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SKYFALL: Lara Lom – Senior VFX Coordinator – MPC

By
Vincent Frei
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Lara Lom began her VFX career at Pixomondo and worked on the films FAST FIVE and HUGO. She then joined MPC in 2011 and participated in numerous projects such as DARK SHADOWS, TOTAL RECALL and PROMETHEUS.

What is your background?
I always aspired to a career in the film industry, but it was by chance that I fell into Visual Effects. Originally from Geneva, Switzerland, I packed my dreams of becoming a writer and actress and moved to the U.S. to pursue my undergraduate university degree in film, theatre, and literature. I then came to the U.K. to pursue my Master’s in playwriting and screenwriting. Upon graduating, I became involved in film doing on-set and pre-production work for the Skillset Film Lab, in association with the BBC, before meeting a VFX Producer who introduced me to the world of visual effects. I was immediately amazed by the technology and role that VFX plays in today’s modern films. I knew then that I wanted to pursue a career in this field. My VFX career began at Pixomondo, in Berlin, working on such films as Martin Scorsese’s HUGO, before moving back to London last year to join the team at MPC. Though my job keeps me happy and busy, I remain active in theatre, especially playwriting, having had a few of my plays produced at several theatre festivals in the U.S.A.

How did you get involved in this show?
I had just completed work on TOTAL RECALL when I was asked to join the SKYFALL crew. I was familiar with the team, having worked with them on another project before.

How was your collaboration with VFX Supervisor Arundi Asregadoo?
I had the privilege of working with Arundi on Tim Burton’s DARK SHADOWS, and it was fascinating to see him tackle a completely different film like Bond. From comedy and fantasy to action and crime, I watched him adapt to a different film genre and deal with the different goals and challenges that come with it, which Arundi did seamlessly well. From a production’s perspective, Arundi is wonderful to work with. He is undoubtedly talented, but he is incredibly focused and hardworking too. I have tremendous respect for his drive and eagerness to make Sam Mendes’ ideas come to life.

What have you done on this movie?
MPC’s work centers on the film’s final sequence, which takes place at Skyfall in Scotland. It includes a lot of environment work (mountains, landscape, and ice lake), the destruction of the iconic DB5, the helicopter crash, and the burning of Bond’s childhood home.

What are the sequences on which you have worked?
The sequences were shared among two coordinators. I personally oversaw the sequences with the helicopter crash, the burning house, and the chase across the moor.


How did you collaborate with VFX Producer Philip Greenlow?
I have worked with Phil before on Tim Burton’s DARK SHADOWS. As an aspiring producer, I find him to be an inspiration. He is relatively young yet very capable in his role. It would be a great achievement for me to be as good a producer as he is by the time I am 30.

Can you tell us more about one of your typical days on this show?
As a Show Coordinator, as opposed to a Department Coordinator (MPC has both), my role was to assist the Producer and Supervisors as much as possible and liaise schedule and client information across the various departments. A daily plan was discussed every morning with the Supervisors and Show Production team after which I remained close to the the VFX Supervisor, Arundi Asregadoo, and CG Supervisor, Sheldon Stopsack, to aid them in reviews and ensure that their time was utilized as efficiently as possible across departments.

How have you work with the various departments?
At MPC, there are two different kinds of coordinators: Department Coordinators and Show Coordinators. Department Coordinators work directly with their department’s respective artists while Show Coordinators liaise feedback, client requests, and schedule information across the various departments. As a Show Coordinator, I tried to facilitate the workflow, especially in the comp and environment departments, in which the majority of work was carried out. Having the bulk of our work done in just two departments was extremely beneficial to our artists who profited from Arundi’s strong presence and involvement. As for the rest of the 3D work, it was led by Sheldon Stopsack who is another of MPC’s talented CG Supervisors and was able to overcome many of the obstacles the team came across.

Can you tell us more about your workflow management tools?
MPC uses an in-house developed production tool called Pronto. It differs from other systems which I know in that it is broken down into various subgroups which allow schedule ownership for both the show and department production teams. Though both will work concurrently with each other, following the show’s overall production schedule, Pronto offers a certain level of independence for the individual departments as well.

What was your feeling to work on a James Bond movie?
Exciting and intimidating at the same time. It is incredible to be part of the James Bond franchise but also daunting as the expectations are so high. One wants to do it justice.

What was the biggest challenge on this project and how did you achieve it?
As Arundi mentioned in his own interview, the chase across the moor with the burning house in the background was a technical challenge for our team. It was of utmost importance to create the scene that Roger Deakins (DOP) had so ingeniously orchestrated in his mind. From a production’s point of view, it was important to anticipate the scene’s technical obstacles. Considering the importance of the scene, our schedule had to reflect a quick turnaround to encourage early client feedback.

Was there a shot or a sequence that prevented you from sleep?
It would have to be the helicopter crash. One of the main complexities was to create the deformation of the helicopter’s structure upon impact. We decided to experiment with the shot, changing the deformation levels of the helicopter’s shell, altering the speed of the crash, and playing with the various effects (smoke, sparks, and debris), which from a production’s perspective was tricky to schedule. Since this is such an important and difficult shot in the sequence, the challenge was to complete the shot as fast as possible to view it in the cut for continuity purposes.

What do you keep from this experience?
That Bond looks better than ever as it celebrates its 50 year anniversary this year!

How long have you worked on this film?
About 6 months.


What advice would you give to a young Swiss who would like to start a VFX career?
Switzerland is an amazing country in which to grow up and live, but I have acquired the most invaluable lessons and enriching experiences for my career through my travels around the world where I have had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the most talented individuals in the industry. From London to New Zealand, the visual effects houses are varied, and I would recommend any Swiss person aspiring to work in visual effects to take advantage of the industry’s geographical opportunities. Although several VFX companies reside in Switzerland, the work remains limited, so it is encouraging to see more and more Swiss VFX professionals dispersed around the globe, working for some of the best companies in the field. With time, I think it would be great for those Swiss VFX professionals to come home and share their international knowledge and skills so that Switzerland may grow a strong and reputable VFX industry of its own.

What is your next project?
I am currently involved on Ridley Scott’s THE COUNSELOR. Concurrently, I am offering production support and training to the MPC team in Bangalore.

What are the four movies that gave you the passion for cinema?
Tim Burton’s BIG FISH for its story and unconventional creativity, Mel Brooks’ THE PRODUCERS for making me laugh, Alfred Hitchcock’s SHADOW OF A DOUBT for the mystery and suspense, and Michael Bay’s TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON for its visual effects.

A big thanks for your time.

// WANT TO KNOW MORE?

– MPC: Dedicated page about SKYFALL on MPC website.





© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2012

SKYFALL: Jon Neill – VFX Supervisor – Cinesite

By
Vincent Frei
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Jon Neill joined Cinesite more than 15 years ago. He has worked on many projects such as EVENT HORIZON, LOST IN SPACE, THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY or HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. As VFX supervisor, he took care of JOHN CARTER.

What is your background?
I have a background in traditional art and hold a degree in drawing and painting and a post-graduate diploma in electronic imaging. Before I became a VFX supervisor, I held CG supervisor and lighting roles. My credits at Cinesite include overseeing a large portion of shots on Disney’s JOHN CARTER, WOLVERINE, HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY and 3 of the HARRY POTTER films.

How did Cinesite get involved on this show?
The VFX production team invited us to bid on several sequences, including the Komodo dragon, and to undertake a test.

How was the collaboration with director Sam Mendes and Production VFX Supervisor Steve Begg?
It was quite straight forward because they both knew what they wanted. It was just a matter of working up the shots until we got what they wanted. There were no moving goal posts, which can be quite rare in this industry.

What have you done on this show?
We were asked to complete 4 main VFX sequences, 3 of which were in the London Underground system. The Platform/tunnel chase, where we were required to do mainly tunnel and CG train extensions with some driver replacement. An escalator chase which required set extension, set replacement and rig removal. The Catacomb train crash again we had a set extension beyond the arches, lots of camera and rig clean up, dust and debris enhancement. Finally we had the Komodo dragon fight sequence. Here we created full cg photo real Komodo dragons that interact with the environment and the actors.


At one point, James Bond fights a villain and they find themselves facing Komodo Dragons. How did you create and rig these dragons?
The director wanted the action to be low key, just komodo’s lurking in the background waiting to pounce. The director and DP wanted the sequence to have a dark, dramatic and sinister atmosphere where the komodos were silhouetted, rim lit and looming out of the shadows.

This suited us because we immediately had a creative lighting scenario to work from. We wanted to exaggerate their aggressiveness so we added scars to their head and bodies. The clients also wanted them to have eye glints, like cats eyes in the headlights, this was to make them even more evil looking and also so that the audience could pick them out in the dark. But we had to make sure they stayed on the sinister side and not become too fantastical.

We were lucky that London Zoo had 2 Komodo dragons in captivity. One was hand reared and so was friendly enough for the keepers and our Photographer to get in with him. They had a room attached to the main enclosure connected by a trap door. So we were able to get in and set up our lights.?We covered the ceiling with a white drape and also painted the walls white,?this gave us good light exposure across the whole room.?We needed to get in close and of course we couldn’t make the animal stay completely still, so we shot hand held. The close, high res images allowed us to see clearly how details like the eyes were made up and how the scales changed pattern when they met all the different features. It also gave good reference for our shader and look development team. Although the ref we got at the zoo was vital for the texture we felt that he looked a little too healthy and cute. Because he was looked after he was clean and well fed. So we looked online to see how the wild komodo dragons differed.

Is an animatronic used on the set for close up shots and lighting references?
We had a stuffie for composition and lighting shadow reference. All the shots were full cg.

How did you manage the animation and lighting challenges?
For the animation reference we used a combination of online and video we shot at the zoo. For the online reference we got a variety of komodos in different environments and on different ground surfaces and lighting conditions. The fingers, toes seemed lifeless, all the movement was in the wrist and elbow, the toes just dragged along. We could see how the jiggle looked on the stomach, neck and legs on the bigger komodos.

