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With the launch of Return to Empire on all platforms, this SLG game set in the evolution of the medieval era has attracted the attention of a large number of players. And the CG promo film launched by this game is almost all large scene production, and our first reaction is that the needle does not poke! Friends who are familiar with CG production should know that a large number of large-scale scene production is not a simple thing. So we got in touch with CG's POPIC animation team to talk about the fun behind the scenes.
When the POPIC team conceived the plot, they chose "the big era is broken and standing" -
The battlefield has always been the beginning of a great new era and the end of a huge old era.
So, CG begins in a grand narrative:
"When the empire was destroyed by the barbarians, the statues of civilization collapsed, order ceased to exist, and the war raged. But hope does not die, born in the ashes, growing and beating in the siege.
The world rose up in unison, represented by frankish, Byzantine and Eastern armies. The three forces are condensed, in the era of cold weapons, can they defeat the barbarian army? ”
It's up to the players to explore and reveal...
【"Return to the Empire" promotional poster】
Character Presentation - Crowd Assemble
When players talk about attacking a city, what are they thinking? It's the ambition that has been held in the depths of their hearts for a long time; when players say building a city-state, what do they think? It is the benevolent strategy of An Bang dingguo and the world.
In this battlefield, the protagonist undoubtedly belongs to the strong, and the strong wield their swords against the stronger, and their appearance also makes the battlefield more bloody:
● Barbarian King - The initiator of the war, the strong, but also the plunderer
【Barbarian King Test Chart】
As the only character in the whole film with a close-up shot, the optimization of assets determines whether more details can be controlled during production. Surprisingly, popic's performance strategy focuses on the character's hands and face, which makes its skin texture even more enhanced.
● The Frankish monarch - Charlemagne - a benevolent man who confronts bleakness and sinisterness, is a strong man, but also a crusader
【Frankish Monarch - Charlemagne】
Scene presentation - full of battlefields
When the whole world trembled under the iron hooves of the barbarians, the trumpet of resistance blew, every corner of the world was filled with smoke, and the pre-war dormancy and planning hid turbulence and killing chances.
The direction of the story prompted the production team to add a large number of large scenes when creating a pre-war atmosphere of dark tides and eerie clouds. In addition to the opening shot, there are as many as 9 large scenes to be arranged: roman city, Egyptian temple, Greek city, Frankish city-state, The Grand Palace of Tamdinburgh, the Great Wall, daming palace, sandbox room, and final battlefield.
【City of Rome】
【Roman City Square】
【Roman City Square - Statue of the Archon】
【Egyptian Temple】
【Egyptian Elephant Soldier】
【Egyptian Elephant】
【Greek City】
【Frankish City-State - Interior】
【Frankish City-State - Exterior】
【Frankish Cavalry Horse】
【Grand Palace Square, Tamdinbo】
【Great Wall Beacon】
【Daming Palace】
【Sandbox Room】
【Final Battlefield】
If there is no famous scene in the CG film, it is like spicy and hot without hemp and no spicy, although it is a meal, it is less than a little soul. Appropriate addition of some picture performance between the beginning and end of the plot will enrich the visual dynamic line to a certain extent.
For example, the opening "Eagle Strikes the Sky", the Smoke-filled Roman Forum, the Frankish city-state architecture, the Oath of the Byzantine Monarch, and the Expedition and Arrival of the Eastern Army on the Battlefield.
● The opening eagle soars
As the saying goes: Eagle strikes a long sky. Here the posture and dynamics of the eagle need to take time to grind, in the words of Party A, that is: from the thunder momentum of the clouds to swoop, the strength of the wings to soar, the feathers must also be with the surrounding physical changes, must make a sense of reality.
【Opening "Eagle Strike Long Sky"】
● Roman Forum
Although there is no battlefield of Jingo Iron Horse, the smoke of war after the war is filled with indictments of the relentless fire.
【Roman Forum filled with smoke】
● Frankish city-states
The rise of buildings from the ground, is the rise of hope like a mushroom? Or is it the quiet arrival of another civilization?
【Frankish city-state architecture】
● Oath of the Byzantine monarch
It is a declaration of turning crisis into safety, and it is also a turning point in the revival of the bottom.
The POPIC team said that in order to achieve a solemn atmosphere, this part of the scene had to make some efforts in the layout link.
The production team also faced three major problems to be solved:
The first is the adjustment of the picture composition, which needs to highlight the sense of space of the entire square;
Second, in order to strengthen the depth of the high platform, it is necessary to extend the length of the high platform by double;
Third, in order to enrich the cluster effect, a column of water was added to the center of the square for spatial segmentation.
【Oath of the Byzantine Monarch】
● The Eastern Army marches
When will the heroes return from the expedition? Cut through the thorns to the light.
