DIGITAL PRODUCTION 06 : 2019

Willkommen zur DP mit animago-Schwerpunkt! Da wir ein internationales Event sind, sind die animago-Stories über Nominierte und Gewinner auf Englisch. Aber keine Angst, die technisch fokussierten Produktionsberichte kommen in Deutsch. Denn diesmal ist Deutschland nicht mehr das einreichungsstärkste Land beim animago, und das Verhältnis verschiebt sich immer weiter. Wer sich allerdings nicht für die Projekte anderer interessiert, hat diesmal mit Serlio, USD, C4D R21, Golaem 7, Cartoon Animator, Red Giant, Neatvideo, Media Composer, Fairlight, Blender, Realflow, Clarisse und vielem mehr wieder genug Lesestoff, um bis Weihnachten durchzukommen ... Jetzt Ausgabe im Online Shop bestellenJetzt digital lesen

#DigitalProduction

Best VFX: Game of Thrones, Season 8 (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

Wether you like it or loathe it: “Game of Thrones” kicked of the rise of quality TV – decent acting, scripts that aren’t optimised for advertisement breaks, and budgets that get used for giving an amazing optical spectacle. The finale of the series – Season 8 – might have been the most hotly anticipated couple of episodes in TV history yet. (S. 10)
Best VFX: Sicario: Day of the Soldado (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

VFX often implies dragons, spaceships and robots – preferably all three, with big explosions. But, as with many forms of art, getting to realism is much harder than one would assume. Nowhere more so than with “Sicario 2” – a film we thoroughly enjoyed, and in manycases did not see the VFX. (S. 16)
Best VFX: Fantastic Beasts 2 (Winner)

Artikel von Bela Beier

There are movies that have one kind of VFX – robots, explosions, environments, and so on. And then there are some who have EVERY kind of VFX, for example the second instalment of “Fantastic Beasts”. (S. 18)
Young Production: Trois Francs Six Sous (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

We are used to animated movies being either funny, experimental or absurd, sometimes all three. But at this year’s Jury Event, one came along which left an emotional impact (that kind of “oomph” deep in your belly) and convinced us in terms of quality: “Trois Francs Six Sous”, made by students from Supinfocom Rubika, tells one of those war stories that don’t make the history books. (S. 20)
Links zum Artikel:
https://vimeo.com/3f6sshortmovie
Young Production: Projeckt (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

Do you know that familiar feeling when you see a movie and think: Wow, that is some part of a big universe with a giant productionand design-team and dozens of writers and all the trimmings of a big-budget production? That is what the jury thought when they saw “Projeckt” – and during the end credits, everyone was flabbergasted to see that the trailer for the big production was done by two (2!!!) students. (S. 26)
Young Production: Ostrich Politics (Winner)

Artikel von Bela Beier

Ostriches carry on their daily activities burying their heads, believing it’s an instinctive behavior. However, one day a research by phylogeneticist Dr. Kais proves otherwise. (S. 32)
Links zum Artikel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He2A5ELqkoA&feature=youtu.be
Game Cinematics: Outriders Reveal Trailer (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

In February 2018, we were approached by Square Enix, tasking Axis Animation with crafting a reveal trailer for their new IP “Outriders”. But what is that about? (S. 34)
Game Cinematics: Cyberpunk 2077 (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

Every once in a while, there is a cinematic which makes you think: “I need to play this! This is ALL COOL STUFF!” And if you look around at gamers, there are very few (except the Minecraft- and Dark Souls-crowd), who wouldn’t take “Cyberpunk 2077” for a spin. Propably because all we have seen so far has been amazingly cool, and the trailer ticked all the boxes. (S. 36)
Game Cinematics: Metro Exodus (Winner)

Artikel von Bela Beier

Platige Image is an old hand at the animago – countless nominations and more than a couple of wins show how much the folks in Warsaw have been doing over the years. But what does it look like, when they imagine a nightmare? (S. 42)
In-Game: Utopia Syndrome (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