For the zoo reference we set up 3 cameras at different heights and angles. The zookeepers threw in dead mice and the komodo scuttled around after them. Because this komodo was brought in from the wild we couldn’t go in with it, the keepers wouldn’t go in either. We synced the cameras with a clap of the hands and let them run. This allowed the animators to have an all round view of what was going on.

The lighting was generated by four banks of flickering candles and an overhead paper lantern high up on the ceiling. For the candle banks, we took still HDR images and made a cycle which was mapped onto area lights to give interactive flickering to the komodo’s and their shadows. Because we had the cg set, we could attach hdri images to the geometry. This gave us a light rig that matched the real set. We used area lights to ensure proper shadow density and falloff. Lights sources like the paper lanterns on the bridge were attached to an incandescent shader and mapped with HDRI images.

James Bond is chasing the big bad guy in a London Underground impressive sequence. Can you tell us more about the shooting of this sequence?
The platform chase sequence features shots filmed on location in Charing Cross Underground and on set at the Pinewood 007 stage cut together. The scene follows Bond running and jumping on the back of a tube carriage. Two practical train carriages were built by production on the Pinewood 007 stage and rigged to travel down the rails.

What was your work on the escalator chase?
The escalator chase sequence required rig removal and set extension. The rig consisted of a sledge attached to a wire and a mechanism which lowered the sledge from the top of the escalator, this was covered in green screen. This was for Bond and Silva to slide down the escalator in a controlled, safe way. The middle of the escalator was modified to be smoother at the bottom, all sharp objects covered over. We would need to put these objects back in post.

Can you tell us more about the CG train and tunnel extensions?
These shots would require mainly tunnel and CG train extension with some driver replacement. We shot some of the sequence at Charing Cross and the rest at Pinewood. Half a practical train carriage and a large part of the platform and tunnels were built on the 007 stage. At the real station we took reference stills and lots of measurements. But we used the reference from the set as this was what we would need to extend.

The team augmented the physical effects by extending the carriage, adding other CG carriages with passengers composited in, and compositing the train driver into the scene.

The chase ends with a spectacular train crash. How did you work with the practical FX?
This is part of the catacomb sequence that features an explosion and a dramatic train crash that was devised by SKYFALL’S special effects department. Shot on the Pinewood 007 stage, a practical train was rigged to the ceiling and crashes into the scene from the corner. To enhance the look, we created a digital set extension to expand the arches in the catacomb and give it a greater sense of depth. We also digitally removed the camera crew that was positioned in front of Bond as the train comes crashing down, as well as the rig the train was suspended on, and enhanced the practical dust and debris with 3D particles.

What was the biggest challenge on this project and how did you achieve it?
With a Bond film the challenge is always to ensure the reputation the franchise holds for performing physical effects and stunts is upheld. So, all the digital effects we created had to be photo-real to complement the productions.

On SKYFALL there was a reluctance to use green screen onset unless absolutely necessary. I learned that in some situations just using roto instead could create a better result. Roger Deakins (DoP) didn’t want green contaminating his lighting so preferred black or grey. In the train crash sequence where there were 10 cameras set up, I couldn’t put up green or black screens as they would have been in the way of at least two cameras and we didn’t know what shots they would end up using. So we shot Bond with all 10 locked off cameras then we shot the crash with all 10 cameras and roto’d Bond in. This meant that Bond was in the exact lighting; he was convincingly there, more so than if we shot him in a green room later.

Was there a shot or a sequence that prevented you from sleep?
The komodo shot going in to bite the ankle didn’t look right up until 2 days before deadline. So we re-rigged, re-animated, re-lit and re-comped, all in 2 days. It worked though.

What was your feeling to be part on a James Bond movie?
It’s a fantastic feeling to be part of a Bond film. SKYFALL marks the sixth Bond film that Cinesite have worked on and it’s always a pleasure to be involved with the franchise.

What do you keep from this experience?
That it’s great to work on a set where the crew is so organised, it makes my job a lot easier.

How long have you worked on this film?
We started working on the film in January this year (2012) and delivered it in September.

How many shots have you done?
We worked on nearly 100 shots.

What was the size of your team?
At its peak, we had 40 artists work on the film.

What is your next project?
We have a lot of exciting films we are currently bidding for, and hope to announce soon.

What are the four movies that gave you the passion for cinema?
As well as the usual films (Like 2001 & BLADE RUNNER), LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, VERTIGO, THE GODFATHER, DUNE, even with the rough at the edges FX.

A big thanks for your time.

// WANT TO KNOW MORE?

– Cinesite: Dedicated page about SKYFALL on Cinesite website.





© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2012

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 2 : Eric Leven – VFX Supervisor – Tippett Studio

By
Vincent Frei
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Eric Leven began his career in VFX and at Tippett Studio on STARSHIP TROOPERS. He has participated in many projects such as ARMAGGEDON or HOLLOW MAN. As VFX supervisor, he took care of movies like CLOVERFIELD, SEASON OF THE WITCH or THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE.

What is your background?
I’d always wanted to work in the VFX industry, so I studied film on the east coast and started working on commercials after graduation in the early 90s. Picked up come CG experience during that time and went to work for Tippett on STARSHIP TROOPERS in ’96. The combination of practical filmmaking experience (I continued to shoot short films while working at Tippett) and knowledge of CG proved invaluable at Tippett, where we really use both sets of skills in everything we do.

How was the collaboration with director Bill Condon?
It was the best part of the film; Bill was incredibly collaborative and really allowed us to take the wolf scenes where we wanted to go with them. He also treated the wolves as characters, and not props or “assets”. His direction was “Jacob seems sad, but should be concerned” instead of “Jacob’s head is too low”. This is absolutely the best way to work with a director and I think made the scenes with the wolves as good as they could be.

How did you work with Production VFX Supervisor John Bruno?
John was very collaborative and after speaking with us about his concerns for a sequence, really let us run with the bulk of the vfx design and creation for the wolf scenes. This started with storyboarding, through previz and shooting, and all the way out to finished shots. John was really a pleasure to work with, and the fact that someone with his level of expertise trusted us so much speaks to his character as a vfx supervisor.

What have you done on this show?
We created the all digital wolves for both BREAKING DAWN 1 and 2.

How did you split the work with Phil Tippett?
Phil and I were both on set overseeing the wolf shots, and often times had to split up among the production units that were shooting at the same time. For example, while he was working on second unit with the big wolf running shots, I would be with first unit working with Taylor as he changes into a wolf. In BD1 there were two big wolf sequences, and Phil and I each oversaw one of them (the lumberyard gathering and the wolf/Cullen fight respectively). On BD2 the bulk of the work was the huge third act battle, and Phil and I worked together for six weeks on that sequence.

Once we brought the work back and started postproduction, Phil stepped back and acted as a general overseer of all the work while the crew and I worked to complete the shots.

Can you tell us more about the snowflakes creation?
The snowflakes we generated for only for sticking in the wolves’ fur, and our effects animation team expanded on the work they first did in ECLIPSE.

How did you create the various digital doubles?
There were scans made of all the actors on the set, and we used those as the basis for our digital doubles. For one reason or another, the scans end up never working 100% correctly, so we also have lots of reference pictures of the actors. Then our sculptors use the difference references to create the final digital doubles.

Can you tell us more about the previsualization for the final battle?
The sequence was so large that it was previz’ed on multiple fronts. There were stunt animatics, story reels from the storyboards, and previz for some of the scenes with large number of actors to simplify choreography. Our team pre-viz’ed all the major sequences with the wolves, including their charge, and any major attacks against the Volturi. We like to work very rough, without any aesthetic niceties such as texture maps or different character models for the humans (all our humans are just naked generic men in different colors). Other companies go far as to add particle animation for snowfall and custom face textures for each character, but we find that the most important thing to get out of previz is camera placement and speed, so we’re able to determine where to put the camera and how to shoot on the day, since location shooting time is so precious.

Can you explain to us more about the shooting of the final battle?
The entire battle was filmed on a sound stage in Baton Rogue Louisiana for six weeks. It was covered with fake paper snow on the ground (which we worked hard not to dirty), and surrounded on three sides with green screen. The schedule was very short for a scene of this size with dozens of actors, so each day was figuring out what was necessary to complete a sequence. It’s a testament to Bill and the 2nd unit director E.J. Forster that the final battle was assembled from all the little sequences that were storyboarded, pre-viz’ed, or just made up on the spot. It seemed a little random and chaotic while we were shooting, but through the editing work of Virginia Katz and Ian Slater, the sequence really came together in the finished film.

How were simulated the wolves presence on-set?
We use full-size wolf “standees” which are plastic mockups that approximate the size and volume of the wolves. They’re invaluable for lining up the camera in the right place and also allowing the actors and crew to see just where the wolves will be and how they’ll “act”. Typically I will walk through the scene with a wolf standee and move the way the wolf will, so everyone gets an idea of just how the wolf will ultimately be in the finished shot.

The last episode features new wolf characters. Can you tell us more about their creation?
There were six new young wolves for BD2. Bill wanted to make sure that they felt like they were part of Jacob’s pack by using similar color and markings as Jacob. One wolf in particular, the youngest, was made to stand out by having a very specific series of markings. We called him “Petey” because he had a ring around his eye similar to the dog in the Little Rascals.

The final battle involve many wolves. How did you manage their animation?
Some of the shots did have full hand animation for up to 16 wolves, but since so much of the battle was so frenetic, we created a library of animation assets that were used throughout the sequence. These library assets were designed to look as good as possible from many different angles, and could be dropped into the background of different shots. Depending what was happening in the scene at the time, the wolves could be “winning” or “losing” to keep the character of the fight feeling as specific as possible.

How did you manage the render for many creatures?
Our render-farm is pretty robust at this point, but yes, with so many creatures, often times it’s a matter of optimizing renders where necessary. For example, lower fur counts on wolves that are far away or heavily motion blurred.


