Introduction

This Devlog series will document the behind-the-scenes and thought-process that goes into The Connection Programme, Season 01. We’ll also be documenting the pre-production, so you get an idea of the planning and prep that goes into the project. The official launch of the project will be in Jan 2024, where each week, we’ll be releasing a lesson. To sign up to the programme, you can follow the link below:

• The Connection Programme

Project Overview

In this video, we cover the collaboration with Haiti Ocean Project, the project aims and challenges, and what we hope to visually achieve.

Aims of the Project

If we had to narrow down the project in one sentence, it would go a little like this:

A modern day CAVE painting!

64,000 years ago in the Maltravieso cave of Cáceres, Spain, Neanderthals painted mammals, geometric dots and designs to document their findings. Our aim is to follow in their footsteps. The primary difference being that we’ll be using modern technology: sketchpads and pencils, cameras and lenses, hardware and software.

Haiti Ocean Project

For Season 01, 100% of all proceeds generated will be donated to Haiti Ocean Project and the amazing work they do to support the ocean and marine conservation.

The primary mission of Haiti Ocean Project is the conservation and protection of high-profile marine life such as marine mammals, sea turtles, sharks and stingrays through education of youth, research and data collection, community awareness, public policy and ecotourism.

HOP is also a leading actor in advocacy between Haiti and the world, to influence communities, fishermen, youth, policies, structures and systems in order to bring about change in the way marine species are viewed in Haiti and persuading all stakeholders to act in more just and equitable ways toward them. At the core, it is about building relationships. It is about tackling the root causes of poverty which endangers the marine species and promoting their protection in Haiti.

Visual Outcomes

The outcome of the project is to create a series of full CG and/or VFX shots that capture the essence of a shark swimming underwater. The final look should match that of high-end shots from a National Geographic shoot or Blue Planet. Once complete, the final shots should not look like “cool CG or awesome VFX”, instead, the audience should believe that what they are seeing is photographic and plausible.

Challenges

As mentioned in the above video, we are looking to do things that we’ve not done before which will allow us to flex our skills. For this project, we see the following as the primary challenges:

• Shooting underwater
• Shooting on-site in a remote location
• The unknown factor of what we’ll be shooting and when (sharks, turtles, whales, dolphins, who knows!)
• General swimming and diving with camera kit

Workflow and pipeline-wise,we don’t foresee any wild issues. For the asset build, we should be able to follow a generic pipeline and the same goes for the shot-side of things. The bigger issue will be having to deal with the water simulation as that will be computationally heavy.

The Connection Programme

If you are a fan of mixing science with art, or maths with creative thinking, then join our Connection Programme, where we’ll be exploring VFX, animation and games from the core fundamentals:

• The Connection Programme

Support CAVE Academy

Here at CAVE Academy the beauty of giving and sharing is very close to our hearts. With that spirit, we gladly provide Webinars, Dailies, the Wiki, and many high-quality assets free of charge. To enable the team to create and release more free content, you can support us here: Support CAVE Academy