Netflix’s Super Giant Real Time Animation Allows For Discovery And Play

Super Giant Robot Brothers! on NetflixNFLX
is about two giant robot brothers who, in the future, defend the Earth from an evil intergalactic empire. But the real story is about how the show was made. The Netflix production is one of the first animated series to be rendered entirely in real-time using Unreal Engine, one of the most popular 3D computer graphics game engines. This groundbreaking approach applies virtual production techniques—including motion capture and virtual camera blocking of characters and actions—to animation.

Essentially, this process—demo’d by Mouse Guard, a canceled animated film that was pioneering animation technology— allows the animators to inject a live action sensibility—and process—into the animation workflow. It also allowed Director Mark Andrews, who was in the Bay Area, and his editing team in Dallas to work together with no latency (thanks largely to Evercast, a real-time remote workflow collaboration platform). At the end of the day, Super Giant Robot Brothers looks like an animated series, but don’t be fooled: there are some key differences beneath the surface.

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“What we loved about [using real time animation] was the idea of shooting an animated series like it’s live action,” says Producer Paul Fleschner at the 2022 MicrosoftMSFT
Production Summit in Los Angeles.

What he means is, by using Unreal Engine, the world of the animated series exists in three dimensions the same way that the real world does. This allows a camera to move through it like a camera capturing filmed content, contrasting the traditional animation process, which has animators building the storyworld cel by cel, frame by frame. In the traditional method, the animation team needs to know the shot they want so they can work toward it. With real time animation, the animation team has the luxury of being able to find it.

As Andrew confirms, “The biggest thing that virtual production allows us to do is to be really playful.” One day on set, a team member reported, Andrews just picked up some props and thought, “Can you put one of the characters on this?” And then they did. Then, all the sudden, they have footage— from wide shots to close ups— just like the post-production team of a filmed show, only animated and without having to draw any of them.

“I get all of the things an editor needs to do creative editorial and have fun and play,” says Editor Chris Collins of Reel FX.

Corinne Gibeault, Animation Lead of Reel FX, is in complete agreement. “We actually get to make decisions and choices. And the mocap is there to help … You’re like well, I’m not sure what to do for this shot. You go okay, well, I have all this information, and it saves so much time and effort.”

DIFFERENT MINDSET

This technology has been around for a while—and continues to improve—but it’s not new. As Fleschner points out, ”What we’re doing is not suddenly just possible in the last six months. It’s more about getting people that haven’t been exposed to live action VFX and have only done animation for 20 years, getting them familiar with call sheets, right? It’s very, it’s a very, very different mindset.”

The bottom line is, even with the extant technology, there’s a process of pulling together a team that knows how to use it in the context of animation. “There’s a lot of people that have worked in different silos,” explains Fleschner, “having to kind of learn a different way of thinking.”

And it’s not just thinking that needs to be different. This process also requires new tools and pipelines. The Super Giant Robot Brothers team custom built many of both, often under time pressure. As Fleschner puts it, “The only way that pipelines really get built is when we have something to do them on.”

And as for tools, it’s no secret that necessity is the mother of invention.

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While real time animation presents a learning curve for veterans of the animation industry, it also provides access and opportunity for outsiders—a tool for democratization–if you will. “It’s a strange dynamic of, yes, we’re democratizing, everyone can do it. We want everyone to have an opportunity,” says Fleschner. “But if we put the tools in the hands of everyone, what are the mechanisms to find [the top talent]? Like what are the mechanisms so that we can be held in the hands of strong storytellers?”

This is a valid concern, though one might argue that everyone has always had access to the tools of animation: pen and ink. Perhaps the real game changer isn’t just the real time engine, but the real time distribution and wide-open platforms with reach that everyone can access.

REAL IMPACT … OVER TIME

Fleschner points out that Super Giant Robot Brothers is really doing two things: “There’s the show itself, which we care tremendously about … and then there’s the way that we’re making it, which is this live action infusion, kind of colliding with animation.”

Real time animation has the potential to be the next generation of animation. After all, rapid technological innovation has been key in the animation space since Disney’s pioneering beginnings. It remains to be seen what effect the differences in capabilities, mindset, and talent pool have both behind the scenes and while watching them.

That being said, Fleschner is bullish on the technology. “This process supports the story in a visual context and way that I’ve never seen before. This filmmaking team can live inside the story.”

Real-time animation technology not only takes Walt Disney’sDIS
quest for lifelike animation to the next level, it also allows for spontaneity in animation. This has the potential to unlock a new era of play and discovery in the animation space.