Our first ideas emerged from this sketch: What characterises the robot, what is the relationship between it and the dog, what kind of world do they live in? We are in the near future. People and seemingly all life have disappeared from the city and countryside. Posters, camps, cars and facilities left behind bear witness to the vanished culture.

By Edgar Bauer, Franz Stöcker and Felix Zachau. They are studying image design at the HFF Munich, specialising in VFX. All three found it exciting to tell the story of such different characters coming together, which is why they joined forces as a team.

The rusty old household robot has also been left behind. It still works and seems to mechanically fulfil its old routines. The dog is playful, it eats and seeks closeness.
In doing so, he gradually brings the old, cumbersome, stuck machine to life. He takes it out of its routine and humanises it. The robot becomes a humanoid that can care, play and feel. You watch as the years pass, the dog grows older and the robot becomes more human. It all ends with one last special evening when they watch fireflies together.
This sets the cornerstones of the story, focussing on their relationship and the development of the robot.
In weekly meetings with Prof Jürgen Schopper and Dr Rodolfo Anes Silveira, we presented our respective progress and discussed how best to proceed. Team assistant Petra Hereth coordinated the project organisation for us, including the lectures and all associated seminars and workshops.

Storyboard

With the script ready and a precise idea of the aesthetics, it was time for the storyboard. Professor Michael Coldewey helped us to break the story down into a few images, which we then drew in the “Procreate” drawing programme. The focus was on the comprehensibility of the images and not on details, but at the same time we were also able to think about the camera settings.
The aim was to tell and structure the script visually in such a way that an outsider could look at the storyboard and understand what was happening.

Animatic and pre-visualisation

The animatic can be divided into two phases. First comes the drawn animatic and then the PreVis, a rough 3D animated version of the film. The drawn animatic is an animated version of the storyboard. We used the images from the storyboard in the “Premiere Pro” editing programme. We also tested how long we should leave the shots for and created a rudimentary version of the sound. This allowed us to consider what should be shown visually and what could be told via the sound. That was very good for getting a rough feel for the story. The next step was the PreVis.
We modelled and rigged rough versions of the dog and robot in “Blender” and created very simplified sets. The scenes were then quickly animated and rendered in Workbench to see where the characters were, how well the camera was placed and whether a viewer could understand the film at all. Our focus on speed meant we could quickly see which shots worked and which we needed to rework. Telling a long period of time in a short film was a particular challenge. Over 28 versions, we considered shot sizes, moved characters to different locations and added, replaced, moved in the timeline, changed or discarded entire shots. In the end, we had a plan of how long each shot had to be, how the camera should be placed and what should happen in front of it.

Music

With a rough idea of what kind of tonality we wanted to create in our film music, we were very lucky that the composers Arezou Rezaei and Jiro Yoshioka from the Munich University of Music agreed to compose the score for us. It was ideal that we started collaborating even before the PreVis was finalised.
This allowed us to give each other feedback and they were able to advise us on which scenes we should keep longer or shorter so that the composition could unfold its full effect. The music also provided plenty of inspiration and the insights the musicians were able to give us based on their expertise had a significant influence on the development of the story.

Pipeline & Workflow

Without the help of our Pipeline TD Jonas Kluger, this film would probably still not be finished. He familiarised us with the project management software “Shotgrid” and made sure that possible errors caused by the communication between “Blender” and “Shotgrid” did not affect us as much as possible. We initially created tasks for all environments, characters, assets and shots. We then divided the tasks among ourselves and uploaded the results to “Shotgrid”. This pipeline makes it possible to work on sets simultaneously so that the updated assets are also opened when a scene is opened.

Modelling, Texturing, Rigging

It was important to us that the last dog and the last robot should be archetypes. The robot’s shapes should convey a fascination for its technical abilities and yet still look old and capable of development.

Settings

The film shows a contrasting world. It starts in a destroyed, abandoned city and then switches to a rural, old-fashioned landscape where nature is slowly returning.
Both landscapes were modelled in 3D in Blender. The textures were then drawn in “Procreate” from a camera perspective and then projected onto the model in “Blender”. In some cases, we also used the drawings directly as backgrounds. The backgrounds had to be coherent and picturesque without distracting from the actual action.

Look

The look development is more than just the selection of colours and designs. It defines the visual language of the film, gives it character and lends the story a unique aesthetic. This process is crucial to how viewers perceive the world of the film and how they connect emotionally with the characters and the plot.
The process is iterative and required many feedback loops. In the beginning, we aimed for a photorealistic, Pixar-like look. Partly to save render time, but also because we wanted to focus on the relationship between the robot and the dog, we decided to use a mix of drawn textures and a 3D animated film.

This change was one of the most difficult decisions we made for this film. We had already completed several sets in photorealistic style and had fallen in love with the look of the test renders.
But when we saw the dog in motion with a drawn texture, the decision was easy. It looked much more lively in the new style. We were also able to emphasise the character of the robot better in the new style.

