Workflow, Camera positions, Spawn Areas in Quill, Making of Soda Island

Question posed to the Virtual Animation forum

@nsaunders10 Hello! Nick mentioned that you've done a lot of Quill/Unity work for Syro? I've watched the Neon Jungle Tales from Soda Island and wondered if you worked on it and, if so, if you know how the camera positions were created? I like how the camera cuts to a new viewpoint automatically, se we follow the action....interesting mix of VR and traditional camera angles....Were the camera positions created in Unity? 

Hey @Andrea_McSwan there was a livestream about a month ago on how Studio Syro did The Neon Jungle, they talk a lot about how their achieved their camera angles inside of Quill. Im pretty sure they didnt use Unity though. https://youtu.be/XfYvjzjG7do They did use it for their Slushee music video

nsaunders10Yesterday at 15:49 @Andrea_McSwan Neon Jungle was all done in Quill but if you have some Unity camera questions feel free to DM me!

 GoroYesterday at 17:31

@Andrea_McSwan also check my spawn area tutorial in #q_tutorials for a run down of how you can use them for your stories.

https://youtu.be/0I8yVHIexIw

Workflow

Focal points and set design to lead the eye to the point of interest. Clouds and set pieces guide the eye.

Set design - plan. The set is fairly small, which is interesting, as when experienced in VR the set appears to be large and extensive.

Scaled smaller towards the outer edges, so that set pieces at the outer edges look even further away.

Similar concept to the dessert design in Shaman.

Restrict camera location for comfort setting, prevents the horizon from being turned. Enabling a better comprehension of the space.

Rough animatics with puppeteering in Quill - to try out camera shots with transform keys. To rough out the layout in the shortest time possible. Do not be discouraged if the initial works looks crappy!

Direction:

Choice made to use 180 degree shots and restrict the viewer's point of view, rather than utilise the full 360 degree range possibility in VR. Narrowed down to make it easier in terms of storytelling and easier for the viewer to not get lost .

Planning cuts:

Shot with focal point on protagonist and action:

Facing to the right of the view and then with a hard cut to the next point of action...

Cut to: 180 degree rule observed, so that the viewer is orientated in the scene. Objects visible in previous shot continue in the next shot. Put detail in the next shot, so that there is something for the viewer to look at whilst the action (in this case the protagonist) walks into view.

Animated flower spores float and lead the eye to the character (idea of sparkling light, floating leaf, kaleidoscope?)

Again...hard cut and view on butterflies. They float to the left and lead the eye to the protagonist walking into shot. 180 degree rule observed.

General rule - never overlap story-beats - especially in VR when lots can be viewed at once.

Composition and lighting. 

Tadpole protagonist on right.

Koala on left. Action first on tadpole drinking from the lake. Koala not promient

Then: action on Koala

Protagonist moves to the right....and focus then becomes on the third character...

Camera moves with action and composition of thirds in final shot before cutting...

Cut to:

Close up of feet with pan up, under tree and to reveal main shot:

Track to the left under the tree:

Character goes over the tree, viewer/camera goes under the tree:

Setting up the camera:

Emmanuel Lubezki inspiration images - video above talks about long shot references in films.

Inspired by the idea below for the spiral staircases in Sally's work, tube stations and Sally's love of colour slide transparencies, being 'jewel like'.

Scene from the Revenant - the shape at the top of this pile reminds me of Aaron's bells. Thoughts about layout and composition of scale and height

Interesting use of scale and thoughts about how to represent the themes of scale, that artist's spoke about

Create an empty layer with three straight vertical lines, so that the character is orientated vertically

VFX

VFX style guide for games 'League of Legends' https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/VFX_Styleguide_final_public_hidpjqwx7lqyx0pjj3ss.pdf

Animation on 1s, 2s or 120fps or used with transform keys. Multi-layers poss 300, but always with the view of optimising.

Audience mood journey and VFX. High points indicate where as much energy puts into the VFX.

Swells and pops before the final swells and pops in VFX. Similar to anticipation in character animation. Be epic and anything that's multi-layered will be epic

Optimisation and audio - contained within the video above