Introduction:
"The Sanlitun Apple Retail Store Encounter with Terrorists (English Name: The Secret Mission of the Terminator)" is an experimental short film that I personally completed independently in my spare time. Due to limited energy, there are still some less-than-ideal aspects, but overall, it has received a lot of support from countless netizens and media.
Now, I have organized the production process of this short film, hoping that these words and videos can help friends who are learning, and also hope for criticism and correction from industry professionals.
Software used for the short film:
3ds max9
Matchmover
Pftrack
AfterEffect
Photoshop
Audition
Premiere
The computer used was the mainstream configuration from two years ago:
CPU Core2 Q6600 (Core 2 Quad Core)
Graphics Card: Gforce 9800GT
Memory: 4GB
Production Investment:
One PC
One HD DV
One digital SLR
Personal, 300 hours (spare time)
Several strands of hair (severe hair loss due to overthinking)
Reasons for making the short film
"District 9" and "Cloverfield" are relatively unconventional movies in recent years. Their "commoner-style" realism has won the approval of many audiences. A considerable number of viewers can accept this seemingly casually shot "DV effect."
The original intention of making this short film was to "shoot" a "real" short film. In order to reach a level of realism that would be recognized by most people, I adopted the mainstream solution of combining "on-site shooting" with "computer CG" compositing. The on-site scenes were selected at Sanlitun Village, while the virtual characters chose the well-known Terminator.
The selection of the "main character" took some time. Since I like the Terminator very much, I chose among several different models of the Terminator. The T800 is too industrialized because of its good craftsmanship, so its design is relatively "smooth." On the other hand, the T600 from "Terminator Salvation," with its rugged and fierce appearance, rough workmanship, and somewhat clumsy movements, resembles more of a handmade product compared to the T800, which increases credibility to a certain extent.
Main Production Process
Pre-production
Pre-production refers to the storyboard and Layout stage. I did not draw storyboards but directly created a 3D version of the layout for use during filming. However, the final cut turned out quite different. During personal creation, changes are often made according to preferences, whereas team creations cannot be changed arbitrarily as it severely affects team morale and enthusiasm. Therefore, for personal creation, the role of storyboards and layouts may not be as effective as in team creation. The advantage of personal creation is the ability to change or optimize ideas freely, so it's not highly recommended that individual short films must spend a lot of time creating layouts.
Realism is mainly achieved through two key factors: long handheld DV shots and realistic lighting effects. Except for the first few randomly shot short clips, the rest are mostly long shots, consistent with the behavior of encountering events on-site. Additionally, the lighting quality of the computer-generated Terminator and vending machines blends naturally with the live-action footage.
Based on this basic principle, along with appropriate creativity, the production of this short film began. Of course, after numerous modifications during the production process, the final result was obtained.
3D Animation Production
3D animation production is the most important and labor-intensive part of the entire short film, requiring comprehensive 3D skills. If one only masters a specific aspect of 3D, it will be challenging to handle everything.
Material Preparation
In the early stages, I primarily collected images, videos, and other materials. I captured screenshots from the "Terminator" series and even took many photos at a friend's place who had a Terminator model. I also searched online for reference pictures of soda machines, etc.
Terminator Physical Model Photos
Making 3D Models
In this short film, the main 3D models used were the Terminator, his weapons, soda machines, and self-service charging machines. Although other models were made beforehand, they were abandoned in the final cut due to changes in the storyline. The soda machine and charging machine models were completely designed by myself, referencing various soda machines to design one that looked as realistic as possible based on the required size and appearance. The final results were quite satisfying, with many viewers asking if the soda machine was real, and some even specifically went to Sanlitun looking for it, though obviously without success.
The Terminator's 3D model is relatively complex, entirely made using 3ds Max, trying to replicate the T600 as closely as possible. Due to insufficient reference materials, some parts differ slightly from the "true" T600. The Terminator consists of over 500 parts with nearly 800,000 faces, which runs smoothly on my computer.
Model Renderings
Model Renderings
Similar to the Terminator, all other 3D models were independently completed in 3ds Max — the overall effect has been widely recognized by most netizens, with some friends providing constructive suggestions. Some netizens thought the models were made using Maya or downloaded from the internet. Regarding the former, I really don't know what features can determine whether a 3D model was made using a particular software; perhaps this netizen is a die-hard fan of Maya. As for the latter, it reminded me that next time, I should probably search online first to see if there are any similar models available, which could save a lot of modeling time.
