This article entitled “Severely limited gaming options” originally appeared in DP 06 : 2016.

Brevity is the spice of humour – with this motto, the animated short film “My Dear Gnome” won over the animago jury last year and also brought hearty laughs at the animago awards ceremony in Potsdam. Emmanuelle Leleu and Julien Hazebroucq from the film production studio Eddy spoke to us about their favourite project with the two cuddly 3D characters.

Emmanuelle Leleu and Julien Hazebroucq are no strangers to animago: in 2013, the two won in the “Best Character Animation” category with their student project “A la Française”. The character designer and 3D artist studied at the French university Supinfocom Arles (now MOPA: www. ecole-mopa.fr) and now work as a director duo at Eddy. There they create commercials for clients(www.eddy.tv/director/46/ emmanuelle-julien) with subtle humour and their excellent timing for comedy, for which they became known with their short films.

The character design and the creation of the 3D characters were realised by Emmanuelle and Julien, while the animation was done by Thibaut Pissot and Jean Marie Vouillon. In total, a team of 19 people worked on the completion of the one-minute project.

DP: How did you come up with the idea for the animated short film and its characters?

Emmanuelle & Julien: The film was intended to enrich our demo reel for future commercial projects. As it was a no-budget short film, we had to approach the project accordingly. We’d had the idea of a garden gnome in mind for a while because we love kitsch and everyday universes from everyday life. We realised at a very early stage that the limitations in the animation of the garden gnome would be appropriate for the film, which quickly became an interesting aspect of the story. Ultimately, this character formed the basis for the entire film. We developed a holistic universe around the deer and the gnome and came up with different situations involving games. So there could soon be a sequel to “My Dear Gnome”.

DP: How did you come up with the title?

Emmanuelle & Julien: We took the same minimalist approach to the project with the same mood as our student short film “A la Fran- çaise”. “My Dear Gnome” was the first title that popped into our heads and stayed there until the end of the project.

DP: Who helped you with the project?

Emmanuelle & Julien: The team consisted of creatives who volunteered to work on “My Dear Gnome”. We know these people well, as we’ve worked on projects with them in the past – so we knew that we would make slow but steady progress on the short film. As we only worked on it in our spare time, it took a year to complete the film. The storyboard and the intended direction were finalised fairly quickly, but the actual production time took several months.

DP: How did the creation of the short film proceed in detail?

Emmanuelle & Julien: The phase in which we develop the characters and the universe surrounding them is a very important one for us. The short film was created in three main stages: First came the character and setting development, then the creation of sophisticated animations that were not necessarily cartoony but were meant to emphasise the awkward moments, and lastly Julien took care of rendering all the shots. In this step, it was crucial that all details and textures were clearly visible in the image.

DP: What 3D tools did you use in the process?

Emmanuelle & Julien: It was very classic: the concept research was done in Photoshop and the 3D work was done in Maya, V-Ray and Nuke. For Julien, working with Maya was a challenge because he usually uses 3ds Max. But the project was a great opportunity for him to familiarise himself with the software, as well as Nuke instead of After Effects. The main difficulty for us was to work efficiently while sticking to Eddy’s Studio production pipeline.

DP: Were there any other challenges with the project? How did you solve them?

Emmanuelle & Julien: The most complicated elements in the environment were the grass and the vegetation. As with “A la Française”, our aim was to create visually exciting vegetation that didn’t look like stock material. For the style of the trees, we looked for a lot of inspiration to create renderings that have the idyllic and fresh look that you would find in an old lady’s garden. We also avoided classically generated grass because it looks too conventional and too 3D. So we modelled everything by hand and converted it into V-Ray proxy objects so that the scene wasn’t overloaded. A general rule is: V-Ray proxies are a great help for all forms of vegetation when the polygon rates are too high.

DP: Are there any special gimmicks in the film?

Emmanuelle & Julien: We managed to include a plastic flamingo in the film – it’s only blurred in the background. He’s very depressed and uncomfortable because he always has his foot in the water and can’t move. Maybe we’ll use this little chap again in the future.

DP: What plans do you have for the future?

