feature film but with a smaller team. The budget and post time for visual effects on a commercial can be much higher on a per second basis than a feature film since a commercial is only 30-60 seconds in length. Commercials have detailed storyboards and may have previs because they use it as a selling tool to the final client. Both commercials and television used to be primarily done at standard television resolution (which made it a bit faster and easier than feature films) but with the advent of High Definition they’re now done at resolution at or close to film resolution.
The average Hollywood feature film is now approximately $100 million. A VFX film can run even higher. For a ‘visual effects’ feature film the vfx budget can be 1/5 to ½ of the total film budget so it’s critical to get the budget done correctly.
Why are visual effects so expensive? VFX are very time and labor intensive. A large project may take 200 people to work on over the course of several months or a year.
The first step in the process is someone at the studio plugs in a guestimate for the VFX. Years ago a producer with minimal vfx experience might pencil in a budget that was an order of magnitude off. These days most of the large studios have a VFX head in charge of budgeting and assigning the work.
Initially the script is broken down by the VFX producer on the film (likely with a supervisor involved) or it may be done by a VFX company’s producer and supervisor. A rough count of the number of estimated vfx shots is created based on the script text only. Note that even if production has done scene numbering these don’t break down into the specific shots, which is what’s required to budget the vfx. Shots may be designated as hard, medium and easy to allow setting an approximate cost for each shot or as a quicker process an average cost may be assigned to all shots. A studio film usually has an average shot cost in the $10,000-60,000 range. Low budget projects may have $1000 or less per shot.
These ballpark estimates are submitted to the studio to evaluate. The VFX company may meet with the director and the team to refine the bid further by dropping potential vfx shots that they expect to do with stunts or clarifying some of the planned shots.
During the pre-production phase the director works with artists to create storyboards and/or previs animation. These resources will be used to create more accurate bids. The production or studio VFX head will submit a package to any VFX companies bidding on the work along with parameters. Parameters might include average length of shot (typically 5-8 seconds), handles (4-16 frames on each end of the editor’s cut shot to allow some adjustment), delivery dates, delivery formats (film, digital, both), temp screening dates, etc. Each shot may also include specifics or assumptions. Due to times constraints sequence bids may be worked on as soon as storyboards for that sequence are done.
In some cases the studio employs a company or multiple companies to do some concept work and/or some R&D. The studio may require this before proceeding to the next level and to make sure the look and approach is what they want.
With storyboards and information in hand the visual effects supervisor determines the best methodology. He/she works with the vfx producer and the team (lead compositor, lead TD, CG supervisor, etc) to review the approach. If it’s an animation heavy production there’s likely an animation supervisor as well. Each shot is then broken down into detail regarding the amount of time required for each task. Ideally this involves all key personnel but could also be done by the producer and supervisor if they feel they have an accurate idea.
The animation supervisor may review the shot and determine it will take 8 days for an animator. The CG supervisor may think it will take 5 days for a technical director (TD) to light the scene and work out the look. Estimates are made for composting, rotoscoping, paint work, specialized modeling, matte painting, simulations, dirt removal, etc. Each of these goes into an Excel spreadsheet the vfx producer has. Modeling (CG or practical) is budgeted (and required texture maps or paint work) along with R&D. When you’re doing hundreds of shots this process can take days.
All of these estimates are based on actual experience and gut feelings. The complexity and difficulty of the shot is taken into account. A company that’s been operating for some time should have averages from other shows to refer to (although they seldom do refer to them). Of course all of these estimates have to take into account some changes and doing multiple takes. Some companies bid the lowest possible number (as if everything were perfect and there would be no changes) to get the show and then force production to have change orders for every change, big or small. This just creates a very awkward and painful process for all involved. It’s always best to consider some time for reasonable adjustments or changes. If the VFX team has worked with a director or given studio before they make some adjustments to the estimates based on number of changes on the last production.
The biggest danger in creating the estimates is being too optimistic. Your first impulse is to say that it can’t possibly take that long to do that shot. It’s just a simple blue screen, etc. This is especially true since the person making the estimates is likely an expert and can do the shot quickly. The reality is there are no simple shots, the original plates won’t be as good as you’d hope, there will be changes, etc. You also have to take into account the average person working in that position at that company. The range of quality and speed between employees can be vast. One person might be able to do something in a day and another will take a week.
In some cases the vfx producer and supervisor may modify or pad the budgeted shot. This can be tricky and is best to be discussed at the time of the group budgeting. If the producer feels a certain task is under bid then that should be brought up. The danger is if the estimates are modified after the fact then the person who provided the initial bid may be held responsible for it, even though it was changed for more or less afterwards. If you’re bidding a show I suggest always keeping your own notes if there a discrepancy months down the road. The other issue is if the producer pads the bid and the people originally providing the estimate are padding their estimates you end up with a double padded bid. This may mean you lose the project.
When planning a show the producer and supervisor try to cast the show much as a director casts actors. Who are the best people available for the different tasks and different leads? Is there an animator that would be perfect for a specific character or a modeler that is great at the organic modeling required? Unfortunately schedules and any other shows may prevent the flexibility of having a choice in all of this. It’s not unusually for modelers to be tied up on another company project. This delay in getting the models started ripples through the entire production causing more overtime. All of this needs to be taken into account internally at the company.
The vfx producer calculates the cost of the shot based on the time estimates and the average cost for that type of person at that company. That rate will likely include not only the employee’s salary but also their related expenses such as health insurance and pension. Note that most vfx artist work more than 8 hour days so the overtime has to be taken into account for the estimated. Some companies include in these time estimates the entire overhead and profit margin. In some cases they may fold in the R&D costs or the model costs. If a 10 shot sequence has a $100,000 model budget then they will add $10,000 to each shot in the sequence.
The cleanest and best process though is to keep these costs separate. If you include a lot of extra costs in the time budget then things get very wacky as changes are made. In the example above if the 10 shot sequence is cut down to 1 shot then you only have 1/10 the model costs. If the sequence is dropped before it’s started but after the model is built then you have to find out how you can cover the price of the model somewhere else. If a 100 shots are added that doesn’t necessarily mean all your overhead goes up dramatically. Likewise if production requires a lot of overtime work at the end of the production then those calculations will be out of line.
Overhead includes all the labor and materials not directly related to a shot or that can specially broken down into shots. The basic staff of production assistants, coordinators, vfx producer, vfx supervisor, etc. are all part of the overhead. The cost of the computers, software, sales people, human resources etc. need to be included as well. The time the vfx artist spend in meetings or general prepping (getting the pipeline worked out) also fall under this category. The amount of down time when the company keeps people on payroll without a project has to be incorporated as well.
An estimate is also calculated for plate photography which will have a vfx supervisor and possibly a small team of matchmovers or coordinators.
A percentage will be added to the project to cover profits. Contrary to studio belief the markup for visual effects is not astronomical. (i.e. not as much as most retail)
If you’re a freelancer or a new, small shop, try to do the work on a time and materials basis if possible. You’ll have to provide a basic estimate but if the director or the vfx company that’s contracting you changes anything you won’t be forced to cover the change costs yourself. First time freelancers make the mistake of charging what they were being paid working for another company. The problem is none of their overhead is included such as health insurance, computer and software expenses. You’re also assuming you’ll be working full time which won’t be the case for most freelancers.
The vfx producer has to lay out the linear time required to do the work. If you have 15 TD’s and it will take 20 weeks of work but production only has 12 weeks of post then there has to be some adjustment. Either more people need to be brought on, more overtime is added in or the number of shots the company can do must be limited. As mentioned if there are other productions at the company the resource allocation (for both people and computers) can be a real problem if a production adds or drops a 100 or 200 shots on a project (not that unusual unfortunately).
Visual Effects are usually feast or famine. Either there are too many projects and a company will have to turn down work or there’s not enough work and the company has to do what they can to get the project. In some cases the company may choose to bid the project at their cost (no profit) or even as a loss. The smarter companies know that if they have to lay people off it will cost them a lot to rehire people and bring them up to speed with their internal systems.
In the end the vfx company provides a cost for each shot (not broken into each task) along with an overhead budget, model budget and R&D budget. Any assumptions the bidding team made should be spelled out clearly for each sequence and each shot. (The car will be a stunt car, the fire will be provided by the onset special effects crew, etc) In commercials there are standardized bidding forms but there’s no standard in visual effects for features. The studio will likely add up all the costs and divide by the number of shots to get an average shot cost. They can use this as a rough comparison with other bids as well as to help ballpark additions or deletions of shots. Of course the studio is likely to ask the vfx company to sharpen their pencils and provide ‘better’ numbers and they may ask the director to cut shots or elimatinate a sequence based on budget considerations.