When you compare games – and their respective ingame graphics – it’s always a balance between A-list titles with a thousand artists and indie-games with 10 people – you decide which has the most amazing parts per Artist (which will from here on be known as 1 APPA – that whole classification thing isn’t hard!). Nevertheless, if you ask us for that one game whose graphics and attention to detail in relation to a very, very, very small team amazed us, our answer is “Utopia Syndrome”. (S. 48)
In-Game: Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

Military shooters are a dime a dozen, but some manage to catch our attention: “Ghost Recon” has the most detailed in-game world yet including such incredible touches as skidmarks in the mud, an island that has all kinds of different vegetation and environment and an all in all great world for players to have fun in. (S. 52)
In-Game: Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Winner)

Artikel von Bela Beier

What is the first video game hero(ine) that comes to mind when you hear adventure? For us it is Lara Croft. The reboot has been doing very well – so say critics and gamers. The technical finesse is, even 18 months after its release, still the yardstick to measure all others by. (S. 54)
Advertising: Alamarei: Obesity (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

How dangerous can obesity really be? For food manufacturer Almarai, the animation studio Sehsucht in Hamburg has dealt with exactly this question. (S. 58)
Links zum Artikel:
https://vimeo.com/326866435
https://www.sehsucht.de
Advertising: Howard’s Story (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

In a time when everything gets an animated prequel, the Studio Lobo told a sequel to an unintentionally interrupted story – the story of Howard Stein. (S. 62)
Advertising: Christmas dosn’t need much (Winner)

Artikel von Bela Beier

In case you haven’t noticed: Christmas is right around the corner – usually a couple of weeks after animago. And if that doesn’t jog your memory, the big commercial entities are sure to remind you. Some of them decide to tell heart-warming stories. One of them is “Christmas doesn’t need much. Only Love”, which was made for Penny (the discounter) by Glassworks Amsterdam. We talked to the three codirectors Darren Macpherson, Hugo Rodriguez and Rüdiger Kaltenhäuser. (S. 64)
Best Character: Turbopera (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

We all enjoy a bit of culture every now and again. So why not have a dinner and an evening in the opera? Maybe some fish for dinner? (S. 68)
Best Character: 400 MPH (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

When was the last time you really identified with an animal? And not in the “I want to sleep all day like my cat”, but in a meaningful way? Propably with the “Planet of the Apes”-movies? (S. 70)
Best Character: Sous la Glace (Winner)

Artikel von Bela Beier

How do you turn a bird – a heron to be precise – into a story? Well you give him a name and show things about him. Like Laurie Estampes, Flore Dupont, Milan Baulard, Quentin Nory, Hugo Potin and Ismail Berrahma from the Ecole des Nouvelle Images did. (S. 74)
Short Movie: 028 (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

Have you ever been to Lisbon in Portugal? Well, we recommend a short trip – something like 5 Minutes and 18 seconds, and a team of students from Supinfocom will take you there! (S. 80)
Short Movie: Spring (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

Spring is late this year. Covered by a sea of clouds, a valley stands still in the icy grip of winter. A shepherd girl and her loyal dog have to face ancient spirits in order to continue the cycle of life. (S. 84)
Short Movie: The Pig on the Hill (Winner)

Artikel von Bela Beier

When Pig‘s free-spirited, rambunctious new neighbor, Duck, plunges himself into Pig‘s quiet, orderly life, Pig learns that having friends is what he has been missing all along. (S. 85)
Motion Graphics: Germany Works. (Nominee)

Artikel von Tom Jansen

Germany works? Whether IT, energy, logistics or life sciences – studio Parasol Island has been working on this question in cooperation with Serviceplan Berlin for Germany Trade & Invest. Within just two months, the resulting campaign “Germany Trade & Invest – Germany Works.” comes with a very professional and visually pleasing imagefilm, which has now earned a nomination for „Best Motion Design“. (S. 86)
Links zum Artikel:
https://www.serviceplan-berlin.com/de/
https://www.gtai.de
https://www.parasol-island.com/credential/gtai_germany_works
https://www.germanyworks.com
Motion Graphics: Gunne Homme (Nominee)

