Sah El Nom Intro Made in VR with Quill

Take a look at this cool intro for Sah El Nom, a Syrian series, created in VR using Quill. Jamil Lahham, Animation Supervisor at Reel FX and the Director of the short, told us about the creation process.

The inspiration for this short faux intro

When “Sah El Nom” was on air, we in Syria didn't have many options to watch on television; it was 2 channels that broadcast 10 hours a day and that’s it, so we got to watch and rewatch “Sah El Nom” many times over the years, and sometimes we, as kids, preferred it over cartoons! Not because of the lack of options, the show itself was funny and it was a multi-generational success in the region, so much so it had sequels, prequels, and spinoffs, and all characters on the show were iconic and distinct in their looks, characteristics and their speech patterns. Yet unlike “Laurel and Hardy” or “Mr. Bean”, for example, they’ve never been animated, so revisiting “Sah El Nom” was a natural and nostalgic choice for me. I mean, what animator wouldn’t want to animate their childhood hero? 

The final look of this project is a result of my sincere admiration for such films as “The Witness”, “Love” by Alberto Mielgo, and The Lokals by Bozo Balov, as well as all the anime I’ve consumed growing up. That said, I intentionally avoided researching these influences in depth and instead let it seep through me as I make my short. I wanted my audience to feel my influences as opposed to getting slapped in the face by them if that makes sense.  

My beginnings with Quill

For a long time, my younger brother egged me on to try one of these headsets for exercise; According to him, it was a great tool for a workout, but the first thing I did when I finally bought one was install “Quill” as I’ve heard about it a couple of years prior through artists like Nick Ladd, Federico Breser and Goro Fujita. 

The app at first is very confusing with its extreme simplicity, especially for a heavy “Maya” user like myself. There were no viewports, no numeric parameters or predefined geometric shapes, or a keyboard... “What the hell am I doing here”? I kept asking myself, and the moment I laid my very first squiggly stroke in 3D space I knew this was going to be an addictive ride. 

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “If you can draw it, you can animate it”, with “Quill”, if you can draw it, you can animate it, in 3D, with cameras, and the ability to paint the light, all while bypassing all the principles a traditional pipeline required for any production of any size! 

So animators who draw/paint can now go from concept to animation in no time! And that’s all I needed to know to commit to it; simply put, Quill allowed me to be the one-man band I needed to be for this project and for all my future projects. 

About Quill

Generally speaking, I think the steepest learning curve is getting over the simplistic interface/controls, especially for artists who come from a PC program environment; that said, the learning curve can be flattened out quickly with the right mindset and excitement. I remember in my early days, I’d spend hours in the headset mindlessly making random marks just so I could learn the shortcuts, and I got over the hump fairly quickly, and things tend to move faster when one can actually draw well; seeing your drawings forme in 3D right before your eyes is an absolute rush! So I'd say having a solid background in drawing is a must. Another skill set that comes in handy with “Quill” is creative thinking/problem-solving.

Quill is limited by design, it is meant to combine traditional animation and CG animation in one virtual space, and while it offers a lot of features, it lacks the features one can only find in a full traditional 3D software, so it boils down to the creators’ vision of how to utilize these limitations and turn them into strength, aka, style. I read all kinds of negative reviews and opinions online about how “awful” and “limiting” Quill is, and all I can think is: the tool is as limited as your imagination, man!    

Much like all sculpting programs, Quill lets you naturally lay down geometry in strokes with different profiles, I’d like to think of it as “Digital clay”, once a mark is made you then have the tools to edit and tweak those markings to your liking, and since there isn’t any bones/traditional rigging system in Quill, every frame you see becomes its own sculpture/blendshape, which gives the artist a complete authority and control over every little detail and decision that goes into the crafting of every frame, something I assume every creative out there craves.    

On the technical side, Quill offers two ways of outputting a film:

1. The classic flat rendering like in any CG film. 

2. The immersive experience option, 360 degrees. 

Personally, I wanted to take on the challenge of creating both versions as a practice for future projects, so I had to come up with a special setup that allows for an identical experience for the audience in either viewing option. 

About the production 

I worked on this project for about 6 months during which the story changed about 3 different times, and it really shouldn’t have, but since “Sah El Nom” was so personal to me and I worked on it solo, I was a bit harsher in my judgments towards the state of the project, so it kept evolving and changing, and in a way, that was the hardest challenge. Not having an artist partner that understands the original material enough to give valid feedback. The most satisfaction I felt was the moment I had something worth sharing with colleagues and their reactions were absolutely comforting. It feels good when a piece of work lands right. 

My experience overall 

Going into this project I wanted to achieve two main goals:

1. To stress test my vision as a filmmaker and a “Quill” artist.

2. To develop my own workflow in Quill for my next short film.

Following the story changes I became very insecure and unsure about my work; I was constantly wondering, "Where am I going with this? And will it even matter?" It was like looking for excuses to quit! And then it was the small wins every other week that gave me hope and pushed me to see this project through… Watching the short all rendered and done now, I feel very happy and satisfied with the outcome, and looking back at when I started, I would have never thought that I’d be typing out answers to questions of interest in this project! And that is a humbling and gratifying experience that I don’t take for granted, and I can not wait to embark on the next project.   

You can find Jamil's other projects on Instagram.

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