entrevistas sobre vfx da animationmentor

8/13/2019 Entrevistas Sobre Vfx Da AnimationMentor

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VFX Are EverywhereBlog SeriesInterviews with VFX studios

Method Studios and Shed Inc.

By: Ben Fischler,VFX Curriculum Director, Animation Mentor

To commemorate the launch of VFX Fundamentals, the Animation

Mentor crew has interviewed studios big and small to learn of their

impact in the visual effects world. You can read about their work

in our new VFX Are Everywhere blog series. From the big screen,

advertisements, corporate projects, amusement parks and all places

in between you learn that visual effects truly are everywhere.

VFX Are Everywhere Blog Series:Argo, Cloud Atlas,and More

Originally Posted: June 19, 2013

Click image to play a VFX Breakdown of Cloud Atlas from Method Studios

Recently, Patrick Ferguson, Lead Compositor at Method Studios in Los Angeles, joined VFX

Curriculum Director Ben Fischler to discuss Methods work on Super Bowl ads, their workow, and

what they look for in artists. Today, the Method team returns to share more of their creative magic

and insights. Joining us to continue the VFX Are Everywhere blog series are Jeff Werner, Methods

Digital Studio Manager and Keith Roberts, Methods newest Animation Supervisor.

Having difculty viewing the video? Click Here.
https://vimeo.com/54424943https://vimeo.com/54424943


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Thank you to Patrick, Jeff, Keith, and all of our friends at Method Studios.

Enjoy.

The Animation Mentor Crew

Our blog series is titled VFX Are Everywhere. What is one project youve worked on at

Method that most people wouldnt know include visual effects work?

Jeff: Once we did a 50-foot purple dragon for a cell phone commercial, just kidding. The best

Seamless as we call it visual effects show we have done would have to be for the movie Argo

where we created the Azadi Tower as it looked in 1970 and all the surrounding environment with a

full rush hour feel lled with people and cars as the camera swept in close. Also, at the most dramatic

moment when they are escaping at the end, all the close up airplanes on the runway were CG. Shhhh

dont tell anyone.

Keith:VFX are everywhere yes they are! Its often more easy to tell if you see something

fantastical but VFX has become so price competitive that there are very few shots in any movie that

has not had some kind of VFX enhancement. Take a look at the Method Reelon our website, it has a

lot of making of footage and you will be surprised by how many things are not shot in camera, but are

layered in afterwards using VFX.

Please explain how your specic role works at Method.

Jeff: Im the Design Studio Manager and I manage most of the artists as in hiring, placement on

jobs, and reviews. I work to keep a positive and proactive environment for and with the artists to help

projects nish on time. This is done by actively being involved with hiring and developing new talent

for the future and daily maintenance of studio projects. I am also involved with global connectivity of

all the Method Studios.

Keith:An Animation Supervisor at Method is involved in all of the work that comes through the

department whether it be the technical aspects of how it will get done as well as the creative

aspects of what the nished animation should look like. The Animation Supervisor casts the shots to

the animator and meets with the lm director to generate ideas and distill what the needs of each shot

are from an animation and narrative perspective.

What has been your favorite project to work on while at Method?

Jeff: I would have to say it is a split between a Kia commercial, where we created furry hamsters

and robots that were dancing to the LMFAO hit song Party Rocking and then the feature lm Cloud

Atlas. Both projects were very complex with big teams and both had a lasting success that people

remember. Cloud Atlaswas in the nal 10 lms to be considered for an Oscar. Its a great feeling to

go see a project on the big screen and have a sense of pride in what your artists and company have

accomplished.
http://www.methodstudios.com/reelshttp://www.methodstudios.com/reels


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VFX Are Everywhere Blog Series: Method StudiosOriginally Posted: June17, 2013

Click image to play Method Studios demo reel

Given Methods global nature, can you talk about the successes and challenges of working

within a global pipeline?

Jeff: We currently are working on our global pipeline so that is our current challenge. But our currentmethods of globally working together are pretty basic but were aiming to make it a system that will

best utilize our global resources.

