Visual Effects Society Awards, VES Awards 2025, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes VFX, Dune Part Two visual effects, The Wild Robot animation, Shōgun TV series VFX, VES, Awards, VFX, AnimationPreheader: The 23rd Annual VES Awards honor top visual effects in film, television, and animation, with notable wins for ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,’ ‘Dune: Part Two,’ and ‘The Wild Robot.’

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Swings to Victory

In a move that surprised absolutely no one, ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ clinched the award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature. The film’s exceptional digital characters and environments left the competition in the dust, showcasing the pinnacle of VFX artistry.

Dune: Part Two Sands Up Multiple Awards

Not to be outdone, ‘Dune: Part Two’ swept through several categories, demonstrating its mastery of visual storytelling. The film dominated in areas such as CG Cinematography, Effects Simulations, and Compositing & Lighting, proving that spice isn’t the only thing it controls.

The Wild Robot Animates Success

In the animation realm, ‘The Wild Robot’ made a significant impact, securing awards for Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature, Character Animation, Effects Simulations, and Environment. Its innovative approach and technical prowess set a new standard for animated storytelling.

Shōgun Commands the Episodic Arena

The episodic category saw ‘Shōgun’ making waves, earning accolades for Outstanding Visual Effects in an Episode, Environments, and Effects Simulations. The series’ commitment to visual excellence and immersive environments captivated audiences and critics alike.

The Penguin Marches to Recognition

‘The Penguin’ solidified its reputation as a visually striking series, receiving praise for its compositing and practical effects. The show’s meticulous attention to detail and seamless integration of visual elements garnered well-deserved acclaim.

And here is the full list of all 25 Categories

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

• Erik Winquist
• Julia Neighly
• Paul Story
• Danielle Immerman
• Rodney Burke

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature Civil War

• David Simpson
• Michelle Rose
• Freddy Salazar
• Chris Zeh
• J.D. Schwalm

Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature The Wild Robot

• Chris Sanders
• Jeff Hermann
• Jeff Budsberg
• Jakob Hjort Jensen

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode Shōgun; Anjin

• Michael Cliett
• Melody Mead
• Philip Engström
• Ed Bruce
• Cameron Waldbauer

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode The Penguin; Bliss

• Johnny Han
• Michelle Rose
• Goran Pavles
• Ed Bruce
• Devin Maggio

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project Star Wars Outlaws

• Stephen Hawes
• Lionel Le Dain
• Benedikt Podlesnigg
• Andi-Bogdan Draghici

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial Coca-Cola; The Heroes

• Greg McKneally
• Antonia Vlasto
• Ryan Knowles
• Fabrice Fiteni

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project D23; Real-Time Rocket

• Evan Goldberg
• Alyssa Finley
• Jason Breneman
• Alice Taylor

Outstanding Character in a Photoreal Feature Better Man; Robbie Williams

• Milton Ramirez
• Andrea Merlo
• Seoungseok Charlie Kim
• Eteuati Tema

Outstanding Character in an Animated Feature The Wild Robot; Roz

• Fabio Lignini
• Yukinori Inagaki
• Owen Demers
• Hyun Huh

Outstanding Character in an Episode, Commercial, Game Cinematic, or Real-Time Project Ronja the Robber’s Daughter; Vildvittran the Queen Harpy

• Nicklas Andersson
• David Allan
• Gustav Åhren
• Niklas Wallén

Outstanding Environment in a Photoreal Feature Dune: Part Two; The Arrakeen Basin

• Daniel Rhein
• Daniel Anton Fernandez
• Marc James Austin
• Christopher Anciaume

Outstanding Environment in an Animated Feature The Wild Robot; The Forest

• John Wake
• He Jung Park
• Woojin Choi
• Shane Glading

Outstanding Environment in an Episode, Commercial, Game Cinematic, or Real-Time Project Shōgun; Osaka

• Manuel Martinez
• Phil Hannigan
• Keith Malone
• Francesco Corvino

Outstanding CG Cinematography Dune: Part Two; Arrakis

• Greig Fraser
• Xin Steve Guo
• Sandra Murta
• Ben Wiggs

Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project Alien: Romulus; Renaissance Space Station

• Waldemar Bartkowiak
• Trevor Wide
• Matt Middleton
• Ben Shearman

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature Dune: Part Two; Atomic Explosions and Wormriding

