Creatures made of tree branches and roots seem to have a firm place in the history of
VFX. Just think of Treebeard in The Lord of the Rings, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinoccio, Groot or the creature in Seven Minutes Past Midnight. In this tradition we created woodland – an animated short film that we produced under the direction of Prof. Jürgen Schopper in the VFX programme at the HFF. Even though our forest creature may look rather frail next to many of his wooden colleagues, he more than makes up for it with his musical talent.

In search of ideas

Even before active story development began in October 2023, our team had come together. Woodland is the result of the creative work of Jim Obmann, Emil Pogolski and Vanessa Chu. We wanted to create a film in a fantastic, surreal environment, far removed from the world we know. For months we played through different scenarios, wrote countless script drafts and created concepts of fantasy creatures and environments. Our ideas took us from the deep sea to the highest mountain peaks, caves, abandoned cities and desert planets. In these Lived whales, golems, basilisks and other fantasy creatures – including a “moon calf”, which played the leading role. Among these figures was a rough sketch of a gnarled forest creature playing a flute… However, in view of the countless options, we didn’t immediately recognise the potential of this character.

Although the settings and characters of our designs were very different, there were fortunately
also many similarities: Survival in a desolate world, a melancholic, sometimes gloomy mood, the contrast of light and shadow, the magical effect of the music – all of these elements appeared again and again. In the end, we were able to agree on a final film plot that united these motifs. The old forest creature reappeared as the main character. In months of work
Woodland took shape in this way: The story of a wooden creature, who, as the protector of nature, must save his forest from endless darkness. His only hope: a fragile flower flute. For only the music of this flute can dispel the clouds that block out the life-giving sunlight.

From text to image

It all began with a spontaneous pencil sketch. The bent, asymmetrical posture of the drawn figure, as well as her melancholy expression. Numerous digital drawings followed, which refined the design more precisely. The aim was to develop a clear design language without sacrificing seemingly natural elements. The aim was to find a balance between heaviness and fragility. This is why the final Concept Pieces of bark layered like scales on the head and torso alternate with flexible root strands that form the creature’s arms, neck and stomach.

Vanessa Chu and Jim Obmann designed the concept of the “flower flute” according to a similar principle: the wafer-thin petals are arranged in a spiral around the stem which functions as a sound box. In order to play the flute, the petals have to be pressed shut so that the knotholes in the stem of the flute are covered – similar to the keys of a clarinet. This allowed us to combine an interesting design with functionality.

Storyboard & previsualisation

Prof Michael Coldewey and Dr Rodolfo Anes Silveira supported us in creating the storyboard. We created pencil drawings for each shot, which we cut out and rearranged again and again. This gave us the opportunity to play with different editing variations. We drew the final version digitally. Here we fine-tuned the Composition and an initial colour script that would later help us with the lighting.

Before we started with the 3D previs, we decided to take an additional step as preparation: we filmed a “real film version” in the Ebersberg forest. Our storyboard served as a template. By filming with a real camera, we got a very good idea of which pans and movements were realistic. In doing so we moved more in the direction of more static camera work, away from the often unrealistic possibilities of a 3D camera. This calmer concept lent more authenticity and clarity to the story. Storyboard and live-action film together created a stable basis for the 3D previs. A rough animation of the character and the first sound concept soon made it possible to assess the overall effect of our film and to make final changes to the pacing.

Pipeline & workflow

Jonas Kluger was always on hand to help us plan an effective workflow. He explained how to use Shotgrid and Prism software, which made Project management a lot easier. Even in the deepest jungle of linked Blender scenes, rigs, FBX files and textures, we were able to keep an overview.

A forest creature is created

The challenge now was to realise our drawn concepts in 3D. Emil Pogolski used Zbrush to sculpt the forest creature. Our character went through a series of metamorphoses until we finally succeeded in sculpturally reconstructing the expressiveness of the drawings.

In addition, the model was edited with regard to the animation. We opted for a mixture of ball joints and mouldable elements to give the character enough freedom of movement despite its sometimes rigid wooden structure. This also applies to the facial expressions: while the eyelids, nose and mouth are united in a single mesh, the eyebrows move separately from the head as a mosaic of fixed wooden panels. All of the figure’s blendshapes were created (also in Zbrush) using sculpting layers.

