Pre Production
I.
Concept
II.
Story Development
III.
Visual Development
IV.
Technical Direction
V.
Production Management
Story Development
•Concept & Treatment
•Script
•Story Boards
•Character Development
•Animatic
Visual Development
•Concept Art
•Character Design
•Environment & Vehicle Design
•Key Art & Color Script
•Pipeline Development
Production Pipeline
The Production Pipeline is the way of organizing the CG workflow so that at each stage
during production proceeds smoothly and passes data down the pipeline efficiently.
Technical directors design the pipeline so that all of the departments can work together
without “bottlenecking” at any one stage.
Departments
Modeling – sculpture, anatomy, figure drawing
Layout – cinematography, language of film, photography, videography
Character Setup / Rigging – Sculpture, anatomy, animation, figure drawing
UV Mapping & Materials / Texturing – drawing, painting, physics, computer science
Animation – acting, drama, anatomy, physics, figure drawing
Effects – physics, engineering, computer science, math
Lighting & Rendering – computer science, photography, physics, math
Matte Painting – traditional art, painting, drawing, photography
Compositing – painting, photography, color science, math, drawing
Pipeline
Pipeline
The production pipeline is different from studio to studio and in most cases different
between shows. During Pre Production, adjustments are made to the pipeline to
specifically handle the workflow of that project more efficiently. There can be extensive
modifications if the project requires the implementation of new technology which is
usually the case with an effects heavy production or a production making use of new tool
sets.
Modeling
Modeling artists create all the digital assets that will be used throughout the production.
This includes all geometry such as characters, vehicles, props, and environments. Modeling
artist must create any object that is going to appear on screen.
Modeling
While building detailed accurate models is essential, modeling artists must also be aware
of how the model is going to be used further down the pipeline. If an object is never
going to get close to the screen, it doesn’t need to be as detailed as an model that is going
to be right next to the camera.
When an model is sent to character setup, many it will get sent back to modeling to add
detail to certain areas that are going to be deforming a lot during animation. The
opposite is also true, if an extremely heavy model is difficult to deform it can be sent
back to modeling to remove some detail and make the object lighter.
Matte Painting
Matte paintings are useful when rendering extreme wide shots of elaborate environments.
Once common method of creating matte paintings involves taking rough renders of 3D scene
geometry and drawing directly on top of the rendered geometry. This is also a common
method of producing concept art. Matte Paintings by Matthieu Raynault.
Layout
Layout involves placing low resolution proxy geometry in rough scenes to block camera
movement and rough character motion. Layout can begin as soon as proxy geometry is
created, which usually means that layout can begin right after modeling has started.
Layout artist use story boards and animatics as guides to set up camera angles and
staging.
Layout
Layout artist are responsible for setting up the initial staging of a shot. This can be
accomplished early during the production process before working character rigs are
created.
Character
Setup/Rigging
Character Setup artists have to create controls for anything an animator would want to
control. Creating animation controls is called character setup or character rigging. During
character set up, rigging artist create animation controls for each character. Character
rigging artist have to make sure that when a character is animated that it deforms correctly.
Once an initial rigging pass is performed on a character, it is usually given to an animator
to try to “break” the rig. There is a lot of back and fourth between animation and rigging.
Animation
Character Animation is done in a series of animation passes which begins with a rough first
pass called blocking. Character animators produce many iterations of a shot in order to
perfect timing and motion. Secondary animation such as facial animation generally takes
place after a first pass of the general character motion has been approved.
Animation
In addition to character performance, animation can also involve crowd simulation and
cloth simulation for the shots that are being animated by character animators. Technical
Animators are responsible for applying cloth simulation to character models after they
have been animated. Technical Animators are responsible for creating crowd animation
with the use of software like Massive.
UV Mapping
After a 3D object has been modeled it must be prepared for texturing. 3D surfaces
can be “unwrapped” into a 2D representation with . This process is generally done
by either the modelers before the geometry is sent to texturing or by a texturing
artist before texturing can begin. It is particularly useful to know what the final
object will look like before laying out UV’s. If and object is just going to be a
solid color then the UV’s can be rough, but if the object is going to have extremely
detailed textures, then a thorough UV set has to be laid out before texturing can
begin.
Materials/Texturing
Once a UV set is laid out for a model, materials can be applied to the surface. This
process can involve painting texture maps or using procedural shaders to define surface
properties. Texture artists have to pay close attention to the surface properties of the
object they are texturing in order for the object to accurately interact with the cg lighting.
Materials/Texturing
In addition to creating and assigning shaders, texture artists are required to add aging
and wear to surface materials. This includes adjusting materials so that they do not
appear “clean and new”, unless that is the desired look.
Lighting
Lighting artist put lights into a scene and add mood to each shot based on the script and color
keys. Lighting artists are generally responsible for setting up their shots for final renders
once lighting is approved.
Effects
Effects artists are in charge of modeling and animating natural phenomena like rain,
smoke, fire, and water. This includes creating physically based simulations and
dynamic systems to produce realistic looking effects elements
Rendering
Large complex scenes can require multiple layers and passes which are used by
compositors to assemble the final image. Decisions made at every stage in
production effect render times. Large productions can sometimes require render
wranglers that watch over the render farm and make sure every shot submitted to
the farm gets rendered. Render wranglers are responsible for resending shots that
crash on the farm or have dropped frames.
Compositing
Compositors assemble all the rendered layers into one final image and make adjustments
before the image is sent out to final output. This stage takes place outside the 3D pipeline
and generally makes use of compositing software such as Nuke, Shake, or Digital Fusion.
In many studios, lighting artists composite their own shots due to the fact that the two
tasks are closely related.
Compositing
In addition to assembling the final image, compositors are responsible for preparing the
original footage for integration with the computer generated elements. This includes
extracting keys, rotoscoping, color correction, camera tracking, and any other image
processing that is required to complete the final shot. In live action visual effects studios,
compositing tasks can be broken up into to more focused departments to handle the large
volume of live action footage that must be prepared for final compositing. This can produce
situations where many compositing artists are working on the same shot simultaneously.
Asset Management
In order to keep track of all the models, character rigs, animation scenes, and everything
else associated with production some form of asset tracking system has be put into place
in order to keep everything organized. Asset management is responsible for know the
location and progress of every shot in the timeline. This includes every stage of the
pipeline. Asset Management is a part of production management that is usually taken
care of by the production team instead of the creative team.