• Nicholas Papworth
• Sandy la Tourelle
• Lisa Nolan
• Christopher Phillips

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature The Wild Robot

• Derek Cheung
• Michael Losure
• David Chow
• Nyoung Kim

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, Game Cinematic, or Real-Time Project Shōgun; Broken to the Fist; Landslide

• Dominic Tiedeken
• Heinrich Löwe
• Charles Guerton
• Timmy Lundin

Outstanding Compositing & Lighting in a Feature Dune: Part Two; Wormriding, Geidi Prime, and the Final Battle

• Christopher Rickard
• Francesco Dell’Anna
• Paul Chapman
• Ryan Wing

Outstanding Compositing & Lighting in an Episode The Penguin; After Hours

• Jonas Stuckenbrock
• Karen Cheng
• Eugene Bondar
• Miky Girón

Outstanding Compositing & Lighting in a Commercial Coca-Cola; The Heroes

• Ryan Knowles
• Alex Gabucci
• Jack Powell
• Dan Yargici

Outstanding Special (Practical) Effects in a Photoreal Project The Penguin; Safe Guns

• Devin Maggio
• Johnny Han
• Cory Candrilli
• Alexandre Prod’homme

Emerging Technology Award Here; Neural Performance Toolset

• Jo Plaete
• Oriel Frigo
• Tomas Koutsky
• Matteo Olivieri-Dancey

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project Pittura (entry from ARTFX – Schools of Digital Arts, France)

Helloïs Marre

Adam Lauriol

Titouan Lassère

Rémi Vivenza

The post VES Awards 2025: Apes Ascend, Dune Dazzles, Robots Rule first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Günter Hagedorn.

We spoke to Alex Nowotny, one of the FX Supervisors at Weta FX. Now based in New Zealand for over a decade, his previous roles include Effects TD at Dneg, 3D Technical Director at Arri, and more. This has led to several awards – including an Annie Award for “Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects in an Animated Production” in 2023. Since graduating from the University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden in 1999, he has worked on “Lord of the Rings” (3), “John Carter”, “The Hobbit”, “Avatar 2”, “King Kong” and a handful of Marvel films. As well as the last two “Planet of the Apes” films, of course.

DP: Hello Alex! When did you join the team for “Planet of the Apes: New Kingdom”?

Alexander Nowotny: I joined the Planet of the Apes team in October 2023, when the production was slowly moving from the development phase into full production mode.

DP: How big was your team for this film?

Alexander Nowotny: Due to the size of the project (around 1500 VFX shots), we split the FX work between three FX supervisors. My team was mainly involved in editing three major sequences of the film and consisted of about 25 FX technical directors at the peak times. At Weta, an FX supervisor usually handles the tasks for a VFX supervisor. The TDs can move back and forth between teams depending on current needs, but the FX supervisors generally stay with one VFX supervisor, allowing them to build a close, creative working relationship over the course of a long project.

DP: You’d think that with the fourth film in the same universe, everything would go by itself. What did you do differently this time? Were you able to reuse tools, rigs or simulation/environments from “Avatar: The Way of Water” or the previous “Planet of the Apes” films?

Alexander Nowotny: Since completing work on the third film in the Apes series, the working methods and tools in the FX department have changed fundamentally. In 2017, we were still largely a Maya-based department. In the meantime, we switched all our FX workflows to Houdini. The other fundamental change came from the development of Loki, our framework for simulation tasks at Weta, which is used for both effects simulation and creature FX. Loki was developed during the long production phase for “Avatar: The Way of Water” and it offers the user a range of very stable solvers for almost all types of effects: Fluid simulations, calculation of elastic materials, combustion and solid state simulations. The approach for all these tools in Loki has always been to use physically correct simulation models. For the work on “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” we were in the fortunate position to benefit from these established tools and build on their development. The “Planet of the Apes” films have always aspired to go a step further and aim for a more convincing level of photorealism. This is also needed to integrate the artificial ape characters into a real-looking environment. We therefore had to tease out an even higher level of detail and precision from our simulations for fire, plants and especially water.

DP: As far as I can see, there’s a lot of environmental storytelling this time around, with overgrown and run-down locations – and no item that hasn’t passed through at least 50 hands. Given the time jump in the storyline, how did you create the “very very very used look”?

