What is Previs ?
Previsualization is a collaborative process within pre-production where filmmakers visually plan scenes with camera works, lighting, character movements, etc. (ScreenSkills, ND)
Traditionally, this process has been performed with drawings, concept images, sketches, etc., and it is not until recently that previs has been performed with 3D animation tools. (Wikipedia, 2021)
Previs artists usually start with a 2D storyboard. They create draft versions of the different moving image sequences and they put it all together using their compositing and editing skills. (Wikipedia, 2021)
History
Disney Studios was the first to officially use the term storyboard. The term was used a simple planning technique.
The making of the first three Star Wars films, beginning in the mid-’70s, introduced low-cost innovations in pre-planning to refine complex visual effects sequences.
1981 Spielberg – Raiders of the lost ark – miniature scale pieces models (CineFix IGN Movies and TV, 2015)
1982 Francis Ford Coppola in movie One from heart : Electronic cinema -> Through electronic cinema Coppola sought to provide the filmmaker with on-set composing tools that would function as an extension of his thought processes
3D computer graphics was relatively unheard of until the release of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park in 1993. – As a result, computer graphics lent themselves to the design process (Wikipedia, 2021)
Virtual Reality as a tool for previs
Putting filmmakers into an actual film scene with the use of VR technologies
Pre-production is a phase that is focused around planning to optimize the later production phase. In films with complicated shots or with large amounts of visual effects, this planning can be harder to visualize and the costs for producing visual effects and CG-based effects is considerable. 3D animation tools such as Maya1 or Blender2 can provide creators with tools for animating characters, environment and cameras, and test different lighting, etc., hence providing resources for executing the planning process. However, these tools do not include the interactive layer that is an integrated part of game engines. (Ardal et al., 2019)
Game engines have been used for providing real-time experiences for other scenarios than pure gaming, by both including animation and 3D modelling from traditional 3D animation tools and interactive practices from gaming creation. These tools can also be an integrated part of previsualization, where filmmakers can immerse in film scenes and test different camera works, character movements, etc. in real-time . On the other hand, these 3D animation and game engines requires a high level of skill sets for modelling, animating and scripting. Hence, filmmakers might not have the required skill sets to perform previs. VR has the affordances of providing immersive experiences of being in virtual environments. Similarly, it can mimic reallife situations in various scenarios which induces interaction principles that people are accustomed to, e.g. picking up objects using hands or walking around in a physical space that is reflected in a virtual environment. (Ardal et al., 2019)
Case Study: Monocular
Monocular – an app in development that works in HTC Vive
“ System overview :
Creating visualizations in the system is divided into three phases: scene preparation, realtime animation and video export.
The scene preparation phase is considered to be an offline editing phase, and uses the built-in editing tools in Unity. In this phase a specialized artist creates and assembles different 3D models to build up a virtual mock-up of the set. The 3D models typically originates from scenography models made by the art department, 3D scans of realworld locations or 3D models downloaded from online repositories. Rigged character models can be generated from a multitude of software packages. As this process is similar to many types of applications within games and visualization, we will not discuss it further in this paper. The realtime animation phase, however, is considered to be online, and simulate the action taking place on a real-world film set. This includes all action taking place in front of the camera, such as character movements and dialogue, as well as camera motion and the changing of optics (focal length and aperture). After animation is completed, the recorded camera shots are exported to video format in the video export phase. (Ardal et al., 2019)
Characteristics:
No keyframing
Miniature paradigm: the users puppeteer scale models of the characters and cameras.
Incremental animation passes: The user incrementally records first each character’s motion, and then each camera. When recording each object, previously recorded animations on other objects are played back in real time” (Ardal et al., 2019)
Another Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTRViYtusHM&fbclid=IwAR2NueLPF4wXSulZCqaaVSG_vlw14UE_3smZnF8ojoaVXJb-LOV77JHbS6k
Sources:
Ardal, D., Alexandersson, S., Lempert, M., Abelho Pereira, A T. (2019). A Collaborative Previsualization Tool for Filmmaking in Virtual Reality. In: ACM Digital Library. Available at: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1391474/FULLTEXT01.pdf [Accessed January 22, 2021].https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1391474/FULLTEXT01.pdf
CineFix IGN Movies and TV (2015). How important is previz for films?! Film School’d . April 30, 2015. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kL3iuGm9sA (Accessed: Jan 22, 2021)
Crimson Engine (2020). MAKING A MOVIE: Pre-vis can really help. Sep 7, 2020. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4ABvBNA5qI (Accessed: Jan 22, 2021)
ScreenSkills (no date) Previsualisation (previs) artist. Available at: https://www.screenskills.com/starting-your-career/job-profiles/visual-effects-vfx/pre-production/previsualisation-previs-artist/ (Accessed: 15 February 2021).
The rusty trailer (2014). previs examples. Jan 12, 2014. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW_jylm1LVE (Accessed: Jan 22, 2021).
Wikipedia (2021) Previsualization. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Previsualization (Accessed: 17 February 2021).