Real-time Cutscene Workflow

The Making of Cutscenes

Self-introduction

Yusuke Tanaka
Motion Designer: FINAL FANTASY VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XI Cutscene Motion Director: FINAL FANTASY XIII

Koji Kobayashi
CG Movie Lead Artist: FINAL FANTASY VII, VIII, IX, X-2 FINAL FANTASY the Movie Cutscene Director: FINAL FANTASY XIII

Overview i
n g Limited Work Schedule b lOverwhelming Number a of Tasks lLive Editing c lPreserving High Quality lIn-house Tools k
l

!
l

Crystal Tools Plugins

u l

Various Cutscenes
Hig h

Low

A B C D

Priority in Storytelling

Hig h

Cost Balance

Low

Various Cutscenes

Workflow Principles

No going back!

Multitasking

The Teams
Scenario
l

Story creation

Planning
Events Battles lFields
l l

Motion
Battles Fields lCharacter rigging and setup lCutscene body motion lCutscene simulation lFacials lMoCAP
l l

Programming
Game programming lTool development

Cutscenes
Layout MoCAP direction lLighting lPost-effects
l l l l

Art
l

Characters lBackgrounds lProps

Character Modeling
Characters Monsters lProps

VFX
Battles Fields lCutscenes
l l

Storyboard
l

Menu Design
l l

Storyboard

Screen designing Icons

Localization
Translation lSubtitles
l

Sound
Music lVoiceovers lSE
l

Character Texturing
Characters lMonsters lProps lShader setup
l

3DBG
Environment modeling lEnvironment texturing lProps modeling lProps texturing lShader setup
l

Cutscene Flowchart
Scenario

Layout Motion

Storyboard planning Storyboard Storyboard review STEP 1 movie MoCAP planning VFX design

VFX

Planning Body motion Temp. facials

MoCAP shooting POST processing STEP 2 movie On-target preview VFX production

Simulation

Final facials

Merge

Data integration Lighting

Lighting

On-target rendering

Cutscene Flowchart
Scenario Storyboard planning Storyboard Storyboard review STEP 1 movie MoCAP planning Planning Body motion Temp. facials Simulation Merge Final facials MoCAP shooting POST processing STEP 2 movie On-target preview Data integration Lighting On-target rendering VFX production VFX design

From the Storyboard, through Scene Creation to On-Target Preview

The Goal and Task of Scene Creation

Achieving the best visual quality

Maximizing workflow efficiency

Cutscene Flowchart
Scenario Storyboard planning Storyboard Storyboard review STEP 1 movie MoCAP planning MoCAP shooting POST processing STEP 2 movie

Scene Creation Workflow

Storyboard

The Scene Creation Process Creating the Previz

Using MotionBuilder for Scene Creation

A standard layout tool with plenty of features

Easy to manage MoCAP data

64bit OS compatible

Customized Camera Tool

Non-linear camera editing is made possible 2 3 4 5
Autodesk MotionBuilder In-house Custom plugins

Scene Creation Workflow

MoCAP Planning

Resource Documents for MoCAP Preparation

Resource Documents for MoCAP Preparation

G A u n C S s e p w e o l P e r h d o e n r e B

Props for MoCAP Shooting

k e

Shooting the MoCAP

Scene Creation Workflow

Using MoCAP Data to create scenes

Final Scene Creation Using MoCAP Data Autodesk MotionBuilder

In-house Custom plugins

Scene Creation Workflow

MotionBuilder

MotionBuilder Target Tool

An automated pipeline from the MBStory scene to the target in-house tool

MotionBuilder

CrystalTools (CutEditor) In-house tool

MotionBuilder In-house Tool

The in-house tool converts the MB scene
Autodesk MotionBuilder In-house Custom plugins

MotionBuilder Step 2 Scene

Autodesk MotionBuilder In-house Custom plugins

In-house Tool (CrystalTools CutEditor)

Crystal Tools

Cutscene Flowchart
Scenario Storyboard planning Storyboard Storyboard review STEP 1 movie MoCAP planning Planning Body motion Temp. facials MoCAP shooting POST processing STEP 2 movie On-target preview Data integration Lighting On-target rendering VFX production VFX design

Simulation

Final facials

Merge

Cutscene Flowchart
Scenario Storyboard planning Storyboard Storyboard review STEP 1 movie MoCAP planning Planning Body motion Temp. facials MoCAP shooting POST processing STEP 2 movie On-target preview Data integration Lighting On-target rendering VFX production VFX design

Simulation

Final facials

Merge

Cutscene Motion Workflow

Step 2 Temp. voices Body motion Temp. facials Final voices Simulation Final facials

Motion integration

Motion Teams

MoCAP Team Body Motion Team Facial Team Simulation Team

Cutscene Motion Workflow

Step 2 Simultaneous Temp. voices Temp. facials Final voices
Check !

