#3: Dynamic Gaussian Splats -Stop Frame Animation with Ulysses the Snail
Fabulous detail and epic scenes made more accessible by using gaussian splat capture and rendering techniques to create stop frame animation.
Leto Meade, an animation Director working for the National Film and Television School (NFTS) animation department, saw a real opportunity to integrate Splats into stop frame animation sequences.
The prototyping team drew on the NFTS tradition of using snails – from living creatures to CG renders - in students’ films, to inspire the perfect creative testbed to develop a Gaussian capture rig and process around: Ulysses the giant African land snail. The Ulysses snail model featured a silicone outer body moulded over the top of a wire armature, created by NFTS alumnus Ben Cresswell.
We built a bespoke rig using three GoPro cameras on a motorised track to capture Ulysses, with the aim of producing a 10 - 15 second animated sequence. The key to this piece of work was to put together an end-to-end production process that would replicate a real production environment.
We set up a mini studio using softbox lights, and for each take, the animators would adjust the model and capture each frame using our GoPro rig. The captured images were then loaded into Jawset’s Postshot for rendering / training, before running the animation in Unreal Engine as a sequence of frames. Through trial, error and iteration, we were eventually able to extend to a 1-minute film.
Ulysess was then placed in a desert environment in Unreal Engine, which was particularly exciting: animators tend to find that wide angle, epic scenes are normally a challenge when animating stop frame characters, yet as can be seen in the films below, Ulysses is rendered in fabulous detail, with fine textures of hairs and fibres visible.
The ability to place a stop motion character in Unreal environments therefore offers stop motion animators useful advantages over traditional photogrammetry. Given the increased labour involved in the capture process, the flexibility and creative opportunities offered through this final render workflow offer exciting areas to explore in future productions.
We produced a short ‘behind the scenes’ film to give more detail and an explanation of our R&D process with Ulysses.