white paper: toon boom harmony, 2d/3d...

WHITE PAPER

Toon Boom Toon Boom Studio: 2D/3DIntegrationAn overview of the different production pipelines for integrating 2D and 3D content withToon Boom Toon Boom Studio. Considerations when exporting and importing images,importing3D assets to rotoscope, and the full integrated pipeline for importing a 3D asset, andrendering through Autodesk Maya using Harmony.

December 2012

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IntroductionThis white paper is an overview of the different production pipelines for integrating 2D and 3D content with Harmony. We’lltake a look at exporting and importing images, importing 3D assets to rotoscope, and the full integrated pipeline forimporting a 3D asset, and rendering through Autodesk Maya using Harmony. The type of pipeline that will be useful for youwill depend on the production itself.

ProductionThere are several different 2D/3D pipelines that are possible to achieve through Harmony.

1. Exporting an image sequence fromHarmony to 3D.

2. Importing an image sequence from 3D to Harmony.

3. Importing 3D objects into Harmony, then rotoscoping over them.

4. Full 2D/3D Integration with Render; all in Harmony.

Both 1 and 2 can be achieved with the Animate line, as well as Harmony; 3 and 4 are particular to Harmony.



Exporting an Image Sequence to 3D

The simplest 2D/3D pipeline is simply to export an image sequence from your 2D animation software to your 3D animationsoftware. When doing this, it’s important to export individual elements to give you the flexibility of placement in your 3Dsoftware. For example, each character should have its own image sequence. Exporting image sequences of different layersis simple to do in Harmony, as you can configuremultipleWrite nodes for each layer you want to export separately.

Why would you want to do this?The first thing to look at is what percentage of your production is 2D vs. 3D. If themajority, say 65% or more, of yourproduction is 3D, then this is a good option. In other words, if themajority of the shot is 3D, keep it in the 3D software.

Some productions will have different pipelines for different shots too. In other words, if one shot is 100% 3D, they’ll do thatin the 3D software itself, then if the next shot is only 20% 3D, they’ll do the integration in Harmony instead.

Another consideration is the availability of hardware and software. If you will render an image sequence out of Harmony, it’svery light and easy to render. You also don’t need to have any software but Harmony on your machine.

How does it work?If you export an image sequence, you can choose to import it directly into your 3D software. Or, you can export imagesequences from both Harmony and your 3D software, and integrate everything in a compositing software.



DisadvantagesThe limitation of this pipeline is that there is no way for your 2D animator to interact with the 3D scene. They have noreference of the 3D scene, which canmake it difficult for the animator to work effectively.

AdvantagesThe advantage of this pipeline is that you can work with any 3D software or compositing software to achieve this task.



Importing an Image Sequence from 3D

It is equally possible to export an image sequence from your 3D software, or to export a movie file, and to import thisimage sequence or movie file into Harmony.

Why would you want to do this?This is a simple pipeline to follow, because the 3D work can all be done by one team, and rendered out. The 2D team simplyhas to work on top of the rendered images, so there’s no additional skill necessary.

How does it work?Simply export an image sequence, or a movie file, from the 3D software. Make sure the camera movement is final and hasbeen applied in the 3D file, because camera changes cannot bemade on the 3D object once the image sequence has beenimported into Harmony. Then, the 2D animator will simply create another layer on top and work with this layer.

DisadvantagesThe limitations of working with this pipeline are that it is very difficult to make changes to the 3D scene, because if you needto make a change, you have to go back into your 3D software, make the change, render the sequence, and reimport it.

AdvantagesThe advantage of this pipeline is that you can see your 3D sequence as you’re animating your 2D sequence, which reallyhelps the animator achieve a natural look and feel. Also, you can use any 3D software.



Importing 3D, then Rotoscoping

This is a pipeline that is sometimes forgotten in the world of 2D/3D integration, but can still prove extremely fruitful andinteresting. One of themajor challenges with the 2D/3D pipeline in general is the aspect of rendering, and the rotoscopingpipeline avoids that entirely. Instead of rendering 3D models, you trace over them for a 2D look.

Why would you want to do this?Often people will choose to do Rotoscoping so they have a seamless 2D look in the end. Although there’s more labourinvolved in tracing over the images, the end result is cohesive and accurate.