Emmanuelle & Julien: We are currently writing another short film, which will be much longer – and not a cartoon. We are currently experimenting with different styles. We don’t want to commit ourselves exclusively to comedies, even though we feel very comfortable in this genre. We are also seriously thinking about a feature film, but we are still at the very beginning.

The links from the box below:

• My Dear Gnome (link is offline)
• A La Francaise
• Eddy
• 

The post My Dear Gnome first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

To make sure you have everything you need on set despite tripping cables and the heat of the spotlight that doesn’t promote concentration, here are four helpers that won’t solve the problem, but will at least help to smooth out the stumbling blocks: a helper for the exact position of the big light source called the sun, previewing LUTs in the browser (and generating LUT conversions as long as you can look at the camera and don’t have to rely on other people’s notes) and the comprehensive collection of knowledge in your pocket when you no longer know what the others are talking about.

The Photographer’s Ephemeris

What does no one record accurately on set and causes problems in post? Exactly, the position and angle of the sun. If the lighting artist is being economical with this information, it’s worth finding out, and the environment people also appreciate precise data. The insider tip “Photographer’s Ephemeris” calculates this information and provides you with this data, even if “Fix it in post” is once again muttered disparagingly on set.

The function is simple: you enter the position for which you want the position of the sun, either by searching or as exact coordinates, and Ephemeris spits out the data you need.

The list of available data is remarkably long for a free, fast-loading web application: sunrise and sunset are given with precise angles and even the height above the ground is taken into account. In addition, the rising and setting of the moon and twilight times are all linked to Google Maps, which makes it easier to align with geographical features thanks to the zoom: a mountain in the background is sufficient as a reference for the camera direction. You can also jump into the past and future at will – as research when the shoot is already over, or in advance when the VFX supervisor is on the ball. What seems like magic is in principle nothing more than calculations that have been part of astronomers’ everyday work since the late Middle Ages.

The feature originated from the desire of photographers to take pictures during the “blue” or “golden” hour – i.e. the last hour of sunlight or the first hour after sunrise. The golden hour is so called because the light has relatively little energy in the blue range of the spectrum and casts long, comparatively soft shadows. In addition, hardly anyone is awake shortly after sunrise and you have the area to yourself in landscape photography – which of course also applies to film crews.

Price: free of charge
app.photoephemeris.com

Online LUTs Previewer

There are many free LUTs – a sentence we probably wouldn’t have said five years ago. Now they are only of limited use for grading, but one-click solutions are extremely helpful when communicating with directors, supervisors and producers. The online LUTs Previewer contains almost 100 LUTs that can be easily switched – and a demonstration of what works and how helps more than talking about “more green and a bit of umpf!”.

The web tool works as follows: You load a .jpeg or a .png into your browser – only into the cache, nothing is uploaded. This means that you can also use it offline if you wish. On the left-hand side, you can select the desired LUTs in four groups and click through. The groups are Log, Standard, GoPro and Utility, each with 20 to 30 LUTs. The images with the LUT applied can be saved as a variant so that you can easily pass on “colour scribbles”.

Price: free of charge
preview.iwltbap.com

DeLOG

Sometimes it would be really handy if you could generate your own conversion LUTs with just a few clicks: Go to a website, enter the camera, click on the set gamma and gamut and then – again with gamma and gamut – define the output and get a 3D LUT in .cube format with 33 x 33 x 33 matrix size for download. And while we’re at it, perhaps an AutoAdjust of the Dynamic Range?

Well, welcome to the IWLTBAP pony farm: that’s exactly what you get. The DeLOG knows the formats of all possible cameras as well as their respective gamma, gamuts and setting options. In Gamma (Sony, Arri, Panasonic, Canon, Red, GoPro, Panavision, Blackmagic, Nikon, Log, Display, HDR Display and Linear/µ) with the following ranges: S-Log 1-3, Log C (Sup 2.x ,3.x ,4.x), C-Log, Canon CLog2, Cineon, Panasonic V-Log, Panalog, REDLog Film, BMD Film, BMD Film4K, PRotune, DJI D-Log, ACEScc, ACESproxy10 & 20, Rec709 (800 %), Nikon (Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait, Landscape), HybridLog Gamma, Dolby PQ, ITU Proposal (400 % and 800 %), BBC WHP283 (400 % and 800 %) and Linear/ µ. The following gamut options are available: Rec.709, Rec.2020, Sony SGamut3.cine, Alexa Wide Gamut, Canon Cinema Gamut, Canon CO IDT (Daylight & Tungsten), Panasonic V-Gamut, Dragoncolor 1 & 2, REDColor 1-4, Protune Native, Aces APO/cg AP1, DCI-P3, DCIP3D60, Adobe RGB & WideGamut RGB and a few more. DeLOG Film Tech App This should be enough for almost any combination of cameras. If you want to use it now, simply select your combination, click on “Generate” and you’re done. If you’re not sure, you can also load .jpg and .png as a preview and then get the “new image” as well as a waveform for precise control – all free of charge.