Model Renderings
Reflections: Due to insufficient reference materials, some parts of the model do not conform to "biological structure," such as the shoulders crossing the body when the arms bend at a certain angle, which is against common sense. This issue surfaced during the animation production process, necessitating going back to modify the model, which also affected the UV mapping.
Head Wireframe Screenshot
As Realistic Textures as Possible
Since this is combined with live-action footage, realistic textures are crucial. In a real environment, objects that look too new appear less authentic, so both the Terminator and the vending machine have rich details, including highlights, reflections, dust, scratches, etc.
To achieve realistic metallic textures, all parts of the Terminator require UV editing, texture painting, and material creation. Each material uses nearly 50 texture channels, with a total of 150 textures used across the body, most of which were painted in Photoshop. Some textures use metal patterns. Painting textures and editing UV maps take up about the same amount of work, but fortunately, some parts can use symmetrical textures, saving some time.
Material Evolution Process
Environmental maps play a very important role in materials. The method is to use a wide-angle camera to capture several photos in the same exposure parameters mounted on a tripod, then merge them into a panoramic view in the software. Wide-angle lenses are used because the space between buildings is relatively narrow.
Filming
For personal short film production, you can use either a DV or a Canon 5D Mark2; the latter offers better image quality, but here I still used a high-definition DV, allowing me to obtain high-resolution video, leaving enough room for post-production.
The filming process was not smooth but repeated several times because the main shot is a nearly 3-minute long shot. Many unexpected incidents occurred during filming, such as suddenly appearing pedestrians blocking the lens or standing where the soda machine is located. Due to various reasons, the previously planned Layout had to be abandoned, and the originally planned story moved from the main entrance of the Apple store to its side entrance, but this change ultimately proved correct.
Difficulty: The staff of the Village are very sensitive to even slightly professional shooting equipment. They will strongly interfere with the shooting (the main reason being the tripod makes them think it's a commercial shoot), which greatly affects the shooting. Additionally, there are many customers and tourists in Sanlitun, so it's basically impossible to shoot as envisioned during regular times. Later, a more suitable timing and position were chosen, resulting in a fairly satisfactory outcome.
Camera Tracking
Many netizens watching the short film "Sanlitun" curiously asked how the Terminator moves together with the scene. What puzzles me is that the same technology used in Hollywood movies doesn't attract attention, such as the robots in "Transformers" walking around in the scene. But when it appears on a personal computer, people are surprised? Actually, they haven't considered that some technologies used in Hollywood movies can also be applied on personal computers.
Camera Tracking (Camera Matching) is undoubtedly a civilian-level technology and a very mature one. It is extensively used in Hollywood movies, and most American TV dramas also rely on it. It is a critical step in movie production and can be called invisible special effects, thus often overlooked by the audience. Without this step, live-action and CG elements cannot be properly composited. Its importance is self-evident. In "Avatar," over 300 shots used camera matching, and without camera matching, the movie would not exist.
Shots in "Avatar" Using Camera Tracking
Camera Tracking
Currently, popular software includes Matchmover (acquired by Autodesk and now integrated into Maya, standalone versions can still be found online), Boujou, PFtrack, SynthEyes, 3dequalizer (used in the movie "Avatar"). Although there are other software options, their principles are largely the same — based on continuous 2D image sequences or video, a series of calculations are performed to obtain the camera motion trajectory during the shooting of the video, and export it to 3D software for 3D scene usage.
Camera Imported into 3ds Max
Like many technologies, human requirements often exceed hardware requirements. Camera matching requires users to understand photography or videography and master necessary 3D software, otherwise many difficulties will arise. There are fewer resources and tutorials related to this than 3D software (such as 3dsmax, maya), so more often readers need to study and experiment repeatedly themselves.
Difficulty: Due to unsuitable materials, camera matching failed and had to be re-shot. Therefore, camera matching needs not only suitable materials but also a great deal of work and adjustments to get the "correct" results. The main factors affecting whether camera tracking can proceed smoothly include: the quality of the shooting materials, such as whether the image is stable and clear enough. Another factor is whether there are sufficient tracking points. Another important factor is the length of the material. In this short film "Sanlitun," the Terminator's entry and gunfire is a complete long shot lasting two and a half minutes with no cuts in between. The purpose is to create a sense of realism for the audience. After all, this is just a short film, recording a short-term encounter event. This differs from "Cloverfield," where the overall time span of the movie is large, and "cutting" time is unimaginable. For those interested, you can watch "Russian Ark," a movie with only one shot, the longest long shot in history. Before watching, it might be a good idea to prepare a pillow and blanket.