Do not be surprised if you’re asked to do this process a dozen times by the studio. Storyboards and concepts change which require a re-bid. Bidding occupies a large amount of the pre-production time.
Multiple vfx companies bid on the work. The vfx producer for the show may choose specific companies to bid on specific sequences. If a company has a specialty (such as matte painting) they may only bid on those shots. The studio may have a list of companies they’re willing to work with that the vfx producer has to use.
After the bidding has settled down the studio will award the show to a company or companies. In some cases the studio makes the decision based purely on cost and in other cases the cost only plays a small role in the selection. The quality of work, past experiences of the studio and the ability to accommodate many more shots are all taken into account.
At this point the studio and the companies work out their contracts. In some cases the contracts may not be official until the end of production but of course the best approach is to get it locked into before production. Note that the contract may lock in a specific bid even though additional changes and storyboards arrive after that time. It’s critical to have an experienced entertainment lawyer review the contract since the studios have teams of lawyers who specialize in this. You need to make sure everyone is on the same page with regard to the assumptions and delivery schedules. You also need to be clear about the payment schedule. Some are done by weekly allotment and others are done when hitting milestones (per shot or by major sequences)
During production the supervisor and producer flag the studio when changes or additions are made that might affect the budget. Note that the movie release date will not change so the only way to handle additions is to add more people, more overtime or additional companies.
Once the film is shot and there is a rough edit that can be turned over, the vfx company will likely review the bid and compare it to what they actually have in hand. Quite a few things can change from the plan to the final result and this is a final reality check before the work begins.
Hand in hand with the budget is the schedule. A preliminary schedule is made when the budgets are done. There is usually a schedule for turnovers. This is where production (director and editor) gives an edited sequence to the vfx company. If the turnovers happen later than planned (a frequent occurrence) then the entire schedule and budget may be affected. Time is money as they say. Also the finals date (when all shots are supposed to be done) may vary a bit but it’s very unusual for a release date for a movie to change. If it does change, it may be for the worse (i.e. earlier)
In scheduling the work each step of the process is taken into account. The vfx editor will have to provide negative numbers, the film needs to be scanned, then the matchmoving (or layout) will need to be done. Next the animator starts, then the TD and then the compositor. These last three overlap a lot or a little depending on the shot and pipeline. Most people are working on 2 or 3 shots at a time. Even though a shot may be budgeted as 2 weeks it may take 3 or 4 weeks to complete since there will down time while waiting for feedback from the director or while other changes are made. In some cases a shot may have to be put on hold for a month or more while a change is made or until additional elements are shot.
Ideally each task for each shot is tracked either by timecards or by a database. If they’re not tracked it becomes difficult to determine how much progress is being made relative to the schedule and budget since linear time and budgeted time are different. If the work isn’t monitored you may not realize how over budget or over schedule you are until the last phase of the show when it’s too late.
The poorest process is for the vfx producer to say we’re $5000 over budget on a specific shot or to dump an inch thick document of raw figures on the desk of the supervisor. At that point the shot is already in the red and you’ll have to spend time figuring out what that amount means (which task is causing the problem, is the dollar amount with markup, etc). The best process is to monitor the shots and flag them as they reach critical stages (50% done on a task, shot to be completed that week, etc). As an example: If the composite time is already 75% used up and there’s a lot more work to be done then the supervisor may want to review the shot with the compositor and determine if there’s anything that could be done to simplify or complete the work in the budgeted time. There may be another 200 similar shots yet to do so if there’s a major flaw in the approach then it should be modified or discussed with production.
Dailies are held everyday to review the work in progress. The team creates weekly targets for which shots should be completed. These are reviewed and frequently adjustments have to be made. A shot that was scheduled to finish that week has to be pushed to the following week because the director kicked it back or because there were larger problems than planned. As production nears the finals date the weekly reviews become daily reviews. Don’t wait until the last minute to alert the film production company if there are scheduling issues.
If there is a crunch time at the end of production then the costs will start to skyrocket with overtime and other rush charges.
Related posts
Getting the most out of your VFX Budget
VFX Wages
Why do Visual Effects cost so much?
Related books (In the VES Handbook I cover budgeting similar to this site)
I covered some of the basics of this in the post/podcast Bidding and Preproduction
I’ll be going into more detail in this posting.
As previously discussed budgeting visual effects can be very difficult. You have the possible issues of developing new looks and techniques. How long will this take and how many people? Add to this mix the director’s creative changes that happen on any film project. Should you calculate 2 takes? 5 takes?
I’ll be discussing feature films here. Budgeting is somewhat the same for television or commercials with a few key differences. Television shows may have a small permanent staff (or at least an assigned vfx company) if they’re vfx heavy. They also tend to have very little time or budget. There’s usually no time for storyboards in television. In many cases they’re told what has been budgeted for the effects and have to work within that. On a commercial much of the final work may be done on a Flame™ or similar system. These are expensive high-end systems where the client sits in the room and guides the artists to achieve the effect they want. Note that feature films use Flames and other equipment as needed where the vfx supervisor is the client. For high-end 3D work it may go through a similar pipeline as a feature film but with a smaller team. The budget and post time for visual effects on a commercial can be much higher on a per second basis than a feature film since a commercial is only 30-60 seconds in length. Commercials have detailed storyboards and may have previs because they use it as a selling tool to the final client. Both commercials and television used to be primarily done at standard television resolution (which made it a bit faster and easier than feature films) but with the advent of High Definition they’re now done at resolution at or close to film resolution.
The average Hollywood feature film is now approximately $100 million. A VFX film can run even higher. For a ‘visual effects’ feature film the vfx budget can be 1/5 to ½ of the total film budget so it’s critical to get the budget done correctly.
Why are visual effects so expensive? VFX are very time and labor intensive. A large project may take 200 people to work on over the course of several months or a year.
The first step in the process is someone at the studio plugs in a guestimate for the VFX. Years ago a producer with minimal vfx experience might pencil in a budget that was an order of magnitude off. These days most of the large studios have a VFX head in charge of budgeting and assigning the work.
Initially the script is broken down by the VFX producer on the film (likely with a supervisor involved) or it may be done by a VFX company’s producer and supervisor. A rough count of the number of estimated vfx shots is created based on the script text only. Note that even if production has done scene numbering these don’t break down into the specific shots, which is what’s required to budget the vfx. Shots may be designated as hard, medium and easy to allow setting an approximate cost for each shot or as a quicker process an average cost may be assigned to all shots. A studio film usually has an average shot cost in the $10,000-60,000 range. Low budget projects may have $1000 or less per shot.
These ballpark estimates are submitted to the studio to evaluate. The VFX company may meet with the director and the team to refine the bid further by dropping potential vfx shots that they expect to do with stunts or clarifying some of the planned shots.
During the pre-production phase the director works with artists to create storyboards and/or previs animation. These resources will be used to create more accurate bids. The production or studio VFX head will submit a package to any VFX companies bidding on the work along with parameters. Parameters might include average length of shot (typically 5-8 seconds), handles (4-16 frames on each end of the editor’s cut shot to allow some adjustment), delivery dates, delivery formats (film, digital, both), temp screening dates, etc. Each shot may also include specifics or assumptions. Due to times constraints sequence bids may be worked on as soon as storyboards for that sequence are done.
In some cases the studio employs a company or multiple companies to do some concept work and/or some R&D. The studio may require this before proceeding to the next level and to make sure the look and approach is what they want.
With storyboards and information in hand the visual effects supervisor determines the best methodology. He/she works with the vfx producer and the team (lead compositor, lead TD, CG supervisor, etc) to review the approach. If it’s an animation heavy production there’s likely an animation supervisor as well. Each shot is then broken down into detail regarding the amount of time required for each task. Ideally this involves all key personnel but could also be done by the producer and supervisor if they feel they have an accurate idea.
The animation supervisor may review the shot and determine it will take 8 days for an animator. The CG supervisor may think it will take 5 days for a technical director (TD) to light the scene and work out the look. Estimates are made for composting, rotoscoping, paint work, specialized modeling, matte painting, simulations, dirt removal, etc. Each of these goes into an Excel spreadsheet the vfx producer has. Modeling (CG or practical) is budgeted (and required texture maps or paint work) along with R&D. When you’re doing hundreds of shots this process can take days.