We built the flower flute in Blender, also using Blendshapes for the wilting of the petals. A rough reference model of the flute served as a template in Zbrush. The hands and fingers of the forest creature were adapted to the final model. This ensured that the character and asset were a good match. For the modelling of the bud from which the flute was to be modelled, we took a close look at the growth of real plants.

In the virtual forest

The most challenging task during the creation of our film was the environment. The aim was to build an ancient forest whose trees were slowly decaying from lack of light. Here, too, we attached great importance to a detailed elaboration of the tree bark, leaves, roots and undergrowth.

This task would have been almost impossible to complete using traditional modelling methods in the time we were given. As a solution, Jim developed a system of geometry nodes in Blender with which we were able to procedurally design a large number of unique trees.

Curves were used to define the basic shape of the trunk, while the leaf density, number of branches and structure of the bark could be controlled with specially created parameters.

In addition, we allowed clusters of tree fungi to grow on the bark, including procedurally variable fungal size and density.

We also had the same flexibility with the shape and thickness of the tree branches (which we could let hang down sadly if required). Depending on the layout, we distributed self-made 3D scans of rotten tree trunks, rock formations and roots in the environment. This completed the overall impression of a dark, mystical forest.

Texturing

We wanted Woodland to be a tactile, detailed film. That’s why we decided early on in favour of PBR shading with high-resolution normal and displacement maps. In Zbrush, Emil modelled larger details such as the eye wrinkles and coarse Bark structures of the character. In the next step, we projected this highpoly Model in Substance Painter onto the lowpoly mesh, which had previously been cleanly retopologised in Maya. We distributed the texel density of the lowpoly mesh over several UDIM-tiles in order to maximise the good performance of the blender scenes despite the high level of detail.

Rigging

The humanoid proportions of our character allowed us to use the Blender add-on Autorig Pro as the basis for the rig. Vanessa manually adjusted the weights to anatomical features, such as the forest creature’s flexible neck.
After a few iterations and the support of Benc Orpak, the body rig was ready. For the facial expressions, we built a control panel to quickly control the character’s 20 blendshapes quickly. This also made it easy to create combinations of several blendshapes. Jim rigged the flower flute completely by hand. Its complex rig made it possible not only to manipulate each petal individually, but also the overall shape of the flute. So the growth of the flower from a bud to a fully unfolded flute.

Performance capture

Before the shoot, we had already tried to empathise with the role of the forest creature and
possible movement sequences. It quickly became clear that Jim would be best suited as a MoCap actor. David Emmenlauer was on hand on the day of filming with valuable Advice on the day of filming. He explained how to use the Xsens suit and the associated software so that we could get the most out of Jim’s performance. We used sandbags, elastic bands and a heavy rucksack to restrict our performer’s freedom of movement. This allowed us to bring our idea of a frail forest creature even closer. The foundation for the animation was laid.

Animation

Retargeting turned out to be a challenge: the bones from the MoCap data had to be manually transferred to the final rig. The edited motion data provided an initial starting point for the long animation process that followed. Only the Blender add-on Animation Layers allowed us to bring the forest creature fully to life. We first corrected all imperfections in the MoCap data in order to edit them using manual animation. All the nuances of the flute playing, the the intricate hand movements and the expressiveness of the facial expressions were animated by Vanessa and Jim by hand. They received feedback from Melanie Beisswenger, who also taught us the theory of animation technique. Seeing how, step by step, a vivid character with convincing emotions was a fascinating experience with every new shot.

Light and shadow

Light is one of the most important elements in the story of Woodland. What mattered to us was a strong contrast between light and dark. The oppressive mood of a dying Forest was to be set against the dawning of sunlight. But how do you tell the absence of light without plunging the film plot into darkness?
We decided to solve this problem with a clear colour scheme. The dark forest is bathed in a cold blue-green colour, with a tinge of violet in the shadow areas. In contrast, warmer colours return to the forest with the sunlight – the blue-green is replaced by light ochre and orange tones. To achieve this effect, Emil used numerous area lights in Blender in combination with a volume.