What’s the main difference with the previous episode on the technical side?
The number of wolves and the number of shots were the main technical challenges; using 3-d compositing with Nuke as well as the library of animation helped tremendously with those issues.


How did you work with the other vendors?
We worked closely with Hydraulx and Lola because we needed to pass assets back and forth between the three companies. For most of the battle sequence, Hydraulx would be responsible for replacing the green screen with an environmental background (as well as other place fixes). So there was a lot of coordination between us to get the proper background from Hydraulx, often with beauty and other fixes from Lola, to us where we composited in the wolves.

What was the biggest challenge on this project and how did you achieve it?
Getting Renesmee to ride on top of Jacob was a new challenge for us; we’d never had that much interaction between the wolves and a person. We partnered with Legacy effects, who built a full size wolf saddle that Mackenzie Foy could sit on. For certain idling shots we can hand puppeteer the saddle with Mackenzie on it by connecting it to a simple gimbal rig. For more complex shots, we converted our run cycle and other animations to motion control curves. Then a full motion control hydraulic rig animated the saddle with Mackenzie on it to match our wolf animation. By blending the practical wolf fur on the saddle with CG fur (and occasionally replacing Mackenzie’s legs with CG ones), we were able to make it appear that Renesmee and Jacob were riding through the forest together.




Was there a shot or a sequence that prevented you from sleep?
The most difficult shots were the ones where we were asked to give the vampires super-human abilities; when Santiago had to run at 40mph, for example. Those shots are an incredible balance of the needs of the shot (a vampire running at “vampire speed”) vs. what we recognize instinctively as not real. As humans, our brains have a deep understanding of how other humans move and we know on a very deep level that people can’t run at 40mph. Whenever we see that, we instantly know it’s fake. So we had to walk a fine line to find the right action and speed for the vampire, and that took a long time to find.

What do you keep from this experience?
Personally I loved working on these films, because as technically challenging as they were, it was such a joy to work with all the different personalities. We worked with director Bill Condon for over two years on this, and it was such a wonderful collaboration that you don’t often see on big budget vfx movies. Too often, vfx companies are treated as interchangeable “vendors”, but Bill, vfx sups John Bruno & Terry Windell, and editor Virginia Katz, really valued us as artists and collaborators, and I think that allows us to do our finest work.

How long have you worked on this film?
We started storyboards and previz in mid 2010, then shot both movies at the same time. We wrapped BD1 in mid 2011, and BD2 in late 2012. So over two years for both movies.

How many shots have you done?
380 for BD2, about 150 for BD1.

What was the size of your team?
About 100 people.

What is your next project?
Right now we’re working on M. Night Shyamalan’s next film, which stars Will Smith and his son, Jaden.

A big thanks for your time.

// WANT TO KNOW MORE?

– Tippett Studio: Page spéciale THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 2 sur le site de Tippett Studio.





© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2012

END OF WATCH: Adam Avitabile – VFX Supervisor – Look Effects

By
Vincent Frei
-

Adam Avitabile has explained to us the visual effects of Look Effects on the season finale of LOST. Then he worked on projects like LIMITLESS, FAST FIVE or THE MUPPETS.

How did Look Effects get involved on this show?
We were contacted by the producers of the movie who had been impressed by some of our earlier work.

What were the expectations of director David Ayer about the visual effects?
David’s main goal was to keep the effects grounded in as much reality as possible. END OF WATCH is not the kind of movie that required flashy, over-the-top effects. Our job was to enhance the movie’s gritty realism when needed and to help solve the problems that arise when shooting a movie like this.

Can you tell us in details about your collaboration with him?
David was great to work with. He had a very clear idea of what he wanted and was able to relay that to myself and the artists in great detail. Since the majority of the effects we did for END OF WATCH had to do with gunfights between the police and various gang members, David really wanted our work to be as accurate as possible. He has an amazing personal and working relationship with various members of law enforcement, and was able to use this knowledge to steer us in the right directions.

Can you explain to us how you help the story with the VFX?
Many parts of END OF WATCH show how dangerous and violent being a police officer can be. Our job was to amp up these moments to show the utter chaos that can happen while on the job in a safe way for the actors.

Does the handheld shooting causes you some troubles?
Absolutely. Not only was the majority of the movie shot handheld, some of the cameras that were used had CMOS sensors. That means that instead of a single image being captured as a whole, it is recorded from top of frame down. What this leads to is what is sometimes referred to as “jelly cam”. The image won’t move as a cohesive whole, but rather parts of the image will move independently of other parts. This makes it very difficult to track anything to the footage. There are ways to get around this problem, but it definitely makes things more complicated.

How did you enhance the various gunfights?
There were many moments where we needed to add muzzle flashes and interactive light to the tense gun battles. Going back to the issues of filming with CMOS sensors, sometimes the practical muzzle flashes captured came out cut off. The camera starts to record the image from the top down, so the top of the muzzle flash might be there, but the bottom would not. David actually took a liking to the look of this, so we were tasked to recreate the look.

Can you tell us more about your work on the bloody aspects of the movie?
I actually remember having a conversation with David about how many skull fragments we were to create coming out of one poor fellow’s skull after an unfortunate bullet wound to the head. There was always a call to increase the gore factor when it made sense. We created bullet holes in eye sockets, chest wounds and arm and leg hits. We used a number of filmed blood elements we already had from various other projects and composited them into the scenes, adding colored smoke elements as well to create a blood mist. All in all, there was a ton of blood being thrown around.

The movie is seen through various cameras and videos. How did you manage this aspect?
Thankfully, the not-so-inconsequential task of wrangling all the various camera formats was done mostly by the editorial staff. Our main job was to match the look of whatever footage we were given, regardless of the source.

Have you made some clean up work such as crew removal?
Being that this was mostly a handheld movie, some being chest-mounted cameras worn by actors, there was always some unwanted element to remove. The camera just moved around too much to hide everything. Anything from crew members, lights, rigs and crew equipment had to be taken out.

Is there any other invisible effects that you want to reveal to us?
There weren’t too many invisible effects going on, except for removing the unwanted elements mentioned above, but one I can think of had to do with a car chase towards the beginning of the movie. The view is seen through the dash cam of the main actor’s police cruiser that is chasing down a suspect vehicle. After many twists and turns, the police officers force the car to the side of the road, where the suspects exit the vehicle and are gunned down by the officers. Since this was a bit of a long chase, it didn’t make sense to have the actors playing the suspects be in the car. David decided to have two identical cars for this scene. One that was being driven by a precision driver and one that had the actors in it parked on the side of the road. When the stunt car got close to the point that the shoot-out was supposed to occur, the driver made a sharp turn out of frame for a second. This is the point that the sister car drove into frame and crashed into a nearby fence, letting the actors spill out. What we did was color-correct the waiting car so that the audience didn’t notice it as the chase car pulled up. A couple of frames later, the first car pulls away, the color-corrected car (now back to it¹s original color) pulls in, and no one is the wiser. Switcheroo!

What was the biggest challenge on this project and how did you achieve it?
I think the biggest challenge was trying to match the look of the various formats we were being delivered. From hi-res digital footage, to consumer level CMOS sensor issues. It all had to look seamless. We, in the effects world, are always striving to make things look as pristine as possible, but sometimes trying to degrade images to match a format is very difficult.

Was there a shot or sequence that prevented you from sleep?
There have been many projects that I have been involved with that I have lost countless hours of sleep from, but thankfully this was not one of them. For the most part, this went very smoothly. David had very clear direction and we were able to meet his expectations without much fuss.

What do you keep from this experience?
I think that working on END OF WATCH helped me to understand a tiny bit more what it is like to be a police officer in a major city. Obviously, you can pick some of this up by just watching the movie, but after the many conversations with David and the stories he would tell about some of his friends on the Force, it opened my eyes to what an intense life it must be.

How long have you worked on this film?
I think when it was all said and done, we worked on this movie for about 3 months.

How many shots have you done?
I believe that we delivered somewhere around 150 shots for END OF WATCH.

What was the size of your team?
There were about 10 artists working on this movie.

What is your next project?
I’m a little in-between projects right now, but TV pilot season is right around the corner and things always heat up around then.

A big thanks for your time.

// WANT TO KNOW MORE?

– Look Effects: Official website of Look Effects.





© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2012

SKYFALL: Andrew Booth – Founder & Creative Director – BLIND

By
Vincent Frei
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Andrew Booth is a creative director who has worked on many feature films such as DIE ANOTHER DAY, HELLBOY, BATMAN BEGINS or THE DARK KNIGHT RISES and also video game like CRYSIS 2. He is the founder of Blind.

What is your background?
Art school: Foundation, BA honours degree in 3 Dimensional Design combined with film studies. My designs had to work physically. Not some fictitious concept that wouldn’t stand up to close scrutiny. The college work was always grounded in reality.

Can you tell us more about the studio BLIND?
BLIND is a Design & Moving Image studio for Films, Games and Brands. The studio’s vision is to develop solutions that have form and function. One of our key specialities is Computer Interface Design for film.

How did BLIND get involved on this show?
It was our 10 years of experience and credits that lead to us getting involved in the show. We had created Computer Interface Designs for all of Christopher Nolan’s DARK KNIGHT films. I had also worked on both DIE ANOTHER DAY and CASINO ROYALE. This led to a meeting with Sam Mendes.

How was the collaboration with Director Sam Mendes?
The collaboration with Sam Mendes was perfect. We both have a huge respect for the franchise. Sam was new to the world of Computer Interface Design and screen graphics. However he recognised the importance of the element within the narrative of the film. He was keen to do something new, to advance the way screen graphics are presented on film.

What have you done on this show?
We were essentially responsible for the graphic content on every type of screen used in the film: from huge 4K computer monitors in Q branch to Bond’s Sony Xperia phone.

