Saturday, July 22, 2017

What software is typically used to make CGI movies?

What software is typically used to make CGI movies?
source: https://www.quora.com/What-software-is-typically-used-to-make-CGI-movies

Giorgio Marino, Digital Artist for Feauture Film-VFX since 2008
Answered May 31, 2016

That is kind of a very generic question, but I try to break it down.

First of, like already mentioned, all of the bigger studios have in house software that is not accessible out of that working envoriment. That is true for companies that make full CG feature film animation Movies and for companies who do combine VFX with filmed plates for feature film.

Talking for feature film:
I will just mention those who I see more often in real use during production. Probably not complete, but it gives you an idea. I also try to write for what you would use that piece of software, but for sure you can do more with it as what I am writing down.

- Photoshop: concept art/texturing/matte painting
- Nuke: compositing/3D projections/small particle set ups/roto/prep
- After effects: motion graphics/ compositing (never saw it in feature film, but I know it is used for commercials and TV productions)
- Maya: modeling/animation/rigging/shading/skinning/simulation/lighting/layout
- Houdini: modeling/animation/rigging/shading/skinning/simulation/lighting
- renderman: shading/lighting/rendering
-ZBrush: modeling/concept art/texturing/3D sculpting/prototyping
- MudBox: modeling/concept art/texturing/3D sculpting/prototyping
- Modo: Modeling/texturing
- Mari: texturing
- Realflow: simulation
- Arnold: rendering/shading/lighting
- clarisse: rendering/shading/lighting
- 3D Studio Max: (I saw this just in a very few VFX companies, more used for video games) modeling/animation/rigging/shading/skinning/simulation/lighting/layout
- massive: crowd simulation
- vray: lighting/shading/rendering
- rv : image sequence player(mono/stereo/can handle different types of colour LUTs)
- framecycler: image sequence player(mono/stereo/can handle different types of colour LUTs)
-katana: lighting/look development
- 3d equalizer: camera tracking
- boujou: camera tracker
- silhouetteFX : rotoscoping
- Vue: 3D envoriments
- shotgun: planning/scheduling/client and internal comments database

Those are the first ones that come to my mind. Besides that, there are a lot of awesome plugins or mini software:

- optical flares: creates awesome flares. For After effects and Nuke
- crazy bump: creates super fast nice bump maps

And a lot more that just do not come to mind at the moment.

Each of those software pieces are then implemented in the company pipeline and enhanced with extra functions or in-house made plugins.

Each program has its own strength and is most often used in combination with another software. For example you could model your 3D geometry in maya, import it in zbrush to give nice details and then texture in Mari with additional tons of detail.

So in case you are planning on creating your own CGI movie, just figure out what you want to do and then select the software that is best for different tasks. Set up a basic pipeline and database so you can keep track of each shot.

For small productions you can do a full CG movie just with Maya/cinema 4d/3D s max.


It really depends on what you have in mind.


 CGI Dreamworks Animation Studio Pipeline

Read more at the source link: https://www.quora.com/What-software-is-typically-used-to-make-CGI-movies

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