Little change of plans, Matthew Butler will finally not have time to answer my questions. Here is anyway a text about the impressive work of Matthew Butler and his team of Digital Domain on TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON.
Who is Matthew Butler?
Matthew Butler, visual effects supervisor Matthew Butler has brought his technical and artistic expertise to seventeen feature films, including two of Michael Bay’s TRANSFORMERS movies. Matthew started his 17-year tenure at Digital Domain as an image data supervisor on APOLLO 13 and moved up the ranks to digital artist for T2 3-D: BATTLE ACROSS TIME, DANTE’s PEAK and TITANIC, held the role of CG supervisor on FIGHT CLUB, HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS, and VANILLA SKY, and served as associate visual effects supervisor on XXX.
As visual effects supervisor on THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, Matthew created photorealistic weather, tidal waves and twisters, work that earned him a VES award. Matthew earned a second VES award for his work on Clint Eastwood’s FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS. Matthew holds an undergraduate degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Manchester UK and a master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
Wheels, Brains and Laserbeak
Returning to the TRANSFORMERS franchise for a third time and completing 350 shots for Dark of the Moon, Digital Domain created and animated new characters including “Laserbeak,” “Brains” and an army of Decepticon soldiers called “protoforms” – as well as returning character “Wheels” – all under the guidance of visual effects supervisor Matthew Butler and animation supervisor David Andrews. “Each of these characters posed a unique challenge,” explained Butler, “because they have very different personalities. Wheels has been Sam’s sidekick since TF2, but now Wheels has a sidekick of his own in Brains and together they provide a bit of comic relief at key moments in the film. But Laserbeak is the exact opposite – he is an evil, sinister assassin and it was a lot of fun to play in that sandbox.” Working off original concept art from production designer Nigel Phelps and his team, Digital Domain modeled, rigged and animated Laserbeak to take full advantage of his serpentine characteristics. “Laserbeak’s long, snake-like neck is the most obvious manifestation of this,” explained Andrews, “but during flight he seems to slither through the air, which is achieved through a combination of wing movement and thrust from the jet turbines that are part of his design.” Wheels, Brains and Laserbeak also incorporate animation cues from the actors who provided dialogue for each character. “Michael coaxed very specific performances out of the actors for these roles,” added Butler, “so we wanted to preserve those artistic choices onscreen as much as possible.”
Bird Men
Digital Domain also completed several outstanding set pieces, such as the “Bird Men” sequence with skydiving soldiers who dodge Decepticon fighters as they fly through the Chicago skyline. “There were actual stunt men who flew through the city in wingsuits for many of those shots,” noted Butler, “and from there we created CG aircraft and digital environments showing the destruction throughout Chicago.
There are also digital Bird Men throughout, for anything that would have been too dangerous to actually shoot.” Perhaps the most challenging shot in the sequence is captured from the inside of a V-22 Osprey as it is about to go down. “Michael shot the plate at 120 frames per second, and everything that happens outside the Osprey is fully CG – the environment, the background skydivers, and especially the falling helicopter that drops through the shot in flames,” Butler indicates. “It all happens in extreme slow motion and right in the audience’s face, so we greatly improved our CG fire pipeline in order to make the falling Osprey as ominous as possible.”
Moon
Digital Domain also realized “Moon Portal” sequence, where we see Decepticon protoforms rise from the moon’s surface and race towards a portal that sends them to Earth for an assault on human civilization. “Naturally, all of these shots were CG since we couldn’t get any plates on the moon,” jokes Butler. “Computer graphics supervisor Mårten Larsson and his team studied the moon in thousands of reference photos, in order to accurately display the topography and its surface composition. Then when it came to animation, we had to consider the fact that gravity on the moon is one-sixth the gravity of Earth, so the protoforms had to move according to the laws of physics without appearing to run in slow motion. And of course there was the portal itself, which is a swirling mass of electricity, rocks and dust – overall a real triumph for Mårten and his fx artists.”
Stereo 3D Challenge
On top of all the challenges inherent with a film of this magnitude, stereo 3D added an additional level of difficulty to the work. “Michael called me early on and indicated that we would be doing this project in 3D, which was exciting and scary at the same time,” said Butler. “But we planned it from the very beginning and stereo 3D was an integrated part of the digital production process, thanks in part to our close working relationship with our sister company, In-Three, which handled some of the conversion. The end result is a more immersive audience experience, and kudos to Corey Turner on the production side and Thad Beier here at Digital Domain. As stereographers, their guidance was invaluable.”
// WANT TO KNOW MORE ?
– Digital Domain: Official website of Digital Domain.
© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2011