Artikel von Tom Jansen

From fabrics, patterns and colors, design concepts and Python scripts to final rendering: Within the last year, Thomas Gugel’s Motion Design project for GUNEE Homme evolved into an outstanding work with a lot of intricate materials and structures, which now received a nomination for the Motion Graphics category of the animago. (S. 90)
Links zum Artikel:
https://www.gunee-homme.com
https://www.three-seconds.de
Motion Graphics: Hurlevent (Winner)

Artikel von Bela Beier

Typographical animation? Yeah, seen it. Stop-motion? Yeah, seen it. Typographical Animation within stop-motion? Wait a minute!!! (S. 96)
Jury’s Prize: Ian (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

Ian was born with cerebral palsy. Like all kids, he wants to have friends, but discrimination and bullying keep him from his beloved playground. Ian won’t give up easily, accomplishing something that will surprise everyone. (S. 99)
Jury’s Prize: Bavure (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

When you think of VFX and animation, it is easy to think that everything has been done over and over and over again, and nothing new comes along, only better versions of things already seen. And you know what else is true? We know f*** all, and are surprised year after year. For example, the nominee for this year’s “Jury’s Prize”, “Bavure”. (S. 100)
Jury’s Prize: The Beauty (Winner)

Artikel von Tom Jansen

In “The Beauty”, the team of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg takes us on a deep dive into an otherwise unpleasant part of the world. However, beautiful pictures and sounds from the depths of the oceans can be seen and heard – consisting of flip-flop swarms, coral reefs made of plastic cutlery and straws, plastic bag jellyfish or bottle whales. The film by director Pascal Schelbli approaches a big problem of our time in a very creative and different way – which not only impressed our animago jury. As winner of the animago „Jury‘s Prize“ category, we take a close look at the process and implementation of the project. (S. 102)
Links zum Artikel:
https://thebeauty-film.com
https://www.filmakademie.de/en
Still: Garden of Damocles (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

A courtyard instantly makes a house feel sophisticated. And then there are some classical statues in there – nice! But what’s that on the ceiling? (S. 108)
Still: Frog – Surface (Nominee)

Artikel von Bela Beier

One of the advantages of the “Still” category is that you can go fully into photorealism with every pixel – like Flavio Albino, Flavio Teixeira and Rafael Dioli and the team from Platinum FMD from Brasil did. (S. 112)
Links zum Artikel:
http://www.platinumfmd.com.br
Still: Subarctic Great Horned Owl (Winner)

Artikel von Bela Beier

Last year’s animago issue had a cheetah on the title page – very realistic and unbearably fluffy. The creator, Yuriy Dulich, graced this year’s competition with another majestic beast – and the readers picked him as a Winner in the category “Best Still”. (S. 114)
Links zum Artikel:
https://www.fws.gov/lab/featheratlas/
http://www.featherbase.info/ru/home
Still Galery: The Stills of 2019

Artikel von Bela Beier

Every year, we have to make a tough choice: The stills of the animago participants are ALL simply amazing. But since we only have one prize, we turn to our readers to choose the best one. We could honestly not decide, so here they are. (S. 120)
Serlio
Wäre es nicht toll, wenn man die CityEngine direk in Maya zur Verfügung hätte? Ja, das geht. Das neue Open-Source-Plug-in Serlio von Esri schlägt die Brücke! (S. 133)
Links zum Artikel:
https://github.com/esri/serlio
Cinema 4D R21

Artikel von Arndt von Koenigsmarck

Neues Jahr, neues Release. Aber was wird aus den Subscriptions bei Maxons 3D-Allrounder? (S. 136)
USD wird salonfähig

Artikel von Rainer Duda

Neue Formate gibt es viele – aber lohnt es, genauer hinzuschauen? Rainer Duda guckt bei USD unter die Haube und schaut, was wirklich drinsteckt. (S. 142)
Links zum Artikel:
https://graphics.pixar.com/usd/docs/
https://github.com/Autodesk/maya-usd
https://github.com/rodeofx/USD
https://github.com/rodeofx/usd-arnold
Zurück aufs Brett

