<DAZ_Biggie> Hi everyone and welcome to today's Featured Chat!
<DAZ_Biggie> Our guest today is Jen Bahan, a senior Character Technical Director at Rhythm & Hues Studios is LA
<DAZ_Biggie> Jen has worked on a number of films including last year's Happy Feet!
<DAZ_Biggie> Welcome Jen!
<jenbahan> hey, everyone!
<DAZ_Biggie> You got your start in games... What were you doing for games, and how did that translate to what you're doing now?
<DAZ_Rhyno> to ask Jen a question, send your question to QuestionBot as a private message by clicking "@QuestionBot" on the right hand side.
<Kuanbyr> Can you recomend any good books for learning the ways of a TD?
<jenbahan> i have a question for you guys... what are you interested in doing?
<Kuanbyr> Where are the best places to go to learn how to be a TD when you have to do it on your own.
<DAZ_Biggie> to ask Jen a question, send your question to QuestionBot as a private message by clicking "@QuestionBot" on the right hand side.
<jenbahan> get "trial" software and go through all the tutorials.
<jenbahan> i also found cory mogk's old maya video's very useful
<jenbahan> he had a lot of techie tips that were way ahead of their time.
<jenbahan> also, i took some life drawing classes at a local atelier... that was amazingly helpful (and pretty cheap)
<jenbahan> you have to bridge the art with the technology. see it as a tool for art
<debb6425> Hello and thank you for coming to visit us all. I was wondering, what are some of the programs that you utilize?
<jenbahan> hiya. at rhythm, we use all propriatary software. voodoo is our animation package. "and" is our modeling package. "icy" is our compositing package.
<jenbahan> i use to like modeling in max and animating in maya
<jenbahan> now, i find all the packages are melding together
<jenbahan> same buttons, different locations
<DAZ_Biggie> For those that might not know, what does a TD actually do? What's an average day in the life of Jen Bahan like?
<bernards> What is a "typical" day like for you?
<jenbahan> TD is a fancy acronym for technical director... it sounds so glamorous on a business card.
<jenbahan> in truth, there are all kinds of TD's. some focus on rigging and characters (that's me!), some focus on lighting and shading, and some focus on animation
<jenbahan> there are other sub-sets like pipeline, modeling, etc. i think TD's are generally expected to have technical ability above and beyond the regular position.
<jenbahan> i focus on character stuff. so, i get a model from our modeling department, make sure it'll work for the animation expected.
<jenbahan> then, i add skeletal and muscular deformations to bring it to life. i'm also called to write scripts and tools for the animation department.
<jenbahan> rigging is a service industry, and we have to meet the needs of the animators and lighters
<DAZ_amandible> 
<jenbahan> for example... this is mumble from happy feet.
<jenbahan> i received his late in the project from animal logic (the main happy feet studio)
<jenbahan> my challenge was to rig him to match the character they had been animating on for 3 years... in 2.5 weeks.
<jenbahan> i had to make him move like the mumble they had come to know and love.
<BarefootMedia> do you primarily oversee the work of others?
<Julie the dreamer> the making in happy feet was the movie your idea, and how long did it take to make the movie
<jenbahan> happy feet was the brainchild of george miller. it was--i think-- a natural progression from his previous movie Mad Max
<jenbahan> it took about 4 years to complete happy feet from the time the script was finished. rhythm & hues only worked on the last 6 months.
<jenbahan> overseeing work: i do a lot of shot production (hands on stuff) and supervise or lead other TD's who are doing the same.
<jenbahan> there are too few people here, and everyone has to chip in.
<jenbahan> plus, shot production and working on characters rocks!
<maartenvs> Dear Jen, what is your favorite movie that you worked on?
<jenbahan> i'm on the Golden Compass now, i think that will go down as my favorite to watch. working on projects, though, makes it hard to really like a movie.
<jenbahan> you see the shots day in and day out. you kinda' get numb to them.
<jenbahan> happy feet was my favorite to work on.
<DAZ_Biggie> to ask Jen a question, send your question to QuestionBot as a private message by clicking "@QuestionBot" on the right hand side.
<jenbahan> we had no time, no money, and incredibly hard technical feats to overcome
<jenbahan> the crew was so tight. we worked 16-18 hour days and didn't bitch or moan about it. it was an exercise in solidarity!
<amsolano> Q. Have you always worked via the digital medium during production of a movie/film/game or have you ever had to work with bendable foam characters or clay then completely go to digital?
<jenbahan> i am always in front of a computer. we get these REALLY cool maquettes from the other studios, though, from wetta, etc.
<DAZ_Biggie> lol
<DAZ_Biggie> to ask Jen a question, send your question to QuestionBot as a private message by clicking "@QuestionBot" on the right hand side.
