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Interview with Chac on 18th of december 2011

 

Chac is 32 years and a 3D character animator, currently working at Ubisoft in the video game industry.
Originally born in Paris but today living in Montpellier
(South of France).

 

Major Skills : character design, animation and rendering

Specialty: animation (Key Frame)

Tools: Autodesk 3dsMax Autodesk Motionbuilder Autodesk Mudbox Adobe Photoshop Game Engine Yeti Game Engine Lyn Sony Vegas

Projects ( video games ): Tintin and the secret of the unicorn Beowulf Rabbids Go Home Projects ( TV series): Wild Instinct Titeuf Pitch BugWatch

The view of animation is enriched

My path has been little bit unusual, since I didn’t go to an art school or take animation courses, let alone any in 3D. In fact, I'm completely self-taught.
But, my love for animation did arrive early enough. I was a big fan of Disney 2D films and at the time, animations were of great quality. Subsequently, the Dreamworks Studio and Ghibli have enriched my view of the animation.

Moreover, for a small anecdote, at that time when I was working on "drawing" and” 2D animation", seeing the first full 3D films (Toys Story / Antz and co) made me sulk a little. It was much later that my passion for 3D animation appeared.

 

From 2d animation to 3d animation

It was during the middle of the 2D animations when I made my debut in the French TV series, but quickly learned that animation in France was becoming increasingly rate. During this period, I did a small course in Flash animation, initially for the internet and soon moved  towards to TV series’, until I took advantage of my lack of employment by self-training myself in 3D (I think at the time with 3DsMax 4), during 2005.

As soon as I felt ready, I began to seek work in 3D animation, and the path was laid.

Involving TV series and Video games

I started out by designing a series of 2D props for TV ("Wild Instinct" in Praxinos) and 2D Layouts for TV series ("Titeuf", Chloe in Production).
Then came my period of working on Flash Animation for websites (In OdToon), and later for TV series' as well ("Pitch", with On / Off).



I participated in a 3D TV series ("BugWatch" in 2D3D Animation). Then I got a post for 3D animation with video game developers Ubisoft.
At home, I took on "Beowulf" (The Movie Game) and "Rabbids Go Home" while I just finished "Tintin and the secret of the unicorn" (A film game as well).

 

Outstanding skills required

Well, at the professional level, I just create the animation (Key Frame).
In large companies, all departments are specialized to be as powerful as possible. But to not only be stimulating in the video game but also be a leader, it isn’t enough to just make the animation (to my regret).

 

 

Interaction between artist and programmer

It is necessary to propose/find solutions, artistic or technical, with the various problems encountered based on the features of the game and work with Game Play Programmer (GPP), so that the integration of our animations is the best possible one. A discussion between the artist and programmer is not always obvious!

 

Work on personal level

On a personal level, I try to learn little by little all of the stages that revolve around the character. So, of course, I learned to model, texture, skinner, rigger (3DsMax) and animate my own characters, but each step is a full-time job and requires a lot of determination and patience to get there.

Generally, I always start by finding one or more poses that reflects the spirit of the character, to lay the foundations. Then I work differently, depending on if we’re talking about animation for video games or acting, because the processes are a little different for me.

 

 

Tweaking and tweening in videogames

In video games, they are quite short, thus I can work in a more straightforward fashion. It allows me to work quickly and to test right away what it can give to the engine. Then I optimize to the quality that I'm satisfied with.

In acting scenes, the characters may be forced to talk, so the timing is very important in this case. I do breakdowns (pose to pose). The poses are pretty spaced-in-time which will give me an idea for the timing of the animation.
I refine and gradually intertwine the two key poses, until I'm happy!

The Swiss Army knife

3DsMax is my Swiss Army Knife meaning it is the tool for all of my needs.
It helps me in all areas possible (character design, animation and rendering). It can be sufficient just by itself.

Motion Builder is an animation only tool, which means it must be paired with another character creation program (Max, Maya, Blender or whatever). I had to learn it when I arrived in the video games (it has a much focused "range", even if we see a few pros to use it for films).

