Tutorial 16/2 with Ana feedback:
- Select common practices that happen with previs and try to focus in those alone e.g. camera position – select them in a smart way – find those who are best highlighted in VR
- Camera, VFX, lights, blocking, positioning
- Experiment with a couple that may work best in VR
- How would we move them around?
- How can you tell a different story from that scene by just moving things? – essence of a story perspective – point of view
Two things to provide:
Experimentation tool -keeping track of how: developing tool
Present a scene – show experiment of the scene via the tool
Try out Unity Collaborate [*we tried out Unity collaborate it did not really work for us*]
Tutorial 16/2 with Christos feedback:
Assets: already made models in maya : character rigs etc.
Zoatropes Assets: animation / image sequence: in a previs it would be used to tell a story
Thought of VR ar a previs tool: a great tool, a great way to interact with other people on a project, understand volume, understand size and scale, understand characters environment and layout
Lighting size scale and spatial awareness to build an environment
Visual production
Disney + : lion king behind the scenes stuff / extras : how they use game engines eg. unity and VR headsets to layout and build the environment – they literally built the entire lion king world
VR: being able to expand the worlds vs with Maya you are limited to the amount of RAM the computer has, graphic cards, and the scene itself VS game engines allow you to get around it.
Link on lion king and how they did stuff:
https://www.ibc.org/trends/behind-the-scenes-the-lion-king/4407.article
- Why use previs / main takeaway:
- Using camera and lens to tell a story
- Setting up the lighting: a good thing to investigate
- Animation does not have to be fancy at all; can be blocks
- Prevising the cinematography
- If we were the director: what lens would we use?
- Camera positioning
- Movement through the scene
- 3rd floor: https://thethirdfloorinc.com/
- Research short movies/ stories that we take inspo from
- Research on cameras , look at the angles and translating that into our own production, think about the narrative and how would we like our cinematography to draw that narrative
- Think about what excites you on screen
- Translate it into our own way : does this work?
ITERATE A LOT / KEEP IT SHORT and succinct and try to polish it
Is VR just a tool for us or is it also a great tool that helps the viewer immerse in that scene?
Tutorial with Luke B. 18/2
- Time is everything with previs
- It is all about the cameras than what is in front of the cameras
- Basically using cinematography as a language to tell a story everything else is just props
- Marvel films great with previs
- VR for previs: virtual production and IR cameras
- Pocket studio: a new tool
- Watch the behind the scenes of the Mandalorian
- Previs and virtual production blending into each other
- Virtual cameras – unreal engine can do that: connect imac or iphone to unreal engine
- Pocket studio is setup for this but only with android phones
- Virtual production with real time rendering: game engines, virtual pipelines – forefront of the industry [VR]
- Weta Digitals – Meerkat unreal engine – real time hair [weta digital released the scene files for free]
- Unity is being used as well there is not as much though out there for tutorial in unity VS unreal engine (go watch virtual production tutorials in unreal engine)
10am Wednesday Previs lecture Luke B:
- In a VR project: more like a mapping of where things are, a blue print, how is this going to play through VS films more about cameras
- Check company into the void: vr games and virtual theme parks : mapping out the world and mapping out the game use VR to walk around the environment, tell a story and not be boring
- Magician trick: infinite circle
- What you are trying to achieve before achieving it
- Big problem with VR it is all experimental
- Provide a recording of someone walking around a environment
- Point: how to tell a story in 360 – essentially be the camera
- Try to encourage the audience to want to be in a specific place where the action is happening
- How to direct the audience
Check out:
Jon Favreau [ virtual production talks]
I am mother
Jungle Book
Avatar
Bibliography
Bridger, L. (2021) Tutorial with Adrika S Farhid, Ekaterini Tsoris zymnis, Inga Masliy, 17 February.
Sfetsios, C. (2021) Tutorial with Adrika S Farhid, Ekaterini Tsoris, Inga Masliy, 16 February.
Tudor, A. (2021) Tutorial with Adrika S Farhid, Ekaterini Tsoris, Inga Masliy, 16 February.
Interesting sources provided by Christos that will help our understanding of virtual production / VR previs:
Some links around pre-vis/post-vis/tech-vis:
Really important:
https://www.realtimeuk.com/blog/the-detailed-guide-to-previs/
https://www.artofvfx.com/tag/previs-supervisor/
https://theasc.com/ac_magazine/June2009/Previs/page1.html
Previs: Change the Game with Game Engines | Virtual Production | Unreal Engine – 2019
How Marvel Actually Makes Movies Years Before Filming | Movies Insider – 2021
George Lucas On The Pre-Visualization Process – 2009
How Film Directors and Previs Artists Work Together in Pre-Production- 2019