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Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 27, 2015. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
All further information can be found at www.animago.com.
The “Rollin’ Safari” project adorned the cover of DP issue 02/13 in 2013. The team revealed how the spherical CG creatures came to life.
To the balls
If that’s not a round thing: After Stuttgart was rolled over by Sascha Geddert’s globules from “Globosome”(www.globosome.com) at the FMX Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Transmedia in 2012 (nominated for an animago AWARD in 2014, but “Wrapped” won) and the animated tattoos from the animated film “Hai Hase”(www.facebook.com/haihase) by Flo Greth and Julia Reck caused a stir at the International Festival of Animated Film, 2013 is all about spherical animals – the “Rollin’ Safari”.
But what is the story behind the clips that went around the world on YouTube and Vimeo within a few days? Every year, the third-year students of the Animation Institute at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg are faced with the same task: within six months, they have to develop 60-second trailers for the Animated Film Festival (ITFS). During the course of production, a jury then decides which trailer is to become the festival’s flagship film.
in 2013, however, there was a novelty: not only Ulrich Wegenast, Artistic Director of the ITFS, but also Thomas Haegele, Director of the Animationsinstitut and Conference Chair of the FMX conference taking place at the same time, decided in favour of “Rollin’ Safari” as the main trailer for the two partner events. The short films had already provoked so much laughter from the audience at their premiere that everyone quickly agreed on the films’ potential.
Story
In October 2011, Film Academy students Kyra Buschor and Constantin Paeplow came up with the unusual idea of creating animals in the shape of spheres. A few weeks later, Ännie Habermehl joined the team as director. The task now was to develop an exciting story from this – after all, what good is a world and all assets without a good story? As with comedy and slapstick formats, timing proved to be the biggest challenge: where could the punch line of the films be placed appropriately? Thanks to Animatic, this question was clarified at an early stage of production, so that the focus quickly shifted to the animation. Instead of a classic car chase, the aim was to develop one that would be different from all other familiar scenarios. For example, if you think of a hunter and a bloated deer in the forest, the successful escape of the handicapped animal seems highly unlikely – but what if an animal in the shape of a bullet is the hunter and is ready to attack? The specific behaviour of the various savannah inhabitants opened up unlimited possibilities – the idea of the “Rollin’ Safari” was born.
Design
In order to bring the animals to life and turn them into amusing contemporaries, a compromise had to be found between their natural and abstract forms. This middle way turned out to be a great challenge because it is of fundamental importance for the story and humour of the films: the animals were not allowed to appear too cartoon-like or too abstract because the animalistic aspect was to be preserved and the viewer’s empathy was not to be risked. To this end, digital concept drawings were generated using Photoshop to give the animals as final a look as possible at an early stage. The animals were then given their fullness before being sculpted into the three-dimensional world using ZBrush and a clean topology was ensured with the help of 3D Coat. After modelling, the animals were brought to life with rigging and surfacing.
Rigging & Rendering
When it came to rigging, it quickly became clear that deforming the animal bodies too much would be problematic. The aim was to create spherical animals that were clearly deformed but flexible. Initial animation tests showed that the legs had to remain movable along the entire spherical body. As the natural anatomy of the animals does not allow this, the spine was simply omitted. The pelvis and shoulders of the animals thus became the centre of the body and allowed all extremities to move freely. But it wasn’t just the rig that proved tricky: in order to give the animals a stylised fur look without having to resort to elaborate fur or hair simulation, a second “shell” was placed around the mesh, which was used as an alpha on a painted fur texture. The visible end result was a softer structure of the surface, the so-called “furry look”. The films were animated, highlighted and rendered mainly in Maya; Mentalcore was used as the render engine. All objects at a greater distance from the camera were realised with an elaborate matte painting (24,000 x 1,200 pixels), which was created with Photoshop and then projected onto the background. The final compositing was done in Nuke. Looking at the overall project, it can be concluded that a real-time render engine and an optimised pipeline would certainly have left more time for the development of the stories.
Rollin’ Wild
Now there was a proof-of-concept – but the team was certain that it had to continue with the animals from “Rollin’ Safari”. But how? Kyra Buschor, Constantin Paeplow and producer Philipp Wolf asked themselves this question in mid-2012 when they founded “Flying Stone GbR” and developed the transmedia project “Rollin’ Wild” from the four trailers. The focus is on the development of the world around the spherical animals – after all, there are many other locations besides the savannah where interesting stories can be told.
The team
Kyra Buschor was born in Berg (Switzerland) in 1987 and discovered her interest in film and art as a child. After finishing school at the “Liceo Artistico” (art school), she gained her first practical experience in the field of 3D animation at “Los Banditos” and the “Digital Frame Studio”. In October 2009, she began her studies in 3D animation at the Filmakademie Baden- Württemberg.
Constantin Paeplow was born in Hamburg in 1988. He won the “German Young Talent Film Award” in 2006 with his first animated film “Weltraumschrott” – his first step towards animation. in 2007, he completed an internship at “Trickcompany” in Hamburg and later at “little green bag”. A year later, the company booked him as a freelance 3D animator and compositor. from 2008 to 2010, he worked on various animation projects for “Trickcompany”. in 2009, he began studying 3D animation at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg.
Ännie Habermehl was born in Wiesbaden in 1986 and began training as a media designer in the small Hattersheim-based company “das modular” after graduating from high school in 2005. During this time, she developed an ever-increasing enthusiasm for animated images and therefore applied to the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, where she began her studies in 3D animation in 2009.
Process
With only six months from the initial idea to the finished film, a larger team was quickly formed around the three directors. Technical directors Thomas Hartmann, who was responsible for shading, lighting, rendering and the water simulation, Sascha Langer and Christoph Westphal, who worked on the rigs for the spherical animals, played a significant role in the success of “Rollin’ Safari”. The dust effects were realised by David Kirchner and Markus Kranzler. In addition to the TDs, many other students were involved in the overall project – from compositing to sound design and music – and did a great job, for which the core team is very grateful. The “Rollin’ Safari” team would also like to thank the Animation Institute of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg(www.animationsinstitut.de), without whom the production of the trailers would not have been possible. In addition to the provision of workstations, software and the render farm, the competent project support opened up new perspectives time and again.
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