“Harmonix Rock Band II” by Passion Pictures
Conference:
SIGGRAPH Video Review:
Track:
- 07
Title:
- Harmonix Rock Band II
Director(s):
Company / Institution / Agency:
- Passion Pictures
Description:
The hero band from the Rock Band I trailer reprises its role in this 90-second trailer and engages in a car-rooftop stand off with a new rival group in a high-energy battle of the bands.
The band characters designed by director Pete Candeland are stylized but quite realistic 3D people who need to move naturalistically, and with a lot of detail in their clothes, hair, etc. The cars and other props, and the American desert backgrounds, also needed to match the same level of detail and authenticity as the detailing in the characters. Added to this, there were two bands instead of the one in the original film, eight characters in total, which immediately increased the amount of work that was involved. All these factors meant that a sizable specialist crew had to be assembled for the project.
The team decided to use motion capture to assist the animation process of the band characters, and we worked with Audio Motion Studios to produce the footage for animators to work to. The director cast four actors, who played the characters in both bands. Takes of the DV footage were selected, and BVH files were made and imported into XSi for animation. Lip synch was also very important for the film, so we worked with Image Metrics, which filmed the facial mocap shots.
The characters were modeled using Modo and animated in XSi. In total, we had a crew of around 50, including modelers, riggers, animators, VFX artists, compositors, render wranglers, and matte painters. The animation was rendered using mental ray and composited using After Effects.
Software:
Modo, XSI, Motor, After Effects, Final Cut Pro
Additional Contributors:
Director: Pete Candeland
Production Company: Passion Pictures
Producer: Anna Lord
Executive Producer: Hugo Sands
Storyboard & Design: Pete Candeland, Alberto Mielgo
Writers: Pete Candeland, Lee Gingold, Giles Dill
Head of CG: Jason Nicholas
CG Animators: Vincent Aupetit, Michael Cawood, Wes Coman, Gui Glachant, Lina Kousnetsova, Donny Mahmood, David Sigrist, Chris Welsby
Lead Character Modeler: Mario Ucci
Character Modeler: Cesar Eiji Nunes
Rigging: Chris Dawson
Prop Modelers: Ian Brown, Simon Reeves, Raymond Slattery
Senior 3D Artists: Nuno Conceicao, Harry Bardak
3D Artists: Tommy Andersson, Claire Michaud, Quentin Vien, Simon Reeves
VFX Artists: Alex Doss, Jamie Franks, Sajjad Amjad, Haavard Ness, Giles Dill
Render Wrangler: Michael Sofoluke
Lead Compositor: Niamh Lines
Compositing: David Lea, Luke Carpenter, John Taylor, Lee Gingold, Kristian Hammerstad, John Williams
TDs: Julian Hodgson, Alan Jones
Matte Painter: Max Dennison
Facial motion capture: Image Metrics
Motion capture: Audiomotion Studios Ltd, UK
VFX Supervisor: Neil Riley
Actors: Ben Davies, Fathia Tidadini, Scott Vining, Gary Comber
Editors: Lee Gingold, Daniel Greenway, Jaime Rubio, Tim King, Klaus Heinecke
Colourist: Mick Vincent on Baselight at The Mill, London
Music: “Hello There”, Cheap Trick