 

The right engines for the videogame

Yeti and Lyn are engines used by Ubisoft France. So they are tools I learned during one of productions (Yeti - Beowulf and Lyn - Rabbids and Tintin).
Photoshop is almost unavoidable in the design of textures.
Sony Vegas during assembly of personal entertainment.
I am slowly starting to use MudBox to go a little further into the details of my characters.

 

Selecting the tools for 3d animations

I'll be honest, I use 3DsMax by habit. When I started, it was the only one to be translated into French and because I know it well. But Maya interests me a lot because it is aimed more at character animation.
In general, Max is very focused towards game and architecture, while Maya is more character oriented animation and that's what interests me. So as soon as I get some time, I'll tackle Maya.

 

 

Quickly implemented into the game

At a professional level, when 3DsMax was quickly implemented in the game, a lot of tools related to video game engine were suddenly created from Max. Changes often generate a lot of problems and loss of time for the studios. So, Max is still a very much used in games.

But for the animation in video games, Motion Builder is becoming more and more common.

I changed machines recently and I took it as a chance to make a PC that lets me be as comfortable as I can while working.

 

3d Workstaton

• Pc Intel i7-2600K (3.40Ghz)
• Seven 64 bits
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 580
• 16 Go DDR3

I'm really happy with this machine, but to get started in 3D animation, you need not go so far;)

For cons, the graphics card and the RAM are very important in order to have a good preview.

 

Creation of Tintin the Game

The last game I made was "Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn" (360 / Ps3 / Wii / PC ). It's a platform / adventure game for young ones and/or older children.

 

Images below are from the book "The Art of Tintin the Movie" Weta Studio's

Finding a balance between the comic and the film

Many people will know about the Tintin film by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, but Tintin is character from a comic strip (by Hergé in 1930) which was in addition a successful cartoon series as well.

"Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn" is the title of the game and the film.
We had to consider the new direction of the film without forgetting the foundation that had been created by Hergé. In the end, I think the game is in between the film and the comic, which is being neither very cartoon-like nor very realistic either.

From idea towards finalizing

At the beginning, in the process level, the research is well underway with the concept and graphic artists giving their initial ideas while graphic, game designers and level designers look for game mechanics. The writers find a frame for the game that is related to the film (The film covers three books of Tintin (The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and The Treasure of Red Rackham). Within our animation department, we try design an animation with behavior and personalities that are consistent with Tintin and other characters in the story.

In this project, the artistic challenge was to find a compromise between the book and film while also taking into account the intentions of the game design.

The direction GD aimed at was a very reactive play (Platformer) and so it was necessary that the organizers and GPPs find easy ways to have a very handy character without losing its visual quality.

In the end, I think we have reached a good compromise between reactivity, fluidity and a visual quality.

Personally, the artistic director gave me the opportunity to fully manage Tintin. It was a great joy to be able to handle a character completely (unlike some animated films, where a developer receives a character throughout the film).

 

Master it on your fingertips

This makes it possible to be coherent and homogeneous throughout animations and the developer has the challenge in having to delve completely into the character and master it on your fingertips!
Once the outline of all areas are established, we know where we are and just have to create it without too much diversions than what was originally intended.

 

The production took about two years, with more or less, 70 to 80 people employed in Montpellier. The difficulty with licensed games is that no delay is allowed. If the game is due to be out in conjunction with the film, errors are forbidden. There is a timer that runs continuously and we sometimes have to take radical decisions. It takes a strong team performance to get a good game out within the short time imposed.

For me the real experts in animation are artists working on animated feature films. They do not have the constraints related to video games and can focus much more on how to live the character.

To return to the question where you talked about my transition from 2D to 3D, I admit that working in 3D is really good. As I said above, I sulked at animated films in 3D, as they gradually eclipsed the 2D animation and I did not like it.

 

Liberated by 3d animation

But when I started animating in 3D, I quickly felt liberated.
In fact, I was released from my level of drawing by my level of logic that was forced in 2D animation.

