Again in 2012, two teenagers from South Carolina got here up with an ingenious idea for a video during which the “weapons” had been created by taking items of chalk and drawing them on a tough floor—after which lifting them off to make use of them in not possible “battles.”
Chalk Warfare grew to become a viral sensation for Sam Wickert and Eric Leigh of SOKRISPYMEDIA, who’ve since gone on to provide creative cutting-edge visible results for purchasers like Google Daydream, Pink Bull, and Intel.
It’s been six years since Chalk Warfare 3.0 was launched, and it’s fairly secure to say that in these years, the expertise and the strategies have made it attainable to create new sorts of jaw-dropping visible results—particularly with Sam and Eric pushing the boundaries. So in the present day, we’ll take you means behind the scenes of Chalk Warfare 4.0 to see how they used Body.io and an arsenal of different instruments to assist convey their newest epic battle to their anxious viewers worldwide.
In the event you haven’t already seen model 3.0, right here it’s:
A excessive bar
If you’ve acquired a YouTube following of almost one million subscribers and are getting tons of of thousands and thousands of views, it’s not at all times simple to maintain upping your recreation. However in some way, Sam and Eric and their staff appear to at all times discover a means.
For this episode, they began with massive ambitions and massive stunts, primarily based on the suggestions and requests they acquired from their loyal following about what they’d like to see subsequent. Chalk Warfare 4.0 nods to every little thing from Mission: Unattainable – Fallout with a spectacular skydiving sequence, to Star Wars lightsaber battles, to Pacific Rim-style robots. It’s a 15-minute VFX feast of continuous motion and not possible weapons.
Wait. Fifteen minutes with almost each shot containing some type of impact? Let’s cease and do the maths. In the event you’re taking pictures at 24fps and rotoscoping or compositing on almost each body, you’re speaking about 21,600 frames complete. It’s a ton of labor, and the extent at which these guys ship is Hollywood-grade—on a YouTube price range.
Submit-production begins in pre-production
In accordance with Sam, once they did the primary Chalk Warfare, “They had been quick movies and I had all of it plotted out in my thoughts. We used a minimal setup and minimal areas, so it wasn’t that onerous to execute.”
Chalk Warfare 4.0 is a really totally different type of manufacturing. “It’s the fourth installment,” Sam explains, “so we thought we’d do 4 groups of 4 folks, and there’s an enormous Battle Royale type of expertise with a giant finale.” The forged of 16 included actor Jamie Costa, YouTubers Lana LeStrange, Star Wars Principle, and Dom Fera, vine wizard Zach King, and extra.
Sam began by making a tough define of all of the set items he needed to include. From there, he derived a shot checklist. The episode is mild on dialogue and heavy on motion, so there’s a giant deal with what the weapons are and the way they’re created. In a reversal of how they beforehand created the weapons—utilizing cardboard originals and recreating them in CG—this time, they began by creating them as CG components first, so they may have somebody fabricate precise acrylic props with monitoring dots connected for the actors to make use of. This gave them a 1:1 match within the pc for correct monitoring, utilizing purposes together with SynthEyes and Mocha from Boris FX, which made it easy to then apply the chalk texture and particle animation in submit.
The following massive pre-production step concerned the opening sky diving sequence. “I pre-vised that whole part utilizing 3D Studio Max,” Sam says. “As a result of we truly took a staff of skydivers up in a aircraft, it was essential for us to have them rehearse the choreography so we might ensure that it was clear to everybody precisely what we wanted them to do.”
After that sequence, Sam was in a position to rely extra on his instincts and less complicated storyboarding for the rest of the video, creating 3D variations of the areas and setups for reference.
An built-in workflow
The staff relied on a DaVinci-based workflow, utilizing Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro G2 cameras, and taking pictures at 4.6K in 16:9 in RAW to maximise the dynamic vary. Then, they edited and shade graded in Resolve, working on customized Home windows PCs, which made every little thing clean and straightforward to handle. As a result of they’ve a sturdy in-house storage system made by OWC, they had been in a position to work off of the full-res information. Their ultimate output was 3840 x 2160 with a 2.35 side ratio for a extra cinematic look.
By making use of Resolve LUTs, they had been in a position to extra persistently steadiness the seems of the varied chalk colours all through editorial and compositing. “The colours have a pastel look, and it will probably get tough when you could have loads of belongings to match,” Sam says. “Then, as soon as we’re within the shade grading course of, we’ll do a ultimate cross to positive tune. Having the ability to isolate and monitor the weapons in Resolve gave us loads of management with out having to return into compositing.”
