"With A Twist recently collaborated with Imaginary Forces (IF) and DreamWorks Pictures on a teaser trailer for Transformers, the upcoming Michael Bay blockbuster about a race of alien robots that menaces the Earth.

The computer animation and visual effects studio performed CG work for a spectacular title reveal featured in the trailer where ?Transformers? is rendered as giant, 3D metal characters floating in space. The characters undergo rapid, dynamic transformations, turning first into the film?s release date, ?7.4.7? and then into the robot?s brooding shield. Imaginary Forces designed, modeled and animated the title reveal. With A Twist handled lighting, texturing and rendering. ?This is the first taste that Transformers fans will get of the new movie,? explained Imaginary Forces Art Director Sean Koriakin, ?so we had give them a sense of what the new Transformers will look like and how they will move without actually showing them.?

The title reveal and transformations, though brief, are exceedingly complex. The sequence begins with the camera flying through the ?O? in ?Transformers? as other letters assemble themselves from thousands of component parts. The dynamism and ominous tone of the sequence is enhanced by the rich textures and lighting effects applied to the characters by With A Twist, which make them appear to be wrought from weathered and battle-damaged metal.

With A Twist employed a team of CG artists to apply color, texture and lighting to each of the thousands of elements that make up the title. ?Lighting was especially challenging,? noted With A Twist Visual Effects Supervisor David Burton. ?Light, of course, doesn?t really exist in space, so it is tricky to make an object appear to be sitting in space while highlighting its details.? Burton added that With A Twist?s large render farm aided in the process of finding the right look as it allowed the studio to quickly produce test renders for client review.

Koriakin said noted that IF had previously worked with With A Twist on a commercial campaign for Pontiac and had confidence in their ability to deliver photo-real CG elements quickly. ?We knew that they could render metal textures,? he recalled. ?We had references for them, but they had to create a lot of the textures themselves. The results were very believeable, very real. The stuff they did was amazing.?

The amount of detail involved in the title was staggering. ?There were thousands of individual objects in each scene,? recalled Brandon Bartlett, Project Leader for With A Twist. ?Each layer was made up of multiple panels and there were mechanical elements, such as small, hydraulic arms, in each letter that were involved in the intricate construction process.?

The project involved several unique technical hurdles. One challenge arose out of the difference between the software used by IF (Maya) and the software employed by With A Twist (3D Studio Max). ?Typically, we would use an FBX plug-in to import Maya files, but in this instance, the animation was far too large and complex,? explained Burton. ?Instead, we created our own translation pipeline to convert the Maya files to a Max format.?

Additionally, the project was complicated by an exceedingly tight schedule. With A Twist had less than two weeks to complete its task, including rendering the animation in 2K. ?Although the deadline was fixed, the project kept getting bigger and bigger,? recalled Burton. ?The more our client saw, the more they liked it?and they wanted to see even more. Over a weekend, the scale of the project increased by a third?and it was great. The additions were awesome!?

Serendipitously, With A Twist delivered the final elements for the trailer on the day that marked the first anniversary of its founding. ?We were popping champagne for a lot of reasons on that day,? Burton noted. ?Getting back into feature films was one of the one goals we set for ourselves.?

Source: Broadcastnews"