How are the creative industries adapting to the new challenges of working remotely?
3D World discovers the secrets of successful remote working across a range of different pipelines and disciplines
It’s fair to say that 2020 has been a rollercoaster year thus far. In the wake of a global pandemic the world has been forced to adapt quickly. In the realm of 3D art that means studios closing their doors, projects being finished remotely, and teams embracing new tools or workflows. 3D World spoke to several studios and creators to get their advice on working remotely, and to find out how they have weathered the storm whilst continuing to break boundaries. Virtual studio Agora shares tips for running a remote studio in the animation industry, while BRON discusses completing work on Netflix’s animated film The Willoughbys remotely. Kite & Lightning reveals how its team has worked from home with a pioneering pipeline, and Eric Jacobus of Superalloy lifts the lid on remote motion capture.
RUNNING A REMOTE STUDIO
With social distancing measures in place around the world, remote working has become a viable alternative to offices. This new approach has allowed some creators to continue working on their projects without the use of a studio and some modern tools may even offer teams benefits that exceed the lockdown’s end. That is certainly the case for Agora Studio, a VFX and animation hub that was well ahead of the curve, with the studio built entirely from a remote workforce. Despite doing things a little differently, Agora has expanded to be capable of managing hundreds of employees remotely at any given time. “We have a pool of a little over 650 freelancers in our pool of resources and work on 10 or 12 projects simultaneously,” adds co-founder David Hubert.
The studio has an efficient approach to dealing with the numerous administrative tasks involved in managing freelancers, including contracts and NDAS. “For contractual work, all of our freelancers have already signed an NDA and contractor master agreement with us, so they don’t have to sign a new one for every new project they have,” Hubert
explains. “We discuss the salary with each freelancer ahead of time. We also have a hub where the artists can log in and input their hours for the given day which are then compiled for invoices. We try and automate and standardise these administrative elements so it’s simpler for all the freelancers.”
Maintaining clear lines of communication is another serious consideration when running a team remotely. “When we started we had two or three freelancers, so we could effectively use email for communication,” reflects Hubert. “Now we can have a dozen projects with 40 people at one time, so we need to hire supervisors and email is not really a viable option anymore. If we didn’t strategise our comms with the right tools, it would take up half of our time.” Agora’s primary communication tool is Slack, where they give each client a separate workspace, with dedicated private channels for each production. They also utilise Slack communities as well as virtual rooms in Jitsi.
With each project bringing up the same repetitive tasks, Hubert and co-founder Jacob Gardner built custom tools to simplify the process and mitigate tasks such as manual clicking. “Any time we’re building a tool or finding a solution, we’re thinking about how to make this universal enough to work on other projects in the future,” says Gardner. “We’re always aiming to think much broader. If our tools can be easily adapted to each client’s requirements, then we save time and expand our capabilities. One example is our own data transfer solution called Nextcloud. It’s similar to an FTP but much more versatile.”
Hubert and Gardner hope that by sharing their own experiences they can help other artists adapt and thrive when working remotely. “Having a routine is a common tip – get dressed like you’re going to work, take a lunch break,” Hubert emphasises. “You need a work structure to make sure you have separation. You need a good computer, internet connection, headset, and webcam. Physical exercise is also very important. It’s very easy to just move between the couch and the computer if you’re not careful.”
GETTING HANDS-ON
BRON, a global media and entertainment studio working
“WE FIND SOLUTIONS AND MAKE THEM UNIVERSAL ENOUGH TO WORK ON OTHER PROJECTS IN THE FUTURE” Jacob Gardner, co-founder, Agora Studio
across film, television and animation, recently completed work on Netflix’s animated film, The Willoughbys. The production utilised BRON’S multi-studio capacity and needed a collaboration review tool to bridge the distance between team members.
The film follows a group of children as they devise a plan to send their selfish parents on a treacherous vacation as a form of revenge. “BRON producer Luke Carroll borrowed the original book of the story – written by Lois Lowry – from a library on Vancouver Island,” explains animation supervisor and codirector Rob Lodermeier. “The book piqued Luke’s imagination and he crafted a pitch to develop a feature film. Kris Pearn got really into the story, opting to take on the directorship.”
“I started working on The Willoughbys as an animation supervisor just as we were finishing Henchmen,” he continues. “About a year before the end of the project, the director approached me to step up and become co-director.”
As co-director Lodermeier needed a tool that would slot seamlessly into his workflow and allow him to complete daily animation reviews seamlessly from remote locations, something he would find in the collaborative review tool, Syncsketch. “When I found out there was something you could collaborate with in real time, I was really excited. With the start of The Willloughbys project, I was determined to bring Syncsketch into our pipeline to enable a clearer review process and closer collaboration,” says Lodermeier.
He continues: “[For The Willoughbys] we had daily Syncsketch sessions, the coordinators would have the media ready for the sessions to review, then we watched it live with the artist. With Syncsketch, I can be in a hotel room or airport lounge, drawing over animation remotely and offering accurate feedback to my team – even if we’re miles away from each other.”
