An as-yet undiscovered animated species makes its debut in a new video kicking off the adventures of the Claynosaurz. The concept was created by the indie studio of the same name, which was established in late 2021 as an avenue for co-founders Nic Cabana and Dan Cabral to develop and launch their own original intellectual property.
Veteran artists with notable feature film credits, the pair began building a universe around ‘Claynos’ — stylized versions of recognizable dinosaur species. After introducing various characters and environments as a steady stream of digital collectibles, Claynosaurz has released its first concept trailer, providing a closer look at the Clayno world.
After about two months of concept and development, CG production for the Clayno trailer kicked off in June 2023. While the team had lookdev and a pipeline in place for creating and rendering the digital collectible assets, realizing the trailer required a more robust setup.
“We couldn’t ask for a better stress test,” explained Cabana. “Not only were we further refining our characters and rigs, but we also had to hire more artists to bolster the team. Moving from creating two- to three-second animation cycles to a close to two-minute short — on the timeline and at the quality we wanted — required that we make our production cycle airtight.”
Comprising two distinct parts, the spot was partially inspired by ’90s toy commercials where kids were transported into the world of the advertised item. The first part of the trailer features a grounded, realistic aesthetic, providing a striking contrast to the fantasy Clayno world, which is more painterly. Artists drew from a mix of different styles in determining how the Clayno characters would emote, and would share animation tests with the Claynosaurz community via social media to solicit feedback.
“We wanted to stay true to the look and feel of what’s already been built in the Clayno realm, but take it to the next level in terms of character design,” noted Claynosaurz Animation Director Sebastien Bruneau. “Each dino’s shape informs how they move, but we experimented with variations, like how squishy they seem or how Rex swings his tiny arms. Humor is a big part of the style, and our intent here is to excite people for future Clayno adventures.”
A core team of 12 globally dispersed artists, with additional support from 25 freelancers, created the short in Autodesk Maya and Arnold using Conductor cloud-based rendering service. Claynosaurz Lighting & Compositing Lead William Liu noted, “Having all our artists working in different time zones was surprisingly easy with Conductor. It was super easy for them to install and start rendering with CPUs or GPUs. There was no adjustment period; we had lighters sending content on the farm from day one, and jobs were picked up and then returned super quick. We could focus on the creative 100% and know that our shots would render on time.”
“Rendering can be one of the biggest stresses on a project because one task can cannibalize resources and limit creatives in their jobs. As a lean startup, the cost of rendering can be a barrier to success; you can’t afford to make mistakes,” Cabana added. “With Conductor, we can render shots as many times as we need to get the look we want and don’t even think about render times. We don’t have to be cautious in the amount of iteration, and that keeps us flexible through the creative process. Also, the APIs are really simple to understand, and it’s easy to manage a team remotely.”
Bruneau added, “[With Conductor,] we had the ability and render power to make changes quickly, up until the last minute. Also, we could work in parallel. With on-prem farms, bottlenecks inevitably form around lighting and comp, making those artists feel pressure to work overtime so that there’s sufficient time to render.”
“For artists, I can’t think of a better model than how we’ve done it so far. We can work faster, with less risk, all the while creating a special experience for fans that makes them feel like a part of production,” Cabral concluded. “Conductor and CoreWeave are part of the Claynosaurz DNA; they provide us with speed and flexibility in our pipeline so that we can focus on creative. We couldn’t have created Claynos or our animated cinematic trailer without them.”
Meet the Claynos at claynosaurz.com and learn more about Conductor rendering services at conductortech.com.
