Computer Graphics World

April 2009 18 n n n n Broadcast•Stereo Smith and Foulkes put together a story board, which they transformed into a 2D animatic that was hand drawn based on photographs; then they scanned it into Adobe's Photoshop, cleaned it up, and imported it into Adobe's After Effects for editing. "Normally with a project like this, much of the creativity happens up front in the 3D animatic, as it's far too expensive to make decisions on set," says Cowell. "However, with this project, much of the camera work would be a reaction to the en vironment and characters. We decided to go on location to Buenos Aires [Argentina] early and spend a week or so scouting and taking photographs and imagining how this could be pieced together." at decision proved fruitful, maintains Cowell: Every night the group created a fresh 2D animatic using the new photo graphs. From Framestore London, visual effects supervisor Mike McGee also at tended the shoot. "at got us thinking about lighting and how these shots would link together, long before the shooting began," he says. On set, they collected HDR maps, which helped tremendously in the lighting of the CG characters. "Patrick Krafft and Maelys Faget did a fantastic job of getting these characters to fit into their environ ment," says Cowell. Meanwhile, back in London, Nexus senior 3D lead Dave Fleet ran the character modeling and design process, which relied on Autodesk 3ds Max and some Pixologic ZBrush work. "Given how many games, chat systems, and online environments we were hoping to evoke, it was quite a challenge to create the 60 or so characters required," says Cowell. "Each needed to feel that they came from their own world, so a lot of work went into the design and modeling phase to ensure they didn't end up looking too generic." Each character needed some evidence of their chat or online interface, and this was designed in the same way Nexus Productions tackled the characters—making sure each one felt Originally developed by Digital Domain, Nuke is now distrib- uted by The Foundry, which has created Occula, a suite of tools specifically for dealing with 3D imagery. "Those tools were absolutely vital to what we needed to do," says Barton. "They streamlined the process and made 3D accessible on every desktop with regard to combining left- and right-eye images so everything in the composite happens to both sides equally and correctly. We also used them to warp, stretch, and tweak the live-action plates as necessary to make them stereo-perfect." The Occula tools were also used to warp the live-action characters, place them in space, and put them in the correct stereoscopic distance. Digital Domain checked its work daily in the 3D screening room with shutter glasses. But each artist could also view ste- reo 3D, with anaglyph glasses, while working in Nuke. "They could adjust the stereo while they were doing it," says Barton. "In the old-school way of doing 3D, you'd make your best guess and then view it after the fact. These new tools that enable peo- ple to view real time in stereo are pretty cool!" Just before delivering the project, McNally helped Barton and his team tweak the entire spot to make sure the stereo worked in the best possible way throughout. "We got his 'Captain 3D' stamp of approval," says Barton. McNally demurs: "We were just there to provide our assets at the beginning and help DD with anything we could in terms of ideas or suggestions about the stereo," he says. The Monsters vs. Aliens trailer that ran during the Super Bowl was, of course, done entirely at DreamWorks Animation. "Obviously, most of the content comprises shots from the mov- ie," says McNally (see "Monsters of the Deep," March 2009). "What we added was a transition from the DreamWorks logo, and then we added the glasses." When editing 3D content, McNally says he always keeps a In "Lizard Lake," the stereo SoBe lizards move and groove, and change colors, thanks to Digital Domain and assistance from DreamWorks. Artists added digital scuff to make it seem as if the avatars didn't really belong in the real world.

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