All of these estimates are based on actual experience and gut feelings. The complexity and difficulty of the shot is taken into account. A company that’s been operating for some time should have averages from other shows to refer to (although they seldom do refer to them). Of course all of these estimates have to take into account some changes and doing multiple takes. Some companies bid the lowest possible number (as if everything were perfect and there would be no changes) to get the show and then force production to have change orders for every change, big or small. This just creates a very awkward and painful process for all involved. It’s always best to consider some time for reasonable adjustments or changes. If the VFX team has worked with a director or given studio before they make some adjustments to the estimates based on number of changes on the last production.
The biggest danger in creating the estimates is being too optimistic. Your first impulse is to say that it can’t possibly take that long to do that shot. It’s just a simple blue screen, etc. This is especially true since the person making the estimates is likely an expert and can do the shot quickly. The reality is there are no simple shots, the original plates won’t be as good as you’d hope, there will be changes, etc. You also have to take into account the average person working in that position at that company. The range of quality and speed between employees can be vast. One person might be able to do something in a day and another will take a week.
In some cases the vfx producer and supervisor may modify or pad the budgeted shot. This can be tricky and is best to be discussed at the time of the group budgeting. If the producer feels a certain task is under bid then that should be brought up. The danger is if the estimates are modified after the fact then the person who provided the initial bid may be held responsible for it, even though it was changed for more or less afterwards. If you’re bidding a show I suggest always keeping your own notes if there a discrepancy months down the road. The other issue is if the producer pads the bid and the people originally providing the estimate are padding their estimates you end up with a double padded bid. This may mean you lose the project.
When planning a show the producer and supervisor try to cast the show much as a director casts actors. Who are the best people available for the different tasks and different leads? Is there an animator that would be perfect for a specific character or a modeler that is great at the organic modeling required? Unfortunately schedules and any other shows may prevent the flexibility of having a choice in all of this. It’s not unusually for modelers to be tied up on another company project. This delay in getting the models started ripples through the entire production causing more overtime. All of this needs to be taken into account internally at the company.
The vfx producer calculates the cost of the shot based on the time estimates and the average cost for that type of person at that company. That rate will likely include not only the employee’s salary but also their related expenses such as health insurance and pension. Note that most vfx artist work more than 8 hour days so the overtime has to be taken into account for the estimated. Some companies include in these time estimates the entire overhead and profit margin. In some cases they may fold in the R&D costs or the model costs. If a 10 shot sequence has a $100,000 model budget then they will add $10,000 to each shot in the sequence.
The cleanest and best process though is to keep these costs separate. If you include a lot of extra costs in the time budget then things get very wacky as changes are made. In the example above if the 10 shot sequence is cut down to 1 shot then you only have 1/10 the model costs. If the sequence is dropped before it’s started but after the model is built then you have to find out how you can cover the price of the model somewhere else. If a 100 shots are added that doesn’t necessarily mean all your overhead goes up dramatically. Likewise if production requires a lot of overtime work at the end of the production then those calculations will be out of line.
Overhead includes all the labor and materials not directly related to a shot or that can specially broken down into shots. The basic staff of production assistants, coordinators, vfx producer, vfx supervisor, etc. are all part of the overhead. The cost of the computers, software, sales people, human resources etc. need to be included as well. The time the vfx artist spend in meetings or general prepping (getting the pipeline worked out) also fall under this category. The amount of down time when the company keeps people on payroll without a project has to be incorporated as well.
An estimate is also calculated for plate photography which will have a vfx supervisor and possibly a small team of matchmovers or coordinators.
A percentage will be added to the project to cover profits. Contrary to studio belief the markup for visual effects is not astronomical. (i.e. not as much as most retail)
If you’re a freelancer or a new, small shop, try to do the work on a time and materials basis if possible. You’ll have to provide a basic estimate but if the director or the vfx company that’s contracting you changes anything you won’t be forced to cover the change costs yourself. First time freelancers make the mistake of charging what they were being paid working for another company. The problem is none of their overhead is included such as health insurance, computer and software expenses. You’re also assuming you’ll be working full time which won’t be the case for most freelancers.
The vfx producer has to lay out the linear time required to do the work. If you have 15 TD’s and it will take 20 weeks of work but production only has 12 weeks of post then there has to be some adjustment. Either more people need to be brought on, more overtime is added in or the number of shots the company can do must be limited. As mentioned if there are other productions at the company the resource allocation (for both people and computers) can be a real problem if a production adds or drops a 100 or 200 shots on a project (not that unusual unfortunately).
Visual Effects are usually feast or famine. Either there are too many projects and a company will have to turn down work or there’s not enough work and the company has to do what they can to get the project. In some cases the company may choose to bid the project at their cost (no profit) or even as a loss. The smarter companies know that if they have to lay people off it will cost them a lot to rehire people and bring them up to speed with their internal systems.
In the end the vfx company provides a cost for each shot (not broken into each task) along with an overhead budget, model budget and R&D budget. Any assumptions the bidding team made should be spelled out clearly for each sequence and each shot. (The car will be a stunt car, the fire will be provided by the onset special effects crew, etc) In commercials there are standardized bidding forms but there’s no standard in visual effects for features. The studio will likely add up all the costs and divide by the number of shots to get an average shot cost. They can use this as a rough comparison with other bids as well as to help ballpark additions or deletions of shots. Of course the studio is likely to ask the vfx company to sharpen their pencils and provide ‘better’ numbers and they may ask the director to cut shots or elimatinate a sequence based on budget considerations.
Do not be surprised if you’re asked to do this process a dozen times by the studio. Storyboards and concepts change which require a re-bid. Bidding occupies a large amount of the pre-production time.
Multiple vfx companies bid on the work. The vfx producer for the show may choose specific companies to bid on specific sequences. If a company has a specialty (such as matte painting) they may only bid on those shots. The studio may have a list of companies they’re willing to work with that the vfx producer has to use.
After the bidding has settled down the studio will award the show to a company or companies. In some cases the studio makes the decision based purely on cost and in other cases the cost only plays a small role in the selection. The quality of work, past experiences of the studio and the ability to accommodate many more shots are all taken into account.
At this point the studio and the companies work out their contracts. In some cases the contracts may not be official until the end of production but of course the best approach is to get it locked into before production. Note that the contract may lock in a specific bid even though additional changes and storyboards arrive after that time. It’s critical to have an experienced entertainment lawyer review the contract since the studios have teams of lawyers who specialize in this. You need to make sure everyone is on the same page with regard to the assumptions and delivery schedules. You also need to be clear about the payment schedule. Some are done by weekly allotment and others are done when hitting milestones (per shot or by major sequences)
During production the supervisor and producer flag the studio when changes or additions are made that might affect the budget. Note that the movie release date will not change so the only way to handle additions is to add more people, more overtime or additional companies.
Once the film is shot and there is a rough edit that can be turned over, the vfx company will likely review the bid and compare it to what they actually have in hand. Quite a few things can change from the plan to the final result and this is a final reality check before the work begins.
Hand in hand with the budget is the schedule. A preliminary schedule is made when the budgets are done. There is usually a schedule for turnovers. This is where production (director and editor) gives an edited sequence to the vfx company. If the turnovers happen later than planned (a frequent occurrence) then the entire schedule and budget may be affected. Time is money as they say. Also the finals date (when all shots are supposed to be done) may vary a bit but it’s very unusual for a release date for a movie to change. If it does change, it may be for the worse (i.e. earlier)
In scheduling the work each step of the process is taken into account. The vfx editor will have to provide negative numbers, the film needs to be scanned, then the matchmoving (or layout) will need to be done. Next the animator starts, then the TD and then the compositor. These last three overlap a lot or a little depending on the shot and pipeline. Most people are working on 2 or 3 shots at a time. Even though a shot may be budgeted as 2 weeks it may take 3 or 4 weeks to complete since there will down time while waiting for feedback from the director or while other changes are made. In some cases a shot may have to be put on hold for a month or more while a change is made or until additional elements are shot.
Ideally each task for each shot is tracked either by timecards or by a database. If they’re not tracked it becomes difficult to determine how much progress is being made relative to the schedule and budget since linear time and budgeted time are different. If the work isn’t monitored you may not realize how over budget or over schedule you are until the last phase of the show when it’s too late.