How Does it Work?With rotoscoping, you need only import a proxymodel from your 3D software to help the animator to achieve the correctangles, and to help them to redraw things like complicated props. However, the nice thing about this pipeline is that youdon’t need to spend the extra effort on the 3D side to achieve a 3D render.

DisadvantagesDisadvantages are that there is more drawing involved. However, with some of the improvements in the Harmonypaperless workflow, such as the new True Pencil, Deform, and improvements to the Xsheet and Shift and Trace, drawingitself has become faster and easier to achieve digitally.

AdvantagesRendering your 3D sequence can be time-consuming to set up, because you need to texture your 3D model, then you needto set up the shaders, add some lighting into your scene, and finally you then need to perform the final render. Dependingon the complexity of the scene, the lighting, and the effects, 3D render times can be quite long, and this means that youneed to spendmore to set up a more advanced render farm. You also have to budget to finish your production earlier inorder to give yourself enough time to render your 3D scene.

By rotoscoping, you’re not actually rendering any 3D. You’re just importing your object, then drawing on top of it. This mayactually be the cheapest 2D/3D integration solution, depending on the project.

Advantages are that you can use any 3D software. The animator can have the freedom to push the animation beyond thelimits of 3D. Render times are extremely low.



Full 2D/3D Integration with RenderThis is themost complex pipeline to set up for 2D/3D integration, but the benefits of being able to set this pipeline up faroutweigh the others. With the full pipeline, you can take advantage of creating props, vehicles, and backgrounds in 3D, andcan animate your characters in 2D. You can even do the compositing and effects directly in Harmony.

If you take advantage of Storyboard Pro 3D to do your pre-production, then you can also export directly to Harmony. Thiswill save you time in setting up your scenes, and it will even automatically import anyOSB files that you were working with inStoryboard Pro 3D.

Why would you want to do this?If less than 50% of your production is 3D, youmight want to consider this one. If you’re working on a hybrid project, wherecharacters are animated in 2D, and backgrounds, props, and/or vehicles are animated in 3D, then this could be a possiblesolution. You would not choose this option if you have characters, or other soft-surface deformation, in your 3D objects.

This is a good option when youwant the animators to be able to animate characters within a 3D environment. Because thecharacter is in the environment, you don’t have to worry about clipping issues that you would have if you were simplydrawing the character on top. Say, for example, you have a character sitting at a table. If part of the character is in front ofthe 3D object and part of it is behind it, you can simply draw it this way in Harmony . However, if you are compositing finalimage sequences instead of working with the original model, you would have to go through and painstakingly erase out theparts of the character that are behind the image sequence.

How does it work?There are a couple of different aspects of this pipeline to be aware of. There’s Phase 1, which takes place before anyrendering. Then there’s Phase 2, which is where the rendering occurs.

The real complication in this pipeline takes place during Phase 2. In order to preserve the quality of the render that wasachieved through the 3D software, we decided to simply use the 3D software. The way this works under the hood of thesoftware is that there is a scripting interface that allows Harmony to communicate withMaya throughMEL script. Beingable to communicate withMaya means that we can open a session of Maya Batch and render, which allows you to preservethe lighting, textures, and shading that were created in the original 3D file.



Each 3D software handles rendering differently, shaders differently, and scripting differently. For this reason, we havefocused on fine-tuning theMaya pipeline. If you are using other software, however, and would like us to consider yourpipeline, email [email protected] to let us know.

We do currently have some support using scripts for Pixie and 3Delight. Although pipelines for software other thanAutodesk Maya are not officially supported, there is a possibility to work with other technology.

So what do you need to know about this pipeline to make it work for you?

Preparing Your ModelsInMaya, you should create a separate scene file for each object that you would like to animate in Harmony. When youimport the object into Harmony, you will have the ability to move, rotate, and scale the object, and even animate thesetransformations over time. Each object must be its ownMaya file, however you can take advantage of Harmony’s hierarchyand peg tools to create rigs of Maya files to move them in unison.

Before you import into Harmony, you should also complete the lighting, texturing, and shading of your models. If you wantto create generic lighting for a Toon-shader look, then you can create some ambient lighting, and then parent the lights toyour model so theymove along with your model.



