first french 3D movie...

[goodlag]

:buttrock:

[Mahlon]

Pascal,
Do you know what renderer they used for Kaena? Or combination thereof? I remember it was done in 3ds max, but I wasn't sure they used the scanline. Looks very well rendered and the animation looks good too. Hope it will get exposure in the States when it's released. Congratulations.

Mahlon

[BrandonD]

It's funny how often that question comes up when people see good work done with MAX - "what renderer did they use?" The scanline renderer is far from perfect, but in the right hands it's very capable across the board. All of Blizzard's stuff up to now has been with the default scanline renderer, same with Blur and several film projects I've worked on.

However, when you push it to the limit and need to go further, there's always VRay, Brazil, PRman, Mental Ray, etc. Options are nice.

[wgreenlee1]

Friggin awesome!:wip:

[lildragon]

hmm can't reach the site :hmm:

[krisr]

This movie has been in the works for years! I remember seeing some preliminary CG shots like two years ago in CGW magazine when it was still called "Axis".

[timsvw]

I love it. Can't wait for it to come out. Hopfully there will be a english sub title released in the states.

-Tim

[asparapani]

They used the standard Max render. Pretty awesome and impressive eh?:bounce:

[asparapani]

I agree with Brando. He's absolutley right. Max has always had a competitive render that has been unfortunaly downplayed because of it's reputation of being a " gaming software" and NOT up to par with Soft or Maya. In fact AliasWavefront has always stuggled to get a nice render out of there package.

In my opinion Maya ranks 3rd among the Soft,Maya,Max category. I don't want this turning into a render debate thread so I'll kill it here.:thumbsup:

[stickyblue]

yea forget about the software for a while , this looks really amazing , i cant wait to see it

:buttrock:

[The Magic Pen]

Only in french ?? :thumbsdow ...gallery images look good :thumbsup:

[emilioG]

hey guys, finally!

hee hee. I was an anim lead too... And did the dynamics for the hair. yay!

Yeah baby!

Props to Thomas marque. head FX. This guy will blow your socks off... an so will this movie!

:xtreme:

[lildragon]

uh I can't read french, someone help! :D

-lil

[lildragon]

Ah found some animations, looks pretty slick. Some lip sync issues but still quite nice. ;)

salud

[FClub_TDurden]

Is this going to be released in the US atall in theatres? or will it be a european theatre release with video release in US?

other then that looks pretty good....only complaint would that they seemed more interested in lighting and showing off there nice sets then the characters...

[xzevlin]

They have some pretty big name stars doing the english dub, so I think it'll come out in theatres in North America. Kirsten Dunst as Kaena, Richard Harris as Opaz, Anjelica Huston as the Queen of the Selenites

I have been looking forward to seeing this movie for soooo long. My very first rejection letter came from the studio in Montreal that was working on it. I was hoping they'd at least hire me to wash coffee mugs so that I could watch it being made.

[Mahlon]

Originally posted by asparapani
I agree with Brando. He's absolutley right. Max has always had a competitive render that has been unfortunaly downplayed because of it's reputation of being a " gaming software" and NOT up to par with Soft or Maya. In fact AliasWavefront has always stuggled to get a nice render out of there package.

In my opinion Maya ranks 3rd among the Soft,Maya,Max category. I don't want this turning into a render debate thread so I'll kill it here.:thumbsup:

Dudes, I know what max's renderer is capable of. I was just asking if Kaena used a third party renderer, not commenting on the validity or prowess of max's scanline.

:beer:

Mahlon

[emilioG]

dragon: the lipsynch was actually done in english. hat's why the fench version will have lipsynch problems. nothing to worry about.

kaena: Kirsten Dunst
Opaz: Richard Harris
Queen: Anjelica Houston

:)

[emilioG]

if you wanna watch the trailer, when you enter the site, go click on "bande annonce", bottom left. That'll be the trailer.:scream:

[pascal_blanche]

Originally posted by lildragon
Ah found some animations, looks pretty slick. Some lip sync issues but still quite nice. ;)

salud

lipsincs where based on English language :P

...hhmm oops emilio did already said the same ...

did you manage to reach the trailer? english version site is on its way...

the render is all scanline.. no extra renderers added

[tomaya]

eh eh! hi guys!

that's realy cool to see all these lines,how do you do pascal?
and emilio?...
You don't know people, that these guys are 3d warriors???!!!

