um 111

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PUBlJS*"ER
Don Shay

EDITOR
Jody Duncan

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Joe Fordham

ASSISTANT EDITOR
Estelle Shay

ADVl:RTISING DIRECTOR
Bill Lindsay

ADVERTISING REPRESEN TATIVES

Bernice Howes
Arlene Hansen

PRODUCTION MANAGER
Margie Duncan

CIRCULATION MANAGER 11 G-Force

Caitlin Shannon Joe Fordham
WEBMASTER
21 District 9
Gregg Shay
Joe Fordham

36 G.I. Joe
Jody Dun ca n
Pll.INTED IN lM
CINEfEX 119-0CT0BER ~
CIN EFEX .. p<.>hII.i>ed quarterly" P.o. So. 10001. R r-~do. ell 64 Harry PoHer 6
m16. T.USI ·7iIl·I 9I 7. Fvc 9S 1.768- I1'Jl. URL.: www._,,,,,, Joe Fordham
E."...;t~I""","",,~",,*,,-,oml~
_ ...oml_i,oQ,iodu,<om. Printo< by"""" f'linten, If'><. ,
R~""'.C""Cgprri"" C lOO9 by 000 ~, N1"'"IJ .... _ 88 Transformers 2
R"";"'_" """01< '" In p><t.io pm. '" "" <h< ~,0I"l>Ct. .......
OIJt writ< ... ~..i.,., i, ~tM ted, Jody Dunca n
 •
III
ARTICLE BY JOE fORDHAM

Two large camera cases sat in the corner

of Hoyt Yeatman's office at Jerry Bruckheimer Productions, One was packed full of
computer hardware and another contained an ominous black cube, one foot square,
made of gleaming carbon fiber with a red anodized metal lens cap on four of its sur-
faces, The gizmo and its controller were the Mark III version of Yeatman's HDR-Cam,
an automated super-high-definition image acquisition device, conceived to ".".".
assist digital artists in t he r econstruc ti o n of h igh film ed in hig h ·d efi nitio n and feat uring di gita lly ani·
fide lity lighting e nvironments, so far used on eight mated g uinea pigs gen erated at his own production
feat ure film s inc luding Yeatma n's directorial d e but, company in Burba nk. Th e tease r a nd a m ockup o ne·
th e Walt Dis ney Pictures talking guinea pig adve n- s heet poster attra ct ed th e interes t of produce r J e rry
tu re, G-Force. Bruckh e imer. " I had worked w ith J erry Bruc kheimer
HDR·Ca m was j ust o ne of many innova ti o ns co n· on KallgarooJack,- Yeatman said, - which was his i n·
ceived during t he lengthy d evelopment of G-Force, troduction to animation. By the end o f tha t project , he
evide n ce ofYeatman's passion for gadgetry and in- saw the p o wer a n a nimated c haracter could bring, I
vention. - HDR-Cam sees 2 0 stops of dy nam ic range ," think that's why he expressed inter est in G·Force.He
Yeatma n explained . - It sees we ll beyond the range was excited to tell stories in a way that combined all
of film , and is so powerful it can r esolve th e dy nam ic the too ls tha t we had as visual effects artists."
ra nge of a 20K la mp, from the g lowing elem ent of th e
fresnel a ll the way to the darkest part of th e s hot. Th e hUe G-Fo rce took s hape w ilh leams of
oper ator ca n drop it into an e nviro nme nt, fro m as w rite rs, Yeatman d eveloped c haracters
bright as a d esert to as dark as a cave. hit th e bullon. and v isual ized th e sto ry with storyboa rd
and in 3 0 seconds i t ac quires allthe lighting infor- artists. At til e sa m e tim e, Persiste nce of Vision Digital
m ation. The HDR processor puts it all in neat fo lde rs, Ente rtainm e nt, Th e Third fl oor and an in-h o use tea m
with scene numbers, a nd automatically stitch es it of previ s ua lization artists prepared 3D animatics of
togethe r. Th e CO artist gets th e data , puts I igh ts in s pecific action seque nces. Sony Pictures Imageworks
th e right place, with th e correct 32·bi t values, and in v is ual effects s upervisor Scott Stokdy k and a nima-
a m atter of minutes ca n lig ht a scene usi ng disc r ee t tion s upervisor Troy Saliba t he n joined Yeatman to
li g hts. It's not just ' image ba sed lig hting.' U's a fan· brainstorm techniques fo r r ea lizing a n imated a n i·
tastic t ool for directors of photography, because i t mal character s.
a llows them to participate in the virtual wor ld, light- Imageworks re built c harac ters from th e ground
ing CG characters wi th lig hting from the set. We used up, working fro m con ceptual art by Allen Battino and
it in a ll o ur s h ots on G-Force. - anatomical studies of real g u inea pigs, Troy Saliba's
team modified guinea pig faces, loca tin g eyes s lighlly
fter a ca r ee r in v is ual effects and an Aca d - forward on the s nout to assist composition of c lose-

A e my Award, Hoyt Yeatman 's inspiration for

G-Force ca m e from his son , th e n aged f i ve.
w ho b r o ugh t h ome his presch ool class pet g u inea
ups. and adju s ted g uinea pig fingers by usi n g th e
fourth dig it as a n o pposable thum b, a llow ing c rea-
tures to g rip objects. Wi t h that exception, th e crea -
pig - a brown a nd w hite satin Ameri can cavy - and ture team avoi d ed anthropomorphizing th e a nimals,
co ncocted a n imaginary adventure about the f urry and preserve d t h e Hoppi ness and vuln e rabi lity of
a nimal wea ring a G.I. J oe-style he lmet and back pack. guinea pig a nato m y to co m e dic effect. - Troy a nd I
Intrigu ed , Yeatman research ed gove rnm e nt experi- bOlll felt that i t wo uld be muc h funnier to see rea listic·
m e nts wi th ani m a l inte llige nce and , together wi th looki ng guinea pigs playi ng huge stunts, _ sa id Scott
his creative co lla bora to r David J a m es, devised a 30- Stokdyk. · Part o f tile appeal of a g uinea pig is t hat
page treatm e nt that would become t he basi s of a they o ften look like c ute lillie potato sack s. Wh e n
screen s tory. the ir legs pull in, a lot o f the definillon o f th e leg dis-
In th a t story, Darwi n (voiced by Sam Rockwell) is appears under their big sack of skin and t hey become
the lea de r of a group o f talking g uinea pigs equipped a blobby m o und, Troy work ed all o f those c harac ter·
with miniat urized spy gear. rea red by the FHlto carry isti cs in to the m o d e ls a nd the ri gging.-
o ut covert missions. Demobilized a nd depose d to a Thou g h a nimators had procedural tools at th ei r
pet store, th e G-Force team - including Darwi n, Jua- dis po sal . t h ey sculpted in mu c h of the c ha rac te r
rez (Pe nelope Cruz), Blaster (Tra cy Morgan) and a star- dy na mics by hand. Fur si mulatio ns also played a key
nosed m o le named Speckl es (N ico las Cage) - meets ro le i n d efining t he Huffy charac t e rs. "Th e guinea
a domesti ca t ed g uinea pig na med Hurl ey (Jon Fav· pigs' hair made up a big part of their s hape,- noted
reau) and a grouchy hamster, Buc ky (Steve Buscemi). Stokdyk. - Eacll c haracter had a n unde rl y ing g uinea
Th e a nima ls band togethe r to combat a robot revo- p ig volume, and that was central to the performance.
lution m astermind ed by m egalo m a niac h o usehold After it went o ut of the c haracter animator's hands,
appliance k ing Leonard Saber (Bill Nighy). our ha ir learn added wind buffeting the fur, twi tc h-
To m a rke t th e project to potential studios, Yeat- ing whiskers, or follow-through dy namics as a guin-
man spent a year c reating a one-minute teaser trailer, ea pig wo uld land,"
120 CINE fEX 11 9
 Juar~z, Darwin and
!!Imler- 1M guif>ea pig
"..",.., ofG-Forc~ - .prang
from 1M imoginatian r>f dirKlor
HO)'t Yemman, i"..pired by
<10M< COII<;OC!ed by hi. rIIen
~~i'ear~d 'M. The concepl af
ItIf1<jng rodenl ageMJ, equipped
wilt! miniaWriud 'mv~ance
000 aime-f'l:MUng gear, came
10 dnemaric Jif~ with 1M boding
afpraOOc~r J~rry 8rud<h~mer,
far whom Yearmon hod worl<ed
pr~oouJ!y in rII~ '* of""'' '
effeas ,upermor. $any PicWFe$
lmagewori<' Jigned "" 10 imparl
!he Iive..oroon fomily c<""..dy
wirll digitally animaled cremur..
000 ';"'0' ~ffe€t' geMrared
in <rere<><copic 3D.

Guinea pig performances were based entirely o n from ofT-ca m e ra , providing temporary vo ice c ues to
keyframe an imation. MI never o n ce thought abou t ass ist with timings and actor interacti o ns.
using motion capture/ said Hoyt Yeatman. MI didn' t Imageworks then gathered HDR-Cam a nd m otion
wa nt t h e c h aracters to look like humans in g uinea picllrre reference of camera se tups. "Director o f ph o-
pig suits. I a l ways saw it as pure keyframe a ni mation tography Boj an Bazelli had a unique lig hting philos-
from ta le n ted anim ators. But th ere is som ething o phy," observed Scott Stokdyk, " He ove r-cxposed and
abou t m otion capture thatlthink is very va luable, pull -processed the plates. w hic h made g rea t use of
w hic h is that it brings th e cas t t ogethe r in o n e per- th e h igh dynamic ra nge o f t he film , ma xi mizing the
forman c e. One o f the m ost diffic ull t hings abo u t a n usa ble stops of exposure. We m ad e sure whe rever pos-
a nimated film is crea ting a ho listic performance o ut s ible to get re fe r ence on film of how he lit th e scen es,
of all th e lilli e pi eces. ~ As wit h mos t ani ma ted fe a- even if we kn ew we were going to re-create most of
tures, voice actors record ed th e ir r o les separately - the e nv ironment in eG. And Hoyt's HDR-Cam wa s fast
w ith th e exception of o ne session with Sam Rockwell and easy to use. It got us co nsistent and re liable HDR
and J on Favrea u work ing together. "That was gold, images that fit seamlcssl y i nto o ur lighting pipeline.
because they began to rifT in a way that breathed life It was a great road map for us,"
into the c haracters," To a llow ca m e ra access in tight quarters occupied
Before s h ooting, Ye atman , Stokdyk and Saliba by tin y an imated c harac ters. Bojan Ba zelli favored
reviewed scenes as re presented by storybo ards and compact m otion picture camera bodies. includ ing the
an imatics, ed ited to temporary audio tracks, TIli s was Arri 235 fo r non-dialogue sce nes. w hic h was ca pable
followed by a nimation 'kick-oiT' sessions that involved o f filming up to 75 frames per second for slow·motion
discussing c haracte r m otivations in preparation for acti o n, Th e grip and came ra department rigged ingen·
live·ac tion plate photo graphy. Yea tman used ri gid io us d evices to pla ce th e ca m e ra at g u inea pig eye-
puppe ts on se t to pantomim e a nimated action and level. MBojan used some very bizarre looking ca m era
d efi ne t h e s pace th a t charac te rs occupied for light- ri gs: said Yeatman. MTh ey were the funniest things,
ing. grip a nd camera reference. During plate photog- from lillie bitly skateboard·wheel concepts, to bungee-
raph y, a vo ice actor delivered ta lking a nimal li nes cams hangi ng o ff of wheelchairs, to dollies th at had
CIN"E fE X 11 9 D 13
no wheels, inside of tires - we did everything we co uld us complete control over camera placement and in- In trtIininf, Darwin
to put the audience in unusual places, " teractions with the environment." for the te rrarium dj,P'ay:< hi< mo>(", 'kill< by
scene - wllere tile G-force team membe rs m eet pet riding a motion ..-mulator. ~
or scenes in which actors would be liflingor store inhabitants - Imageworks shot pan-and-tile