You can also make use of specific Toon shaders, like the Ramp Shader, to get a Toon-shaded look in the final render.However, these advanced shaders are not currently supported inOpenGL of Harmony, so it’s recommended to save twoversions of thesemodels; one with the Ramp Shaders intact for rendering, and onewith basic shaders like Lamberts forimporting into Harmony. They should both be exactly the same, apart from the shaders. The size and positioning of themodels should be the same.

If you are using Harmony 9, then you need to obtain the appropriate plug-in for your version of Maya, so you can export anOSB file format fromMaya to import into Harmony. Refer to the User Guide for more information on how to export yourmodel.

If you’re using Harmony 10, then you can simply export an FBX file for import into Harmony.

You need to also save your original .mb file, since this is the file that Maya will use to render the object during the renderphase.

Animating in HarmonyWhen you create a new Harmony file and import an FBX or OSBmodel, you can resize, reposition, and scale the object withthe Transform tool. Just make sure to turn on Enable 3D, following the instructions in the User Guide on how to manipulatethe 3D model.

During the Animation stage of your project, it’s not necessary for the animator to useMaya at all. They can import theobject, move it around, and create 2D layers to draw on, without needingMaya.

With Harmony 10, the animator can even export anOpenGL render of their animation on top of theOpenGL version of themodel, without needing to useMaya. This means that the only computers that needMaya on them are the ones that will dothe final render.



Setting up the Render PipelineThe render side of things requires some setup in order to get it fine-tuned. First, on themachine onwhich you want toperform the render, you should have both Harmony andMaya batch installed. Note that you only need a full version of Mayainstalled if you want to open your original Maya file and adjust themodel, lighting, or shaders.

In addition to having both softwares available on themachine, you also need to make sure that you have obtained a 3Dlicence from Toon Boom. Contact your sales rep, [email protected], or [email protected], to obtain thislicense. The 3D part of the license is included automatically with Harmony 10.

Next, you need to set up an environment variable in order to open up a communication port between Harmony andMaya.For instructions on how to set this up, refer to the User Guide. This process is a little more technical, so if you needassistance, don’t hesitate to contact [email protected]

For any objects that you’ve imported into your Harmony file, you need to also copy the original .mb file into the samelocation, so Harmony can find the file it needs to complete the render. The file should be renamed to match the name of theelement in your Harmony folder. You should also copy the texture files into this location as well. Follow the instructions inthe User Guide to copy these files correctly.

Now that you have both softwares installed on themachine, the right licenses, and you`ve opened up communicationbetween them, you’re ready to open Harmony. Open a scene file in which you’ve imported some 3D models. The next stepis to import into Harmony the script module that will tell Maya to render each 3D object. For more information on how toimport the script module, refer to the User Guide.

With the setup complete, you can test the render by clicking the Render View button to render the current frame. If all issuccessful, you will see the 2D and 3D objects rendered and composited together automatically.

If your 3D object does not render, it could be one of a couple things. First, if your 3D object does not show up at all, youmay not have your 3D licence installed. Second, if the 3D object shows up inOpenGL, but does not render, then there isprobably a problemwith the handshake between Harmony andMaya. Verify that you have both softwares on themachine,and that the environment variable is set up, and that you have imported the RenderMayaBatch script into your NetworkView according to the instructions in the User Guide. Finally, check to make sure that you have copied the original .mb fileand the textures into the elements directory of the object. If all else fails, contact [email protected] for furtherassistance.



System RequirementsBe aware that when you’re working with a pipeline that combines 2D and 3D rendering, your system requirements will behigher than they would be if you were just doing 2D alone. Make sure that you fulfill the system requirements for bothHarmony, as well as Maya system. It’s also recommended to test the pipeline on one system before deploying on a rendernetwork.

Setting up a Render NetworkJust like when you’re working with Harmony in 2D, you can also set up your project to render over the Render Network.There’s no additional setup necessary in terms of what you need to do in Control Centre, but be aware that you need toperform the setup to confirm the handshake between Harmony andMaya on each individual machine first to verify that itworks. When the pipeline works in Standalonemode, or at least in the Render View of eachmachine, then you can go aheadand render over the render network.

Working with Other PipelinesWe also have the ability to render through Pixie or 3Delight. So if you can export from your 3D using these scripts, then wecan investigate that pipeline with you. However it is highly recommended to work with theMaya pipeline, since this pipelinehas been thoroughly investigated and tested.

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