Kay John Yim is a Chartered Architect at Spink Companions based mostly in London. He has labored on a variety of initiatives throughout the UK, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, together with property improvement and panorama design. His work has been featured on Maxon, Artstation, CG Document and 80.LV.
Yim’s rising ardour for crafting unbuilt structure with expertise has progressively pushed himself to taking over the position of a CGI artist, delivering visuals that not solely function shopper displays but additionally as technique of communication among the many design and building staff. For the reason that 2021 COVID lockdown, he challenged himself to take programs in CG disciplines past structure, and has since gained greater than a dozen CG competitions.
“Masquerade” tells a narrative of a lady with a hid id who enters an empty theater full of statues. Because the statues come to life, a mysterious gentleman joins her and so they waltz to the rhythm of enchanted flames, misplaced in a world of magic and fantasy.
This undertaking was my debut for a brief CG movie, permitting me to develop my expertise in storyboarding whereas working with AccuRIG and movement seize knowledge to create intricate character animations. It was additionally a possibility for me to refine my lighting and rendering methods. That being mentioned, I wish to specific my honest gratitude to Reallusion and GarageFarm for his or her sponsorship. Their assist made this undertaking attainable.
Workflow Overview
The software program and workflow I used all through each stage of the undertaking might be summarized as the next:
Ⅰ. MODELING
▪ Rhino > MOI > Cinema4D > Redshift
Ⅱ. CHARACTER CREATION
▪ Character Creator 4 (CC4) > iClone 8 (iC8) > Houdini > Marvelous Designer > Houdini
Ⅲ. AccuRIG (STATUES ANIMATION)
▪ Cinema 4D > Houdini > CC4 AccuRIG > iC8.1 > Cinema 4D > Embergen > Houdini (retime) > Cinema 4D > Redshift
Ⅳ. CHARACTER ANIMATION
▪ iC8.1 > Embergen > Houdini (retime) > Cinema 4D > Redshift
Ⅴ. CLOTH SIMULATION
▪ Marvelous Designer > Houdini > Cinema 4D (C4D)
Ⅵ. ASSEMBLY, LOOK_DEV & SHOT FRAMING
▪ iClone > C4D
Ⅶ. RENDERING
▪ Redshift > Neat Video (denoise) > After Results (Heatwave) > Premiere (Magic Bullet Appears) > RIFE-App (interpolation)
1. MODELING
The scene consists of two areas, the hallway and theater, designed and modeled in reference to the Louvre Palace and Opera Garnier theater respectively. Whereas they aren’t difficult areas when it comes to structure, the ornaments are extremely detailed and will have simply resulted in extraordinarily heavy fashions that triggered render instances to skyrocket. Due to this, optimization grew to become a core tenet all through the making of “Masquerade”.
The next iconic buildings served as references all through the modeling course of.
Utilizing my previous initiatives “Ballerina”, “The Magician”, and “The Gallery of the Nice Battles” because the foundations, I recycled lots of the ornaments that I had modeled for the Amalienburg searching lodge in Munich. With the primary architectural house blocked out, I then change between Rhino and C4D, utilizing the next Rhino instructions and C4D capabilities for modeling:
- Movement (Rhino): Conform objects to a specified curve, helpful for precisely bending ornaments meshes to architraves, bullnose and so on.
- Movement Alongside Floor (Rhino): Conform objects from one floor to a different, helpful for precisely transferring ornaments on flat surfaces to curved counterparts, e.g., balcony balustrade.
- Spline Wrap (C4D): Just like Movement in Rhino however procedural, cannot deal with heavy meshes like Movement however extraordinarily versatile for altering design.
- Quantity Builder + Quantity Mesher + Quad Remesher (C4D): Helpful for topologizing heavy meshes that require close-up particulars however want to keep up their 3D silhouettes.
- Mirror Occasion (C4D): I set my scene origin at (0,0,0), positioned every part symmetrically beneath a null, instanced, then scaled the null’s X by -1, which mirrored it procedurally.
Whereas I used lots of my ornaments beforehand modeled in ZBrush and retopologized in C4D, I additionally used 3D ornaments from textures.com. I recycled meshes and used “Render Situations” throughout the undertaking wherever attainable to constrain file measurement.
