Sustainable VFX - An Educational Challenge
Article No.: 12, Pages 1 - 5
Abstract
VFX and animated movie production creation processes are exposed to constant improvement, optimization and innovation, and film schools have to reflect these developments in their education. At the current point in time, almost any visual demand can be realized given the necessary human, technical and time resources. Close to real-time rendering technologies can reduce creation times and therefore increase the number of iterations that can be carried out. Both of this can lead to cost and energy savings but comes with having to deal with unconventional creation processes and quality restrictions. Raising awareness about potential CO2 emission reductions through innovative technology use is an educational imperative in academic education.
This report compares a typical offline production pipeline for VFX creature shots with a near to real-time workflow using a rasterization engine as commonly used in game engines (real-time). The goal here is to start a, from the viewpoint of the authors, necessary "quality in demand" discussion rather than focusing on brand and feature set comparisons. Required optimizations and shortcomings will be discussed as well as the increased iteration opportunities due to reduction in offline render times. Quality aspects of both approaches are compared in a quantitative study evaluating the overall quality and visual difference presented to a diverse audience.
This work has been created in the context of a film school and the development of future skill-sets. Additionally, in the last years, a sustainability discussion for all aspects of film productions has started. We experience a high demand among young filmmakers to understand what it is that they can actively do to lower the carbon-dioxide footprint and produce more sustainably. Therefore, we will also explain how we address these challenges in our curriculum.
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Sustainable VFX comparing traditional and alternative workflow side by side.
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References
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- Sustainable VFX - An Educational Challenge
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Published: 22 November 2024
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