F
cr~aW~ dMign ~am """,d
ho lding animated characters, animal trainer backgrounds us ing General Lift's motion contr o lled Darwin, rh~ ~nt r~am ~<Kkr,
Larry Madrid provided li ve guinea pig per- Tesselator rig, which precisely captured nodal mov- on a""'omi<(I/ .r!J<l'ilo, of real
formers, which motivated realistic body language as ing background liles. guin~a pigl, copying Yeatman',
human performers crad led the squirming animals, To frame shots in realtime, Imageworks employed photogmph, ofm. ,on', ""' ... n-
and provided in.camera referen ce for guinea pig body its virtual camera system - deve loped for Beowulf- and-white ,arin Am~rkan co>y. I
and fur dynamics, for scenes requiring actors to place ei ther handhe ld or u si ng its pan and lilt mechanism. Jua",z 'poru a language dKoder
spy gizmos onto guinea pig c haracters, the produc- "It was almost like a digital scoul, " n oted Yeatma n. in ~r right ear,..midI tramJate,
ti on created practical 3D resin props, derived from "Th(lt g(lve u s blOCking, le ns ing, composition and A- guj""a pig ..,.,alizat,ion, to human
CG models, Imageworks then replaced props with to-S movement of the characters. We cut the scenes 'pnd>. Though Imov"",rb
digitally rendered counterparts that could interact together to make sure they were working, and then mauly pre1~~d nawrnl rodent
with digital fur sim ulations, the s hots went to animation.- alllltomy - ",toining m. crearur~"
Extended scenes of animated c harac te rs in co n - Th e separation of foreground and background ioo..rt!nt floppineJ< ond comic
tained environments required an alternate approach layers in animated scenes gave lmageworks the flex· vul"""'bility - the arom m.m.
to traditional plate photography. - We had approxi- ibility to embra ce another technical challenge: pre- ,ubrie oItuation" adju.ring
mately 200 shots of animals inside a pet store terrar- senti ng the film in stereoscopic 30, an idea Disney ")'e po..-tion, ond realigning
ium," related Scott Stokdyk, " f or that sequence, and first suggested during preproduction. P(l ce fusion digit< to olio ... W onimak
a few others, we knew the purpose of the live·action 3 0 in Burbank allowed Ye(ltman to lest sophisticated to gliP objects.
s h oot was to get good refe ren ce to match the back- stereo digit<ll camera rigs developed for James C(lm·
ground, It was like a reverse of the movie 300, where eron's documentaries and upcoming science fi ction
they had actors on bluescreen; we used live-action e pic, Avatar. The eq uipm en t, although impressive,
plates as backgrounds and c reated all the texture posed ch(lilenges for guine(l-pig-scale s hooting. "We
and realism as CG synthetic foregrounds, That gave couldn 't get the camer(l down to four inches offthe
140 CINEf EX 119
 S~' - o"eor. ground : said Yeatman. 'hat was a problem beca use Engle th en crafled 3 D like a sound mixer, determin-
<igh~d. Slor.,.,,"'; mok - we had a chase sequence following nine-inch·tall cha r- ing depth as we needed iL-
len<k his novigo~DI><II $kiR:< a c ters with a snorke l lens. I also ta lked to my good Engle a nd h is team bu ilt on stereoscopic 3D pro-
ond 'em;uv.. lIO'e (or compuler friend Eric Brevig, w h o was working o n Journey 10 cesses tha t Imageworks had used on projects dating
worm, to rI>e G.foro! teM!. the Cenlerof Ihe Ear/h. His setup was different Ulan back to The Polar Express, and more recen tly on Beo-
The pl'()ljwjon digitally mod*d what we needed, aga in, because it involved actors in wulf, The stereoscopic interface was based on a Maya
S~lu' miniarure 'PY ,odgers, g r eenscree n a nd bluescreen environm e nts, w hi c h environment, viewed t h rough polarized glasses, and
and mode reWl IlIJrputJ (or a gave him more control over 3D efFects. M used a g r ee n g rid to indicate th e position of the th e-
,ru~d dummy model ofrl>e mole ater screen i n re lation to ch a rac ters and objects in a
to ..MId on ,ell""'gewo,*, 111M hen Disney com milled to a 3 D presen - scene, MTh e green g rid gave us a c ommon langua ge
employed lIIe ,ome geometry tatio n halfway tlHou g h principal photo- about w h ere t hings we re wit h respec t to the a udi-
ro creore CG godl:"tJ for llleir g raphy , Yeatman conferred wit h Scoll enc e,M observed Engle. "The interface was not unlike
onimot"'; character. f Mooch. a Stokdyk and Imageworks 3D visual e ffects s upervisor a tradi tiona l CG tool tha t gave the artist an objective
''''''/!lOll housefly, pro>ide' oeri" Rob Engle, a nd e lec ted to generate 3 D during post- view o f t he v ie wing platform of a ca m era. Th e gree n
re,,,,,,ook,ance Il$ing lhorox_ production, - We decided to make t wo movies that g rid derined th e edges of the screen, and we used
mlllJnt"'; came"" !hat unfold In would work both in 2 0 a nd 3 D," explained Yeatman. depth-measuring tools to determine w ha t was ' in'
flitll!. Imag""""*' worl<e<1 clo,eIy " Ha ndling 3D in postproduc tion a llowed me to do an d 'out' of th a t scr een ,M
willi H oy! Yemman to de~ away with all t he technicalities of 3 D on seL Dealing Scoll Stokdyk's team developed vis ual effects inde-
godl:"try for ~ animated with that In the field - selti ng the inte rocular a nd con - pendent of th e 3 D team, assembling and l ighting up
In<.a. implred by rem.world ve r gence of t he 3 D lenses - would have been crazy, to 60 passes per c haracter in Imageworks' lig h ti ng
military """"technology. because even if yo u think you know how th e shots go tool, Katana. When assembling c omposites, digital
together during shootin g, they often get rea rran ged effects s upervisor Seth Mau ry favored volumetri c ren -
a nd it ca n ca use problems i f a c u t doesn' t work, Pu t- dered e lemen ts over 2 0 effects, giving En g le's team
ting the 3 D process into post gave us th e abi lity to the option o f adding di m ension to atmospheric phe-
accentu ate the d epth o f a c llaracter's snou t, or push nome n a, Stereo a r tists t hen a na Iyzed each s h o t to
it back in realtime to see how it played in a c u L Rob determine depth, - During animation, we ' d decide
C INEfEX 11 90 IS
 In their laboraro,.,
<Iaging "",a, G.forc~
ream m..",""" re>MW 11"';"0
~d from Mooch Director of
ph<Jwgrophy &;an &mJli qver_
0Pll.ed lind ~nMr.pnxe"~d
rM motion pkwre MgariW! [0
maximize dyll<lmk range of the
image lind ,,"ow for g",<11 "'fituM
in o/>O<u",. Imllgewo'h u.ed film
",(erenu 000 imogel)' <apwred
by Ho-yt Ye<7fmlln', HDR-<:om
- on automated 36n-<1egree
,u~'.higl><le~nition imDge
ocquiWon <kl'ice - to
digirm/t ,.·build lighting
.,,';mnments in 3D.

which parts o f the background needed to b e broken allowed Imagewo rks to create characters that ap-
out as separate objects, - sai d Engle. -At that point we peared naturally dimensional, rather than like 2D cut·
kicked off o ur rotoscope and depth layout process to out s hapes. "If all we did was map objects on to nat
build rough geometry that corresponded to objects objects: said Engle, "everything would have loo ked
in the scene. We isolated elements with r oto, tra ci ng like cardboard. To augment th e 3D geometry, we used
objec ts by hand , and c reated sta nd ·i n geometry for a variety of2 D teChniques, including image warping.
where objects would appear in 3D space. We did all We 'd isolate the middle of an object. give it a little
that without wearing 3D glasses. We th e n went i nto warp independent of th e edges, and that created a
o ur stereo camera layout to set the ' interaxial' spac- sense of roundness. We'd also ' roto-mate' characters
ing between the rig ht- and lerl-eye ca meras, and co n- to define faces and bodies, and then map the textures
ve rgence. That's wilen we made the crea ti ve c hoices onto 3D s hapes, That c reated a very realis ti c sense
about how to play depth.- of d epth."
Engle's team used multiple camera rigs to isolate
objects in the Foreground, controlling spacing of right- mageworks spent almost one and a half years
and lefL-eye cameras to add depth and roundness to
objects, and angling the co nve rgence of the stereo
lenses to control spatial depth in frame. 'he more we
I developing tools and crea ting the stereoscopic
e ffe cts for G-Force, analyzing every cut. Out of a
total 1,861 shots and 82 minutes nmning time, Image-
separa ted the stereo ca meras, the closer and rounder works produced 1,287 shots, or 61 minutes of footage.
objects felt. We u sed convergen c e to push objects for th e remaining shots, In-Three handled the conver-
away From or toward us without changing that round- sion of non-vis ual effects s hots to 3D. Sassoon Film
ness. !fwe had a shot ofa human and a guinea pig in Design also handled approximately 50 3D SllOts, and
th e sa me plane and wanted to give th e human m o re Asylum Visual Effects contributed to more than 270
dimension, we'd isolate the human, use a wider inter- vis ual effects and computer graphic screen displays.
axial spacing to give him more roundness, and then Rob Engle oversaw stereo effects, working with all
push him back so he had correct depth." of th e visual effec ts facilities to e ns ure a seaml e ss
The dexterity of the postproduc ti o n 3D process 3D experience.
160 CINE fEX 119
 Afi" a G-F""e
mi,<ion diortlpts an .8/
ot>emlion, me rodent agents
are urip~ of I""if tadgeu
al>l1 de~d 10 a local pel ,tore.
SceM' inJiM !he ,I"", lermrium
inlfoduced a MW tmup of animm
eMmele,,_T" shOOI badgrouoo.
{or the ,eq..... nc .. wIlich included
aboul ZOO 'liwa/e~' shot!.
imageWllrl« filmed motion control
lile. of ~ pel ,10", <e' u!iHzjnt
GeMra! J.jfr', Twe/mOl" rig. Ani,U
men ,",c"''''ruc!ed badtrounds
~hil>l1 Q digirnl ,.,..,,,,ation of
the rerrn,;um inle';",. Yemm<ln
uJed ~ ,rudio', ..rwal cam"a
$)"Iem (0 ."abksh CMlpMiliom
in ",01 rUm, prillr 10 keyfmme
""imarion.