<jenbahan> we have a wonderful 2d department, and though they don't do stop motion, they have beautiful sculpts and artwork
<BarefootMedia> am i correct in thinking that rigging focuses on the "bones" by setting limits or is more about setting up the "bones" in the first place?
<jenbahan> a co-worker of mine described it as digital pupeteering. we set up all kinds of controls that will allow the animator to get the motion they need.
<jenbahan> sometimes it's anatomically correct, and sometimes it's totally fudged to get some crazy motion.
<jenbahan> here, we put in a lot of muscles and lattices to simulate real body structures.
<jenbahan> then the technical animation team comes in and moves the fat, fur, and cloth around
<jenbahan> they also do a lot of collision work to integrate the creatures into the background plates
<jenbahan> if you look at the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, we had hundreds of cg characters all interacting with guys in furry suites.
<wawadave 1> what are maquettes?
<jenbahan> maquettes are sculptures or mocked up characters that we use as reference for modeling and rigging. you can usually buy really expensive replicas of them after movies come out.
<jenbahan> if a maquette is used on the shoot for reference, sometimes we call it a stuffy.
<Faerie Fanatic> What do you enjoy doing most in your career?
<jenbahan> besides the complimentary dinners... probably the technical challenges and the late-night binging at work.
<jenbahan> each show is different, it seems like we're doing different things all the time.
<jenbahan> since the studio uses propriatary software, i feel like we all have a chance to shape the technology
<amsolano> Was there any mocap used in "Happy Feet"?
<DAZ_amandible> 
<jenbahan> perfect question!
<jenbahan> george (director) hired simeon glover to do the mocap for mumble. he's a live action director at heart, so it was important for him to get the exact performance that he wanted.
<jenbahan> simeon glover is, like, the ultimate in tap dancing.
<jenbahan> so, the entire show was mo-capped. that isn't to say that we didn't have to animate our butts off.
<jenbahan> mocap is a great reference for performance... it's a good start
<jenbahan> then, we have to add all the nuances of the face, the tics of the body, change the eyeline
<jenbahan> plus, people do not move like penguins
<jenbahan> we had a lot fo re-targeting issues.
<jenbahan> it was especially difficult to take mocap that had been through so many software packages and integrate it into keyframe data that the animators here could use.
<jenbahan> i spent a large portion of the shot de-bugging mo-cap problems
<DAZ_Biggie> to ask Jen a question, send your question to QuestionBot as a private message by clicking "@QuestionBot" on the right hand side.
<DAZ_Noltar> There's obviously still lots to be improved, but do you think computer graphics have reached a point where writers no longer feel much limitation in what they can have put on the screen, unlike the days when they primarily had to rely on physical props if they wanted things to look realistic?
<jenbahan> no, unfortunatly, as long as producers exist, there will be limitations on what cg will do for films.
<jenbahan> we can do so much, but it become so complicated, so intense, and so expensive.
<jenbahan> plus, there's a lot of magic in the physical stuff. it's like using film, you don't know quite what you'll get.
<jenbahan> sometimes that's the key to making something believable.
<jenbahan> most of the time you can tell when something's cg, too.
<mors_d> what 3D element or environ do you find the most annoying or agrevating to work with?
<jenbahan> i like working with all the disciplines, but i think we all feel frustrated when the technology fails us.
<jenbahan> i find animation to be the most challenging, and the most rewarding.
<jenbahan> it's our job to get them the tools they need to act.
<jenbahan> when my tools fail, i feel really miserable for them.
<jenbahan> the coolest moments i've had in this industry were seeing my characters animated well on a big screen.
<jenbahan> seeing something that came from you working well and able to move around realisticly is an uncomparable thrill
<DAZ_Biggie> Jen, can you tell us a little about your current project?
<jenbahan> the golden compass is based off a novel by philip pullman... o.k. you read that in the bio.
<jenbahan> it's got EVERYTHING... talking spirit creatures, multiple worlds, angels, deamons...
<jenbahan> i guess that addresses and earlier question... no way would we have attempted that 10 years ago.
<jenbahan> right now, r&h has about 500 shots. it'll probably be the largest show we've ever tried to handle. we have simulated crowd, flying creatures, intense fx. it makes lion/witch look easy.
<jenbahan> the plot... well... i don't want to give away everything. the script is pretty cool though.
<DAZ_Biggie> Thanks, Jen!
<jenbahan> no prob, dude!
<DAZ_Biggie> We have really appreciated your time here today...
<DAZ_Biggie> it's been great hearing about what you do and how you do it
<DAZ_Biggie> Thank you for coming!
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