Let’s take a look at motion capture for video games. From The Witcher 1 & 2, The Medium to The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, all these game animations were (partially) created using motion capture. In the middle of it all is the Polish motion capture studio BONES, founded by actor and motion capture artist Adrian Perdjo in the wave of CG Projekt Red’s smash hit The Witcher 1, 2 and 3.

My guest today is Adrian Perdjo who is the founder of the motion capture studio BONES in Warsaw in Poland. Adrian started his career as a motion capture artist on The Witcher series before founding his own studio. Together we talk about motion capture for The Witcher, video games and the future of motion capture.

The post Motion Capture for Video Games w/ Adrian Perdjon | 21 Artist Show 031 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Alexander Richter.

In nuce: Polish VFX service provider Platige Image ( Platige for short) will also be involved in the third season of the Netflix series The Witcher. This is according to a recent report published on wirtualnemedia.pl. Platige Image was already involved in the first and second seasons of The Witcher.

In toto: The report also states that Platige will work on the episodes of season three in chronological order – starting with the first and concluding with the last episode of the new series season. Platige is expected to have successfully completed his visual effects for The Witcher Season 3 by the end of the first quarter of 2023. The scripts for the third season have already been finalised and filming is scheduled to start in spring 2023. The Witcher Season 3 is expected to premiere on the Netflix streaming portal in summer 2023.

Clicked on & clicked away: In DP 03 : 2020, we talked shop with Platige Image about the first season and one of the associated video games (“The Witcher by Platige”, page 78, an article we also made available to our readers free of charge on 29 September 2021 ). And just recently, in DP 05 : 2022, we had the opportunity to talk to Brad Blackbourn, Virtual Production Manager at The Third Floor, about augmented reality visualisation during the second season (“The Witcher: Adventures in AR” on page 71); see also the free sample copy of our e-paper issue. Finally, in our next issue, DP 01 : 2023, we had the chance to talk shop with the artists from Platige Image – this time about the second season of the series! Look forward to the insightful conversation in our upcoming new issue!

Source: News on wirtualnemedia.pl

The post Platige Image provides the visual effects for The Witcher season 3! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: FMX – Film & Media Exchange starts next week at the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart, but also online. This year’s FMX is a hybrid event. Further programme highlights have now been announced: There will be presentations on absolute entertainment highlights, including “The Batman”, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “The Witcher”. The programme will also focus on gaming, mental health and climate change in the context of entertainment.

VFX for Features: Below are some of the programme highlights of this track.

Wētā FX presents “The Batman”: Visual Effects Supervisor Anders Langlands and Compositing Supervisor Beck Veitch will take a look at the VFXs of Matt Reeves’ “The Batman”. In addition, Batman fans will have the opportunity to attend the presentation “Halon Entertainment Presents Visualising The Batman” by Jess Marley and Keith Fallon on location in Stuttgart.

A look behind the scenes of “Spider-Man: No Way Home”: Charles Abou Aad (Sony Pictures Imageworks), Eric Noel (Framestore) and David Cunningham (Digital Domain) take a look behind the scenes of the latest Spider-Man film. The presentation will focus on artistic and technological challenges in equal measure.

VFX for Episodic: The following is perhaps the most exciting item on the programme for this track.

How the creatures for season 2 of “The Witcher” were created: Madeleine Spencer will talk about what elements of the pipeline developed by Cinesite were crucial to bringing the Basilisk and Chernobog to life in this presentation.

Social Impact: Below are some of the programme highlights from this track.

Let’s Talk: Mental Health in the Creative Industry: In this panel Hugo Guerra (Hugo’s Desk), Jahirul Amin (CAVE Academy), Laurie Balvin (Scanline VFX) and Karin Larsson (Lecturer) will discuss: Working conditions in the creative industry, ‘crunch time’, corporate culture and personal wellbeing.

Let’s Talk: Climate change and sustainability in the creative industry: Hugo Guerra (Hugo’s Desk), Imke Fehrmann (Akkord Film Produktion GmbH), Elena Pfändler (SERU Animation), Volker Helzle (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg) and Chris Ebeling (Virtually Human Studio) will discuss: the latest IPCC climate report from the United Nations, the right to recycle, the dark side of cloud computing, NFTs, and virtual production.

Games & Beyond: Below are some of the programme highlights from this track.