One o f the most unusual uses o f 3D in th e film was ti o nists special framing charts to make sure the mask·
bo rn out of an experiment that [mageworks had toyed ing was correct in general theatrical release. Wh en we
with o n Beowulf. "We were t ryi ng to figure out ways knew that was achievable, we used it, ho pefully, with
to bring the aclion out into the audience,- reca lle d good taste. I found it very e ffe ctive fo r 3 0 'wow: in-the-
Eng[e. - [n one of our s hots, the widescreen matte audience's-face momen ts,- frame-breaking scenes in-
wasn't quite right and the action overlapped it, break- cluded the lunging pet store s nake, protruding guinea
ing the widescreen mask at the top and bo ttom of the pig legs, wriggling cockroach antennae and sllards of
fram e. [t loo ked as if we were looking through a noat- nying glass re ndered into th e blac k horizo ntal borders
ing window i n 3D and we were b r inging objects o ut of the top and b o tto m of the fram e.
into th e audience. - The effect went unused in Beowulf,
but a poster of the 1952 3D m o vi e Bwana Devil. d e· te reo effects added to the excitem e nt of the
picting a [i o n le aping o ut o f a movie theater screen ,
inspired Engle to explore the fram e-busting technique
for G-Force, Th e 30 team selec ted a scene featuring
8 film's acti o n scenes, including a sequence in
which the G-f o rce team rid es an ROY - rapid
deployment vehicle - composed of three inte rl ock·
a pet sto re snake lunging at a member of th e G·Force, ing motorized transparent spheres. Th e production
th e r eptile's jaws striking its glass terrarium wall, c rea ted a non-fun ctio nal ROY prop for reference o n
breaking th e edges of th e 2.40: I widescreen mask set i n downtown Los Ange[ es, filming with stunt co-
wi t h a co m edic spla t. o rdinator Ke nny Bates and s p ecia l effects coordin ·
Th e s tartling effect inspi red Yeatma n to add a ator Stan Parks,lmageworks then generated the ROY
number o f shots that occasionally allowed 3D objects digitally, w ith G·Force c haracters inside, To capture
to overlap the perceived barriers of the theater screen. backgrounds for the chase, Pursuit System s s upplied
" I've made a large number o f special venue films , so an articulated cra ne mounted atop a modified Porsche
w e ird formats have always intrigue d m e," admitted Turb O Cayenne, - We t r ied to g et real in-ca m era foo t-
Yea tm(ln. -But it posed a problem: how to project it in age wherever we could,- commented Scott Stokdy k,
the field? We worked with t h e Dis ney e ngineers and - The Purs uit Sys tem s ca m era could ny up above the
they ca m e up with a process to give th eater proj ec- cars, and get d own very low. They also had insert cars
CINEFEX 1190 17
 Hu~ - a pmulen~

Iong-llai~ '<Yf - Meap"

tile S!Me with DtJrwin and ride<
piggy.b<Jd< inside a malorized
tran.paren( 'phere, />lin o(the
G.Force ",pm deployment v6lide
ra ,aprure backf"'Und. for the
ROV dodging ob<!och-s on l<!f
Angele< .treelll, the productian
employed an a"Of o(ingeniau<
n><>b* {ame", rif', induding
(USlom ,a"",,,, ,a.. supplied by
p., ..uil SY'I""',,- F", s!lOB o(the
ROV po$'ing beneath a s/>lln
UfiNry \'Mid!', Image"","" us,"",
~sh~ns imafery laken by

a "''''''''' skimming a rood a(

fIJi".." pif eye-level, digila/lr
unwrapping the (""!life
and projeainf il anla a
,;rwm dome_

with s norke l lenses that could get very c lose down a spherical IIs h-eye lens, and h e appeared gigantic
to th e ground, and elec tri c go-karts that had ca m era in frame, Then, when we c ut back to a wide shot, we
rigs aUached to them , rigged with a s mall re m o te· revea led he was this little teeny creature '"
controlled camera. ~ In one o f Mooch 's starring mome nts, th e coura-
Forclose ups o f c harac ters in the moving RDV, th e geous ny inllltrates a cocktail party in Saber's ho me,
productio n captured IIsh-cye-le ns perspectives racing and barnstorms a waitress carrying a d essert tray,
along the street using an Bmm lens o n a Vi stavisio n Imageworks generated a virtual e nvironm e nt for th e
camera mounted at guinea pig eye-level. Imageworks seq uen ce using an ingenious live-ac ti o n plate s hooL
digitally unwrapped the moving footage and projected · We put a IIsh-eye lens o n a Vi sta vision camera shoot-
it o n a virtual dome, · We used the Vi sta foo tage as a ing straight up in the air, ~ Yea tman explained. "Th e
p seudo-virtual environment, ~ said Stokdy k. "That e n- camera was o n a little roller d evice, and the actress
abled us to create any camera move we wanted o n the playi ng the waitress pushed it through the party as
foreground o bjects, with correct pe rspec ti ves which- if she was ca rrying t he tray, We unwrapped that foot-
ever way we looked. We then added a CG road surface age and digitally proj ected it o nto a virtual dome.
and CG undercarriage of a sports utility vehicle. ~ That gave us a h emisphere o f th e party in motio n in
360 degrees. Imagework s th en added a computer
he production used Pursuit System s' mobile graphics platter of d esserts. We animated one contin-

T cra ne to shoot bac kgrounds for Mooch , a G-

Fo r ce housen y equipped w ith mi croscopic
aerial surveillance devices. "We called those scenes
uous m o ve nying right into it, e nte ring th e world of
th e cupcakes, with the party-goers m o ving all around,
We did a lot of tricks like that, m ovi ng in and out of
' M ooc harama :~ remarked Hoyt Yea tman. -rile ty pical virtual environments, combi ning Sco tt 's expe rtise
National Geographic approach to visualizing an in- creating ph otoreal worlds in Spider-Man with anima -
sect in night would be to focus o n the eyes, and every· tion by the Imagewo rks' team from Sur!,:s Up- using
thing e lse would be out o f focus, Butl felt that Mooch , the best o f both techniques_ ~
as a character, saw himself as large as a Cobra attack Imagewo rks also genera ted G-f o rce's adversaries,
helicopter. He's invi nciblel So we IIIme d that with an army o f marauding robots, which again had been
18 0 CINEfEX 119
 indivi dual cables."
The finale of the fi rm involves members of t he G·
force tea m trapped ins ide Cru s terstorm 's mecha·
nis m s as th e monster robot assembles itself around
them. Imageworks fashioned the roboti c interior as
a dy namic virtua l enviro nme nt of m ovin g machine
parts. "Th e 3 D b uild was incredibly huge: observed
Stokdyk. "We pruned out pieces o f the set w her e sec-
ti o ns were off-scree n a nd then pulled in a li b rary of
m ach ine components to dress parts to Cilmera s h ot
to s h ot. I t was a we ird hybrid of dynamics. e nviron-
m en t and c haracte r a nimation all roll ed i nto o n e."

h e action climax ends o n a n upbea t note,

T delivering a w h o lesom e m essage to its in-

t en d ed youthful demographic. "Animation
can be anything yo u wa nt: declared Hoyt Yeatman.
" In th e United States, it's usually d esig ned toward
c hildren; in france a nd J apan it's different. We tri ed
to be c areful with s ubject maller a nd the arc o f the
story so it had moments of i nte ns ity, but th e kid s were
always in control and it had a posi tive resolutio n: Dar-
win believes at firs t he is genetically alte r ed, on ly to
find that he is not, so he has to believe in h im self. It's
about team work , achieving w h at appears to be th e
impossible. They were classi c Disney themes; a nd
that, to m e, was exciting."
Ilhmer and Darwin in s pi red by Hoyt Yeatman 's observiltio n of h is son . Yea tm an's e nthusiasm fo r the eccentric s tory
infilr.rm~ !he ~ of~r "He was at th e ilge when all boys like din osaurs ilnd proved infectious. particula rly w ith th e vis ua l effects
t>M1~.;,;. on ~vi1 genitJ. intent on robots: Yeatmiln recillied. "I was watch i ng him play, tea m w ith w ho m he s hared a common la ng uage. " It
emJm;ng !he world wi!h inVll.i\Ie and started wo nde ring what it would be like if we took was very easy for m e to get inside Hoyt's head." Scott
tKhnoloa. wIlere!hey are everyday h o useh o ld appliances and brought t hem to Stokdy k observed . "Hoyt has s uch an analytical mind,
ouad<.d by a rob<llic monOler I ife i n a stril nge way thil t could be 'e vil : whil e ma in- he had an explana ti o n fo r how everythin g worked -
compmed ofl<i!chen oppliance .. taining their o riginal look . Th e r e was a fin e balance all th e spy gear, th e equipment and nano techno logy.
including 0 micmWlM' oven in between making them SCilry and bei ng c lever about He wa s an a m azi ng resource for h ow we textu red
wIlich Hurley;' impri:<oned. how we m echanized t h e m , bringi ng them to life in t hose worlds. And when it came to reviewi n g s hots, I
Imag. work. g~m!ed mb<ll< c lusters. We hild Hurley Cilptured by a combinatio n found m yself very much o n th e sam e wave length . I
ba,ed on produaion art ond of a microwilve, cappucci n o milchine ilnd a toasterr" would start to describe what I had planned to d o fo r
CAD de<ig"" and !hen animated With the excep tion ofa no n-mobile re plica of a a s h o t , and Ile could finish m y sente nce. He wa s a
0womermion. of oppliance .. cr us hed coffee mac h i ne, Imageworks digitally gen- great leader."
Mod,*" buill medwnico/ e ra ted all r obots based o n production art ilnd CAD Th e experi ence, for t h e new directo r, was essen-
creamre. u<ing component ports. d esig ns. The animated agglome rations of ilppliances tially collaborative. "No one person makes a m ovie:
Afier onimmors keyf"""""<1 a included an 6 5-foot-tall robotic tripod known as 'Clus- Yeatman emphasized. "I t really was a collective group
bme-level machine performonce. terstorm : "We did il lot of base-l evel mode li n g and effort. It was a constant c reative explo rati on, hitti ng
a;tKJmic <imulatiom of coble. rigging fo r illl of Clusterstorm 's compo ne n ts, " Scott at ideils every day, t ryi ng to te ll il good story. I d o hope
ond omer mo0lankol Stokdyk explai ned. "A combiniltion of animiltors and to make anoth er film . I have no idea w hat that w ill be.
orti(octs were added. lilyout artists t he n hand-an i ma ted ind ividual parts to but I naturally gravitate toward til e c razy and unusua l.
Cil m e ril. We first animated base·level geometry, and I'm a big k id at large. I have never grown upl"
th e n added dynilmics. We had a s p ecia l tea m that
d id n o th in g b ut cables. We had cilbles that w rilpped G-force ph otographs copyr ight 'll 2009 by Dis ney
ilround ohjects, cilb les thilt ci n ch ed togethe r, swing- Entertainment. All rights reserved . Special thanks
ing dynilmic Cilhles, cables thilt we re attached o n o ne to Chrissy Woo, Tra cy Kettler, Rachel rafikoffa nd
e nd ilnd loose o n t h e othe r, bundles o f cilb les ilnd Mike Johnson.
CINEFEX 11 9 0 19
 ~ .
o THE eMBASSY IJ

