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 eyeon
speaks with Di He and Brock Lafond, of AIVFX, about their
project, The Birthday Gift.
The Birthday Gift is the
charming story of a young Chinese boy, the toy he desires so
greatly, and his loving grandmother. Set in China against a
beautiful backdrop of misty mountains and ancient
architecture, it takes the viewer into a CG world created
using traditional Chinese brush strokes and colors.
Both Fusion and Generation were utilized on this
project. It allowed the artists the ability to work fully
within a toolset that offered them all they needed, as well as
the means to view it daily to change and polish each shot. I
sat with Di He and Brock Lafond to discuss how they created
such a beautiful project and why they used eyeon's software to
complete the project.
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 Sue:
Di, tell me a little about yourself.
Di: I was
a sculptor in China. I was introduced to visual effects in
Canada. I'm a graduate of Sheridan College and have been
working with Fusion for about four years.
When I
started this project, I was by myself. Then Daniel Lee came
into it and another artist by the name of Alfonso Young. I
love Fusion. Not every shot in the movies is a big VFX shot,
some are quiet shots where you need a few particles here and
there or backgrounds adjusted. Fusion is very fast, easy, and
comfortable to use.
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 Sue:
It's a beautiful film.
Di: It's a children's
film. Our project was featured in a major Art magazine in
China. They consider it fine art. Everything I have has gone
into this film. My goal is to show Chinese original culture to
the world.
Brock: It definitely generates a
different feeling working on a non-destruction film/project.
It was a humbling experience working on
it.
Sue: Why was that?
Brock:
It is such a peaceful piece. I put myself in there. It made me
feel good.
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 Sue: What other
software did you use?
Di: I am a programmer so
I do write software and scripts for the high efficiency of our
pipeline. We used eyeon's asset management software,
Generation, as well. It allowed us to see the shots and how we
wished to adjust them, a great addition to our project.
We did not use it everyday from the beginning but for our next
project, we will start using Generation from the start.
Generation Studio is a great tool for tracking
differences between versions. We are not only using it to
track the versions of each compositing shot, but also made it
our asset management software. We even use it to manage all
the creative designs, lighting tests, animation takes, and so
on, and the Generation Player can play our 2K image sequence
smoothly on a regular PC. I think all artists should look into
Generation Studio; it has a very straightforward approach with
asset management, and handles our largest projects with
exceptional performance.
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 Sue:
Brock, what do you think about switching over from layers to
nodes?
Brock: I've been an Autodesk/Adobe guy
for a while, Aftereffects, Combustion. But when I saw what
Daniel was doing with Fusion, practically right out of the
box, I said to myself - I wish I had some of those tools. I've
been swayed to the Fusion direction, let's
say.
Sue: Who worked on the film and how long
did it take? Where did the work take
place?
Brock: Well, we worked in Di's spare
room for a while until we rented a small office in downtown
Toronto. We had four work stations and traded out who worked
on them. We worked back to back. I could look over my shoulder
and see what he was doing and he could look over my shoulder
and see what I was doing. Brock modeled all CG environments.
Di and I looked at each other and decided that if we
added one more person to the mix it wouldn't work. So we
changed offices and looked to add more members to the team. We
wanted people who were dedicated to this project, the Birthday
Gift. We found them. Our team gave everything they had. A lot
of heart went into this project. It took a lot of hours. It
took a lot of heart.
Di: It took us about 4
months of actual production work to do the film. We started in
April in my apartment.
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 Sue:
Fusion has all the tools you need?
Di: Oh yes,
it has everything; you don't need to add
anything.
Sue: Do you have a favorite tool in
Fusion?
Di: I am very impressed by the
outstanding Fusion 3D particle system. One challenge in our
development was to capture the nature spirit of Chinese
painting. Fusion 6 handles them using 3D animated clouds, fog,
water, and snow environment. The advanced 3D particle systems
in Eyeon Fusion 6 give us almost real-time feedback in our
final compositing view, making us feel like we are working in
front of a moving canvas.
We also designed a set of
Fusion scripts that have their naming sequences and shots
based on a database; this makes the complex composition run
smooth and efficiently. When artists open a Fusion file, the
image loader, frame number, time code, and output are ready to
go; it is huge time saver. The overall performance and
responsiveness of Fusion, along with its 64-bit
implementation, is a powerhouse among compositing
applications.
Sue: How many shots were completed on this
film?
Di: 120 shots, all done in Fusion.
Brock: We definitely put Fusion to
test.
Sue: And you were
happy?
Brock: Oh yeah.
Sue:
How did you create the layout?
Di: It's very
straight forward. We rendered it in 14-15 passes, hair,
highlights, diffused color, from different files. We only had
six locations for The Birthday Gift. We set up a computer file
and injected everything.
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Sue: Brock, you haven't really worked with Fusion
in the past. How did you find changing over from a layer-based
compositor to a node based compositor?
Brock:
It's very intuitive. I was actually really impressed with
Daniel Lee. I was looking at his compositions and how complex
they were and how easy it was for him to follow his flow. If I
had to do that in a layer-based composition, I'd have to worry
about naming conventions, so if I have to find a specific
thing, I don't have to click through 20-30 layers trying to
find what I need.
What's great is that, I guess, the
whole concept of compositing hasn't changed, just the way you
do it. The analogy I like to use is the same tools but in a
different tool shed.
Sue: How's the learning
process coming along?
Brock: It's coming
along. It's a bit of a learning curve.
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 Sue:
Di, what's the difference between the VFX industry in China
and the one in North America?
Di: I think it
is based on different history and tradition, even the meaning
of 'entertainment'. China has a different way of producing
animation. A large studio filled with people filling the needs
of the industry, it is almost industrialized.
In North
America, the animation is different. Artists have more
individual input.
The biggest challenge with The
Birthday Gift was that we needed to produce an animation that
fitted in with the Chinese idea of animation as well as appeal
to the North American audience.
In the near future, I
would like to open a studio in China. Many Chinese filmmakers
and artists are fascinated by the digital media technology;
they would do better in a studio environment with more
creative input and efficacy work flow. |
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 Sue: Any
last words?
Di: eyeon's Fusion and Generation
Studio works intuitively in our production pipeline, and the
overall features and 3D performance make it the best of all
compositing software.
The Birthday Gift, a short
animated film, is the first production I directed. The small
team and I did our best to accomplish this task with the low
budget. I believe using eyeon's Fusion and Generation software
was the right choice. The experience, and being eyeon's
client, is very satisfying. |
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| Make sure to check out the AIVFX website for
more information. |
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