Matching long shots is a daunting task. So far, I haven't seen a camera matching shot longer than half a minute, let alone over a minute. Of course, this is mostly due to the nature of the film itself, not a technical problem. But the workload brought by it is immense and painful. If you're making a personal short film, it's not recommended to use long shots for compositing. The burden of workload far outweighs the technical burden itself. Generally speaking, matching clips of a dozen seconds is common, and dozens of seconds belong to lengths with both high workload and risk.
3D Animation
Skeleton binding usually happens after the model is completed, or after the material is finished, depending on the specific situation. A total of 386 bones were used throughout the Terminator, with most of them dedicated to mechanical transmission devices. Most of the animation work involves walking, which is the most difficult part of biological movement. A significant amount of time and effort was spent on this. All the actions were manually adjusted frame by frame using keyframes. Finally, this shot of the Terminator consists of 3960 frames.
Difficulty: Too many animation keyframes and too many bones linked to biped caused the keyframe animation to be extremely slow in the later stages.
Joint Animation
Jaw Animation
Full Body Skeleton
Rendering
Repeated attempts were made in rendering to achieve a "realistic" effect. Initially, third-party renderers Vray and Finalrender were used. Although the rendering effect was satisfactory, it consumed too much time, with each frame taking 5 minutes. A long shot of 4000 frames would require 20,000 minutes, or 14 days and nights, which was clearly too extravagant. Therefore, it was necessary to switch back to the default renderer of 3ds max. By simulating daylight using multiple ordinary lights and carefully adjusting the lights based on scene analysis, a reasonably ideal global illumination effect was achieved while saving more than half of the rendering time. Different elements were rendered separately: diffuse, highlight, reflection, etc., for adjustment in post-production.
Difficulty: Personal computers struggle when rendering complex scenes. Network rendering can be attempted, and the relevant technology is already very mature.
Post-Production Compositing
Compositing
After Effects was used in post-production to handle the previously rendered sequences. If the work in the 3D phase was thorough enough, this compositing step would be simpler; otherwise, many repairs and refinements would be needed. For example, the reflections on the soda machine, as well as the reflections on the walls and glass, if done correctly in 3D, would only require simple transparency adjustments in post-production.
After compositing, the output was sent to Premiere for editing, mainly focusing on connecting with other shots and adding voiceovers.
Composite Sequence
Voice-over
Sound effects and music are important yet often overlooked by general audiences. Since this is "live-action," background music suffices, eliminating the need for a separate composition, solving a major problem. Most of the sound effects in the film were recorded personally, then edited in Adobe Audition and finally input into Premiere. For instance, sounds like coins, paper cups, and the shaking of the soda machine were simulated using objects found nearby. The sound of the Terminator inserting coins into the charging machine is actually a coin sliding off a radiator. Individual sound effects, such as the Terminator walking or the M134 firing sound, were indeed difficult for me, so I borrowed some sound effects from movies, listed in the thank-you section at the end of the short film.
Characteristics and Shortcomings of the Film
This short film was independently completed by me using my spare time, making it difficult to precisely calculate the exact time spent. Roughly estimating, it took about 300 hours (excluding rendering time) to finish.
The modeling, lighting, and material representation of the Terminator in the film, as well as the compositing effect with the live-action footage, were relatively satisfactory. Most viewers initially believed that the Terminator was just a 1:1 model placed outside to attract customers or someone performing street art until it started accepting coins or stood up, at which point many realized it wasn't real. A small portion of viewers left comments or asked on QQ: Is this a real model or computer-generated? Meanwhile, the soda machine was generally believed to be physically present.
The least satisfactory part was the explosion at the end of the film. Since this shot was made last, I was already very tired and didn't produce it with much detail. It didn't escape the keen eyes of some viewers, but everyone knows that explosions aren't complex special effects and aren't considered high-tech, so they were lenient. Here, I want to sincerely thank countless domestic and international netizens for their support.
Postscript: Many friends have asked questions like what software was used for 3D and post-production, etc. Here, I want to say that current software technologies are relatively mature, and the differences between various software are not significant. Or rather, even software that isn't as "famous" can meet most people's application needs, so there's no need to pursue complex and "professional" software. Just like there's no need to buy a top-of-the-line DSLR and lens just to take a portrait.
Original Address: 【Eden Network】http://www.edenw.com/tech/app/flash/2010-07-17/4772.html