Automated 3D pre-vis for modern production

Hand-drawn storyboards have served the industry for decades and in recent years artist-created digital pre-vis animations have allowed directors, screenwriters and commissioners to 'see' their film long before the first scene is shot. However the nature of programmemaking is changing. Digital effects, mixed-reality production and now stereoscopic 3D are becoming mainstream. Blurring the distinction between production and post-production, they bring complex planning issues that leave linear pre-vis approaches wanting. This paper describes ANSWER, a new approach to the creative process of film production based on a symbolic notation system akin to a musical score. The notation populates a machine-processable semantic model, or ontology, of the director's creative intent, which in turn is used to automatically create lightweight 3D pre-vis animations. ANSWER is also integrated with DFT BONES Dailies, so that in post-production editors can quickly synchronise and compare pre-vised and actual footage.