Rotation

To recreate a movement realistically, it helps to collect as many references as possible. We planned a day of shooting for this purpose. Studio masters Andreas Beckert and Peter Gottschall let us use the HFF’s internal television studio for this.
We filmed with a younger and an older dog to cover him in both the younger and older scenes.
For the robot, our fellow student Julius von Diest slipped into Xsens’ in-house motion capture suit. David Emmenlauer explained the correct operation of the suit to us in advance. We only used the data collected with it as a reference so as not to make the robot appear more lifelike than the dog.
We took each shot with three different cameras. Each was responsible for a selected perspective. The first one was placed as close as possible to the camera position defined in the PreVis. With the other two, we filmed from the front and from the side so that we could then jump 90 degrees from axis to axis when animating.

Animation

The animation was a big part of our work process. We wanted to show the slow humanisation of the robot and the ageing of the dog in the animation. The recorded references from the studio shoot came in very handy.
We also got help from Professor Melanie Beisswenger. As an experienced animator, she had a trained eye for our animations and was able to give us very good suggestions for improvement, especially for the dog, which made it appear even more natural.

One thing that made animating technically much easier was that both the dog and the robot had a very detailed model for rendering and a less detailed one for animating. When animating, we could deactivate the body responsible for rendering the characters at the touch of a button. Thanks to the saved computing power, we were able to animate in real time in the viewport.

Rendering

The film is rendered in Blender via Cycles. We used the HFF render farm to save rendering time and stay on schedule. We also rendered out masks for the dog and robot so that we could edit them better during grading.

Grading

We were very lucky to have Claudia Fuchs, a professional grader, at our side. Together we made some colour corrections and matched the colours of the shots to each other.

Sound design

For animated films, in which every visual component is created from scratch, the creation of realistic soundscapes is a major challenge. Stefan Möhl took on the sound design for us. We discussed our ideas with him about how the robot and the world should sound. We felt it was a great privilege to be able to look over his shoulder as he worked. It was fascinating to see how he creates a soundscape from different sounds that seem to have nothing to do with each other and breathes life into the film. He surpassed all the expectations we had beforehand.

Retrospective

A strongly humanoid robot leans against a car, smoking. A year has now passed since this sketch was made. A lot has happened in that time. We have spent many days and nights at the university and have grown together as a group. The collaboration led to creative solutions and a film that we are proud of. Only now do we realise how many steps and how much work is actually involved in the development of an animated film. It was a long process with many ups and downs. We have learnt a lot from it, we would like to thank everyone involved and look forward to the next project

The post Ghosts at the HFF first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by HFF Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München.

The challenge for the visual effects design was to achieve a photorealistic visual aesthetic that blends seamlessly into a real film with real actors. A Portuguese courtyard, built in the HFF studio in the summer of 2022, served as the central set for the dystopian narrative of a family drama.

by Franziska Bayer, Valentin Dittlmann, Alexander Hupp, Ines Timmich and Hannes Werner

The plot unfolds on an isolated island in the middle of an endless ocean and thematises the conflict between the spirit of discovery of youth and the entrenched convictions of the older generation. Although officially listed as a “VFX film 02” by the visual effects students, “Wind Up” is a joint project. For example, screenplay student Tamaki Richter wrote the script, while the production was handled by WennDann Film GmbH, which was founded at the HFF, and students from all departments took on additional roles – wenndann-film.de.

The professional expertise of the film industry complemented the work of the HFF students, with Matthias Zentner(velvet.de) acting as director and Moritz Rautenberg(moritzrautenberg.com) as director of photography. The synergy between various educational institutions in Munich should also be noted, with contributions from the Academy of Music, the Academy of Fine Arts for the set design and the August Everding Drama School, which used some of its students for the make-up design. The studio building, which provided the basic setting, was also created as part of the “Entwerfen und Gestalten – Architectural Design and Conception” programme at the Technical University of Munich. The cooperation within the departments of the HFF and with other art academies not only marks an impressive short film, but also emphasises the power of interdisciplinary exchange. “Wind Up” stands as a testament to the creative fusion of talents from different disciplines at the HFF and its partner institutions in Munich.

See for yourself:

• Munich Film and Television University hff-muenchen.de
• VFX Breakdown is.gd/vimeo_windup_vfx
• Making of is.gd/wind_up_making_of

Brainstorming and script development

What is hidden behind the boundaries of a studio courtyard? A lonely family on an island, in the sea, surrounded by monsters. That was the basic idea submitted by a screenwriting student that would eventually become “Wind Up”. The process of developing the idea was a creative collaboration between several departments at the HFF, which included intensive discussions about the relationship dynamics of the characters, the special significance of a lamp and how a hot air balloon works.