Keith: Method is rening connections between our international facilities. The goal is to share assets

and artists and to pool knowledge and talent to make us more economical and better able to meet the

ever-increasing quality of VFX for lms and commercials. The mirroring of pipelines and tools is very

important as it makes Method a functional and robust company.

The VFX Are Everywhereblog series continues today with Patrick Ferguson, Lead Compositor

at Method Studios in Los Angeles. VFX Curriculum Director Ben Fischler chats with Patrick about

Methods work on Super Bowl ads, their workow, and what they look for in artists.

Enjoy.

The Animation Mentor Crew



5/16

Click image to play DirecTVTroll spot

Ben: Our series is titled VFX Are Everywhere. Visual effects are prevalent all around us.

Quite often, audiences will watch something and not even be aware that theyre watching

visual effects. What are projects that youve worked on at Method that most people wouldnteven think include visual effects work?

Patrick: Sky replacement is pretty prevalent throughout. I would say over 50 percent of the skies

always need to be swapped out. And sometimes, not even swapped out maybe enhanced here,

put a cloud here, put a little interest there. That happens all the time.

We also do a lot of foliage enhancements like trees a lot of sweeping of trees, adding more foliage

where theres dead grass and just xing landscapes that dont look beautiful. Theres a lot of work that

goes into matte painting. We did a show DirecTV Troll which is playing during the NBA Playoffs

now. Many scenes had to be matte painted to make sure that they looked like idyllic settings, with

greenery and trees specically positioned.

We did a spot for Verizon about a year ago called Payload. It was shot in San Francisco and it

was an armored car heist sort of theme. There was a lot of enhancement of the city. Theres always

signage enhancement or signage removal. A lot of that stuff I would say over 50 percent of that

stuff shot in cities always has to be augmented also. Thats VFX that you never see, whether it be

adding specic signage or getting rid of specic signage.

http://youtu.be/bn6q7D4q5gchttp://youtu.be/bn6q7D4q5gc


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Click image to play Verizon Wireless Payload spot

Ben: With compositing now, is every job in the comp department a two-and-a-half D or 3D job?

Are the days of traditional comping in 2D over?

Patrick: Well, it still depends on the job. Pretty much, if theres budget for it, every shot will be trackedin 3D. Once you have that camera information, yes, we use all that stuff to create a virtual layout so

that the compers can place cards wherever they need to, have tracking locators, and do whatever

they need to do in 3D space basically. Theres still some shows where its not as necessary there

you can track in stuff in 2D. We use Mocha Pro a lot, which is a planer tracker, which is sort of a

two-and-a-half D sort of thing. But yes, if it requires it, it will go through the Integration Department

(tracking and match moves) and well get a real 3D camera for it and that just opens up the ood

gates on what we can do, what we can place, and how we can augment the environment.

Ben: Is the Integration Department considered part of the comp team or a separate department

thats clearly delineated?

Patrick:At Method, its a clearly delineated department that has its own Integration Supervisor who

runs that department, and they have a staff that ramps up and ramps down depending on shows.

They have a very specic task of tracking the scenes, match moving whatever needs to be match

moved, creating layout geometry that is a low-res poly so that we can bring it in. They are their own

department.

Ben: Tell me about the role of Lead Compositor, both specically to the Kia Space Babies

spot and the general roles and responsibilities, and how that varies from show to show or in

http://youtu.be/AqlN8dillT8http://youtu.be/AqlN8dillT8


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compositing large-scale CG environments.

Ben: What renderers do you typically use in production?

Patrick:It depends on the show. We have a huge V-Ray Department here. All of our hard surfacestuff is done in V-Ray. Our fur pipeline is through Houdini/Mantra.

Ben: When youre thinking about skills for artists that are coming into your team, what are

some of the important qualities and skills that you really look for?

Patrick: The biggest thing is to learn how to craft your eye. You have to be able to see something,

know what it should look like, and strive toward that. Sometimes, I get a lot of compers who just

start versioning supervisors to death and thats just not the way to go. You really have to work

on guring out what the supervisor is looking for and strive to go toward that and personally, you

should do that before showing something on a repeated basis.

