The Order Of Time
L'ordine del Tempo
Release date
August 31th, 2023
Life for Real (2023) is a heartfelt and humorous film that blends comedy with poignant storytelling. The movie follows its protagonist through a journey of self-discovery, capturing both emotional depth and lighthearted moments. In one particular scene, the film required a seamless integration of CGI with live-action, involving a realistic animated crab replacing a practical prop handled by the actor. Imaginary Globe was entrusted with the animation and rigging for Pre-Vis and of this CGI crab, ensuring that its movements felt lifelike and natural while blending perfectly with the real-world environment and actor interactions.
Animating A Lifelike Crab
The challenge of replacing a practical prop with CGI lies in achieving a perfect match between the digital model and real-world interactions. The crab needed to behave convincingly as if it were an actual living creature responding to its surroundings, particularly the actor’s hand and the sandy surface it was placed upon.
Crafting Realistic Movements
Our animation team carefully studied real crabs to ensure authenticity in:
⦾ Leg articulation and movement, making sure the gait and scuttling motion felt true to nature.
⦾ Subtle interactions with the actor’s hand, such as micro-adjustments and resistance, ensuring the illusion of weight and realism.
⦾ A smooth transition from being held to running away, capturing the natural hesitation and quick bursts of motion typical of real crabs.
To achieve these lifelike animations, we combined reference footage with procedural techniques that simulated natural crab behavior, ensuring a blend of accuracy and artistic direction.
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"I didn't even see there was VFX in this shot"
Rigging for Flexibility and Realism
Creating a realistic and controllable rig was crucial in allowing animators to replicate the intricate leg coordination and adaptive posture shifts of a real crab. Our rigging approach focused on:
⦾Inverse kinematics for the legs, allowing for natural adjustments to various surfaces.
⦾Shell and limb movement independence, ensuring that the body reacted believably to different forces, such as the actor’s hand motion.
⦾Secondary animation controls, providing animators with fine-tuned control over minute details like twitching legs and subtle body shifts.
The rig was optimized to allow for precise manual keyframing.
