As the costs of filmmaking continue to soar and associated
deadlines continue to shrink, efficiency throughout
the stages of film production is crucial. Realizing
this, Frantic Films, a live-action, visual effects, 3D animation,
and commercial production company based in
Winnipeg, Canada, advocates the use of previsualization
whenever possible to give directors, producers, and
visual effects supervisors a clear understanding of the
most efficient way in which to shoot live-action and
digital sequences. To provide filmmakers with the most
detailed previsualizations as quickly as possible, Frantic
Films relies on Discreet 3ds max® software.
“Movie-making can be a very abstract process, and
often, a studio gives millions of dollars to one person,
the director, who is basically telling the studio, ‘Trust
me, I’ll make a good movie for you,’ “ says Ken
Zorniak, COO and VFX producer at Frantic Films.
“With our 3ds max previsualizations, we can collaborate
with filmmakers to plan sequences from start to finish.
In this way, everyone involved in the process – from the
studio to the director to the visual effects supervisor to
the post house, whether that’s us or another facility –
has a firm grasp of how the final product will look
before a set is built or a scene is shot.”
The company most recently used 3ds max to previsualize
approximately 10 sequences (about 1500 shots) for |
the Warner Bros. film Catwoman. According to Zorniak,
sometimes the Frantic Films artists previsualized
sequences in Catwoman to give the film’s director,
Pitof, an idea of how to shoot a sequence.
An example of this is the rooftop sequence, in which
Catwoman is fighting with some antagonists. “For this
sequence, the filmmakers asked us to come up with
something really cool,” says Zorniak. “That was the
only direction we were given.”
“We had done a large number of motion studies to
prepare for this project, and using the Motion Mixer in
character studio, along with some motion-capture data
we imported into 3ds max, we created a pretty extensive
library of moves,” adds Chad Wiebe, previsualization |
|
CONTINUE
>> |
 |
|
