Discover the exclusive behind-the-scenes journey of Marvelous Designer's contribution to Half M.T studio's award-winning project, 'The Voice in the Hollow,' which proudly received the Jury Award at the 2023 Siggraph.

Interview with Half M.T Studios | The Voice in the Hollow

Introduction: Interviewee Artist & Half M.T Studios

I'm Miguel Ortega, a director and VFX supervisor at Half M.T Studios in Los Angeles, California. The studio, co-founded by Tran Ma and myself, gets its name from us - Half Miguel, Half Tran. Recently, we completed "The Voice in the Hollow," an African Animated Horror film rendered in Unreal Engine 5. We made this film with a small team, backed by the support of Gnomon.

Congratulations on the winning of the Jury Award at SIGGRAPH 2023! Can you tell us more about the project: 'VOICE IN THE HOLLOW'?

We're really honored to have won that award. I've been attending Siggraph ever since I was a student at Gnomon, which is over 18 years now. Getting an award from them means a lot to us. "The Voice in the Hollow" is a horror film we made completely in Swahili. It centers on two sisters and their jealousy. We managed to wrap it up in just 10 months, during the last part of the COVID pandemic.

Why did you decide to use Marvelous Designer? How did it help you serve art direction?

Marvelous Designer played a crucial role in our film. We mainly used Megascans assets, tweaking them into something entirely new. But with Marvelous Designer, we found we could add a lot of complexity to our sets without much effort. Fabric created in Marvelous Designer looks real, intricate, and beautiful, and it's surprisingly easy to work with. This was a game-changer for Tran, our lead Marvelous Designer artist. She was able to quickly bring a wide range of fabric details into our scenes, adding depth and realism in a short amount of time.

On top of enhancing our sets, we also used Marvelous Designer for all our characters' clothing. It was a straightforward process to design and simulate the cloth entirely within Marvelous Designer. This tool really streamlined the way we brought our characters to life, giving them a more authentic and dynamic look with minimal hassle.

Could you give us examples of some iconic scenes and characters Marvelous Designer has been used for?

My favorite scenes where we used Marvelous Designer are definitely the ceremony sequence and the final fight. In the ceremony scene, I got the set to a point where it looked pretty good, but then Tran came in and just elevated it. She added fabric everywhere - hanging from the ceiling, wrapped around bones, laid out as rugs - and it looked incredible.

For the final fight, using Marvelous Designer really added to the drama. We turned up the wind effects, so the characters' clothes were dramatically flapping in the wind, which I loved. It brought so much intensity to the scene. And all of this was designed and simulated in Marvelous Designer, which shows how powerful the tool can be.

We know that VOICE IN THE HOLLOW is successfully made with Unreal Engine 5. Can you give us a quick overview of your pipeline involving Marvelous Designer, Unreal Engine 5, and other tools?

Since we're a small team, finding the easiest and fastest methods is crucial for us. We discovered that using Alembic caches worked best for our workflow. Our process started with animating the characters in Maya. Then, we did shot modeling to address any deformation issues. After that, these models were brought into Marvelous Designer.

In Marvelous Designer, we'd create the cloth simulations, and then export them as Alembic (.ABC) files back to Maya. There, we reassigned the material properties before finally moving everything into Unreal Engine.

I'm sure there might be simpler ways to do this, but with our approach, we were able to turn around a shot in just minutes. This speed and efficiency were vital for our project's success, given our team's size.

We saw that the characters' clothes are animated in Marvelous Designer. Were there any challenges when you animated characters' clothes in Marvelous Designer? How did you overcome the challenges?

After we had a basic concept for the clothing in Marvelous Designer but before fully rigging the characters, we would first import the naked model into Mixamo, the free online rigging application. There, we applied basic running or jumping motion capture animations. This step allowed us to then bring these animated models back into Marvelous Designer, now with the clothing applied.

At this stage, while the character deformations weren't perfect, it was a critical point for us to identify any potential issues in the clothing simulations. We were constantly balancing between what looked visually appealing and what performed well in the simulation. If the clothing simulation didn't act as we anticipated, we'd adjust the costume design until it matched our expectations. This method was a practical way to ensure that the clothing would look good and behave realistically in the final animation, without having to wait for the characters to be fully rigged.

Are there any tips and tricks with Marvelous Designer that you can share with the community for animators?

​​A lot of what we've learned comes from Megan's (from the marvelous designer channel) incredible tutorials on YouTube. She's a fantastic resource, and I definitely recommend checking her out if you want to learn from the best. Also, every Friday at 1 PM PST, we do a live stream on the Gnomon YouTube channel. In these sessions, we dive into the process behind our current film. We're experimenting with Marvelous Designer in some pretty unconventional ways, especially using it for architectural details, which is turning out to be quite extraordinary.

How can you describe your overall experience of the use of the Marvelous Designer?

We absolutely love Marvelous Designer; it's been a game-changer for our work. Our passion for it has inspired our latest project, where we've created an entire world made of fabric. Every detail, from the spoons and forks to the intricate Art Nouveau architecture, is crafted in Marvelous Designer. This project, a testament to the versatility and power of Marvelous Designer, wouldn't have been possible without our deep commitment to exploring the full potential of this tool. So thank you guys!