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www.postmagazine.com Post • March 2014 15 hen Ron Frankel first entered the previs business, "the sales pitch was explaining why previs would be a benefit to customers, and it was a tough sell," recalls the creative director and founder of Proof Inc. (www.proof-inc.com), in Los Angeles. "Now it's not a question of are we doing previs, but how much previs and in how much detail?" PROOF Previs is available in different grades or levels, Frankel says, from "rough blocking animation all the way up to really elaborate bells-and-whistles animation with sound design, effects and editing that will be used to literally sell a concept or help studios decide which projects to develop further." Postvis can apply CG assets developed in full 3D space for previs to live-action plates as shots evolve into temp composites and even final VFX. The 3D models and animation crafted during preproduction find a second life as shots head to completion. "In the last two years, previs has exploded almost exponentially in terms of the scope of work we're touching," says Frankel. "In films with dynamic VFX or heavy stunts, we end up creating 60 to 90 minutes of content. That's a huge jump from creating 10 to 15 minutes worth of previs, which we were doing five years ago." Autodesk Maya is Proof 's primary modeling and animation tool, and the company has written a suite of productivity tools, which streamlines the previs workflow. Its new realtime toon-shader delivers "an awesome and cool look" within a limited color palette. "It looks like a well-drawn cartoon that's scale-, lens- and frame-accurate," Frankel explains. "It allows us to work really quickly and create something that's visually engaging and compelling. If ever there was a film for the toon- shader, it was The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and it was a huge success." Proof provided previs and postvis for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which marked the com- pany's third time working with director Francis Lawrence. Proof completed 20 minutes of previs and five minutes of postvis for 12 sequences in less than 16 weeks. In the monkey sequence, Katniss, Peeta and the other tributes are encircled by a group of mutant, baboon-like creatures. "The scene is eerie and ominous as the creatures close in, then it turns deadly as they attack. The group retreats to safety, but the attack takes its toll," recounts Frankel. "The chal- lenge in designing the sequence was figuring out the relationship between the tributes and the mutant baboons. How many mutant baboons were there? How quickly did they close in? How aggressively did they attack? The scene needed to build progressively from a dangerous calm to deadly chaos. Working closely with the director and VFX supervisor Janek Sirrs, the Proof team created a previs animatic that became the template for filming the sequence." With the exception of a few human performers who stood-in for some of the key baboon moments, the photography offered no reference for the size, placement or movement of the mutant baboons, so the Proof team was called in for postvis as well. Proof 's artists took the pho- tographed shots and added the creatures back in, creating temp comps using the same CG models and animation that were created for previs. "Postvis allowed the editors to determine the action and composition in every shot, giving them Zoic's Zeus realtime previs process is used on CBS Entertainment's Intelligence. Previs Almost like an insurance policy, this process can save time, money and production headaches. By Christine Bunish