RE-SOUL was a set of firsts for us. It was the first time CHENG WEIZHI, JIAYU LIU and BILLAIN worked together with a Taiwanese animation studio, and our first work with Taiwanese-language dialogue and a story rooted in Taoist culture. Following director Leo Liao and the Movect Studios team as they carried the familiar ritual of soul-calming into a digital underworld was a big step for us, and something we learned a great deal from.
In the parts we worked on, we brought in as many of the tools we know as we could. Costumes were cloth-simulated in Marvelous Designer. Characters were built in Character Creator and iClone 8, driven by Xsens motion capture and Faceware facial capture, with the actors' face recordings projected onto the 3D characters to preview and align performances. Smoke and mist were simulated in EmberGen, blood and black water in LiquiGen, and special projections and effects were made in Cinema 4D. BILLAIN scored the film in FL Studio, his tool of choice, and JIAYU LIU handled production scheduling and outside coordination.
We love how RE-SOUL lets folk belief and science fiction sit naturally together. Six Taiwanese studios releasing an anthology together and taking it to international festivals is also an experience we value.
《壓驚》對我們來說有很多個第一次。這是程威誌、劉家禹與 BILLAIN 第一次一起和台灣本土的動畫工作室合作,也是我們第一次參與有台語對白、以道教文化為題材的作品。能跟著廖偉智導演與魔特創意團隊,把大家熟悉的「收驚」帶進數位陰間,對我們是一次很大的突破,也是很珍貴的學習。
在我們參與的部分,我們把手上熟悉的工具盡量都用上了。角色服裝用 Marvelous Designer 做布料模擬;角色以 Character Creator 與 iClone 8 製作,搭配 Xsens 動作捕捉與 Faceware 臉部捕捉,並把演員的臉部錄影投射到 3D 角色上預覽、對位;煙霧與霧氣用 EmberGen 模擬,血液與黑水用 LiquiGen,特殊投影與特效則在 Cinema 4D 完成。BILLAIN 用他擅長的 FL Studio 製作配樂,劉家禹負責製作進度與對外協調。
我們喜歡《壓驚》讓民俗信仰與科幻自然地接在一起。六家台灣動畫工作室一起推出短片集、一起走向國際影展,也是我們很珍惜的經驗。