The poorest process is for the vfx producer to say we’re $5000 over budget on a specific shot or to dump an inch thick document of raw figures on the desk of the supervisor. At that point the shot is already in the red and you’ll have to spend time figuring out what that amount means (which task is causing the problem, is the dollar amount with markup, etc). The best process is to monitor the shots and flag them as they reach critical stages (50% done on a task, shot to be completed that week, etc). As an example: If the composite time is already 75% used up and there’s a lot more work to be done then the supervisor may want to review the shot with the compositor and determine if there’s anything that could be done to simplify or complete the work in the budgeted time. There may be another 200 similar shots yet to do so if there’s a major flaw in the approach then it should be modified or discussed with production.
Dailies are held everyday to review the work in progress. The team creates weekly targets for which shots should be completed. These are reviewed and frequently adjustments have to be made. A shot that was scheduled to finish that week has to be pushed to the following week because the director kicked it back or because there were larger problems than planned. As production nears the finals date the weekly reviews become daily reviews. Don’t wait until the last minute to alert the film production company if there are scheduling issues.
If there is a crunch time at the end of production then the costs will start to skyrocket with overtime and other rush charges.
Related posts
Getting the most out of your VFX Budget
VFX Wages
Why do Visual Effects cost so much?
Related books (In the VES Handbook I cover budgeting similar to this site)
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Naming conventions and workflow
Naming conventions and workflow.
Since this question has come up a few times I’ll try to address it here. Note that if a company is already up and running chances are they have a workflow in place along with naming conventions. I’ll describe some of the more typical approaches but there are no standards in the industry.
It’s important to try to standardize naming conventions and also directory configurations since you’ll have dozens or even hundreds of files associated with each shot (All the live action pieces such as BlueScreen, background, dust elements, explosions, each model will have multiple files and associated texture maps, each shot will have multiple animation files, shaders, composting scripts, etc) Multiply those by the number of takes or versions and then multiply that by the number of shots in film (hundreds or thousands). That’s a lot of data to manage.
When the initial movie script arrives it usually hasn’t been broken down by production yet so that means when bidding you have to assign shots your own names. Even if the script is broken down it’s only broken down to the scene level. Each scene may have a large number of shots. From a live action standpoint these shot numbers are assigned during shooting and usually relate to the shooting order (i.e. 17A over shoulder, 17B extreme closeup, etc) . This allow the live action side of the project to be organized (script supervisor notes, asst camera slates and camera reports, editorial, etc) But by the time the shooting starts the VFX team has already created storyboards and possibly previs with numbers along with a budget breakdown of each and every shot. These days you may also have a number of pure virtual shots (no live action) such as all CG or pure matte painting shots.
Typical method in VFX is to assign a 2 or 3 letters ID to each sequence that at least might help people to know the sequence. If you had a rocket landing on the moon sequence you might label it RLM (Rocket Lands Moon) (Try to label by the gist of the scene rather than the location since the location may change and you’ll forever have to explain to people what the ID used to mean and how it relates now) From there as you create the storyboards you increment the shot numbers by 10 to allow adding new shots in-between as the director and artist modify the sequences. These are the numbers that are used in the bids and schedules and will hopefully remain through the production.
When shooting the VFX people work with the script supervisor. Somewhat standard is to place a V in front of the slated shot number to note that it’s a visual effects shot. If space on the slate permits the asst cameraman may note the VFX number on the slate as well. The script supervisor and the VFX coordinator keep a running cross reference of the VFX shots names and the live action shot IDs. Note that in editing a shot may be re-used or used for an entirely different shot.
Once a sequence is edited and locked the editorial department provides information on the shots. They used 83B, take 5 for this shot and it starts and ends at specific frames. (Based on keycode on the film or based on the Avid timecode info) If it’s a large show the VFX companies may have their own editors who get a copy of the avid editing bins which they breakdown. The negative (assuming it’s shot on film) will be shipped from the lab to whoever is scanning the film. The VFX editor works with the scanning company regarding the label process. In some cases the VFX company may scan it themselves but now a lot of this work is done by scanning companies.
The digital files are delivered to VFX company by high-speed connections or hard drives or other techniques. Each VFX may re-name them for their internal naming conventions when the files are brought online. Because of the massive amount of data not all shots and elements are ‘online’ at the VFX house. They may be on high-density tape storage or other storage system and brought on by support as needed. There’s usually a whole team of people doing this.
A shot may have the name of rlm0030.cc.dr
The cc might stand for color corrected. Dr might be for dirt removal.
bs might be for bluescreen or they may choose to label the shots a,b,c, etc for each live action element. In addition to standard suffixes for the file themselves (.exr, .cin, .jpg)
each frame will have a number. Numbers may be for a fixed number (4 or 5) of digits (i.e. myshot.0001.jpg, myshot.0002.jpg) or may float (i.e. myshot.1.jpg,myshot.2.jog) Even the idea of leading zero or non-leading zero will make a difference depending on your software.
Most VFX work is done on a frame level rather than passing QuickTimes around. This allows work on frames such as compositing even while other frames are being rendered. It also allows spreading the rendering/compositing over multiple machines and more flexibility in file formats.
As the shot goes through the different stages the complexity grows. Matchmoving (or layout) may need a couple of passes to get their basic animation information correct. That’s take 2 of that file. The animator might be working on take 5 but the Technical Director is rendering take 4 (from the day before) The model may have different version numbers since production may start before the CG models are finalized (or someone (the director, may change it)). It’s possible on take 8 of the final render the director decides he actually liked the animation of take 3 better but with the new lighting and render of take 8. It’s also likely you’ll have multiple people messing with files at the same time (animator, compositor, TD)
This soon turns into a nightmare if you’re not on top of it. The typical approach is to standardize on a directory structure. Details tend to be unique to each company but you may have a shot folder which will hold an animation folder, model alias or reference folder, composite folder, etc. Each of these will have sub-folders of different types of files or work. This directory is then configured on any machines where you may want to spread the work. You may want to render and composite frames 1-100 on computer 1 and 101 -200 on machine 2. Or it may be on a special render farm system. In many cases you’ll be using aliases or pointers to the actual image or data files so they can be in one place. That minimizes having to initially copy over all large files but it does mean they may have to be moved during the render process/composite.
So to deal with all of this type of data each VFX company has written multiple databases and scripts. These may be UNIX script, Python, or a number of scripting languages. Databases can be FileMaker on up full-blown custom code. There are now some off the shelf type of products (or modified off the shelf products). Luckily I personally don’t tend to have to get into the nitty gritty. Some of these problems are similar to programming large projects where you have version control to allow people to access files yet still allow it to lock out people or to merge the differences.
During the course of the day each person works on his specific area and then they submit a request. The TD may run a test frame and calculate the number of process hours required to do the shot. All of these requests are submitted and the CG supervisor may review this list with the producer and the supervisor. Since there may not be enough processors and time (likely the case) they will have to decide what the priorities are supposed to be. Some shots may be on a slow render to be finished in a few days and other shots may need to be done the next day for the director to review. Some shots may opt to be done as plastic renders or without fur just for checking.
The script or software will then distribute the shots across multiple machines and be sure to grab the latest version of the animation and model, etc.
In some cases editorial has scripts to automatically assemble all the new renders into the cut. Additional software may be used to keep track of daily notes from the supervisor and the director.
Individuals or new companies starting out should review their software packages and see what they can import and export in regard to frame numbering. Also review your software to see if and how it handles multiple computer networking. (Whether it’s After Effects or a full rendering package). Keep an eye on the number of characters you can have in a filename. Create scripts and database programs that can deal with this naming and directory structure. Test it out on small test projects.
[Update 12/14/2012
Steve Molin provided a directory recommendation he uses. Steve was a key CG person at ILM, LAIKA, and Image Movers]
from Steve:
Related links:
RaysInBlue Blog has a great set of links on VFX and Animation pipelines
Art of CG Supervision goes into extensive details
Since this question has come up a few times I’ll try to address it here. Note that if a company is already up and running chances are they have a workflow in place along with naming conventions. I’ll describe some of the more typical approaches but there are no standards in the industry.
It’s important to try to standardize naming conventions and also directory configurations since you’ll have dozens or even hundreds of files associated with each shot (All the live action pieces such as BlueScreen, background, dust elements, explosions, each model will have multiple files and associated texture maps, each shot will have multiple animation files, shaders, composting scripts, etc) Multiply those by the number of takes or versions and then multiply that by the number of shots in film (hundreds or thousands). That’s a lot of data to manage.
