The Narrative Arc

 This is perhaps a topic that most animators myself included do not want to involve ourselves in. Most of the time we consider our work to be technical and want to leave issues about the story in itself to others. But in the recent weeks and especially on some of the work I've been required to do, thinking about the narrative has become more important. Even in very short stories such as the ones I have been involved in, thinking about how stories start and how they end and how these two parts links have become critical.

The basic narrative arc can be depicted with a pyramid shaped linear path drawn on a graph. The bottom line represents the chronological progression of a story while the vertical plane represent the rising height of complexity in a story. The rising part of the pyramid describes the initial crisis that characters are introduced to in establishing the story. This represents the Exposition stage. The complexity in the story must then rise until an apex is reached. In terms of complexity, early literature involved Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, and Man vs. Self . In more recent times however, the kinds of complexity and conflicts possible have increased to include Man vs. Society, Man vs. Technology,and Man vs. Alter Ego, Man vs. Alien Society, Man vs. Biotechnology, and Man vs. Cloned Self.

The final descending slope on the pyramid describes the stage of resolution, as the answers that have been asked are answered. A few types have been culled from a fairly descriptive article at the Sandhill.edu website here linked. They are:

1. Comic resolution: The conflict is resolved favorably for the protagonist; he or she is better off than when the tale began.  
2. Tragic resolution: The conflict is one in which the protagonist loses ground. He or she is worse off than when the tale began. 
3. Linear resolution: Despite the ensuing complications and conflicts, the protagonist is largely unchanged by the events of the story. 
4. Dénouement: In some tales, a portion of the story at the end is devoted to tying up the loose ends. Think of Murder, She Wrote, in which each episode includes a segment at the end during which Jessica Fletcher fills in her audience on how she figured out the identity of the real killer.[1]

For me, paying a bit more attention to these details have become essential especially as I realize that there is a more aware audience who will judge the quality of a film however short, based among other things, on the plot and cohesive links in a story.


References

Sandhills.edu, 2009. Plot, Theme, the Narrative Arc, and Narrative Patterns. [online] Available at: <http://www.sandhills.edu/academic-departments/english/film/narrativearc.html> [Accessed 28 December 2011 ].

Art Inspiration Sources

Finding inspiration and ideas as an artist is critical. Every once in a while when we run out of ideas there are those places we go to refill our visual and creative reservoirs. In an industry as fast growing as ours, keeping up to date with new techniques and practices is just as important. I have ccreated a list of some of the major websites that help me develop and learn as well as build new ideas as an artist. Although this list is not by any means exhaustive, they have formed the foundation upon which I build when in search of new ideas or techniques. 

Fxguide.com

A site dedicated to visual effects and production news for film, with in-depth articles and podcasts covering topics such as camera choices, effects breakdowns, 3D conversion for film, the latests plugins to improve studio workflow and pipeline integration etc. The site is divided into further sections such as fxinsider and fxphd featuring even more in depth analysis and interview with artists, designers. technical directors and vfx supervisors who are at the forefront of the technological andvances and creative leaps in the industry.


Cgsociety.org

From a site that began simply as a forum, it has grown over the years into a hub for CG artists that are seeking advice, inside knowledge and a place to show off their work. With broad articles and interviews featuring current artists doing great work in CG and VFX and how they do it, it is a site I visit everyday. It is also a great place to see work from various artists around the world who showoff their work and to get inspired in my work.




3D World

A magazine style site that features news, tutorials, reviews and forums for 3d artists. It is an all in one place for artist showcasing their work, reviewing the latest animated short films being produced and offering competitions to artist through out the year. It also publishes an offline magazine that features breakdowns, tutorials and the latest news from around the cg world.






Evermotion.org

It is a website agregator for recent news, tutorials, breakdowns, movie and short film trailers and work showcase from the CG and VFX industry. The site offers free and charged 3d and arch-viz models and textures that are ready for production. It also offers news on new and recently releases tools and plugins for artist who want to improve their workflow with new technology and software.




Videocopilot.net

This is the website of Andrew Kramer who is perhaps one of the most talented trainers in After-effects history. His site features indepth After-effects video tutorials suitable for beginners, intermediate and advanced users. He also offers stock footage packs, presets and plugins specifically prepared for motion graphics and VFX artist looking to speed-up their workflow. Some of them are Optical Flares Lens Flares Plug-in, Action Essentials II, Twitch Chaos, Evolution and the much anticipated Videocopilot Element 3d.



