Episode 5: Why I am rendering in a Realtime-Engine (Patreon)

Hey,

I wrote it a couple of times before, but I think it's important to explain again why I changed my workflow and chose to not render in Maya (=offline/pre-rendered, not realtime) but switched to Unity (=realtime, instant results). 

Rendering in a Game(=Realtime)-Engine is in real time, with as many frames as your computer can generate within 1 second at a resolution you choose. Let's say 60fps (Frames per Second). 

For episode 1-4 I used Redshift3D in Maya for Rendering. A so called offline renderer. The pictures generated are pre-rendered. So the computer has to calculate everything before the image actually shows. The quality is better, but therefore it takes longer to compute a frame. 1 frame takes a couple of minutes to render. And for that you need a super powerful, energy-hungry, heating-up Render-Beast-Computer that costs a fortune.

Let me give you an example of a regular movie, rendered with an offline Renderer with 20min length at 1080p (1920x1080pixel resolution):

• 20minutes = 1.200seconds = 36.000frames (@30fps)
  So if you have 36.000 frames to render, and you do that in an offline Renderer like Redshift, it takes around 2-5minutes (and that's already fast) for 1 frame to render.
  So that's something between 72.000minutes and 180.000 minutes for 36.000 frames. For the sake of easier understanding let's say it is something in between and pick 120.000 minutes.
  
• 36.000frames = around 120.000minutes = 2000hours = 83 days
  That is the number of days 1 computer would have to render 24/7 on a 20minute movie.

And that is just pure rendering time. And you don't start rendering before everything else is final! 

What has to be done BEFORE is:

• Writing a script
• Getting voice overs recorded
• Designing the Characters, Outfits, Sets
• Rigging and Animating the Characters & Props
• Creating a previz to see if everything works nicely from a story-telling point of view.
• Doing simulations for FX (like Cumshots, Hair Dynamics) and then assembling that with the animation
• Setting up the Lighting and Materials for everything
• Defining the Cameras & Angles
• Test rendering individual frames to see if it looks good
• Setting up the shots in Maya so you can actually hit "render!"
• 1000 other things like troubleshooting software and hardware problems
• Managing the rest of my life & family

So once that is all taken care of, you then finally hit render. But the work does not stop there. There will be render errors, computer crashing and so on and so forth. So you can´t just hit "render" and come back 83 days later. So in order to reduce the render times, you get help and pay money to a so called "Renderfarm" to help you with that. They have a lot of computers and therefore the rendering is done way faster.  But that costs money...

And then once the renderings are all done, the movie is not finished!

So what is left and has to be doen AFTER the rendering, is then the so called Post-Production&Editing:

• Checking all frames if they were rendered without errors
• Assembling them together to make a movie again
• Adding effects like Depth of Field, tweaking colors, etc. etc.
• Editing the final movie with Audio and final shots.

So that's roughly the work for a 20minute Movie at 1080p with 30frames per second. Not included is the management of things you need to outsource and pay for. Like Voice-Overs, Music, Sounds, Marketing, etc.

Now imagine you want that movie in 4k. Render-times go up around 3-4 times for that. And now imagine you want that at 60fps and not 30fps. That doubles everything. 

Or imagine you figure out that you forgot something or made a mistake and have to re-render half of the movie. Or you make a design decision change (let's say you want a different hairstyle or color) and have to render the whole thing again. 

So you can see that is not a very flexible workflow to say the least :)

And now let's have a look at the workflow in a Game-Engine:

You basically need to do everything there like you would for a regular movie. Like character/set/prop design, texturing, shading. Character rigging & animation. Coding for things that would be simulated (like cumshots) and so on and so forth. You get the idea.

And there are a lot of things also causing troubles. Like making it work on as many PCs as possible with different hardware and so on. 

But once that is all figured out, the whole 120.000 minute of rendering time is obsolete! Because it happens in real-time :) And you can easily just add or remove or change things. For example: 

• Mountain in the background? No problem!
• Changing Depth of Field on the fly? No Problem
• Different hair-style? No Problem!
• Different hair-color? No Problem! 
• More camera angles? No Problem!
• Longer animation because it does not take longer to render? No Problem!
• Lots of lots of vegetation? No Problem!
• A great looking ocean with underwater mode? No Problem! (Just that would have been impossible for me to create in Maya. Simulation, settings, rendertimes... horrible)
• Adding characters with minimum performance impact? No Problem!  
  That is actually an important point. In the Island Benchmark we have 11 characters. In an offline Renderer that would take a lot longer to render. Imagine what we can do in the Realtime Engine... Crowds watching, Gangbang... You name it ;) Just a question of time and ressources to make it happen.
• And so on and so forth. The options are endless! You get the idea :)

And there are more benefits:

• Update:
  So in case I want to add more poses, change the set, whatever: I can ship an update to you guys anytime :)
   
• Authentication: I can add authentication to the version that runs on the PC. Piracy is a big problem with my Movies. And for realtime applications/movies/games I can at least add authentication that makes it a bit more difficult for pirates to steal my work. And with all the additional freedom you get with the realtime version, the motivation to buy the product is also higher. So that´s a great unique selling point ;) I hope more people will actually buy it because of that.
  
• Interactivity:
  You can customize the characters, decide for the skin color, hair color, if you want pussy or anal penetration, Day or Night. All on the fly, no need to wait for me to re-render a complete movie.
  
• Bonus Features:
  We will make a "Pose-Movie-Maker" as Bonus feature. That's basically a couple of poses you can select from and have them play one after the other. With pre-defined cameras and a free cam. Just like in BHA or the SA-Game. 

I am very happy that I switched to realtime. The creation process is also way more fun because you see everything instantly. If you change the light, fog, skin-shader whatever, it instantly shows and you don´t have to wait a couple of minutes for a result.

And the quality of realtime movies will improve over time. I am already thinking again about switching to Unreal for the next project. But this will be a process of several months. Me and my coder friend will have to learn everything from scratch again. But the quality is definitely better. Just have a look at the UE5 Demo :) So realtime workflow will sooner or later take over, also for feature films.  

So you can see that the real-time option offers a lot more flexibility at the cost of lower quality. But it is also way more cost efficient (no Renderfarm required), the workflow is faster and and and :)

And of course, there will still be a regular Movie (MP4) version for everyone who does not have a PC! 

But that will be lacking the customizing and decisions of course. Because you can´t do that in a normal movie. 

One more thing:

I am really struggling with sales because of piracy.  Despite the fact that a lot of people love my movies and I get great feedback, most people on the internet just pirate my stuff or watch the pirated version on Video-Platforms.

I recently crunched the numbers from 2017 until now with my Wife (she is a finance controller and really good with that) and we found out that almost none of my projects was really profitable after analysing really everything. I sometimes did not even reach break-even, sometimes I made more than expected. Overall we could just "survive" with the regular sales. But I would have had to stay in my regular job if I did not have the great support I get from you guys! 

Without you guys could not create all that! So thanks again and thanks a lot! I love you! :)

Alright, that was a really long post, but I think you have a better idea now :)

All the best and have a great weekend!
Puppetmaster