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AVATAR: Jonathan Fawkner – VFX Supervisor – Framestore

Par
Vincent Frei
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Jonathan Fawkner is working since 10 year at Framestore. He has worked on the most biggest projects of the studio such as V FOR VENDETTA, THE GOLDEN COMPASS or THE DARK KNIGHT.

– Hi Mr Fawkner, how did Framestore came on one of the most excited project of those past years ?
We were contacted in late 2008 by VFX Producer Joyce Cox to pick up non-na’vi shots for Weta Digital and help them out.  We had worked on the Kryptonite Island for SUPERMAN RETURNS and Harvey Two-Face for THE DARK KNIGHT which Cox had previously been involved with.

– What was the sequences done at Framestore ?
Framestore did the sequences at Hell’s Gate, when Jake rolls onto the airfield in his weelchair and gets his first view of Pandora and later when he and the Avatar crew escape in the Sampson, as well as the pivotal scene where Jake meets Colonel Quarritch in the armour bay.

– Where you the only supervisor on this show ?
We were on a very tight time scale so I teamed up with VFX Supervisor Tim Webber to share the load.  We had 4 CG Supervisors as well.

– There was a lot of vfx houses involved on Avatar. How was the collaboration between you and them ?
Our collaboration was two fold.  Firstly we were receiving assets from Weta such as the ampSuit which they had already built and textured for other scenes.  But rigs and lighting is all proprietory so all that work needed to be duplicated.  There was then a healthy bit of competition with who could make the best looking amp suit.  Jim kept us up to date as to who was winning.  Other assets were developed here for the other facilities to use.  We also sometimes got competing reference, such as the underside of the Valkyrie drop ship, which you see clearly in our shot was only really seen in a couple of other shots, but one at ILM and one at Weta.  The two textures were completely different, so we ended up trying to make an amalgam of what we received.  It is never easy sharing assets and it can impact your schedules dramatically as you have no control of the stuff that you are expecting.

– How many artists have worked on the movie ?
For us, about 100

– Were you able to purpose ideas or all was already set up by James Cameron and Weta Digital ?
In theory everything was already set up by Jim.  He had all his Template animation and concept art.  But there were problems to solve too.  When Jim’s template was not quite accurate enough or if the template alterations he had made for composition reasons did not quite work on the big screen we needed to find elegant solutions that kept true to the photography but also made the shot about what motivated Jim to change it in the first place.  If we did what we wanted to do first without doing it Jim’s way he would be annoyed, but if you were able to show two different versions he was happy if your one was better.

– What was the most challenging shots ?
Hell’s Gate had a large number of assets in it.  Many many vehicles, buildings, digital doubles.  Not only that, the ground was wet, vehicles were kicking up spray, the trees were blowing around.  In itself this would have been hard enough but we had to match it into greenscreen plate photography which did not necessarily match well to the aesthetic that Jim was after for the background.  As the movie was in stereo it meant that every reflection had to be rendered in 3d, all the spray and clouds were 3d.

– Did you encounter some difficulties ?
The stereo aspect really meant that we were unable to employ so many tricks in compositing that we would normally apply.  At least not so easily.  Many effects elements needed to be rendered rather than just using flat 2d elements, and matte painting could not be used nearly as they would appear so flat.  That meant that we relied upon compositors to build convincing environments, layering light, puddles, and atmosphere in the 3d composting application.

– How was the collaboration with Jon Landau and James Cameron ?
Jim and Jon clearly had a lot of pressure on them, but it did not really show.  We mostly spoke to them over the video conference but Jon came to London in the middle of the production and took the whole crew out to see an extended edit from  the movie in 3d.  I think that really motivated the crew and it was a really great gesture.  Jim was incredibly professional.  He really knows his stuff and pours over detail in review sessions.  We really learned a lot from sessions with Jim and it allowed us to know what was important for him in a shot and what wasn’t so we weren’t wasting time.  It was pretty collaborative, despite quite a long chain of command.  Getting access to Jim was the most helpful thing in making progress on a shot.

