Half of the CGI movie production has nothing to do with computers. You might think it’s all about code and rendering spaces. This is not true. This process starts with good old fashioned storytelling. Filmmakers first write the storyboard. This is a rough sketch of the story. Once the story beats (the main points of the plot) are completed, the team moves to the storyboard.
The storyboard looks like a manga. 2D modeling of each scene. Contains jokes and snippets of important conversations. At this stage, the manustoryboard is refined. The director knows the visual characteristics of the scene.
Then a voice actor appears and records their lines. Filmmakers use these recordings to create videos. It is animated using only storyboards. There are still things to edit. There are more rewrites. Conversations are recorded again if necessary. Only then can the real animation begin.
Design world
The art department then takes over. They designed all the characters. They planned the most important places. They choose a movie prop and color palettes. Characters and props are modeled in 3D. In some cases, the clay model can be scanned into a computer.
At Pixar, each character has hundreds of avars. These are small hinges. This allows the animator to move certain parts of the character’s body. Woody from Toy Story has more than 100 avars on his face.
The team then creates all the 3D sets. It’s hard work. Every detail brings the virtual world to life. Characters are placed on the set through a process called blocking. The director and lead animator blocked the positions of the main characters. Specify the camera angle for each shot.
Animation training
The groups of animators were assigned short scenes. They accept the blocking instructions. They create their own more detailed keyframes. Then the tweening process begins. The computer calculates the best way to interpolate between the two keyframes. Artists often modify the results. They wanted it to look authentic.
It is very common for animators to repeat short animation sequences multiple times. The director must be satisfied. Good luck.
High-quality movies are played at 24 frames per second. A 90-minute film requires about 130,000 frames. At Pixar, animators produce 100 frames a week. That is a lot of frames.
Next, add the texture and color. Characters wear clothes. It creases and flows naturally. Hair and fur flutter in the virtual wind. The skin is so realistic that you want to touch it. Use lighting. Ambient lights, multi-directional lights and spotlights create depth. They create shadows and atmosphere.
Final rendering
The final step is rendering. A powerful computer gathers all your digital data together. character model. keyframe. Tween. sets. color. series. Props. light. Digital matte painting. It all becomes one frame of the movie.
Even with incredible computing power, it takes an average of 6 hours to render a frame. It takes more than 88 years to make a 90-minute film. You can render multiple frames at once. This saved them years.
This is just an introduction. If you want to learn more about digital film production, check out the links below.
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More attractive links
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Industrial Light & Magic
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Pixar
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The world of computer graphics
