Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1277231
48 cgw e d i t i o n 2 , 2 0 2 0 think that previs would help me do that side of things," he says. "I thought it might help me with technically [determining] where to put a camera and things like that, but it actually made me go, 'Right, I don't need to worry about any of the noise; I can actually just go and create something.'" In the last episode of Season 1, "Betray- al," a great battle plays out with exploding airships firing at the bears and Lyra. The Painting Practice team dropped the director and DP into the virtual environment, some of which "never saw the light of day due to flooding [at the real location]," recalls May. Initially, that scene "blew the VFX budget out of the water because we were having so much fun," he adds. "Then we pared it back to what we could then shoot, although it was a painful process to create something that was really interesting and fun and quite beyond our wildest dreams, then smash it into pieces in a reality check." One of May's favorite and most success- ful sequences occurred in Season 1 Episode 4, "Armour," as Iorek retrieves his armor. "We planned out this town and built it in the game engine, and could visit it virtually inside the studio, rather than having to drive an hour and a half into the Welsh moun- tains," says May. "And we were able to make complicated and very cool animations of the bear running around and trashing the town. We were able to get in there and discover shots with the director [Otto Bathurst] in the various sessions. We would make multi- ple versions of the sequence, do an edit, and then have different versions of the edit, with different endings. We ended up with some- thing that could be shot, was achievable, on budget, and Framestore was happy with the volume of shots. It was a collaboration among all the partners that pulled off well." Plan V Soon interest piqued concerning Painting Practice's proprietary tools and Unreal En- gine setup. The company received funding that helped push further development of the tools, and aer some fits and starts, the visualization/effects company released Plan V. A new soware app based on Unreal En- gine, Plan V is a bespoke studio environment that enables artists, producers, directors, and others involved in a production crew to experiment with lenses, storyboards, previs, and more. With a simplified workflow and a user- friendly interface, Plan V is designed to enable less technically inclined users to interact in a high-quality 3D environment so they can design worlds, sets, and scenes for films, television, advertising, and games. The tool also supports local and remote collaboration. "You can get an amazing visual look out of [Unreal Engine] very quickly, and there's an incredible amount of assets that are now available [for it], so it makes building environments super quick. But expecting directors and writers and others who are not necessarily technically-minded to pick it up is a bit of a tall task," says May. Plan V makes viewing the Unreal Engine scenes simple and affordable. Moreover, as crews continue to work remotely for whatever reason – be it pan- demics, travel costs, personal or professional obligation – tools like this will become even more valuable. As May points out, this is such a fast- paced industry, and it is more important than ever to keep relevant and keep mov- ing forward. As of this writing, work is in progress for Season 2 of His Dark Materials. Season 1 was a learning phase of sorts, as the group became familiar with the virtual production tools and cameras as well as the operation of the engine itself and the resulting collab- oration with the vendors. On the upcoming Season 2, the group pushed the usage further, creating a virtual space where the actors could better understand the sight lines and so forth. And as the seasons progress, the technology will become even more useful, May predicts, in handling the increased fantasy elements and pushing the storytelling. "A lot of Season 1 was just trying to get things to work and discovering cool ways of working and making some great sequences. In many ways, we made great An overview of Trollesund by Painting Practice. The previs saves valuable shot-planning time on the complex production.