– AVATAR is now released. What is your felling about this experience ?
It was an intense experience for everyone involved, and emotional.  Put into perspective we worked on a small amount of the movie but we are proud none-the-less.  Proud of our work certainly, but proud to be associated in the same field as everyone else that has achieved so much on AVATAR.

– What is your next project ?
I am currently working on the next narnia film, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER.

– Thanks a lot for your time.

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2010

GAINSBOURG (vie héroïque): Cédric Fayolle – VFX Supervisor – Mikros Image

Par
Vincent Frei
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Having worked as digital compositor at Mikros Image on films such as THE DALTONS, LOCKED OUT or TELL NO ONE, Cédric Fayolle becomes visual effects supervisor on PRICELESS. It since supervised several films like THE FOX AND THE CHILD, TOKYO!, THE VILLAIN.

– Hi Cédric, can you explain us your course?
 After a DEUG of cinema (Aix en Provence). I was hired to Mikros Image as nodal operator in 1997. Video signal and other vectorscope had no more secret for me, but frankly I began to have an eye attractive to graphic tablets, ultimately: Edit box, and to the Henry. In brief, I become an assistant graphic designer on Quantel, in the brand new section: cinema. I then evolved at the post of 2D graphic designer and then Lead compositing. All this by learning every time new software (Domino, AfterEffect, Shake, …). In 2006, Mikros suggests me to supervising « Hors de prix » directed by Pierre Salvadori, that pleased me so I continued.

– What did you made on this film?
 On  » Gainsbourg, vie héroïque « , we were first consulted and foremost for the matte-painting. The director had appreciated the work of our service and his person in charge Christophe Courgeau. We discussed 2 key scenes of the film, then came to be added various compositing shots. The work for us was relatively simple, but knowing the work of Joan Sfar, we owed be artistically irreproachable in our choices.

– The director comes from the Comics world. How was your collaboration?
 It is necessary to know that it was a 1st film, thus the director, been used to work alone for its comics, spoke to us in term of sensation, envy, and it was our work to interpret it in a technical way. For that purpose, we were helped by the director of photography Guillaume Shiffman, with whom I discussed a lot to determine which method was the most effective for 2 parts (shooting and postproduction).

– Coming from the world of the image, does the director had¤in mind a very precise idea of these effects in particular mattes-paintings?
 Our conversation was more complex and interesting. First of all, Joann gave me as information, the feeling that he want the audience will have while watching the scene. What left us a big range of freedom. For matte-paintings, we thus gave him several concepts, and we refined the mattes little by little, to speak only about picture and about material. It was thus for every presentation a small stress, because I always had the anxiety to say myself  » I hope we are not in kilometers of his vision « . But in the end, the way he explains me a scene was to be rather directive and\or explicit because we were often not very far from the final result.

– Did you use models or photos for the conception of mattes-paintings?
 In fact there are in the film 2 sorts of matte-paintings. The first one is totally arises from the Comics. That’s the flight of Gainsbourg over Paris. Joann wanted something very surrealist. An artist thus built really an imaginary Paris on 3 layers (roofs in foreground, roofs in background, and sky) which we really shooted. In matte-painting, we adjusted details and new foreground, then put back the actors suspended on wires on greenscreen.
For the sequence of Bardot and Gainsbourg in the apartment, he wanted a romantic view of Paris. We thus placed the maximum of monuments in the axis, and recreate an imaginary Paris. Trying to stay in the reality. But even there, the draftsman that he is in got over it, he really want to have aplat of sky, as he would have made it in his comics. We have made a lots of version quite a lot of time, but in the end, it obtained what he wanted to see… I hope.

– Have you worked on the characters of La Gueule and La Patate?
 For La Patate, we indeed work on it, because the team of DDT had no time to make the back-lit of the eyes. We have on all those shots rotoscoped the eyes and lit them.
For La Gueule, we made only a single shot, it is the one where he immolates himself with a match. The actor played the scene, put the match over the head and played as if the head was on fire. Our intervention was to bring down the match, and to make burn the head with double master passes on black screens which we had shot with a black stand-in of the head.