What references and indications did you present to Director Sam Mendes?
Sam was very open to suggestion and our first step in the process was to present a snapshot of what Computer Interface Designs look like now or look like in the not too distant future. We both instinctively wanted to steer clear of all the gadgets we already have in our day-to-day lives. Look into your pockets we all have Smartphones / Tablets, etc. with slick floating graphics. We expanded in depth on how we would differentiate between real world and film fiction.

The solution was to ramp up design treatments based on real industrial displays that had a core function, then work these concepts into each set designed by Dennis Gassner the Production Designer. BLIND had also been experimenting with a number of visuals to communicate data in a more detailed and futuristic manner. Sam really got behind these initial tests and this gave us the springboard to leap forward….

Can you explain to us more about the creation of Computer Interface Design along with a step by step guide on how you create screen graphic content?
The step by step guide in the creation of the Computer Interface Design is about interpreting the script. What are the key narrative requirements of the screen graphic content? We then think, and sketch out ideas on paper. If you can draw and talk through the solution then, generally speaking it will work. We also conduct research to validate our ideas when presenting our creative solutions. As for the production process, we keep it simple. In broad strokes our pipeline starts with the initial build (previs) to get the story right, once approved, content is put together and composited using a number of 2D and 3D packages. We then bake the sequences, and output to final. Sequences are then broken down so that they run for a specific frame count.

Did you create screen graphic sequences that were used directly on-set?
For the sequences to be run on set we used a piece of proprietary software, with no loss of quality, to reduce the size of the files. A central server controlled a series of computers to play back the screen graphics. Bespoke programming was used for the more intricate, interactive sequences giving the actors something real and tangible to react too. Because we had already designed and conceptualised the computer graphics sequences during principal photography it provided us with a head start as we moved into post.

How did the work for Computer Interface Designs continue once in post?
Once in post we were not tied down by what is physically possible on set. It allowed us to have greater flexibility when creating the more complex screen graphic sequences. We adjusted the hero specific shots in conjunction with the actor’s performance to define the action from an editorial perspective. It gave Sam the opportunity to re-examine the work and tweak the content to serve the narrative of the story precisely.

How did you work with the other vendors?
Working with the vendors was a process co-ordinated by the VFX department. We produced rough comps with the graphics placed within the shots. We then reviewed these sequences with Sam who would comment on how the graphics worked within the scene. If required we would make adjustments to the sequence. Once the shots were approved: our rough comp, tiff sequences went to the various vendors with a set of detailed notes for finals.

What were the biggest challenges on this project and how did you achieve them?
On this project we had to face major challenges, the greatest being central to the performances of three main characters M, Q and Silva. It was really important to integrate the Computer Interface Designs and screen graphic sequences within these characters scenes. The script relies on the screen graphics driving elements of exposition so we really had to focus on getting the story right. Technically Q Branch scenes were going to be tricky from a production standpoint, as we needed to create sequences at 4K. Our solution here was to breakdown the story-points and work through systematically scene-by-scene and output only that which was required.

This was the first time Q, played by Ben Whishaw had appeared in the Daniel Craig Bond films. Q is such a beloved character so there was a degree of pressure on us to get this right. Historically it was the Bond villains who had the secret lair with large screens highlighting their plans for world domination. So in early conversations there was this playful idea to flip this notion around and give Q this kind of set with a department full of hi-tech screens. This certainly fitted with Sam’s idea of taking the house of Bond apart and re-arranging the furniture slightly for a modern world. For us at BLIND we really wanted to establish him as a redesigned Q for a computer-literate audience.

How many Computer Interface Designs / shots have you done and how long have you worked on this film?
200 designs / 75 post shots / 1 year later we had completed all Computer Interface Designs, screen graphics work on SKYFALL.

What was the size of your team?
The size of the team was dependent on what had to be achieved. Basically 4 core members: Thank you Ian Sargent, Shaun Yue, Joe White and Gabor Ekes, augmented to 10 at the busiest moments in the schedule.

What was your greatest achievement on the show?
It is one that will go unnoticed. It’s so subtle. The first time we see Silva he delivers a monumental monologue, a single unbroken shot, which heightens the tension of the scene. In post we created the Computer Interface Designs that added up to the longest amount of screen time we have ever had. For the majority of the scene the screen graphics just sit, tick over, a tiny heartbeat. When required the Computer Interface Designs highlight Silva’s mastery of technology and how he can throw the world into complete chaos with just a few keystrokes. Our work here was based on respect and response to Javier Bardem’s performance. An exercise in restraint.

What was your feeling to be part of this James Bond movie?
On my 7th birthday I was finally allowed to see a James Bond film at the cinema, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. When the Lotus hit the water and became an underwater car I was hooked. Transfixed by the gadgets, I knew then that I wanted to work on these films. So for me personally the feeling of being part of this James Bond film is one of intense pride and accomplishment.

What do you keep from this experience?
It was by far the most immersive and enjoyable experience we have ever had on a film. For BLIND, it has been a great journey from the initial ideas for the Computer Interface Designs in Q Branch, highlighting the subterranean London, to conceptualising Silva’s viral playfulness when sending M weird LulzSec-ish taunts. It has always been the knowing that our work was vital to the narrative process.

A big thanks for your time.

// WANT TO KNOW MORE?

– BLIND: Official website of BLIND.





© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2012

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 2 : Laurent Spillemaecker – Compositing Supervisor – Rodeo FX

By
Vincent Frei
-

Laurent Spillemaecker began his career in VFX nearly 10 years ago in Paris as a freelance Flame artist. He then joined the teams of Hybride and worked on many projects such as SIN CITY and 300. In 2008, he joined Rodeo FX and worked on films like SOURCE CODE, IMMORTALS or MIRROR MIRROR.

What is your background?
I studied Engineering with a specialization in imagery. I went into this field because I liked the artistic side more than the scientific side of things.
I started compositing work as a freelancer for various advertisement companies in France. Then I came to Canada and worked at Hybride for 4 years before joining Rodeo FX 5 years ago.

How did Rodeo FX got involved on this show?
I was involved as a compositing supervisor for Twilight. Rodeo FX had already contributed to one of the Twilight Saga films (ECLIPSE) so they knew what we could do.

How was the collaboration with Production VFX Supervisor Terry Windell?
Working with Terry Windell was awesome. Things were very friendly and the communication channels were always open.

What have you done on this show?
We did a Medieval Russian village set extension as well as a pretty gruesome beheading scene in the village. We also created an illusion of a Brazilian forest, a set extension for the main character’s dream house and an establishing shot for Cairo, Egypt.

How did you create the jungle environment?
We used a variety of techniques to create the jungle scene: our live VFX crew actually flew down to Costa Rica to gather practical elements for us. We used a combination of these and matte painting techniques to create the scene. We then added some particles and motion graphics to make it look more alive.

Can you tell us more about the Cairo creation?
The Cairo scene was tricky because a spotlight on the left of the screen was so bright that it was actually showing through the palm trees. We had to completely rebuild the trees using a combination of CG and compositing tricks.

What references and indications did you received from the production to create the old village?
They gave us a lot of creative freedom throughout the whole process. Our only directive was that we had to instantly recognize that we were in Russian by looking at the castle.

What was the real size of the set for the old village?
The village set consisted of a couple of houses and a dirt street in front of a green screen.

Can you tell us more about your collaboration with Sebastien Moreau on this show?
Sebastien was the VFX supervisor on the show. He had final say in everything that went out.

How did you get the references for the various environments?
We had different sources as references for the different shots that we did. For example, for the jungle scene, the director wanted that looked like a specific scene from APOCALYPSE NOW, with large, twisted trees and such. For the village, we used the existing set as the basis for our matte paintings and extensions. The house in the woods was an existing shot that needed to be zoomed out, so we had lots of information to start with. The Cairo shot is also a set extension, so we just added to what was already there.

Can you tell us more about the use of Flame and Nuke on this show?
The Flame stations we used more extensively for practicals (e.g. fire, no pun intended). Nuke stations were used for everything else. It actually does not matter which station is used for what because our pipeline is built in a way that makes it easy to integrate both types of compositing tool seamlessly.

What was the biggest challenge on this project and how did you achieve it?
Our biggest challenge on a shot was for the Amazon scene because we had to rebuild the jungle scene in CG and match the considerable tilt in the camera movement. On a project basis, the communication between their team and ours was so good that it considerably reduced the usual bumps in the road.

Was there a shot or a sequence that prevented you from sleep?
As stated previously, the communication level prevented any nightmare situations but two shots in particular were challenging: the Cairo shots with the trees that had to be rebuilt and the jungle as stated in the previous question.

What do you keep from this experience?
A remarkable relationship with the client.

How long have you worked on this film?
I was on board since day one for this project.

How many shots have you done?
Rodeo did 50 shots in total. I personally worked on 10 shots.

What was the size of your team?
The team fluctuated as was needed for the shot but 40 persons in total worked on TWILIGHT.

What is your next project?
We are currently working on NOW YOU SEE ME, AN ENEMY by Denis Villeneuve as well as an undisclosed ILM project.

What are the four movies that gave you the passion for cinema?
It sounds cliché but they would have to be STAR WARS, ALIEN, THE FIFTH ELEMENT and BLADE RUNNER.

A big thanks for your time.

// WANT TO KNOW MORE?

– Rodeo FX: Dedicated page about THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 2 on Rodeo FX website.





© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2012

SKYFALL: Arundi Asregadoo – VFX Supervisor – MPC

By
Vincent Frei
-

Arundi Asregadoo is back on The Art of VFX. After he had talked about the effects on DARK SHADOWS, he explains the work of MPC on the final sequence of SKYFALL.

How did MPC got involved on this show?
Overall VFX Supervisor Steve Begg is a long standing friend of MPC. Steve and Leslie Lerman (VFX Producer) approached us in the pre-production stages of SKYFALL.