(1
o

- o

, , ,

-~'''''''' --
 ARTICLE BY JOE fORDHAM

Neill Blomkamp's short films and tele-

vision commercials have captured the imaginations of streaming video fans with
images of fantastic technology run amuck in urban settings: a breakdancing Citroen
car, crab-like soccer-playing robots, fugitive androids, Third World robot militia and
a heartsick secretarial office drone, " I always like to present the fantastic or the un-
real in an environment that is completely rea!," observed Blomkamp, "It's » >
just something that I find appealing, even if I'm not that we nee d ed digitally, As it turned out, we used
awareofit." almost entirely digital a liens, which meant there were
Blomkamp's best-known s hort, Alive in Joburg , no prosthetic or s uit limitations to the way we s hot
was an independenlly finan ce d produc tion, s hot be- them. We started p laying with the idea that the aliens
tween Blomkamp's commercial assignments. The six- were an insect-like ecology, I worked with David Meng,
minute faux news report intercut interviews o f Johan- a conceptua l designer and sculptor a t Weta, and he
nesburg inhabitants with newsreel -sty le footage of fleshed out the design to c reate thi s extremely wiry
a ghetto contai ning refugees of an extraterrestrial and gross-looking crea tu re, something you wouldn' t
civilization. " I took a Wes tern science fiction concept want to si t next to on the bus.·
and placed that in a Third World African setting in the The alien took s hape as a maquette representing
city where I grew up: explained Blomkamp. "I hadn' t a scrawny insect biped with backward-bent legs_ Weta
seen those two things mixed toge th er before, and Workshop built prosthetic parts to represent dissected
when I started experimenting with that imagery, it creature limbs_ For creature scenes, the productio n
really resonated. " The short film's disturbing images p lanned to shoot Jason Cope o n set, wearing a gray
of downtrodde n te ntacle-faced creatures, a maraud- pajama-type suit with tracking marke rs , interac ting
ing robot and enormous hovering spacesllips spread with human characters_ Visual effects wou ld later
like wildfire on video-sharing websites and catapulted use Cope's performance as the basis for computer
the young director into the Hollywood lime light. Uni- generated aliens_
versal Studios pre s ide nt of production Mary Parent

A
invited Blomkamp to meet with filmmaker Peter Jack- s Blomkamp drew up plan s for a loca ti on
son, whose Wlngnut Film s was developing a movie shoot in Johannesburg, the workload at Weta
based on Microsofl Game Studios' sci-fi computer Digital increased on its c urre nt projects, in-
game, Halo. cluding James Cameron's science fiction epic Ava/ar,
and it became clear tile production would have to look
flew from his home in Canada to elsewhere for its primary v is ual effects ve ndor. Image
I cl iCked with Jack- Engine visual effects executive producer Shawn Wal sh
J J months' pre- and digital production s upervisor Peter Muyzers leapt
production, to a at the opportunity, "We'd seen Alive in Joburg on You-
halt. " Tube: said Peter Muyzers, " We knew Neill had been
Blomkamp Fran Walsh said: a vis ual effects artist, like us, in Vancouver, and we'd
' Why don 't youjust stay? Let's sta rt something e l se been following his work, We also knew he was trying
that 's not a studio film : Alive in Joburg seemed l ike to do a fea tu re with not a lot of budget, shopping it
a good diving-off poinL We dusted that off and reco n- around in Vancouver because Weta Digital was bu sy.
figured th e story into Distric / 9," We were very inte rested in that opportunity."
The screenplay by Blomkamp and Terri Tatc hell Image Engine inherited the lio n's share o f v isual
begins, like its short film predecessor, with a lien vis- effects. including a lien c haracters and esta bli s hing
itors living in District 9, a ghetto beneath their space· shots o f their mothers llip and military hardware. Muy-
ship on th e outskirts of Johannesburg, where th ey zers was joined on location in South Africa by repre-
have been harbored for 20 years. Documentary-style sen tatives f rom The Embassy, who had worked on
es tablishing scenes then in terweave a more conven- many ofBlomkamp's comme rcial s, and who mainly
tional narrative that foll ows Wiku s van d er Merwe handled a third-act action seque nce. During post, vis-
(Sharito Copley), an employee of Multi-National United ual effects production manager Marie-Cecile Dahan
- a terrestria l technology consortium - who devel- joined the team, a long with Weta Digita l . Wll ich re-
ops sympathies for the aliens through his contact turned to assist as the shot count grew. Zoic Studios
with alien Christopher Johnson (Jason Cope). handled overflow 2D work, and Goldtooth Creative
Weta Workshop worked with Blomkamp to design generated alien ho lographic displays.
the aliens and their technology, exploring co nceptual The production staged two s hoots in K:liptown, one
d esigns and options for s llOoting on location with a of the poorest townships of So we to, and a o ne-week
relative ly small budge t, in the post-apa rth e id Johan- in terior soundstage s hoot in New Zea land. To secure
nesburg slums. "I first UlOught we were going to have a safe area for location shooting in South Africa, pro-
to do alie n characters as in-camera prosthetics: Blo m - ductio n manager Phil ip Ivey made use of a s hanty-
kamp commented. " ' t didn't loo k like we were going town region that loca l authorities were in the process
to be able to afford to create the number of aliens of tran sforming into a g reen space, rel ocati ng inhab-
22 0 CINE fEX I 19
 ~n ah~n mothe"hip
ho"",, 0,,"' johonnesblJrg in
°Welo Olglla! shot produced
(or Di<t/icr 9_ ea.-wrillen and
direcred by Neill 8/omkamp -
making hi< (earu", ~bul a(ie' a
core .. in commerOOh and ,horts
- the film u,ed a dorumenro'Y
,hooling n~ !O depkl a.."" 0'
,*,wnlmd~n Mint' IMng in ha"h
eheno condilions ~ nom.. South
A(rican, 8/omkmnp d~"'t>ed
visuol concepl< <I( producer Pel..
Jock,on', Wingnul fffm" ......ting
with Wera Warkshop, ond then
broUehl a ma~ o(!he mool
"
effect< work bad!O hi< CII,renl •
homelawn o(Vancou"",, wrn,,,,
Ima~ Engine and rm
Embony
genernled !he 0 . ."" ond
!Mi, lechn%gy_

Official< (rom Muiri-

Nalional UMed - a l...... tIid
lechnology consortium -
in!em>gO!e on a"'n in 0 see""
crealed (or the lea,., !railer.
8Iomk<mp worl<ed,.;(h ='"
m....lopmenl !eam, 01 Wero
Wori<shop ond Im<lge £Jtgi""
!O concocr <III alien dfiign !hm
challenged gente c"",,"noon ..
depi<Iing rile aeorures '" biza,re.
yer 'Y"'pa!helk .pedm.n, o(
an I""ecr-like ecology_ er.aw",
performer J""'" u,p. ~d
men rok, on ...1 wearing a gmt-
colored !r<Jd<jng ma';'., ,uit.
Ima~ Engi"" digilally .""ed
C{Jpe (rom plates ond ,rudied
hi, performance lIS reference
for rnlomalion ond k erfio""
anima!i(ln o(the digiral
chorO<:ters.