I really hope you enjoy this movie... ...five years of battle...

see you and thanks

Thomas Marqué. fx lead .Kaena

[emilioG]

THOMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSS!!!

I miss you man! Quoi de neuf?


sorry everyone for the personal note there...:p

[lildragon]

Originally posted by pascal blanché
lipsincs where based on English language :P



Ya know, after awhile I kinda clued in on that, I was saying to myself this is like a bad chinese film :p heheh loved the entire thing tho, may I ask how come it was dubbed in french if it's a french film? :curious: And yes found the trailer ;)

salud

[asparapani]

I think everyone hopes that there will be a north american release. For one it's a nice all around product that's not an american style story (i mean cute characters)which is refreshing once in a while. i hope it comes out in Canada for that matter. I know TVA had distribution rights, but when chaman went the way of the dodo, i think that arrangement went bottoms up.

I just hope the coming sanctions against france by the us government in relation to the Iraq invasion won't compromise the chances of this film's release.

It realy is a cool little feature with potential. All it needs is an audience...:bounce:

[tomaya]

eemiiiilio!!

everythings 'ok! I'm working on the movie poster and press things
for kaena.We're waiting for the launch (june 4) and it's hard to wait...
So happy to hear you again emilio!you're the best!
anyway,here it's time to sleep,i'm dead.see you tomorow,this
forum looks great and if someone have questions about Kaena
,i'll be there!... ...always.



PS:Kaena is fully rendered with scanline ,the fastest, but try
Vray it's a bomb!

Thomas

[AnimBot]

Very cool I really like the latest trailer. I've been waiting a long time to check out this film. Pascal do you know why the main character's hair was changed. It used to be dreadlocks which I thought showed a little more personality in the design. Either way it still looks fantastic great job.
Here are some pics of the old character.
http://traviscameron.com/ForumJunk/frenchfeature.jpg
http://traviscameron.com/ForumJunk/gainaassise.jpg

Here's the newer one.
http://traviscameron.com/ForumJunk/kaena_chaman.jpg

[Chewey]

Looks really interesting. I have to admit I find the female character's oddly prominent forehead a bit unattractive.
:thumbsup:

[emilioG]

Since I did/helped shape her hair (the long hair and the 2 ties), I feel I can comment here. Thomas, feel free to add to this... when you wake up! :D

Here's what I was told by the "higher" people: her hair has changed because some investors didn't like the fact that she had a "rasta" look. I won't say who they are 'cause it's not important.

Also, her hair isn't tied up at a certain point in the movie, which would caused some "look" problems I figure. Now she has a nice full set of hair, and if you look closely with the right lighting, with the help of Thomas' shader, I put in some streaks! Hee hee!

I DO NOT want to take full credit for this, far from it. It was the work of many to get it right, and I think we got it nice! The french have an unbelievable talent base, it's a shame we don't see it enough. :xtreme:

Anyway, anyone with prod knows this stuff always happens. But it's ok, Kaena's still a cutie/badass/gorgeous/sweet girl!
:D

[AnimBot]

emilioG thanks for clearing that up. I just realized I should have asked you since you worked on the hair. Like I said I do like the dreads but I think you guys did an amazing job with the her hair that's there.
The french have an unbelievable talent base, it's a shame we don't see it enough.
I couldn't agree with you more. That's one great thing about having this international site we get the heads up on beautiful work like this from around the world, that we normally might not have access to. Again congrats on the film and I can't wait to finally see it.

[Mahlon]

Originally posted by pascal blanché
...the render is all scanline.. no extra renderers added

Thanks for the info. I think the rendering looks fantastic. Any chance you guys that worked on it could talk about your personal experience in the production a little. I've always remembered the presentation at SIGGRAPH in L.A. (first time I'd heard about Kaena) and was very impressed in this kind of project.