– How was established your team?
 As the work was essentially compositing, we were a small team. There were 2 persons for the matte-painting and 3 persons for the compositing (and roto reinforcements by moment). It was very friendly, we worked with the albums of Gainsbourg as a background sound…

– How many shots did you make?
 In the end, we made 150 shots. That goes from matte-painting shots, up to cleaning of the team in the reflections of dark glasses of Gainsbourg.

– What were challenges on this project?
 The challenge was especially to be as high as all the technicians and the artists that worked on this project. There was a crazy concentration of talents… I was intimidated. Between the DoP, the composer, the director, … . I said myself simply « I need to be at their level ». I thus wanted that our shots are 110 % def at least.

– What was the most complex sequence ?
 The Bardot’s scene. Because it is where I had most difficulties to understand the director’s intention. At the end, we have made a maximum of version: Sunset in the frame then out the frame, lens flare and without lens flare, cloudy sky, then clear sky, buildings against the light, then lit. We made for one shot, 52 versions of matte-paintings. In the end, Joann chose clear sky, building against the light, without lens flare. The goal wasn’t to attract the eye, because the object of all attention has to be Bardot and Gainsbourg singing Comic-Strip.


– What is software pipeline at Mikros?
 Classic pipeline. Maya for 3D, Photoshop for matte-paintings. compositing on Nuke and AfterEffects according to the specificities of the shots and to connect all this, the coffee machine where we debrief and takes back strengths.

– Did you encounters difficulties?
 As usual on all the prods. There are things which so frighten us that we prepare them completely, and in the end that goes very well. Then the things which we underestimate and that takes you very long time to achieve them. This prod rather took place serenely, and quietly, like a good reggae tube.

– How long did you work on this film?
 For my personal case, it extended over 1 year. Between moment where I began the work of preparation and the delivery. The shooting was made over 8 weeks, and the postproduction of the effects took place over 3 and a half months.

– Gainsbourg (vie héroïque) is about a very important french icon. What memory do you keep of this project?
 An enormous pride to have worked on this film, because it is an artist who speaks about another artist. And that the notion of tale, allows to be of advantage a tribute that a biopic. With the experience, I discovered that there was 2 cinema which I liked. The one for which I work, and who allows me to make interesting VFX, and the cinema which I like as spectator. With  » Gainsbourg « , I was lucky to have both in the same film and that it is rare I had the same privilege by working on « TOKYO », where I was lucky to make the effects for Michel Gondry and Leos Carax. It is in these moments, which we tell to ourselves that we make a really very very nice profession.

– The French visual effects are in a difficult pass these time with in particular the closure of several studios like Attitude Studio. What did yout think about this situation?
The French visual effects are delicate in France, because the market is not so big, and the French producers hesitate to put money in ambitious projects. I don’t think that we can produce a film like HARRY POTTER in France, because the French film would have to be better exported to be profitable with productions of that kind. I think that for the digital artists who want to made this kind of shots, they are right to leave France for other country.
Personally, what leads me, it is the collaboration with authors. And even if I have to make only a small matte-painting, a single compositing, I am extremely satisfied to bring my knowledge to more and more curious directors and applicants of our « new » technical of manufacturings, which relieve the shootings and the budgets of productions.

– Can you tell us what will be your next project?
 The end of year 2009 was rather quiet as for many. We however ended « small » effects of the next film of Olivier Baroux. And since the beginning of January, that seems to restart. In any case I read a lot of scenario, makes lots of estimate, but it is too early to speak about it.