2. CHARACTER CREATION
The feminine character I used for this undertaking was initially created in Character Creator for a brief referred to as “Ballerina”. I’ve since up to date her utilizing the built-in SkinGen library in CC4.1 and added an prolonged facial profile for animation in iClone 8.1.
My CG character workflow drastically sped up after I started to combine CC4 with Redshift’s Random Stroll Subsurface Scattering. Not solely had CC4’s built-in SkinGen options allowed for quicker procedural texturing, my general workflow was simplified right into a collection of drag-and-drop processes with textures robotically exported with the FBX recordsdata.
The male lead ended up being a modified model of a default character in CC4.1. Whereas the character creation course of had turn out to be loads simpler in CC4, making convincing characters remained out of attain for me. I used the next web sites as my go-to reference whereas adjusting character bone constructions, facial silhouettes, and pores and skin textures.
- This web site generates a non-existing individual each time the web page is refreshed.
- This web site supplies a collection of high-res portrait pictures.
After creating the female and male leads, I exported each characters to iClone 8.1 for animation.
3. AccuRIG in CHARACTER CREATOR 4
The statues performed an enormous position in setting the tone for the scene, in actual fact, the ultimate theater mannequin and shot framing had been designed across the motion of the statues.
AccuRIG in CC 4.1 lets inexperienced artists rig their fashions and switch them into animatable characters. For AccuRIG to work its magic, I needed to first take away the skirt on the ballerina statue that may have interfered with the rigging process. I then reposed the statue right into a t-pose utilizing a mixture of Cinema 4D (C4D) and Houdini.
For the animation, I used Edit Movement Layer to create three assorted actions to be used in my scene. I then exported the animated statues into Houdini, eliminated the entire physique elements aside from the sleeves, and imported them into Embergen for pyrotechnic simulation. Exporting the pyro VDBs from Embergen grew to become an in a single day course of very similar to last rendering.
On the time of this writing, Embergen (v0.7.5.8) didn’t assist VDB export at 24 fps, which might have been the popular frame-rate for many of my initiatives, together with “Masquerade”. I ultimately uploaded the undertaking to GarageFarm for last rendering, therefore it was equally essential to optimize the file sizes together with the render instances. Exported VDB recordsdata can simply take up dozens of gigabytes of house (roughly 150 GB in whole for the entire undertaking). So, with a purpose to scale back the full recordsdata measurement, I used Houdini’s Retime node to regulate the timing of the VDBs from 60 or 30 fps to 24 fps, which successfully decreased the full file measurement by 25%.
I then imported the animated Alembic recordsdata, FBXs, and simulated pyro VDBs into C4D. I used Constraints to bind the skirt again onto the FBX skeleton’s pelvis, which might rework based on the animation. Lastly, I duplicated the statues into an array and offset each statue’s animation barely to create a gradual rhythm to the animation.
4. CHARACTER ANIMATION
The character animations had been created utilizing a mixture of Xsens movement seize knowledge and ActorCore premade motions. For the doorway sequence, I first utilized a looping “Cat Stroll” cycle from the ActorCore movement library to the feminine lead. This gave me the muse for animating the lady’s entry into the theater corridor. I then animated her transformation by matching the tempo of the stroll cycle and utilizing iClone 8.1’s Movement Correction characteristic to compensate for foot sliding. I continued to make use of Edit Movement Layer so as to add the top flip amid her cat stroll and used options from “Digital Soul” to use facial animations.
With the doorway sequence animation full, I exported the animated character as an Alembic file to Houdini, the place I eliminated intersecting physique elements. Significantly, the arms which might have interfered with the material simulation in Marvelous Designer (MD).
For the second half of the animation, I movement captured real-life actors in Xsens fits doing a “Cinderella” waltz and transitioned the animation knowledge to a sluggish dance movement from Reallusion’s “Studio Mcap Collection: Movement for Lovers”.
With the Xsens uncooked knowledge imported into iClone 8.1, I used “Digital Soul” to use facial animations and locked the eyes of my actors on each other. I used Attain Goal to right the glitchy elements of the interactions and Edit Movement Layer to readjust the intersecting physique elements wherever crucial.
