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VFXTalk sits down with Wayne England from Sway Studios –
April 16th, 2007,04:42 AM
VFXTalk is pleased to present you with a exclusive interview with Wayne England, VFX Supervisor at SWAY Studios - one of the top visual effects shops in North America! Wayne's work at SWAY includes a large array of high-end photo-realistic commercials and projects, really cool car commercials, and he recently took home a VES award for his work on U2's "The Saints are Coming"
Wayne England - Artist, VFX Supervisor/ CG Supervisor S/W/A/Y/ Studio
Wayne England is a C.G. supervisor and VFX supervisor at Sway Studio in Los Angeles, California, where he has contributed to a large array of high-end photo-realistic commercials and projects. A twelve year industry veteran, he is a two-time Emmy nominated and Emmy winning visual effects artist, the recipient of a Clio award and a V.E.S. award for his work on the U2 and Green Day video, “The Saints are Coming”
Before joining Sway, Wayne worked with many top visual effects houses in Hollywood as a freelance digital artist. He started his career at Will Vinton Studios and has worked at Digital Domain, Planet Blue and Area 51. He received his bachelor of arts from The Evergreen State College, and studied under a dual Masters Program in Experimental Animation and Music Composition at California Institute of the Arts.
About SWAY Studios
http://www.swaystudios.com
Wayne was introduced to SWAY by its founder, Mark Glaser, and initially worked as a freelancer on several projects. The depth in understanding the 3D-effects process and the quality of the work produced at SWAY lead him into taking a full time position which has evolved into VFX Supervisor.
SWAY Studio is one of the top visual effects shops in North America. SWAY’s aim is to help advertising agencies eliminate traditional views of how their products are seen and enable exciting new creative ideas. The goal is to create unforgettable imagery and to confuse the viewer into believing that everything is real with no thought about effects. SWAY’s proprietary software, the SWAY Driving Simulator has been used to create stunning visual effects and spots for Chevy, Mazda, Pontiac, Hyundai, Hummer and Toyota. This software replicates the performance of any vehicle with complete precision.
We sent over some great questions posted by the vfxtalk community, and mixed in a few of our own, so lets see what Wayne had to say!
Could you please start off by introducing yourselves and giving us a little background information pertaining to your current job/role, and your background in the industry
WE: I am currently C.G. and VFX supervisor at Sway Studio. Prior to Sway I had been working for about seven years as a freelance artist collaborating with various VFX companies in the Hollywood area. Before that I worked at Digital Domain, Planet Blue, Area 51 and started my career at Will Vinton Studios. As far as education, I received a bachelor of arts from The Evergreen State College and studied under a dual masters program in Experimental Animation and Music Composition at California Institute of the Arts.
What would you say is coolest thing about your job and what do you feel are the most important attributes in a VFX Supervisor?
WE: There a number of different things that together can make my job really satisfying and exciting. On one level, it’s the opportunity to be really creative, to work in innovative ways with new tools, discover new methodologies and with that new aesthetic realms. Anytime you have a vision in the minds eye and you find yourself coming close to creating that 'world' in front of you - that is especially gratifying. That also touches on the second part of the question, regarding the most important aspects of a visual effects supervisor, which I think can be summarized in the ability to have the vision in mind and be able to recognize the necessary points along the pathway that will lead to realizing that vision. On larger projects, that involves a community of people, and working with other creative artists, directors and producers and support, is another really satisfying aspect of the job - the element of how you work with a team and how you communicate as whole. It all gets upped a notch when the project is itself an exciting one, such as the U2 video we recently collaborated on, or some of the projects we're currently working on.
When did you decide to start in the visual effects field? After high school, college, or earlier? How much would you weight education compared to skills and effort?
WE: I decided this was what i wanted to do when I was a freshman in college, at the time I was a music composition major. I started to visualize phenomena in my minds eye in relation to music and this lead me to experiment with and study animation and C.G. As for Education, it all comes down to how the work looks and its quality. School has its advantages because of the structured environment and curricular. On the other hand there are many who have taught themselves through experimentation on their own initiative and gone on to have great careers. For me it made sense to go to school - it wasn't just visual effects I was learning at the time. But again, at the end of the day, it depends on the quality of the work.
Having started out as a freelancer and worked your way to the top, do you have any advice for up and coming VFX artists on how to make it out there in California?