The core, the family drama, remained an important guideline throughout the script versions. The result is a story of a family that grows beyond its limits in the fight against its shadows. Lino (16) spends his everyday life building up the crumbling walls of his home island to protect himself and his family from the darkness that lurks outside the island and swallowed up his mother 10 years ago. Until he learns that his sister Benedita (18) and his uncle Afonso (52) want to flee the island to find his mother: She’s alive? And the darkness is just a fairy tale told to him by his grandmother Madalena (83) to keep the family on the island. Lino now has to find his way between mysterious lamps, home-made hot air balloons and family lies and make a decision: Will he stay on a crumbling island with his family? Or will he set off in search of his mother – into a world of shadows?

Animatic & Resolution

When planning the VFX shots, it was important to break down the entire film into individual shots in advance. That’s why the VFX team, together with director Matthias Zentner and cinematographer Moritz Rautenberg, spent several weeks developing shot plans for the film. The set plans were used to create animatics that could be quickly adapted. In contrast to traditional planning with storyboards, it was an advantage to work directly on the previs, as the space of the set could be taken into account. The characters were generated in readyplayer.me, placed in a scanned 3D model of the set and animated in Blender. Different focal lengths and camera movements were created in this way, with many of the non-VFX shots later being made more dynamic or combined as one shot during the shoot. As the dialogue was also set to music in the animatics, screenwriter Tamaki Richter was able to quickly determine whether her story was working the way she wanted and make changes accordingly.

Concept Art

The realisation of the short film “Wind Up” required a well thought-out, consistent visual look that went beyond the set of the Portuguese courtyard to include the entire island. The layout of the courtyard was the starting point for the design of the exterior buildings and the island. An extensive search for references of remote places, coasts and islands laid the foundation for the development of concept art for the location. The aim was to create a doomed island, with buildings slowly decaying and being maintained by the last four inhabitants in an endless battle against decay. The result is a gloomy look of an island that seems to be drowning in fog, illuminated only by a single light source. The VFX students were supported in designing the concepts by concept artist Luis Guggenberger(luisguggenberger.de).

Another crucial aspect was the design of the “shadows”, which embody the fears of 15-year-old Linos in the film. Dark, abstract illusions that gnaw at the walls of the island and ensure its decay were designed as a visual representation. To realise this concept, ink spreads were shot on paper in various combinations with water, alcohol or glycerine on the first day of shooting. In post-production, these black and white shots were used as masks in Nuke to make the shadows move across the walls of the island. In addition to the design of the island and the shadows, the design of the so-called “barkonaut” was also developed. It is a mixture of a small rowing boat and a hot air balloon, as escaping across the ocean is not possible with a boat alone due to stormy waves.

The composite appearance of the vehicle, made from washed-up components, old planks, nails, fabric patches for the balloon and improvised assemblies in the workshop, gave the “Barkonaut” an authentic character. Artificial intelligence was used to generate construction plans for the barkonaut and maps of the remote island. The images were plotted onto semi-transparent paper and patinated with tea to give the maps an aged look. The door to a secret workshop, a painting of the island, was made especially for the film by painting student Elisaveta Bogushevskaya.

Sculpting the island

As the final island model was used as a reference for the above-mentioned painting in the film and some other parts of the set design, the island had to be ready several weeks before shooting began. The sculpting of the island was done entirely in Zbrush. Depending on the concepts, a rough silhouette was first defined, then smaller details were worked out. With the exception of the details in the rocks, the entire island was sculpted completely by hand and without procedural aids.

As the island model in Zbrush ultimately had a very high resolution of over 4 million active points, a lower-resolution duplicate of the base mesh was created, which contained fewer details and would speed up the further texturing process. This mesh required less computational work in programmes such as Houdini or Substance Painter and thus facilitated the entire work process. In Blender, the low-resolution mesh was UV unwrapped. The high-resolution mesh was then projected onto this reduced mesh in Substance Painter in order to retain all the details of the original model in the maps generated in Substance Painter.

Modelling & Texturing

The story takes place on an island threatened by decay. Wind and water have reduced the piece of land, which was once richly populated, to a minimum. A sparse amount of dilapidated houses are the last thing left on the island, but even these will not last much longer. The house assets were divided into five complexes before filming and arranged based on the set scan. An attempt was made to create a recognisable silhouette by varying the heights of the buildings and a tower whose top had been broken off. After the shoot, the models were refined in Blender and customised with Kitbash assets.

As the houses were almost only shown in supertotal shots, it was possible to keep the models low-resolution with only around 100,000 polygons. The roof tiles, for example, were not modelled individually, but were just flat roofs onto which roof tile textures were projected. However, for two shots in which one of the house walls was used as a set extension, a detailed asset with 338,394 polygons had to be modelled. When texturing in Adobe Substance 3D Painter, the wall colours, as found in the set, were adopted and digitally patinated using various layers. Stains and elements that contributed to the worn, dirty look were painted by hand.

