Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/863766
Gantt charts, and improved the flow of information between Weta's team; items that would have previously called for manual search and dissemination now automatically appear on easily browsable Shotgun pages. Since starting work on the Apes franchise, Weta has not only integrated new tools like Shotgun into its work- flow, but also developed proprietary solutions that have freed up more time to focus on subtle nuances to help humanize the apes in this film and raise the bar in terms of the believability. However, their general approach to VFX has largely remained the same across films. Like previous installments, the core narrative revolves around the apes, so the audience's ability to identify with them as living, breathing characters was crucial. "This was the first 'Apes' film to be rendered entirely in our in-house renderer Manuka, which allowed us to push the boundaries of CG photoreal- ism," shares Weta Digital VFX Supervi- sor Anders Langlands. "Having access to proprietary tools like Manuka and Wig, Lumberjack and Totara – our fur, tree and vine plugins for Maya – along with software like Shotgun and Maya, allowed us to dial in the details, which made all the difference in making the apes more lifelike." To convey the apes' increasing intel- ligence, Weta had to ensure the actors' performances translated effectively onto the CG apes, which required hours of painstaking observation and creativ- ity from hundreds of dedicated artists. "From the animators figuring out how to realistically translate human facial performances to ape anatomy, to the texturing and shading artists working on the look of the skin, hair and cloth, to the creature TDs ensuring everything moved with the correct physics, and the lighters and compositors integrating the apes with the photography – everyone kept a critical eye on the work, exper- imenting with approaches to enhance realism," Langlands explains. Starting with accurate topology was integral to the end result, a task for which Weta leaned on Autodesk Maya 3D animation software. "Maya is the backbone of our 3D pipeline. Most of our polygonal modeling happens in Maya and all of our ape topology was crafted in Maya," shares Weta Digital Lead Modeler Florian Fernandez. "We used the modeling toolkit often and found that tighter integration in Maya made it easy to complete a lot of topology tasks we formerly had to execute in external applications. Maya's new sculpting tools also allowed us to handle lower resolution sculpts in the software, which has been a great addition." With so many apes appearing throughout the film, there was no short- age of hair and groom work involved, and Weta relied on its proprietary Academy Award®-winning Wig software for most of this work, which runs in Maya. When handling UVs, Weta tapped a range of tools, including Maya's new unfold UV tool and brush-based options in the software's UV editor. "We write a lot of python and open Maya tools for our daily work, and really like all the new additions to Maya, because they allow us to handle more right in the software, which helped speed up production," Fernandez adds. For a closer look at Weta's work on "War for the Planet of the Apes," join Langlands at SIGGRAPH 2017 in Los Angeles, on Wednesday, August 2, at 11 am at Autodesk's Vision Series in room 409B. War for the Planet of the Apes, TM and © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox. All rights reserved. Check out area.autodesk.com/siggraph2017 for a complete list of presentations.