Alexander Nowotny: For most of the projects I’m involved in at Weta, my main interest is working on artificial environments. I was therefore fascinated by how much attention was paid to the treatment of the “lost world” to make it look as if centuries had passed, where buildings and streets could fall into disrepair and be overgrown by plants. Weta has built up a rich collection of plant assets over the years and our modelling tools also allow us to simulate artificial plant growth based on physical parameters.

DP: Moving on to the actual production: Can you run us through the Weta FX standard pipeline for a moment? What are your standard tools for FX, and what extensions, renderers, simulation tools, databases and asset managers are involved?

Alexander Nowotny: In our FX team, Loki has now established itself as the standard tool for all our simulation tasks. The integration into Houdini works very well and the many templates and HDAs that we have developed make it very easy for the artists to use these tools in the same way as all the other components in Houdini. In some situations we also use Loki in combination with standard Houdini solvers like Bullet or Vellum. An important feature of Loki is the ability to link several different solvers together and run coupled simulations. It is therefore possible to combine an RBD simulation with a fluid solver, for example, to drop the fragments into the water when an asset is destroyed so that they subsequently float on the surface. For the sake of simplicity, our TDs often do their test renderings in Mantra, but in most cases the final rendering of the effects is done using Weta’s own renderer: Manuka.

DP: And did you adapt or develop anything specifically for this film? If not (or if you’re not allowed to talk about it), what are the milestones in the current setup that can be used to define a way of working? So, a new version of Odin, Manuka, Facets and so on

Alexander Nowotny: There were a few cases in this project for which we had to rethink our usual approaches or expand them with new methods. In this respect, the river sequence was particularly challenging. To create a continuous stream of water with large waves and very specific formations, we had to build our simulation from several stages of low, medium and high resolution and then combine and blend them together depending on the camera angle of the respective shot. For a scene involving a chase through a field of tall pasture grass, we had to significantly optimise our Loki plant solver so that it could handle the large number of plants in the shots and we could still access Loki’s high-quality collision management.

DP: What creative tasks did you have on this film, and what was particularly interesting? Were there any shots and elements that were challenging?

Alexander Nowotny: The river sequence was certainly one of the biggest challenges in this project. Both technically and creatively. This stream had to tell its own story and be developed accordingly. It had to look convincingly real and give the impression of a dangerous environment. We spent a lot of time reviewing reference footage of rushing rivers and looking for templates for the specific formations we needed. The TDs in my team began to simulate individual dramatic-looking waves and rapids and then developed techniques to plug these building blocks into our large river simulation and blend the transitions cleanly. A simplified geometry version of this “riverscape” was then sent to our animation team, giving them a 3D reference for the terrain in which to animate the characters. Once the animation was approved, we were able to run the actual hero simulation in which the characters interact with the water. The result of this hero sim was then passed on to the creature department, who were able to use it to determine the behaviour of the characters’ long hair in the water flow. In a final step, our FX-TDs were now able to run a very high-resolution simulation in which we calculated the behaviour of the water and small drops over the fur. Because of this long chain of dependencies, the whole process was very time-consuming and took a lot of time for each new run. But the result was worth all the effort. The shots look great and are rich in detail. Another side effect of this method was that we accumulated a huge amount of data. During the production phase, the head of our data management team was always happy to point out to me that my team used more than a petabyte of hard drive space for this flow sequence alone. That’s roughly equivalent to what was needed for the entire production of the first Avatar film. ?

DP: What does an ideal shot look like? Imagine you can tell all the other trades and departments how you want it prepared – what’s on your wish list?

Alexander Nowotny: Of course, with every project you always hope for the ideal situation in which all processes mesh smoothly. The FX department receives assets and data from almost all the other teams at Weta. We process animations, creatures, models, layouts and camera information. We work closely with shader developers, lighting TDs and compositing artists to achieve the desired look of a shot. In a perfect world, all these departments would always work together in perfect harmony and timing. Every model would be optimised and tailored for simulation purposes and all data formats would flow smoothly through a pipeline that everyone could easily understand. But the process of making a film is a very creative process that requires a lot of people to work together. With every new film we try to push the boundaries of what is technically possible, decisions are sometimes made on the spur of the moment and new creative ideas only emerge as the project progresses. Therefore, this process can never be completely perfect and perhaps that’s what makes this profession so unique and interesting.