The digital colour and structure of the barkonaut’s balloon also had to match that of the real equipment. The basket could be designed more freely, as the real basket is hardly ever seen in the film, but it also had to look worn and dirty. To achieve this, the layers were first projected using smart masks and then adjusted by hand. For the most part, the software’s own PBR textures were used, but textures from Textures.com were used for the roof tiles.

Shooting preparations

Careful planning is extremely important for a production with around 60 people involved. Especially for the smooth realisation of the VFX shots, it should be as clear as possible in advance what will be seen and what you should pay particular attention to during the shoot. Basically, the filming preparation can be divided into two sections: firstly, the internal VFX coordination of the various tasks and secondly, the communication of the VFX-relevant information with the other departments.

The internal preparation ran in parallel and in close collaboration with the director and the DOP. Once the script had been developed to such an extent that it was foreseeable that there would be no major changes, an initial calculation of the VFX shots could be made. Thanks to the existing Previz, the calculation was quite accurate and there were few surprises, as it was easy to see in the virtual set whether the shots could be realised as planned. Based on the calculation, all assets and shots were created in Shotgrid, divided into individual tasks and distributed to the various people. This resulted in an extremely precise schedule, which enabled a largely smooth realisation. Working backwards from the deadline, it was easy to recognise when which tasks had to be completed in order to have enough time for subsequent tasks and still meet the deadline. The calculation, assets, shots and tasks were regularly revised when changes were made to the resolution or the script.

Communication with the other departments involved was essential to ensure that the shots could actually be realised as planned. The above-mentioned painting of the island was also created as part of the set on the basis of an early rendering of the 3D island, which ensured a consistent and coherent depiction of the island.

Plan B’s production designers were able to make targeted additions to the existing set construction using the virtual model, which meant that set extensions could be largely avoided and the real and virtual sets could be made to match. The special effects department, which was responsible for the destruction of the lamp as well as the inflation of the balloon, also had a virtual simulation to fall back on. Based on the simulation, which clearly visualised the inflation process, the set could be built in such a way that the balloon could actually be inflated with the help of a wind machine and the actors could enter the basket of the balloon.

Set supervision and DIT

The combination of CGI and live-action film presents a few more difficulties than the purely animated film that the VFX students produced in their first year. In addition to thorough planning, realisation is one of the most important steps. The role of the VFX supervisor is responsible for the interface between the director, camera and the final post-production.

The aim is to plan and prepare the VFX shots as accurately as possible so that the post-production schedule can be adhered to. The focus is also on recognising and preventing potential problems that would cost a lot of time and money later on. Another important task of the supervisor is data acquisition on set.

There are many tools that provide helpful information during the shoot and make realisation easier later on. Camera and lens data are extremely important. This information must be known so that a seamless transition between VFX and the original material shot is possible. For Wind Up, a LiDAR scan was also used to improve the tracking of the planned set extension.

This was created directly after the shot was filmed. The key is to capture as much important data as possible at the right moment without holding up the entire shoot. The supervisor is also responsible for finding the best compromise between the valuable time on set and the avoidable additional work in post-production. The students were supported by Prof Jürgen Schopper, 3D mentor Berter Orpak and Pipeline TD Jonas Kluger throughout the filming period.

The different “roles” were rotated daily between the 5 VFX students so that everyone could gain an insight into the different activities. They also took on the tasks of the DIT (Digital Imaging Technician). Thanks to a mobile workstation, not only can the backups be made, but the dailies can also be rendered directly. Another advantage was the ability to process 3D scans on site and create slap comps to identify potential problems.

Simulation

An island in the water and a balloon that inflates and flies away were the two simulation tasks. Several full CG shots were planned, in which the island was to be seen surrounded by water, partly with an expanding and flying balloon. The real balloon was measured, photographed and recreated from these references in Blender.

The basket of the balloon was only created on the side facing the interior based on the real one, the rest was modelled inspired by our own concepts. The idea was a flying lifeboat, a so-called “Barkonaut”. This model was revised based on the advice of simulation specialist Felix Hörlein in order to optimise the resolution and distribution of the topology for the subsequent simulation in Houdini. The size of the opening through which the balloon was to expand, as measured on set, was recreated virtually as a collision geometry to ensure that the CG settings matched the real filmed settings well. After several versions and adjustments of various parameters in Houdini, the fabric finally behaved as desired and the simulation looked convincing.

The loneliness is mainly told through the huge and empty ocean in the background. The interaction between the water and the island was one of the biggest challenges in achieving a realistic end product. Like the balloon, the water in Houdini was also simulated and shaded. The latest FLIP solver was used to calculate the base water.

