Fathom Studios founder Marc F. Adler has always had a passion for filmmaking. As children, he and his cousin dreamed of forming “Farfelian Films,” taking the title from their mothers’ maiden name. “When my cousin lost a battle to cancer in 2000,” says Adler, “I realized life’s too short to wait to pursue your dreams.” With friend and co-director Jason Maurer, they worked outside the Hollywood studio system to develop and produce an animated feature. Created using Autodesk® Maya® software, Delgo is already generating buzz and touring the world’s most prestigious animation festivals. Fathom Studios began as an offshoot of the successful interactive agency Macquarium Intelligent Communications, which has been generating computer animations for clients since 1991. Although gearing up for Delgo was an ambitious undertaking, Adler explains that it wasn’t such a big leap from prior work at Macquarium. “Ultimately, the two companies work together where Macquarium creates pixels for the computer screen and PDAs while Fathom creates pixels for the silver screen and television.”

Developing the World of Jhamora Featuring a talented cast that includes Academy Award® winner Anne Bancroft (Best Actress 1962, The Miracle Worker), and Jennifer Love Hewitt, Delgo is a film for all ages about two very different cultures coming together and embracing each other for who they are. Influenced by fantasy adventure films such as The Dark Crystal, Indiana Jones, and The Neverending Story, Delgo creates an immersive world, called Jhamora, for the audience. To develop the vibrant color palette, Art Directors Mark A. W. Jackson and Jang Chol Lee studied coral reefs and tropical fish as well as painters such as Roger Dean.

While the team was excited about the scope for imagination that the world of Jhamora provided, Adler admits it also presented certain challenges. “Designing a believable fantasy world is both an art and a science; particular attention was given to all facets of concept development to ensure that the world, while fantastical, was grounded in logic.” Animation Director Warren Grubb agrees that it was difficult to gauge how test audiences would respond. “If you’re making a palm tree, you know if it looks like a palm tree. We had this creature early on called ‘the floating bunny’ that could bound really lightly as though on the moon, due to internally generated gas, like a puffer fish with helium. People thought it was animated incorrectly because they weren’t expecting a rabbit to do that and it made it hard for them to suspend their disbelief.”

Using MEL to Harness the Power of MayaSince some of the people of Jhamora can fly, designers had to create a realistic wing, eventually deciding on a hybrid of part-dragonfly, part-fairy. While the intricate wings of the Nohrin race provide visual interest, they were a challenge to animate and render, especially in crowds. “One of the biggest difficulties was getting them to motion blur well,” says Grubb. “Especially in crowds, you couldn’t just flap them on ones or twos, you had to flap them on subframes to get the motion to look correct.” To achieve a more fluid motion, anima-tors created a secondary motion Maya Embedded Language (MEL) script, which was much faster than animating by hand.

Dreams come true. Fathom Studios uses Autodesk® Maya® software to create believable fantasy world, complete with winged humans and flying sword fights, in ambitious animated feature Delgo.

Fathom StudiosCustomer Success Story

Autodesk® Maya®

Autodesk keeps adding new features that keep us coming back. Things like the Maya muscle system and geometry caching are exciting additions we’re looking forward to using on upcoming projects. —Warren Grubb

Animation Director Fathom Studios

Image courtesy of Fathom Studios

This ability to customize the software using MEL was one of the features that initially drew Fathom Studios to Maya. “The whole toolset is great,” says Grubb, “but the real reason we went with Maya is the ability to get in there and modify just about anything you want. Anytime we ran into a technical hurdle we could code around it.” Technical Director John Lytle concurs. “I don’t think there was a problem we couldn’t resolve using MEL and a couple of other scripting hacks here and there. We never felt backed into a corner we couldn’t get out of. That was key for this film.”

This attention to detail paid off in the action scenes in the film—in particular, a sword fight between two of the flying characters, played by Val Kilmer and Malcolm McDowell. “It really feels like a throwback Western-style fight,” says Lytle. “But it’s got guys sword fighting, flying through the clouds and bouncing off rocks. It’s a really beautiful sequence.”

Digital DailiesMany Delgo enthusiasts have already had a sneak peak at these scenes. Unlike most films, where audiences must wait for trailers to be released, work-in-progress animation files have been available on the Delgo website since 2001. There, fans can visit the Digital Dailies, an online message board where the studio’s artists submit and comment on animation in production.

Published online early in the process, the Digital Dailies first emerged as an in-house file manage-ment system. Since many of the staff work on flextime, it was important for project files to be externally accessible. To accommodate this require-ment, Lytle developed a web-based tracking system that was integrated into Maya software. “When the shot was done and ready for review,” says Lytle, “the animator just hit a MEL button and it would run a script that would update a database. The directors could then talk about what they liked.”

In many ways, making these files public took courage. “It offers a glimpse into the process of computer animation,” says Adler, “the good and the bad, the mistakes and the triumphs.” Although the team was excited to go public, some were concerned that it would give away too much of the story. “I never saw it that way,” explains Grubb, “because I figured if someone was dedicated enough to learn the story from the dailies, they were going to go to the film anyway.” In the end, their faith paid off, generating interest from schools as well as individuals. “It’s definitely something we’d consider doing again.”

Beyond DelgoFathom Studios currently has five projects in the pipeline, including a four-minute test short. Just as the company has been expanding, Maya software has continued to evolve, a fact that Fathom

Autodesk and Maya are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2008 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

Studios appreciates. “Autodesk keeps adding new features that keep us coming back,” says Grubb. “Things like the Maya muscle system and geometry caching are exciting additions we’re looking forward to using on upcoming projects.” Lytle agrees, “It’s kind of funny. Some of the things we wrote a script for during Delgo are now part of the whole package.”

Although independently producing a film of this caliber required patience, dedication, and, as Adler puts it, “every resource possible,” the greatest factor in the film’s success may have been the team’s passion for the project. “Anyone who worked on Delgo had to really love what they were doing,” says Grubb. “It’s a very challenging industry—you really do have to spend a lot of time and invest a lot of emotional energy in the job. At the end of the day, however, I always feel lucky to be working as an artist.”

The whole toolset is great, but the real reason we went with Maya is the ability to get in there and modify just about anything you want. Anytime we ran into a technical hurdle we could code around it.—Warren Grubb

Animation Director Fathom Studios

Image courtesy of Fathom Studios

Image courtesy of Fathom Studios