Though they used a wide range of compositing and results purposes, they primarily relied on Blackmagic’s Fusion, which works nicely with Resolve, together with Nuke. The Body.io integration with Resolve allowed them to simply work with their VFX staff all through post-production. “We labored with artists who had been offsite, so we used Body.io to add the belongings they wanted to the cloud,” Sam says. And with the ability to use annotations to present detailed directions was very important. “As a result of we might simply draw on the precise frames and make notes, they knew precisely what they needed to do. After which it was very easy to evaluation, give notes, or approve photographs,” Sam defined. “I used to be in a position to make use of totally different colours to focus on totally different points of my directions or suggestions in order that there was no confusion.”
Additionally they used Body.io to share work in progress with the remainder of the group, roughly ten folks along with Sam, Eric, and Brendan, the opposite important VFX artist. “The online-based interface was superior, to have the ability to add footage, and instantly preview it. It’s nice how fast it’s. It’s really easy to get instantly from having one thing, to then sharing it.”
Audio was dealt with remotely by Andrew Gerlicher, primarily based in LA, who composes the tracks for all the Chalk Warfare movies, with Eric Crepeau dealing with sound design and mixing. Once more, Body.io evaluation hyperlinks performed an essential half in facilitating that a part of the method.
Further particular VFX
Each motion film has its massive “cash photographs” and Chalk Warfare isn’t any totally different. Clearly, the skydiving opening sequence is spectacular. However there are a number of different sequences which are no much less spectacular, every for its personal causes.
For instance, the sequence of the robotic bursting by way of the wall is a intelligent mixture of sensible results and the very best tech obtainable. With the G2 digital camera set at 300fps, they had been in a position to create sensible particles that they may mix with the CG robotic as his ft hit the bottom to assist actually promote the impact.
However additionally they devised an ingenious method to create the robotic’s surroundings synthetically because it breaks by way of the wall, with a workflow just like that used on The Mandalorian. First, they created a full 3D surroundings that they photoscanned to Unreal Engine, the place it runs in actual time. They then used a Digital Digital camera and had the surroundings performed again for reference whereas Sam captured dynamic actions that might be utilized to the surroundings. The mixture of the CG chalk robotic and the real looking digital camera movement as he breaks by way of the wall creates a seamless results sequence. The sensible particles and a few inventory components from Motion VFX (explosions, pyro, and so on.) add one other degree of authenticity, giving the results photographs a extra natural really feel.
Though the Chalk Warfare staff prefers to make use of sensible environments each time attainable, there have been a few sequences that required using inexperienced display screen—most notably with the sniper on the water tower. The tower was very excessive and too harmful for somebody to go up onto, in order that they created a small set with a steel railing at floor degree for the actor to face in, after which put inexperienced display screen round it so they may composite within the sky background.
However what was most difficult in regards to the water tower sequence wasn’t the water tower, nevertheless. It was the water itself. As a believer in project-based studying, Sam likes to embrace uncharted territory with every Chalk Warfare video in an effort to study new strategies whereas wowing his viewers. Not in contrast to what he took on in Chalk Warfare 3.0 with the tearing fabric impact, creating the water was 4.0’s largest unknown. “Simply as we did for all of the 3D animation and chalk results, we used 3ds Max’s tyFlow and Phoenix FD for the particles and simulations for the water and disintegration results,” Sam says. “We’re at all times making an attempt to achieve a real Hollywood degree with our VFX, and we predict this sequence proves what we’re able to.”
On the job coaching
The challenges Sam and Eric set for themselves is the explanation they’ve come up to now of their younger careers. Instructing themselves easy methods to edit and do VFX from the time they had been youngsters, pushing their PCs to the restrict, and persevering with to design more and more complicated tasks has been their schooling.
Their uncompromising dedication to excellence can be what drives them of their pursuit of perfection. “I’ve been caught going again to photographs which are speculated to be completed, which is a giant time spender,” Sam says. It’s a part of why 4.0, initially slated for launch in March, goes dwell now.
“There’s one sequence with somewhat automotive driving by, and when it explodes we had been in a position to do actually dynamic particle animation with the wind creating turbulence on the particles. Now that I’ve completed it, I’m a lot prouder of it.”
One of many causes it’s so essential to Sam that every little thing is one of the best it will probably presumably be is that these movies might be rewatched quite a few instances. “I’m a agency believer that these movies get tons of of 1000’s of views due to their re-watchability. On the finish of the day, I simply wish to be happy with the content material we make, and I need folks to know that these are big ardour tasks. We wish to create new experiences for folks to take pleasure in, and we wish to make them superb. We received’t cease till they’re, so it’s at all times a matter of time.”
There isn’t a adage in manufacturing more true than “quick, low cost, good—choose two.” And on the subject of Chalk Warfare, we all know that for Sam and Eric good isn’t near adequate. That’s why 4.0 is bound to be nicely definitely worth the wait.
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