A Look at Art Direction with Riot Games: In this session, Almu Redondo (Axis Studios) will dive into the art of art directing for short films and game cinematics and show how Riot Games and Axis Studios work together.

The making of the “Sniper Elite 5” cinematic trailer by Rebellion Film Studios: Director Hugo Guerra and VFX Supervisor He Sun will talk about the making of the trailer, covering topics such as: MoCap, stunt performance, animation, modelling, lighting, rendering, compositing, USD pipeline and grading.

Changing The Game: This is perhaps the most exciting programme item on this track.

The Omniverse – a new way to collaborate in real-time and non-linear: Featuring Jeff Kember (NVIDIA), Jon Peddie (Jon Peddie Research), Gary Redburn (DELL) and Chris Vienneau (Jon Peddie Research) who will be lecturing on how Omniverse connects DCC programmes – and makes collaboration on creative projects more sustainable for the future.

Click to continue: All further information on the newly published programme items can be found in the corresponding press release on fmx.de.

The post Bats, spiders and witches: FMX 2022! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: In this VFX breakdown, Cinesite shows you how to tame a duo of basilisks (which in The Witcher look like a cross between a Jurassic Park raptor and a snake) with the weapons of the VFXs. Incidentally, the effects were created for the final episode of the second season. The episode in question is entitled “Family”.

What’s behind the effects? The team at Cinesite spent a whole year developing the look of the terrifying basilisks. They were modelled on numerous real-world animals and their anatomies. The particular challenge was to give the basilisk’s surface a mixture of fur, feathers and scales that looked natural – a real Herculean task for the creature designers! Cinesite also had to harmonise the fight choreography of the actors, who tumbled around in front of the cameras on set, with the movements of the animated basilisks.

More for Witcher fans: If you want to find out what Platige Image conjured up for the first series season, read our illuminating interview with Visual Effects Supervisor Mateusz Tokarz, Compositor and Art Director Rafal Sadowy, and VFX Producer Krzysztof Krok, which we made available to you free of charge on 29 September 2021 .

More for Witcher fans: Looking for more Witcher reading material? Then click back to 05.01.2022 and find out what the success-spoilt Poles were able to achieve with the major gaming project The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

Geralt von Riva slaying at Animago? By the way: Our very own Animago also made Witcher history. You can find out what we mean by this by clicking on 3 February 2022, when we told you how the launch cinematic “Wild Hunt” for the video game “The Witcher 3” picked up an Animago Award in 2015. We think so: If you want to know who will win the vampire-vamp battle against Geralt of Riva, you should add this launch cinematic to your watchlist.

Click further: If you want to learn more about Cinesite’s dragon-powered VFXs, click through the lavishly illustrated case study that Cinesite put online on the occasion of their work on the 2nd Witcher season.

Cinesite The Witcher S2 Basilisk Breakdown Reel

The post The Witcher | VFX Breakdown first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

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 we are showing you the award-winning launch cinematic “Wild Hunt” for the video game “The Witcher 3”, salvaged from the Animago archives in 2015.

What is Wild Hunt? The launch cinematic, which is well worth seeing, was created by the VFX artists at Digic Pictures. In the cinematic, Geralt of Riva wanders through a Nordic kingdom on the hunt for monsters. Business as usual for the alpha anti-hero with a flat-rate subscription to the medieval McFit, right? Not quite. Because Geralt soon meets a red-haired woman who turns into a socially intolerable vampire, which causes problems for Geralt, the vampire-phobic. Just an occupational hazard for Geralt, but is it just a mundane everyday life in the fantasy cosmos?

Did you know? Digic Pictures from Budapest is an old animago acquaintance: The studio won its seventh animago trophy with “Wild Hunt”. The team created the extremely elaborate trailer using Maya, ZBrush, BodyPaint, Modo, Mari, Nuke, Houdini, Final Cut Pro and the in-house software dProject.

Click further: In the print issue 06 : 2012 of Digital Production, Mirja Fürst conducted an interview with the two creative minds Tomek Baginski and Maciej Jackiewiscz from the Polish studio Platige Image, who have taken on a cinematic of the predecessor title “The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings”. Read the interview in full in our retro article from 05.01.2022 . You can find the launch cinematic for the third Witcher game linked below. We say: Roll the film!

“The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” launch cinematic

The post Animated feast for the eyes | Animago Afternoon first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.