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Digital Domain - Tightrope
Animation has come a long way since Snow White and the Seven Dwarves first graced our screens in 1937. Then, who would have thought it was possible to create characters so real, so extraordinary and so life-like that they literally tremble on a tightrope.
After 6 years as the leading special effects house in the world, not to mention two Oscar nominations, Digital Domain committed to becoming a production house in their own right. They asked for proposals from their employees for a short animated film. French Canadian, Daniel Roubichaud, came up with the winning idea: Tightrope
The first step, once the film had been approved, was to design the characters. Roubichaud did this using a programme called Softimage 3D. The characters are made of a special type of geometry know as NURBS. Once this geometry existed, the animators had to put in an internal skeleton in order to create animation controls.
The magical tricks that the Jester performs are identified with a swirling light particle effect. This was created using Power Animator.
Because the geometry is so detailed, it was almost impossible to animate the characters and see the results instantly. Digital Domain developed a substitution plug-in for their work which allowed the animators to animate a simplified version of the characters. Although this simplified version consisted mostly of cylinders and simple geometry, it provided fast, interactive feedback to the animators. Once they were happy with the animation, they substituted the simplified models with the fully skinned characters. When Roubichaud was asked about the challenges of the film, he said this: "We weren't going for a cartoony look, but neither were we trying to reproduce reality. Instead, we wanted a certain level of photo-realism. To achieve that, we had to ensure that the characters were extremely detailed in their textures, their geometry, and the way they were lit and rendered." But what does this mean for animators? Are they aiming to replace live actors altogether? Sean Nicholas from Capechino Productions explains , "We certainly can get to a stage, where we can do without a live actor. There would be a lot of work involved, but the tools are there to facilitate something like that. The quality of the animation and the Software is so much easier to use, so the process of animating is a little bit easier, so you get a better result in the end, taking less time." While Tightrope is a magnificent work in its own right .. Is it the potential be-all-and-end-all? Do we really want to lose the experience of human frailty, unpredictability and inspiration that can inform a human performance? Just a few months ago, In Touch investigated the possible creation of animated versions of dead actors. In the short time since then, animation has advanced by leaps and bounds. It's place in the entertainment industry is certainly growing and changing. The ripple effect of developing technology strikes again. image 6 "The sky is the limit", continues Sean. "The guys imaginations are phenomenal as you can see by taking a look at special effect movies. What we can imagine, we can create. We are getting to a stage where we can make anything possible." Yes, Tightrope is a technological marvel... but perhaps the greatest triumph of the film is its heart. The billions of bytes and commands combine to create a work of art that touches us in a few short minutes. Contacts
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Digital Domain may be a name that means nothing to you, but you have certainly experienced their work. Founded by director extrordinaire, James Cameron, animatronics whiz Stan Winston, and ex ILM executive Scott Ross in 1993, Digital Domain has grown into the world's most successful visual effects house. Their effects made history in films such as True Lies, Apollo 13 and the Fifth Element. They are perhaps most famous for sinking the Titanic.
The allegorical story finds our central character, The Jester, moving along a tightrope through a mystical, cloud-like milieu. His open face reveals inquisitive eyes. Suddenly, he comes upon another man moving towards him - on the same tightrope. The other man, The Suit, has an ominous, grey demeanor. His face is obscured by a dark mask.
Writer/ director Roubichaud sees animation as a form of acting. This informed his choice of supervising animators: for the Jester, he chose Stephane Couture, whom he saw as a joyous, outgoing person. For The Suit, he chose Bernard Angerer, who has a darker, more reserved energy.
The faces were animated using special controls that were developed as plug-ins for the Softimage programme. Just as a real face is changed by the movement of groups of muscles, so these mathematical controls move and alter different "muscle groups" to create an infinite number of expressions.
The extraordinary facial textures were created by Michelle Deniaud using Interactive Effects' Amazon 3D. Using digital photos of real skin textures, she cloned portions of the images onto the face geometry. Although The Jester is wearing make-up, you can still see his pores and his wrinkles. And even though The Suit is wearing a mask over his eyes, his facial textures are evident.