For high efficiency over the entire process, the simulation area was limited to a small part around the island. This allows a fast workflow even with a high scaling of several million particles. In this area, the input parameters were extracted from the original ocean in order to use them as parameters for the simulation. The level of detail of the water is largely represented by the whitewater, which is then calculated as a function of the water simulation. Not only the water, but also the wind influence the dynamics of the spray. To make the behaviour even more realistic, an airfield simulation was simulated around the island so that the turbulence in the air also works.

Lighting, shading & rendering

The aim was to use lighting to create an atmosphere and mood on set that emphasised a tight and oppressive feeling. To ensure that this mood is not interrupted by the full CG shots, the lighting has to be adapted to the mood. Whilst the lighting contributes a lot to the overall mood, it also plays a crucial role in terms of the realism we are aiming for. To give the impression that computer-generated elements are part of the real world, light and shadow must fall on them correctly. Careful lighting ensures that the island is seamlessly integrated into the scenes and matches the real lighting conditions, some of which are provided by the stock footage.

The professional help of CG supervisor Frank Dürschinger, who supported the students with the basic principles of lighting through to the individual shots, was also important here. However, light alone is not enough to create a photorealistic image. The interaction with the light is influenced by the shaders. As the entire process of lighting, shading and rendering took place in Houdini, the students used MaterialX shaders to guarantee a high degree of flexibility between the programmes. To increase the level of realism, the texture of the island was combined with several PBR materials.

The resulting improved level of detail creates a real look even with closer settings. A modified version of the Houdini shader was used for the water and spray. To maximise the scope for compositing, the image was split into several layers and rendered individually. This makes it possible to adjust areas such as whitewater, the island or the balloon afterwards. Individual AOVs were also calculated in the respective layers, for example to make the light in the balloon flicker or to re-insert the reflection in the water. The use of the Karma render engine enables a very efficient and fast workflow overall. This was also important for the lighting due to the real-time factor.

Compositing

Lino’s anxiety, which is symbolised by shadows, was visually represented using real rotated ink spreads. With the help of Nuke, the recorded elements were used as masks to darken specific areas. To break up the fluid look and give the “shadows” a creepy, organic aspect, the ink shots were also distorted with noise.

To keep objects and actors in the foreground, they were rotoscoped in the scenes where the shadow spread was located. For shadow shots with tracking shots, the movement was tracked to allow for the integration of the shadows; for static shots, minimal camera movement was added in post-production to increase authenticity.

The students integrated the rendered island model in the long shots of the island with real ocean footage to create a more appropriate atmosphere. The overly friendly sky of the original footage was replaced with more dramatic matte paintings to emphasise the sombre mood.

The black and white levels of the digital image were then adjusted to achieve a seamless integration with the original shot. The digital island blended more realistically with the real ocean through simulated white water effects and supporting VFX elements such as fog. Additional effects such as lens distortion and chromatic aberration contributed to the fusion of CGI and real footage.

To add scenes with a visible exterior wall of a building on the island, the students extended the physical set. With the help of 3D equaliser expert Ando Avila, the camera movements of the crane ride were tracked and reconstructed in digital space. This enabled a correct representation of the digital set in conjunction with the original shot, supported by additional VFX elements such as fog and particles for seamless integration.

In the film sequence where Lino’s fear reaches its climax and he goes into a panicked state where he perceives his grandmother as a demon-like being, her altered appearance was also supported with visual effects. The eyes were tracked in Nuke, rotoscoped and coloured black, while retaining the real highlights to preserve the plastic appearance of the eye.

In addition to the main tasks, inattentions that happened during the shoot were also addressed. This included removing the special effects operator including his leaf blower in the background or adding a forgotten oil lamp to the barkonaut’s burner. The finished VFX settings were delivered by the HFF students to the post-production company Pharos. There, senior colourist Andreas Lautil not only gave the entire film the finishing touches with his cinematic colour grading, but also by taking over the VFX shots. For the compositing tasks, the students received support from Nuke expert Martin Tallosy.

Soundtrack & sound mixing

The musical and tonal layer of the film was extremely important, as it not only emphasised the moods of the characters in all the scenes, but also provided a way to make the location and supernatural events such as the shadows more believable and real. The film’s music was composed by film composer Victor Ardelean. As part of his final thesis at the Munich University of Music and Theatre, it was even possible to record parts of the final composition with the Munich Symphony Orchestra.

Rehearsing and recording with such a large and renowned orchestra was a unique and unforgettable opportunity, not only for the composer but also for the rest of the team. The final piece “Ballonflucht” in particular has an epic orchestral sound that emphasises the final scene and its hopeful mood.