DP: Unfortunately, this probably happens rather rarely – do you have any tips on how to organise collaboration between the departments?

Alexander Nowotny: It may sound like a truism, but in my experience, the most important factor is communication. If you want hundreds of people from different departments to work well together, you have to constantly make sure that all the information is channelled in the right direction so that the ship as a whole sails in the right direction. I always endeavour to stay in contact with the leads and supervisors of the individual teams and manage this flow of information. Since I’ve been working for Weta for quite a while and I know the company structures and many of the super talented artists there, I sometimes find it a little easier to set things in motion or ask for a favour. ?

DP: If you could start again with the film: What would you do differently? Is there anything where you say to yourself “we stumbled”, or something you will definitely do differently in the next film (when it comes)?

Alexander Nowotny: In retrospect, of course, you’re always smarter and see things that could have gone better or been more optimised. But I don’t think I would do things very differently. On the whole, our FX strategies worked out quite well and the team worked extremely well together. Some of the minor issues we’ve had to iron out along the way have even resulted in new creative approaches and these happy accidents sometimes outweigh the extra effort.

DP: What was your personal favourite shot?

Alexander Nowotny: I don’t want to give too much away about the content of the film because it’s a pivotal moment for one of the most important characters in the story. But the shots of Raka in the river turned out really great. My team did a fantastic job.

DP: Can you reveal what you’re working on next? Or is there something you’re currently putting into the toolbox with your developers/R&D people?

Alexander Nowotny: On the technical development side, we’re entering a new phase with some of our Loki simulation tools and I’m excited to be involved in that work. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to talk about the next film project I’m working on yet, but there will be more on that soon.

The post Monkeys, the fourth first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

A genuine Hollywood star honoured FMX this year: performance capture pioneer and actor Andy Serkis spoke in the conference programme about the second part of the reboot series “Planet of the Apes – Revolution”. DP met Serkis in Stuttgart for an interview.

The security effort for Serkis’ presentation “Early Look at Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” was enormous: all the windows of the König-Karl-Halle were taped off so that no one from outside could catch a glimpse of the film’s exclusive scenes or film them. Visitors had to register in advance for the keynote and hand in all their belongings before entering the hall. On the floor, everyone who didn’t make it into the hall stood in front of closed loo doors for the duration of the keynote. But the first glimpse of the scenes, in which some shots were still in the pre-vis phase, was worthwhile. When you saw what was still missing in terms of CG shots at the end of April, the scope and tight time frame of Weta for this part became clear and their work all the more remarkable.

Andy Serkis will be very busy in the near future. There is talk of roles for him in the new “Star Wars” part as well as in “The Avengers 2”, of course always accompanied by speculation: will he appear as a CG character or will he get to play a “real” role this time? He is primarily famous for his CG characters: Gollum elevated him to Hollywood Olympus and made him a performance capture icon. Since then, he has already played King Kong, the chimpanzee Caesar and Captain Haddock. According to Serkis, it makes no difference to him whether he is playing a live action or performance capture role; the process of acting is the same in both formats. Basically, the only difference would be what you wear on set.

For Serkis, however, it didn’t stop at acting in this area: with The Imaginarium(www.theimaginariumstudios.com) in London, he has founded a thriving performance capture studio together with Jonathan Cavendish, where, for example, “Ryse: Son of Rome” (see also DP issue 02/14, PDF in DP web content) was realised and the film adaptation of the novel “Animal Farm” is currently being produced under Serkis’ direction. The actor has already made his first forays into directing alongside Peter Jackson on the second unit for “The Hobbit”.

DP: How has performance capturing changed since you first started?

Andy Serkis: From a technical point of view, immensely: on “Lord of the Rings” we were filming on 35 mm, I was filmed as an actor with the other actors on set and then had to repeat all the scenes separately in the motion capture studio. There was no facial capture back then, the animators just copied my facial expressions. We started using facial markers for “King Kong”, but we still didn’t have head-mounted cameras. “Avatar” was a big leap because several actors could be recorded in the studio at the same time. “Planet of the Apes – Prevolution” was the first project where we were able to use performance capturing on the set itself with head-mounted cameras without having to redo it in the studio. In addition, the perception of the topic in the industry and among viewers has changed significantly in the meantime and it is more widely accepted.

