Template Breakdowns are from the webseries Monster High Musical; Sparks and Spells. All backgrounds were made by Tim Chi Ly.

Part of my Directing responsibility for the series was problem solving how to achieve special effects, and develop ways to optomize the compositing process. Because each episode took place on a stage with a unique set, a solution was to create a Background Template for each episode that had pre-animated elements and established lighting conditions that the animators/compositors could copy-paste into their scenes, reducing overall compositing time.

Ep 05: StageTemplate Breakdown

Episode 5 had a complicated effect of having a rotating disc in the middle of the stage floor. To achieve this, a disc using a flat floor pattern was rotated in 3D so the perspective of the floorboards would look consistent as the disc rotated. So the animator could keep the character's placement on the disc consistent, grid lines and circle markers were put on the disc, that would dissapear upon rendering. Also because the episode had stage views in the Medium, Wide, and Super Wide, the template needed to include those views, so the animator would not have to adjust those elements themselves, thus saving time. Additionally included was the pre-animated elements that moved in timing with the song, and ready made lighting.

Ep 08: StageTemplate + Final Shot Breakdown

Episode 8 was the final episode for the series so there were a lot of elements in the stage background that needed piecing together.
Included in the demo is the breakdown for the Final Shot which involved swarms of scarabs flying from behind a character, then appearing from the frame edges and zooming past the "camera". This was achieved with the Toonboom Sprite Emitter effects.

Ep 02: StageTemplate Breakdown

Episode 2 had a lot of quick shots of the main stage ranging from super close up to super wide. So having an established template was important to keeping consistency and reducing time for compositing. Client reviews were also easier since they could review and make notes on the stage effects in the template, instead of reviewing individual shots.