Other notable mentions include cgtuts, aetuts, 3d total, cgtalk and many others. I will limit the list to this five for now. I will probably add other websites to it at another time.

ILM: Creating the Impossible [Video Review]

 Recently, I finally saw the Encore Special which featured how Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), an Academy Award-winning motion picture visual effects company that has set the standard for visual effects. In the process they have created some of the most stunning images in the history of film and changed cinema forever as they continue to break new ground in visual effects.
According to the press release for the feature,

"Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible" is directed by Academy Award® and Emmy® nominated director Leslie Iwerks and is narrated by Tom Cruise. Encore will also present five ILM-effects films starting at 2:00 p.m. with Jumanji, followed by Hook, Jurassic Park III, Twister and Starship Troopers.
The hour-long special has interviews with filmmakers George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, J.J. Abrams and Jon Favreau, actors Samuel L. Jackson and Robin Williams, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and John Lasseter, the chief creative officer at Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. Film and television shows featured in the special include The Abyss, Avatar, Forrest Gump, Jumanji, Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Robot Chicken, Star Trek (2009), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Transformers, Twister, Young Sherlock Holmes and The War of the Worlds (2005), which starred narrator Cruise.
Leslie Iwerks' documentary takes audiences behind the scenes at ILM with in depth interviews with some of the company's top talent and showcases never before seen footage highlighting many of their pioneering milestone.[1]

For me it was a huge eye opener to the inner workings of a company and group of people who have changed the whole landscape of movie production. The feature revealed in great detail how the company started and how it was influenced by George Lucas and his desire to create never before seen effects for his Star Trek films. It spoke of how the likes of John Dykstra, the assistant of Douglas Trumbull , famous for 2001: A Space Odyssey, put together the team of college students, artists and engineers that became the first VFX department for the star trek movies. It describes the challenges they have faced as they sought to find innovative solutions to creating believable illusions in Hollywood's biggest block-busters including the entire Star Wars saga, The Abyss, the Indiana Jones series, the Harry Potter franchise, the Jurassic Park franchise, the Back to the Future trilogy, many of the Star Trek films, Ghostbusters II, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the entire Terminator sequels, the Transformers films, the Men in Black series, most of the Mission: Impossible films, and also provided work for Avatar, alongside Weta Digital.

Notable names in Animation such as Pixar's John Lasseter also worked for ILM in the early 1980s as a computer animator. It was invariably the computer graphics division of ILM which was eventually sold to Steve Jobs that became Pixar, and went on to create the first CG animated feature with Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995).

I found great inspiration watching the ways in which these men, much in the same way Walt Disney revolutionized animation, revolutionized CG and VFX for cinema and how they have continued to successfully tackle the challenges of creating the realistic illusions that have become a  great influence for my own work. Below i've attached a video of the feature and it can be found on YouTube.



References

[1] io9.com, 2010. The inside story of how ILM changed movies. [online] Available at: <http://io9.com/industrial-light-and-magic/> [Accessed 19 December 2011 ]. 

Toy Story, 1995. [Film]. Directed by John Lasseter. USA: Pixar Animation Studios

Linear Workflow in Maya

(Image from Bushman tuts website at http://bushman.blog.com/2011/11/21/maya-linear-workflow-part/)

This has always been a confusing aspect of post-production work to me especially because of how critical it could be to getting it right through out the whole pipeline of a project, and in other to get a final result that had the required quality. So I decided to do a bit of research so I could understand it better and also improve the quality of my finished animation piece.The confusion about linear workflows start with the fact that graphics programs process images via a linear system or method, but the display devices we use to visualize these images have been calibrated by a different standard based on how video is recorded and thus images that will be shown via these devices need to be corrected. This is where the concept of gamma comes in. While a linear graphics program produces images at gamma 1.0, display devices display images at gamma 2.2 and therefore correct gamma 1.0 images by that factor so as to display it the way the human eye would expect to see it.

It is this confusion that leads to the first problem which is that very frequently images and textures used in linear programs such as Maya have this gamma 2.2 correction already baked into them and then again after render, when displayed via normal display monitors have another gamma 2.2 correction applied to them. This in turn means that the images have 2 sets of correction on them and would appear more contrasted than they ought to. This by itself defeats the advantage of the linear workflow which requires that linear processes should only be applied to linear data and so it  is usually advised that any image to be used as a texture must first be converted back to a linear image in a software such as Nuke so that the 3d program will have corrected data pass through it and maintain the integrity of the linear process.