The tonal layer had two main tasks: the acoustic unification of the scenes shot entirely in the studio with the narrative location on an island in the sea and the visualisation of the living shadows. Since the entire film had been shot in a studio building, the soundscape of an island surrounded by the roaring ocean had to be added later. Artistic collaborator Dr Rodolfo Anes Silveira took over the sound mixing here and added subconscious sound elements in addition to the obvious sounds. In addition to the sound of waves and the occasional screech of a seagull, you can practically feel the breaking of the waves on the rocks of the island in the form of a deep bass rhythm in your own chest. The acoustic design of a short film is often a creative challenge, especially when the question arises: How can shadows sound at all?

The answer to this proved to be subtle and yet effective. Whispering noises, crackles and pops were mainly used to shape the acoustic identity of the shadows. The audience should not only see the shadows, but also literally feel their presence. The quiet but haunting sounds meant that the shadows were no longer just an embodiment of fears and evil, but also a reminder of actual dangers such as real cracks in the walls.

The post WIND UP – Family drama on a desert island first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by HFF Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München.

by Mayra Ebensen, Silvia Loose and Paula Wodniok

Story development began in October 2022, during the weekly meetings with our Professor Jürgen Schopper. We received strong support from Dr Rodolfo Anes Silveira, Jonas Kluger, Berter Orpark and our team assistant Petra Hereth. We discussed many concept ideas and styles that we wanted to try out, and that’s how our team finally came together. The three of us – Mayra Ebensen, Silvia Loose and Paula Wodniok – were all interested in a very stylised animated film.
After the first story outlines and concept drawings, we finally agreed on a children’s film with a scary factor, initially set on Halloween and with a rather humorous tone. We later moved away from this theme, but the core of the story remained: the child’s unique creativity and overcoming fears. To further explore the depth of the character, we had the support of psychologist Dr Walter Stehling, who gave a seminar on the hero’s journey and character motivation.

Concept Art

Our story is about childhood fears, especially the fear of the dark and of being alone. For the eerie atmosphere of the old house where our whole story takes place, we drew inspiration from art nouveau architecture and films such as Henry Selick’s “Coraline” and “The Nightmare before Christmas”. Ornate designs and the complementary colour scheme were intended to give our setting something unreal.

In order to visually emphasise our character’s fear, we designed the rooms of the environment to be crooked and huge in comparison to the main character. We also wanted the lighting design in the entrance hall and corridor to appear cool and unfriendly.

The small play corner in the attic, on the other hand, was to be like a safe oasis for our protagonist. The walls are hung with real children’s drawings and their toys are scattered on the floor. In addition to the attic, the most important setting is the entrance hall. We incorporated a lot of Art Nouveau elements here: the large window front, with curved arched windows and an ornamental door, the ornate coat rack and the curved, winding banister are modelled on the organic design of Art Nouveau.

In terms of colour, we wanted to limit ourselves to blue-purple and yellow. The shadows and rooms are predominantly kept in cool and dark tones, which makes the yellow tones of the light colours stand out all the more and trigger a feeling of warmth and security.

Animatic

We had time to work on the story until the beginning of February and created the storyboard with the help of Prof Michael Coldewey. Every week there were new variations of editing and camera angles, with self-recorded sounds and music. We drew the floor plan of the house, planned how our characters would move around in the rooms and where the camera would have to be positioned to avoid any off-centre shots. At the same time, we built the first rough models of the characters and the house to get a feel for the size and effect of the shots in 3D space. Gradually, we mixed our drawn 2D animatic with the 3D animatic. We regularly updated this hybrid with our progress until we had finalised all the shots while maintaining the painterly style in a symbiosis of 2D and 3D.

Character design/model

We wanted to keep the look of our main character relatively simple, but with plenty of room for manoeuvre in her expressions. Her cartoon-like design, with lots of round shapes and a large head, contrasts with our second character, the long, skinny monster.
During the whole process of sculpting and rigging, Benc Orpak was at our side as a tutor. The girl’s body is sculpted and rigged in Blender and her mouth can be moved using a combination of different shapekeys.

The eyes were hand-painted on her head in all shots. This method gave us more freedom in her facial expressions, whereas modelled eyes would have restricted us.
Various combinations of animals immediately came to mind for the design of the monster.
In the very first concept drawings, it still had a very bug-like appearance, but gradually more animals were added. Sometimes it had a beak, sometimes a huge mouth and rabbit feet, until we finally came up with the moth as the main inspiration.

This insectoid model led us to the wings and the fluffy chest area. The long, scrawny arms are modelled on stick insects and the monster’s paws with pointed claws give the whole thing a heavy and terrifying look.

The flowing Art Nouveau design is also reflected in the shape of its antlers. They snake along its head and give the monster an elegant recognisable feature: when it first appears, the creature emerges from the shadow of an ornamental coat stand. It retains this design in its antlers until the end, while its body undergoes various metamorphoses.