Check !

Body motion

Simulation

Final facials Check

!

Simultaneous

Motion integration

The Motion Pipeline

Tool

Body

Facial

Simulation

Motion Work file Crystal ASCII data miga Tools or DCC tool

Merge

On-target rendering

Cutscene Motion Workflow

Step 2 Temp. facials Body motion Temp. facials Final voices Simulation Final facials

Motion integration

Body Motion Adjustments

Autodesk MotionBuilder

Advantages of MoCAP Data Postprocessing

Cooperating with the Cutscene Team

Predominance of Humanoid Characters

Body Motion
Tool Featur es

Specialties

Speed

Mig

Quali ty Motion

CCF

MotionBuilder
Model

Camera

XSI

Cutscene Motion Workflow

Step 2 Temp .voices Body motion Temp. facials Final voices Simulation Final facials

Motion integration

Facials

Autodesk XSI

Lip-synch with the Phoneme Analyzer

Hig h

Hand-made on the XSI

Low

Phoneme Analyzer

A B C D

Priority in Storytelling

Facial Creation Workflow

MoCAP Step 2 movie Body motion tweaking Finalization
Temp. voice recording Temp. voice Finalizing dialogue layout Pre-final layout Temp. work file

Stub creation

Final voice data Adjusted body motion

Final voice recording

Temp. voice data

Final voice data

Sound Data and Layout

Sound Layout cs v Cutscene Team File IDs and Dialogues xl Sound Team Integrates related Load voice data information with PHP: from XSI NetView Dialogue text Layout info Sound WAV file Files availability Access above info wa browser Sound v through web Team interface.

Facial Rigging
Autodesk XSI In-house GUI

Lip-synch with the Phoneme Analyzer

Asahi Kasei VORERO

Cutscene Motion Workflow

Step 2 Temp .voices Body motion Temp. facials Final voices Simulation Final facials

Motion integration

Simulation in Real-time Cutscenes

DCC tools CrystalTools

Ope rate on a PC No calculations needed due to the Animation DB Full control by the artist
Simultaneous use

Opera te on a PS3 or XBox No pre-calculated data needed due to in-game calculation Lowcost seconda ry animati ons

Ideal Workflow for Simulation

Load rigs for physics calculations and body motion Set up a pre-roll frame Specify the frame range for physics calculation Setting the cache path to store calculation result Set additional force

Add collision objects Calculate cloth and spring physics Bake the result on to the character Render the animation

Batch Processing

Manual Adjustments

Spring Rigs (hair)

Autodesk XSI

Cloth Rigs and Offset Tools

Autodesk XSI

Tweaking the Physics Model

Polymesh and Bones

Autodesk XSI

Weight Mapping

Autodesk XSI

Cutscene Motion Workflow

Step 2 Temp .voices Body motion Temp. facials Final voices Simulation Final facials

Motion integration

Cutscene Flowchart
Scenario Storyboard planning Storyboard Storyboard review STEP 1 movie MoCAP planning Planning Body motion Temp. facials MoCAP shooting POST processing STEP 2 movie On-target preview Data integration Lighting On-target rendering VFX production VFX design

Simulation

Final facials

Merge

Creating Cutscene VFX

Creating Cutscene VFX

Calculate a cost estimate based on

Setting up a Resource Library

Model Resources

Autodesk Maya

Creating Effects with EffectEditor

Crystal Tools

Implementing Effects into the Scene

2 3 4 5

 2 3 4 5

Integration with Pre-rendered Movies

Pre-rendered movie

Real-time Composition

Cutscene Flowchart
Scenario Storyboard planning Storyboard Storyboard review STEP 1 movie Planning Body motion Simulation Merge Temp. facials Final facials MoCAP planning MoCAP shooting POST processing STEP 2 movie On-target preview VFX design

VFX production

Data integration Lighting On-target rendering

Lighting and Post-effects

Lighting

Advanced hardware calls for

Lighting
Vanilla

Lighting
Tweaked

Lighting
Vanilla

Lighting
Tweaked

Efficient Lighting Workflow

Final results can be monitored via live editing

Efficient Lighting Workflow

Crystal Tools

Post-effect Filters

An essential element to creating the final image

Post-effect Filters
Without filters

Post-effect Filters
Color correction

Post-effect Filters
Depth of field (final)

Post-effect Filters
without filters

Post-effect Filters
Color correction

Post-effect Filters
Depth of field

Post-effect Filters
Glare (final)

Lighting and Post-Effects Summary

The Future of Real-time Cutscenes in Console Games

Now on

&

SQUARE ENIX Co., LTD. All Rights