This volume allowed us to create a depth effect and make the rays of sunlight visible. We also sorted all the lights into light groups so that we could adjust them later in compositing. This enabled us to visually separate the character from the environment even in the densest tangle of branches and to bring out all the details even in the dark forest.

Rendering & compositing

We decided early on to render with Cycles. This allowed us to achieve the desired Quality of all transmission, subsurface and volume effects. For the necessary flexibility in compositing, we created masks for the forest creature and its flute for each shot. Nevertheless, we struggled with rendering errors – which were eventually overcome with even more patience. The effort was worth it: the final renders lived up to our expectations. We now put all the render passes together in Nuke to create the finished overall image. Here we came a lot closer to the desired look. We increased the visual clarity the visual clarity of the shots, directing the audience’s gaze to the important image elements. In Nuke we also animated the sunlight, which we had always rendered in a separate light group.

Colour grading

Together with colourist Claudia Fuchs, we achieved the final look, corrected minor rendering errors and added grain. With a subtle radial blur at the edges of the image, we underlined the sometimes dreamlike mood of the film. This put the finishing touches to all the scenes – the work on the visual part was complete.

Wood creaking and flute music

As our film manages without any dialogue, the music plays a very special role. In Woodland, it is not just “background music”, but a fundamental part of the film’s plot. It guides the audience through all the emotional states of the forest creature: from Self-forgetfulness to sadness to hope. This music is the work of our great Composer Lukas Stipar, who, in addition to film music, writes pieces for video games and theatre plays. The sound design took place under the direction of sound engineer Stefan Möhl. The forest was now given an atmospheric sound backdrop, while the gnarled joints creak and crackle with every movement. All animations and textures suddenly seemed even more believable as the sound gave the film a whole new depth.

Retrospective

Working on our first animated film at the HFF demanded a lot of perseverance from us. It was an instructive, exciting journey to the final version with one or two unforeseen twists and turns. We spent almost a whole year in the virtual forest of Woodland, so that in the end we found it difficult to detach ourselves from our work. It always seemed just one or two opportunities for improvement. But the finished film comes closer to our expectations than we initially thought possible. Now we can look back with satisfaction on a long, successful teamwork – and are already looking forward to the next VFX project!

The team

Munich University of Television and Film presents: A film by Vanessa Chu, Jim Obmann, Emil Pogolski

Woodland

Screenplay / Modelling / Texturing / Rigging / Animation / Lighting / Compositing: Vanessa Chu, Jim Obmann, Emil Pogolski
Producer Konstantin Kunze
Composer: Lukas Stipar
Overall management: Prof. Jürgen Schopper
Project supervision: Dr Rodolfo Anes Silveira
Visual Effects Pipeline TD: Jonas Kluger
Mentor 3D Computer Animation: Berter Orpak
Production Management: Ina Mikkat
Team Assistance Production Management: Ron Sikkes
Team assistance: Petra Hereth
Assembly supervision: Prof Beatrice Babin, Prof Michael Palm, Yuval Tzafrir
Colour Grading: Claudia Fuchs
Mixing: Stefan Möhl
Postproduction Supervisor: Christoffer Kempel
Room scheduling: Beate Bialas, Sabina Kannewischer
Editing: Christine Schorr, Yuval Tzafrir
Technical support: Benedikt Geß, Florian Schneeweiß
Equipment HFF Munich: Rainer Christoph
Studio management: Peter Gottschall, Andreas Beckert
Conforming: Martin Foerster

Sirius string quartet, clarinettist Eve Georges

Thanks to our lecturers Prof. Melanie Beisswenger, Prof. Michael Coldewey, David Emmenlauer, Kathrin Hawelka, Benc Orpak, Dr Walter Stehling.