Mahlon

[fango]

we got it nice! The french have an unbelievable talent base, it's a shame we don't see it enough

about time kaena is released, prepro started what, in 2000 ? i heard the studio had some difficulties getting this baby out and i' m glad we see in theatres CG movies from other countries. I hope kaena does well at the box office, maybe movies industries from other countries than the US will start investing in these kind of flicks (kaena really fought her way bare knuckles to the movie theatres :) )

felicitations a toute l'equipe, c'est un grand jour pour vous :)

[pascal_blanche]

Originally posted by AnimBot
[B] Pascal do you know why the main character's hair was changed?


Well, there's not just the hairs if you look carefully.. in fact the main character(kaena) changed four times during the prod :p
They changed the hairs for some political/taste opinions of some sponsors.. you know, guys with money and no taste... :shrug:
I did like the old one a little more too...

[britney]

first french 3D movie... :thumbsup:

and to the rest og you :wavey:

[dirkusrhombas]

Ceci paraît fantastique n'importe quelle idée quand son gonna reçoit à uk dans anglais? :applause:

[circle frame]

kanske du skulle lära dig något annat language

[tomaya]

There is another reason why i 've chosen this type of hairs,
i've made a lots of tests six years ago with shag-hair,and it was
for me the best solution to have a good looking for this type
of effects.Even if at this time the demos at digimation were really
bad...
The big problem was the dynamics calculations.I've found the
solution with simcloth,a free plug for max ,very fine...



tom

[RedSilas]

Man... this looks really sweet! The liquid dynamics are crazy! I can't wait to see it! Does anyone know how much actual animation there is in this because it seems like they relied heavily on Mocap.:buttrock: :buttrock:

[emilioG]

I rest my case about Thomas being a badass!

yeah baby! you go boy!
:xtreme:

mahlon: my time on kaena was: F**king amazing. End of story. People like Thomas, Patrick Bonneau, Chris DeLaporte are hard to find man. And for the Canadian team, well, some are my best friends, how could I not have fun there! Best project I've ever worked on.

[emilioG]

barely any mocap. thick crowds are mocaped, that's it. Guys getting mocaped are Yannick Leblanc, Mathieu Dimuro and... me! hihihi!

[tomaya]

eh eh! just keyframe just key-frame,the old style!
And realflow the spanish bomba for the fluids...

see you emilio and you guys,here in france i'm going to bed
(i'm not so old but working so hard.yep!)

Nice to talk with you

Tom:beer:

[Chong]

I had soooo much fun animating on Kaena.
One of the best projects I worked on too. I can't speak for the France team, but the environment in Montreal set my standard for awesome workplaces.

I just wanna congratulate everyone on this board that worked on it, I can't wait to see it.

[pascal_blanche]

Originally posted by tomaya
eh eh! hi guys!

that's realy cool to see all these lines,how do you do pascal?
and emilio?...
You don't know people, that these guys are 3d warriors???!!!

I really hope you enjoy this movie... ...five years of battle...

see you and thanks

Thomas Marqué. fx lead .Kaena

hheheh heya Thomas! Sorry I missed your post! how are you doing? La ptite famille chaman se porte bien? tu bosses ou maintenant?
thx for the 3D warrior surname buddy, same to you ;)
You should share a little bit more your talent with the community, you rock :beer:
take care and say hi to the gang!

[pomme]

the animation looks very keyframed

[pomme]

but the movie looks good though

[AnimBot]

Which animation house do you guys work for in the montreal area?

[asparapani]

The animation department doesn't exist anymore. They got rid of us when the contract was over. It's a shame too, because we were a very talented bunch.

[3dean]

hey

looks freakin' great.

can anyone comment on what the final budget and timeframe were?

dying to know!

later

dean

[emilioG]

last I checked it was... well, let's say MUCH, MUCH less that Final Fantasy.

