Discover how pioneering CG short Construct was created
Creators called Construct, Kevin Margo’s sci-fi short, a film that could “start a VFX revolution”. CNET called it “mind-blowing”. And next Thursday, 1 November, visitors to Gnomon will be able to discover why.
At Deconstructing Construct, a free evening event at the school’s Hollywood campus, the Blur Studio VFX supervisor and other key artists from the project will explore Construct’s innovations in virtual film-making.
Discover how Construct pioneered new real-time ray tracing and virtual production workflows
On its release in 2014, the teaser for Construct made headlines in the technology press for its pioneering real-time film-making workflow.
With its story of an android construction worker forced to fight for his life when he stumbles on gangsters disposing of a body, Construct is a human drama played out by a cast of machines.
Its creators also transferred film-making workflows from the real to the artificial world, using an R&D build of V-Ray for MotionBuilder to render virtual camera shots of its CG environments in real time.
“Everybody wanted to know what [live-action] camera I was using,” said Margo. “When in reality, our team was just churning out well-lit, photoreal CG backgrounds using ‘natural light’ and V-Ray.”
The finished short expands that workflow across 210 full-CG shots, with the final renders being generated in V-Ray for 3ds Max, partly via Chaos Group’s new V-Ray Cloud rendering platform.
The work was completed by over 75 artists, ranging from staff at Blur Studio to Liam Neeson’s stunt double.
At Deconstructing Construct, Margo and four of those artists – including animation and layout supervisor Derron Ross and lead character modeller Alessandro Baldasseroni – will discuss how Construct was made.
The presentation will be “peppered with behind-the-scenes videos and outtakes”, and cover the team’s collaborations with Chaos Group, Nvidia, Google and legendary 2001 special effects creator Doug Trumbull.
Free to attend, but register online in advance
Deconstructing Construct takes place at Gnomon’s Hollywood campus from 7.30-10.00pm on Thursday 1 November 2018. Entry is free, but you’ll need to register online in advance.
If you can’t make it in person, the event is being streamed on Gnomon’s Twitch channel. You don’t need to register to watch it online, and can ask questions via Twitch chat or Twitter using the hashtag #Gnomon.
Read more about the Deconstructing Construct event on Gnomon’s website
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