Special thanks to Edgar Bauer, Mayra Ebensen, Paula Wodniok, Silvia Loose, Franz Stöcker, Felix Zachau, Hannes Werner, Alexander Hupp, Ines Timmich, Franziska Bayer, Valentin Dittlmann

Producers Comment

When I started at the HFF, I wasn’t even aware that there were animated films in addition to documentaries and feature films that we production students were allowed to accompany as producers.

by Konstantin Kunze

In the first few weeks of my studies, however, I gradually found out that we could get this opportunity and be allowed to produce an animated film. I approached Vanessa and offered to help her and the team with the production. The offer quickly became a reality and I became part of Team JEV: Team Jim Obmann, Emil Pogolski and Vanessa Chu.
Every week we met with the other team and the lecturers from the VFX department for weekly meetings in which the film was shaped step by step. Starting with brainstorming, script development and then everything to do with the animation and completion of the film. What I’m describing here so casually and briefly was a process that took months and ultimately lasted a year. A process in which I learnt what in-depth character and story development means and what it means to track the progress of an animated film in Shotdeck, to get to know and understand general terms and the workflow of an animation project.

I can only repeat it again and again and take my hat off to Vanessa, Emil and Jim. What you three have achieved over the last year is incredible and I am deeply grateful to you for letting me go along for the ride. Your skills and abilities have made my jaw drop more than once. Seeing how you have grown together as a team and how everyone in the team has found their role based on their skills makes me proud. Proud of your work and especially proud of the three of you.

A big thank you to everyone in the VFX department for their commitment and time, and to everyone else involved, especially the production manager Ina Mikkat and her assistant and good soul in the production department, Daniel Zitzer. If there’s one important thing to take away from the last year, it’s a newfound understanding of what it means to work in VFX. Even if it was only a small insight into the big VFX world, you can now better appreciate what it really means to produce visual effects or animations and that it is not just a ‘job on the side’, as it is often seen in the film industry. Vanessa, Emil and Jim, it was a pleasure to produce this film with you, and if this is your start, then we can’t help but look forward to all the wonderful things to come from you.

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

We made an exception for FMX 2023 because “The Beauty“, a somewhat older project from the Animationsinstitut, simply fitted in perfectly with this year’s FMX motto EVOLVING, which deals with sustainability and the environment.

DP: And if we take a look at your FMX time: What was your favourite trailer?
Mario Müller: The great thing about the FMX trailers over the years is the wide range of techniques used. I particularly remember “Globosome” from FMX 2012(is.gd/globosome_fmx – the pictures at the top of the page), “Wrapped” from 2015(is.gd/wrapped_fmx – the pictures at the bottom of the page), and “The Beauty” this year, which is perhaps my overall favourite because of its message and storytelling. If you already like the trailers, the short films they are based on are real revelations
Revelations.

DP: At your first FMX, what were the important themes back then?
Mario Müller: That would be FMX 2012. The topic of the hour was the beginnings of virtual production, which entered the industry with the workflow that had been established for the first Avatar film. Previs, tech-vis, performance capture and virtual camera setups, some with real time feedback, were being used in more and more Tentpole productions, which led to a focal topic with which we tried to bring all aspects and important players to the stage.

DP: And, when FMX takes place, what is the part that you enjoy the most?
Mario Müller: The thing that fascinates me most personally is that the technical, creative and logistical feats that it takes to realise a film with the complexity of today’s blockbusters are performed by completely normal, approachable people that we bring to the stage in the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart.

The fact that these people are usually pleasant contemporaries in conversation before or after their presentation and are happy to talk to us is the greatest gift for me and for many national and international visitors to FMX.

DP: FMX evolves every year – what are you doing differently this time?
Mario Müller: FMX has evolved every year in small steps to pick up the fans of the established as well as those curious about the changes in the industry in the present and take them into the future.

Since we’ve largely left most of the technical hurdles of photorealism of virtual people, creatures and fantastical scenarios behind us, the question is what the industry’s creatives are – and should be – concerned with. In this respect, more “soft” topics have found their way into FMX in recent years, such as working conditions, diversity and equality, and more general media production topics such as storytelling.

On this basis, it was possible – and important – to make the topic of sustainability in film and media production the main focus of FMX this year. There is a lot to do here, and a lot is already being done. Bringing this together for the FMX audience is the big task for FMX 2023.

And while we’re on the subject of sustainability, we’ve also taken the opportunity to transform FMX into a climate-neutral event. A long road, but one that has already led to certification as a climate-friendly event by the Baden-Württemberg Climate Protection Foundation this year.