Among them, the footage of the Eastern army arriving on the battlefield, in order to set off the slaughter and oppression of the iron hooves and horses, but also to allude to the coming of the dawn of hope, the team did a lot of choreography and detail control in the lighting atmosphere.
【Expedition of the Eastern Army】
On the high slopes of the mountains, the eastern army stepped on the battlefield, and the swooping momentum shook the sky, while the rising dawn behind them was broken, so that the emotional transmission could be reflected. In order not to grab the details of the foreground hillside, the technical team abandoned the previous idea of positive backlighting, and instead set the light position in the main light direction behind one side.
【The Eastern Army Arrives on the Battlefield】
【Eastern Army Arrives on battlefield 2】
POPIC blockbuster moment
● The director has something to say
How complicated is the production process in the opening scene of "Eagle Soaring" above the city-state?
The process of guiding the film is like giving birth to a child, during which it is mixed with the mood of "torture", excitement and expectation, and it is really realized after experiencing it. Among them, the thing that makes POPIC director Lin Shujie not spit unhappy is the opening shot.
The shot of the eagle soaring over the prosperous city-state seen by the audience seems very simple, but for the production team, to achieve the effect of filling the atmosphere at the beginning, how can it be said without paying a little "sweat and tears"? One word: liver, two words: very liver, three words: too liver!
【Seven areas disassembled map】
Therefore, there is a production management level to face a huge amount of assets, and the director and production team need to achieve reasonable hierarchical production and rendering planning in the overall planning of huge scenes and asset capacity.
Finally, this shot was divided into 7 areas to dismantle the "burst liver", namely the building complex on both sides of the river, the bridgehead riverbank area, the street area, the canal and bridge area, the square part, the long-range area, the super-long-range area, the director felt that it was not vivid enough, and deliberately added a distribution map to make everyone more aware.
Finally, each area, the internal division of labor within the team is polished and optimized, and finally the output is integrated.
● The technical director has something to say
How to solve the multi-detail presentation of large scenes?
Liu Dingjun, technical director of POPIC, said that the presentation of large scenes is somewhat challenging. Based on the team's adherence to the principle of ensuring great results, assets are selectively streamlined.
【Dismantling of the Frankish city-state】
For example, in the construction of the Frankish city-state, when planning the content of the picture in the early stage, it is consciously designed to form a small slope in the foreground, and the whole picture is divided into three areas (the foreground hillside, the back of the hillside, and the castle) for polishing.
First of all, the displacement map is used a lot in the scene to enrich the model details (roof, wall, ground), because this practice not only avoids the problem of insufficient memory, but also can meet the deconstructed details of the final picture resolution.
As for the production of the ground material, it was also decided after continuous consideration that the ground was divided into multiple parts and painted to achieve enough details to meet the picture.
In order to solve the close-up of multiple parts of the lens, it was necessary to develop a procedural material production system. The result is that the ground material is in the lens frame, which can be rendered with the precision of the original texture material.
● The technical big guy has something to say
How to express the majestic style of "Eagle Strike Long Sky"?
As a technical leader of the POPIC team, Cai Guotai was deeply involved in the production of this project.
He recalled the production process, and the place where he spent the most time was undoubtedly the presentation of the eagle feathers.
The so-called "eagle strikes the long sky and the sky and the sky", in addition to the blessing of the mirror, the state and details of the eagle itself are particularly important.
【Eagle Soaring】
In the case of a tight production cycle, the first appearance shot, we chose expression animation to achieve a more ideal "soaring" effect, which is also a friendly operation scheme for animation solution.
The feathers are represented by a combination of examples and models, simulating the effect of feathers in the light state, and need to use the model to penetrate and match the material effect to show the hierarchical changes of the eagle feathers in the flight state.
【Eagle Asset 1】
【Eagle Asset 2】
Animate the expression on the feather's controller, then quickly assign the expression to the controller in the scripting language. After the animator completes the animation, the random flutter effect of the feather can be simulated to simulate the oscillation of the feather affected by the air flow during the flight, and then cooperate with the partial solution of the feather to simulate the disturbance effect generated by the eagle during the flight process.
The whole CG propaganda film is to show that "the battlefield has always been the beginning of a great new era, and the end of a huge old era." And the presentation of CG is only a continuation of a pre-plot epic for "Return to the Empire" that "as far as the eye can see, all are battlefields", as the conflict and beginning of all battlefields.
epilogue
Every member of the POPIC team involved in this production, after round after round of pressure and excitement, lived up to expectations and completed a difficult task. When reviewing the review, everyone is reflecting on one thing: compared to the technology, more important than the flying ideas, the deconstruction and planning of the project; compared with the number of people, than the amount of voice, the team's cooperation is more smooth and efficient. They said that although there is still an objective gap between the comprehensive strength of the team and the international first-line CG studios, no matter how long the road ahead is, POPIC will continue to move forward with a "search up and down" mentality.
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