5. CLOTH SIMULATION
Whereas C4D and Houdini have each made vital enhancements in fabric simulation recently, I nonetheless discover that Marvelous Designer affords a degree of management, velocity, and high quality that surpasses each fabric simulation software program I’ve tried. Whereas practical more often than not, MD’s simulation not often offers the proper end result. Usually, I tinker with the Friction settings and Simulation High quality in face of the minor glitches I encountered alongside the way in which. I then export varied variations of the simulation into Houdini and use Blendshape to mix them collectively.
So as to add some thriller to the protagonist, I had her put on a cloak on the opening sequence, which progressively vanishes and divulges the character’s 3D face and gown. This was created utilizing C4D’s PolyFX with an improved setup carried over from a earlier undertaking of mine referred to as “Kagura”.
6. ASSEMBLY, LOOK-DEV, AND SHOT FRAMING
Talking once more of the doorway sequence, I used iClone’s digicam together with C4D Digicam Morph to exactly management the monitoring digicam. At first, I arrange a digicam in iClone 8.1 and aimed it towards the feminine lead’s eyes. This created the phantasm of the character wanting into the digicam and breaking the fourth wall. I then exported the digicam as an FBX file to be used in C4D. Then I positioned a complete of 4 cameras across the entrance and used Digicam Morph to easily transition among the many 4 cameras.
With the character in place, I performed the sequence repeatedly and added three further cameras alongside her strolling path, with two cameras ultimately passing her and switching their focus towards the statues within the theater. The ultimate Digicam Morph is managed and timed with Greyscalegorilla’s “Sign” plugin, which allowed me to make use of a curve (reasonably than keys) to manage the timing of the digicam transitions. For the dance sequence, I used Align to Spline with a circle spline centered on the characters to create a constant and managed framing of the characters, as in the event that they had been filmed with precise cameras connected to dolly tracks.
I stored the lighting setup so simple as attainable, utilizing the RS Solar and chandeliers as the first sources of sunshine and pyro VDBs because the secondary supply of illumination. I added a RS Surroundings pushed by a Maxon Noise shader so as to add a further layer of environment to the ultimate render. I additionally stored the supplies easy, utilizing solely 5 supplies in whole to keep up a distinguishable colour palette.
Since model 3.5.06, Redshift’s up to date Random Stroll SSS has supplied extra practical SSS fashions with out sacrificing render velocity. It simplifies the setup of pores and skin supplies and produces higher outcomes beneath a wide range of lighting situations. Previous to this replace, Redshift’s ray-traced SSS required a number of texture layers and handbook changes to create practical pores and skin supplies, which was a time-consuming course of that required fixed changes on animation sequences with vital mild adjustments. Whereas Arnold Renderer has supplied Random Stroll SSS for a while, Redshift’s implementation has made it far more environment friendly and sensible to be used in animation.
For the Subsurface settings of the characters’ pores and skin supplies, I used the Pores and skin Diffuse map from CC 4.1 as the colour and set Radius to a salmon colour (much like the colour one’s dermis when seen beneath direct illumination). I set Scale to 0.1 to signify the thickness of the pores and skin, and used Random Stroll mode with Embrace Mode set to “All Objects”.
As for the look of the fireplace, I aimed for a extra fantastical and smokeless look. To make sure that the colours and actions of the fireplace would match the lighting and colour palette of the remainder of the animation, I devoted lots of time in the beginning of the undertaking to check completely different render and pyro simulation settings.
7. RENDERING
On the time of writing, there was a persistent NVIDIA driver situation (a VRAM reminiscence allocation bug) that persistently triggered Redshift to crash on lengthy sequence renders. This situation was broadly mentioned on Redshift’s Fb group and official discussion board. Some 3D artists discovered that downgrading their NVIDIA drivers to 462.59 labored effectively, however the one repair that labored for me was to disable half of my GPUs for renderings (two out of 4 in my case).
