PBS Production Uses Combination of Motion Capture, Sophisticated Compositing and Digital Video Editing

The top-rated PBS children's series Jay Jay the Jet Plane brings pre-schoolers into the light-hearted, animated world of Jay Jay and his friends, endearing, personable airplanes that share adventures, friendship, and song. But Jay Jay the Jet Plane is not an ordinary cartoon. It's unique because these characters perform and interact with all the energy and spontaneity of a live show.

Produced by Modern Cartoons in Los Angeles, Jay Jay the Jet Plane uses a proprietary "ensemble style" animation platform based upon a magnetic and optical motion capture system that tracks the body, hands, and facial movements of up to seven actors simultaneously, each of whom brings a different airplane character to life. Rather than drawing the animation frame by frame, these characters act naturally and express facial emotions the way their actor counterparts do, in real-time.

Shot live-to-tape on Modern Cartoons' soundstage, the motion capture performances that animate Jay Jay and the other airplanes are blocked, rehearsed, and directed like any live TV show. When the cameras roll, the director watches the 3D animated scenes unfolding in real-time, and directs live switching between camera views to produce a half hour episode comprised of two 12.5-minute stories.

A Rush of Creativity
While the real-time production style moves at a fast pace, the show's aggressive schedule is truly accelerated by powerful Windows NT-based desktop systems from Discreet, including two Edit nonlinear editing systems, Combustion for paint and visual effects, and a 3ds max system for 3D animation.

"Edit is the lynchpin of our production process. This show's ingredients-real-time 3D animation, virtual backdrops, live action compositing, visual effects like matting and tracking, and multiple tracks of recorded audio-all funnel into edit, which then feeds each of our post animation processes. Edit works hand-in-glove with our proprietary management tool, called 'Storyboard', to serve as command central for our entire operation," says Aaron Slavin, Vice President of Business and Creative Development for Modern Cartoons, which produces "Jay Jay the Jet Plane" with its funding partners- Porchlight Entertainment in West Los Angeles, and KnightsCove Entertainment in Canada.

"Edit keeps everything on track, enabling us to produce a finished show from open to credits in about two weeks, including post effects and animation rendering -- a lightning fast pace for television, and an unprecedented and truly incredible pace for series animation," adds Slavin. By June of this year, Modern Cartoons will deliver 14 new episodes to PBS, which will air them interspersed with the 26 shows produced for the show's first season (which aired on The Learning Channel last year).

A Streamlined Workflow
After networking a Combustion workstation with the two Edit workstations in March of this year, Modern Cartoons realized an even faster, more streamlined workflow. "We can move production assets and scenes from Edit to Combustion for 2D tasks, like matting, tracking, and keying, then drop them right back into the Edit timeline. Because the systems function as one integrated, compatible environment, the video always stays locked to time code and relates to its position in the EDL," says Slavin.

Before Combustion, matte work went to a 2D effects system while green screen compositing was done by keying software, and the production experienced downtime and delays while the footage was transferred in and out of these third-party systems. The compositing work involves keying live action character Brenda Blue -- who acts as mechanic, friend, and counselor to the airplanes -- into "Jay Jay's" 3D world. Brenda Blue is shot before a green screen and keyed seamlessly into the foreground layer of the animation where she interacts with the airplanes and virtual backgrounds.

"Now 2D tasks that used to require several third party systems can all be handled within a single system-combustion. And, our animator can pull sequences right from the Edit timeline and bring them into Combustion without my having to output them to videotape," says Modern Cartoons Supervising Editor Lindsay Root. "Having Combustion networked with our Edit systems and 3ds max (for 3D keyframe special effects) has eliminated much of the drudgery, and made the workflow much more efficient."

Modern Cartoons says that Discreet's desktop systems have dovetailed into its Windows NT infrastructure, and interfaced with its real-time animation platform and the pivotal Storyboard asset management system. Since its inception as a pioneering motion capture production company, Modern Cartoons has completely migrated its real-time animation platform to the Windows NT operating system, which it viewed as a cost-effective alternative to expensive IRIX-based systems without compromising performance and quality.

"Our first editing system was a D-Vision, and a few years ago, Discreet bought D-Vision and renamed the product Edit. We quickly added two Edit systems, upgraded them from version 2.0 to 5.0, and expanded the network with 3ds max and Combustion," says Slavin.

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