WE: It depends on what you want to do in visual effects. If there is a specific aspect of visual effects that excites you, I'd say focus on that - do what you love, since that passion will fuel your efforts. Then when you have a result in that area, it might stand out a little more. If it does that, people will recognize it and know that you have a talent in that area, which will likely translate into other areas. Doing a project you define is always a good way to learn and shows good initiative. On that front, here is what I would consider to be very good tip; always find good reference for what you are attempting to create and try to match it.
What do you see as the most important thing when creating the amazing VFX that SWAY do?
WE: There are a combination of factors with some having more precedence than others depending on the project. Overall though, what lays the foundation for doing good work, is planning and anticipating the needs of the project insofar as time and resources, in alignment with our team of quality artists. Another aspect is the importance of having an environment where you feel you’re generally having a good time on the job within the creative community.
How much RnD does SWAY do in house? Do you use mainly off-the-shelf tools or do you develop a lot of your own (in terms of both 2D and 3D)?
WE: We have developed quite a bit of our own in house software from complete software packages such as Sway Driver to many innovative software tools and scripts for both 3d and 2d. We also do extensive in house R&D as far as techniques and methodologies which adds to our preparation for projects such as the U2 video as I was describing earlier. We also have very good direct lines of communication with the creators of most of the software we utilize, using the new aspects of software in beta form.
Are there any plans to release the sway driving simulator as a standalone product, similar to how pixar sells renderman?
WE: The answer is not at this point. You'd have to have a conversation with Mark Glaser the owner of Sway to get the real scoop on that though!
What’s in store next at SWAY? I hear you are going to be getting into film work and have a few projects lined up – can you share some information on this with us?
WE: We are currently expanding and working on many exciting high profile projects, with nine active jobs and several more pending. A lot of the work we have in now is especially beautiful and innovative, which I'm personally inspired by. We just wrapped up our first feature project and are opening our doors to more of that. With all the work and expansion into our new facility, we are also on the lookout for quality artists to join us.
How did it feel to win a VFX award and how did it impact your future direction in the VFX industry?
WE: Anytime you work to achieve something through good honest work, its natural to feel really good when that work has translated into a great result. A result that garners the recognition of the VFX community is above and beyond. So it was a thrill to receive the VES award and a thrill for everyone involved, since it was a great team of people who worked together with a lot of effort and dedication to create the end result. As far as how the VES award will impact my career, I can't say directly, but I can hope that it will lead to more creative opportunities on exciting and innovative projects.
Can you share with us more detail on the work that went on behind the scenes in order to make the U2 video a reality? I mean, not just the 'VFX' work but the on-the-scene and job related stress that come from working on a mega-video for U2 and the solutions you had to come up with in order to make it a award winning reality!
WE: The work we did for the U2 project was very much a culmination of a certain quality work and level of organization that we had been developing at Sway over time. In that sense what enabled us to succeed as we did was very much related to preparation. The stress wasn't so much stress, but was rather translated into focus. We were a very focused team and underneath the focus was an excitement to be working on not only a U2 video with a great director in Chris Milk, but also working on a project that carried a social and political message that we all felt a little something for. Those aspects of the job fueled us more. We did develop some innovative techniques during the production which was especially satisfying to see them come off successfully.
How much creative input do you usually get on a project like this one? Does the director usually have a very clear idea of what they want, or are you able to make suggestions for the shots?
WE: Chris Milk usually has a very clear idea of what he wants - which was very good for us on a project that had a tight schedule, since then we could far more directly work toward developing the finished product. When a director isn't quite sure what he wants one the other hand, that can also be an opportunity to take the lead for the look and feel, but offering options takes more time. Again though, Chris was admirably clear about what he wanted.
For example, he provided some excellent and quite specific reference for the way he wanted the water to be displaced by the tanks moving through the flooded streets. The lingering white water residue formed by the turbulence was far from just fractal noise, but had specific gathering, branching and blending fluid dynamic characteristics. It was a challenge I ended up relishing, since I was able to utilize – through minor modification – some very specific creative methodologies I had developed using RealFlow. Essentially, these methodologies provided a set of 'tools' enabling us to achieve the effects with great realism.
Approximately how many shots did you complete for the U2 video, and which sequences were you responsible for? How many artists were involved?
WE: There were well over twenty shots requiring a high level of photo-realistic detail and some with high degrees of sophistication that all needed to be produced in a little over two weeks. We were responsible for every shot in the video that required a visual effect. We had a team of fourteen artists including compositing.
