Feature-quality VFX for Episodic TV

Encore Hollywood CG Supervisor Rodrigo Washington (standing) assists 3D Artist Changsoo Eun (seated) on VFX for episodic TV.

Software alone can't deliver top-notch computer graphics. While there is a wide range of tools available to deliver 3D and compositing work with a minimal investment, it takes a combination of talented and experienced artists, producers, and technicians, and a significant technical infrastructure to deliver high-quality visual effects of the caliber and at the speed produced by a facility such as ours.

Encore Hollywood has been widely acknowledged as the gold standard for television postproduction for decades. What isn't as well known is that for the last eight years, Encore has also provided full-service visual effects for the film and television industries. Though some of our recent feature credits include the acclaimed films Zombieland and The Hurt Locker, episodic television enabled us to hone our VFX service offerings, and it remains our bread and butter. Because television audiences have grown accustomed to the often jaw-dropping effects they see in feature films and games, they also expect the same level of visual drama from TV.

Additionally, producers have recently begun to rely heavily on the use of invisible effects. This could be anything from removing palm trees from scenes that are supposed to have taken place in the mountains or adding cosmetic touch-ups to a tired actor (particularly important when HDTV is so unforgiving). Often, the work we do is subtle; invisible effects such as these are more standard practice than most viewers realize.

In addition to touch-ups, CGI is also widely used to create imagery integrated into a particular shot. The title character in My Name is Earl was often attacked with baseballs or arrows that we would build and composite using a combination of Autodesk 3ds Max and eyeon Software Fusion. For the series Cupid, we took a sequence shot on set and transferred the action to Times Square on New Year's Eve. Here, we didn't create Times Square in 3D. We instead used matte paintings of the location and created a background with the necessary complexity for the level of detail and camera movement involved. We built the famous New Year's Eve Ball in 3ds Max and used Fusion's particle capabilities to create fireworks. We rarely use just one tool for a single effect; it's more about finding the perfect mix.

Encore has created VFX for Fox's popular medical drama House since Season 1, and it is currently the show's main resource for visual effects. From House's inception, its producers have made clever use of digital VFX and continue to push the envelope. Earlier this season, we partnered with Visual Effects Supervisor Elan Soltes and Concept Artist Christian Scheurer to build 6 minutes of 3D CGI, complete with characters and an entire 3D environment for the episode "Epic Fail," in which a videogame developer loses touch with reality and seems to inhabit the world of an immersive game called Savage Scape. It was a massive challenge and is the kind of work that actual videogame developers can spend years creating.

For this project, we only had 10 weeks from concept to delivery. Due to the time constraints, we had to conceptualize and adjust our pipeline even before the script was finalized. As with other elaborate jobs, my work started with a client conversation to get direction for creating a preview of each shot. I built simple objects in 3D and provided basic movements for each preview, which we then used as a starting point to discuss each shot.

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We took the client's feedback and broke down the work based on the tools and artists available. We made extensive use of 3ds Max for the character animation, which provides an excellent 3D tool, and also of Pixologic ZBrush to add fine texture and detail. (If you think in terms of traditional clay animation, ZBrush would help you work out the texture of the skin and clothing on a character, and then you'd use Max for your actual animation). Some artists prefer to start this process with the movements in Max and then refine the textures in ZBrush, and others prefer to take the opposite approach. Either way works, but as I plan the project, I need to consider how each member of my team works best and take that into account.

VFX for episodic television is particularly challenging because budgets and timelines are constrained compared to those for features or commercials. As CG supervisor, I draw on my years of experience in animation to analyze the strengths of each of our artists and compositors and the tools at our disposal to best maximize resources.

We make use of Autodesk's BackBurner package, which turns every bit of unused computing power among our 40 HP workstations into one big render farm that renders shots in the background while our animators and compositors work. The volume of material we generate at Encore also requires powerful and efficient data management. For one season of one series, we can easily generate 15TB of data just in the 3D department and even more from 2D work, and that requires an enormous SAN and our powerful, proprietary networking capabilities.

For every sequence and every shot, I ask myself: How much tracking, texture, and modeling is required? Does the modeling involve hard surfaces or organic ones? Can the enviroment be built with a matte painting, or should it be totally 3D? Could we use a hybrid approach? When animating a character, do we want to use the precision of motion capture or the freedom of keyframe animation? How complex is that key? Even more importantly, it's essential that I understand my team of artists and where their strengths lie. Who's better at what? Who's faster? I put that puzzle together.