How was the collaboration with director Sam Mendes and Production VFX Supervisor Steve Begg?
Working. It was an amazing experience working with Sam Mendes and Steve Begg. From the first meeting we had with Sam, it was very clear what we wanted from the sequence. They gave us a great deal of creative freedom in developing the sequences. It was great to a see the amount of attention that was give to the image by Roger Deakins (Director of Photography), Stuart Baird (editor) and Sam.
It was great to work with Steve on this movie, especially with his experience with shooting miniature sets.


What have you done on this show?
MPC was awarded the final part of SKYFALL, where Bond takes M to Skyfall (his ancestral home). Within these sequences we have several different areas to deal with, the main bulk of the challenge was the environment. Other areas of work were the destruction of the DB5, the crashing and of the villain’s helicopter into the lodge, the chase across the moor and ice lake fight sequence.

Can you explain to us in detail the creation of the huge environment around the Skyfall manor?
At the pre-production stage, we discussed the approach in creating the environment for Skyfall with Steve Begg. We needed to have the ability to be flexible with the layout of the environment for Sam Mendes to create an overall look/design for the shots. The aim was to turn Guildford’s Hankley Common into the upper highlands of Scotland.
We had over 200 shots within the end sequence which required some form of environment enhancement to full CG environment. Isabella Rousselle (Lead DMP artist) and Jerome Martinez (Lead ENV artist) set about creating 360 degree Cyclos with low res geo, using Maya and Nuke.
We started by gathering photographic reference images. MPC’s Photographer, James Kelly went on location to capture a number of panoramas of the upper highlands of Scotland. These were then combined with reference photos taken of Hankley Common. The build had to be quite flexible to show the change in the time of day.

The other aspect to the environment was the home of Bond, Skyfall Lodge. The Lodge was a partial build. On location, the art department had built the outer walls and part of the roof. We had to build a CG roof extension, and add layers of weathering to the overall look of the Lodge. Behind the lodge is the frozen lake. We took a 2.5 approach in creating the lake, we had to be flexible, to give Sam the options of altering it.
Once we had established the layout of Skyfall with Sam, Compositing Supervisor, Matt Packham and Lead compositor Martin Riedel and his team set about blending the DMP images with the plate, by adding layers of mist and hanging clouds to create a cold and atmospheric shots.


What was the real size of the sets for this sequence?
The SkyFall location was a National Trust Park called Hankley Common, near Guildford. The set was approx. area 1.6 km2. The only constructions that were on the location was a partial build of the Skyfall Lodge and the Chapel in the distance.

At a moment, the iconic Aston Martin is destroyed. How did you enhanced this destruction?
This was an interesting challenge – destroying the iconic DB5!
There were several stages to the destruction of the DB5. In the first wave of attack, the DB5 is damaged by hail of machine gun fire. We looked into how bullet-proof cars are built and how different materials react under intense gun fire.
The approach was 2.5d solution. We created a CG model of the car, using reference photos. The DMP images of bullet holes and crack glass, was projected using Nuke, on to the live action plate of the DB5. Once we had laid out the damage, Sam was free to adjust the amount of damage visible.
The second stage of destruction comes when Silva orders the helicopter to open fire on the DB5. To achieve this Steve had a full scale version of the car built so we could blow it up. We combined this footage with the CG DB5 on to a plate, and other elements were added (like breaking glass) to create the images of the DB5 blowing up.


The Merlin helicopter crash into the manor. Can you tell us in detail the creation of this impressive sequence?
In this part of the film Bond tries to create a diversion in order to escape. In order to do this, he decides to explode the Lodge. The debris from the explosion hits the helicopter causing it the crash into the Lodge.

In the early stages, the sequence was blocked out in a form of prevised, for Sam and Roger Deakins.
In the pre-production meeting, Steve wanted to approach this sequence using miniature buildings. So a 1:3 scale was built of the Lodge and the helicopter shoot. Chris Corbould (second unit director), together with Steve, directed the sequence, which was shot at Long Cross Studios.
The miniature shoot worked well, but it was felt that there were a number of elements missing from the shot. The main issue was the movement of the helicopter, due to the restriction of the rig.

Sheldon-Stopsack (CG supervisor) and lead compositor, Dave Griffiths, set about re-animating the helicopter. Using a combination of the CG helicopter and re-projecting on to the plates, this allowed us to adjust the speed, pitch and roll. We added greenscreen pilots, an internal smoke and sparks . The team also added CG roto blades to the helicopter and downdraft to the each of the shots.

Within this sequence, we see the helicopter crash into the Lodge. One of the main things, Steve wanted was for the roto blades to slice through the front of the building. So we recreated a CG version of the Lodge, which could be broken apart piece by piece. At MPC we have a proprietary destruction tool called Kali. This software allowed FX artist Meryec Rancel to create objects being damaged or being blown apart including falling and exploding debris. It also gives us control over the gravity and other forces that would affect the crash.


James Bond fights a villain underwater. What was your work on this sequence?
The main aim was to try to keep to the stylistic feel Roger Deakins had created. This style also had to be maintained for the underwater fight scene. We used a 2.5d approach, projecting DMP images onto a geo surface. These were then augmented with 2d elements of bubbles. Roger wanted to have the warm tonal range continuing under the water.

How did you manage the CG breaths shots?
Steve did not want to use CG for the simulation for the breath, so we shot various types of elements onto black backgrounds, from dry ice to steam from a kettle. These were then put together in composite led by Brad floyd (lead compositor), using a process of re-times and combining various elements. Sam and Stuart Baird (editor) was very particular about the way the breath should look and move. By using this approach, we were able to turn shots around quickly, to achieve the desired look.

What was the biggest challenge on this project and how did you achieve it?
Another challenging sequence was the chase across the moor. In this sequence Silva is in pursuit of M. She is headed towards the Chapel, closely followed by Bond. The scene was shot on a black stage at Long Cross. Roger Deakins came up with a complex lighting rig to simulate the Lodge on fire. The challenge we had was to make the set look like it was shot on Hankley Common.
We took the shots of the miniature lodge (post explosion) and the elements from Hankley Common to create the burning elements of the Lodge, and then added a CG damaged roof.
The sequence had to be redesigned. Together with Sam and Stuart we worked out a solution which helped to tell the story. Once we were happy with the layout, Brad and his team added the flame elements and lots of layers of smoke and mist to create an icy cold feeling environment. The main aim was to try to keep to the stylistic feel Roger had created.


What was your feeling to be on a James Bond movie?
It has always been a dream to work on a Bond film. This being the 50th year, has made it even more special,

What do you keep from this experience?
It would to have the opportunity to work with a great director like Sam Mendes, and on beautifully shot plates by one of the best DOP’s in the business, Roger Deakins

How long have you worked on this film?
We started shooting in march, so about 9 months.

How many shots have you done?
In total we worked on 300 shots.

What was the size of your team?
150.

What is your next project?
RED 2.

A big thanks for your time.

// WANT TO KNOW MORE?

– MPC: Dedicated page about SKYFALL on MPC website.





© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2012

SKYFALL: Hugh Macdonald (VFX Supervisor), Paddy Eason (VFX Supervisor) and Martin Chamney (CG Supervisor) – Nvizible

By
Vincent Frei
-

Hugh Macdonald (VFX Supervisor), Paddy Eason (VFX Supervisor) and Martin Chamney (CG Supervisor) and two others founded the studio Nvizible in 2009. Nvizible worked on numerous projects as CLASH OF THE TITANS, PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME, JOHN CARTER or GRABBERS.

What is your background?
Hugh Macdonald (HM), VFX Supervisor // I studied Computer Science at university, strongly leaning towards the graphics side of the course, and getting very involved with making short films. Following this, my first job at a VFX company was as a pipeline developer, before moving into the compositing department. Over the course of the last 9 years, I have composited on a number of films, moving into lead, and then supervision roles. In 2009, I co-founded Nvizible along with Martin, Paddy and 2 others.
I was the initial VFX Supervisor on the show, from the shoot, and through most of post, but other commitments meant that I was unable to finish the last month of post, so Paddy took over at that stage.

Paddy Eason (PE), VFX Supervisor // After Art College and an MA in Computer Graphics at Bournemouth, I joined CFC as a trainee in 1990. I worked my way up – tech assistant, junior compositor and so on, up to supervisor on shows like CHICKEN RUN and SLEEPY HOLLOW. After 10 years at CFC/Framestore, I was at MPC for 5 (HARRY POTTER 3, WALLACE & GROMIT: CURSE OF THE WERE RABBIT), Rainmaker/CIS for 3 (VANTAGE POINT, GOLDEN COMPASS), and have been supervising at Nvizible for 3 (THE PROMISE, GRABBERS etc).

Martin Chamney (MC), CG Supervisor // I studied computer animation and design communications at college, for 7 years I worked at television post production facilities as a computer animator, before joining VFX facility Mill Film in 2001, as a lighting and rendering artist. Since 2003 I have been jointly running Nvizage at specialist previs company, and started Nvizible with Hugh, Paddy and 2 other directors in 2009.

How did Nvizible got involved on this show?
MC // Over a year ago, VFX Supervisor Steve Begg and VFX Producer Leslie Lerman presented us an opportunity to produce a discreet animation test shot of a CG scorpion poised on a human hand.

How was the collaboration with director Sam Mendes and Production VFX Supervisor Steve Begg?
HM // Steve, our main creative contact on the project, is incredibly experienced with both digital and miniature VFX. He was great to work with, and knew just how to pinpoint exactly what was needed in any shot. His relationship with Sam meant that he could guide us down the right path, ensuring that many changes that Sam had when he saw our shots were minimal. Our experience working directly with Sam was similarly positive – as a director, he is very clear in what he wants, and with a sequence like the scorpion one, he will ensure that it is absolutely believable in every way.

What have you done on this show?
HM // Our main sequence on the film, while only a small number of shots, was the scene in the Turkish bar, where Bond has to drink a drink with a deadly scorpion on the back of his hand. Obviously a scorpion like this could never be filmed for real, so we took on the task of creating a fully CG scorpion.
We also had a number of shots where we enhanced the London skyline view from M’s office.
In the Isolation Chamber scene, we provided the effect of the glass frosting/defrosting, plus did a number of clean-up shots to remove reflections, due to the large amount of reflective glass in the set. Finally, we did a number of wire removals for the opening scene, plus monitor inserts throughout the film.