While in 3D, you focus exclusively on the animation, you think over the problems you may have by drawing (Always keep the character model, anatomical problems, the length to test things in animation, the line test lol etc ...), and this is where I realized what I loved in 2D was animation, not the drawing.

In short, I immersed myself 100% into the world of polygons, Bezier curve and bones while never touching a pencil.

 

Little Gaga

But that does not mean that everything is perfect in 3D. For example, in my movie "Little Gaga", the character that I created a rig for was very very basic. As I don’t have a very big level rigging for my character rig, I strapped a little bit (no squash and stretch, no switch IK / FK etc ...).
One day, I would really like to test my level of animation with a character of very high range animation to see how far I could go in terms of quality.

Yes, the whole team was invited to a preview of the film.
From a spectator point of view I found the film enjoyable and I think it will appeal to many families.

From a professional point of view, I respect the hard work of designers who have done a good job but I think it lacks artistic imprint. I find the rendering, modeling, and even "animation" (mocap), too realistic for my taste and lacks flavor.

 

For example, when I watch a movie at Pixar, Dreamworks or Disney animated key framing, I see an animation characterized, generous, a little caricatured, but always believable.

For me, the animation does not closely portray life but more or less, a personal vision. The words that best sum up this notion is the title of a book written by famous Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas (two of the "Nine Old Men" who wrote the basics of animation): "The Illusion of Life ".

The title sums up for me the exact definition of the word animation.
As these kind of films go further in the field of 3D, they will develop very powerful tools/software that eventually will arrive in the hands of everyone. So in a sense, they shoot everyone up which is a good thing.

But I admit that this realism race in 3D bothers me a little ... Fortunately it will reach the end, as we try more and more to copy reality. The day when people who do things very realistically that nobody cares, is when the people who make things that are very artistic and different will again stand out.
This does not mean that mocap has no place, for example in a film like "Avatar", it makes sense. It should integrate realistic creatures in the middle of real people without being seen, and even in video games where the need to be as realistic as possible is really nice.

But for me, the mocap should not go beyond that role.

You’re talking about the 3D landscape?
I think we are at the beginning of this technology.
The problem when a new technology comes to market is that everyone falls over and abuses it. Now we make movies without the passion that comes from a real motivation or an important idea, it's like a fad. When James Cameron did it, it was a huge success. Suddenly everyone is thinking of replicating the same story. I prefer when things make sense.

In the video game industry, it can add depth and greater immersion for the player and may perhaps later bring another way of playing, but it will not for now.

Animation is related to a lot of areas, so the advice I would give is to look at everything.

Of course, apart from watching animated films and live films, reports, etc. I’d advise to observe the lives of people every day and analyze, understand as much as possible and be able to transmit that as much as you can into entertainment.

Observation is one of the keys. Attaching great importance to every detail will make a believable animation.

 

Avoid working with video games? lol:) Just kidding!
The basic rules in animation are now easily found on the net, in books and tutorials.

After that it should happen again and again, undeterred. The mountains before us may seem insurmountable, but when we climb stone by stone, after a moment we realize that we have come a long way. And when we do things with passion and we give our best, the peak will be reached.

Yes, I have some personal projects I want to do, but there are so many things to learn outside of the animation that I'll gradually start to make a short film of good quality.

If I had to do it alone, I would. But if one day I meet one or more artists who want to participate and with whom I enjoy working, I'd love to focus solely on the animation!

So I work a lot on personal animations, plus my hours at the studio. This allows me to be freer; to see something else, push the quality and progress in other areas that video game animation does not (especially the acting).
One day I hope to do a studio animated film. My goal is to work in high quality animation projects.

 

A big thank you to those who follow me regularly on my site, FaceBook and YouTube. It is really fun and I would like to thank all those who helped me in some way in my quest for the animation, they recognize.
And of course I’d like to thank my wife, who accepts my long hours at the computer and suffers my ups and downs.

 

We from 3danimation.be would like to thank Chac for giving us his story and an inside look of being a 3d animator at Ubisoft. Many thanks !!!

 

Check also about Tintin the Game

Nonstop adventure and action as you unravel the mystery. This Tintin game is awesome to play.

Preview Tintin the game