When the initial movie script arrives it usually hasn’t been broken down by production yet so that means when bidding you have to assign shots your own names. Even if the script is broken down it’s only broken down to the scene level. Each scene may have a large number of shots. From a live action standpoint these shot numbers are assigned during shooting and usually relate to the shooting order (i.e. 17A over shoulder, 17B extreme closeup, etc) . This allow the live action side of the project to be organized (script supervisor notes, asst camera slates and camera reports, editorial, etc) But by the time the shooting starts the VFX team has already created storyboards and possibly previs with numbers along with a budget breakdown of each and every shot. These days you may also have a number of pure virtual shots (no live action) such as all CG or pure matte painting shots.
Typical method in VFX is to assign a 2 or 3 letters ID to each sequence that at least might help people to know the sequence. If you had a rocket landing on the moon sequence you might label it RLM (Rocket Lands Moon) (Try to label by the gist of the scene rather than the location since the location may change and you’ll forever have to explain to people what the ID used to mean and how it relates now) From there as you create the storyboards you increment the shot numbers by 10 to allow adding new shots in-between as the director and artist modify the sequences. These are the numbers that are used in the bids and schedules and will hopefully remain through the production.
When shooting the VFX people work with the script supervisor. Somewhat standard is to place a V in front of the slated shot number to note that it’s a visual effects shot. If space on the slate permits the asst cameraman may note the VFX number on the slate as well. The script supervisor and the VFX coordinator keep a running cross reference of the VFX shots names and the live action shot IDs. Note that in editing a shot may be re-used or used for an entirely different shot.
Once a sequence is edited and locked the editorial department provides information on the shots. They used 83B, take 5 for this shot and it starts and ends at specific frames. (Based on keycode on the film or based on the Avid timecode info) If it’s a large show the VFX companies may have their own editors who get a copy of the avid editing bins which they breakdown. The negative (assuming it’s shot on film) will be shipped from the lab to whoever is scanning the film. The VFX editor works with the scanning company regarding the label process. In some cases the VFX company may scan it themselves but now a lot of this work is done by scanning companies.
The digital files are delivered to VFX company by high-speed connections or hard drives or other techniques. Each VFX may re-name them for their internal naming conventions when the files are brought online. Because of the massive amount of data not all shots and elements are ‘online’ at the VFX house. They may be on high-density tape storage or other storage system and brought on by support as needed. There’s usually a whole team of people doing this.
A shot may have the name of rlm0030.cc.dr
The cc might stand for color corrected. Dr might be for dirt removal.
bs might be for bluescreen or they may choose to label the shots a,b,c, etc for each live action element. In addition to standard suffixes for the file themselves (.exr, .cin, .jpg)
each frame will have a number. Numbers may be for a fixed number (4 or 5) of digits (i.e. myshot.0001.jpg, myshot.0002.jpg) or may float (i.e. myshot.1.jpg,myshot.2.jog) Even the idea of leading zero or non-leading zero will make a difference depending on your software.
Most VFX work is done on a frame level rather than passing QuickTimes around. This allows work on frames such as compositing even while other frames are being rendered. It also allows spreading the rendering/compositing over multiple machines and more flexibility in file formats.
As the shot goes through the different stages the complexity grows. Matchmoving (or layout) may need a couple of passes to get their basic animation information correct. That’s take 2 of that file. The animator might be working on take 5 but the Technical Director is rendering take 4 (from the day before) The model may have different version numbers since production may start before the CG models are finalized (or someone (the director, may change it)). It’s possible on take 8 of the final render the director decides he actually liked the animation of take 3 better but with the new lighting and render of take 8. It’s also likely you’ll have multiple people messing with files at the same time (animator, compositor, TD)
This soon turns into a nightmare if you’re not on top of it. The typical approach is to standardize on a directory structure. Details tend to be unique to each company but you may have a shot folder which will hold an animation folder, model alias or reference folder, composite folder, etc. Each of these will have sub-folders of different types of files or work. This directory is then configured on any machines where you may want to spread the work. You may want to render and composite frames 1-100 on computer 1 and 101 -200 on machine 2. Or it may be on a special render farm system. In many cases you’ll be using aliases or pointers to the actual image or data files so they can be in one place. That minimizes having to initially copy over all large files but it does mean they may have to be moved during the render process/composite.
So to deal with all of this type of data each VFX company has written multiple databases and scripts. These may be UNIX script, Python, or a number of scripting languages. Databases can be FileMaker on up full-blown custom code. There are now some off the shelf type of products (or modified off the shelf products). Luckily I personally don’t tend to have to get into the nitty gritty. Some of these problems are similar to programming large projects where you have version control to allow people to access files yet still allow it to lock out people or to merge the differences.
During the course of the day each person works on his specific area and then they submit a request. The TD may run a test frame and calculate the number of process hours required to do the shot. All of these requests are submitted and the CG supervisor may review this list with the producer and the supervisor. Since there may not be enough processors and time (likely the case) they will have to decide what the priorities are supposed to be. Some shots may be on a slow render to be finished in a few days and other shots may need to be done the next day for the director to review. Some shots may opt to be done as plastic renders or without fur just for checking.
The script or software will then distribute the shots across multiple machines and be sure to grab the latest version of the animation and model, etc.
In some cases editorial has scripts to automatically assemble all the new renders into the cut. Additional software may be used to keep track of daily notes from the supervisor and the director.
Individuals or new companies starting out should review their software packages and see what they can import and export in regard to frame numbering. Also review your software to see if and how it handles multiple computer networking. (Whether it’s After Effects or a full rendering package). Keep an eye on the number of characters you can have in a filename. Create scripts and database programs that can deal with this naming and directory structure. Test it out on small test projects.
[Update 12/14/2012
Steve Molin provided a directory recommendation he uses. Steve was a key CG person at ILM, LAIKA, and Image Movers]
from Steve:
Over the years that computer have been used in creating graphics for film and video, the question has come up time and again: how do we lay out the directories on the hard drive so that we can all work together efficiently. What follows is the way I like to see it done, based on my years in the industry - Steve Molin
$SHOW
assets
$TYPE
$NAME
modeling
rigging
surfacing
mattePainting
shaderDevelopment
sequences
tools
shaders
common (a sequence with data common to all sequences)
$SEQ
$SHOT
common (a shot with data common to shots in this seq)
capture
animation
characterFinaling
lighting
compositing
mattePainting
dynamics (other than charFin, eg dirt, splashes, flames)
rotoscoping
- If a shot ends up with eg two lighters working on it, the second and subsequent would get appended the username, eg light_smolin.
- it is preferable to create directories only when needed to reduce number of empty dirs
- sequences to be named with mnemonic codes, eg rr for raptor rotunda
- shots to be named with sequence and number, eg rr1, rr2 etc. “Count by ten” allowed, eg rr10, rr20 to facilitate insertions if desired.
- development is to occur in developer-specific shotdirs, eg sequences/rr/dev_smolin
- Each of the lowest level would have the same structure, as below:
maya (under here, maya has complete control)
images
source (ie input from another discipline)
reference
renders (ie output from this discipline)
scripts (eg Nuke scripts, Katana scripts … Maya scenes?)
tools (eg Python scripts, compiled binaries)
shaders
curves (eg animation curves)
points (eg point clouds, brick maps)
assets (copies from assets branch, to make shotdirs self-contained)
models
rigs
surfaces
digitmattes
Related links:
RaysInBlue Blog has a great set of links on VFX and Animation pipelines
Art of CG Supervision goes into extensive details
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Filming the Fantastic
I recieved this email the other day from Mark Sawicki along with a notice from the Visual Effects Society. Unfortunately I haven't seen the book yet (looks good on Amazon) and probably won't be able to attend the screening.
----
From Mark Sawicki:
Another reason I'm writing is to let you know of a new book I've written on visual effects called "Filming the Fantastic" published by Focal Press and available through Amazon. (His site is Filming the Fantastic
I thought you might be kind enough to mention it on your site for your viewers who might be interested. It is my attempt to bridge the traditional era and the digital era by way of my varied experiences in the business. I have also been invited to show my film "Twilight Cameraman" at a Visual Effects Society event on July 25th. I did a romantic look back on the craft of the optical cameraman that I hope people will enjoy.
