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Above: Coline Mattei and Marc Dubrois at FMX 2024
Earlier this year, the Superprod studio team went to Germany for the FMX conference. Marc Dubrois (Head of Pipeline) and Coline Mattei (Head of FX) unveiled the studio’s pipeline for the upcoming animated Asterix film during the sessions hosted by SideFX.
On the menu: USD, Houdini, and innovative in-house tools!
3DVF: Hello Superprod! You are currently working on the next Asterix animated film, directed by Alexandre Heboyan. You recently gave a talk at FMX about the techniques used by the team. Can you tell us more about it?
Marc Dubrois – Head of Pipeline: We presented our workflow and how we manage crowds in Asterix. We explained how we create the agents and place them in the scenes. We detailed every step, from creating the agents in Houdini to rigging and animating them. We use a USD workflow along with Solaris. It’s a new workflow, but it’s very powerful.
Coline Mattei – Head of FX: It was a big challenge. In previous projects, we didn’t have a lot of crowds, and they were quite basic, created in Maya. So, this is a completely different challenge. At first, we were only supposed to create crowds for a few shots. But thanks to Marc’s pipeline, we work so efficiently that the number of shots has significantly increased!
3DVF: Why did you choose Houdini instead of other tools like Golaem?
Coline Mattei: Golaem is a very powerful tool. Honestly, it’s great for crowds. But we are now focused on USD. It’s important for us because it gives us more flexibility; we don’t have to constantly import/export in FBX, which is easier for us. Moreover, since rendering is done with Solaris and we use Houdini Digital Assets, all the attributes of our USD files and agents can be adjusted and modified until the last minute. Once again, it’s a lot of flexibility, right up until we start rendering.
Marc Dubrois: Besides, it was cheaper for us to create a Houdini pipeline since we already have many steps of the workflow in this software. We reuse a lot of things, and we use the same HDA system (Houdini Digital Assets) to design an agent and create the FX, Character FX. In short, we already have many things designed for Houdini, and when it comes to the pipeline, it’s very easy to build a scene, call the assets, the HDAs with Houdini. So, using Houdini was an obvious choice for us.
3DVF: Can you tell us more about the pipeline, by the way?
Marc Dubrois: Currently, we still use Maya for animation, rigging, modeling (we also use ZBrush, with retopology done in Maya), and UVs. We also sometimes use Blender. And Substance Painter/Designer for texturing, of course. Surfacing, CFX, cloth, hair, and FX are done in Houdini. For the shots, pre-visualization, layout, and animation are handled in Maya, while final set dressing and assembly are done in Houdini. Compositing is done in Nuke.
3DVF: When did you start working on this new pipeline that gives a significant role to Houdini?
Marc Dubrois: We started the project after I joined the studio in 2019, with the idea of creating a new pipeline based on USD. We began using it on another feature film, which I cannot publicly name. Then we applied it to Asterix. In other words, a lot of things were already in place on the previous project, but we improved the pipeline and pushed it further.
3DVF: You mentioned earlier that you use Solaris. So, do you use Karma for rendering?
Marc Dubrois: No, we use Arnold. Karma was still a bit too young when we looked into rendering, while Arnold is well-established and ready to use alongside USD.
3DVF: Is scene assembly done in Houdini?
Marc Dubrois: No, we assemble everything with USD. It doesn’t rely on a DCC/content creation software; it’s done with our Python API. We gather the elements, place them in a sublayer—the sublayer typically represents a specific task. On the asset side, we have several variants, for example, the main 3D model for an asset, the broken version, a blue variant, etc.
Then in Houdini or Maya, for instance, at the shot level, we can switch between the variants we want to use. We have this stack, and we stack all the stages, often with the model at the beginning and surfacing at the end. Once a task layer is approved, we update our “base” USD file. And this file is called on the shot or asset side.
3DVF: Let’s get back to Astérix. It’s a very cartoonish IP, of course. What techniques do you use to make the Romans fly through the air during fight scenes?
Coline Mattei: We obviously can’t use motion capture; it wouldn’t fit the cartoon style of the animation. And ragdoll-type approaches are also excluded: Alexandre Heboyan, the director, has an animation background and wants something precise, with animation curves. That said, we have the necessary tools, so we could very well use ragdolls if we had a use case in the future.
3DVF: A Houdini pipeline can present other challenges, particularly in recruitment since many animation schools still mainly focus on Maya. Is it difficult for you to find the talents you need?
Marc Dubrois: It’s not really a concern for us. When the studio switched from Maya to Houdini for surfacing and lighting, we set up an integration process so that artists could learn to use it. It’s not difficult, especially since we use the same templates.
Coline Mattei: It’s probably more complicated for animators, who are used to Maya, but the latest Houdini update is more user-friendly in this regard, so maybe we’ll switch someday!
Marc Dubrois: We are testing different options, such as Rumba from Mercenaries Engineering.
3DVF: AI is a hot topic right now. Does Superprod use this kind of tool?
Marc Dubrois: Not currently. The studio is interested in it, but it’s not generative AI. We saw some interesting tools at FMX, but they’re not yet usable in production. There are many challenges…
3DVF: Including ethical and legal challenges for generative AI.
Marc Dubrois: Yes. We do not use generative AI or AI tools for Asterix.
3DVF: One last question, how big is the FX team at Superprod?
Coline Mattei: It varies depending on the project, but for series and films, the 2D and 3D FX team ranges from 10 to 30 people.
3DVF: Thank you for the information! It’s still too early to say more about Asterix, but we’ll share more information on 3DVF as soon as we can.
And for our readers, feel free to check out Superprod’s website and follow 3DVF on social media: Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube.
