Server Farm Delivers More Zebras to Madagascar

August 29, 2012

DreamWorks Animation filmmakers rely on hardware, software to enhance creative workflow.

As on previous feature releases, the animation teams at DreamWorks Animation found new ways to innovate on “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.” Harnessing technology advances since the previous installment, animators and engineers were able to boost character density to produce visually richer scenes and make character movements and interactions more realistic and believable.

The animated film released during the just-ended summer cinema season has generated hundreds of millions in worldwide box office. Great storytelling and A-list voice talent have been important to all three Madagascar films, but the third advanced animation to new levels.

Packing the Scenes

Recall a scene from “Madagascar 2″ where a large group of zebras appear together. While it may not seem like a challenge to have multiple animals in one shot, unique animations and motions for each character greatly increase the degree of difficulty.

Bruce Wilson, senior engineer at DreamWorks Animation, has been working on the animation tool set for years and is proud of the increase in hand-animated “character density.” As he explains it, “If someone watches all three “Madagascar” movies in order, they will notice that the density of characters — essentially the number of characters with individually specific animations in motion at one time — has grown significantly over the three films.”

Kate Swanborg, technology executive for DreamWorks Animation, said increased density was one of the key improvements generated by the availability of more technological power. “In ‘Madagascar 3,’ you’ll see a significant increase in the number of hand-animated characters on screen at the same time. It is an artistic and technological achievement to have so many animated characters on screen at once. More importantly, each character can express its own different looks and gestures — something that provides our audience with a richer and more rewarding story environment.”

Wilson laid out the improvements in mathematical terms. “In ‘Madagascar 1′ we could only have about eight specialized characters in a frame at the same time. Now, through hardware and software advances, our filmmakers can have three times that.”

Rex Grignon, head of character animation on ‘Madagascar 3,’ said increasing the number of characters is vital to audience involvement and storytelling. “Without the technology behind us, we couldn’t consider the kind of character density you’ll find in ‘Madagascar 3.’ When you have multiple character groups, each of them performing in their own unique way … well, it’s just magical.”

Moving from sequel to sequel is always a challenge as producers must ratchet up the action in order to create a sense of momentum and freshness. One way this can be achieved is to bring in new, compelling cast members. Also, having the power to increase the number of characters on the screen has been a creative boost for the filmmakers and ultimately for audiences.

Building Better Characters

At the same time DreamWorks Animation is packing the scenes with more action and interplay, the filmmakers must also increase the quality of each individual character. To understand the process requires a look at the technology behind animating lions, hippos and zebras. DreamWorks Animation’s artists use a technique called “skeletal animation” to break the process into two parts: There is a surface representation, called a “mesh,” or skin, that paints the surface in polygons, and a framework system, called the “rigging,” or skeleton, that moves beneath the surface.

When combined into a simple user interface, animators can control complex movements using straightforward geometry and physics. Any character pose or movement is represented by hierarchies, kinematics, vertices, and transformations that artists and engineers can continually program. Wilson explains that certain teams put their efforts into enabling the underlying technologies of the characters, while others focus on animation performance. “For example,” he said, “the prep work done by the riggers to make the animation easier is incredible. They must understand anatomy, biomechanics, and much more, all in the framework of harnessing and maximizing computer technology to complete the job.”

Character complexity has risen dramatically over the course of the three movies, according to Wilson. One key to that complexity was increasing the amount of geometry with which the animators could work.

“In ‘Madagascar 1,’ animators had to limit how much of the environment they could see while animating,” he said. “If they animated within the actual environment, the interactive speed would slow down to a point of non-workability. Removing that limitation became a key technological initiative for ‘Madagascar 2.’ The DreamWorks Animation engineering team addressed multiple areas within the proprietary code. The result was that we increased by a factor of ten the amount of geometry the animators could work with and still maintain the desired interactivity. Specifically, our artists went from being interactive with hundreds of thousands of polygons to interactive with millions of polygons by re-engineering the software and unleashing the power of our graphics hardware.”

Squashed and Stretched

A final piece of the technological puzzle is the art of making characters interact with their environment in believable ways. Animators call it the squash-stretch aspect. Grignon explained it this way: “When a ball hits the floor, it briefly squashes flat on one side, then stretches back when it goes up. It is following basic laws of physics that we understand as giving fluid movement.”

One of those laws, for example, is that the volume of the ball must remain constant. The better the technique is implemented, the more realistic the actions; the flip side is that cartoons are supposed to look like cartoons to some degree, and when the technique is exaggerated, it adds to the cartoonish effect.

“In ‘Madagascar 1,’ we had to make significant advancements with the characters’ skeletal systems in order to convey fluid and cartoony, physics-based motions,” Grignon said. “Even then, we were only able to produce that animation for some characters in some portions of the film. When I see ‘Madagascar 3′ today I know how far we’ve come, because you don’t ‘see’ fluid motions yet they ‘feel’ more real. More importantly, we keep the cartoon physics throughout the film.”