--
Here's the VES notice:
The VES Education/Technology Committee will present a screening and panel discussion looking back at the optical era of visual effects production to bid it a fond (and perhaps thankful) farewell while exploring those traditions and techniques that can still inform and inspire today's digital artists.
The evening begins with a reception before a screening of Mark Sawicki's short film, Twilight Cameraman, Sawicki's ode to the optical effects era shot during his last day on the job at Custom Film Effects as a motion picture optical cameraman.
After the screening, a panel of industry veterans will compare and contrast optical and digital effects pipelines to illustrate how past techniques can illuminate and inform current digital practices.
DATE: Wednesday, July 25, 2007
TIME: Reception: 6:30pm
Presentation: 7:30-9:00pm
LOCATION: Sony Picture Imageworks, Ince Theater 10202 West Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
This event if FREE for VES members and their guests. To RSVP, log onto www.visualeffectssociety.com, enter your username and password, then click "RSVP for Screening & Event." Although we will try to accommodate everyone who RSVPs to this event, this screening will be overbooked to ensure a full house, with admission determined on a first come, first served.
----
From Mark Sawicki:
Another reason I'm writing is to let you know of a new book I've written on visual effects called "Filming the Fantastic" published by Focal Press and available through Amazon. (His site is Filming the Fantastic
I thought you might be kind enough to mention it on your site for your viewers who might be interested. It is my attempt to bridge the traditional era and the digital era by way of my varied experiences in the business. I have also been invited to show my film "Twilight Cameraman" at a Visual Effects Society event on July 25th. I did a romantic look back on the craft of the optical cameraman that I hope people will enjoy.
--
Here's the VES notice:
The VES Education/Technology Committee will present a screening and panel discussion looking back at the optical era of visual effects production to bid it a fond (and perhaps thankful) farewell while exploring those traditions and techniques that can still inform and inspire today's digital artists.
The evening begins with a reception before a screening of Mark Sawicki's short film, Twilight Cameraman, Sawicki's ode to the optical effects era shot during his last day on the job at Custom Film Effects as a motion picture optical cameraman.
After the screening, a panel of industry veterans will compare and contrast optical and digital effects pipelines to illustrate how past techniques can illuminate and inform current digital practices.
DATE: Wednesday, July 25, 2007
TIME: Reception: 6:30pm
Presentation: 7:30-9:00pm
LOCATION: Sony Picture Imageworks, Ince Theater 10202 West Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
This event if FREE for VES members and their guests. To RSVP, log onto www.visualeffectssociety.com, enter your username and password, then click "RSVP for Screening & Event." Although we will try to accommodate everyone who RSVPs to this event, this screening will be overbooked to ensure a full house, with admission determined on a first come, first served.
Friday, June 29, 2007
More on VFX Time Crunch
fxguide
has a follow up to the Variety article on the crushing post-production schedules for visual effects. This was touched on in my Wasting Time post.
The problem here is the studios are making very expensive movies and want to reduce the amount of time they’re paying interest on what is essentially a huge loan. Since they can’t shoot in any less time, especially with a lot of locations and stunts, the burden falls to post-production and primarily to visual effects.
This problem is exacerbated by the fact visual effects are now the fix-it step for the filmmakers. During the course of production it’s now common for those involved to pass their problems off to the visual effects team.
“We don’t have time to move that big crane in the background.”
“Do we have to move that 12 by 12 silk? Can’t you just paint it out?”
Speaking about a large object in the middle of the shot “Would it help if we painted it green?”
“We don’t have the right eye contacts. You’ll have to fix it.”
“We haven’t decided what location this scene plays in so we’ll have to shoot it bluescreen and figure it out later.”
“It’s not working so you guys will have to fix it later. We don’t have time to do fix it now.” (Referring to a stunt, prop or practical special effects)
“You guys can remove the (rain, snow, sun, shadows, etc) right?”
“We can’t afford to do that as planned. (alternate: We don’t have time to do that.) You’ll have to do in post.”
“Isn’t that easy to do? You have computers. It’s got to be a touch of a button now a days.”
“It was never built to do that. You guys will have to make that part move.”
“I know we promised to never to look that way but that’s how it goes.”
“You’ll have to extend the top and bottom of set since they didn’t get the larger stage.”
All of these would be funny if they weren’t real quotes from a shooting set. The VFX supervisor and producer raise the issues (cost, time, quality) frequently onto deaf ears.
Everyone from the production designer to the wig person to the production manager may pass their time or budget limitations to the visual effects people. In the end they come out looking like heroes for finishing on time and budget. Some of the production people even get bonuses for accomplishing this. Unfortunately the buck stops at the door to the visual effects team. There’s no one we can pass the problem on to. Also note that any budget or time savings production gets from doing this is not passed on the visual effects budget. Ultimately it comes out of the same overall budget but for accounting reasons their separate.
Months later when some of production people see the final shots they will have forgotten that they didn’t allow time to shoot that sequence correctly or that you saved their production schedule.
So at this point the visual effects supervisor has to explain to his vfx team and the studio vfx producer they now have another 100-200 shots to do and the pre-planning that was done for some sequences was tossed out and will now have to be done using plates that were shot in the worst conditions. (such as FG bluescreen with fictional lighting and angles to match BG plates done later) Personally I push for less shots done well than a lot of shots done poorly.
As long as the studios make money on the films under compressed time constraints and qulaity isn't the highest thing on the directo's list they will continue to compress the schedules more and more.
It won’t surprise me in the next 2 years if a big tentpole vfx film has to have its release date postponed or to be released with major vfx problems clearly evident to average the audience. And of course the visual effects people will be to blame.
Should the visual effects people be the ones to bare the brunt of the studio money and time issues and be forced to sacrifice their time and family life?
The reason most of us got into visual effects was to create great work and because it was fun. If that’s now boiling down to trying to crank out as much work as possible with lower quality the fun factor will certainly be gone.
has a follow up to the Variety article on the crushing post-production schedules for visual effects. This was touched on in my Wasting Time post.
The problem here is the studios are making very expensive movies and want to reduce the amount of time they’re paying interest on what is essentially a huge loan. Since they can’t shoot in any less time, especially with a lot of locations and stunts, the burden falls to post-production and primarily to visual effects.
This problem is exacerbated by the fact visual effects are now the fix-it step for the filmmakers. During the course of production it’s now common for those involved to pass their problems off to the visual effects team.
“We don’t have time to move that big crane in the background.”
“Do we have to move that 12 by 12 silk? Can’t you just paint it out?”
Speaking about a large object in the middle of the shot “Would it help if we painted it green?”
“We don’t have the right eye contacts. You’ll have to fix it.”
“We haven’t decided what location this scene plays in so we’ll have to shoot it bluescreen and figure it out later.”
“It’s not working so you guys will have to fix it later. We don’t have time to do fix it now.” (Referring to a stunt, prop or practical special effects)
“You guys can remove the (rain, snow, sun, shadows, etc) right?”
“We can’t afford to do that as planned. (alternate: We don’t have time to do that.) You’ll have to do in post.”
“Isn’t that easy to do? You have computers. It’s got to be a touch of a button now a days.”
“It was never built to do that. You guys will have to make that part move.”
“I know we promised to never to look that way but that’s how it goes.”
“You’ll have to extend the top and bottom of set since they didn’t get the larger stage.”
All of these would be funny if they weren’t real quotes from a shooting set. The VFX supervisor and producer raise the issues (cost, time, quality) frequently onto deaf ears.
Everyone from the production designer to the wig person to the production manager may pass their time or budget limitations to the visual effects people. In the end they come out looking like heroes for finishing on time and budget. Some of the production people even get bonuses for accomplishing this. Unfortunately the buck stops at the door to the visual effects team. There’s no one we can pass the problem on to. Also note that any budget or time savings production gets from doing this is not passed on the visual effects budget. Ultimately it comes out of the same overall budget but for accounting reasons their separate.
Months later when some of production people see the final shots they will have forgotten that they didn’t allow time to shoot that sequence correctly or that you saved their production schedule.
So at this point the visual effects supervisor has to explain to his vfx team and the studio vfx producer they now have another 100-200 shots to do and the pre-planning that was done for some sequences was tossed out and will now have to be done using plates that were shot in the worst conditions. (such as FG bluescreen with fictional lighting and angles to match BG plates done later) Personally I push for less shots done well than a lot of shots done poorly.