The scene for Masquerade was one of many heaviest amongst all of the animation initiatives I’ve carried out — the architectural mannequin alone totalled 4 GBs, whereas your complete scene (together with VDBs, textures, characters, fabric simulations) totalled over 500 GBs. To optimize render instances, I transformed all static objects, together with Matrix objects, into Redshift proxies by teams. For instance, ceiling as one proxy and partitions as one other. This drastically decreased the loading instances for geometry throughout last renders. Whereas I used to shrink back from utilizing Redshift proxies for animations because of render farm limitations, I’ve had the pleasure of utilizing GarageFarm, which absolutely helps Redshift proxies so long as the proxy materials properties are set to “Supplies from Object” or “Supplies from Scene (Match title and prefix)”.
Except for their restricted assist for Redshift proxies, working with GarageFarm was among the finest experiences I’ve ever had utilizing a render farm. The 24/7 assist from the GarageFarm staff was invaluable and so they had been at all times accessible to reply any questions I had. One of many standout options of GarageFarm was the pliability it supplied when it got here to rendering. The flexibility to render single pictures in strips and having three ranges of priorities for rendering jobs allowed me to simply handle my price range and render instances. I might extremely suggest GarageFarm to anybody in search of a user-friendly and dependable renderfarm resolution for his or her CGI animation initiatives.
For the ultimate rendering, each shot was saved individually as one undertaking, which included the next:
- Static geometry as RS Proxies, for structure and furnishings.
- Matrix Objects as RS Proxies, for flower petals scattered throughout the bottom and within the air.
- Characters and animated clothes in Alembic format
- Simulated pyro in VDB format
I experimented with a number of methods for additional optimization and located the next 4 to have essentially the most drastic discount in render instances:
- Deleting every part outdoors the digicam: I created distinctive scenes for each shot such that every scene solely contained what was seen to the digicam. This considerably decreased my last render instances by as much as 80%, particularly for the statue close-up photographs.
- Turning off movement blur for Matrix/Cloner objects with RS Object tags
- Conserving render samples low. I stored mine on the default, with Computerized Sampling set to a threshold of 0.03 and denoising with Neat Video in post-processing
- Rendering solely each different body and utilizing “RIFE-App” to interpolate frames.
Notice:
Method 3 resulted in comparatively noisy renders, which I then imported as sequences into Premiere Professional and used Neat Video 5 for denoising. I left a lot of the Neat Video settings at their default and “automated” values, nevertheless it’s essential that you simply right-click on the Premiere Professional viewport and ensure the Playback Decision is ready to “Full”. This ensures that Neat Video samples the ultimate renders at full decision. The Neat Video consumer interface is simple to navigate, however I like to recommend testing their official tutorials to get essentially the most out of the software program. Method 4 labored for the primary half of this explicit undertaking, however didn’t work for a few of my different initiatives. Be sure that to do take a look at renders earlier than continuing with the ultimate renders.
For the ultimate touches, I used Pink Large Universe Heatwave in After Results so as to add warmth distortions to the fireplace. I additionally used Magic Bullet Appears in Premiere for colour correcting, including chromatic aberration, and movie grain. The ensuing results had been paying homage to motion pictures filmed with detuned 70s lenses, including a layer of nostalgia and enigma to the ultimate aesthetics.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the creation of undertaking “Masquerade” was a difficult however rewarding journey of self-learning and inventive exploration. The method of bringing this character animation undertaking to life allowed me to develop my expertise in storyboarding, character design, character animation and rendering.
This undertaking was created amid the rise of text-to-image synthetic intelligence (AI) programs, which have the potential to disrupt the sphere of visible arts and threaten the livelihood of artists. Whereas these applied sciences supply new potentialities for automation and effectivity, in addition they elevate essential questions concerning the position of creativity and human expression in an more and more automated world. Within the face of those challenges, I consider that it’s extra essential than ever to have a good time and assist the work of artists and creators.
By sharing my very own course of and insights by way of this text, I hope to encourage others to pursue their very own inventive endeavors and to worth the distinctive views and skills of human artists. Regardless of the advances of AI, we should do not forget that it’s by way of the eagerness and dedication of artists like ourselves that the world can proceed to be enriched by the sweetness and complexity of human creativity.
Study extra :
• Kay John Yim’s private web site https://johnyim.com/
• Kay John Yim’s ArtStation https://www.artstation.com/johnyim
• Character Creator https://www.reallusion.com/character-creator/obtain.html