;)

[3dean]

that's a pretty big range.

above $10 mill? or over?

later

dean

[janhath]

Looks real nice.Some lip sync issues.But really interesting style and design.:beer:

[tomaya]

hi you all,salut pascal ici tout va bien (hi pascal,here all is ok) on
bosse sur les images de promo (working on pictures for the
promotion of the movie)...
How does it cost ?... ...13M$ for all.

see you

tom

[Airflow]

can someone please post a direct direct link to the new trailer, as I just get a blank french screen....:shrug: :bounce:

[tomaya]

http://www.kaena.lycos.fr/

tom

[pascal_blanche]

Originally posted by 3dean
that's a pretty big range.

above $10 mill? or over?

later

dean

something like E15 mill (euros :P)

the project started before the release of first full cg movie (toys story) and started with a few talented guys.. The movie started over almost three times so lets say that the real production cost half of the budget.. There is a real opportunity here... Even if the quality doesnt reach the bests cg blockbusters, it shows that it's possible to create quality with low budget.. hope to see more movies like this in the future

[-JT-]

It looks really promising ! :bounce:
A bit too dark from time to time, let's hope it's clearer in the theaters.

Anyway :beer:

[kid tripod]

Fine achievement, but it looks incredibly generic. People need to experiment more, rather than simply try to make live action adventure/sci-fi films on a budget.

Magic Roundabout looks like being the first good French all CG movie.

[KOBALT_KORE]

Wow :eek:

I can't get most of what they're saying - but the visuals are amazing! :thumbsup:

[cutepixie]

Way to go French :thumbsup:

may this be a promising cg movie for them :D

[Biohazard]

That's so heart warming to see this old project coming to life !!
Simcloth!! RFlow!! Afterburner!! Shag!! Mixing so many unstable plugz is a miracle. Hey, even clothreyes to explode a spaceship !! (do you remember your demo Thomas ? sure you don't, but I do ;) ) ...

Following some of the crits, the shoots seems to be under-lightened, or else, lightened in an uncommon way (compared to a movie set)... Lack of visibility ? I can't wait to watch it at Montreal.

Great job !!

[Joril]

That's really nice, I always like the way the French language spices up those films.
Great atmosphere!

[asparapani]

There are some shots towards the end that WIL BE CENSORED for a north american audience. It's too bad 'cause she looks hot!

[eliseu gouveia]

Originally posted by asparapani
There are some shots towards the end that WIL BE CENSORED for a north american audience. It's too bad 'cause she looks hot!

Damn puritans...:rolleyes:

[xzevlin]

Originally posted by kid tripod
Fine achievement, but it looks incredibly generic.


What films have a similar visual style for you to categorize this as generic?

[tomaya]

hi you all guys

i'm so, so, happy to read all those things about kaena
it was a really big adventure to do it.and about the main
character: sorry buddy but she's hot! She's like this...young,
hot and wild.

Happy to hear you gwen!...thanks.

thomas (fx lead on kaena):beer:

[emilioG]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by kid tripod
Fine achievement, but it looks incredibly generic.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once you see the movie, you'll retract that comment, I promise. :)


Thomas: fawk I miss you guys! :beer: mais ou est Patrick(anim dir)!?!? I'm gonna email him and tell him to get on. :applause:


Censorship: might not happen, depends. I've noticed that censorship has gone down in the past 3-4 years, BIGTIME, so who knows. Cross your fingers they don't!
:xtreme:

[tomaya]

eh hi emilio,i don't know where he is now but he 's back to usa
at dreamworks working on shrek2,you know... ...he's a
big star! He's the one who bring sebulba to life in starwars!(if
he can read those lines ,he knows that i'm jokin).

See you on Kaena2 ok?Big work to do...

Tom:beer:

[kid tripod]

Originally posted by xzevlin
What films have a similar visual style for you to categorize this as generic?

Looks a bit sci-fi/fantasy, say Dune-esque/Stargate-ish or even (although this is too favourable) Nausicaa and Moebius leanings.

Sorry, its been done before, and better. Don't waste the medium re-covering old ground, use your imagination dammit! In fact, doesn't she bare the most striking resemblance to the old slayer that appears in one episode of Buffy? Cross that with the wierd Kingfisher thing that Pepper's Ghost were doing and it really does come off as what everyone else is doing as well.