On a job like this where you have to do a lot of 3D and 2D in house, how do you manage the interaction between the different teams and people involved?
WE: Much has to do with a clearly defined and establish pipeline of communication in relation to the status of elements, which was in part for us an established protocol involving intranet/email. We also had many reviews, some improvised and many which were managed by the coordinators.
What 3d tools did you use and what did you learn as a part of having to create 'truly' photo-realistic models and having to seamlessly integrate them into a real world environment?
WE: We used 3ds Max with Vray along with Real Flow for fluid dynamics. We used predominantly Nuke and Flame for compositing with some additional After Effects work. Much has to do with texturing/surfacing level of detail and lighting when it comes to photo-realism, given that the model and motion are where they need to be. We also did some additional video artifact processing to our 3d elements in comp to help them appear to naturally belong in the news footage.
When it comes to the compositing tools you used on the video, you mentioned nuke and flame - can you tell us more about what you used nuke for vs what you used flame for and how the different tools balanced your workflow?
WE: We used nuke to pre-comp shots and also comp them through to being fully integrated shots in a close to if not final state. We would then hand off to Flame a specific set of 3d elements from the Nuke comp that our Flame artist could work with, in order to have enough control over the shot so that the director could make subtle adjustments to his liking.
How many artists were involved on an average shot? What was the average time spent on a composite?
WE: Since we had specific teams fulfilling different functions, the average shot saw at least three different artists including compositing. There were a couple of shots that looked so good out of the 3d render, that they hardly needed touching in comp. In the close up helicopter shot, the helicopter did not get touched at all in comp, which we were all really impressed by. Other shots had up to six artists involved due to their complexity.
What was the major challenge in integrating the CG elements into the news footage? Did you take any special approaches, such as 2D relighting?
WE: The lighting and surfacing played a key role. We used post processing to match the look and feel of the video artifacts associated with the news footage. We always look to produce 3d elements that need very little tweaking on the composite side. Nuke provides some 2d relighting tools we utilize on occasion, and which are apparently going to be evolving considerably. We also use 2d relighting tools in After Effects in our fast evolving motion graphics department.
What kind of info did you get from set for the U2 video? HDR? What resolution were you working at and what bit-depth were you working at? I mean, are you working at really high bit-depths on a project like this?
WE: Overall there was no set, since all the action took place 'within' the original news footage. There were a couple of exceptions that were shot locally in the Los Angeles area for which we did capture an HDRI. The project was rendered in standard NTSC format and all our elements were created in exr format. We almost always use exr format for our compositing pipeline.
Were there any unexpected hurdles that you encountered, and did you ever find any interesting 2D solutions to get around them?
WE: There was a degree of realism that we wanted to address when it came to the Real Flow Waves we generated from the tanks movement through the flooded streets. We really wanted them to look as though they were reflecting the local environment in an accurate way. One of our programmers came up with an ingenious way to do this by calculating a way for the visual information of the video footage, to be projected accurately onto a virtual invisible dome so that the waves reflections would appear to be accurately reflecting the environment local to the wave.
What was by the far the biggest challenge in term of visual effects in the video, and how did you overcome them? Was there a different treatment? A new technique? Which sequence was the hardest to work on, and why?
WE: Getting all the shots done within the very short production schedule with the degree of quality we and the director wanted the shots to have, was by far the biggest challenge overall. Each shot had its own characteristic difficulty most essentially being the photo-realism required for each shot. There were some specifically challenging tasks though, such as the full frame look at the soft body dynamics of a parachute landing on top its attached cargo splashing into water beneath it. Another example of a real challenge given our close proximity, were the interaction of waves and white water wakes of the tanks moving through he flooded streets.
What was unique about working on the U2 video that set it aside from other jobs you have worked on?
WE: The U2 video had a certain purpose and intent behind it that set it apart in a certain way from other projects I have worked on. In a word, we knew Bono was depending on us to deliver a result that would render the video as believable and therefore effective. Given the social and political message U2 and Green Day were seeking to make through the video, in addition to what it was saying to and for the people of New Orleans in the face of the current administrations staggering lack of ethical response to Hurricane Katrina, it was an honor to be a part of that cause. We also knew that on certain days they would be looking at our dailies offsite -which was great to know. From what we heard back, they we're extremely happy with the outcome of the video.