Can you tell us more about your work on the opening sequence?
HM // We had two separate bodies of work for the opening sequence. Part of it was wire and rig removals for the chase and fight in Turkey, and part was the enhancement of the view from M’s office.
For the chase and fight scene in Turkey, we cleaned up a number of rigs and wires, including a ramp that flips the car, and safety wires on the actors and stunt performers when they are on top of the train. As with any rig removal, the complexity varied between shots, depending on the size of the rig and what it happened to be going in front of.
For M’s office, this was filmed with a translight, and we added life, and occasionally extended the view. I’ll talk about that more below.

How did you create and rig the scorpion?
MC // Scanning a real scorpion was considered, but we decided modelling from reference photos would suffice. On a cloudy day we visited Julie Tottham at Birds and Animals at Leavesden Studios and photographed a “Blond Desert Hairy” scorpion using a macro lens. The scorpion was placed in a glass fish tank, which protected us from it’s nasty venomous sting. The animal handler was able to suspend the creature from it’s tail with large tweezers, and we obtained great reference material with the tail unfurled. We’ve done a bit of work in past with scorpions on CLASH OF THE TITANS, so requirements for rigging this exoskeletal creature was familiar. At the time Nvizible had recently finished a very complicated alien creature for another project, so the rigging was straightforward in comparison.

Can you tell us more about the hand tracking to place the scorpion?
MC // Tracking an area of skin on a hand can be problematic, because the skin tends to stretch slightly when moved about. We decided a tiny rigid stand in prop was needed, beyond just marking dots on the skin, which also aided Daniel Craig for something to focus on and react to. Sections of wire glued into a tetrahedron shape seemed the way forward, keeping the prop small and limiting the amount of work needed to paint it out of the plate later. The first version collapsed, and all we had managed to do, was glue our fingers together! But we got the hang of it, and placed multi coloured plasticine balls on each corner, so the tracking software could differential front, back and top – very useful for shots where the orientation of the hand changed. The final tracking worked well with a combination of PF track- object tracking, and then sub pixel manual tracking in Maya.

How did you manage the lighting challenge for the scorpion?
MC // HDR fisheye images were recorded from the shoot, which formed the backbone of our general IBL lighting setup. Ascertaining the prominent light source was ambiguous when so many small lights provided illumination on this particular beach bar set. Many CG creature animations benefit from a single contact shadow, and it’s less satisfying when there are multiple shadows, confusing the form and placement. So a single light source was defined as the shadow casting light, and the angle tweaked for aesthetics. A glass resin maquette had been recorded in some of the rehearsals which was little help because the translucency of the material was completely different to the real scorpion. Mental Ray shaders played a big part in defining the required translucency on thick and thinner parts of the exoskeletal form. The effect of the translucency was subtle, as there were no strong light sources close up, so this had to be accentuated as well as stronger glossy reflections requested by Sam Mendes.

The M office has a big view on London. Can you tell us more about you created those background?
HM // The background was actually filmed for real using a translight and rain machines, which, for a large number of shots in the sequence, meant that there was no VFX work required at all.
For the shots that we did work on, which mainly consisted of moments when we saw low enough down on the translight that we should see moving traffic on the roads, or even so low that we saw off the bottom of the translight, we would add in traffic and river elements that we had shot especially for this purpose.
For one particular shot where the camera cranes up over M’s head as she looks down at the river below, we felt that the parallax of the shot didn’t quite feel right, as it was a translight 20 feet away, rather than the other side of the river, 600 feet away. To give this more realistic parallax, and to add the subtle parallax that one would see between buildings, we re-projected the view onto rough geometry, and re-rendered from a virtual camera that was that much further away.
In the whole scene, it is raining outside, and, while a lot of the rain was shot practically, we would also add a certain amount of extra rain onto the windows.
For one night-time scene, the day-time translight was masterfully re-lit by Cinematographer Roger Deakins to give the feeling of a dark sky, and amber street lights. We enhanced this view with moving traffic, and more finely detailed lighting in the buildings.

There is a huge cell chamber behind a tinted glass that become transparent. Can you explain to us more about this effect?
PE // There are a couple of beauty shots where we see the high tech security glass change from clear to frosted and back again, at the push of a button. In addition to the normal rotoscoping and cleanup, we had to work out how to get a realistic look to the diffusing effect of the glass. It’s very easy to get a look that is quite digital and post-processed looking – and we had to make something that looked like a real on-set effect. Subtle imperfections in the frosting was the key here.

For various design and continuity reasons, we also had to change the frosting in the glass on a lot of other shots too. We had to do this both ways – in some shots we had to make the practical clear glass frosted, and in others we had to make practical frosted glass clear. This, in addition to the obvious issues (for example, creating the view behind the clear glass from reference stills), gave us a few other less obvious challenges. We had to reconstruct missing reflections of all the cast. For one shot, where we were missing a reflection of M, we ended up doing a little CG M double.

How did you created the various graphic elements for the screen at the MI6?
PE // We were not actually involved in the creation of the graphics – that was the talented artists at Blind Ltd. – our job was, on certain shots, to composite graphics into the screens. A large number of the graphics, were played back practically on set, with only ones that were not finalised at the time of shooting being done in post. Occasionally, we would need to replace a graphic that was shot with an updated one, and this made for some extremely challenging tracking and rotoscoping.

What was the biggest challenge on this project and how did you achieve it?
HM // Getting the scorpion to feel perfectly real, and have the kind of life and movement that would absolutely sell as a real scorpion was the toughest challenge. Our CG team, led by Martin, rose to the challenge, and proved themselves exceptionally capable.

MC // When Sam and Steve requested that scorpion should have less animation, this highlighted the requirement for higher precision sub pixel object tracking, for many frames in a couple of high tension shots the track had to be absolutely perfect.

PE // Rotoscoping Q’s hair!

Was there a shot or a sequence that prevented you from sleep?
HM // Getting the scorpion just right was a challenge, certainly, but not something that I lost any sleep over. We have a very talented team, and there was nothing that I didn’t feel that I could push them to do.

MC // I think I slept just fine! Some of the background large monitor screen replacements were a massive challenge for our roto team, isolating the actors from monitor graphics that were shot on set, proved to be some of the most difficult roto and keying work Nvizible has undertaken to date.

What was your feeling to work on a James Bond movie?
HM // I, like so many people, grew up on James Bond movies, and to have been able to work on one, and especially one that is considered one of the best, was an amazing experience, and one that I hope that I’ll have the opportunity to do again. It is such a long-standing and well-respected series, and one that I’ll always be proud to have worked on.

MC // It’s an honour and a privilege to work on any Bond film, and this experience was enhanced by having the opportunity to produce work for Sam Mendes. AMERICAN BEAUTY is one of my favourite films.

PE // It was a privilege to work as a tiny part of a huge team of people working at the absolute top of their game – Sam Mendes, Stuart Baird, Steve Begg, Roger Deakins.

What do you keep from this experience?
HM // The feeling of having worked on such a great film, with such amazing people, and the knowledge that, whatever we at Nvizible push ourselves to do, we can accomplish.

MC // Admiration and respect for our clients Sam Mendes, Steve Begg and Leslie Lerman.

How long have you worked on this film?
HM // As Martin previously mentioned, Nvizible’s involvement started in August 2011, when we first took on the test of the scorpion, so in total, we’ve been involved for over a year. Personally, my first day on SKYFALL was with the shoot of M’s office in January 2012.

How many shots have you done?
HM // We completed 97 shots, for a combination of the trailers and the final film. 5 of those shots had the CG scorpion in.

What was the size of your team?
HM // We had a team of 20 people working on the project – mostly compositing, with 6 artists in our CG team, whose primary job it was to produce the scorpion, with the occasional additional piece of work being done to assist the compositing team.

What is your next project?
HM // I’m currently finishing off the shoot for KICK ASS 2, which I am VFX Supervisor for. The post on this will take us through until April 2013.

MC // As Hugh has mentioned KICK ASS 2 is our next big project in house. Nvizible is currently finishing content on I GIVE IT A YEAR and CAPTAIN PHILLIPS. We are also currently providing virtual production services on Roland Emmerich’s WHITE HOUSE DOWN.

PE // I’ve just supervised on I GIVE IT A YEAR – which includes probably Nvizible’s biggest CG shot to date. And we’re starting to think about prep on a major Sci-Fi movie that I hope will keep me busy for most of 2013.

What are the four movies that gave you the passion for cinema?
HM // JURASSIC PARK, ALIENS, GLADIATOR, MEMENTO.

MC // 2001, ALIENS, EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.

PE // STALKER, BLADE RUNNER, COME AND SEE, 2001.

A big thanks for your time.

// WANT TO KNOW MORE?

– Nvizible: Dedicated page about SKYFALL on Nvizible website.





© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2012

TED: Blair Clark – Production VFX Supervisor – Tippett Studio

By
Vincent Frei
-

Since he explained the effects of Tippett Studio on SEASON OF THE WITCH, Blair Clark worked on films like PRIEST and THE SMURFS.

How did Tippett got involved on this show?
I was contacted by Jenny Fulle, asking me if I would be interested in supervising a show about a pot smoking, skirt chasing teddy bear directed by Seth Macfarlane. Jenny and I have known each other for 30+ years and we had recently worked with her company, The Creative Cartel on a previous film.
I was so excited (of course I responded with enthusiastic YES!) The script was really great, very funny, sweet, and deliciously irreverent, and had a solid story. Ted was going to be a main character, not just a supporting side-kick, etc. but have to hold his own in looking real and truly act with HIS co-star! It wasn’t going to be easy, but getting a chance to work with Seth Macfarlane was very exciting, and working with Jenny and her team again was also something I was really looking forward to.

