Film director Alberto Rojas on why Reallusion's tools are the future of cinema

It might not be immediately obvious to the viewer. But in the ever-evolving landscape of digital filmmaking, innovative tools and technologies are constantly reshaping the way stories are brought to life on screen.

Yet, if you want to see the newest innovations taking place, big-budget blockbusters aren't necessarily the place to look. Awash with cash and mired in force of habit, they tend to be the slowest to adopt new technologies and new ways of doing things.

Instead, to glimpse the future, you must look to the young upstarts: the next generation of filmmakers doing things very differently. Take Alberto Méndez Rojas, a 25-year-old student film director and cinematic artist from Costa Rica.

With his acclaimed short film Rebus, Rojas not only showcased his artistic vision but also demonstrated the transformative power of Character Creator, iClone and ActorCore; all tools created by Reallusion that are making 3D modelling and animation easier, cheaper and faster than ever.

The vision behind Rebus

Rojas's journey into digital filmmaking began at Véritas University in San José, where he honed his skills as a 3D artist. His graduation project, Rebus, was the culmination of a vision 10 years in the making.

Set in a dystopian world, the short film explores themes of human resilience in the face of harsh environments, magical creatures, and unexplainable natural disasters. Rojas explains that the idea drew on multiple influences, including Bloodborne, Final Fantasy X, Spirited Away, Tekkonkinkreet and Attack on Titan.

"The most important thing was that I always wanted to create my own world," he stresses. "You could say that it was a coping mechanism of my own reality or just a desire to create. But the first art piece of Rebus was a dream my mind created when I was 16 years old, 10 years previously. I dreamed about a dystopian/medieval city built inside/outside a rock cliff, similar to the ruins of Moria in The Lord of The Rings, with a magic system similar to the one that Atlantis uses."

The ambitious scope of this fantastical universe presented numerous challenges, particularly for a student production with limited resources. To put it simply, Rojas and his team of six had to create a fully realised world, complete with its own rules, mechanics, religion, economy, and fantasy elements.

This level of world-building typically demands substantial time and human power: luxuries not afforded to a small student team working within an eight-month timeframe.

How Reallusion's tools changed the game

At this critical juncture, Rojas turned to Reallusion's suite of tools. Character Creator, iClone, and ActorCore provided Rojas and his team with the means to populate their intricately designed world with diverse, believable characters, all within their tight timeline and budget constraints.

"Due to the lack of a large team, we couldn't afford to create people and animations from scratch," he explains. "This is why we decided to use Reallusion tools. This was my first time using Reallusion software: usually, at Véritas University, the school isn't used to incorporating additional programs. But Character Creator, iClone and ActorCore helped us complete this crucial segment in our project in a quick and effective way."

Rojas clarifies that the film couldn't have been made without Reallusion. That's why he feels that these tools are the future of cinema.

"Just a couple of years back, you needed an entire crew to produce a film, and very often, your ideas would have been thrown into the trash can," he points out. "Now, you do not depend on anyone. You just need to be yourself and create."

Character Creator: breathing life into a world

One of the most significant challenges in creating Rebus was populating the world with a diverse cast. For this, they used Character Creator, a tool from Reallusion that enables users to create fully realised 3D characters in a very short time.

"I am not a 3D character artist; I am a cinematic artist," Rojas explains. Yet, using Character Creator, he and his team were able to create more than 20 characters. "Then we arranged that scene with assets from Kitbash3D's Dark Fantasy and Medieval Reallusion libraries. This created a full shot fairly easily. It helped us further push this idea of a rich world with people and a social structure."

The efficiency of this workflow was a revelation for Rojas. "Using Character Creator and the different types of packages available in the store, such as hair, skin or even clothing, we were able to create a character in something around 10-20 minutes," he enthuses. The AI-powered Headshot plugin, meanwhile, meant the team could create characters based on real photographs, adding an extra layer of realism to their digital cast.

"There are a ton of things about Character Creator that I like," enthuses Rojas. "But if I had to pick just one, it would be how simple and versatile it is to create a random character. Sometimes, for concept illustration, you just need a human figure with some idle movement or something along those lines, and Character Creator is perfect for that. Almost like a 'one-click' solution."

iClone and ActorCore: Bringing Characters to Life

While creating visually impressive characters is crucial, it is equally important to bring them to life through animation. This is where animation tools iClone and ActorCore, an asset store that provides 3D motion capture animations for characters, proved invaluable.

"To animate characters, we first needed a good topology," explains Rojas. "We also needed a functional rig, and clean motion capture animations. These are available with the iClone and ActorCore tools."

Best of all, the seamless integration between Character Creator, iClone and ActorCore allowed them to quickly animate their characters using a vast library of motion capture data. "If we didn't want to use the animations provided by the Reallusion library, we could export the characters," Rojas adds. "Once exported, we could work on their animations in Blender."

The future of cinema: democratising high-quality production

For Rojas, creating Rebus using Reallusion's tools has been transformative, reshaping his perspective on the future of digital filmmaking. "If you want to create a movie or short film, you shouldn't waste resources by creating each character individually," he asserts. Using tools like those provided by Reallusion is crucial. They represent, for me, the future of digital cinema for small and large teams."

The democratisation of high-quality production tools is a recurring theme in Rojas' vision for the industry. "Nowadays, we can't afford to have our egos affected by using tools that make production processes simpler," he argues.

"These tools make production processes faster, which for AAA companies are a daily occurrence. The important thing should be to express these ideas and concepts. We want to expose them to the world. We can bring this to reality."

A new era of creativity

As the film industry continues to evolve, tools like those offered by Reallusion are poised to play an increasingly central role. They offer a bridge between the ambitious visions of independent filmmakers and the high production values traditionally associated with big-budget studios.

By democratising access to professional-grade character creation and animation tools, Reallusion is helping to level the playing field, allowing talented creators like Alberto Méndez Rojas to bring their unique stories to the screen.

The future of cinema, as envisioned by Rojas and enabled by Reallusion, is one where creativity knows no bounds and the filmmaker's imagination is the only limit.