– What are the 4 movies which has given you the passion for the cinema?
 It is a very very complicated question, because there’s a lots more than 4 movies but I will try anyway.
– THE AMERICAN NIGHT (F. Truffaut): Because I had the impression to assist for the first time at the making of a film. To understand the stakes. I loved the feeling to be behind the camera with the crew.
– WILD AT HEART (D. LYNCH): I have understood this day that the inde cinema could be fun, inventive and Rock&Roll. Since I discovered many others (EASY RIDER, SCARFACE, RAGING BULL, THE BIG LEBOWSKY, …) but this film has a particular place.
– LES APPRENTIS (P. SALVADORI): Because I took a great lesson of screenwriter. I had chance and honour to work with him on « PRICELESS », and I again took a slap on the actor’s direction… A big mister, a big respect!
– BRAZIL (T.Gilliam): Because I went out of the theater by saying to me,  » I have just seen a classic  » and it is extremly rare, I think that this never happened at me again.

A big thanks for your time.

If you want to learn more about Cedric Fayolle, go see his website.
© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2010

AVATAR: Mathilde Tollec – VFX Supervisor – BUF

Par
Vincent Frei
-

Mathilde Tollec entered at BUF in 2004. She became visual effects supervisor on the film RICKY and she has just ended the supervision of AVATAR.

– Hi Mathilde, can you explain us your course?
After a degree S, I studied computer graphics during 4 years in Supinfocom Valenciennes.
After the getting my certificate, I postulated in BUF.

– How did you arrive to BUF and what films did you supervise there?
Lasting during my third year in Supinfocom, I made my training period at BUF, I right away loved this company, that’s why I went back to it next year.
On my arrival at BUF I worked first during 1 years on advertising, then on films: « 2046 », « MY ANGEL », « BATMAN BEGINS », « HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE ». I supervised some advertising and then some sequences on films such as « SILENT HILL », « THE PRESTIGE » and « BABYLON AD ». Finally, I supervised the film « Ricky » directed by François Ozon.

– Was there a competition between the supervisors at BUF to know which would be in charge of AVATAR?
No.

– How did BUF to work on one of the films most expected from these last years?
BUF often works on American movies and has an office in Los angeles.

– Which sequences have you done?
We made 3 sequences on AVATAR: the transfer tunnels (these are the psychical tunnels by which Jake and the others pass to join their avatars) and two sequences at the very beginning of the film on the Earth (which are in the director’ s cut which you will see in the dvd) on whom we made set extensions.

– How was the conception of those « tunnels »? Did the team of James Cameron has already design them?
For tunnels, the team of James Cameron gave us a brief and some references of previous films, and of our sides, we made of numerous tests of designs and speed which allowed us arriving in final result without forgetting the relief which adds another dimension! It is only in stereo that they can realize that the tunnel is formed in reality of several tunnels of different diameters made by organic matter such as of neurones and of networks of veins, but also flux of energy, rings and of stripes light. One of the challenge was to make all that legible in spite of the very big speed and motion blur that it draws away.

– How was the Earth seen by James Cameron?
The earth seen by James Cameron is the the opposite of Pandora, the men destroyed all nature, it is overcrowded and overpolluted, people are made to carry air respirators to go for a walk on the street, streets and sky are saturated with advertising and holograms. The air trains replaced cars.

– Is it not too frustrating that some sequences are cut from the final edit?
No, it often arrives that the edit evolves in the course of post production. Furthermore this part of our job will be visible in the Director’s cut.

– Did the relief cause you some worries?
No, not particularly, our pipeline is very flexible and easily adaptable, more other stereos projects took place in BUF at the same time, therefore this was not for us unknown territory. The team of James Cameron has very well explained to us the stereo techniques and the problems of stereo was bet together between all others VFX vendors, Chuck Comisky the stereo supervisor was always very precise. But making a stereo shot is a longer and more complicated process than a mono shot.

– What is your software pipeline?
At BUF, we work only with in-house softwares. The research team and development is very present on films to answer our needs.

– How long you worked on this film?
We worked 9 months on the film.

– What was the size of your team??
As usual the size of the team evolves between the beginning and the end of the production, but we have about 20 persons.

– The movie is now finished, what feeling did you keep of this experience?
It was a very intense and very rewarding experience.
Even if this was intense and difficult, all team was happy to participate on this show and form with the stereo techniques.

– What is your next plan?
Go on holiday.

