Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 11, 2015. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
French universities regularly impress us, but Isart Digital’s 2014 projects are particularly impressive. Both “L3.0” and the cuddly creature “Murphy”, which is also a recent VES nominee, are of outstanding quality.
And that’s what “L3.0” is all about: After all living creatures seem to have disappeared, the little high-tech robot Léo wanders through Paris. He tries to keep himself busy, accompanied only by a teddy bear, unfortunately without success – until he finally meets a living creature again.
Alexis Decelle, Cyril Declercq, Vincent Defour and Pierre Jury used Maya to animate and model the CG robot in the film, while the film’s backgrounds consist of real film footage edited in Photoshop.
The team organised the pipeline using the school’s own online asset management tool. The music and sound design was created by Victor Battaglia, Nicolas De Ferran, Rémi Haentjens and Maxime Ferrieu.
The film is the final cinematic result of three years of study at the “VFX & 3D Animation Department” of the Isart Digital University in Paris. It took the team a total of nine months to complete the “L3.O” project – from writing the script to the post-production process.
DP: What conditions did your film have to fulfil for a diploma and what else did you have to achieve?
L3.O Team: The film was just one part of the third year diploma alongside final exams in all courses. The film was assessed on all the skills we had acquired during our studies: Writing the script, directing, the realisation itself and our communication with the sound department.
DP: How did the idea for “L3.O” come about?
L3.O Team: At the time we put our team together, we only had a concept – in this case of a robot – living in Paris. Based on this, the four of us who were responsible for the animation wrote script versions – around ten different ones. We discussed each other’s ideas and improved the story in many rounds until the final version was finalised.
DP: What inspirations did you use for Léo the robot?
L3.O Team: The main reference was Wall-E, but also the film “A.I.” by Steven Spielberg. We also orientated ourselves on books by Isaac Asimov or Ray Bradbury. We wanted our robot to look childlike, almost like a toy.
DP: How did you approach the initial shots of the Paris environment?
L3.O Team: References for the look were scenes from the film “I am Legend” and photos of the Ta Prohm temple complex in Angkor Wat/Cambodia, which had the right atmosphere for the film. In the first step, we took original photos of the environments in Paris and removed all the living elements and signs from them. Then we created the matte paintings by merging new elements and paintings onto the original image. The final step was compositing and grading with Photoshop, which we used to bring life and movement to the shots. Most of the other backgrounds in the film were also filmed and then added in compositing. Only a few of the shots in the film are full CG.
DP: How did you achieve the special look of the film?
L3.O Team: Since the special look of the entire film was extremely important to us, we spent a lot of time rendering and grading the individual shots. The lighting was created in Maya, most of the time we used global illumination and HDRI maps together with ordinary lights to achieve the lighting we were looking for. For the colour grading we also tested different versions until we achieved the atmosphere we have in the final result.
DP: How did you approach the CG robot?
L3.O Team: Three other students, who were not part of our core team, helped us design two versions of the robot. Once we were happy with these, we modelled the robot in Maya and finalised the design of the robot in the program. We then animated it completely with keyframe animation, not focussing on making the movements look believable or real, but just making them look aesthetically pleasing.
DP: And how was the CG butterfly created?
L3.O Team: We chose the butterfly as the antithesis to the robot character because it is a fragile, beautiful and poetic creature. In the first step, we looked at a lot of reference material of butterfly images on the Internet. Finally, we also bought a real butterfly in an entomology shop to see exactly how it is constructed and looks. We took photos of this butterfly with a DSLR camera, which we then used as a texture for the 3D model.
DP: What was the biggest challenge for you in the project?
L3.O Team: Making the film with just four people – not counting the sound team. We therefore wrote the script with this team factor in mind, so we removed some shots and simplified the animations in order to realise the project in the available time frame.
DP: In which direction did the university train you and what technical equipment was available to you?
L3.O Team: The lessons at the university prepared us well for the “L3.0” project, as we were trained as generalists. We specialised independently in our individual interests, so that in the end our skills matched perfectly for the realisation of the film. In terms of technical equipment, the render farm and server provided by the university were particularly helpful.
DP: What are your future plans for the film?
L3.O Team: We want to show the film to as many people as possible, some festivals are planning to play the film. But we have no plans for TV distribution or anything like that yet.
DP: How did you finance your studies at Isart Digital?
L3.O Team: Apart from the tuition fees, Paris is a very expensive city to live in, but as you work for companies for half of your studies at Isart Digital, the company pays your salary and tuition fees.
DP: How many men and how many women study at Isart Digital?
L3.O Team: There is a clear majority of male students, only around 15 per cent of students are female.
DP: Does an Isart Digital student have to be able to speak French?
L3.O Team: Yes, definitely, because the courses are held in French
You can watch the film again here:
FILM_FX L3.0 (2014) from ISART DIGITAL on Vimeo.
And here is the making-of:
FILM L30 MAKING OF (2014) from ISART DIGITAL on Vimeo.
Thanks to the Isart Digital team from “L3.O” for the making-of report!
If you would like to read a detailed making-of on “Murphy” and find out what else studying at Isart Digital has to offer, you can look forward to the new issue on 13 February as a DP subscriber. If you are not yet a subscriber, you can still secure an anniversary subscription here, or pick up the magazine at the newsstand on 16 February!
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