Wilson says he takes great pride in the subtle things the audience doesn’t see. One example is with Gloria the Hippo, who provides a unique challenge because her character is comparatively large. “The further a character’s skin is away from his or her bones, the harder it is to animate correctly,” he said. “Gloria has lots of flesh, and it’s far away from her skeletal frame. So the animators used a rigid stand-in, approximating bones that really weren’t there. We could see her skin as we worked with it. By contrast, Melman the Giraffe is one long set of neck bones, and King Julian is fairly small and bony. The physics of moving their skin was much easier to approximate than that of Gloria’s.”

It helps when the animators can see the results of their work quickly, to ensure they are on the right track as the frames count increases steadily. Wilson said the challenge is giving the animators a way to preview their work in a realistic way so they can get a feel for what audiences will see. In the first two films, for example, artists would typically animate Alex the Lion using a low resolution version of his mane to keep geometric complexity low and interactive speeds up. However, that low-res mane didn’t convey the same size and volume as it would when it was finished. That size difference would sometimes force the artists to create more iterations of certain sequences, as his final mane would block other characters or inadvertently intersect with other geometries. Now, through technological advancements, the artists are able to easily work with more geometry, resulting in better representations. Enabling that type of workflow change is a key to better performance and schedule maintenance.

To help illustrate the importance of this, Grignon compared it to the production of movies using clay or puppets, called “stop-motion.” “Animators who work on stop-motion with puppets directly manipulate the character with their hands, Grignon said. “They can see in front of them exactly what the final image will be, with all of the elements fully realized. Thanks to Intel’s technological advancements and the investment in our own software, our view in animation is much closer to what the final image will be — almost like being able to ‘film the frame.’ The Promised Land for an animator, and when I’ll be happiest, is when what we see is what we’ll get.”

What stands out for ‘Madagascar 3′ is how technology enhanced the creative workflow for filmmakers. Technology support from Intel played a role in the film from the server farms powered by Intel processors to HP desktop workstations with Intel Core processors to software tuners and optimizers.

DreamWorks Animation animators have more software and hardware power to apply to their characters, creating beautiful choreography, more natural movements, deeper and more subtle facial expressions, and more depth to crowd scenes. The result is ‘Madagascar 3.’

 
Related stories

Server Farm Delivers More Zebras to Madagascar

DreamWorks Animation filmmakers rely on hardware, software to enhance creative workflow.

As on previous feature releases, the animation teams at DreamWorks Animation found new ways to innovate on “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.” Harnessing technology advances since the previous installment, animators and engineers were able to boost character density to produce visually richer scenes and make character movements and interactions more realistic and believable.

The animated film released during the just-ended summer cinema season has generated hundreds of millions in worldwide box office. Great storytelling and A-list voice talent have been important to all three Madagascar films, but the third advanced animation to new levels.

Packing the Scenes

Recall a scene from “Madagascar 2″ where a large group of zebras appear together. While it may not seem like a challenge to have multiple animals in one shot, unique animations and motions for each character greatly increase the degree of difficulty.

Bruce Wilson, senior engineer at DreamWorks Animation, has been working on the animation tool set for years and is proud of the increase in hand-animated “character density.” As he explains it, “If someone watches all three “Madagascar” movies in order, they will notice that the density of characters — essentially the number of characters with individually specific animations in motion at one time — has grown significantly over the three films.”

Kate Swanborg, technology executive for DreamWorks Animation, said increased density was one of the key improvements generated by the availability of more technological power. “In ‘Madagascar 3,’ you’ll see a significant increase in the number of hand-animated characters on screen at the same time. It is an artistic and technological achievement to have so many animated characters on screen at once. More importantly, each character can express its own different looks and gestures — something that provides our audience with a richer and more rewarding story environment.”

Wilson laid out the improvements in mathematical terms. “In ‘Madagascar 1′ we could only have about eight specialized characters in a frame at the same time. Now, through hardware and software advances, our filmmakers can have three times that.”

Rex Grignon, head of character animation on ‘Madagascar 3,’ said increasing the number of characters is vital to audience involvement and storytelling. “Without the technology behind us, we couldn’t consider the kind of character density you’ll find in ‘Madagascar 3.’ When you have multiple character groups, each of them performing in their own unique way … well, it’s just magical.”

Moving from sequel to sequel is always a challenge as producers must ratchet up the action in order to create a sense of momentum and freshness. One way this can be achieved is to bring in new, compelling cast members. Also, having the power to increase the number of characters on the screen has been a creative boost for the filmmakers and ultimately for audiences.