DP: Since corona, there has been a hybrid version – how has it been received and will you continue with it in the long term?
Mario Müller: As things stand today, the topic of hybrid and online presence is here to stay as long as there is interest and demand for it. As nice and important as the personal meeting on site in Stuttgart is, the online addition to FMX still enables people in other countries to participate in the content of FMX. This expands the circle of participants and reduces the overall number of journeys to and from FMX, which unfortunately cannot be made without CO2 emissions.

In this respect, the offer of an on-site and an online visit to FMX allows both approaches depending on the personal (also financial) possibilities and the ecological awareness of the participants. In particular, we see the offer of being able to access a large part of the FMX offerings as video on demand for several weeks as a great benefit for all visitor groups, because they can watch many presentations, discussions, masterclasses and more as recordings, which they would otherwise miss due to the large number of lectures taking place at the same time during FMX.

DP: If we look at the “focus topics” of FMX, which ones do you think have been particularly interesting in recent years and which topics were just hypes that have already gone away?
Mario Müller: We don’t look at it from that perspective. Some of the topics and trends that have been discussed at FMX over the years have not, or not yet, become established in the industry and the mainstream. However, the discussion about them, especially within the industry and community, are and remain important opportunities to discuss the pros and cons of the respective buzzwords. Some of the topics that have not yet achieved market penetration are nevertheless relevant because they may lead to other important milestones at a later date.

“THE” buzzword of recent years, metaverse, will sooner or later penetrate not only the market but society as a whole, even if a precise definition is still being discussed and work is still being done on standardisation. Nevertheless, the long-promoted immersion of large sections of society in spatially presented content will take shape, for which some previously discussed and supposedly failed XR topics will find application. In this respect, it was and is important for FMX to address most of these trends and topics.

DP: Let’s unpack the crystal ball: What kind of theme will FMX 2030 have?
Mario Müller: I don’t think we can actually imagine it. Many of the topics that the industry and community are currently researching and working on – not least metaverse and artificial intelligence – will lead to changed platforms, marketing channels and working models that are currently still the subject of visionary or dystopian discussions. For me, it remains exciting that we will be able to discuss this more in terms of content and creativity in the future than purely technical challenges and achievements.

DP: Do you already have plans for the next FMX?
Mario Müller: As I said above, FMX 2024 will focus on developments that are constantly changing work in the media & entertainment industry. Increasingly, these changes must also be viewed critically. It has not yet been decided which of these topics, which are already being discussed today, will be the focus of FMX 2024 (a shortlist already exists). First and foremost, however, we – the organisers, speakers and visitors – want to get involved with FMX 2023, which will take place from 25 April on site in Stuttgart, on 28 April online and until the end of May on demand!

The post Behind the FMX.. first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

In nuce: The technology company Rokoko has released free, AI-supported software: Rokoko Video. This software, supported by artificial intelligence, is tailored to motion capturing – and can be controlled via the web browser. Rokoko announced the release of Rokoko Video on 6 December 2022 via the website 3dvf.com .

Start animating with our free AI mocap tool Rokoko Video I Tutorial

In toto: According to the announcement on the company website, Rokoko Video is comparatively easy to use. The first step is for users to upload a video using a webcam, smartphone or comparable moving image recording device. It should be noted that the entire body should be recorded, which users can then edit using motion capturing. The motion data is generated automatically by the software. If required, the same data can be edited using Rokoko Studio (also from Rokoko)(Manuel Skroblin reported in detail for Digital Production on 1 March 2019 about how character animation can look with Rokoko Studio and associated hardware and software solutions). Finally, users import the finished motion capturing into common DCC software such as Maya, Blender, Cinema 4D or Unreal Engine. According to the company, a free version of Rokoko Studio is also available.

Click further: Further information is available via the aforementioned website at 3dvf.com . An alternative to Rokoko Video is Maxon Moves, an app for mobile devices, which Digital Production reported on 5 March 2020 .

The post Motion capturing with Rokoko Video? first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

A team called Akiya Research Institute VR Lab is providing insights into its motion capturing app, which should make it possible to achieve satisfactory body tracking with just two smartphone cams. The app will be available for 100 US dollars upon release or even free of charge during the limited trial phase.

It remains to be seen to what extent the app will be able to hold its own.

The post Body Tracking first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.