Environment

We wanted to convey the character and age of the house through the furnishings and interior design. So after we had built the rough layout and basic model in Blender, we distorted the walls, furniture and windows so that there were hardly any straight lines in the background. The painterly style we had in mind should also be reflected in the modelling itself: To achieve this, we built almost all the assets ourselves, we distorted all the objects and for the curved details we worked a lot with curves.
The biggest challenge for us was the fabric simulation of the curtains on which the final shadow play showdown takes place. The shader initially caused the materiality and drapery of the curtains to be lost. We were able to counteract this by lavishly draping the folds and selectively sculpted the light. The girl interacts with the curtains, with her hands acting as hooks. There is also wind that moves the fabric slightly. For the shadow animation on the fabric, however, the sheets had to remain as still as possible to avoid intersections with the Grease Pencil.

Shading

At the beginning of the project, none of us had any experience with shading, which didn’t make our complex idea of the painterly style in 3D space any easier. We used Alan Wyatt’s Painterly Shader, which worked very well for still images, but gave us problems as soon as the camera moved. We were finally able to prevent the textures from running by reworking the node tree. Our 3D mentor Berter Orpak helped us in particular to adjust the shader for the main character and to integrate it uniformly into the environments. To break up the corners and edges of the individual assets for a painted look, we used geo-nodes. As geo nodes are generated anew for each frame, we customised them individually for each shot. The particular challenge of the shader was that we could only set one shadow colour and one light colour each, so we had no midtones, which severely limited the choice of colours and made it difficult to set the lighting. We were finally able to solve the problem during compositing in Nuke, where we had much more opportunity to manipulate the colouring and the image looked less flat. Claudia Fuchs added the final visual touches in colour grading, giving the film a coherent look.

Animation

To bring our characters to life, we used different animation styles to convey the essence of our characters. We received great help from Prof Melanie Beisswenger, who supported us for months to dive deeper into the art of character animation.
For the little girl in our film, we developed a mixture of traditional hand-drawn animation for eye and facial expressions and 3D animation. This hybrid approach allowed us to give her a unique charm. We animated her by hand throughout the film, using the reference videos we filmed as a guide.

As we didn’t narrate any dialogue, the body language of our protagonist became all the more expressive and small details such as a brief shrug of the shoulders made her and her emotions seem much more human.
The monstrous antagonist, on the other hand, required a completely different approach. The monster goes through three phases in the story: It transforms from a static and two-dimensional shadow on the wall to a dynamic purposeful shadow to a manifested 3D monster. During this process, we also changed the style of the animation to a grotesque one. Through this stylised aesthetic and its exaggerated proportions, we locate the monster in the world of fantasy and shadows animated by fear.

Music

The close collaboration with composers Victor Ardelean and Julia Chen in the early development phase led to a creative partnership. We discussed the musical perspective on our story with them and had the opportunity to fill in small gaps in the story before the production phase began. We received the first drafts and musical ideas soon after. At that time, only a few shots had a finalised look. The composers had a colourful mixture of drawn 2D animatic, Greyshade blocks from the Previs and filmed references as a template. It was all the more impressive to see how the music even took scenes at this rough animation level into account and turned them into a film. This allowed the composition of the music to influence the animation throughout the film and vice versa. The prerequisite for this was that the timing of the shots was as accurate as possible. We discussed the final fine adjustments to the music and timing together in the recording studio at the music academy.

Language

Although we have no dialogue in the film, we had to record sounds such as breathing, laughing or monster noises in the recording studio. Nedda Denk lent her voice to our child as a dubbing artist. Her voice, which already sounded very young, was later slightly enhanced in the sound mix by our sound designer Gerhard Auer, making it indistinguishable from real children’s voices.
Severin Denk provided us with great scary monster noises, which were later also pitched and integrated into the sound design. The voice recordings were a new challenge for all of us because – unlike with dubbed films – all the sounds and emotions had to be improvised without a visual template or even lip movements. It was important to think about all the sounds that we might need later in some way in advance. We also included snippets of dialogue that we didn’t have in the script at the time, because we wanted to leave room for changes for the later animation process. In the end, we finished the voice recordings
with a seemingly disproportionate amount of takes and variations. We were all the more grateful in the end during crunch time when we wanted to add and replace some expressions for clarity and were able to draw on our archive without any complications.

As there is no original sound in the animated film, Gerhard Auer built a “radio play” for it. He created the sonic atmosphere for all the rooms and recorded follies, such as the crunching of leather for the monster or the rubbing of fabric when the curtain or the girl moves.

An essential chapter of the story was the enchanting world of shadow puppetry. Carola Kärcher, a professional shadow puppeteer, supported us in this endeavour. We brought her into the team in April, at the very beginning of the production phase. We talked about our idea in Zoom meetings and showed her our animatic. Together with her, we thought about how we could design our shadow plays, both visually and dramaturgically. Mrs Kärcher developed some ideas and sent them to us as reference videos.