C INEFEX 1 19 0 23
 r ---

itants to housing elsewhere in th e region. lidar scan s and high dynamic range images as ofte n WelO Wori<shop
as possible on seL Image Engi ne vis ua l effects s u per· sculplll" Seon foo~ Anlony
hooling cond itions were chaotic. MIL was insan· v isor Dan Kaufman then led th e charge i n postproduc- McMu.c." ond SI.... &7tIe worlc
S itY,M said Neill Blomkamp. Jason Cope actually
M

played every alie n. In a scen e wh e re MNU was

evicti ng a liens from th ei r s hacks, we went from one
tion, working with match move lead Derek Stevenson
to ha ndl e tracking using combina ti o ns of Th e Pi xe l
Farm's I'FTrac k , 2d:5 boujo u a nd Scie nce ·D·Vis ions
011 0 (ull-s;ze ~ m"'luene o(
leo<! 01;.," Chri<lopher johnson,
a charocrer wIIo slood nine (eet
s h ac k to the next, and Jason played a different a lien 3 0 Equalizer. Image Enginealsoou tsourced complex Iall 011 bodWtlrd-bMI ins&!' legs,
ea c h lime, in real lime, interacting w ith o u r human trac ks to Yannix Tech no logies. · We tried to give Neill deff;ng human analllmy. The
characters. We th en h ad to rotomate h im and paint a ll th e freedom he needed in shootin g : Dan Kaufman compleled sculpwre became lhe
him o ut from the handhe ld footage, and track and noted. ~ But we did mention to h im th at zooming com- b<l<i$ (or Ima/:" EngiM'S ~br0'Y
add anima te d c harac ters.1l was an intense amoun t plicated th e tra c king a nd lens curvature corre ction. o( digilal alien o<sels, (rom wIIich
of paint·oul and plate restoration work, and th e vis- The interplay of different lenses moving in re lation- the leam c",aled aliens 0(011
u al effects g uys were runnin g a nd gunning, trying to ship to ea ch other dynamically c ha nges til e distortion oge., shope. and siZe<, dod in
figure it al l out as I was s h ooling. The whol e thing of t h e image. Yannix has its own techno logy for ca l· <tronge combination. o(lerresrrial
was improv. M
c ulating that on a fram e-by-frame basis.· cIothint_1 Wela Worl<shop al.o
Th e dynamic na tu re oftllc s hoot made it impos- To give the human a c tors corre ct eye-lines wit h (",med 0 <erie$ of (oom late>'
sible to place o n-set tracking markers, o r use wit ness a l iens tower ing over th em, Jason Cope wo r e height- P'o<lilttk makeup. depkling
camera systems to record performer refe rence on seL e nhanci ng prosthetics. · Some ofthe aliens, inc luding lilt effem o( a" alien ;n(emon
· We tried some tests with witness camera tech n o l ogy, ~ Ch ristop he r Johnson, we re seven fee t tall," observed lIlol de(orm. the (11m', human
sa id I'eter Muyzers. ~The problem was, if we placed Image Engi n e animation su pervisor Steve Nich o ls. prof<lt0.v.l Weta aro<l Cordi
wit ness camera s on se t , and then Neill wa nted to "Jason strappe d o n sti l ts for som e of t hose sce nes. M~ airbru~. olien
swing his camera around, we'd have had to keep mov- Othe r times, he wore strange little eye-line cups t ha t 1lI"0 appliance._
ing o ut of th e way. It was too restrictive. We Il ad to hove red above his hea d . w h ich the other actors Co uld
wing it. and we ended up capturing the motion ofUle use as a refere nc e . The problem with t h e stilts was
gray·s u it actor just from production footage.· som e times t he performance came across as exactly
Data wranglers took measurements, a nd captured th at - a guy o n stilts. Nei ll picked up on t h at rig ht
240 CINEfEX 11 9
 W~1<I
Worl<,hop
oron Shari fjnn worl<. 0/1
a pro!aryp~ prop r~p""en~"g
"medlankal m;'n ....o.uj~ "
powerful bip"dal bank ",Gdlj""
worn by an aNen """mIGr. I Artis!
Johnrry 8rough an~nd. IG d>f'
pain! job of a" alien a",,"~ rifk
wrth exre"';"d drum magazj"".
u.M in a ~erce fUn Il<It!k in d>f'
third OC! of the film. Worl<jng from
'O""~p[ an by Greg Broodmore,
w~!" Worl<<hop de,jg""d "nd
O'eIilM a number 0( U(I(k alien
_apaM. whid> bee""", " fo.:u.
of anenlion for MNU '" n
anet>1pl:$!(1 exploi!!h~
a1;'n !fihno/ogy.

away; and so we wound up a nimating a lot o f those cr ucia l pa r t i n evoki n g empa th y for th e strand ed,
scen es k ey fra m e. - tra gic c r eatures. "One o f the things that I was w res-
tling with : d eclare d Ne i ll Blomkamp, - a nd I t h ink I
lien animation bega n with studi es of Weta's a m going to contin ue to w restle wit h for th e rest of

A co nceptua l d esigns. accompanied by nature

research. "Th e m a in thin g Neill wanted was
r ealis m ," sta ted I m age Eng i ne c reature s upervisor
m y career. is tha t Ho llywood m ovies tend to s impl ify
ideas. I wanted to crea te a completel y a lien crea tu re.
But t h e o nly way, in Hollywood , yo u ca n p r ese nt a
J a m es Stewart. - He wa n ted to take every p ossible c r ea tur e as comp letel y a l ien is if it is a formidable
refere n ce th at exists in real life and build it into the forc e - as Giger did in Ridl ey ScoU's A/len. Fo r a ny
c ha r acters. We looked a t cockroac hes. d ung beetl es. form of se n tient being th at t he a udi e nce h as to re-
goliath b u gs. We wo rked w ith a fa ntastic nature pho- late to, o ur psychology seems to req uire a liens to be
tograp her a nd processed his pictures at h igh resO lu- presented w ith a huma n fa c e. It r eally bothered me
tion, the n used those textures to get into the c revices that I had to do that. In til e e nd, we c ame up wit h a
of how i nsects artic ula ted .- design t ha t was hard·sh e lled, l ike a n insec t , but i t
Image Engine developed a n a lien model as rigi d had th e ability to emote by co n figuri ng its fac e i nto
interlocking body parts wi th n exible s i newy joints, recognizable e m otiona l s hapes. -
exoskeleton s he ll , binoc ular eyes a nd a muzzle full "The base struc ture of the a lien face mimicked a
of tentacles. " Ne ill wanted us to feel compassio n for huma n face,· added J ames Stewart. " It was essen -
these c haracters: observed Steve Nicho ls. "We gave tiallya c rab·l ike s he ll ; b ut if y o u p ut a skin ove r th e
them very artic ulate faces. The upper part of the fac e top and h ad t he s he lls drive that skin, it looke d very
had expressive eyes and brows; a nd then t h e lower huma n.- The creature team rigged a lien physiognom y
half, from t he nose area to t he mouth, was m ad e up usi ng keyframe blend s hapes of e ndoskeleton stru c-
of te ntacles. By having tentacles partially obscure the t ures, comb ined with fleshy tentacles co ntaining sk el-
face, viewers impart t hei r own in terpretati o ns i nto etal structures and dynamic muscle s im ulations.
the performance." For crowd scenes - with a liens of all ages, sh apes
Th e a liens' bizarre facia l a rti c ulation played a a nd s izes attempting to b le nd into huma n society
C INEfEX 11 9025
 U!ing handheld djgi[al
camera<, IIIomkamp tho(
mud> of!he (11m on location in
Sawfoto, wIIere !he emplayment
of troditional mum e,,-eru .et
'U""Y$, (/Oddng mari<ert and
witne" c"""''''! II'" unfe<1<lb/e.
Imteod, repre.e"ra~",. of
Image Entine and rm Embany
r«orded location data ...nel't'l'er
po«lb/e, and then 'e~d on
poltproduction (raddng <OItJ1iaM
to place digital '*menl< IlKh a.
the fIo<r~ng mothenlUp, m~ira'Y
\i6ljcJo:. and helicopte~ I MNU
repre.entotive Wilw, WIt> def
Merwe (Shamo Copky) conf",nl<
at> aa"..,I", m.." ...no tah.
exception to being e'licted from
1m ghew hom ... Image Eng!""
dlgita/ft ge"""'ted the 01",,,
ba,ed on photog"'phy of
)".on Co~.

Chriuop/lef )ohn,on
pee" out !he w'ndaw af
at> annored ~"onnel ,a""f,
before being intem>gared and
bruraf,t beaten. AAn (adm
,UtKtu~ Included a .egmented
cafopace, articulated mandlbl"
and ik'hr tentade, thar hung
from !he """,I "",a. Mmato"
articula[ed rigid portion. of the
aRt> fixe, and QIOrroRed tent~
ming ,k~eU!l ItnKfure, and
<1jntmk musc/f: <i'nulation<. I
Fof the (raHef', interrogation
"e"", la.on Cope plured rile
Inrer"'gotor In odditit)n (0
peifonning Chriuop/ler
)ohn.on', inwll<:tions.

2 6 D C INEFEX 1 19
by wearing strange congl o m e rati o ns of c loth ing -
Image Engine researc h and development lead John
Hadd o n and asset lead Nigel De nto n·Howes assem·
bled a library o f a lien parts. ' We c r ea ted hundreds o f
versions of alien characters ba sed o n o nly a couple o f
d esigns: sa id Stewart. "We co uld vary the size of the
alien bodi es, c hange paint schemes, dirt m aps and
clothing. We could select diffe r e nt paint splatte rs,
sti ckers, trave l markin gs, co lo rs and textures. Il ere·
ated an a mazing va ri ety o rLextures that integra ted
into this very d etailed e nvironme nt."

o animate t he cr ea tu res, lmage Engine used

T ro toscoped animation of Jason Cope's p e r·

formance, keyframe animation and occasional
m otion cap ture. I\eyfra m e and m o ti o n capture also
Fi g ured into th e animation o fa s maller character-
Christopher Johnson's three·foot·tall son, ' Little CJ:
' We m otio n cap tured I"eter Muyze r' s son : said Dan
I\aufman. ' That got us som e information for Litlle
CJ's movement. We t h en m o dified that to add more
segm en ts to his legs.· The majori ty of LitUe CJ scenes
e mploye d purely keyframe animation , inc luding a
momen t in whiCh th e feisty yo ungste r dis plays feral
tendencies, attacking a nd biting Wikus.
Blo mkamp s hot th e majo rity of plates us ing the
RED ca m era syste m , but also made use of Sony EX I
high d efi nitio n prosumer ca meras and analog video
stock foo tage. ' The South A fr ica Broadcasting Com ·
pany prov ided archive footage of rioting," I\auf man
sai d . " In a handful o f those s hots, Ne ill asked us to
add aliens and som etim es repl ace people with aliens.
It was very low-rez, a nd we had no ca m e ra informa-
tion. We ca lc ulated the len ses, crea ted matc h m ove
geometry, tracked in aliens, did paint-outs whe re
need ed , and th en d egra d ed the image to s hoeho rn
in o ur c haracters."
The Embassy integrated into plates a smaller breed
of c r eature, an alien pet that was a cro ss between a
scorpio n and a cra b w ith te ntades in its m o uth. " 1l was
hard-su rface d , like a crab,· said The Embassy lea d
technical directo r Matthew Roul ea u, "and it scuttled
around pretty fast. We key fram e-a nimated them and
rendered them with renections, specularily maps, dif-
fusion and subs urface scattering to make their s he lls
trans lucent. Til ey were aggressive lil lie c reatures; and
at o ne point we had on e rippin g off a g uy's fa ce. We
rebuilt the actor's face with skin a nd fl appi ng bits, did
ca m era projections onto th e CG m o del and animated
him to move as th e creature was biting him ."
One of th e film's m os t dramatic sequences had
MNU officers brutalizing Christopher JOhnson w ith a
baton. "We s hot a couple of takes with Jason wearing
CI NEfEX 11 9 0 27
 SmoJ/u =arur~ ­
k nown as 'aJjen pelS' - "'"
p;n.d agans! ~ <lIMr, as in a
cod~gh ~ and (orr.d II> figh t fOf
.u,.,;v,,1 in 1M bru!aI environment
of Oislric! 9. for (rom frierwfrJ',
the pelS ore aure,We cor~.
copabr. of rending hum"n fIe,h
wi1h !heir claw:!. Artists ar The
Emba,S)' mod~d the alien pelS
as harrJ-,ur{«ed lJrIJIropod., wi!h
"'gmen(ed "'orpiooHil<e bod~s
and tiuhy (en1O<;lei "round !heir
moulh-l. and keyfl'llme animar'"<i
!hem wi1h filS! <C\J!!ling mo1i(Ins.
Alien pel ,ur{«e, w.re rendered
wi1h ,efiec1itJns, '/>Kuklrity
and subwr(<<e scaneling (0
, ;",ulare (,,,nsllKenl smlls.