Ironically there's an article from the early 1990s which quotes someone at ILM as saying as regards CG "photorealism is a waste of the medium - if you want that kind of thing get a camera", and whilst they have clearly changed their minds, I've actually swung round to their way of thinking.

I'm not bashing for the sake of it, but why make a film that looks exactly like what every studio except Pixar PDI and Blue Sky seem to be making? I'll be impressed by the first one not to involve space, sci-fi or elves.

[Chewey]

You might want to consider downplaying that made in france aspect of the movie when marketing it in the states. There is a pretty strong boycott french product sentiment lately.

[xzevlin]

I have seen roughly 15 minutes of footage from this film from the 4 or 5 trailers I've managed to get a peak at over the past few years, and it looks absolutely like nothing I've seen on screen before. Plotwise, I can see how the comparison can be made to Stargate from the tiny bits of the story revealed in the trailer, but visually it's a completely different beast. Take a look at the extraits section of the site, and you'll see a few clips that reveal the look of the world a little more.

It's also not a photoreal film, unless your criteria for calling something photoreal is volumetric lighting and people not looking like cartoons. There is heavy stylization of all the characters, especially the non-human characters.


Originally posted by kid tripod

I'm not bashing for the sake of it, but why make a film that looks exactly like what every studio except Pixar PDI and Blue Sky seem to be making? I'll be impressed by the first one not to involve space, sci-fi or elves.

Well why make animated films full of cute cartoony characters in ridiculous situations? Why not do something that isn't the typical american animated film? Why does everything have to appeal to children and have lots of colours?

[pascal_blanche]

Originally posted by tomaya
working on pictures for the
promotion of the movie

hehehe jme disais aussi.. la page de garde du site est grave belle, dommage que Vray ou qu'importe le moteur GI que tu utilises ne soit sorti plus tot... pour Axis2 ptetre?(si vous me prenez pas dans la prod jvous coupe en cube) en tout cas chapeau pour le beau boulot sur l'ecorce! (et la aussi jvais pas faire mon couplet sur les regrets quand a certains choix artistiques, jme tais jme tais ;) ) bravo encore pour avoir reussi a boucler ce premier volet, ca fait chaud au coeur!
emilio, bro, we HAVE TO make something special here at montreal with all the gang (and the whole bunch of cg guys and girls at Montreal ) for of the movie!

[PascalR]

Hi all!

Just a little word to thank every modelers who worked with me on Kaena.(if any of them read this,well done guys)
Don't be too hard on this film, this is a first cg french movie,we have all learned a lot while doing it , and still have much to learn.

Congrats to EVERY 2d and 3d artists who worked hard on this project even if things were not always easy during those last 6 years.


:beer:

Pascal R.

my website (http://www.3dluvr.com/pascalr)

[emilioG]

I'm working on it. MC and I are gonna organize something for sure, we're just waiting for a fawking date damn it! heheh.

Tom: Kaena2? I'm moving to paris! J'ai l'email a Pat. I just emailed him and gave him the link, he should get in soon. For those who don't know, Pat was the anim Dir on Kaena.

Kid Tripod: dude, I don't know what tio tel you. I find you'rebeing a bit harsh. It's VERY easy to say that a movie/character/story looks like something else. We ALL know that. This is a HUGE achievement for alot of us. If you think the way you do, then Shrek wasn't so great either. Pixar has a formula that's applied for ALL it's movies... C'mon man.

It's easy to compare ANY movie to any other. Don't think like that, you'r missing out on alot of good/fun stuff. ;)

Later!:xtreme:

[tomaya]

hi you all

Completely agree with zegritch,don't be too hard...
It's up to me to thanks all the people who've worked on this,
it was so hard sometimes,no money, no money!...How can we
do it?... ....done!

Yes pascal i'm sure that's hdri and gi are 3D future,these solutions are so amazing , easy and ship now! I'm working on it...

tom

[tomaya]

The english version of the site is available ! :beer:

see you

tom

[Soubibi]

:bounce:
Congratulation to Thomas and Emilio of Chaman.