Of course, we also had to consider the special features of our protagonist. For example, our character has four fingers on each hand and one of them is stuck in a dinosaur hand puppet the whole time. These details had to be incorporated into the shadow play performance. Despite these limitations, Mrs Kärcher presented us with numerous impressive ways in which we could make use of them. This ultimately enabled us to create shadow puppetry scenes that could only come from our main character and her unique imagination.

All shadow play is hand-drawn frame by frame. We used the Grease Pencil feature in Blender for this. We were able to easily draw shadow plays that take place on a flat wall in our 3D space in the 2D animation workspace and then insert them as objects in our environment. Grease Pencil was particularly helpful for animating a shadow play in perspective directly in the 3D scene, which spreads over several levels.

The post Shadow play in Blender first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by HFF Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München.

World VFX Day will now be celebrated annually on 8 December around the world to recognise the achievements and contributions of the VFX community in the world of entertainment and beyond. The event was created in 2023 by a group of VFX studios, organisations and professionals to raise the profile of the VFX industry, promote unity and contribute to greater overall global recognition.

There will be live streamed talks, talks and panel discussions throughout the day from Victor Preez, Ian Failes in conversation with Joans Ussing (Space Office FX) and Paul Franklin (Dneg), the Ocean Tools from Important Looking PIrates, Unnreal in use at Framestore, Virtual Production Showcases and many more topics around the “human” side of VFX.

If you are in Munich (or Bavaria), you can watch the short presentations from all over the world live in the HFF cinema during the day from 9 am to 7 pm and in the evening from 7 pm there will be a get-together with VFX artists from Munich – snacks and drinks will be provided. Click here to register for free – please forward!

https://anmeldung.hff-muc.de/vfx/worldfvxday2023/

For everyone else, here is the livestream, which starts from Hugo’s Desk.

The contributors to ‘World VFX Day’ are ready: Framestore, DNEG, Ghost VFX, MPC, Pixomondo, ILM, Mavericks, Moonraker, WētāFX, Untold Studios, Cinesite, beloFX, Milk FX, Blue Bolt, Afro VFX, Territory Studio, Important Looking Pirates, Jellyfish Pictures, Firebrand VFX, Access VFX, View Conference, FMX – Film & Media Exchange, Escape Studios, The Rookies, NextGen Skills Academy, Foundry, Corridor Digital, Befores and Afters, Humans of VFX and more – it’s going to grow, we reckon!

Why 8 December? It’s a tribute to the birthday of George Méliès, a filmmaker who was one of the most prolific early pioneers of visual effects.

The post WorldVFXDay 2023 im Livestream! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Some time has passed since our first report on “The Element” – at least in the fast-moving world of software. But now version 2.0 is available for download – and here is an excerpt of the latest features – whether it was worth the wait or whether you should simply switch your asset management to this system now is up to you.

Together what belongs together!

The outstanding feature of the 2.0 release is that the element now brings together all parts of a 3D asset – not just the geometry, but also textures. In everyday life, this means that searching for textures and their maps is now done in seconds.

Even if assets from other sources are used, they can be organised and found in a clear standard – and nobody has to try to assign sloppily named folders any more! But not only textures – render layers, normals and roughness files are also combined, categorised and made searchable.

And just to remind you: the element manages, indexes, analyses, searches and presents images, icons, image sequences, 3D assets, 3D SceneFiles (Houdini, Maya, Blender …), project files (Nuke, After Effects, Photoshop …), HDRI images, 360° videos and even PDFs.

Infinite scroller

In principle, there are not “too many assets” – but it can be difficult to find them. The new element offers a corresponding view for this: In the “infinite window” you can simply browse through everything without distraction – also good if you don’t know exactly what you want yet and just want to have a look at what’s available in the library.

As everything is AI-based nowadays, the element naturally also includes this – here in the variant that similar assets are found – be it to tidy up the database, for variations of a shot or simply because you can’t get enough of a motif, it’s up to you!

Users who have footage and plates with different elements that are similar in their initial state – I’m just saying explosions – will find the new video player handy. Within the element, you can see what happens beyond the preview frame – and rotate, flip or fold the image with just one click – and see whether the plate is suitable for the special “upside down” application.

Anyone who collects HDR spheres – and let’s be honest, who doesn’t – needs a preview where you can see exactly what is happening – which is why there is now an exposure slider for quickly adjusting the brightness. Handy for everyday use, but why don’t the other tools have this too?

Other features, such as an enhanced ingest for all possible formats, a tidier (or customisable by you!) interface, as well as better error descriptions for ingest and pipeline, and lots of bug fixes and minor adjustments are of course also included.

If you’re feeling nostalgic or want to get an overview, you can download the first article from DP 22:02 as a free PDF here . And if you want to give it a try, have a look here: das-element.com

The post A new element is here! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.