I was hired as the production VFX Supervisor.
At Tippett Studio, we had Scott Liedtka in place as VFX Supervisor, Jim Brown as Animation Supervisor, and Fiona Chilton as VFX Producer.
At Iloura, Glenn Melenhorst as VFX Supervisor, Avi Goodman as VFX/CG Supervisor, Nick Tripodi as Animation Supervisor, and Ineke Majoor as VFX Producer.
Our Creative-Cartel team was: Jenny Fulle, Eric Torres, Alec Hart, Whitney Richman, and Nick Bernardi.

It’s the first feature of Seth Macfarlane with huge VFX. What was his approach about this aspect?
Seth has years of animation experience and with his years of directing FAMILY GUY along with his other shows meant that he was certainly not coming into this as a “new” Director. He had a very clear vision of what he wanted, and what he wanted to avoid.
Seth had always planned playing the part of Ted and utilizing motion capture, and there were some early tests recorded on motion capture stages, wearing the typical lycra suits, etc. but he knew that TED would be shot in a variety of locations, and he wanted to make sure that the audio portions of the performance were captured at the same time as filming other actors to assure the correct acoustics (as well as giving the actors a live performance to interact with), so Seth asked producers Jason Clark and Jenny Fulle to try and find a motion capture system that was portable and more flexible than having to capture everything in post production.
Xsens MVN (formerly known as Moven) was the system that was chosen, it consisted as a light harness that Seth could wear over his clothes, and could either be used wirelessly, or directly connected. (Darnell Williams ran the motion capture system, and Webster Colcord cleaned and prepared the data for distribution to Tippett Studio and Iloura)

In early meetings we discussed options we had to integrate Ted into the scenes, things from the specifics on how the motion capture would be achieved while on location, to what the animation teams at Iloura and Tippett Studio could add on top of the mo-cap to really sink Ted into the environment, things like nonchalant gestures and facial expressions, to quick looks to passing people while walking in crowded places, looks that convey subconsciously registering your surroundings without interrupting any thought or conversation that you may be having while you walk.

How did you collaborates with him?
In post production, during our reviews with Seth and the VFX vendors, we used cineSync and Skype to video conference with Tippett Studio, Iloura, and Seth at the same time. Seth would watch cut sequences, and individual shots, and had the ability to draw adjusted mouth shape requests, etc. on still frames.
These were always some of the most enjoyable reviews we have ever had. Seth’s direction was always clear, and made sense. And as long as we were addressing his basic needs for a shot, he gave the animators and artists freedom to try things, and never micromanaged. Clearly a guy who remembers what it was like to be an artist doing the work, and how to get the best out of people.

How was simulated the presence of Ted on set?
We had a stuffed bear, we called “the Stuffy” that was used for lighting, size and texture. It was built by Mark Rappaport and Aina O’Kane at Creature Effects, inc. using digital files of the CG Ted so the proportions, etc. would be a exact match.
I would put the stuffy in place for each shot, and roughly move it with Seth delivering Ted’s lines off camera during a rehearsal take so everyone involved (Camera operators, Actors, etc.) new basically where Ted would be, and what he would be doing during the shot. (This rehearsal/stuffy pass was filmed to be used as a reference later in post production). After the stuffy pass was shot, we would place the “eye-line tool” in Ted’s position (which was two eyeballs on a stand, adjusted to Ted’s height wether sitting or standing) and this would remain in position throughout the shot serving as a focal point for Mark Wahlberg, or the other actors). The Stuffy was also used as the version(s) of Ted when he’s not alive.

Did you used animatronic Ted on set?
Apart from a radio controlled rig that our practical effects supervisor, JB Bell made to interactively move the soap suds around Ted’s body in the bathtub, there were no animatronic versions of Ted used.

Can you tell us in details about the creation of Ted?
We did early tests using the mo-cap data from Seth’s session at the motion capture stage. The test footage Iloura produced so perfectly captured the look and character of Ted, it became the standard that everybody referred to as we began creating the final CG asset to be used for the film.

Can you explain to us more about the rigging?
Quite a bit of attention was given to the rigging for animation and setting it up for FX animation to keep Ted looking like he was made of cloth, but not too floppy and saggy to the point of him looking ‘under stuffed’. Cloth sims were generally run on every shot to add a bit of sag in his body and limbs, and help him to conform to any surfaces he may be sitting or standing on.

How did you manage this lighting aspect?
During principal photography, we gathered accurate HDRI using the Civetta camera system, as well as shooting a grey ball (especially if Ted was going to be moving through various volumes of light) and color chart to make sure we were covered. In post, the Technical Directors and Lighters did a fantastic job of lighting Ted and finding subtle places to add rims, and raking lights to break up areas needing more detail, and really helped with the realism of the fur and integrate him into the plate.

The render of the fur is impressive. How did you achieve to this result?
Many hours of hard work, from our Art, Programming and R&D departments. I know at Tippett Studio, our fur tool worked very well for creating life-like hair and fur for the characters we had done in the past, but when we applied it to Ted he just looked creepy, like he was made with real bear fur. So the tool was modified to produce a softer looking fur that had a realistic look and responded to lighting like real synthetic fur.

How did you created the wet fur of Ted?
For the Hotel Fight scene, the fur groom was adjusted slightly to have some clumping and areas that the fur came to peaks. Chris Morley, Tippett’s Comp Supervisor and his team added water streaming down the glass door from Ted’s hands and drips running off of him, and wet footprints on the carpet.

Can you explain to us more about the animation challenge?
Although much of Ted’s performance was mo-cap, his facial performance was always keyframed (as were all of the action shots of Ted fighting, running, climbing, etc.).
One of the big challenges with this was each studio had to perfectly match the character and feel of Seth’s performance as well as each other. Although we had character sheets with phoneme poses, etc. and worked at being very consistent, Seth was very specific with the lip assignment and brow angles. As shots progressed, we all honed in on what worked for Ted, and what didn’t.

At the moment, Ted and John have a violent fight in a hotel room. Can you tell us more about it?
The whole fight scene was choreographed, shot on video, and edited by Stunt Coordinator, Scott Rogers, Sean Graham (Mark Wahlberg’s stunt double), and 1st AD, Eric Heffron. They had a mockup of the hotel room set built per blueprints of the actual set (yet to be built), and created a previz for the entire fight that was the guide for shooting months later. It was extremely helpful, and because of it, we were able to shoot that whole scene in 2 days.
One of the concerns we had was how to manage Ted’s presence as Mark Wahlberg struggles, grapples, punches, and gets punched by him as they move violently all over the room. We had Mark Rappaport (who made our Stuffies) make a few extra torsos, and a stunt version of Ted that had removable limbs so that Mark would always have a consistent volume to hold onto and we wouldn’t have to worry about scaling or contorting Ted to fit into an ever changing space. It worked out great, and Mark was so good at selling the punches, etc. He really delivered a level of intensity that gave the animators some great stuff to work with.

How did you manage the interaction with Ted and the other actors?
We had a few specialty tools for interaction with actors and props. The stunt stuffies’ removable limbs came in handy for shots such as Tami-Lynn holding Ted’s hand during the double date, so a portion of the real fur seen sticking out from between her fingers as she squeezes his hand could be incorporated into the shot. We also had what we called the ‘furry rods’ which were just sticks with balls on the ends covered with fur matching Ted, and these were used for pushing any props, or punching Mark Wahlberg to produce any pushed indentations on his skin or wrinkles in his shirt, etc. as Ted hits him. (for example, the shot of Ted playfully slapping and hitting John on the couch while they are getting high).

How did you collaborates with Iloura and Glenn Melenhorst?
Iloura was great to work with. They are very close in size to Tippett Studio, and had similar attitudes and interests in working together to do the best work possible on this film. It was a very comfortable relationship.

What was the biggest challenge on this project and how did you achieve it?
Probably the biggest challenge was the fur quality on Ted, and keeping his look consistent across the sequences while being created by two separate VFX companies on opposite sides of the earth.
One of the ways we tried to prevent potential issues was to separate the work at Iloura and Tippett Studio by sequences rather that have shots by the different houses butting up to each other and not cutting together visually. But we ended up with bears from Tippett Studio and Iloura that matched so well, there are a few sequences (like the party in Ted’s apartment) that we ARE cutting back to back with Tippett and Iloura bears, and you can’t even tell.

How did we achieve it? Both VFX companies worked so well together, and shared what was possible to share, and communicated constantly sharing information and rendered images to compare. And despite the fact that both places had their own proprietary fur systems, and they were rendering with different software packages, they hard work paid off and our Teds match! Whew! (laughs)

Was there a shot or a sequence that prevented you from sleep?
Yeah there actually was. The Nora Jones concert at the Hatch Shell was a bit of a headache to plan. Based on initial estimates of the size crowd we could get, and maintain was not going to be enough to fill the venue for what needed to look like a sold out event, so that meant either having a crowd comprised of CG extras, or try for a lower cost comping solution. We were told we would have about 120 extras available for shooting tiles of the crowd while the crew was shooting interiors. Webster Colcord worked with director of photography, Michael Barrett to create a solid previz for the sequence, and we had a plan (queue sleep loss).
The day of the shoot, we arrive at the Hatch Shell,….and it’s PACKED with people! The local radio station had been advertising that if anyone wanted to be an extra in a Mark Wahlberg movie directed by Seth Macfarlane, to show up for a night of fun at the Hatch Shell! They showed up, and stayed the whole night, and we didn’t shoot a single tile, and the whole crowd remained real as photographed! People of Boston, I thank you!!!

What do you keep from this experience?
This was one of the most enjoyable shows I’ve ever been involved with. The crews were extremely talented and professional, The Studio and Producers were very happy with the work, and the Director was extremely collaborative and amazing to work with. Everyone was having fun, and it really shows in the work.

How long have you worked on this film?
About 2 years.

How many shots have you done?
There were a over 900 shots which were roughly divided in half between Tippett Studio and Iloura.

