YUM ! animation: a small revolution in series thanks to real time [Annecy 2022]
We were able to visit a few days ago the team of YUM ! animationin their studio located in the heart of Paris.
If the company is best known for its production and distribution activities (series Kaeloo and Panties, among others), Yum! Animation has decided to take on a new challenge: the production of animation series… Thanks to real-time tools.
Here is the teaser of this series, Edmund and Luciatracking project details.
A nature-oriented series
Edmund and Lucia is preparing to land on the Okoo platform, then at the start of the school year on France 5.
The series is aimed at a preschool audience (3-6 years old) and adopts a 52×11 minute format. It is adapted from the hit albums Edmond and his friends by Astrid Desbordes and Marc Boutavant. It focuses on a small group of animals in the forest:
Edmond the squirrel and Lucy the bear are raised as brother and sister in a majestic chestnut tree, a sort of radiant city in the forest. Playing and growing up in the heart of nature, answering the enigmas it raises and experiencing adventures in the great outdoors with their family and friends: Edouard, Edmond’s dad, Mima the grandmother, Georges le Hibou, the mouse Polka and Hortense, Mitzi the little bat and the Thing… The good life!
In practice, Edmund and Lucia wants to be turned towards nature, and aims to awaken the youngest to the fauna and flora over the seasons.
This approach was accelerated right down to the writing stage, since the team called on specialists (agricultural engineer, naturalist/ethnobotanist or even a member of the NGO Under the pole) to refine the themes to be addressed and validate the information given. . However, the subject obviously remains light and suitable for young audiences: bees are, for example, mentioned in the context of an episode featuring a honey festival with a costumed show.
Unit at the heart of the pipeline
The use of the Unity real-time 3D engine has made it possible to adopt an innovative manufacturing method, and above all to have very fast renderings. The initial pilot, rendered in the classic way, required 25 minutes of rendering per frame in HD. After a passage under Unity in 2020, then the work that followed, each image only requires around 1.5s, in 4K!
The longest step for real-time rendering is no longer the calculation of the rendering itself, explains MIAM!, but the saving of the images in PNG on the storage of the stations.
The team offered us a concrete demo of its tools. Real time is used very early on with Board Machine, an in-house tool that allows you to use 3D elements to create the storyboard. Captures are sent under ToonBoom, and allow to build the episodes. However, the classic 3D layout stage remains present.
The rest of the production is done first under Maya: the studio points out that the lack of animators and animators specialists in Unity prevents it from completely dispensing with the Autodesk solution. The unit, for its part, makes it possible to finalize the scenes and generate the final rendering.
Speaking of which, YUM! the animation emphasizes that its process involves a “fine tuning” phase: once a scene has reached a very advanced stage, the teams add finishes (specific details to a close-up, for example) and refine the shot, going even up to afford significant modifications such as a change of camera angle. Here again, real time makes it possible to modify things until the last moment.
Finally, note that the editing was also done under Unity.
Strong partners
On this project, YUM! animation has chosen to rely on two studios that have supported it for the production:
The choice of alliance with a video game studio is atypical in animation, even for a series project based on real-time rendering. But for YUM! Animation, this decision was obvious, since it made it possible to have a partner who already mastered Unity.
With a budget of around 7.6 million euros, the series has a team of around 120 people in the three studios: around forty at Jungler, around thirty at Artefact and around fifty at MIAM! Animation, obviously with strong variations depending on the progress of the project.
Real time, an asset for the planet?
Last point underlined by YUM! Animation: technique at the service of substance.
Indeed, the studio explains that the use of real time makes it possible to drastically reduce energy consumption compared to conventional pre-calculated rendering, and therefore to limit the associated carbon impact.
Based on estimates of work flowers, YUM ! The animation estimates that each 11-minute episode would have required around 0.15kg of CO2 to render, compared to at least 336kg for the classic render.
However, these figures remain an estimate that will be finalized and completed: YUM! Animation wishes to do a complete carbon balance a posteriori.
This desire for animated series that is more sober in terms of energy and the environment is also in line with France Télévisions’ objectives in terms of decarbonization. We can therefore expect to see more and more studios adopting the same path.
Next stop: Annecy!
Before the broadcast of the series on the Okoo platform from July 2 and then on France 5 at the start of the school year, YUM! Animation will first present Edmund and Lucia at the Annecy Festival:
- YUM ! Animation will have a stand (B.14) at MIFA, and part of the team will come, including Hanna Mouchez, director and executive producer, as well as the director of the series François Narboux.
- Thursday, June 16 at 9 a.m., as part of a conference ” Unleashing talents and creation: a key issue for animation“, François Narboux will return to the genesis of the project.