Building Better Characters

At the same time DreamWorks Animation is packing the scenes with more action and interplay, the filmmakers must also increase the quality of each individual character. To understand the process requires a look at the technology behind animating lions, hippos and zebras. DreamWorks Animation’s artists use a technique called “skeletal animation” to break the process into two parts: There is a surface representation, called a “mesh,” or skin, that paints the surface in polygons, and a framework system, called the “rigging,” or skeleton, that moves beneath the surface.

When combined into a simple user interface, animators can control complex movements using straightforward geometry and physics. Any character pose or movement is represented by hierarchies, kinematics, vertices, and transformations that artists and engineers can continually program. Wilson explains that certain teams put their efforts into enabling the underlying technologies of the characters, while others focus on animation performance. “For example,” he said, “the prep work done by the riggers to make the animation easier is incredible. They must understand anatomy, biomechanics, and much more, all in the framework of harnessing and maximizing computer technology to complete the job.”

Character complexity has risen dramatically over the course of the three movies, according to Wilson. One key to that complexity was increasing the amount of geometry with which the animators could work.

“In ‘Madagascar 1,’ animators had to limit how much of the environment they could see while animating,” he said. “If they animated within the actual environment, the interactive speed would slow down to a point of non-workability. Removing that limitation became a key technological initiative for ‘Madagascar 2.’ The DreamWorks Animation engineering team addressed multiple areas within the proprietary code. The result was that we increased by a factor of ten the amount of geometry the animators could work with and still maintain the desired interactivity. Specifically, our artists went from being interactive with hundreds of thousands of polygons to interactive with millions of polygons by re-engineering the software and unleashing the power of our graphics hardware.”

Squashed and Stretched

A final piece of the technological puzzle is the art of making characters interact with their environment in believable ways. Animators call it the squash-stretch aspect. Grignon explained it this way: “When a ball hits the floor, it briefly squashes flat on one side, then stretches back when it goes up. It is following basic laws of physics that we understand as giving fluid movement.”

One of those laws, for example, is that the volume of the ball must remain constant. The better the technique is implemented, the more realistic the actions; the flip side is that cartoons are supposed to look like cartoons to some degree, and when the technique is exaggerated, it adds to the cartoonish effect.

“In ‘Madagascar 1,’ we had to make significant advancements with the characters’ skeletal systems in order to convey fluid and cartoony, physics-based motions,” Grignon said. “Even then, we were only able to produce that animation for some characters in some portions of the film. When I see ‘Madagascar 3′ today I know how far we’ve come, because you don’t ‘see’ fluid motions yet they ‘feel’ more real. More importantly, we keep the cartoon physics throughout the film.”

Wilson says he takes great pride in the subtle things the audience doesn’t see. One example is with Gloria the Hippo, who provides a unique challenge because her character is comparatively large. “The further a character’s skin is away from his or her bones, the harder it is to animate correctly,” he said. “Gloria has lots of flesh, and it’s far away from her skeletal frame. So the animators used a rigid stand-in, approximating bones that really weren’t there. We could see her skin as we worked with it. By contrast, Melman the Giraffe is one long set of neck bones, and King Julian is fairly small and bony. The physics of moving their skin was much easier to approximate than that of Gloria’s.”

It helps when the animators can see the results of their work quickly, to ensure they are on the right track as the frames count increases steadily. Wilson said the challenge is giving the animators a way to preview their work in a realistic way so they can get a feel for what audiences will see. In the first two films, for example, artists would typically animate Alex the Lion using a low resolution version of his mane to keep geometric complexity low and interactive speeds up. However, that low-res mane didn’t convey the same size and volume as it would when it was finished. That size difference would sometimes force the artists to create more iterations of certain sequences, as his final mane would block other characters or inadvertently intersect with other geometries. Now, through technological advancements, the artists are able to easily work with more geometry, resulting in better representations. Enabling that type of workflow change is a key to better performance and schedule maintenance.

To help illustrate the importance of this, Grignon compared it to the production of movies using clay or puppets, called “stop-motion.” “Animators who work on stop-motion with puppets directly manipulate the character with their hands, Grignon said. “They can see in front of them exactly what the final image will be, with all of the elements fully realized. Thanks to Intel’s technological advancements and the investment in our own software, our view in animation is much closer to what the final image will be — almost like being able to ‘film the frame.’ The Promised Land for an animator, and when I’ll be happiest, is when what we see is what we’ll get.”

What stands out for ‘Madagascar 3′ is how technology enhanced the creative workflow for filmmakers. Technology support from Intel played a role in the film from the server farms powered by Intel processors to HP desktop workstations with Intel Core processors to software tuners and optimizers.

DreamWorks Animation animators have more software and hardware power to apply to their characters, creating beautiful choreography, more natural movements, deeper and more subtle facial expressions, and more depth to crowd scenes. The result is ‘Madagascar 3.’

 
Related stories