DP: Where is performance capture technology currently heading?

Andy Serkis: In the post-production process, rendering capabilities are getting better and better, so the original performance of the actor on set is becoming more and more important. Very soon we will no longer need head-mounted cameras, but will be able to use the acting alone. The future practical application of performance capture is an exciting topic: for example, real-time avatars could soon be projected live onto a screen at television, theatre events or concerts. At the Imaginarium, we are currently trying to find out what creative possibilities lie in performance capturing.

DP: You have played so many CG characters, which is your favourite role?

Andy Serkis: I have a strong connection to Gollum, of course, because my whole performance capture journey started with him. Finding Gollum as a character was difficult at first, but once the concept was in place, his role wasn’t too complicated. He’s not about what he thinks or feels, he talks all the time instead – his psychology is simple. Caesar, on the other hand, is more subtle, and making him seem real was much more complicated. That’s why I’ve grown very fond of this character.

DP: How were you able to put yourself in the shoes of an ape – without a mask or other aids?

Andy Serkis: We prepared for a long time before filming: We had a kind of ape camp where all the actors analysed the way apes communicate and interact. As most of the ape characters were already in the first part, we knew how Caesar would behave towards them.

DP: Do you think a performance capture actor needs more imagination than a traditional one?

Andy Serkis: We’re no longer playing with balls, we can act with each other. Of course I have to use my imagination for a role like this, but it makes no difference whether I’m wearing a performance capture suit or a monkey costume. In fact, it’s more likely that a mask or elaborate make-up would restrict my performance. Performance capturing allows me to move freely and the team can capture my every movement.

DP: When you look at the CG character on the screen later, do you see yourself or a normal monkey?

Andy Serkis: Myself. Even though it’s a CG ape, it shows my expressions, emotions, facial expressions and decisions. When you spend some time with real monkeys, you realise – just like with your own pet – what an individual personality each one has. During the time I was working on “King Kong”, I spent a lot of time at London Zoo. I studied the rhythm of the monkeys’ movements and observed how they reflect human behaviour. When apes are surrounded by humans, it affects the way they communicate or gesticulate; they behave in a more human way. Chimpanzees tend to imitate human behaviour more than gorillas, for example.

DP: Don’t you sometimes think it’s going too far that only your facial expressions and gestures are used to bring a CG character to life and that nothing more is seen of you as a person?

Andy Serkis: You know in advance what job you’re going to do and under what conditions. One of the greatest performances of recent times is that of Scarlett Johansson in “Her”. You never see her on screen, you just hear her voice. The important thing is not whether someone is physically on screen, but how much the audience is moved by a performance.

DP: Scarlett Johansson’s voice acting has once again sparked the debate as to whether such a performance should be awarded an Oscar. What do you think?

Andy Serkis: I don’t think there should be any difference in that respect. Since the process of acting is always the same, all performances should be judged equally. John Hurt played the “Elephant Man”(bit.ly/1w4Ep6J) completely covered by a special effects mask and still received an Oscar nomination. I don’t understand why a distinction is made with regard to digital characters. It’s probably a problem of perception. For me, the digital character is a kind of digital make-up that the artists apply to the actors (see also the interview with Weta VFX supervisor Dan Lemmon).

DP: Why did you set up The Imaginarium in London and not in Los Angeles or Canada?

Andy Serkis: First and foremost because London is my home. in 2005, I took over the direction of the performance capturing for the game “Heavenly Sword”(bit.ly/U5c6sH). We had already started rehearsals, drafted a script and cast the roles, but then realised that we had no opportunities for performance capture filming in Europe. So I had to travel with the team to the other side of the world, to New Zealand, for the shoot. Which I found bizarre, because the company Vicon Motion Systems is from Oxford, the motion capture software is from Cambridge and all the game actors were from London. In Europe, especially in England, there is a great lack of understanding for the topic of performance capturing – and therefore the technology is also underrepresented. With the studio, I want to combine my previous experience from the film industry in this area with new techniques and realise my own projects there.

The post Star for Stuttgart | Retro article first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Mirja Fürst.

It seems that chimpanzees have made an impression – and six students from Supinfocom Rubika took that one step further.

