Behind the scenes:
"Nightfall" Animated 3D movie.
A quick look at the making of the animated movie. I will show some of the process and designs that went into the movie. I'll also talk about the process of writing it and the inspiration I got from comics and movies. The movie is based on the popular DC comic universe, mixed with an ensemble of my own original characters.
Pre-production began in early May of 2023. The whole entire reason I made the movie, was because of a still frame from a video game called "Batman: Arkham City", where a dark and scary version of Batman was painted on a wall. That little image made me think about a story where Batman was the monster and we followed the criminals instead of the hero. I also have a big passion for horror movies, so I tried to mix the superhero genre with the horror. My goal was also not to use Batman that much. He shouldn't say a word and would only stay in the dark, to give him the creepy monster feel.
The photo that started the whole process. The stalking Bat.
With heavy inspiration from movies like "The Descent" and "As above, so below" the script took shape. A group of four guys now had to be designed in 3D. Along with other side characters such as Gordon and Dr. Pyg.
After designing and creating the characters in 3D, the environment had to be created. The Gotham sewer system and main Gotham city was of course the most important environments to create. Luckily there was tons of other Batman media to take inspiration from. I took a lot of inspiration from the "Arkham" game series, created by Rocksteady. The aesthetic and feel of that universe really felt like a good match for my script.
The three characters with the most screen time, Graves, Tripp and Carmine. I spent the most time with these designs and creating their facial rig.
Batman was created as a very simple character, because of the nature of his role in this story. We are only meant to see him for a very short period of time. So he is designed very simple, to sell his famous silhouette.
The animation process took about 2 months. A pre-viz is created to show the basic camera movements and animation of the characters. When the pre-viz is approved, those same files are being reworked and all the details and shaders are added to get a complete shot. The characters are replaced by the hero models, including the facial rig, that is key framed animated by hand to create the lip-sync. Voice actors are filmed in very high detail to copy their mouth movement.
The pre-viz version of the particular shot of Carmine, the final shot can be seen underneath.
As this comparison shows: a lot of filters, color grading and other small tweaks creates the final shot.
Even when the movie is done being animated and all the shots are locked in. All the sets have to be decorated and all the facial animation has to be done too. After that, the rendering process begins. For me, it took about 2 months rendering all the shots, consisting of almost 2.000 separate video files. They are then imported into Final Cut Pro to be edited together. Often times, videos have to be re-rendered to fix bugs. Video files are often times rendered with a blue or green background to have complete control over the background elements, plus the depth of field in the shot.
A look into a very heavy Final Cut Pro file, consisting of all the separate video files.
With the first edit of the movie being done, the music and sound will come into the mix. And it's a very long and draining process. Creating the sound for an animated movie is done from the bottom and up. No sound is given to you like in a live-action movie where sound often is captured out on set. Every single sound in this movie has to be designed and thought about.
After another month of designing the sound and finding the right music, the project sees it's final days of post-production. The movie is then showed to some test audiences to see reactions and maybe remove scenes that drag too long, or remove them entirely.
And after an intense production spending over half a year, the movie is released on YouTube and is now its own thing. You're letting your child go and you no longer have any control over it. It's sad but also very satisfying.
But it's fun.
