Behind the stunning symphony of Animation and VFX projects lies a tapestry of ideas, tasks, and team members - that sync together to form the visual masterpiece of a scene! There is a kaleidoscope of conscious creativity that builds a scene to its full potential - and the VFX animation industry is filled up to the brim with numerous big names who have excelled to the max.
Big shots like Jellyfish Productions (a UK-based company), CineVisualFX, Knack Studios, and many more have recently expanded their wings to India - and the VFX animation industry is on the rise like never before! But one cardinal sin - is common among all of them overstepping the time limit!
Not to worry - you will walk out of this blog, with all the inspiration and information needed to manage your project deadlines immaculately!
Understanding the Deadline Dilemma
Eyeballs globally are aware of the Game-changing potential of Indian Animation and VFX - as the lines between international & national expertise are blurring soon from a creative perspective.
VFX & animation projects are the perfect example - of why micro-planning is necessary. The pipeline resembles this hierarchy in most cases:
Pre-production:
Before creating a masterpiece, a visualization process comes into play - which prepares the report for technical needs or probable issues which can arise.
1. Research & Development: To determine which shots need the VFX touch
2. Storyboarding & animatics: To create drawings which illustrate the visual framing on a per shot process.
3. Previs (Pre-visualization): To generate Low-poly 3D models, scenario ideas, camera angles, locations of shoot & set layouts for scenes.
Production:
This phase is when the production really starts gearing on, as the shooting, video files, and VFX workouts are submitted.
1. 3D Modeling: It is meant to create assets like vehicles or buildings that can’t be brought on the shooting areas in reality. It is also handy in creating - non-human or digital doubles.
2. Matte Painting: Creating visual backgrounds that do not exist in reality - is a matte painting. (also used in Harry Potter films, Game of Thrones, and The witcher)
3. Reference Photography: Reference pictures of actors, scenarios, or props are taken & used to add texture to the necessary 3D models to enhance their realistic element.
Post-Production:
The whole symphony is joined together in this phase - VFX, music, sounds, and videos - to create the final product. It is indeed the busiest phase.
1. Rigging & Animation: 3D assets or characters have no meaning if they do not have natural movement. In essence, this process breathes life into these characters.
2. FX & Stimulation: The logic while shooting a movie scene can’t be changed, but an FX artist ensures that elements such as fire, water, or a raging battle with the ocean, are 100% natural and do not stick out like a sore thumb. We all know what happened in Adipurush - and why it didn’t work!
3. Motion Tracking: Motion tracking, also known as match moving, allows them to seamlessly integrate visual effects into disparate scenes and live-action videos.
4. Texturing: Adding interesting and realistic textures to 3D model surfaces.
5. Rotoscoping or Masking: Artists cut out certain objects, and characters from the original video and use them in a different layout.
6. Lighting & Rendering: virtual lighting is added or adjusted to match the scenes and makes the shots look increasingly realistic and intense.
7. Compositing: Also known as stitching - it joins all VFX elements together into the scene - to create a finalized shot.
The above points depict merely 10% of the actual detailing - and each process has its timeline decided. If even one junction misses its deadline - the project damage starts like a domino effect - a chain reaction.
The Top 17 Loopholes most found in a VFX/animation Project are:
- Scope Creep; Scaling the project scope without adjusting timelines
- Poorly defined timelines and goals
- Insufficient resources
- Complex VFX or animation needs
- Unexpected hurdles related to technical or creativity
- Miscommunication within the team
- Delays of feedback or inputs from the client end
- Slow or unorganized production pipelines
- No contingency plans
- Quality issues and repeated mistakes
- Software/hardware issues
- Artistic iterations for enhancements
- Challenges in team synchronization
- Reliance on third-party assets / teams
- Financial limitations / Budget constraints
- Loss of Project Data or assets
- Insufficient expertise in complex processes
Use these Underrated Management tactics - to carry out VFX projects like a pro!
Breaking down complex project workflows:
Why to be thrown off balance when you can break a complex problem and figure out the real issue? VFX artists find it incredibly easy to function when they have a clear picture of their goals - and a production head can only reach this level of expertise by breaking down messy issues.
VFX studios often have hundreds or thousands of digital assets in one single creature/shot.The sheer volume of managing these terabytes of data is a hard task but innumerable tasks can be very well managed by a tool like Vani, which helps you manage the number of shots and has a cutting edge record of every miniature change suggested in each shot. Forget the hassle of maintaining workflows and scene changes in an excel sheet now!
Balance team communications:
Collaborating and communicating are keys to a great finished product - no matter it is animation/VFX or any other industry! Continuous healthy communication can help you find creative solutions to complex issues in the VFX industry.
Vani offers to you a department-wise availability option for artists across diverse departments and keeps creative team in a single platform. Whether your artist is sitting in LA or Lucknow - you as a production head can verify that your team has the adequate amount of resources to complete the existing / future projects to their respective deadlines. AVGC Team communications are a piece of cake - with this smart functionality!
Experimenting with different tools and tactics:
VFX artists can try out new tools and approaches to learn more about them and find new applications for them. This process can help with figuring out ways of completing tasks with new-found tactics in a short time.
An artist can easily spend hours in different research and artistic activities - but as a production head - how could you keep track? Vani allows you to access a specific resource’s work logs - including availability, active tasks as well as occupancy. Each task shows a particular time worked on it - and you can accurately monitor their productivity every day!
Creating a plan and sticking to it:
Planning an execution schedule and sticking to it despite the hurdles or problems that arrive is the best way to meet deadlines and not miss them.
Track workflows smartly:
When everyone knows what they are supposed to do, there are minimal chances of confusion or quality
control. Everybody plays their role perfectly - to ensure project delivery on time.
Vani helps you measure your team’s responsibilities and productivity on a verified weighing scale:
- The Display of Department-wise Availability of Artists
- The Display of Assigned Projects
- The Display of Active Tasks and Projects
- Artist Efficiency with a display of percentage ratio
- Smart Monitoring of Artist’s Activities
Gather the right tools for the Job:
Gone are the days when you only needed manual expertise to get the job done. Today many tools are available that make 50% of your job easy - and enhance the quality.
Some of those tools are:
- After Effects (customizable VFX templates and seamless integration with Adobe’s Premiere Pro)
- Fusion (great for creating immersive 360 or VR videos)
- Nuke (immaculate review workflows & much more)
- Houdini by SideFx ( R&D processes & different customized effects)
- Maya (If you’re reading this blog, you already know the magic of Maya!)
- HitFilmPro (1000+ templates + features like masking, 2D & 3D Motion Tracking)
- Blender (3D animation tools and objection tracker with manual/automatic tracking)
Wrapping up:
To take that first step toward the VFX/animation industry, you should have a death grip on some of these most underrated management tricks! The depth of Animation/VFX projects cannot be divided - in 1 blog or maybe even 20, as it is an ocean of 1000 minuscule steps before we create the cinematic masterpiece. But let’s hope this blog digs you out of the dirt when you are stuck in a rut and need to keep the lights on!
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