Non Photorealistic Animation

[tayrona]

Hi, A client is requesting us a non photoreal animation, like sketch style for architectural competition. We have done this kind of stills but never videos.

 

I have been surfing the web, looking for inspiration, but most of animations are photorealistic. I wonder if someone could reference any sample??

Edited December 11, 2009 by tayrona

[kippu]

ernest had some of his animations in the forums ....also piranesi site might have some

[YOHKOH]

Try The Neighbourhood and look at the saxton films in motion work section

 

The later films are illustrated style. Could be toon render.

 

Also Neutral do more "serious" films for Zaha Hadid which are not photo real but have a nice sense of a story to them. The Danish Architecture Centre is a good one.

[erickdt]

I've done some successful tests before where I rendered out a photorealistic image sequence and then ran the individual frames through photoshop using a batch action to create a sketchy look and feel. I'd probably do it that way...

 

E

[Sketchrender]

Can you show that to us.

What did you stich them back together with?

[erickdt]

You just import the image sequence into afterfx or premier as footage.

 

E

[Ernest Burden III]

You can do just about any look in animation, but some are pretty hard to achieve. Also, some things that look great in still renderings become distracting in animation. Choose the effect you want and figure out how to make it happen in 3D, in the render app, or 2D via Photoshop. I use both.

 

While render times can be a lot shorter with NPR effects, expect to spend a lot of time figuring out your technique and testing and re-testing until you nail the process.

[wrt]

Not sure if this will help but I used V-Ray with Toon shader as base then moved in and out of GI as needed for focus per story etc. I used After Effects to composite the shots and make the transitions. Probably should have used Premiere for final edits but just stayed in and rendered out from After Effects.

 

http://www.f-e-e-d-b-a-c-k.com/visualization/hotel

 

Cheers, b

[wrt]

Btw I'd echo Ernest's advice that it really helps to map out and do plenty of tests (n house and for client) for NPR rendering styles esp in animation. Render time is often saved but the fact that a client is asking for a NPR often means that they have pretty specific idea of what they want, or think they want which in many cases can be harder to match than reality : ). But you probably already know this.

 

That being said we did tons of concepting, storyboarding, and testing even for that relatively short animation with a relatively simple set of NRP levels. As far as sketchy lines go if the client is after that effect, I've used squiggle photoshop filters over toon shaded layers. I don't know of any off hand but I'm thinking there's a way to set a squiggle effect to wireframes in AE. I'm sure I'll be asked for that sooner than later and will let you know if I locate any info or tests.

[eagle_ear]

Here's a little sketchy(goofy) animation I made,

this is sketch and toon/C4D. The render time for

just little thing was almost all night... Its like

someone said on here, Ernest I believe, some thing like 'you haven't

seen any sketch & toon animations, because they are still rendering,' ha ha

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=100656818

[alias_marks]

 

http://www.f-e-e-d-b-a-c-k.com/visualization/hotel

 

 

I just had to ask. is that guy in red with his hands up the sketchup silhouette guy!? it looks just like him! if it is nice choice. I love that guy! I could just see a little thought bubble over his head saying "wooo hooo! I'm so pumped my furniture is constructing itself!"

Edited December 12, 2009 by alias_marks
changed silouhette man's thought bubble

[alias_marks]

also to add to the post so I'm staying on topic Richard Roseman's hatch studio put out a great npr ford spot done a while back. All done with vray toon and cell shading from what I understand... worth a look.

 

http://www.richardrosenman.com/project/?cid=165

[wrt]

Hahahahah, Michael nice catch, that is in fact Bryce ( http://sketchup.wikia.com/wiki/Bryce ). More specifically it actually turned out to be his twin brother Victor (for Victory), a hack we did to Bryce. It became a kind of running inside joke for us. You had it exactly right Victor says "woo hoo VICTORY!!! my furniture is constructing itself!". I attached a concept storyboard I sketched out to help understand the arc of the story before doing thumbnail storyboards and you can see that Victor is kind of saying "what the hell where'd my hotel room go" then his life takes a turn for the better when he goes "YES! my furniture compresses itself so I get more space and even pay less!" ha. The arc of the story being a giant V for Victor(y) of course... Glad you enjoyed, it was tremendous fun to make.

 

b