his gray suit," stated Peter Muyzers, "Th en th e MNU hoveri ng around the e normous floa ting disc, the pro-
performers really went to town , beati ng a stuntm a n duction leased helicopter s fro m a Sout11 African min·
dressed in t he g ray s uit, wearing a protective vesL" ing contra ctor. Image Engine th e n ge nera ted three
Animators used roto mation of Cope and the stunt makes of digital he licop ter to s upple m ent th e prac-
performer w i t h keyfra me adjustments, "In our first tical ai r cran, and a dded MNU logos. Image Engine
pass, we matched what was d one by t he actor," Steve also modeled a nd replicated fleets o f Casspir a rmored
Nichols expla i ned. "We t he n 'insecticize d ' i t, adding personnel ca rri ers, th e n add e d digital doubles of
tweaks and twitches to make th e c haracter's motions MNU infan try m e n.
more razor-s harp and alie n, w hile r etaining th e per· Weta Digital took on molliersllip shots that did not
formance, Each time Neill saw a take, h e asked us to inc lude aliens. Image Engine s upplied Weta w ith its
amp up the i mpacts. The harde r we hit CJ, t he m ore m o th e rship mode l and textures; Weta retoole d the
Neill liked the s h ot. I ca n 't r e m e mbe r seeing a dig- m odel fo r its interna l pipeline a nd e nhance d d etai l
i tal performergeUing th e c rap beat o u t of him t his for scen es h overi ng c lose to t he e no rm o u s space
way be fo re. He was bleeding. co ug h ing up blood and vehicle. "We packed a huge amount of geometry into
sa liva - i t w as inte nse." th e s h ots: c omm e nted Weta Digital v is u a l effects
To create the aliens' mothership, Image Engine supervisor Matt Aitken. - We did a lot o f mode ling w i th
referenced Weta Worksh op co nceptual art of the ship, c u rves, a nd used rea l-world-based textures with ru st
which rese mbl ed an e no rm o u s inverted indu stria l and corrosion. We dug o u t th e wea th erin g tool th a t
refinery. - The s paceship was s upposed to be about we had d eveloped for New York City in King Kong.
two and a half kilometers i n diam eter, " Dan Kauf- Th at was a particle·based solution. w hic h acknowl·
man noted. "I t had tons of detail, wh ich was very hard edged Ule geometry of objects, and c reated running
to create at t hat sca le. We achieved that by m o d e l· streaks q uite n icel y. "
ing the piping ata bigger scale, and t hen using cards Th e production f ilme d m o th ership interiors on
and to ns of texture reference of real industria l build· soundstage sets, includin g refe re n ce fo r a shot-
in gs to beef it up to a finer scale.- added in t he las t m o nth of postproduction - t ha t
for s hots o f MNU and te levision news he licopters revea ls the m oth e r s hip's ho ld teeming with alien
CINEfEX 11 903 1
 A k~ Kelle in"""'''f a
"''I:" "",d><mk<ll ... osl<e"tM
liIat Wikus commandee'" and
uses 10 bre«h a defensive hWU
Nne. WeI<! Worl<shop de\'eloped
design. (or !he alien ...osuf[ and
built a full-Kale prol<!type. WeI<!
Digil<!l "ea~d a CG model and
previW<!lizalion (or !he <Xti<ln. A
Ime M.jgn dIlInge .treamHned
!he ...osuj~ ..midi The Embassy
realized '" a djgital rnaracter.
To shoot Ken.. orlile UO'lui\
OIl location in ""wet<>, Emba«y
representati\'es googed!he
gi<lnt biped'S ~jgh t on
set by uSj"t a pole.

refugees. Blo mkamp shot Jason Cope in gray s uit frame , dropping out of the mothers hip. Wikus then
scrambling through debris. and that e lement beca m e locates wllere the s hip has been hidden and rires it up
the ba sis for choreography of the s hot. " Neill liked - which was our biggest single task o n th e show."
the reference so much," said Dan Kaufman, " he asked
if we could put the alien in where Jason was scra m · or Wlkus ' dropship flight- which sta rts with
bling. So we started wi th thal, and the n tilted up to a
2 i7D environment that involved a bac kground malle
painting that Weta created. We added foreground set
F the craft bursling free ofa hiding place under
Christopher Johnson's home - the productio n
s ho t background plates around the s hack in Sowe to.
extensions and all the aliens." Limited time to com - Weta Digital then created digital erupting effects.
plete the o ne-off epic s ho t m ea nt complex artificial "It was a very complex simulatio n: observed Aitken.
intelligence c rowd s imulations were unfeasible. I n- "We wanted to avoi d i ts looking like a bunc h of par-
stead, Image Engine laye red animation rotomated ti c le effects obscured by dust, because we felt that
from Cope's performance with keyframe and m olion pe ople are gelling u sed to those visual s le ights of
ca ptured midgro und aliens, and animated motion hand." Blomkamp referred Aitken to refere n ce foot-
cycles projected onto cards for background aliens. age of an Iraqi improvised explosive device. "The JED
Compositors laye red the shot in The f o undry's Nuke had been buried too deep and, as an ArnlY truck drove
and lIluminated charac ters with bonfires and flas h - pa st, the ground heaved, forming a giant m o und. That
lights scattered through th e environment. was crucial re feren ce for how the dropship displaced
M NU re connaissance of alien technology also re- the earth and destroyed th e s hac k. We then had an
veals a s maller alien space vehic le. the size of a large aerial plate that Neill s hot from a he licop ter, and we
bu s, which Th e Embassy generated as a 3D model and added the dropship breaking free. A lot of si mulation
Weta Digital integrated into s hots. "The dropship first work and very complex compositing went into that.
appeared in an early documentary montage o f the We generated all the e lements digitally beca use we
mothership," recalled Mall Aitken. "We did another would neve r have been able to contro l the perfo r-
ve rsi o n of that s hot where the footage is fore ns ically mance if we had tried to s hoot them practically."
analyzed and the dropship is seen in the co rner of the After c rashing the dropship, Wikus commandeers
32 0 CINE fEX 1 19
 As texture refe re n ce, Blo mka mp s upplied Th e Em-
bassy wit h r e plica g uns to illu stra t e a n a lie n a lloy
s hee n . ~ Ne ililiked d i ffe re n t c hromes and m e ta l fi n-
ishes o n th e re plica g uns. We setlled o n a d iffuse black
powd e r coat as th e primary s urface, with accen ts o f
c hro m e a nd b rass. "

