Computer Graphics World

April 2011

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Animation ■ ■ ■ ■ It was up to HOM—a motion-capture and ani- mation studio with extensive experience in the fi lm, games, and television markets—to make that action happen. “We got involved early on, when Guard- ian Media Entertainment had this property and branding idea, but it was only an idea at the time,” says Brian Rausch, vice president of production at HOM. As Rausch explains, most of the time HOM’s cli- ents are very specifi c about what they want from the facility—25 minutes of cinematic animation for a game or 35 minutes of mocap for a fi lm, for instance. “Usually they say, ‘Here’s the script, the storyboards, let’s run off and shoot it, and you do the animation,’” he notes. For this project, though, GME provided character comic-book-style sketches and loose direc- tion: Th ey had a concept for a brand and wanted to extend it, and the possibilities were wide open. “Vicon House of Moves was a true partner from the get-go, working with us on the 3D build-out of the characters, designing the characters’ signature moves, developing story concepts, creating storyboards, doing the live-action shoot, completing motion capture along with managing all the animation, voice-overs, and fi nal edit and delivery,” says Adam Baratta, chief creative offi cer of GME. “Bringing 30 diff erent characters to life—each of which is tied to a highly revered NHL team—is no small task.” Open Ice Th e initial game plan was for HOM to fl esh out the character sketches and turn them into animated CG models. “Th ey said, ‘We want shorts. We want Web games. We want fi lms. We want all this stuff ,’ ” says Rausch of GME’s initial direction. “Th ey had a concept that needed to be branded. We were to give it an identity.” Th e fi rst implementation would be for interstitials that played at the NHL arenas; where they would be shown (JumboTrons, along the walls surrounding the ice, and so forth) would be controlled by the local arena operators. “Basically, they had screens to fi ll with content,” Rausch says. “So that set us down a path that led to doing [the content] in a building-block style, which would enable us to be agile.” Actors performed a wide range of movements at House of Moves. The mocap facility then applied those motions to 30 superhero Guardian characters, each representing an NHL franchise. As Rausch explains, the group would create short animations— walk cycles, idle motions, punch animations, fl ight animations. So, for example, if an operator wants to show the team’s Guardian pro- tecting the goal after a save, he or she can show a short animation of the character slapping the puck away. Th ose animations then can be looped and strung together easily by the operator to generate longer sequences as needed. Creating animations for a broad spectrum of uses was just one chal- lenge for HOM. Another: developing interesting and equally compel- ling Guardians—30 in all—that would hold up on screen and have their own fi ction, starting with the tech breakdowns and progressing through 3D design, modeling, and animation, to story. “Th ey all have diff erent styles that required diff erent approaches [to the animation],” says Rausch. “Th ere are some human characters that hold up well with straight mocap and a little tuning polish over top. For others with back- bending knees, though, we mocapped the upper half of their bodies and keyframed the lower part to get that [unique] movement.” Th en there are others, like the Maple Leaf Guardian—which has these tree-trunk legs with roots that have to be pulled and lifted before he moves—that fall into a category all their own. Th e third challenge that HOM faced dealt with the resolution, as April 2011 27

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