Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1100392
www.postmagazine.com 41 POST MAR/APR 2019 HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON ing with MoonRay, we weren't satisfied with the images we were getting. It kind of felt like we were doing more of the same with a better renderer." So, the group began working closely with R&D to understand why that was happening. "The shader guys convinced me that the problem was because we were not using PBR," Walvoord adds. "So, it meant we had to redo our film." But, the results were well worth the effort. "You build this physically-based library of shaders that the surfacers use, rather than just artistical- ly doing it, which is how we've always done it in the past," says Walvoord. "It elevated everything. Suddenly, everything responded to light better, and it was more consistent when lit." Walvoord is clear: The Hidden World could never have been done with the studio's previous renderer. As he explains, the lush, green oasis in How to Train Your Dragon 2 was made using three different sets and numerous matte paintings, so it could only be shot from three points. "That was all the complexity we could handle," says Walvoord. "The Hidden World was different because the production designer very early on made the case that we had to sell the jour- ney through that world so the audience understands how expansive it is; that is how we were going to sell the ending [of the film] to the audience." A good amount of time is spent on this voyage through the world, as the pace slows while Astrid, Hiccup and the audience gaze at this wondrous natural world, passing through, among other things, a luminescent mushroom forest. "But instead of the scene being 90 percent digimatte as it was in Dragon 2, it's only about 20 percent digimatte, and that's for the far, far back- ground," Walvoord says. "We've got some ridiculous numbers we collected. We built it using 68 million mushrooms and 79 million pieces of coral. There's 140 million little plants growing everywhere. We have something like 3,000 waterfalls in there, and 6,700 rock spires. It's orders of magnitude beyond what we had done before." Walvoord points out that despite using the new renderer, the Hidden World still posed a rendering challenge due to all the elements and the effects integration, as well as the crowds. Ray tracers, after all, are built to use a limited number of light sourc- es to do the job well. Any time there are mini light sources like the team had here, there is a lot of noise. It was a creative challenge as well. "The mush- room forest is basically self-illuminated with the bio- luminescence. The whole thing is incredibly colorful, and there's a lot of detail. It's overwhelming," he says. "So, figuring out the concept of how the light traveled and the directionality of it, and organizing that information, took quite a while." Despite the amount of work that went into de- signing and building this environment, only about six minutes of the film takes place here. In compari- son, that accounted for 69 percent of all the render- ing that went into DreamWorks's 2016 film Trolls. "It set a new record for us," Walvoord says, noting the total rendering time for the Hidden World was 131.3 million core hours! But MoonRay's capabilities do not stop there. The film's environments are larger than what DreamWorks has tackled before, contends Walvoord. "MoonRay grants us the ability to put everything we want into our world," he says. One such example takes place in the Hall of Berk, where Hiccup and Astrid rally their peo- ple. Here, there are nearly 200 characters dining together, many sporting beards or wearing fur — elements that require a great deal of compu- tational resources. In this one scene alone, there are more than 150 mugs, 200 spoons and bowls, 350 apples, 10,000 rocks and 60,000 strands of hay. In addition, the camera is following a group of main characters walking through the crowd. This means that any member of the crowd that appears close-up with the main characters must be portrayed in the highest detail. "Cheating" with lower-quality versions of the characters just wasn't possible. And, the devil was certainly in the details on this film. There are 2,000 unique character pieces in the Hidden World, including hair, clothing and acces- sories. In the village of Berk, the blacksmith shop alone contains 1,097 unique props and assets. There are even 756 nails in Hiccup's house. Details that would not have been possible before. Integrating PBR also gave the group the pathway to redo the characters, particularly their skin. More detail was needed, so the artists decided to add pores — which had always been taboo in animated films. "We had been getting better translucency and specularity. So, we added pores, stylized, not photoreal, which added more detail in the specular breakup," notes Walvoord. Then the grooming artist working on Hiccup and Astrid brought up the notion of adding peach fuzz, to make the models look more sophisticated. "Now, if you look closely at Astrid, she is covered in peach fuzz — her nose, ears, face… everything is covered in really thin hair that's fairly translucent, in a very subtle way," says Walvoord. As a result, these changes naturally softened the characters. "We were amazed. The lights worked better. Everything was just working better," Walvoord adds. "There's now a lot more sophistication to Hiccup and Astrid, but they still fit the style of our movie." Perhaps more amazing is that the crew made this significant conceptual, look and workflow change — where they began working with the ray tracer and then implementing the switch to PBR and redefin- ing the look of the film — in a mere six weeks. And then they had to redo the characters created with the previous method. FRIENDS FOR LIFE The Hidden World is a coming-of-age tale, the final piece in the trilogy, which follows the main characters as they evolve and mature: Hiccup from the tentative, shy adolescent, and Toothless from a cute pet, into a pair of constant companions who bolster each's confidence as they become leaders of their species. And then, to encouraging each other to follow their hearts, even though it leads them in separate directions. While different worlds now separate Hiccup and Toothless, they are never far from each other's heart, as they are truly friends for life. Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor of CGW, Post's sister publication. For the full feature, please visit us online at postmagazine.com The villain Grimmel. A love match: Light Fury and Toothless.