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Pipeline and Workflow
How to keep this boat to float !
workflow
A good workflow is essential to make a good project and it starts with a clean and understandable nomenclature. Once ours was set up we had to follow it rigorously in order to be organised and always mindful of the fact that everyone's work is going to be shared.
We made our own for the assets and used the one made by Chris Brejon for the lighting part !
It was an essential addition to begin the production on good and solid rails.
scripts and tools
rendering
When it comes to rendering we tried to have a target shot rendered as soon as possible to anticipate the problems we will be facing and the ones we haven't thought of yet.
This allowed us to have .json with a render layer setup that has been iterated multiple times to obtain a solid and versatile setup that is easy to use and answered all our needs.
We also configured an empty default Maya scene with all our configuration preferences to save time.
During the Lookdev stages we started rendering with v-ray but swapped to arnold for its unbiased render approach that would better suit the needs of our story and the immersive feeling we wanted to give to our short, and also because we were more familiar with it.
Upscaling
The biggest challenge of rendering is time, so we opted to lower our render resolution to 720p in order to later upscale our frames in 1440p.
With this workflow we could render way faster which allowed us to iterate more and produce an end result that is more polished.
It was also a huge gain in terms of work comfort as our IPRs were way more reactive, we could focus more on the actual lighting part rather than waiting.
compositing tree
The big challenge here was to create a robust and flexible script to meet the specific needs of each shot and sequence in the film. Additionally, Axel aimed to make the script as user-friendly as possible, considering that compositing always comes a bit late in the process when everyone is starting to feel tired and time is scarce.
The script allowed us to finish the shots fairly quickly, which gave us more time to focus on the details and resolve any issues that needed to be addressed. It enabled us to concentrate on the essentials.
Special thanks to Sacha Danjou, who crafted a Nuke script that I then studied and rebuilt from scratch to learn and understand how it works. The idea was to adapt and improve it to suit the requirements of our production.
Managing the interns
During the production we had the chance to have interns to help us bring our project to life !
It was a blessing as much as a challenge as we had to manage and settle them inside the production with us !
To help them blend in, we created guides for each step of the production. We also had a discord server so we could easily and quickly answer their questions !
A huge thanks
again to:
Viviane SOLLACARO
Ainhoa WEISSENBERGER
Anne-Sarah- REINICHE
Maria MINAEVA
Evelyn PHILIPPART
But also to : Robin ZIMMER and Manon PARISELLE
Louise DUMOLLARD - Jacob KUIPERS - Justine DUBOIS - Nathan JAUZE - Sarah LEVACHER-ROBINET - Stella JARDEL - Anaïs GRANDAME-LEJOSNE - Paul MELLET - Stella CARNAZZA - Carole NAEGELEN - Daisy HAIG
Working on the music
For the music we had the opportunity to work with a MAAAV student from Lyon.
We really wanted to extend our universe through the music, and keep that organic and intimate feel to the whole world.
With that in mind, we had some key references like the work of Pablo Pico in "Maman pleut des cordes", of Bruno Coulais in "Coraline" and even of Andy Hull and Robert McDowell in "Swiss Army Man".
When we listened to Nans's work, it reflected a lot our references but we also felt a sensibility and a uniqueness in his voice work that clicked for us.
The collaboration with hiw was almost flawless as he was really receptive to our feedbacks. That communication allowed us to really express what we wanted while letting him bring his artistry on the piece.
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