As long as the studios make money on the films under compressed time constraints and qulaity isn't the highest thing on the directo's list they will continue to compress the schedules more and more.
It won’t surprise me in the next 2 years if a big tentpole vfx film has to have its release date postponed or to be released with major vfx problems clearly evident to average the audience. And of course the visual effects people will be to blame.
Should the visual effects people be the ones to bare the brunt of the studio money and time issues and be forced to sacrifice their time and family life?
The reason most of us got into visual effects was to create great work and because it was fun. If that’s now boiling down to trying to crank out as much work as possible with lower quality the fun factor will certainly be gone.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Visual Effects Schools
[For anyone considering visual effects school please check out this article:
VFX in Los Angeles – 100 hour weeks & homeless Puts things in perspective. ]
For those with questions about possible schools for visual effects I've had no direct experience with visual effects classes but thought I'd list a few here.
I know there are quite a few others world-wide so don't look at this list as the only available source of training.
(Note that I'm not making any endorsements - good or bad)
As I note in my VFX Career posting/podcast you don't necessarily have to go to an official school to work in visual effects.
[Update: I urge you to first check out the VFX Career posting if you haven't already. Is Visual Effects truly what you want to do and are you willing to do the work and accept the risk? Getting a job and keeping employed in VFX is not easy. Many schools (including for profit vfx schools) continue to pump out many more graduates than the vfx industry can hire. And a lot depends on timing and where you are located.
Important: Do not go into massive debt to get schooling for visual effects. School itself is a good thing but these days many people are racking up huge debts of $60,000 or more and not finding a job afterward. There are no guarantees of jobs from any school. The competition is stiff. If you just wish to be educated regarding just visual effects there are alternatives. Books, DVDs, online, etc.]
Update 6/26/2013 Don't go to art school
[Update: 7-21-12 NBC recently did an investigation into For Profit Schools, among those was Art Institute. Here's the video. Many For Profit Schools focus on signing up as many students as possible without regard to how suitable those students are. They're push the students to get government loans to pay for the schools at at very high cost. End result is the students go greatly into debt and may not be able to get the jobs as expected. The interest rates can be very high so they end yup paying the rest of their lie and ruining their lives. And NBC has an article how student loans mimic the housing collapse in this article here. The key issue here is to know what you're getting into. Visual Effects companies do not require degrees for most positions. They require people who know what they are doing and can do it well. As mentioned consider lower cost alternatives if you don't plan to go to a full college (or have finished college) and certainly if you can't afford to pay $100,000 or more for school. There are qualified online classes much cheaper.
Here's photo of a poster at a high school:
]
It's important to check the range and detail of classes they offer.
How much hands on experience do the teachers have?
How much hands on experience do the student get?
Do you want a full college experience (along with a degree) or do you want more of a technical school?
Do they have internships at companies or any placement services?
Make sure to do a search for reviews and opinions of others.
Of course there are universities and colleges expanding their film classes
to include some visual effects and animation classes.
The range and depth of classes at these film schools may not be as great as some of the others.
USC
UCLA
Chapman University
Sheridan Institue
CalArts
I do know people who teach or run some of the programs at the following schools:
Savannah College of Art and Design
School of Visual Arts
Academy of Art
Gnomon 3D
Expression College
Others I've seen advertised:
Vancouver Film School
Ringling
[Update 8/24/2012 based on info from some recruiters regarding current full schools.
These are some of the key physical schools they find good potential employees.
Please note that these aren't the only schools with good programs but tend to produce more students suitable to different areas.
In no particular order:
Technical Directors, R&D and pipeline development:
University of PA, Carnegie Mellon, Texas A&M, Ohio State, Univ of Toronto
Character animation, visual development, story, modeling:
San Jose State (very good), Ringling, Cal Arts, Art Center Pasadena, Goeblins (for non-US companies )
Schools that aren't as specialized
SVA, SCAD, Art Academy SF, Sheridan, Filmakademie (for non-US companies )
Companies also tend to cover local colleges if they provide reasonable education.
]
For online classes:
Lynda.com - Inexpensive. Good for started class on a wide range of things -Photoshop, Nuke, Photography, Editing, etc. (Lynda worked for me at Dream Quest heading up the animation department. For $25 a month you get a lot of value for your money.)
Gnomon - They have both a physical school and online school
fxphd - Nuke, Mari, Fusion, Silhouette, Maya, DSLR storytelling, Supervising, etc. Very in-depth classes specializing in visual effects. I recently was involved in a class they did on practical effects and visual effects.
Digital Tutors is a another site that does online Vfx training. Here's their post about demo reels.
New one: www.td-u.com Technical Director U. Lighting, compositing, rigging. Future matte ptg, storyboards, cloth, etc.
Stan Winston School - Focuses on character and creature design. Includes CG and practical markup class.
Video Copilot - After Effects online tutorials
From Readers:
Another school to add to your list is AnimationMentor.com, an online character animation school where all the teachers a working studio animators. Check it out on the web. The school has had great success placing students--more then 50% graduate to studio animation jobs.
For online VFX learning (or in site if you are in San Francisco) i´d also add Pixelcorps.com , run by ex-ILM-er Alex Lindsay.
Another great site for online VFX learning is PixelboxAcademy.Net. I am enrolled on their 'VFX Compositing' online course and it's being really cool.
An excellent online VFX training school/community i highly recommend is fxphd.
They offer excellent courses and acces to high quality footage for a low price.
And there are a wealth of DVDs and Books available. Do an internet search or check the Effects Corner Store.
Another view on VFX schools from vfxhack VFX School Confidential.
Update 8/3/2010
Some other schools have been added to comments since this was first posted so I'm adding those along with a few other notes.
Just a reminder that these days VFX can be a difficult area to find work, especially consistent work. Much also depends where you live. Do a reality check by checking the various vfx company websites and vfx recruiting sites to see what types of jobs are available, where they are and what the requirements are.
The National Film & Television School in the UK (www.nfts.co.uk) runs an MA programme for both SFX/VFX and Digital Post Production, both of which are tutored by current industry practitioners and have an excellent employment record for graduates.
From 10-14-2011
Believe me, you don't want to see most vfx artists stripping.
Related post: Price of a VFX Education
Update 3/22/2011
VFX School on Facebook (I know nothing about it but thought I'd add the link here)
[Update: 5/3/2012 Be aware of schools that charge you to learn and require you to work for free such as Digital Domain Media is proposing. Also be aware some internships are simply non-paid jobs whcih are illegal. More on internships. ]
And please read VFX Career posting if you haven't already. It will prepare you for the real world of visual effects.
Also please check the comments below for more feedback and responses.
Also related: Getting A Visual Effects Job
Visual Effects Positions
What makes a good visual effects artist?
Update 6-11-2013 new post
Sad State of Visual Effects Industry
VFX in Los Angeles – 100 hour weeks & homeless Puts things in perspective. ]
For those with questions about possible schools for visual effects I've had no direct experience with visual effects classes but thought I'd list a few here.
I know there are quite a few others world-wide so don't look at this list as the only available source of training.
(Note that I'm not making any endorsements - good or bad)
As I note in my VFX Career posting/podcast you don't necessarily have to go to an official school to work in visual effects.
[Update: I urge you to first check out the VFX Career posting if you haven't already. Is Visual Effects truly what you want to do and are you willing to do the work and accept the risk? Getting a job and keeping employed in VFX is not easy. Many schools (including for profit vfx schools) continue to pump out many more graduates than the vfx industry can hire. And a lot depends on timing and where you are located.
Important: Do not go into massive debt to get schooling for visual effects. School itself is a good thing but these days many people are racking up huge debts of $60,000 or more and not finding a job afterward. There are no guarantees of jobs from any school. The competition is stiff. If you just wish to be educated regarding just visual effects there are alternatives. Books, DVDs, online, etc.]
Update 6/26/2013 Don't go to art school
[Update: 7-21-12 NBC recently did an investigation into For Profit Schools, among those was Art Institute. Here's the video. Many For Profit Schools focus on signing up as many students as possible without regard to how suitable those students are. They're push the students to get government loans to pay for the schools at at very high cost. End result is the students go greatly into debt and may not be able to get the jobs as expected. The interest rates can be very high so they end yup paying the rest of their lie and ruining their lives. And NBC has an article how student loans mimic the housing collapse in this article here. The key issue here is to know what you're getting into. Visual Effects companies do not require degrees for most positions. They require people who know what they are doing and can do it well. As mentioned consider lower cost alternatives if you don't plan to go to a full college (or have finished college) and certainly if you can't afford to pay $100,000 or more for school. There are qualified online classes much cheaper.