DP: Just to satisfy my curiosity: Did the ape at least know he reached 700 mph in the final seconds?
Team 400mph: Maybe. No matter how fast he goes, to him it will always feel like he hasn’t managed to exceed 400 mph.

DP: Considering the basic story line: How did you get the idea for that movie?
Team 400mph: The story was inspired by the attempts to break the sound barrier in the 1950s. The pilots at that time were taking incredible risks to beat this record. Quickly the lake of Bonneville became an iconical place for speed records, and it made us think of the Moebius comics, such as “Arzac Thapsody” and “40 Days Dans Le Desert B”. Having a chimpanzee as a main character reminded us of the space race and reinforced the impression of danger for our character.
In addition, we could accentuate his emotions while still keeping him very animal. He could sometimes behave in a human way and his emotions would be clear to the viewer but he also could show a primitive rage in his moments of anger.

DP: How big was the team and how long have you worked on this movie?
Team 400mph: We were a team of six and worked on it for a year and a half, even a bit more for the original storyteller that came up with the original idea.

DP: How did your team get together?
Team 400mph: Each student presents a project, then there is a selection by teachers to keep the films that seem the most different but also feasible and interesting with the knowledge we have acquired in school. Then each student decides the stories he/ she wants to work on the most and makes a list of the projects that interest him/her and the role he/she wants to play. We all try to shape complementary teams based on each other’s strengths and weaknesses. This helps us form a balanced group that can work on all different aspects of the creation of a 3D animated movie.

DP: Can you tell us about your pipeline?
Team 400mph: We mainly worked in Maya, the rendering was done with Redshift and for the FX we used Houdini. The monkey was sculpted in ZBrush, his hair was done with Yeti, and for his textures we used the Substance suite and Mari, the modeling and simulation of his clothes was done in Marvelous Designer. The compositing was done with Nuke.
Finally, for editing, sound design and calibration we used Avid Media Composer, Pro-Tools and Resolve. We used a pipeline tool called Pipou, developed by Fabien Meyran for their film “028” (see page 80) – it would manage the shader exports and animation as well as all the hierarchy of the files. As hardware, we had six working machines and in addition to that we had access to 3 machines with more RAM for Houdini and Marvelous simulations. For rendering, we had six other computers equipped with GTX 1080Ti as well as a server with 4 Quadros.

DP: Any special tools, plug-ins or scripts besides those?
Team 400mph: We created several more scripts, in the beginning for the animatic and the forecast in order to update the editing more easily. Then for rig and clothing simulations, especially for baking simulations onto the low-poly model. For the animation, we used AnimBot and Studio Library to make the general process easier and more time-efficient. We also had some homemade camera shaking scripts to make the shots inside the vehicles as intense as possible.

DP: And with that setup, how long did the render take?
Team 400mph: It depends obviously on the shots, but generally speaking the shots outside were delivered in a few minutes by frame. For the monkey shots it would range from 15 minutes to an hour. Except for a few very close-up shots, we tried to never exceed one hour of rendering.

DP: The protagonist’s face is awesome and on par with the work done by Weta and ILM. How did you do that, and could you describe your design approach and the underlying rigs, textures, and muscle systems?
Team 400mph: Thank you for the comparison! The making of Icarus was a huge process that involved a big part of the team through the concept phase of the movie. For the design of Icarus, we really focused on the chimpanzee’s characteristics by watching many documentaries and photos dealing with the ape’s appearance and anatomy. The only difference with reality is that we wanted our character to be able to express his feelings the way humans do, while still having his animal side (for example by moving his eyebrows more than a regular chimpanzee would).
After the drawing of the 2D concepts, Julia used Maya to model the skeleton of Icarus to have the correct proportions and make the whole structure credible. Then she used ZBrush to add the main details such as wrinkles on the model. For the facial setup, she created many blendshapes for the principal expressions. Then Lorraine, who was working on the rig, added a joints system to allow the animators Alice and Quentin to bring deformations to the face of our monkey. Meanwhile, Paul-Eugene was working on the texturing of Icarus with Mari to give this particular skin aspects that make the chimpanzee realistic, and Natacha worked on his eyes to get a chimpanzee/human look as realistic as possible. We really wanted to have a very characterized chimpanzee.
For the character FX, Lorraine dealt with the cloth modeling of the clothes Natacha had designed, textured, and simulated in Marvelous Designer, as Julia was establishing the fur of Icarus with Yeti.

