Blackmagic Design announced that Axis Animation used Fusion Studio for its work on the game cinematic and cutscenes for the latest real time strategy game from Relic Entertainment and SEGA Europe, Warhammer(R) 40,000(R): Dawn of War III(R).
Axis Animation has previously worked on AAA SEGA titles such as “Aliens: Colonial Marines” and “Alien: Isolation.” For “Dawn of War III” however, the team adopted a brand new approach to its VFX pipeline, allowing the studio to streamline its 3D characters and environments into a 2.5D compositing setup in Fusion Studio.
“It was the work of Polish surrealist painter Zdzisลaw Beksiลski that was the essential ingredient in our pitch to Relic. We worked with the team at Relic to strike a careful balance between our intended aesthetic with Beksiลski’s ethereal imagery and the established WH40K world created by IP holders Games Workshop(R),” explained lead LRC artist on the project, John Barclay.
Axis produced the award-winning trailer for “Dawn of War III” which received great responses from fans and critics alike. With the success of the trailer, developers Relic Entertainment wanted to take the same art direction into the cutscenes.
To do this, the Axis team assembled their scenes within the standard studio pipeline but automated the process of converting the 3D scene into the multitude of image planes required for their 2.5D comps. “This helped us enormously, especially for the cutscenes, which featured limited camera movement,” Barclay shared. “It was incredible that we had the flexibility to use effects like volumetric fog and insert them into the same scene as characters and environments built from 2.5D cards. It also meant our lighting artists could work on the scene as though it were any other 3D set.”
Brought into Fusion using a custom Python and Lua script to ensure all the data was positioned correctly, the cards meant that every artist at Axis could automatically render their character from Houdini and import it as a projection into Fusion. An alembic export was then used to bring in the camera positioning from Maya.
“Using image planes in Fusion allowed us some significantly reduced render times and also greater flexibility with more creative iteration over the whole show. The workflow allowed artists familiar with our standard pipeline to create something a little more unusual,” Barclay concluded. “Fusion is key to helping us solve both creative and logistical challenges. It was an essential part of our toolbox on Dawn of War III.”
A Similar But Different Take On A Feature Film Debut
Similar But Different is not only the moniker for the directorial duo of Dani Girdwood and Charlotte Fassler but also in some respects an apt description of their feature filmmaking debut, My Fault: London (Amazon MGM Studios). The movie, which premiered last week on Amazon Prime Video, has on one level some select elements similar to what weโre accustomed to in the young adult (YA) universe--which helps make it familiar, comfortable and relatable--yet at the same time My Fault: London brings a new, decidedly different dimension to YA entertainment, uniquely meshing action-adventure, mystery, music, romance and humor. The film captures the feel of the underground London culture, lending an authenticity and contemporary vibe thatโs a departure from the norm when it comes to the adaptation of YA literature. This mesh of similar but different has served the film well in that there was some target audience skepticism initially over the notion of doing an English adaptation of the popular, fan-favorite Spanish-language novel โCulpa Mia,โ the first of the โCulpablesโ trilogy. Thus itโs most gratifying for Girdwood and Fassler to see the social media response after the release of My Fault: London, with many viewers enthusiastically embracing the film. My Fault: London introduces us to Noah (portrayed by Asha Banks) whoโs uprooted from her U.S. hometown, having to leave her boyfriend and friends behind to move with her mother (Eve Macklin) to London. Mom has a new rich husband (Ray Fearon) in London and their new residence is a mansion. There Noah meets Nick (Matthew Broome), her new stepbrother. They have an immediate mutual dislike for each other which blossoms into something quite different over time. Along the... Read More