The Callsheet recently wrote an article on Stereoscopic 3D in South African film, prompted by a visit to SA from Jessica Abroms, a former technical director at Pixar. A few companies were mentioned including Triggerfish Animation Studios since we are currently working on Zambezia, our first Stereoscopic Release. Below is a scan of the Article
Its been a while since my last proper Gaming, Animation or 3D related post… its been tough working under pretty strict NDAs. I have however been very busy developing, growing and writing tools for our in-house pipelines and furthering the stereoscopic pipeline.
I was recently asked to be a Guest Lecturer at the Animation School in Cape Town as they were running a Stereoscopic Master Class. The classes were attended by Industry Professionals along with the 3rd Year students of the Animation School.
It is great to see Stereoscopic being taught in colleges as I truly believe it is here to stay, just as the way sound impacted silent movies it changed the film & television landscapes and that same impact is being felt now with the release of more and more 3D content due to the mass market release of 3D ready TVs. Eventually a purchase of a Blueray DVD will not only have the 2D movie but give you the choice to watch it in 3D, why, because eventually the standard will be ‘3D Compatible’. We, the people in the animation industry, have the advantage when it comes to 3D and that comes in the form of a controlled environment. We control everything from colours, lighting let alone the awesome power of computer generated imagery that lets us place and control our cameras with far more accuracy than live action.
The course covered everything from Stereoscopic Camera Setup, the Do’s & the Don’ts of stereoscopy along with Stereoscopic Editing. It was great to see the class diving into the z-axis world with so much enthusiasm and to see the results of the class with one firm being lucky enough to receive a stereoscopic job in the first week of the classes.
I am looking forward to seeing the Stereoscopic projects that the 3rd year students were asked to produce and even to be asked back for the next round of Stereoscopic Master Classes.
Well, now that its out there… I think am allowed to show some of the ‘behind the scenes’ stuff from the Friskies Adventureland Spot. If you haven’t yet seen the advert check it out below
Characters
Ree always gives great drawings and reference panels for each character give clear direction of shape, form & colours, however she leaves the 3D interpretation up to the modeler.
All the feathered characters had their feathers place by hand, we modeled a single feather and then placed the pivot at the correct position (where the feather would be attached to the skin) and then carefully covered the entire body of each bird. Yes, it sounds like madness, but it allowed us the control how the feathers tiled & patterned allowing each bird to have its own unique feel.
The Fish Hot Air Balloon above was an early concept and eventually never made it to the final spot. The image here show the incomplete and not fully texture version.
Environments
The Kitchen may have looked totally realistic, but was actually all 3D, again based on Ree’s artwork I had t model this up in 2days after which it went to texturing and lighting by Jason Stapleton. Yup even the plugs on the walls where modeled and made to the American style
After the cat had been filmed against green screen the shots were tracked by Lung Animation to which we then matched the Geometry of the world. Originally proxy geometry was placed through out the world to not only visualise the world, but to also confirm that each shots alignment was 100% accurate. Every shot had a unique scene built specifically for it, having shots locked off to early on in the production really aids the set building process. Below is an original concept sketch by Linsey ‘Bison’ Levendall and then a video showing the step by step stages of a shots development.
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Above: UVs for an entire Environment
(just for fun)
The Friskies ‘Adventureland’ spot was a great ad and it was awesome being part of the team. Now all I really would love to see is the 3D Stereoscopic version that was shown in the US before Alice in Wonderland 3D. It really must have been amazing!
Bernard literally wrote the book on stereography and having spent all of last week with him in hands on training regarding Stereography (that’s the production for films presented in full 3D) you can see why. His knowledge of the field is mind blowing, and his understanding of the process from starting in the CG scene right through to edit and final colour grading is impeccable. The field is still so new that no one actually knows all the answers, as sometime you simply need to break rules and try/test something to see if it work, and Bernard is quiet willing to admit that.
I hoped to get every last ounce of knowledge that I could from Bernard and became part of his shadow, just about, spending every minute listening to his thoughts and perspectives on S3D from camera rigs, texturing, lighting, animation, and compositing.
From Left to Right:-
Mike Buckland, James Middleton, Bernard Mendiburu, Chris Cunnington
Over the last 3 weeks I have been doing immense amounts of reading, studying and mathematics, not only from Bernards book, but also articles from all over the web regarding Stereo 3D, so upon Bernards arrival I had quiet a wealth of literary knowledge but not much practical knowledge in a 3D scene that includes stereo technicalities & issues. So we got down to it and spent two complete days watching footage, discussing stereo considerations, and setting up those shots for stereo in XSI. We built a stereo camera rig that allows complete artistic freedom and real time stereo feedback to animators and 3D artists alike.
The last two days together we managed to see ‘Alice in Wonderland in 3D’ along with ‘How to Train your Dragon in 3D’ there is nothing quiet like seeing what the industry is doing, how they approach S3D, and then to discuss it afterward with one of the worlds most knowledgeable Stereographers.
All in all I consider that week to be invaluable. The knowledge and ideas shared have made S3D real to me in a way that has prepared me for any S3D challenge.
So today I bid farewell to Shy the Sun. During my 11 month tenure, I have had the privilege of working with some totally amazing people, from truly amazing 3D Artists, Illustrators and more! We worked hard, but played just as hard… and even though there were rough times we had great times too. Many a story there! The year has been filled with all sorts of new 3D challenges, having being exposed to some totally mind blowing art (weather 3D or Illustrated) that has changed the way I view my role and my goals within the industry. I was challenged nearly every step of the way and had ‘my perceived personal weaknesses’ strengthened as I was given more and more challenging work with complete trust! My joining Shy the Sun came at the same time as my relocation from Jhb to CT and with the long hours we worked, everyone here became more than just a work colleague. I consider you all friends and hope to work or collaborate with you again!
I look forward to seeing you continue to grow from strength to strength and continually produce mind blowing work. Work that people don’t just accept but actually stop, look, look again… all whilst their jaw hangs loose from amazement. All the best for the future!
Just a quick post to get it up on my site, since it was finally aired during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, Friskies Adventureland is the latest commercial I worked on with Shy the Sun.
We are hard at work on the ‘Making Of’ so be sure to keep an eye out for that! It will have all sorts of behind the scenes stuff showing character & enviroment developement along with shots from the orginal green screen shoot
Some of the comments going around on the web at the moment include,
Friskies ‘Adventureland’ – leaving us ‘almost’ speechless – Zandland
This is one of the most incredible commercials I have ever seen in 50+ years of watching TV. It is an ambitious, impressive work of creativity and imagination. Kudos to Purina for sponsoring this work of art – autocinematic on youtube
Received a nice little pat on the back this morning when I logged into 3DOcean.net this morning! Have been made Featured Author
Always nice to be recognised… even in the small ways!!
On a side note, I am really hoping to get some of the work I have done in the last year on the site soon! I should at least be able to get the Friskies Television Advert up on the site within the next few weeks! So keep checking back for that!
Also I decided to go large (not really) and get myself a flickr account… just to post some of the pics I take! Go Check em out!! Comment too