Price: free of charge
elog.iwltbap.com

Film Tech App

Who remembers the “HD Production Manual”? Almost everyone – and we’d wager that it’s still around on almost every set as a reference. Transfermedia, the makers of the manual, now have a new version as an app for Google Play and iOS. The structure of the information is similar: divided into the categories Basic, Format, Camera, Post, Deliver and Data, there are currently around 120 articles on all kinds of topics. There is also a search function and a glossary. There is an update every three months – the next one is due in August, but was not yet online at the time of going to press.

Why would you want to download a collection of facts onto your mobile phone with things that are rarely necessary due to the specialisation on set? Quite simply: the reference book ensures that you don’t look like a complete beginner more often than absolutely necessary, it is searched faster than obscure web encyclopaedias and offers reliable information instead of crowd-sourced opinions.

From the data requirements of television broadcasters, compression and codecs to software that not everyone knows: it all helps in everyday life, and anyone who has to work outside their comfort zone or jumps back and forth between many tasks will no longer want to be without this reference work. Texts, tables, videos and .pdfs Sometimes it would be really handy if you could generate your own conversion LUTs with just a few clicks: Go to a website, enter the camera, click on the set gamma and gamut and then – again with gamma and gamut in each case – define the output and get a 3D LUT in .cube format with 33 x 33 x 33 matrix size for download. And while we’re at it, perhaps an AutoAdjust of the Dynamic Range? Well, welcome to the IWLTBAP pony farm: that’s exactly what you get. The DeLOG knows the formats of all possible cameras as well as their respective gamma, gamuts and setting options. In Gamma (Sony, Arri, Panasonic, Canon, Red, GoPro, Panavision, Blackmagic, Nikon, Log, Display, HDR Display and Linear/µ) with the following ranges: S-Log 1-3, Log C (Sup 2.x ,3.x ,4.x), C-Log, Canon CLog2, Cineon, Panasonic V-Log, Panalog, REDLog Film, BMD Film, BMD Film4K, PRotune, DJI D-Log, ACEScc, ACESproxy10 & 20, Rec709 (800 %), Nikon (Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait, Landscape), HybridLog Gamma, Dolby PQ, ITU Proposal (400 % and 800 %), BBC WHP283 (400 % and 800 %) and Linear/ µ. The following gamut options are available: Rec.709, Rec.2020, Sony SGamut3.cine, Alexa Wide Gamut, Canon Cinema Gamut, Canon CO IDT (Daylight & Tungsten), Panasonic V-Gamut, Dragoncolor 1 & 2, REDColor 1-4, Protune Native, Aces APO/cg AP1, DCI-P3, DCIP3D60, Adobe RGB & WideGamut RGB and a few more. DeLOG Film Tech App This should be enough for almost any combination of cameras. If you want to use it now, simply select your combination, click on “Generate” and you’re done. If you’re not sure, you can also load .jpg and .png as a preview and then get the “new image” as well as a waveform for precise control – all for free. Price: free i delog.iwltbap.com provides further information or supplements information with precise spec sheets.

For products, there are also links to the manufacturers – so it’s usually easier to get to the relevant support pages and you don’t have to make the big round through the rental shop until a question is answered. There are two variants: The Film Tech App (b2b) is a version for major customers(bit.ly/29whUV2), individual customers use the normal version(bit.ly/filmtechapp). The cost is a harmless 9 euros.

Price: 8.99 euros
iOS: apple.co/29GEQo2
Android: bit.ly/29whUV2

The post On-Set Tools first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.