The VES Award-Winning Short Film Pittura
The annual Visual Effects Society Awards celebrate the best VFX of the past year in film, TV, games, commercial, and beyond. One of its highlights is the award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project, sponsored by Autodesk, which shines a light on the talents of the future and makes the best 3D software and animation software accessible.
Pittura: A Short Film Made at ArtFX
This year’s winners are the team behind Pittura, an ambitious and emotive short film that explores the relationship between humans and AI through the lens of art. Set in an alternative Renaissance period, Pittura brings together a talented painter fighting Parkinson’s disease and a robot striving for a new level of personal expression. The effects work includes scenes that are both epic and intimate.
The film was produced by a student team from ArtFX School of Digital Arts in France, which also produced last year’s winner. As part of our How We Made series, we asked Titouan Lassere, one of the team members, to tell us about the development and production of Pittura, and how it feels to have won a VES Award.
How We Made Pittura
How did you develop the concept for the film of traditional art meeting AI?
We started writing scenarios with the idea of a robot interacting with art, particularly painting, but it wasn’t until many drafts that we realized what we wanted to talk about was AI itself and its relationship to art. However, right from the start of the writing process, we had the idea of creating a memorable and original robot, detailed and complex, and a big city marked by the influence of art even in its streets.
How important was pre-production for this project, and did you use any new software or workflows?
Pre-production had to be done fairly quickly, due to time constraints, but it enabled us to test and experiment with techniques essential to our project, which redefined even the robot’s design. We also spent a lot of time thinking about the film’s different moods, as we wanted to create strong, evocative atmospheres. Adam did a lot of concept art to help define the color script.
What were the artistic influences that shaped the style of Pittura?
There have been many influences on the development of Pittura, the main inspiration for the robot was Alita: Battle Angel, and the city was inspired by Italian cities such as Venice, as well as Star Wars’ Naboo. One of our more unexpected inspirations was Alejandro Jodorowsky, particularly his Dune project. We really wanted to reproduce his creative freedom in our colors for the final sequence, as well as the robot’s paintwork.
How did you balance the needs of the storytelling with the desire to push the technical execution?
We first pushed our storyline around our theme before we even started designing anything, so that we could create our film according to what we wanted to tell. We developed all our art direction with the aim of bringing art face to face with our robot.
What VFX techniques and software did you use?
We decided to render on Houdini with Autodesk Arnold because we had a lot of elements directly on Houdini, like the procedural city, or the painting effects for example. [Read our best rendering software guide for more details.]
Did you need to create a unique pipeline or work in a new way?
As we were in a production situation, our class had two ITs (Elouan Rogliano and Angèle Sionneau) who were in charge of creating a pipeline, which enabled us to work properly with professional tools, to be monitored by our superiors, and to render our farm without a hitch.
What was the most complex shot you created?
The most complicated shot in our film is probably the end shot, with the contact between the robot and the actor. Giving that feeling is always a tricky thing to approach. On top of that, this shot brought together all the elements: keying, lighting, the robot, paint FX… Being the last shot, we had no room for error.
Were there any unique or experimental techniques you used for this film?
The most experimental technique we used was to animate our robot’s face. As we had no animators, we had to improvise. We used Live Link, which lets you motion-capture a face on an Apple device and transmit this data to Unreal Engine on a MetaHuman Character. We then exported the character’s facial rig, and after cleaning it up, we bound it to our robot’s face. This enabled us to play out all the robot’s reactions ourselves. [Read how River End Games made use of MetaHuman Character too.]
What lessons did you learn from this project?
This project has taught us a lot, both humanly and artistically. Communication between all the members was essential, and we also saw the importance of being pragmatic and going for the essential. We had no time to fall behind. Films always need to be released, and we always want to keep pushing them, so there are obviously things in our short film like FX, animation, compositing, and even shots that had to be cut out of feasibility.
How does it feel to be a VES winner?
Honestly, it’s quite incredible. Even if we had created our group with the desire to win them, it was still an impossible dream, we were wrong. When we found out we’d won, it took us a long time to realize it, right up to the moment of the prize-giving. That’s when you realize how lucky you are to work in this industry. To be surrounded by so many passionate, caring people… it’s a magical feeling.
Conclusion
Pittura is a testament to the creativity and technical expertise of the next generation of VFX artists. The team’s innovative use of software and techniques has resulted in a stunning short film that showcases the possibilities of AI and art. We are excited to see what the future holds for these talented individuals and the industry as a whole.
FAQs
Q: What was the main inspiration for the robot’s design?
A: The main inspiration for the robot’s design was Alita: Battle Angel.
Q: What was the most challenging part of the production process?
A: The most challenging part of the production process was balancing the needs of the storytelling with the desire to push the technical execution.
Q: What software did you use for rendering?
A: We used Houdini with Autodesk Arnold for rendering.
Q: How did you animate the robot’s face?
A: We used Live Link to motion-capture the face on an Apple device and transmit it to Unreal Engine on a MetaHuman Character.