Artikel von Mike Kuhn

In Teil 2 des Wacom-Praxistests ziehen wir ein Resümee – und ein erfahrener Tablet-User erklärt, was ich als Noob am Intuos Pro falsch gemacht habe. (S. 148)
Golaem, die Siebte
Unsere Lieblings-Crowd-Sim ist schon in der Version 7 und hat mit dem Layouter ein neues Allerweltstool. Aber was ist das bitte genau? (S. 150)
I/O für Erwachsene

Artikel von Bela Beier

Nach langem Testen haben wir die offiziell beste Maus für Leute gefunden, die kein RGB wollen, sondern arbeiten müssen – und die vielleicht sogar Linkshänder sind. (S. 155)
PopXport
Wenn man etwas tausendmal auf einem Sender sieht, sollte es besser cool sein und gut aussehen – wie beim neuen Sendungsdesign für „PopXport“. (S. 156)
Moderne Zeiten – Cartoon Animator 4
Adobe sind nicht die Einzigen, die Realtime-Facetracking können – wir schauen uns den Konkurrenten an – inklusive Retargeting, Dehnung und intelligenter IK. (S. 162)
Die neuen NPR-Filter in ZBrush
Fast jeder kann zeichnen, aber wenn es an die verschiedenen Stile geht, sind wir aufgeschmissen. Aber Moment: ZBrush hat einen ganzen Stapel NPR-Filter! (S. 167)
The Missing Link in After Effects

Artikel von Nils Calles

After Effects kann viel, aber bei Weitem nicht alles. Nils Calles macht den Praxistest und schaut, was Red Giant’s VFX-Suite hinzufügt. (S. 170)
Links zum Artikel:
https://postproduction-tutorials.net/dp-artikel-06-2019/
Neatvideo 5 in Resolve – mehr für weniger

Artikel von Prof. Uli Plank

Denoising mit AI ist in aller Munde. Aber warum eine künstliche Intelligenz, wenn clevere Plug-ins so verfügbar sind? Und in Verbindung mit Resolve deutlich flexibler? (S. 176)
Links zum Artikel:
https://www.digitalproduction.com/2019/11/12/neatvideo-5-versus-resolve/
Fairlight 16

Artikel von Björn Eichelbaum

So viele neue Features in den Bild-Gebern von BMD. Aber was passiert denn beim Ton-Geber? Ein Blick über den Zaun ins Fairlight Audio Toolset. (S. 180)
Das Blender-Ökosystem

Artikel von Gottfried Hofmann

Mit dem neuen Release 2.8 nimmt Blender Schwung auf – und viele fragen: Wie finanziert sich das? Wir schauen hinter die Kulissen des Open-Source-Allrounders. (S. 184)
Fluid-Rendering mit Clarisse und Realflow

Artikel von Thomas Schlick

Software ist toll, wenn sie zusammenarbeitet! Tut sie auch, und Thomas Schlick zeigt, wie man den Renderer und den Pätscherer unter einen Hut bringt. (S. 190)
Media Composer 2019

Artikel von Florian Eisner

Trick for Click 5 schaut sich die neueste Version von Avids Editing-Suite an und findet den Gewichtheber, das neue Interface und Einiges mehr. (S. 195)
Halbzeit bei Continuum und Mocha Pro

Artikel von Prof. Uli Plank

Zwischen-Releases sind normalerweise nur Bugfixes, außer wenn ein Klassiker wiederbelebt wird. Wir präsentieren: The Return of Particle Illusion! (S. 198)
360°-Rundgang wird 360°-Homepage

Artikel von Stefan Eling

3D-Tools und Animationen im Film? Joa, ist fein. Aber was ist, wenn es ins Web geht? Ein Projektbericht aus den heiligen Hallen der EU. (S. 202)
Links zum Artikel:
https://www.hanisauland.de/
http://eling.com/
https://www.hanisauland.de/spezial/eu-rundgang