Part 1
CG | Interior | Production: Revolution
CG | Exterior: Gork Studio
Client: Zaha Hadid Architects
Project: Chengdu Natural History Museum
Location: Chengdu, China
"But you already have a ready scene!..", — such objections often follow after reviewing the animation quote. Let’s go through the points to clarify the situation. But first, a couple of short definitions: Sequence — a continuous camera flight (usually 5−10 seconds) Compositing — animation post-production
1.Scene Weight and Optimization
Unlike static images, animation demands much more from the cleanliness of the scene, models, and textures. While a visualizer might get away with using heavy objects without optimization for a single render (as they only have to calculate one frame), in animation, every under-optimized detail turns into penalty seconds of computation, exponentially increasing the project work time.
2.Amount of Material
Even though the final resolution rarely exceeds traditional FHD 1920×1080 (static images are typically rendered at 5000px on the long side), each second requires at least 25 frames. That means 1500 pictures per minute, not including a dozen additional channels per frame for compositing.
3.Calculation Time.
Hardware Let’s consider two hypothetical scenarios for a minute-long animation:
4.Cost of Errors
A pleasant glare in a static render can turn into annoying flickering in a video. Even the most skilled animation compositors cannot fix gross errors with masks. Therefore, it is necessary to test everything on key frame groups before calculation. It’s also worth noting that disrupting the pipeline of an animation project leads to significant additional costs and time losses, unlike with static imagery.
5.Cost of Materials
High-quality animated objects are quite specialized and hard to find for free. Such collections need to be purchased for the project (or work exclusively with animation) to provide the necessary set of moving parts.
6.Specialists
To implement animation tasks, your art director or generalists need to be qualified. Since we are discussing animation projects at a quality level comparable to static imagery, this condition is necessary. Otherwise, you will have to supplement your team with expensive outsourcing. But more on that in the next chapter.
PS There are few animation projects in our portfolio, and I take them very reluctantly. However, it’s important to discuss this topic. To confirm our qualifications, I attach a link to our joint project with Revolution and Gork Studio for Zaha:
To be continued
CG | Interior | Production: Revolution
CG | Exterior: Gork Studio
Client: Zaha Hadid Architects
Project: Chengdu Natural History Museum
Location: Chengdu, China
"But you already have a ready scene!..", — such objections often follow after reviewing the animation quote. Let’s go through the points to clarify the situation. But first, a couple of short definitions: Sequence — a continuous camera flight (usually 5−10 seconds) Compositing — animation post-production
1.Scene Weight and Optimization
Unlike static images, animation demands much more from the cleanliness of the scene, models, and textures. While a visualizer might get away with using heavy objects without optimization for a single render (as they only have to calculate one frame), in animation, every under-optimized detail turns into penalty seconds of computation, exponentially increasing the project work time.
2.Amount of Material
Even though the final resolution rarely exceeds traditional FHD 1920×1080 (static images are typically rendered at 5000px on the long side), each second requires at least 25 frames. That means 1500 pictures per minute, not including a dozen additional channels per frame for compositing.
3.Calculation Time.
Hardware Let’s consider two hypothetical scenarios for a minute-long animation:
- Calculation on a render farm for one frame in 5 minutes — 125 hours or 5.2 days
- Calculation on a single workstation for 20 minutes — 500 hours or 20.8 days In both cases, the continuous use of hardware for this one task will take a significant amount of time and cost. This is an important factor to forecast before starting work.
4.Cost of Errors
A pleasant glare in a static render can turn into annoying flickering in a video. Even the most skilled animation compositors cannot fix gross errors with masks. Therefore, it is necessary to test everything on key frame groups before calculation. It’s also worth noting that disrupting the pipeline of an animation project leads to significant additional costs and time losses, unlike with static imagery.
5.Cost of Materials
High-quality animated objects are quite specialized and hard to find for free. Such collections need to be purchased for the project (or work exclusively with animation) to provide the necessary set of moving parts.
6.Specialists
To implement animation tasks, your art director or generalists need to be qualified. Since we are discussing animation projects at a quality level comparable to static imagery, this condition is necessary. Otherwise, you will have to supplement your team with expensive outsourcing. But more on that in the next chapter.
PS There are few animation projects in our portfolio, and I take them very reluctantly. However, it’s important to discuss this topic. To confirm our qualifications, I attach a link to our joint project with Revolution and Gork Studio for Zaha:
To be continued