We were blown away by the realizim in the milk and cereal commercial that SWAY produced. Can you give us an idea of what parts of this job were scripted, and/or where custom scripting really came in and saved the day in that piece?
WE: I'm glad you asked this because I would actually like to clarify a little more what I had mentioned previously in a Real Flow Forum interview regarding the cereal job. It was a choice we made to take the the scripting route. Once we took that route, we found that we needed to write several more scripts to negotiate and manage effectively our approach to the challenge. Here is a way I described the process:
Due to the fact there we were dealing with 105 cereal pieces, we started doing many quick collision detection tests in RealFlow so that we could establish the cereal pieces falling out of the box and landing in the bowl in a natural way. This was done initially by importing cereal objects into RealFlow, which enabled a very fast interactivity with regards to moving pieces and making quick adjustments through the testing and re-testing of the hard body dynamics. We started with a small number of cereal pieces and gradually included more as the testing continued. This included working with all the various parameters associated with the hard body dynamics, objects and gravity parameters.
However, since obj format objects do not carry UV maps in RealFlow (and we wanted the cereal pieces to appear to get wet when interacting with the milk), we knew we would need to either precisely replace our cereal simulation start positions with uv cereal pieces inside Real Flow, or write a script to export those start positions to our 3d application. That way we could export the cereal pieces in sd format and have the UV’s intact once back in RealFlow. The UV’s would allow an individual ‘wet map’ to be applied to all 105 cereal pieces. Since our team included some great scripting savvy, we decided we would try the scripting route and having done that, we ended up writing a series of scripts throughout the project.
Given the quite demanding assignment, we also pushed RealFlow’s hard body dynamics to some of its limits, but at the end of the day we got the project done and our client was extremely pleased with the final result.
How long did it take to model the cereal and how hard was it to get the interaction between flakes of cereal and the liquid as it poured in right?
WE: The modeling of the cereal was not too bad, but the precise specifications of the cereals appearance was more demanding, since it needed to not only include a coating of sugar crystals but also needed to replicate the swirls of cinnamon and granules of wheat.
The splashing of milk into cereal was something I ran a simulation for from the moment we established the cereal landing in the bowl effectively, right through toward the end of the job. Having already established the look of the milk and bowl, it was after all that extensive testing and experimentation with different values, that I was able to choose the one that worked most effectively to render for our final result. I should say that all along I had I mind to render some hyper slow motion moves around the splashing action of the milk and cereal which I have since done by simply turning up the fps number in Real Flow.
We cant help but notice that you use Realflow a lot. What are your favourite features in realflow and what 3d application do your think works the best with realflow in regards to overall workflow and integration?
WE: My favorite aspect of Real Flow is how one can sculpt shapes of fluids (which include liquid, fire, lava, smoke, sand etc etc). and how incredibly responsive it is when working with the program in creative was. I particularly enjoy the meshing stage where you get to see the results of a simulation emerge in close to real time. It's still quite an underestimated program considering its power and flexibility for creating amazing visual effects. I like using it in both Max and Lightwave.
And in Closing...
When your team is faced with the challenge of creating a certain effects shot/scene...what are the typical work patterns you follow? And is the final result always as you originally envisioned it, or does the process often change and adapt as new ideas or challenges arise?
WE: We start with a pre-visualization (previz) which is a crude representation of what the animation will look like in relation to scale and timing and other fundamental visual aspects of the project at hand. With an emphasis on reference we'll then move into the developmental stages of rigging, animation, surfacing and lighting and effects.
We also work with style frames in the developmental process, in which we 2d enhance images we have rendered and use that to serve as further reference for the look and feel we want the shot to end up with. Given the creative process of composing the shots, often new elements of a shot will emerge that will enhance the overall quality or effectiveness of the shot. One the other hand, when the direction is very specific, it is more a linear process in attaining the desired result.
How much would you say the line between compositing and 3D has evolved? As a lead do you have more control on what the 3d department gives you?
WE: The two are very much linked as the 3d elements you’re making are often for the very purpose of defining the creative options of the composite. The important thing is in having the options at hand in the composite process that will take the shot where it needs to go.
Finally, Red Bull, coffee, or something else?
WE: All of the above! lol.
Thanks,
The VFXTalk Team
Excellent read.. Thanks Wayne, and congrats on the VES Award.
brialliant!!! thank you.
b
Congratulation Wayne, you pretty deserve VES award.
Great interview. Very inspiring Thank you
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