The second problem occurs because maya as a package itself not only processes images in linear color-space but also displays it within its custom render viewer the same way. In essence, we see an "uncorrected" image and in the process are prone to cranking up light and color values to simulate the effect and values that we want. Maya does not have any built in way of changing the gamma of the image within the render viewer at present and this should perhaps be introduced in layer versions of the software. As such, the workaround method for maintaining the linear process within Maya is then to add a mia_exposure_simple node to the lens shader of the renderable camera so it corrects the image being seen during preview to gamma 2.2 and only at the time of final render do you set it back to gamma 1.0 to maintain the linear quality of the images for compositing. for images being used as textures or even color values one can add a gammaCorrect node between the texture node and the shader's diffuse input. This converts the colour space of textures back to linear and maintains the integrity of the linear workflow.

Finally, at the rendering stage, images should be rendered as openEXR images/files as they by default maintain only linear data. At the time of compositing, the advantages of this process can be seen as Nuke can make use of the linear data without any loss in quality and can render out the corrected gamma 2.2/sRGB images for viewing on normal monitors. Although the nature of this article is somewhat technical, understanding this workflow I think is critical to standardizing the way I approach producing finished and polished work especially keeping in mind my desire to adhere to front-of-the-line industry best practices. I have attached below some of the video tutorials that have helped me to grasp this concept more firmly below.



Maya Linear Workflow (Part 1 of 2) by jidez99 Part 1


Maya Linear Workflow (Part 2 of 2) by jidez99 Part 2

3d Artist or Compositor: The blurred lines

I've been thinking of what it means to be either a 3d Artist or compositor. Within the setting of big studios like MPC or ILM, these roles are still very delineated. The 3d artist works on modelling, animation, effects, texturing and lighting. The compositor works on rendering techniques, merging render layers, grading and color correcting especially when CG is being merged with live-action footage. Either side would certainly claim the other couldn't do things they could, and would probably be right especially with the schedules and budgets involved in making block-buster movies, strict division of labor would definitely speed things up. But does the fact that it isn't done in most major big studios mean it is impossible. I would argue, 'No' and would even go further as to say that more and more the lines between both are blurring with the improved technology and range of tools available today.

Within the smaller sized studio, where they cannot afford the cost of the division of labor, a 3d artist who has a working knowledge of compositing techniques can be a great asset as better decisions on how CG shots should be captured or framed to ease the post-production process would be made right from the start. Within a small scale pipeline, there is better continuity if the 3d artist who worked on the animation, texturing and lightening stage also works on the compositing and final render since the same ideas would run right through each stage. This in itself can be a great advantage as there wouldn't be need to go back to a separate artist who did the animation or lightening if something went wrong, as he would be able to already note possible areas of difficulty and can take appropriate measures to correct them early, greatly saving on time and cost. 

These lines get even blurrier with the range of compositing tools and software available today with fully featured 3d engines. With software like The Foundry's Nuke and Adobe's After-Effects featuring very powerful 3d environments which can even load certain 3d formats directly into their workspace, the differences in the skill requirements of the 3d artist and the compositor are getting smaller. Some have even claimed that the ultimate 3d app would be one within which both true 3d and compositing can be done. With the pace at which technology in the industry is advancing, the wait for the 'ultimate' 3d/compositing application may not be for too long. Already, to-be-released-soon plugins for Adobe After-Effect such as Mettle ShapeShifter and Video Copilot Element 3D, promise a certain level of 3d capability within previously predominant compositing software packages. Although these can't be compared to the tool set range available in 3d software such as Maya, 3ds max or Houdini, the prospect can only be exciting for the traditional compositor looking to transition into 3d and back easily. 

At the risk of being classified a generalist, I believe that sooner rather than later, the work definitions of the compositor and the traditional 3d artist will not be so different. Even if the current job climate requires us as animators to be "master of one" it would not hurt to know a bit more about compositing techniques in tools like Nuke or After-Effects. I believe that it would only help the work I do, especially in the case when a job needs to be completed and requires some knowledge of compositing. I dare say it can only make me a more important and indispensable  member of my team if as an artist I know a bit of compositing or if as a compositor, i know a bit of 3d modelling, animation, texturing or lighting. It definitely will be an advantage and sensible alternative if I need to make a career transition in times of hardship in my core job area.