WHAT THE PROS USE TO TRACK PRODUCTION
HOW ANIMAL LOGIC USES SHOTGUN AS PART OF ITS PRODUCTION WORKFLOW
A central tool in most VFX or animation studios is a database to track and review shots. Many, like Animal Logic, use Autodesk’s Shotgun. “We use Shotgun as the central hub for all of our versioning, reviews and production tracking,” says Sydney’s production manager Sean Mcalear.
“We have a robust pipeline, with many inputs, all of which intertwine and drive automation based on ‘events’ that occur throughout the life of a shot or asset in a department. For example, if the status of a task changes to approved, a render will be generated and a version of the source files can be ‘delivered’ to another department.”
“It is also great for artists,” he continues, “as we can condense a wide range of information into a single view, which keeps artists focused on creative tasks and not trying to dig up notes from last week’s review. Which means more time is spent iterating instead of administrating. Shotgun allows us to connect the dots on all of these technical and creative data points to make sense of where we are, and where we’re going.”
significant experience in both live-action VFX and fully Cganimated features, it was not easy, at first, to manage Animal Logic’s first live-action/cg hybrid film. “We had to onboard a big team in a relatively short schedule. There were some hard lessons initially when setting up new processes and realising that although they may fit a CG or VFX pipeline, it wasn’t working for Peter Rabbit. We had to adapt and make changes quickly when something didn’t work. It was hard, particularly at the beginning, but we were committed to making it work and thankfully it did!”
Meanwhile, for the fully animated The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, the production crew at Animal Logic again became
crucial players in getting the film finalised. “As the project developed we found the need to be organic with our plans, which often led us down paths we had not originally intended,” states Vancouver’s digital producer Steph Huot. “In order to allow room for the story to develop naturally during the editorial process, we focused on allowing flexibility in scene production order by focusing on partnering asset readiness with story readiness, and working to identify options for the filmmakers to work within when selecting the scenes to move into production.”
“Originally,” continues Huot, “we hadn’t planned for our Sydney studio to support the Vancouver team on this project, but quickly it became evident that bringing them on board would allow us greater flexibility in the schedule. Strong communication while working cross-site was integral to our success. We found that whenever possible, connecting via video conference made a huge difference in getting to the solutions faster and we even leveraged filming briefs or review sessions to share with our Sydney counterparts when they couldn’t join live. We also relied on end-of-day handoff emails between our teams, this helped us support each other when the other team wasn’t online, which increased productivity.”
“WE FOCUSED ON ALLOWING FLEXIBILITY IN SCENE PRODUCTION ORDER” Steph Huot, digital producer, Animal Logic
COMPOSITING AND COLOUR
Like many studios, Animal Logic primarily relies upon Foundry’s Nuke for compositing. That tool comes into play both for liveaction VFX and Cg-animated features, but it’s also part of a much larger colour pipeline at the studio, spearheaded by Sydney’s compositing supervisor Alex Fry. Several years ago, while working on The Great Gatsby, Fry identified the need to find a more unified way of managing colour.
“I became aware that the ACES (Academy Color Encoding System) project was underway with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,” recalls Fry. “It was all about developing a grand unified way of dealing with colour that abstracted away all of the different camera systems, and all the different display types.”
ACES is developed by the Academy, VFX and animation studios and cinema camera manufacturers. It consists of colour spaces and transforms, with the idea that ACES establishes standards to help artists and studios manage colour properly and consistently. Fry pitched the implementation of ACES to Animal Logic for The LEGO Movie.
“We came up with a bunch of tests demonstrating the ACES Display Transform versus other options, and a plan to implement ACES in a way that didn’t break any of the work that had been done. There was a development shot that they’d been churning over, and one of the things that made it an easy pitch was that the shot immediately looked a lot better when viewed through an ACES Display Transform.”