This commercial by PARABELLA for "Twinings Tea" reminded me of "The Adventures of Tom Thumb". Not the little claymation of Tom but the actors whose movements almost seemed like they were claymated. After doing some research I found that PARABELLA was heavily inspired by the Golden Era of musicals and multi-plane animation techniques which was pioneered by Walt Disney back in the 30's. The animation blends CG with pointilism, and includes 100,000 tea bags and 50 different paper folding styles to bring vivid and intricate movement throughout the piece. The heroine was also shot frame by frame, and several 3D models were shot on layered planes to captivate an amazing sense of depth and perspective.

The necessity of layering

MPC Wrath of the Titans VFX breakdown from MPC on Vimeo.

Despite the fact that it's what I do in most of my posts, I'm not a huge fan of discussing topics in a vague, general sense. I'd much rather make a point using specific examples. Well, here's one of those times where I actually know what I would like to discuss, and I have a specific example to make my point. I figured it'd be a nice change of pace. So, assuming that you've watched the above video (if you haven't, please do), let's delve into the complex process of effects layering.

It's no secret that there's rarely one super, awesomely fantastical effect that makes an animation what you want it to be. That would simply be too easy, and if animation were as simple as applying a single effect to a sole layer, everyone would be making the big bucks. And they're not. So, yeah. Point proven.

As I was saying, it's not uncommon for there to be dozens of layers for a single animation. It's the only way for an animation to look and "feel" the way you want it to. I apologize for the painstakingly long amount of time this may add to your current projects, but I can promise you the audience will notice the lack of effort in your final product.

Watching the above video will serve to better understand just how many different layers go into just one animation. Even an erupting volcano requires about 5 or 6 different layers of dust, smoke, and debris, not even to mention the enormous rock-like creature climbing out of said volcano. When the creature is destroyed, there's approximately 3 layers of smoke. Oh yeah, there's about 15 or so other layers that go into the monster and exploding debris as well. It's no problem, though. I mean, I'm sure you could do that. Right?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: VFX Breakdown from MPC on Vimeo.

Boom. Second example. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I happen to believe it's an excellent example of layering. Think about this: when you were watching the final Harry Potter installment (because who hasn't seen it?), were you really paying attention to the visual effects? I seriously doubt it. You were probably just sitting in the theater on the verge of tears as your childhood came to an end right in front of your eyes.

Just in the first shot of the video (also the preview image of the video), there's a layer for the environment (the ground, mountain, etc.), a layer for the people, a layer for the stadium, a layer for the smoke, and a layer for the fire. I'm also just guesstimating. That would be the absolute bare minimum that would have to go into a shot like that. I bet you there are at least two layers for each of the objects you see on the screen. There's usually at least a few layers of smoke to give it more depth or density.

It's pretty interesting to see the orc-like creatures in the "stampede" shots are actually pretty much the only real-life things to be seen. The environment, the people, and the smoke are all added later. It's astounding to realize what may seem to be the most obviously animated aspects of a shot are actually the only things that were shot. Obviously, the specific shot I'm discussing would need at very least 4 or 5 separate layers in order to make it come to life. I'm sure many more layers than what we're shown, though, were actually used.

It'd definitely be an interesting game to try to guess just how many layers go into certain shots of a film.

The multiplane camera

Although Disney (always the ripoff artist par excellence) claimed to have invented the system he called Multiplane Camera in 1933), the fact is that a previous animated film by Lotte Reiniger, "The Adventures of Prince Achmed", had used a similar system as early as 1926.

The actual system that Disney is referring to was actually invented by Ub Iwerks (who used to work for Disney before and was the creator of Mickey Mouse) in 1933 and he used it to produce a number of Iwerks animations. Iwerks (today called SimEx Iwerks) by the way is the company that manufactures some of the theme park rides in use around the world today.

Disney first used a multiplane camera version refined by William Garity, then working for Disney Studios for the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Multiplane camera sequence of various Disney Films (no embedding allowed!)

The reason I posted this is because what we do today in motion graphics, using a program like After Effects is in part a digital version of a multiplane camera space. The concept of layers and the interaction between them is an essential component of almost any visual effect today. Except that a motion graphics, title sequence or visual effect production will probably consists of hundreds of layers both in 2d and 3d space.

Stalley's "Go On"

   One of my favorite hip-hop artists is Kyle Myricks aka Stalley. His music videos often involve a story or some kind of animation. This music video is very creative and directed by Walu Mwalilino. I looked into Walu's past work and he directs videos for some of the biggest names in hip-hop. His videos are all very different from each other yet he has a unique style that captivates the audience and creates a story rather than highlight the typical girls, cars, money aspect. He highlights the rappers' lifestyles and brings out the substance in their lyrics. In the Stalley music video, I'm not sure how Walu created the effect of a past body behind Stalley. He may have tracked each movement and created layers so that it appears Stalley is still in one place when he is still moving. I understand how he did the effect when the camera was static but often times, the camera is panning or moving shakily and he still pulls off the effect. I want to look into Walu's work and see if there are any tutorials for the effects he uses because this is one of my favorite music videos.

Walu's Blog