Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1151096
www.postmagazine.com 16 POST JULY/AUG 2019 summer movies is focused on a lion cub's tail, we're at grass level with pebbles and details on the ground." MPC's R&D department created new tools to manage and optimize the enormous amount of geometry, add weathering to rocks and help with creating landscapes procedurally. The sets cov- ered 150 square kilometers. "But, I have to say that we did a lot manually," Ferrara says, "especially the big features, the trees and rocks." During pre-production and production, Ferrara moved from London to Los Angeles to supervise work on the game-engine-ready sets built for the previs and the VR shoot. Once Favreau approved shots, the low-res shots moved to London to be up-res'd. Newman remained in London while Valdez and Ferrara were in Los Angeles to receive the pack- ages of virtual production scenes — Autodesk Maya scenes, virtual production assets, animation, characters and the previs sets — and translate the previs into production assets and rigs. "We'd get simplistic scenes designed to move quickly," Newman says. "They were effectively like previs scenes. But, instead of getting third-party QuickTimes to match, we had real 3D data. We could track the assets — what species of tree, which character was in the shot. We'd know that in this shot there were 20 wildebeests. We learned from Jungle Book how important it is to track changes. We had that information shot by shot. In this shot, the light and trees are here; in that shot in the same location, the light is over there. We had tools to track that." Ferrara adds, "We could capture everything. Not just the sets and animation, but the camera and lighting, and each filmmaker's input. This was all in the package shipped to London. We didn't have to search for how many meters it was from here to there, or where the animals would walk. All those questions were resolved before the sets arrived in London for post production. Being the only vendor on the show really paid off." Previs Animation Animation moved through the process in a similar way, that is, from rough blocking with low-res characters in VR, to more refined movements shot in VR that led to approved edits, before moving to post production for final animation and high-reso- lution rendering with muscle and hair simulation. The process began with Jones and a team of previs animators who created, first, a previs-level pass based on storyboards from the story depart- ment, a rough blocking pass, and then Favreau- approved animation ready for the camera stage. "Usually we give previs animators individual shots," Jones says, "but for this process they had a chunk of work — :30 to a minute of animation that represented the flow of the scene so Caleb [Deschanel] and Rob [Legato] could put the camera anywhere. Some were even longer — four minutes. It was pretty crazy." Fifteen animators worked on previs in MPC's London Studio, and another eight to 10 were in Los Angeles. Often the scenes were readied in London and adjusted in LA. "Our process was similar to that of a live-action movie where you have actors on stage delivering dialogue to block a scene, then you set the cam- era position," Jones explains. "We would block the scene so any camera position would work, then we could tweak it." The animators gave the animals walk cycles so VR viewers could move them with joysticks. But the rocky terrain often required separate animation. "Jumping down off a rock was too awkward," Jones says. "It would detract from the storytelling if you could feel the game engine." Previs animators working by the stage could react quickly to notes and make adjustments. If Favreau wanted something different after the edit, the crew could pull up the files for a reshoot in VR. "We'd wait to turn over sequences until we had a complete edit that Jon signed off on all pack- aged up with the 3D data," Jones says. Animation began with previs and rough blocking, then moved on to low-res VR for refinement, and finally to post production for final animation.