o simulate MNU and exo gunfire excha nge o n

T se t. s pecia l e ffects s upe r viso r Max Poolma n

supplied practica l pyrotechnics in Soweto. The
Embassy t he n deve lo ped a n im a ted a rm a m e n t. " Exo
had a nti-gra vity func ti o n, m issiles, a rail g un. a nd an
a rc gun, ~ expl a ined Bob Habr os. - We research ed a nd
d evelo ped th e look o f eac h of t hose e ffects. Th e phys-
ica l effects tea m d id a fa ntas ti cjo b w i t h inte ra ctive
effects o n set; the n, wha tever we did n't achieve o n se t
we did in CG so we could d i rec t th e in te ract ion .- A s
t he s hoo to ut progressed , th e exosuit rece ived heavy
d a m age, requiri ng a s uccess io n o f a lte rn ate m o d e l
bu ildS a nd weathe ri ng effects to s u g g es t bulle t hits
a nd dirt a nd g rim e. - At on e poi nt h is a rm got blown
off, a nd th e re was som e d a m age to h is fron t p a ne ls.
\Ve e nded up c r ea tin g six ve rs io ns of th e s ui t. w hich
we m atched fro m s hot to s hot. "
Th e Embassy used And ersson TechnologiesSyth-
Eyes to llandle tra ck ing of th e robot into chaotic lland·
he ld p la tes, a nd integrated a prac ti ca l c le m en t of a
Th. {it.mwit d..ign (I I(lrge alien m ech(lniC(l1 exos k eleton and seeks to pi g ca rcass hurled t hrou g h fra m e. w h ich exo used as
i""otp<>M~ ~abomte use th e robotic s uit to s hoot h is w(l Y thro ugh an MNU a n im p rovise d p rojectil e. Va nco uver s pecial e ffects
""apon/},. ..midi Wilw, use< d efens ive line. \Veta initiated 'exo' d esigns, model in g coordi n ator David Ba rkes s upplied ad d itio n a l py r o-
to "1>"1 fusilllJdu of g>Jn~". a nd previsuali z(l tion s, and Th e Embassy th e n d eve l- technic c le m e n ts includi ng propa ne ba lls, bullet h its,
5pWa1e!fect, su,,"MsoI' Max o p ed th e an i mated c ha ra c te r _Embassy p res ide nt b loo d spl at s. a nd a ' m eat bag' explos io n t ha t Th e
PooIma" wpplkd proctical Wi nston Helgason a ttended th e first ro und o f ph otog- Embassy integra ted w i t h a n explodin g p ig ca rcass
pyroted>nk ond to'" e!furs in ra phy o f exosce nes in Soweto, fo r w h ich \Veta Wo rk- effec t th at Max Pool m a n 's team ri gged in Soweto.
s..-ro. Th. Embassy m.n s hOp c reated a full-sized static p rop _A second ro und Closeups o f Wikus ins ide t he exo su it had Sha rl to
f"".ro~ digital simulations of wa s acco m p anied by Emb(l SSY vi s ual effects s upe r- Copl ey sea ted in a full-size m ockup o f the exo interior
exploding e.<o,uit pa"./s. bult.t viso r Bo b Habros _ ~We approxi ma te d exo's h eigh t Filme d in New Zea la nd. We ta Digi ta l e nh a n ce d th e
hirs and banle dama!:". Shomo o n set using a pole w i th a piece o ft(lpe fo r eye-lines: sh ots wi th a nima ted gra ph ics p rojec ted in sphe ri ca l
Copl")' ".rform..J ""'rion capru,. expl(lined Ha br os. ~ It was o fte n in s hots tha t invol ved 3 D s p(lce aro und th e actor as an alien head s-up d is-
...fe'"""e. ..mid> The Embassy alie ns, so w e us u(lily s hot a re h ea r sa l take wi th t h e pl ay. Co pley a lso pe rformed m otion refe re nce in New
.",~d to guiM u.. e.<o·, body gray s u it to help get t he proximi ty and (I sp(l ti(ll under- Zeala nd, p rovid ing Th e Embassy with exo's body la n-
language and re--c... are Wikus' sta nd i ng of w h e re th e c h(l r ac ters w e re goi ng to b e. g u age. "As th e d esig n ch a nged : note d Ha b ros. "t he
gait in the machi".. CMlpo$iton Th e n we eith e r s h o t t h e gray s ui t for th e a lien , or idea of exo 's pe r fo rm a nce c ha nged , fro m very ta nk-
I>knrkd u.. anjmar.d charoct., noth i ng (I t a iL" lik e a nd m echa nica l to more abo ut t he cha ra cter. Neill
with practKoI pyro and I>/oad By tha t second ro und of s hooting. th e char acter's wan te d th e (ludi e n ce to unders t(lnd i t was Wiku s in
efferu {iJrn;,h.d by VallCower d esig n had evolved co n s ide rably, becom i ng m o re t h e s u it, so w e g(lve exo an attitude r e m i niscent of
.p..:io/ efferu coordi""tor streamlined to allow fo r n im ble a ctio n_ Th e Em bassy t he actor.- Fo r s hots o f MNU gun fire te aring in to th e
0000 Bark.~ adapted th e r evi sed exo d esign , wo rkin g fro m Weta s uit, ca us ing Wi ku s to t umble o ut, th e pro duction
Dig i tal 's m o d e l. "\V et(l provi d ed us w i t h (I n OBJ-fil e sho t Copley fa lling to th e ground o n loca ti o n in Sowe-
model: re lated Matt Ro uleau. ~We used that to cre(l te to and the n track ed the (l eLor into the (ln im ated ex o
a hard·surf(lce j ointed chara cter wi th wo rk ing pi sto ns as its m echa n ical fun c t ions exp ired.
(lnd w ires. We added rubbery sect ions in the neck , and As t he fi n(lle pl ays o ut, t he lo ng d orm(lnt m o th e r-
riggi ng to get a ll th e join ts and pis to ns in te ra cting ." Ship reawakens. ~\Ve an imated Ul e ship ro ta ting." sai d
CIN EFEX 11 9 D 33
 Wilw. pilot, the gitln1
e>'o,uit 5"'rlto Copley
petfo~ .uit interior< in'ide
a (ulkiu prop an a $au",*tQ~
in New Zealand. Wetll Digitlll
~rellW1 II he<>d,.up display til
ourround the peofotme. with
a nimllted readoot< p~d in
'phericlll 3D 'pace, ~nel'll!ing
/oyf''' IIfgmphks in an alien
/IInguGge Ihm des.:ribed /Ill Grt'Of
of"""tem, trial tedlnology.
WetQ proiW-ed the ("",Ilk<
onto ,phe"" IIf ~omelly
llmund Wilw, ' Mild.

Malt Ai t ke n . -As i ts e ngines turn ed on, a gia nt shock· and tell us how to do it?' He sa id: 'Guys, it's your thing.
wave spr ead o ut across t h e e n vironme nt. We ha d a If yo u tell m e that this ls til e best way, t he n we ' ll go
w ide s h ot of all the skyscr apers in d own town Johan· ahead and d o that: Of cou rse , working w ith a director
nesburg, their windows shatte red . We had w ide s hots that kn ows a lot about visual e ffects , yo u ca n't get
of th e city w he r e resonant energy from th e m o th e r· away wit h anything! But it was good to work w ith
s hip sent power w ires swinging, dust storm s swirling, som ebod y w ho kn ew w hat h e wa nted a nd under·
a nd fo liage blowing as if it was in a hurricane. That stood the boundaries of effects.·
i n vol ve d a lot of pa rticle si mulati o ns, rendered e le· Th e d exte r o us use o f digital technology a llowed
m en ts an d compositing, building up laye rs of effects.- the production to brin g a v iscera l and imagina tive
The alien vessel rises skyward, seen from ground·level sensibility to a stap le ofthe science fi c ti o n ge nre.
handhe ld ca m e ra perspectives. Blomkamp urged "Th e re is a generation o f fi lmmakers e m e rging now
Weta to avoid overtly animated effects in the m othe r· that is tired of seei ng the kinds of v is ual effects we
s hip's e ngines. - Neill never wa nted us to go os te nta· were exposed to in th e late 1990s and til e early part
ti o us ly sci· fi with any o f the effects. f o r th e thrusters, of thi s d ecade,· asserted Neill Blo mkamp. · CGjust
we tri ed to convey an e ffect ofa massive force th a t got o ut of control. It was n' t being crea ted for th e rig ht
co uld lift thi s g iant Sllip up into space, but we a lso reasons. It was buliShit spec ta cle. I think we' re going
k ept it quite s ubtle. It had a very grilty sensibility.· to see filmmakers reverting back to using effects in
ways that can a mplify t h e texture of th e film , not
he high volume of effects work - more th a n dim iniSh i t. "

T 500 s hots, incl uding approx imately 35 minutes

o f character anima tion - was made possible by
c lose collaboration with a Filmmaker well versed in
Dis tri ct 9 photographs copyright © 2009 by Sony
Pictures. All r igh ts reserved. Speciatthanks to Teni
th e capabilities o f digi tal filmmaking tools. "Wh e n we Khachaturian, Caro/ynne Cunningham, Judy Alley,
started o n the s how,· Peter Muyzers reca lled, · we knew Victoria Burkhart, Ma ll Young, Sh awn Watsh, Lorin
tha t Neill knew a lot about visua l effects, so we asked Pearce, Charlie Bradbury, Stefanie Hoose and
him outright: ' How muc h d o yo u want to get in th er e Hi Streeter.
34 0 CINE fE X I 19
 " If yo u hllve bUI!t ,.lIstlll!> in the lIir.

your work nlled not be lost:

thll t is whllrll they should bll_

Now put thll loundlltions undllr them_"

T" A
13 U R13ANK • ,.ANOKO K
 uvers
ARTICLE BY JODY DUNCAN

In 1982, toy giant

Hasbro relaunched a military action figure
it had introduced in 1964. The new 'G.1.
Joe' line of toys included all manner of mil·
itary paraphernalia, props in a back story
involving an ongoing struggle between
the elite G.\. Joe Special Forces team and
the malevolent Cobra organization.
Hasbro and entertainment·field collab·
orators extended and expanded the story·
line in comics and animated television
series. But Joe earned his highest rank
yet when Paramount Pictures and director
Stephen Sommers joined forces to ere·
ate a glossy, energetic Iive·action » >
featu re film , G.I. Joe: The R ise of Cobra . In th e m ovie, film -and So mme rs a nd She rmis used e le m en ts o f
th e G.1. J oe tea m takes o n tw o n ew recruits, Du ke bo th i n t he fin a l co n cept.
(Chann ing Tatum) a nd Ripcord (Marlo n Wayans), wh o f o r i ts n a no mite si mula ti o n s hots - as we ll as
have a pe rsonal sta k e in r e tri eving h igh-tech w ar· othe rs i n t he film - fra ntic film s gene rat ed billio ns
h ea d s st o len by Co b ra agen ts. o f particles us ing p roprietary tools. ' We u sed Kra ka-
So mme rs drafted visual effects s upervisor Boyd to a , o ur pa rticl e re nde rin g sys te m , fo r re nderi ng ,'
She rmis a nd vis ua l e ffects producer Rh o nda Gunner said f ra ntic vis ua l effec ts co-supervisor Chris ttarvey,
a few m o n t hs p ri o r to th e s ta rt o f pri nc ipa l ph otog- "a nd th e n a lo t o f c u sto m cod e a nd scriptin g for th e GJ. ~ H""brn', 4J.
raph y in Fe bruary 2008. Al so on set t h roug ho ut muc h behavio r o f th e swa rm . Th ere had to be artifi ci al inte l- yt(Jr-<>ld miNlary <><:liM (/f:ure,
o f p roduction was v is ua l e ffects s upe rvi sor Greg Mc· lige nce w ritte n into th e p a rti c les to s ugges t t h ese <."""d "" ;fl'pimoon (or d;",CUlr
Murry, w ho s ho t som e fi rs t a nd second unit foo tage b illio ns o f tin y r o b ots d evou ring m etal. Th ey w o uld Slephen $ommen," GJ. )0<>,
fo r specific vis ual effects seque nces. Prod uctio n c rews swa r m ac ro ss a s u r face and a tta ck i t as a group, ea t- T he Ri.e o f Cob ... , In lhe foJm,
fi lmed in Pragu e, Pa ri s a nd Los Angeles; a nd the n , in ing away th e m etal a nd the n m oving o n to a new spot. an elir. GI. Joe Spwa! Force<
pos tprod uc tion, Mc Murry, Shermis a nd Gunne r over- We a lso d esigned a m echanism for eating geom etry, leam combars the malew)enr
saw 1,6 25 vis u a l e ffects s hots, s prea d a m o n g 10 v is- c rea tin g the look o f m etal peeling away in Ha k es.' A COOm arganizaOOn from ill la/>-
u a l e ffects h o uses - C IS Ho llywood, Dig ita l Do m ain , g reenish tin t to th e particle swarm s made t he m look 'e<:m bme, caQed "tI>e Pi~' bumd
Th e Moving Picture Compa ny, fra ntic Films, Ca fe FX, less like s m o k e or oth e r natural ph e n o m e na . ~p within the Sahara D"eft
Fra m esto r e, Pacific Titl e , Pi xe l Playground , Lo la Vis· CIS HaHywaod - Q~ af fO mual
ua l Effects a nd Illus ion A rts. An inte rnal v isua l effects fte r thedem o nstralion , a mil itary convoy that

A
effect< facili(je. !hct worl<ed on
team , led by Joseph Grossberg, per formed addi tiona l inc ludes Duke a nd Rip cord tra ns p o rt s fo ur the foJm - exr.l>ded a "",,0 live-
co m posi ti ng a nd cleanup dut ies. n a no mite wa rh ead s in a case from th e MARS <>CIiM .et la =are !he ",<I f'it
facil ity. f or a s ho t of two A p ac he h elic o pte rs taking inleriar. W",af effect< .u~"""'"
pro logue seque nce begins w ith a n establish- off to esc o rt th e co nvoy, Fra m es to re rep laced a live Boyd Shenni. QOO "'-.ua/ efferu

A in g s h o t o f a cas tl e i n 17 th ·century Fra nce.

