Sony Pictures Imageworks used Autodesk software to create “Beowulf”, the stereoscopic film directed by Robert Zemeckis. The team used Maya and MotionBuilder for hundreds of 3D animation and visual-effects shots, extending its performance-capture and stereoscopic-imaging pipeline.
Imageworks and an on-site Autodesk Consulting team customised Maya so that a broader set of stereoscopic controls could be adjusted through the application. Zemeckis and the production team could view the film and make simultaneous changes in real time. “With Maya and the extensions added by the Autodesk Consulting team, we had an interface that allowed us to adjust stereoscopic depth and sequence layout interactively,” says Senior Visual Effects Producer Buzz Hays. “It provided a completely new level of artistic control.”
More than 250 artists worked for over two and a half years on the human and mythical characters. Maya handled every animation shot, while MotionBuilder was used for motion editing and blending.
Corey Turner, Technical Animation Supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks, says MotionBuilder had been part of the studio pipeline since it began working with performance capture. For “Beowulf”, the team extended the application through Near-Time Integration and Director’s Layout.
Near-Time Integration placed motion data on characters and positioned them within the environment early in production, while the director was still capturing data. Textures, lighting, particle effects for flames, shadow maps and normal maps were brought into MotionBuilder to help visualise the mood of each scene. The resulting scenes were saved and passed to Director’s Layout.
The system combined selected portions of live recordings and edited them through MotionBuilder’s Story tool to produce a single take. Layout camera work was performed after capture, allowing the director to experiment with camera perspectives in real time while viewing the shot.
The production developed complex muscle systems to give the lead character a realistic physique. Autodesk supplied custom functions, interface extensions and on-site support for implementing production tools in Maya.
“All our shots were set up in Maya,” says Animation Supervisor Kenn McDonald. The team constructed detailed muscle deformation for Beowulf and used extensive keyframe animation for Grendel despite the character’s performance-capture foundation. Curves were scaled, weight was added and timing adjusted to translate Crispin Glover’s performance to a twelve-foot creature. The fire-breathing dragon was animated entirely with Maya keyframes.
Custom facial-animation tools gave each character up to 300 controls. The team continued adding facial shapes and control layers until late in production. McDonald says the ability to write plug-ins and custom tools for Maya was central to reproducing the actors’ performances.
