Game Technology Meets Indie Filmmaking: 3D Animation Done With Virtual Production
How Blindflug Studios used fully animated virtual production for the Swiss-Italian documentary
THE MIRACULOUS TRANSFORMATION OF THE WORKING CLASS INTO FOREIGNER by director Samir.
Watch our Making of Video about the virtual production work we’ve done for THE MIRACULOUS TRANSFORMATION OF THE WORKING CLASS INTO FOREIGNERS:
With the help of archive material, animations, interviews and music clips, THE MIRACULOUS TRANSFORMATION OF THE WORKING CLASS INTO FOREIGNERS is a Swiss-Italian documentary that tells the story of migration from neighbouring countries to Switzerland in an entertaining way. Director Samir uses short animated sequences that represent his memories of growing up in the working-class milieu in Switzerland. But instead of going the traditional animation route, these sequences were produced by 3D artists inside the game engine «Unreal Engine». (A game engine is the software framework in which a game system is programmed and 3D objects get assembled.) This method of filmmaking is called “Virtual Production” which allows making cinematic animation sequences with game technology. Blindflug Studios produced around 30 minutes of animation for the film using the latest virtual production tools.
What is Virtual Production?
“Virtual Production” means producing movies in virtual space in real-time. This enables directors to be able to work in an animation movie similar to how they work in a live action movie - they’re able to direct the camera and actors and see results immediately.
“Fully Animated Virtual Production” is a workflow where tools for live action filmmaking and game production are used to create animations. Movies like TINTIN or the remake of THE LION KING used techniques like motion-capture or using real cameras for recording their images. This enables directors to be able to work in an animation movie similar to how they work in a live action movie - they’re able to direct the camera and actors and see results immediately. While years ago, this cost millions to produce, the latest technological developments lowered the costs and requirements to make this available as well for smaller indie productions.
What are the advantages of Virtual Production?
Filmmakers can produce movie sequences more efficiently and cheaper than with traditional animation. It’s quick and iterative, and thus lets the director work on their vision and allows them to cut during the production process. Adjustments to the scenes, like changing the lighting, special effects, camera positions and movements etc. can be done in real-time. No need for time-consuming final renders for each change. Additionally, by being a game engine, the tech can run on widely available consumer machines.
Because it’s created in a video game engine, we can also use the material used for the movie for a game or an interactive experience, which we did with THE RED TAPE TO CITIZENSHIP.
Mixed productions with real actors in front of the camera and virtual production used for the set in the background are also possible. For this project, we produced fully animated scenes, which included motion-capture work by actors for the animation of the characters.
We at Blindflug Studios can use our knowledge of working on video games and use talent from both animation and video game industries for such film productions. Virtual production tools go through rapid release timeframe which means, each year we can do existing things better and do new things which were not possible before.
Watch our highlight reel:
Virtual production also allows you to reconstruct and use historical buildings like the train station of Zurich as it looked like in the 1960ies. This asset was used for the first animation sequence in THE MIRACULOUS TRANSFORMATION OF THE WORKING CLASS INTO FOREIGNERS: