Cirque Du Soleil's Auana unfolds in eight chapters, opening with these animations which depict the Polynesian migration to Hawaii and the genesis of the islands as the Demigod Maui pulled them up from the ocean floor.
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The voyage continues from dusk until dawn, the canoes guided across the ocean by the stars and the seabirds.
Storyboard
The creative team had a storyboard outlining some ten to twelve shots that were needed. Collaborating closely, even when they moved onsite to Hawaii, the look, movement, sound and vision came together over the course of the project.
Motion On The Ocean
Most assets were built from scratch although a few purchased 3D models were used and modified. Cinema 4D’s cloth dynamics were leveraged for the sails and rigging on the canoes and X-Particles xpOcean was used for the sea. The boat animation relied heavily on GSG Signal to control pitch, yaw and bank. The Fleet’s transit was a mixture of the fleet moving forward and the ocean moving backward. This helped with subtle camera animation as it’s overall position remained static.
Lighting
Working with Redshift, HDRIs handled most of the heavy lifting for the lighting and the sunsets in particular worked beautifully across the ocean. Problems arose when trying to get the same vibe from above. Some creative licence was taken by placing huge textured light sources which shone up from the depths to give enough light where there might otherwise be darkness.
Flock of Seagulls
Actually arctic terns, but heavily stylized to suit the Auana vibe. Working with the Creative Directors interactively, the birds positions, their numbers and flight characteristics were all fine tuned in the viewport before rendering for final quality.
The Curtain Drops
Final output involved projecting the imagery onto the Kabuki Curtain, a semicircular drape used to conceal the performers during transitions. More content was also supplied for LED screens at the venue including a huge screen behind the main stage. Rendering was aided enormously by Topaz Video AI to upscale comparatively low res renders up to the required 5K 60fps output. The creative team in Hawaii took all of the content into After Effects to add a grade to compensate for the orange curtain and integrate into the broader piece.
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