DP: The rig for that face must have been detailed and extremely fine-tuned. Could you describe that setup?
Team 400mph: We first focused on creating a generic yet detailed deformation system that is close enough to what we could expect on a common human face, implying jaw/lips, eyelids/eyebrow controls. The biggest difficulty came when apprehending the deformations and their impact on the other controlers, especially around the mouth. That was built in two steps: the first one implied a complete skin weight based deformation with multiple bones around the lips and the cheeks, which are driven by the jaw control to redistribute the weight of the skin, when the chimp opens its mouth wide enough, and is complemented with corrective blendshapes. This system let us have rig based controls above for animators to tweak on the same skin weights distribution. Above this was added sticky lips setup, specific blendshape deformations and sticky clusters.
The eyes’ regions had to be so expressive, we worked specifically on them based on the animated shots and rendering requirements. We weren’t sure yet if the chimp was going to be faithful to a real chimp’s muscular movements or if adding human type expressions would deliver a good impression. We finally did add them, step by step, adapting the deformation blendshapes for nice rendering shapes and expressions based on the feedback of rendering for the closest shots.

Finally, it’s a rig based setup mounted with corrective blendshapes and sticky clusters, with maximum control over each stage of deformation, to get all the subtle movements right.

DP: And how much research did you need to do to get it just right?
Team 400mph: For the rig: It’s hard to get specific information on a chimp’s muscular motions, so the research mostly implied searching for human anatomy specificities to translate to the chimpanzee proportions. Drawing helped a lot in the process. For the animation, we watched a lot of documentaries and scientific videos, even some films like “Planet of the Apes”. We also shot a lot of references in order to see exactly how we wanted Icarus to move and react.

DP: The cars in the beginning: Were they based on the Saltlake Tests from the 60s? If so, how did you put them together and how did you make them look iconic, but not just a copy?
Team 400mph: The cars are actually based on real iconic models, which are in order of appearance: the Indian Scout of Burt Monroe, the Thunderbolt of George Eyston, the Challenger 1 of Mickey Thompson and the Spirit of America of Craig Breedlove. It was our intention to stay as close to reality as possible, but we also needed to adapt a little bit – for example, adapting the car cockpits to the shape of a chimpanzee driver. We also chose an angle of view which is made possible with the 3D techniques but generally not possible in reality. For example the last car is more like a rocket than a car, so our originality is in our camera choices.

DP: And what have you been working on since?
Team 400mph: We’ve all started working in different studios, some in Paris, some in Brussels and even some in Sydney.

The post 400 MPH first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Mirja Fürst.

In nuce: As part of our weekly recurring series “Animago Afternoon”, we present pearls, gems and other splendours from last year’s Animago film festivals at the best time of the afternoon. This time, salvaged from the Animago archives in 2019, we show you the awesome short film “400 MPH”, realised by graduates of the VFX university “Supinfocom” – with branches in France and India.

What is “400 MPH” about? Let us quote from our interview with the film team, published in DP 06:2019– not a bit self-centred: “When was the last time you identified with an animal? And not in a “I want to sleep all day like my cat” kind of way, no, when was the last time you identified with an animal in a meaningful way? Probably in one of the Planet of the Apes remakes?”, was our opening line at the time, because in “400 MPH” the ape is your favourite!

Ancient myths in a monkey’s fur: in the short film “400 MPH”, the foppish title hero is on the trail of Greek myths: the film’s plot about flying high and speed fanaticism is inspired by the story of Icarus.

The makers behind it: The creative minds behind this rousing short film are: Julia Chaix (CG Generalist at Ubisoft), Alice Lefort (Set & Animation Production Manager at Illumination Mac Guff), Lorraine Desserre (Rigging TD at Eisko), Natacha Pianeti (VFX Artist at Untold Studios) and Quentin Tireloque (3D Animator at Stratosphere Games). As you can see: The former Supinfocom students have found a professional home.

Click further: The short film, which (it feels like) breaks the sound barrier, is linked below in full length. We say: film off – and don’t go to the centre of the sun! Find out more about the educational programme at rubika-edu.com .

400MPH | Court-Métrage | RUBIKA Animation 2019

The post 400 MPH | Animago Afternoon first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.