What is your next project?
We are currently in Production on M. Night Shyamalan’s AFTER EARTH.
(And helping TED with his upcoming DVD release, and a few of his talk show appearances.)

A big thanks for your time.

// WANT TO KNOW MORE?

– Tippett Studio: Dedicated page about TED on Tippett Studio website.





© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2012

LOOPER: Michel Mielke – VFX Supervisor – Scanline VFX

By
Vincent Frei
-

When Michel Mielke joined Scanline in 2004, he first worked as a producer on such films as THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN, 2012, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES or THE AVENGERS. In the following interview, he talks about his work as VFX Supervisor on LOOPER.


What is your background?
I originally started working as postproduction supervisor on German features. During my work at a German production house I got to know Scanline and started to develop a keen interest for visual effects. In 2004, I started working as a producer for Scanline, I had the great opportunity to work on international shows such as NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN, 2012, GHOSTWRITER, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES and have taken over the role of vfx supervisor at Scanline VFX Munich a year ago.

How did Scanline VFX got involved on this show?
Karen Goulekas approached us and since it was a Rian Johnson movie, we just could not resist.

How was the collaboration with director Rian Johnson and Production VFX Supervisor Karen Goulekas?
Overall it was an exciting opportunity and Rian Johnson, and Karen Goulekas were very constructive, quick in their feedback and very nice to work with. Thanks at this point for this great project.

What have you done on this show?
On the LOOPER project ScanlineVFX had the great opportunity to contribute the telekinesis sequence. That sequence took place on a big open partially harvested sugar cane field and featured supernatural effects lifting debris, bits of sugar cane, dust and actors into the air.

How did you design the telekinesis effect caused by Cid?
The main idea we received from the production was that the effects were going into the telekinesis shots to convey a sense of drama. There was to be a progression of ever faster flying debris until finally something important happens and everything slows down again until the telekinetic effect falters and stops. The shots where the audience can actually see soil and sugar cane being lifted off ground were a lot of manual work. There were foreground elements in the plate that we turned into cg elements to make them lift off. There even were effects of part of the soil breaking open and chunks of earth being pulled up into the air, producing lots of little fractured pieces and sand. Again, the most prominent elements were developed first and then details were added. Manually animated debris pieces went together with Thinking Particles animations, Particle Flow animations and Flowline simulations used for some sand effects and dust.

The most complex effects were the pieces of debris that would break through the soil and rise upwards. We fractured the ground geometry to a high degree and then pushed bigger chunks from below ground against it so that some smaller pieces would rise but others would fall back down to the ground. We also created a version were we actually simulated a couple of million sand particles and pushed those upward with the fractured geometry. In the shots where the amount of dust, debris, sugar canes and dust clouds was really large, the approach was to layout the general motion of what happens with the bigger chunks of the visible debris using Thinking Particles. That way we could do really quick iterations of those shots until the overall animation got approved. Those bigger pieces were then reinforced by slightly smaller debris which in turn had trails of dust. Finally a fluid cloud sim was generated to tell the final transition from dust to clouds.

In order to be able to quickly react to changes, the effect elements were split in foreground and background elements. Those renderings were split up even further into bigger debris renderings, dust renderings and dust cloud renderings. The first couple of times we used too many debris elements to start with but since we could simply remove some of the elements whenever requested this was actually helping us in saving some time.

Have you created some previz to help the director?
Early on Karen gave us main gist of what Rian wanted it to feel like plus what kind of debris composition she had in mind. The main idea we received from the production was to convey a sense of drama that builds up through the sequence. They really wanted to have a visible progression leading up to the climax in the shots. Debris, dust and greenery was supposed to whip across the screen with more and more force until the unbelievable happens and everything quiets down again. So first of all we did some simulation and timing tests based on the first quicktimes we received of the filmed material. These first tests kickstarted the feedback cycle and from then on Director Rian Johnson and VFX supervisor Karen Goulekas were giving us constant feedback.

Can you explain to us the creation of the shockwave?
The initial blast and the subsequent shots of the blast radiating outwards, flinging the actors into the air and knocking over a van, were really individually executed shots. Each shot had to be treated individually because they were so different from each other. Top shot of shockwave blasting outward, shockwave rushing away from camera and flinging actress into the air, shockwave traveling from left to right and flinging actor into the air, shockwave seen from afar through the window of a van and finally the shockwave hitting the van. To make those individual shots into parts of the same shockwave we had to develop some concepts that would be carried over from shot to shot. The main body of the shockwave would consist of an atmospheric dust fluid simulation driven by controllable geometric helper objects. On the inside and surrounding the shockwave large numbers of debris would be carried along by the shockwave. Debris that would be able to both shoot forward with the shockwave and upward to explain why the actors also get lifted into the air by the passing shockwave. The debris mixture developed into a large percentage of greenish, eg sugar cane, debris elements. The greenish tinted debris was also responsible for integrating more easily into the plates.

When the shockwave finally hits the van, the action is experienced from inside a storm of debris raining sideways against the van. We had to find exactly the right amount and speed of flying elements to keep it from turning into one big mush hitting the van and also to keep enough elements so that the amount hitting the van could actually believably push it over. Effectively the amount of particles used was so high that we needed to split it into several particle simulations to prevent excessive simulation and caching times.

Have you created digi-doubles of the actors especially when they are hit by the shockwave?
There was no need for digi doubles, since Karen had planned the shots meticulously, all shots with actors were live action shots.

How did you manage the slow-motion shots with the actors?
The actors were lifted off ground by wires in the original material and the production wanted to keep as much as possible of the original plates. This meant that everything that happens effect wise in the shots is timed according to the original filmed plates. Only after the most work was done there were some modifications to some of the actors that were done in comp.
Some slight retimings or repositioning were done to fit the actors better into the action if possible.

Can you tell us more about the various elements such as dust or sugar cane creation?
In the shots where the amount of dust, debris, sugar canes and dust clouds mattered, the approach was to layout the general motion of what happens with the bigger chunks of the visible debris using Thinking Particles. Those bigger pieces were then reinforced by slightly smaller debris which in turn had trails of dust. Finally a fluid cloud sim was generated to tell the final transition from dust to clouds. In order to be able to quickly react to changes, the effect elements were split in foreground and background elements.
The first couple of times we used too many debris elements to start with but since we could simply remove some of the elements whenever requested this was actually helping us in saving some time.

Can you explain to us more about the animation aspect of the elements?
The shots where the audience can actually see soil and sugar cane being lifted off ground were a lot of manual work. There were foreground elements in the plate that we turned into cg elements to make them lift off. There even were effects of part of the soil breaking open and chunks of earth being pulled up into the air, producing lots of little fractured pieces and sand.
Again, the most prominent elements were developed first and then details were added.
Manually animated debris pieces went together with Thinking Particles animations, Particle Flow animations and Flowline simulations used for some sand effects and dust.
The most complex effects were the pieces of debris that would break through the soil and rise upwards. We fractured the ground geometry to a high degree and then pushed bigger chunks from below ground against it so that some smaller pieces would rise but others would fall back down to the ground. We also created a version were we actually simulated a couple of million sand particles and pushed those upward with the fractured geometry.

How did you manage the huge amount of elements in these shots?
Especially the shots where the van gets hit by the shockwave included huge amounts of elements. Since the shockwave consists of debris accelerated through a psychic force, the real punch comes from all the flying debris. In real life the punch is usually delivered by the air itself being forced outwards. Therefore the story was to tell that the van is hit by an extreme amount of debris. A lot of back and forth happened until the visual qualities defining the shockwave were pinned down.
Essentially the shockwave consisted of a dustcloud filled up with debris when seen from afar. Close up the shockwave would consist of a lot more debris. Because of the sheer amount involved we split up the separate distances into manageable chunks to be rendered and simulated individually.
In this case one of the main difficulties was to maintain the visual mixture of the debris while seeing it mostly with a very strong motion blur applied. Therefore keeping it from looking like a big mush was hitting the van was important.

Have you developed specific tools for this show?
As mentioned before, we used a mixture of Thinking Particles animations, Particle Flow animations and Flowline simulations for this show, but we did not develop any specific tools.

How have you divided the work between the various Scanline branches?
The individual Scanline branches often collaborate on larger shows such as 2012, IMMORTALS, BATTLESHIP or AVENGERS. Usually we determine specific sequences and according to resources and talents split the work between the studios. LOOPER was a Munich only show, since we were rewarded the telekinesis sequence and it did not really make sense to split it up.

What was the biggest challenge on this project and how did you achieve it?
The integration of the flying debris elements into the plates took us a while to figure out. Usually cg effects need to connect with what is visible in the plate at one point. In this case we had many shots where our effects did not interact directly with the plate which made it more difficult to get the feeling of full integration.
The solution was to actually try and push the effects more into the plate and not making them stand out. Karen Goulekas, the vfx supervisor for LOOPER, had a lot of very constructive back and forth with us and fortunately she knew what she was looking for. In the end we made the effects as unobtrusive as possible and specifically removed elements that popped and were drawing too much attention.

Was there a shot or a sequence that prevented you from sleep?
Not really. Even though the shockwave and the shots with the van getting hit by debris were quite challenging.

What do you keep from this experience?
We really enjoyed working with Karen and Rian. Due to very fast feedback we knew exactly what Rian wanted to see and did not loose valuable time heading in the wrong direction. Communication is really a very vital point in the entire process and this worked really well. It was a great experience and LOOPER is a great movie.

How long have you worked on this film?
All in all it took us 4 months from start to final.

How many shots have you done?
In total we finalised 86 shots.

What was the size of your team?
Approximately 30 people.

What is your next project?
Our current projects are SNOW PIERCER, WHITE HOUSE DOWN and various other German movies

What are the four movies that gave you the passion for cinema?
LOST HIGHWAY, NEVERENDING STORY (1st movie I ever saw in a theater), BRICK, THE HOST.

A big thanks for your time.

// WANT TO KNOW MORE?

– Scanline VFX: Official website of Scanline VFX.





© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2012

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