Here's photo of a poster at a high school:
Another article on for profit schools
[Update: 12-21-13
It's important to check the range and detail of classes they offer.
How much hands on experience do the teachers have?
How much hands on experience do the student get?
Do you want a full college experience (along with a degree) or do you want more of a technical school?
Do they have internships at companies or any placement services?
Make sure to do a search for reviews and opinions of others.
Of course there are universities and colleges expanding their film classes
to include some visual effects and animation classes.
The range and depth of classes at these film schools may not be as great as some of the others.
USC
UCLA
Chapman University
Sheridan Institue
CalArts
I do know people who teach or run some of the programs at the following schools:
Savannah College of Art and Design
School of Visual Arts
Academy of Art
Gnomon 3D
Expression College
Others I've seen advertised:
Vancouver Film School
Ringling
[Update 8/24/2012 based on info from some recruiters regarding current full schools.
These are some of the key physical schools they find good potential employees.
Please note that these aren't the only schools with good programs but tend to produce more students suitable to different areas.
In no particular order:
Technical Directors, R&D and pipeline development:
University of PA, Carnegie Mellon, Texas A&M, Ohio State, Univ of Toronto
Character animation, visual development, story, modeling:
San Jose State (very good), Ringling, Cal Arts, Art Center Pasadena, Goeblins (for non-US companies )
Schools that aren't as specialized
SVA, SCAD, Art Academy SF, Sheridan, Filmakademie (for non-US companies )
Companies also tend to cover local colleges if they provide reasonable education.
]
For online classes:
Lynda.com - Inexpensive. Good for started class on a wide range of things -Photoshop, Nuke, Photography, Editing, etc. (Lynda worked for me at Dream Quest heading up the animation department. For $25 a month you get a lot of value for your money.)
Gnomon - They have both a physical school and online school
fxphd - Nuke, Mari, Fusion, Silhouette, Maya, DSLR storytelling, Supervising, etc. Very in-depth classes specializing in visual effects. I recently was involved in a class they did on practical effects and visual effects.
Digital Tutors is a another site that does online Vfx training. Here's their post about demo reels.
New one: www.td-u.com Technical Director U. Lighting, compositing, rigging. Future matte ptg, storyboards, cloth, etc.
Stan Winston School - Focuses on character and creature design. Includes CG and practical markup class.
Video Copilot - After Effects online tutorials
From Readers:
Another school to add to your list is AnimationMentor.com, an online character animation school where all the teachers a working studio animators. Check it out on the web. The school has had great success placing students--more then 50% graduate to studio animation jobs.
For online VFX learning (or in site if you are in San Francisco) i´d also add Pixelcorps.com , run by ex-ILM-er Alex Lindsay.
Another great site for online VFX learning is PixelboxAcademy.Net. I am enrolled on their 'VFX Compositing' online course and it's being really cool.
An excellent online VFX training school/community i highly recommend is fxphd.
They offer excellent courses and acces to high quality footage for a low price.
And there are a wealth of DVDs and Books available. Do an internet search or check the Effects Corner Store.
Another view on VFX schools from vfxhack VFX School Confidential.
Update 8/3/2010
Some other schools have been added to comments since this was first posted so I'm adding those along with a few other notes.
Just a reminder that these days VFX can be a difficult area to find work, especially consistent work. Much also depends where you live. Do a reality check by checking the various vfx company websites and vfx recruiting sites to see what types of jobs are available, where they are and what the requirements are.
The National Film & Television School in the UK (www.nfts.co.uk) runs an MA programme for both SFX/VFX and Digital Post Production, both of which are tutored by current industry practitioners and have an excellent employment record for graduates.
There’s a new VFX school in UK set up by a leading VFX company. They have produced visual effects for films like Da Vinci Code and Batman and they are currently working on Shahrukh Khan’s Ra. One, so you can’t get more qualified then that. Best of all, they are based in Pinewood Studios, home of James Bond and so many other big screen movies. Check out the website, http://www.thevfxacademy.com.
There's also Escape Studios in the UK that offers VFX classes (including online).
From 10-14-2011
I was wanting to know if you could add Lost Boys Learning. They are a superior VFX School in Vancouver Canada.
Also look at some of the Almuni reels at http://lostboys-vfx.com/alumni
From 3-12-2012 - General film production
Raindance http://www.raindance.co.uk/ http://www.raindance.co.uk/
From 11-07-12
CG Masters Vancouver Canada visual effects school
From 3-12-2012 - General film production
Raindance http://www.raindance.co.uk/ http://www.raindance.co.uk/
From 11-07-12
CG Masters Vancouver Canada visual effects school
-----
If you're a member of VES they have an arrangement with Lynda.com so check the VES website.
Please note I haven't dealt with any of these directly as a student so PLEASE do a full search yourself on the internet for reviews and be sure to do a full check of any company offering training. I know that someone posted a complaint on one of my YouTube videos about a school or two that specifically focuses on VFX saying they were now greatly in debt. Some of these places are very expensive, especially if you're focusing on one aspect and not a full college degree.
Is it worth it? Can you learn more on your own with books and other training materials? Is online training as good? All of this depends on your current level and how you personally learn the best.
Sometimes it's best to have someone leading you by the hand at least to start so you can interact and ask questions as you proceed. Other times if you're already know the basics you may find it just easy to follow another source of information.
My first suggestion would be to pickup a basic book on the subject you're interested in. Assuming it's a reasonable book it should be useful as a reference even if you decide to take classes. Most software companies offer free trail versions or possibly a personal version. There are also a great number of online tutorials, including at the software company site and other places to get you started. That should allow you to get at least a handle of what you're dealing with. If it's way too over your head then you may need to back up to more fundamental things or you should probably consider some type of class - in person or online. One of the other problems with learning on your own is you may develop gaps in your knowledge and you don't get the feedback. It's also not a structured learning process so some students may have issues if they're not in a traditional class format.
Some people learn best by actually seeing the steps being taken as opposed to just reading about them. This probably applies to most visual artists.
In person classes have the advantage that you have an instructor who you can ask questions and critique your work. Classes also have other students who you can work and network. Possibly handy in the future. These classes can be expensive, especially if you have to travel.
Online classes - If it's an online interactive class then you can ask questions and get feedback.
If the online class is prerecorded then it's similar to a DVD class. The advantage is you can do it on your own schedule - home from work, compressing the time, expanding the time, etc. The disadvantage is no interaction with the instructor.
Other things to look for in schools-
What type of real world experience do the instructors have? The flip side is that not all professionals are not good teachers.
Is there a forum you can interact with other students, even if it's for a prerecorded online class or DVD.
Does the instructor visit these forums.
Does the school offer a real placement program?
Do vfx companies actively recruit from the school?
It can be difficult to get honest answers at times to even these basic questions.
Be realistic about what you plan to get out of any education.
A 3 day bootcamp is unlikely to provide as much information and feedback as a 12 week seminar.
As noted earlier in this posting be sure to check out another view on VFX schools from vfxhack VFX School Confidential.
Tom Cruise list of schools, companies and other info
A 3 day bootcamp is unlikely to provide as much information and feedback as a 12 week seminar.
As noted earlier in this posting be sure to check out another view on VFX schools from vfxhack VFX School Confidential.
Tom Cruise list of schools, companies and other info
Update 8/5/2010
A cautionary tale:
From VFXSoldier twitter
Art Institute graduate spent 70K on degree, can't find video game job, takes up stripping instead.
A cautionary tale:
From VFXSoldier twitter
Believe me, you don't want to see most vfx artists stripping.
Related post: Price of a VFX Education
Update 3/22/2011
VFX School on Facebook (I know nothing about it but thought I'd add the link here)
[Update: 5/3/2012 Be aware of schools that charge you to learn and require you to work for free such as Digital Domain Media is proposing. Also be aware some internships are simply non-paid jobs whcih are illegal. More on internships. ]
And please read VFX Career posting if you haven't already. It will prepare you for the real world of visual effects.
Also please check the comments below for more feedback and responses.
Also related: Getting A Visual Effects Job
Visual Effects Positions
What makes a good visual effects artist?
Update 6-11-2013 new post
Sad State of Visual Effects Industry
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