So this is a little demo that I typically do for the people that come here
wondering what previs is all about. Normally, it begins with this kind of
simple character that we build from various pieces and texture. We'll just take
that character and rig it up with our special rigging system, but have, we have
it built in segments so that there's no actual skinning going on, so that we
can keep these guys running around very quickly. So then, we'll apply either an
animation cycle we've created or something that we do from the, from the motion
capture. And so of course, then, you can go and give this guy a friend. And
this is how we begin to build up the sequence. And then the director will start
to ask, okay, where are they standing, where is, what's the environment? So, we
end up building this whole location to scale. So actually, when you go all the
way out, you see that this is topographically accurate, it's the real scale of
the real environment. So that, if the director wants to look in any different
direction, they're seeing the correct heights of all of the landmarks. Then,
I'll just add a few effects to this particular shot, required some
pyrotechnics. So, we actually ended up going and consulting with the
pyrotechnics guys to make sure that the, the scale of the, of the explosions
was correct. So even though, they're just a bunch of still images, we end up
getting the accurate scale of what these, the explosions would be. But, the
first thing that I need to do before it becomes a shot is actually look at it
through a camera. So here, the guys running through the shot, this is how we
initially composed the scene. And then we decided, you know what, let's do an
alternate angle. So, we just quickly threw in another, another view. And this
is the same action, but played out as just a pan tilt as opposed to a dolly
shot. So you can get a lot of, create different camera moves out of the same
action. Next up I want to show you how we add some extra realism to the camera
itself. First of all, we select the camera, and then we have all kinds of
controls. in this case, I'm going to turn on the handheld control. And I can
amp this up, so that now, instantly, I see the same action but with a bit more
shake on it, so it feels more realistic. Especially great for these kinds of
action sequences. Once the scenes are approved, we end up taking a look at this
from a completely different perspective. Can we actually do this shot? And in
the case of this particular shot, they decided, well, let's just start shooting
this on a green screen. And so, how this actually works is, we can take a look
in my at the volume of the sound stage. And we brought in of course, all of the
gear, the, the lights, the, the camera equipment. So, when we're looking at the
shot on set we can make sure that we have the right-sized green screen, and
that all of the technical pieces are working. Now you'll notice here in the
beginning that one of the actors is stepping on this kind of red dolly track
that we have there. So, what we need to do is make sure that kind of move this
over and we can, we can place that wherever we need it to be. And our camera
rigs work in reverse. So right now, this is giving me a certain solution. It's
all driven by the creative camera, but the actual rig just follows along. So if
I wanted to take this rig, and in my change the trajectory of the rig, I could
scoot it over this way so it's out of the shot. The, creatively, the shot is
going to be the same, but, at least we know now where best to put all of the
gear. So, the last part of the story here is, once we've got the creative
worked out, we've got a plan for how to shoot it effectively, then we need to
make sure that we communicate that to the clients. So we give them all these
different views and usually encapsulated into one particular drawing. a page
that we can give to the production managers or the producers, so that they can
keep track of how each of these shots was created digitally. But it's not to
take anything away from what the real cinematographers would do when they step
on onto the set. But at least, that they've brought the right camera crane, the
all of the gear that they need to make sure that they effectively have all the
tools to produce the shot.