Ben: Dont show if its not ready to show.

Patrick:Exactly right. I think a lot of young compositors come in and do the note and thats it,

and then kick it back for review. But then this ends up becoming spiraling, unending versions of

not looking great. So young compositors denitely need to gure out what their eye is, and thats

something that happens over time. But they need to gure out what the comp supervisor is looking for

and just see it in their minds and then strive toward that. And really know that before theyll be happy

with it, you have to be happy with your own work. You should be happy with your work before you

move it up the chain.

Ben: One of the things were trying to emphasize in our program is the importance of

photography as the bedrock essential tool for developing your eye. I used to feel that was

more important from a compositing standpoint but now with the current generation of

renderers like V-Ray and Arnold, photography applies to lighting and rendering in the same

line as compositing. Now, to be a lighter, you need the same eye of a photographer essentially

And thats a life-long skill. In our program, you are required to shoot X number of shots every

week with different goals in mind. It quickly becomes apparent to students how valuable that

is, as well as developing a reference library.

Patrick: Just seeing everything in your environment and taking a snapshot of it and seeing how

real things interact with real things thats lighting and compositing in a nutshell. Then therescomposition, also. Sometimes, we have to come up with an effect, design, or something like that

and having that photography background is essential for that sort of stuff. Knowing how design

works, what looks good, what sides and pieces of the frame are important I agree, a photography

background is almost essential for lighters and compositors.


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11/16

Click image to play Centraide spot

Ben: When you think of your visual effects work that is seamless when the audience

doesnt even know that its visual effects what does that mean to you? What examples

come to mind of VFX Are Everywhere? For example, your work with the client, Centraide

commercial. To me, that doesnt look like a visual effects piece. It looks like a beautiful lm.

Pierre-Hugues:We work in the industry and we can spot the effects, if there are any. We did a

campaign that involved placing angel wings behind some actors shot in live action. The goal was

to make them look as realistic as possible. They had props strapped to their backs for tracking and

matchmoving purposes, but you would never know since we erased them.

Sylvain:This was much different. People are used to costumes. If we stayed with people and

costumes, we wouldnt have the range of motion. we wouldnt have gotten there.

Pierre-Hughes:We wouldnt have gotten the same range of exibility and control over actual wings

that we managed to get in 3D.

Ben: The audience thinks theyre seeing something that they can readily identify with. For

example, this is a prop wing and theyre comfortable with that and so they dont bother, they

accept it, and they buy into the story on screen. But the fact that its CG frees the storytelling

up so much because you are not limited.

Pierre-Hugues: Exactly. if youve forgotten something or something needs to be xed, CG is a good

option to add objects or remove them.



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13/16

Click image to play The Making of Lotoquebec spot

Sylvain: Yes, but not for the hair simulation. We havent tested extensively yet. But this is something

were going to look for to create hair that is inter-related takes time and we would have to cache

out all the hairs and not only the guides. (For the hair rendering) its all Arnold.

Ben: Is your pipeline built internally or are you using off-the-shelf products?

Sylvain: Its all used inside of Shed. Were also using Shotgun for organization. Our pipeline tools

connect to Shotgun to be able to know which shot does what. And we do the same for NUKE as

well. Everything is optimized, nobody needs to do any le open or menus. Everything is listed for

every department and always with the latest scene selected for you. As soon as you want to work on

something, you choose either asset or shot, and it lists everything for you thats in the folder, so thats

very nice.

Ben: In our VFX curriculum, we are trying to build strong artists who have an understanding ofhow to get to a look or nished image across different skills. For example, you may want to go

into compositing but you need a knowledge of shading and geometry to make you a better

artist. For Shed, theres a certain amount of specialization. But within the look development

process, do you let people takes things all the way from shader work through to nal comp?