Really good job, at last the movie will be out soon. Hope to see you in new adventures....

See you soon,
Stephane.

[tomaya]

oooooh putaing!,stephanoooooooo!coquin de sort!
it's so nice to see you there!For the people who don't know him
"soubibi" was THE specialist for a lot's of smoke effects on kaina
and so much things in dynamics,he was on the project since
nearly the begenning!eh! eh!

see you soon
Tom:beer:

[pyrou]

Congratulations to Thomas and Elrik!

Apart from they are very nice guys, they are great using Realflow!

Simply amazing! :applause:

All the best!

Fernando
Next Limit

[tomaya]

hi fernando! Nice to see you here,thanks for your support
all along these years,Realflow and realwave are really on
top now:applause:
Muchas gracias to the nextlimit team!

:beer:
tom

[Gretsch]

Good job. I like the look and color palette.

Can somebody give me a breakdown of the company that did this? Where? How large? I see a lot was done in Canada. Sister Company or farmed out?

Hopefully it will make it's way to the states, or I'll just catch it in Europe. Congrats again! :)

[tomaya]

ok guys!...

everything 've been done in france,exept 70 % of the
animation.The firm which did that was called "Chaman",after
a crash in april 2002 "Xilam production" was the only one
who "saved" this project,it was just a money problem...then...

see you
Tom:shrug: :scream:

[tomaya]

I forgot to say that the canadian team has done a
superb work on character animation...bravo!

T:bounce:

[emilioG]

yay! Thomas, grosses bises! lol

For the record, Phil Giles was our lead. Very, very cool guy.
Tom, any news on a US/Canada release?

A+
lates!
:applause:

[feefunk]

Originally posted by Gretsch

Can somebody give me a breakdown of the company that did this? Where? How large? I see a lot was done in Canada. Sister Company or farmed out?



Can't give you a breakdown of the production, but the Character Animation (don't know if all of it) was handled by the now defunct TVA International in Montreal.

check out this link (http://www.telefilm.gc.ca/data/production/prod_838.asp?lang=en&c=1)

[MGernot]

There`s an article at CGW.PeNNNet.com about the production
of Kaena.

Check it out:

http://cgw.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=Articles&Subsection=Display&ARTICLE_ID=174585

[PhilOsirus]

French-canadians is a safe bet hehe

Edit: Oh and I wanted to add that the sad thing is I am still doubtfull about the audience's reception. Just like FF, if it does not attract kids it will be difficult to be a hit at all.

The only way FF could have been a big hit is if it had been like Final Fantasy IX, with the very realisticly modeled/textured characters but with their cartoon and young look.

I hope it succeeds tho. Good luck all and keep up the great work!:applause:

[tomaya]

hi!

Emilio!I'm sorry buddy,i really don't know for the us and canadian releases...even chris(dir) doesn't know enything!
And to answer "osirus", it's like every others movies,it could have a good or a very bad audience,who knows?:shrug: :hmm:

Anyway,it's exiting!
See you folks:beer: :beer:

T

[Saturn]

the bad thing in kaena is that tom don't play quake anymore and Emilio was humiliated by "Raymond" :D

bizz

harry.

[tomaya]

Yes i know... ...waiting for doomIII!

:shrug:

I have a question for the canadian team : Can you get
some informations about the release of Kaena in your
country ?! Here , it's a shame:annoyed: Nobody can
answer me!

see you soon guys:beer:
tom

[emilioG]

hi Tom! We can't either... MC doesn't know, I don't know... ugh! Pascal?

[DAREONER]

heyyy happy to see a forum on kaena ,thanks pascal !
I espere that all the world will appreciate this film .

thomas : J ai hate de voir tes tests , je passerai vous voir un de ces 4

[tomaya]

hi emilio!
ok i'll try to find something here...
see you
Tom

[tomaya]

eh!eh! hi dare, cool to see you there !:scream:
See you soon buddy:beer:

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