Organization & power through previsualization deployment.
Keeping your creative & technical partners aligned on the creative vision from the start has become key to the production workflow. I explore how best to keep your critical players connected and ensure they can work on content "together remotely."
It's hard to escape the influence of visual effects in today's media. Today's top visualization shops are blurring the lines between feature film/television work and traditional architectural visualization (arch viz) work. Considering the common toolset used in both fields, it can be advantageous for visualization artists working in the architecture, engineering, and construction market to employ workflows developed in the entertainment field—not only from an efficiency standpoint but also potentially from an aesthetic standpoint.
In this article, I'll discuss the VFX review process and capabilities. Then, I will explore the typical requirements of a project's pre-VIS pipeline and how our platform provides a solution that not only fits those requirements but also allows you to collaborate and work with remote partners from home. This is achieved through the ability to view pre-VIS content in different ways. Whether it be viewing real-time or high-quality a scene, doing so remotely creates valuable opportunities for your previsualization team.
Last year was a record-breaking year for content production. And, as the demand for ambitious, high-quality, technically challenging content intensifies, ensuring your creative and technical partners align with the creative vision from the start is becoming ever more essential. Factor in the increased investment in VFX-intensive shows — it is no surprise that the role of Previzualisation ("pre-vis") has become increasingly significant to the production workflow.
The Fundamentals:
Previz is a discipline that has been around since "The Matrix," but with the rise in VFX-intensive content, here are some bullet points on pre-vis from the article. Pre-vis started with storyboard artists drawing rough sketches of shots and sequences to aid directors and producers visualize action before it was shot: In essence, pre-vis allows you to explore the story beats, camera placement, and actor choreography early in production so that you can address any problems before committing significant time and money to them.
Many artists, industry veterans, and newcomers alike have embraced the power of cloud computing to improve the quality of their pre-vis work as well as speed up delivery. But not everyone is happy with these changes. Some long-time practitioners in our field are concerned that traditional methods and local resources aren't being used effectively enough or at all in VFX projects — pointing to a lack of research and development being done locally.
But does 'the cloud' really inhibit innovation? Is it true that modern pre-vis software has shifted the focus from initiatives led by creative visionaries to service companies? Or has the increased reliance on externally produced assets given rise to new working practices? To find out what some studios are doing about this, I approached external VFX staff to share their strategies.
Luca Fascione, VFX Supervisor at Double Negative (DNeg), London In London, DNeg has several people working on the cloud: "We have a Previs team that works out of Vancouver led by Chris Hurtt whose whole remit is to build really strong relationships with the other tech companies... We know we can't hire all or even most of those skills in-house — so being part of that community has helped us immensely."
Although not all tasks are suited for cloud-based workflows, he says some projects benefit from sharing data across multiple facilities: "Typically what you would do is lock yourself away and focus on your job in isolation — but I think there's a certain amount of sharing that has to happen. So, for example, when I worked at Animal Logic in Australia, we'd exchange people and work almost like a studio — it was very beneficial for the success of the business."
He cites one example where the company benefited from establishing good working relationships with other facilities: "One shot that required some heavy simulation work was Rodeo FX's sequence in London for Edge Of Tomorrow.
The main action is happening between mech suits, but massive explosions were also going off around Tom Cruise. We used software called Houdini, and they used software called nCloth — because those two programs talk directly to each other, we could pump data back and forth." The flexibility offered by this kind of approach allows artists at DNeg to focus on the creative aspects of their work. "Everybody is a generalist here, and that applies to me, as well," said Wong. "I've been doing this job for seven years now, and I'm also one of our technical directors." "We get the shot done by being very flexible with what we're given — it's about having people who understand the process but can also think creatively," added Willits. "One technique we use a lot is called pre-vis or previzion (a portmanteau of 'previsualization). We have an art department at DNeg that has a full pipeline for pre-vis; they'll put together storyboards or animatics."
The PRACTICAL APPLICATION of previsualization is proven (including an excellent example below).
One way that myself and other artists utilize this is with remote management, or anywhere at that; it would not be uncommon to find previz artists uploading shots and sequences several times a day and then reviewing their work on the go. The ability to view pre-vis content with your phone or tablet gives you the freedom to be away from the office while still providing an essential service. The Quality vs. Realtime Tradeoff: Currently, in Maya LT/Maya 2016 (desktop/Pro versions), there is a feature called Baked GI, which allows for real-time playback of cached geometry and therefore improves rendering speed. I found this to be very useful in the context of reviewing on a mobile device, as the display can seem choppy when animating an object with an animated texture. The key here was using baked lighting such as Skylight or Ambient Occlusion, both available in Maya LT/Maya 2016 and provide a much more stable preview without losing any of the quality from the original file
Having good previsualization content will make your virtual camera feel grounded and give you more accurate material feedback later down the pipeline. In turn, making it easier to accurately present your client with a precise representation of what the final shot could look like. But, unfortunately, this is where we start to see a problem, especially when dealing with client approvals.
THE PROBLEM: No standard exists for generating previsualization content, and therefore, every studio will have the process they use for creating this material "look development" or "lookdev."
Many artists in my generation are used to working from home and reviewing work online through high-resolution web Cams such as the Apple "FaceTime" on OSX/iOS or even Skype Web Calls on Windows/OSX, respectively. These systems provide good enough quality to get an idea of how things look. However, it still leaves a little something to be desired when assessing materials after looking at references properly.
THE SOLUTION: I propose a pipeline that allows artists to view look-development work from home with minimal effort. This pipeline requires no new hardware, only a software upgrade from any webcam on the latest operating systems. It is as simple as opening up your webcam and upgrading your current drivers. You can then access these features directly in Skype by going through the Preferences -> Video settings to make sure H.264 encoding is selected and adjusting image size and quality appropriately for best results; video compression is not an issue here; our 4k images are being downloaded.
Well, the first review is over, and it's time for some reflection. Like many industry professionals, I've been working remotely for years; however, we are only now starting to see new tools to help us work together more effectively during the review process. The critical components in this workflow involve:
- An art director (or creative director).
- An artist/modeler (or technical director).
- A producer.
These three people are critical collaborators on any project, whether you're all physically sitting side-by-side or separated by significant geographical distances.
For those who would like a little more background on my role as lead visual effects supervisor, please refer to my website portfolio at matthewpenkala.com