Sylvain:Artistically speaking, to have a good eye, you have be a photographer rst before all the

technical stuff. When youre used to taking photos, youre able to emulate camera optics. And this

is very important, to make things more real by lens distortion, things like that. As for shaders and



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look dev, we have a dedicated shading scene with 12 sIBLs already like sunset 1 or sunset 2;

daylight and forest. We place these in the scene and this is where the shaders come in. And as

soon as you export a model from that scene, the model is ready to be imported into the render scene

to be shot. As the show starts, at the animation and even the layout stage, we export the elements

of every asset that we need for that shot. These are all in the still position, not moving, while theanimators continue their work and we can start lighting it at the exact same time. The lighting is

evolving all the time until the animation is completed. Then we render the frames simply and comp it

in NUKE. We keep working on the still until we are ready to render sequences.

Ben: Its an eloquent process. For rendering, you use Arnold like we do in our classes. Im

curious, what lead you to Arnold and have you had situations where you werent able to get

the results you wanted? Any Arnold pointers?

Sylvain: We started using Arnold maybe four years ago. It was still in its early stages and we were

only using it in testing. But it didnt take long for us to see the potential with the speed increase andhow interactive it is for the artist to place lights. The light is nice in Arnold. From there, we started

buying other licenses and we totally jumped into production 100 percent. The only drawback early

on was the ability to render volumetric stuff, like re. Other than that, we didnt have any problems

that we werent able to work around. Arnold has a super-cool forum list that is awesome with a lot of

talented, elite, advanced people who can help you out. By being there with them, we can solve any

problem we have.

Ben: When rendering with Arnold, is your compositing workow any different because of the

Arnold processes? How much do you lean on the composite to get your nal image? Are you

still compositing? Or do you still use all the AOVs, etc.?

Sylvain: We render mostly beauty class, RGB matte pass. We call it puzzle here. And yes, we render

all the AOVs to be able to control more in comp and also to denoise the indirect diffuse and indirect

specular channels. Sometimes, you get noise in there, so its good to minus it from the beauty pass.

You de-noise it so that you can keep render times fairly usable and keep getting smooth images.

Ben: Do you render locally on a farm or do you do any cloud rendering?

Sylvain: We have our own render farm. Its not super big. We have 25 good blades, 16 gb to 32

gb of RAM with 24 threads and they self-allot. The other blades are for NUKE. Theres a lot of work

(involved) to be able to render on a cloud service. We have all of our add-on tools that we have to

have so it would be very hard to make that setup happen in the cloud. We have to place them

here.

Ben: Our VFX students and our community want to know about the hiring process. If youre

hiring a VFX artist for lighting, for example what do you look for in your ideal candidate?


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Click image to play Shed Inc.s CGI Demo Reel

Sylvain:Since were small, we look for artists who know lighting, shading, and compositing. So the

artist creates the passes, creates the look, and brings all the shots to the nal stage. We render in

Arnold and we comp in NUKE. We also have the Flame Suite and Smoke Suite here we dont use

for comping, theyre more for client sessions where we put logos and erase a couple of things live

with the client during an online session.

The most important thing is the attitude of the people. Its nice when you have people who are

passionate about what they do, you see that they are curious about technology, they practice a lot,

and you feel that they want to become better and better all the time.

This is important to me. Everybody can learn tools from having people around them showing them

little tricks here and there. And in a production environment, you learn very fast I would say. But yes,

the attitude is a very important factor.

Ben: We try to emphasize that to our students you can be a great artist, but you still need towork well with others. We teach them not to be too precious with their work. Yes, you should

be passionate but you still need to take the criticisms and notes and get your work done.

Thats one of the hardest lessons for our students to learn how to work with others.

Pierre-Hugues:When youre a student, you work on your own shots and lms nobody tells you



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intentions, its all up to you. But when you are working on advertising or (outside) lms, directors and

clients have their vision and you need to be able to adjust.

Sylvain: Technical and artistic (skills) are important. But being a teammate helps a lot. Its cool tohave somebody come to your desk with suggestions. Maybe you should consider adding light here,

a shade of blue on this shot. You need to be open minded to even try it.

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