Aron Baxter

Creating Immersive Backgrounds in 3D: Easy and Cost-Effective Techniques Another highlight from my 10-part series: GenAI2 for Content Producers Register for next chapter: https://lnkd.in/esDyK-h4

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In Conversation With… Andrew M Smith, OBE DL, Corporate Affairs Director, Pinewood Group Limited Interviewed by Liz Bales (BASE & DEGI) Production in UK is 2nd largest outside US. Film industry has a VFX tax credit and help for smaller films (£1-£15M). Film and high end TV help levelling up with a huge range of roles, that don’t necessarily require university degrees. DCMS reviewing skills needed. BFI Skills clusters being set up. Need to educate for those coming into sector as well as retraining. Freelance community has been impacted. Brexit has impacted. A little more complicated. Difficult for orchestras. But larger budget productions can navigate. Smaller budget use co production treaties. British independent film to be helped by BFI scheme. More independent films would need fiscal initiatives to get onto screen. It is one sector. The same plasterer works on large or independent. Without film tax relief we’d lose 92% of U.K. productions. One of 5 top economic sectors in UK. UK has good AV tax reliefs. But Hungary and Australia are competitors. London is attractive with 4 big studios. Growth will also be in nations and regions. Levelling up on film and high end TV production spend. Next thing is #AI. VFX and previz already using AI. Stages still needed but expand cautiously. Screen Skills retraining of construction for production sites. Retaining finance for production accountants. Training for set-ready. Disney, Amazon and Netflix focusing. Reaching out to students to show what’s possible. Also 200 storm troopers come along!

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🎬 The Art of Harmonizing SFX and Film Scores Read 4 critical tips: In the world of filmmaking, creating a cohesive auditory experience is paramount. Balancing sound effects (SFX) with the film score ensures that neither element overshadows the other, resulting in a harmonious blend that enhances the narrative. Hans Zimmer, a legendary composer known for his immersive soundscapes, highlights the importance of this balance. He explains, “So it starts off with creating that sonic world that I want the tunes or the motifs to live in. And that sonic world very often bleeds over into Richard King, the sound designer’s world” (source: Wallpaper* & The Credits). Here’s how you can achieve this balance in your projects: 1. Early Collaboration: Involve the sound designer and composer from the early stages of production. This fosters a unified vision and allows for seamless integration. 2. Thematic Consistency: Ensure that both SFX and score complement the film’s themes. They should support each other in conveying the story’s emotional and narrative arcs. 3. Dynamic Mixing: Utilize advanced mixing techniques to adjust levels dynamically, allowing the score and SFX to take turns in the spotlight without competing for the audience’s attention. 4. Feedback Loop: Create a continuous feedback loop between the sound team and the director to refine and adjust the audio elements as the film progresses. 💬 Join the Discussion! How do you ensure a perfect balance between SFX and film scores in your projects? Share your experiences and tips in the comments below! 👇 #FilmMaking #SoundDesign #HansZimmer #FilmScore #Collaboration

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Previsualization or Previs is a part of the pre-production process where a creative team can visualize entire sequences of a film before anyone sets foot on set. It is extremely common in big-budget movies today and is truly an underappreciated part of modern filmmaking. Last year I had a class project where I directed a short film called Finger Guns. With only 6 hours to shoot the film and a small crew of 4 people. I knew that If I wasn't prepared I was not going to be able to finish it. So I decided to create my own Previs animatic, by myself, on a laptop, using only free software. Using an app called Polycam I was able to create a 3D scan of my shooting locations which gave me a scale-accurate virtual set. I then brought these scans into Unreal Engine 5. Where I was able to block out my setups and roughly animate my actors. As well as place virtual cameras, in order to edit together a rough cut of what would turn into the final film all in engine. This was such a freeing process, experimenting with new angles, lenses and camera moves. Through this process, new shots were added and a lot of fat was trimmed from the original shot list. Having the Previs on set was incredibly helpful to both the crew and actors, being able to understand how that particular shot fits into the larger film, ensured that everyone was on the same page. I love finding the intersection between traditional filmmaking and emerging technology. I am currently working on an updated workflow that will include accurate virtual lighting plans and motion-captured performances for actors. I'm also thinking of doing a tutorial-style video where I break down this process so let me know if you would like to see that. #UE5 #polycam #3dscan #Previs

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You know why audio designers and QA often care so much about every other part of a content pipeline? Because overtime rolls downhill. Let's take a character pipeline that runs about 16 weeks. Here's art: 1 week in concept 2 weeks for modeling 1 week for rigging - might take less so there's buffer! (texture running in parallel) 4 weeks for animation (texture finishing) 4 weeks for VFX 2 weeks for audio 2 weeks for QA Alongside that, designers are working on gameplay, which injects change that can cause more work/rework. If the character has important story elements, you might also have narrative shifts, which can force changes in order to maintain a cohesive character. OK, so assets are flowing through the system, let's say you're reasonably load balanced in terms of people (a huge assumption, I admit). So one day, concept comes to you and says, "Hey, it took us longer to get signoff then we expected, we're not ready yet but another pass or two, we'll be a couple days late." Everyone responds with something like, "Got it, that makes sense. Stuff happens in game dev! We've still got over 14 weeks, we'll figure it out!" But of course this meant modeling also started a little late, and because they weren't quite ready to go, they took on a separate thing to stay productive and help out a different team. Good collaboration, way to keep producing value, you know? So now we're a week behind, but we've still got 12 weeks to figure this out. I won't keep going, but where audio has been promised "2 weeks" what you don't realize is before you're through the second step they've lost one. By the time design tweaks something and anim and VFX have to go back and redo a few things, audio and QA are basically working simultaneously, attempting to get everything done in one week, or even a weekend. VFX also starts feeling the pain because the cascade of issues and late QA pass mean the earlier people in the pipeline are injected with work, which mostly hits the later disciplines because they were already crunched trying to hit their times. At the end of the pipeline, we don't have room to negotiate. In fact, we're all rushing to get it done. This makes audio designers, QA, and sometimes VFX some of the most sensitive to news about things being late ANYWHERE in the pipeline. They've seen the pattern, they know it rolls downhill. They've also been blamed for it in bad organizations. Speaking of, two poor (and common) leadership responses: - "What's wrong with audio and QA? They're always late!" - "We need to hire more audio and QA! That'll solve it!" One slightly better but still not great response: - "It's now an 18 week pipeline, we'll add some buffer!" - That buffer will be gone before animation finishes. You have to recognize these patterns, then work with the ENTIRE team to address them. Otherwise you start getting annoyed at the people with zero control over their reality. #gameproduction #gamedevelopment #gameindustry #art #qa #audio

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