This is the last of the Mikmak posts, but the materials that I publish here, were the first things I have done in this production.
First of all, MikMak : The Movie. Here is the Trailer.
Some Credit ought to be given to the projects Animation Director, Doron Meir. Doron knew that the movie required a lot of effects. Doron is among the few Israelis that have worked on classic animation features (Asterix and the Vikings) and an exceptional animator. Being familiar with my work he suggested that I create effects for the Movie. But...the bug guns had to be persuaded that classic animation effects require a special animator on board. Why cant anyone do it? so I fashioned 2 shots in order to demonstrate how classic animation effects, in the right shots, or as Doron addressed it- important storytelling shots in the film, can make a shot shine, as the effect itself, is a key player.
The first one was the monster. No doubt that the monster had a lot of impact on the story and its appearance on the adventure, beat and scare factor of the film.
so I tackled it as told.
As there were no time to correct things and it seemed enough for P.O.C, I overlooked many problems that needed be fixed if this was a real shot going to Post. I can see now many mistakes. the overall effect is too fast and I would alter some of the splashes, but...you need to know when to be productive.
The other shot was simple fire, I wanted to show how intimate and mesmerizing fire can be.
Well, as you know, it worked. I hoped somebody found these posts useful, and on to new things.
Magic
There is nothing like inventing effects. For example, when you need to portray magic.
Well, actually, a lot of it usually involves what you know and giving it a magical look, spreading magic that looks like water etc. it all depends on how much time you have to experiment.
As my personal hero is Michel Gagne, anyone who knows his work will recognize the influence. If you don't know his work, check it out.
Here is my take on the magic metamorphosis that occurs at the end of the MIKMAK film. Sorry for the spoiler, to whoever it may concern. I was thinking mostly about light, probably because of the fact that the crystal emits light and that's the source of its magic.
The main idea was as if the crystal is a character, and it does a double-take. its starts....retreats...and comes back in full force. This would intensify the magic wave that occurs, after the energy is fulled back into the crystal. There could have been more ways to use the effect better. I think that a longer pause before the wave could have worked better. If you don't believe me, ask the kings on pauses, Nir and Gali, nobody does it better. No can can make a Pause work like these two.
Fire
There were a few places that required fire here, the monsters spit fire, there was a dream sequence with fire.
Here are some spots. My original fire was treated differently, you will see it in the next post, as I will talk a bit about proof of concept. But I don't think that this needs more introduction and explaining.
Electricity
That's always fun. I think that electricity was among the first effects I dealt with. Eventually, most of it was cut, or tuned down, but here are a few shots where its pretty much the same as it was delivered.
Man, I wish I was an effect animator on Predator, I bet it was fun.
That was a cool one.
Watched a lot of waterfalls that week. I was looking for vertical speed. The waterfall had to be non realistic, look majestic from afar but feel very wild in potential. So I looked around, tried some designs and was very inspired by this-
By the way, tons of water effects all over this movie. I loved the design of the sheets of water
so I broke down the elements of a good waterfall. What happens when water fall from a high place?
As water tension is effected when water fall in the air, it had to be treated. I could not break the sheets of water into strings and beads as it happens in real life (design wise and for practical reasons) , so...the water haze helped me there, particles that drift in the air above the foam. And, naturally, speeding the movement as it heads downs. We can not focus ourselves on rapid movement in details, but watch it as a whole, so it works.
Speeding water, water highlights, vapor, foam, and ripples. Here is an early test-
After all this, something was still missing. Going though waterfall pictures, I realized that I was missing...a rainbow, here is one, too aggressive, but already, it feels better.
and the result...
Most of the other water effects in the movie were not something that I had not done before, but it happens a few times, when a character (Mondo or the monster) burst out of the water. How is it different from a splash and why? Well, obviously falling into water and bursting out has a different effect, but I think that understanding the physics behind the secondary splash, water tension and air pockets will help anybody who is interested to plan a splash better, and I'm talking about action, not design. The design will always work if the physics are right, not the other way around. Just like a movie will probably work if the script is right, not just packed with effects (this is addressed to you, m night shyamalan).
Anyway, in an old example I posted you can see it clearly. a droplet-
As Bugs fall in the water, the impact creates an air pocket in the water.
The pocket is filled with water in such intensity, that they shoot up, creating the secondary splash.
Now, 'falling into' vs 'bursting out' mainly revolves around the secondary splash and the idea of 'impact' vs 'pushing water'. since bursting out of water doesn't involve an air pocket, there is no secondary splash. Here are a few examples of the bursting out - pushing water scenario.
And another example of the impact scenario. Here, the emphasis, story-wise, was the large ripple the goes through the cave from that enormous bolder. The ripple was far more important than the splash, as it drives the story to a different place, but still, rules are rules. Here is an example as to how effects serve the story.
Well, have been away for a while. Mostly because didn't have time to do my own posts, and have been working hard.
These coming few tutorials about "MikMak" are not for everyone, I guess. These are made to explore the thought process behind creating the more elaborate effects that were done, and hopefully, will be helpful to someone. It took me some time to assemble these, so I hope you enjoy it.
I was hired by the studio "shortcut playground" last year to do classic animation effects for "Mikmak the movie" which was an interesting experience. My talented friend Doron Meir, who acted as Animation Director there, brought me aboard. A few things were clear from the start, money is scarce ,so...reuse when you can, in order to save money to shine somewhere else.
The real problem with effects, particularly in this production, was that there was no time to explore.
Effects, in order to be believable, has to rely on sufficient research. So...I did what I could with what I had. but enough with excuses. the river.
The first attempt was based on an early design -
It didn't work. The river was, by definition, ferocious. The main idea was indeed to create rapids, but it didn't seem dangerous at all, falling into it did not seem to be hazardous. There was not enough to work with in order to create believable rapids. Rapids occur when water loses altitude through a very short distance, creating fast currents and turbulence, it develops where the river becomes shallow and the rocks are exposed over the flow.
So, I tried another approach.
The idea was based of the way water flow, something like this-
I was thinking about the whirlpools that rocks create when they interfere the water current. it looked pretty good. Fast, and I found some water effects in Pocahontas to assure it works. Check 2:50. Btw, I love the dutch version.
But......it was not practical for multiple shots, it didn't feel dangerous enough, and it went too far from the initial design, which consisted on rapids. Eventually, I gave them class 1 rapids. Children can play there in summer.
Thankfully, Animation Director Doron Meir eventually gave "Princess Mononoke"s river as a reference. Here, in this clip (all rights reserved to Studio Ghibli) -
So...this was my design based on this idea.
I had never worked on a river before and had to think about what makes water fast, do it in many different shots (so I can reuse the technique over and over again) and in no time at all.
We were looking for what is called, class 3 rapids, need to be fast, create foam when the water hits the rocks and add the phenomenon called "white water" which occur when splashes from the rock mixed with air bubbles create what seems to be white surfaces of water, this idea was used also as a way to make the river seem faster.
After testing more added elements right in after effects (sometimes I prefer to design first in after effects and think about movement later) this is what I came up with.
And here is a clip to see some motion.
By the way....about that splash. When I gave in the splash for preview, it looked like this -
Which one is better? I'm not sure. my version did no justice to the design. There were no translucent water anywhere, but the splash as it was inserted eventually seems as if it is missing some refinement, by my part. A thing that did not stand out in my version. Anyway, I will address this video in the next post to talk about the mechanics of splashes.
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