Annotations and verbal feedback may be important parts of any review session, but art is inherently visual; the closer an
artist is to the shot at hand, the quicker and more satisfying the process becomes. “For anyone working in animation or any visual media, we’re driven by the same visual principles. We all come back to the roots of drawing,” explains Lodermeier. “Solutions that don’t offer these core drawing tools mean you can lose context and the ability to effectively communicate. If you treat review software more like a graphics editor, or Photoshop, the way Syncsketch does – that’s the best possible scenario.”
With the intimacy and handson feel created in the virtual Syncsketch environment being closer to in-person meetings, Lodermeier found that by fusing it with other video communication tools like Zoom, BRON could easily connect as a team. This collaboration proved crucial to The Willoughbys’ eventual completion, after three years in the making.
Rob Lodermeier’s experience with the Syncsketch platform has also inspired him to share his skills through education, utilising Syncsketch to provide online, remote lessons. “I love the direction Syncsketch are going in,” he adds, “the ipad version works super well. I’m teaching animation remotely now for CG Spectrum and I will definitely be using Syncsketch for that.”
“ACTORS IN THEIR HOMES PUT ON MOCAP SUITS AND WE ORCHESTRATE CAPTURING SESSIONS REMOTELY” Cory Strassburger, founder, Kite & Lightning
CAPTURING SUCCESS
Over the last decade Kite & Lightning has made its name as an animation and game development studio with a track record of utilising technology in new and exciting ways. Having pioneered the Xsens, iphone and Unreal Engine pipeline back in 2018, the studio was already ahead of the curve when it came to recording full-body motion outside of a studio space. And now, in line with social distancing measures, Kite & Lightning has adapted its mocap production to an entirely remote setup.
“Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, my pre-lockdown workflow was very similar to now,” says Cory Strassburger, founder of Kite & Lightning. “I’m still doing all of the motion capture work outside of the house. However, the big roadblock now is with actors not being able to come over and jump in the Xsens suit along with the iphone helmet and crank out content.”
Strassburger and the team at Kite & Lightning are in the midst of figuring out ways to capture their content remotely. “We’re allowing actors in their homes to put on mocap suits and we orchestrate capturing sessions remotely,” he explains. “Currently, we’re operating with up to three actors in three different locations simultaneously.”
Despite the speed with which the studio adapted to the current situation, Strassburger admits that remote working has slowed progress somewhat: “This is mainly due to developing a remote system that we can use to cocreate content without a physical presence, but I think we’re quite grateful the tech even exists to attempt this, regardless of how
painstaking and complex it is to get working.” Overcoming these hurdles has done nothing to dampen the team’s spirits, though. “I think our small team is always motivated and inspired because we feed off what each other is doing,” adds Strassburger. “As for connectivity, like a lot of teams, we have weekly Zoom meetings to run through the week’s work and when we’re overlapping on the same components, we use Slack,”
Although there are pieces yet to fall into place when it comes to home mocap, Strassburger advocates for his current pipeline, which consists of an Xsens suit for body capture, an iphone X for facial capture, and Unreal Engine for capturing, editing and rendering the final product. “This setup makes mocap at home super fun and easy, not to mention it’s an insanely powerful creative platform for making all kinds of high-quality content,” he adds. “I’ve never actually worked in a real mocap studio before. I’m still in a garage shop exploration mindset with all this stuff and I love the ability to jump in the suit whenever I feel like it.”
“I think as artists in this day and age, we’re lucky to have access to so many ways to create content from home,” Strassburger continues. “What we almost never have is enough time to explore our art in-depth or learn new big tools or pipelines, so I would encourage anyone who now has time on their hands to dive deeper into what personally excites them.”
Kite & Lightning was among the first studios specialising in VR and has established itself as a leader in immersive CG worlds
Recent projects for Kite & Lightning include a VR experience for NBC’S The Voice and Lionsgate’s first VR narrative Insurgent: Shatter Reality
CHANGE IN MOTION
As the brains and the brawn behind numerous in-game and cinematic fight scenes, the pandemic has done nothing to slow down Eric Jacobus. His studio, Superalloy, has continued to bring the action to digital characters across independent and commissioned projects at a supersonic pace, all while adjusting to social distancing measures. Remote-based work has presented Jacobus with new challenges, while also providing a great opportunity to review his workflow, infrastructure, and approach to work.
“We started Superalloy in 2018 with the intention of doing remote motion capture sessions and we’ve been streamlining that process ever since,” says Jacobus, “so we were well prepared to take on the challenge of performing and delivering motion capture data remotely.” Even prior to COVID-19 most of Superalloy’s client interactions were carried out remotely, making the studio ideally placed to have clients direct performance remotely from their own homes and studios.
“For precautions, we have implemented social distancing protocols with staff and talent, regular cleaning of surfaces, equipment and hardware, and gloves and masks are utilised by all people before, during and after shoots,” explains Jacobus. “For scenes involving multiple performers, offsetting is already a