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2010

AVATAR: Hassan El Youbi – TD Lighting – Weta Digital

Par
Vincent Frei
-

Evolving for more than 10 years in the French and European postproduction, Hassan El Youbi worked in the most part of the Parisian studios as Mac Guff, Sparx or Duboi. He joins the teams of Weta Digital in summer 2008 for AVATAR.

– Hi Hassan, can you explain us your course?
 I’m a self-educated person in artistic domain. I headed for CNBDI Angoulême to have CG specialization in 1994.
My experience, I acquired it in different Parisian and European companies such as MacGuff or Duboi…

– How did you arrived on one of the most expected movie of these last years?
 Between two productions in Paris, I decided to fill the recruitment page of Weta Digital.
I was definitely far from suspecting that I went working on such quickly AVATAR, at this moment THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and LOVELY BONES were under way.

– What was your job position on AVATAR?
 I worked as Lighting Technical Director.

– Can you explain us of what consisted your job?
 At my arrival to Weta, I joined the SHOTS department of AVATAR.
We were in the center of the others departments: animation, living beings, « Clothdynamic », compositing, with daily updatings of information.
It was not rare to make some proposals of design, clothing or lighting.

– On which sequences did you work?
 I in most cases worked on night sequences:
– the sequence of battle with kinds of wolves Viperwolf, it was the first meeting between Jake and Neytiri.
– « Zen » sequence with the WoodSprites when Jake is encircled by small luminescent jellyfishes and accept them in his hand under the look of Neytiri.
– the Na’vis ride in the forest to the Hometree.
– the sequence of the Jake’s introduction, prisoner, to the leader of the village.
– the sequence of life inside Hometree.
I also worked on the sequence of the Hometree’s destruction.

– Night scenes are absolutely beautiful! Did you encounters some problems before arriving at this result?
 Not really, it was a true pleasure!
The workflow of Weta is ground well! On the basis of reference scenes, we had a broad field of research and covering which presented itself to us.
It was a true pleasure to light the characters in this world and the bioluminescence helped us to take down the depths of the jungle.
And what a surprise to see again these scenes in stereoscopy during projections daily!

– What was the size of your team?
 Hmm… when we took a sequence, we were no more than 2 artists and a lead at the beginning, this helped to prepare a workflow.
Once this task finished, the rest of the team joined us to finalize the job. Anyway, it depended on sequences, some of them asked many more artists than for others.

– How was a typical day on AVATAR?
 We prepared plans for meetings  » dailies  » in general in the morning to see if everything works; animation renders and compositing.
Then preparation of dispatches in the evening for conferences-call with James Cameron.

– The number of artists on the film is impressive. Did james Cameron explain you directly his ideas or did he pass by the VFX supervisors?
It became impressing the last 6 months (NDR: almost 900 artists only to Weta!!).
And concerning ideas and comments of James Cameron everything crossed by the supervisors what simplified task.

– For this film, Weta recruited some of the best artists in the world, how was the working ambience? I imagine that there had to be a true dynamics between all these artists?
I keep on it a very good memory!
What most marked me, it is the number of artist different nationalities which all speak the same language. To give you an example in my room: there was German two, an American, an Italian, an Japanese, an Egyptian and an Australian!

– What was the most complicated thing on this show for you?
 The huge amount of data to be managed! And this kept growing till the end.

– The movie is now released, what look do you have on this experience?
 On the human side, it was grandiose!

– You worked more than year on this film. What is your best memory?
 The country, people and job when the comments of the director was passionate.

– Apart from vacation, what is your next project?
 This is going to become clear in February

– Thank you Hassan for the time which you dedicated us.
 Thank you Vincent.

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2010

Welcome!

Par
Vincent Frei
-

[lang_fr]Bienvenue,

Merci de venir visiter mon blog. Il est officiellement ouvert et va vite se remplir d’interviews exclusives.

Bonne lecture.

Vincent[/lang_fr][lang_en]Welcome,

Thanks for visiting my blog. Its now officially open and lots of exclusives interviews will come soon.

Happy reading.

Vincent[/lang_en]

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