Bringing a Monster From The Yinyang Master to Life
Tau Films Client-Side Animation Director, CJ Sarachene, discusses the art of directing a global animation crew through the COVID-19 pandemic for Weiran Li’s, The Yinyang Master (2021).
Tell us about how the animation crew met their quotas despite the pandemic?
Having studios all working remotely was a challenge for this film, in addition to bridging the language difference with our Director, Weiran Li. During the heat of VFX production on The Yinyang Master (because of COVID-19) we had to go on lockdown, forcing everyone to work remotely. Fortunately, Tau had a remote studio pipeline already set up as part of their working paradigm. This allowed for a smooth transition for all artists to work remotely from home, and kept the iterations going allowing for higher quality of work to be completed from Tau.
The Yinyang Master (2021)
How did the Team achieve the lip-sync of the monster character, Port Master, despite not all being native speakers of Chinese?
The one speaking animated character, Port Master, was dubbed in post after all animation was complete. In Chinese films, most dialog is ADR (automated dialogue replacement). This film was no exception, even with the only speaking VFX Monster, (Port Master). We knew fairly early on that no matter how close we got the lip sync, some, if not most of the dialog, would be adjusted causing our animation to be a bit off. So, we concentrated on overall body performance, and kept the lip sync as close as possible to the approved live-action performance (which would later be dubbed).
Similar to most dialog performance shots in VFX, we filmed the live-action actor performing his dialog, before animating him using multiple cameras for reference. Front, side, and close-up cameras were utilized to try to nail down the proper lip shapes. We also had these performances translated from Chinese to English, so we could further define the emotions needed. The Director, Weiran Li, discussed his thoughts on the live-action actor’s performance, and added any additional video performance during our dailies sessions. Thus, having immediate visual reference from the Director shared via weChat, and uploaded to Autodesk Shotgun, enabled our animators to see, first hand, what nuances of performances the Director wanted.
The Yinyang Master (2021)
Any comment on the workflows used by the animation crew on The Yinyang Master?
We used the same tried and true animation techniques: performance on set as reference, post- recorded reference, and online animal reference.
-Interview by Ming Qiu
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The Yinyang Master (2021) on IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12151820/
The Yinyang Master (2021) on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/title/81403965/
Behind The Scenes-Tau Films https://vimeo.com/showcase/8229569
About Tau Films, LLC (2021)
Tau Films is an international creative content and visual effects group formed by a diverse team of exceptional artists, technologists, and visionaries. We are known for creative solutions in an ever-changing landscape of story, media and content, and we service high-end feature film, theme park, commercial, television, special venue, and museum clients in the global marketplace.