What's included

• Brief & Concepts

  At this stage, the character begins their existence, acquiring a biography and personal characteristics - anything that can be reflected in their appearance to tell more about the character. The finale of this stage is two consecutive customer-approved documents: - Character Briefs - Character Concepts In some cases, after finalizing the concepts, clients ask to put together a case study for publication on the website or different promotional materials.

• Research & Development

  The R&D stage is added to the Pipeline when there is an unusual request to create a character, such as for a vocal show where the character must move in sync with the person behind the stage, or when the character must read text that will be written to them in a chat room. Such requests require a period of study, research and development. The customer is informed of the R&D results in writing or verbally by the producer.

• Blocking & Sculpting

  Sculpting and blocking is the first production stage of working on a character. At this stage the volume is formed, the face is modelled, features, shapes, wrinkles and other details are given.

• Groom, Texturing

  The grooming of the character is a separate stage in the development, it is done by specialists who work with every strand of hair, and sometimes with every hair to artistically style it. While the grooming is being created, the character is given a hair plug. At this stage, the character is painted, skin texture, texture, eye colour and make-up is applied. Particular attention is paid to the colour of hair and eyes, as incorrect selection of shades can lead to the creation of a completely different character. The basis for texturing is laid in the concept, but if the character will have additional images or costumes in the future, you can add some features, such as tan lines, at the texturing stage.

• Garment and Assets Creating

  We use different approaches to create the image of the character, developing a variety of clothing: from a doublet of medieval times to a parka of the future with built-in lighting and phone charger, images from the best fashion houses of today to "what we found, we put on, because the apocalypse is outside". The type of clothing and fabric determines the choice of software. For example, on clothes made of soft fabric should form folds (depending on the pose or animation), and all-metal armour should sparkle with gilded engraving - different software is responsible for this. Creating clothes for characters is one of the strongest sides of our company, as we are also engaged in the development of exclusive collections of virtual clothes. We have experience in producing multiple images (skins) for one character, which allows you to change clothes. The creation of clothes and props is handled by a separate team. Each character has props (accessories): jewellery, rings, watches, weapons, some types of armour, bags, backpacks, belt, headband, hair clip, brooch - all the things he can hang on himself and we will see it. For each character, these items will be unique.

• Assembly

  Depending on the complexity of the project, from 2 to 20 people work on one character, the assembly stage is given special attention, as many separate elements need to be assembled into a single picture: appearance, groom, clothes, props, sometimes poses. We make a render, determine the degree of combination of items with each other, see what can be improved. Also the technical part of the character is discussed here, especially if there are limitations or the character is too heavy. The render is sent to the customer as an intermediate or final image.

• Optimization

  Optimization is the technical process of assembling and preparing character files for use in the correct format, taking into account all technical requirements. After optimization the character files acquire the final quality of the necessary technical development, now they are ready for all platforms. At this stage optimization for other types of projects starts (for example, we made a character for Cinematic, but decided to use it in a game or mobile game). This stage does not require a separate agreement with the customer, as it does not change the appearance of the character.

• Skinning & Rigging

  Rig is the stage responsible for character movement and control, it consists of two stages: - creating the bones needed to make the model move, bend joints, etc. - creation of controllers that allow you to control the character within the framework of one or more logical rules. There are a large number of scripts for automatic rig setup, but for characters with unique body structure, manual setup and complex rigs are still required. Facial animation is done with standard rigs, which then carry over the animation from the mocap. But if you need super-realism (for cartoon characters or 3D), then the adjustment is done manually, because there you need style and hypertrophied emotions. Skinning a character is a process by which clothes, props and all elements that exist separately from the character's movement system (rig) become one with it. The result is a joint animation of the body and clothes, the process can be complicated by certain textures or blendshapes (when, for example, when bending the knee in tight trousers there are additional folds in the place of bending). If within the logic of the project only weapons can exist separately from the character, then clothes are united with the hero as much as possible, and it is impossible to change the hero's clothes. The result of this stage is watched together with the animation or on animation tests.

• Render and Character Packaging

  The final production stage, where we make beautiful renders of the characters to make sure of the final quality. We also take care of the packaging of the characters in the project, this is necessary if the character will be used later on in the production of games, apps or shows.

• Animation tests

  When complex characters are completed, animation and mocap tests are performed to ensure that the character's rig and skinning work without defects. The more realistic and heavy the character (super-realism), the more likely it is that skinning problems will be detected during the animation phase. When the character has been tested and debugged, it is taken to work. The client is sent a video with the result of the work, or the project is sent for further use.

• Post-Production

  When the character is ready, work on promotional materials begins - the following types of content can be created: 1. Posing the character, high resolution renders and subsequent retouching. (Content for the website or UI/UX). 2. Creating promo videos - looped animation: camera flies around the character and shows the character's benefits (weapons, armour, skills). Based on the character with added environment and near-dynamic surroundings create a teaser. 3. Creating cases - this is a PDF file with a full character description, several renders including emotional renders, description of weapons, skils and skills. This is the kind of character passport that later goes into the artbook and social media. 4. Creation of various rendering material for social networks, merch, banners and other. All renderings and retouching are coordinated with the client.