Fra nt ic films - now pa rt o f Prime f ocus fX -
dig ita lly e nha nced a rea l Prag ue cas tl e w ith s now fa ll
back ground to m a k e it look more re mote. "We took
a helico p te r from whe re i t was shot and stuc k i t som e-
w here completely d iffere n t,' sa id Fra m estore vis ual
producer Rhanda Gun~r
"",,,,,w the .hQWI 1,6 25
~ffect< .haIS.
a nd s m oke rising out o f th e c himney, a nd a lso co n · effects s upervisor J o n Thum. MTh a t was tricky because
tributed to a scen e ins id e, w he re a m a n na m ed Mc- th e helicopter had motio n·blurred roto r bl ad es a nd the MA RS fndu'triel -
Cull en (Davi d Murray), convic ted o f conspiring against original background had d istorti o n fro m th e e n g ine a higMedI weapan, (inn
th e crown , is puni sh ed by havi n g a burni ng hot iron exha us t. Th e pla te ha d to b e re-sp ed , as we ll - a nd rhm h"" tkvela~d lerhaJ
h e lme t sea re d to h is hea d . MTh e fin a l s hot w he n he re-speeding a helicopte r th at has m o ti o n-blurred parts nanam~ e lechnalogy - prnv;o..

gets th e mas k pinne d onto his fa ce llad to b e c o m - is a b ig job. We could rotoscope til e helico pte r, but we cover (or Cobra'. plan< ('" world
pletely v irtua l, expla ined Boy d She rm is, " beca use,
M couldn't rotosc o p e t h e m o ti o n ·blurre d r o to r b la d es dominatian, ma<1ennind.d by
after t hey'd shot it, th ey deci d ed to c hange Ule w ho le o r th e e ngine exha u st; so a ll th at s tu ff ha d to be re- MARS a ojame< McCuNen
ca m e ra move.' gen erated . We tra c ked in new ro tor bl ad es, re m oved (Qlri<1opher &de<1an). /n "
"We ex te nded th e s ho t so th a t it was 12 0 fra m es buildings a nd re p laced th e m w ith moun tai n s." Ca(efX sho~ McCufkn a/>P<'ar<
lo nge r: sai d f ra ntic films v is ual effects supervisor Gre g Mc Murry a nd a second un it c r ew ca p t u red «> !he GJ.)at. a. a 10 mer_
Chris Bond, "a nd w i th a diffe rent ca m era move . A t til e bo lll aeria l a nd ground-base d s h ots o f t h e con voy p~ hafof'''''' la rMIIII~fy
momen t th ey put th e m ask o n th e g uy' s face, every · trave li ng throu g h a m o untain o us a rea i n Lo ne Pine, in.pt<:t na"""'~e wam..ad<
th in g becom es syntlletic - th e ch a r ac te r, th e back - Ca l ifornia . Pro duc t ion film e d s ubseq u e nt s hots o f untkr the mililary', protection.
g r o und a nd the m ask , wh ich was CG th e e nti re t ime. the co nvoy be ing attacked by a m ys terio us high-tech To capw", imagery for !he
f o r th e eyes be hind t he m ask , Mike Fink s ho t som e team a t B ig Sky Ra nc h , north of Simi Va lley. Digita l hofagram, &dtsIDn wm <hal in
eyes for us on s ta ge, o ld -schoo l, " Do m a in created m a tte pai ntings to bridge th e d is- a separate pass an the .e~ with
Th e film c uts to th e ' not too distan t fu t ure ,' to th e para te loca tio ns , its pipe li ne a llowing Geo ffrey Ba u · ~uore<cenl wbe< standing in (or
MARS Industries wea p o ns compl ex in Ky r gyzsta n, m ann and his d igital en vironmen t tea m tre m e ndo us !he hgh l Iabl. la emure Nghting
w he re th e desc enda nt of t he 17th-cen t u ry McCulle n Hexibi lity. "We we r e n o t locke d into th e h e lico p te r continuity. ClI(efX mIQ<C<>/le<i
(Christo pher Eccl eston) intr odu ces to m i litary a nd p la tes or a ny thin g e lse t h a t h ad b ee n s h o t ,' n o te d McCullen bad inla !he «eM,
gove rnm ent brass his company 's ne wes t techno logy Di gita l Do m ain vi s ua l e ffects s upe rv isor Bry an Grill. along with laser pra;.ruan
- mic roscopic rob ots, ca lled n a no mites, s h own eat- "Projectin g plates throug h o ur composit ing pac kage, beam, aoo a (Jjcker . ffea
ing th ro ug h ta n ks a nd city stru ctu res in a s imula tio n Nuke, we were able to re build shots a nd make w hat- generar.dill ZD.
produced by f ra ntic films . Fra ntic and Digital Domain ever ch a nges were n ec essary."
d id ea rly d es ig n work o n na nomite swarm s - w hic h Digita l Do m ain a lso c reated s hots o f t he lyph oon
would be seen in des tru ctio n scenes throu g ho u t th e a ircra ft that nies in, blows up th e Speci al f orces' cr aft
38 0 CI NEfEX I 19
CINEFEX 1 19 0 39
40 0 CINEfEX 1 19
 and vehicles with high-tech concussion weapons, and off you would see all the e lectro nic.s and mechanisms
then lands to expel a team o f fighters le d by the Bar- beneath; so it was a huge undertaking to creilte all
oness, a black-clad villainess who was once Duke's the inner workings ofa helicopte r, and then rip them
fiancee, Anna (Sienna Miller). Conceived as a thruster- apart,- Digital Domain used a rigid dynamics s imula-
ba sed helicop te r that can hover and the n accelerate at tion for the helico pter explosion, The action th en cuts
very high speed s, much like a Harrier jet, the Typhoon to a burning, smoking shell on the ground - the only
A/><Jdle h,&opter" Ufi: off and its weaponry suggested the film 's slightly futur- practical helicop ter in the seque n ce,
to e",on a c"""")' tfOMporong istic selting. -Since this story takes place a few years Anna steals the nanomite warheadS case and is
~ """"",ite wtlmem1< from into the future: sa id Boyd Shermis, -we used weapon about to escape with it when the G.I, J oes arrive in the
~ MARS fodJity in Kyrgyz<!o ... and c raft designs that were on the drawing board at Howler - a futuristic version o f an Osprey helicopter
Uv...oction for the "e"" woo shot DARPA - the Defense Advan ced ResearCh Projec ts currently employed by the Marines. -rhe Marines' ver-
at a mild"')' b .... in Texa •. To Agen cy - things that might be in production five or sio n is based on propellers: said Boyd Shermis. - but
make the area look more rem<>te. ten years from now, And then we s pruce d up those o urs had swlve l·tiltjet engines.-
FrnrM.wre replace<! Ihe en!ire designs a bit cosmetically.- Digital Do main mode le d the Howler from art de-
bad<ground with an unpopuillted partment plans, making some m o difications in tile
he Typhoon 's concussion ca nnons emit an process, -Originally: noted Bryan Grill, - it had a wind-

T
Iond<cope and oorren mountain<-
frameJtore roto<coped ~ H... energy mass that also s uggests a futuristi c s hield in th e fro nt. Th ey c hanged that to a big hull
heocopter.; to i"",n them inUl technology. - It is a very intense volume of air with no windows- all vision outside the airc rart was
the""w .urroonding•. but hod to that moves through s pace and d estroys things: said done through video or som e other kind of electronic
mgitnlly "'I:"""rot. motkln.b/urred Shermis. - We decided to give the bad guys a range monitor system . We also adjusted the wings, which
rotor b/oM •. ... wei ... a"'...
of of these co ncussion weapons. They have it built into hold the engines, and made the engines able to move
the IIiruo/i Mtoned by engine the Typhoon , into th e top of their Humvee, in th ei r independe ntly so that the Howler could do a hovering
exhaun - none of which could rines and pistol s. Each of these weapons has a differ- movement. We based it on known science, and then
be rotO<CDped. fr""'e<Ulre o/so e nt strength and capacity, but they all s hare the same hoped that the liberties we took were within the realm
re-fjmed the plot. to cr.ot. fundamental technology. It is a real technology. too, o f believability.-
m~ dynamic oaiM. except that, in reality, yo u would not see anything
coming out of the gun. f or movie purposes, we had fter the Joes retrieve the warheads, Duke

~
A Cobra Typhoon anad<.
convoy, blowing up ground
vehideJ and he!icopt.r.; witIl
to come up with something that the audience could
see, so they could follow what was happening,-
The final look, designed by Digital Domain concept
A and Ripcordjo in the elite team, boarding th e
Howler and returning to a top-secret 0.1, Joe
base ca lled the Pit, hidden deep inside a sa nd dune
high~ch concussiM weapon<. artist Claas He nke, featured rings moving through in the Sahara Desert, · When the Howle r arrives at the
Digital Domain created !he space, giving the trajectory volume of air a distorted, base, we see a nyby of the pyramids - which was an
digrtal Typhoon, conceNed ... a plasma-like quality. To create a more dynamic effect, all-virtual environment - and th e n the approach of
hig/l.-speed. (ilru<!er-ba.e<! the effects team, led by Thomas Reppen, ran multiple the sa nd dunes and the exterior of the Pit door open-
h.&opter. To IUUeJt sHghrJy nuid si mulatio ns - us ing PSIM, Digital Domain's pro- ing: observed Boyd Shermis. - That was all done by
fuwl'is!ic. )'I't reo/iltk te<:/lnolorr. prietary nuid simulation system - representing dif- CIS Hollywood. I had s hot some aerial photography
the l'iwo/.ffect< (eom bo1ed ferent aspects of the concussion wave. Compositing at Dumo nt Dunes near Death Vall ey. We were able
~ Typhoon and it< weaponI)' s upe rvi sor Paul Lambe rt and his team were respon- to use that rootage as projecti o n material and refer-
"" i!en1' o/reorl; "" ~ drawing si ble for integrating up to 20 3D layers per shot to ence, but we knew we 'd never be able to use the aer-
board lit the reo/.world Defe"", produce the final effect. ial footage as plates because the sca le wasn't right.
AIMIIKe<! R....on:h f'roje<.t< Concussion weapon impacts were a combination It was a matte r of cutting and pasting and tiling and
Ag.lI<)'. ColKu,lion weapon of digital and practical effects, the latter orchestrated projecting to put that e nvironment tog ether. Greg
impacts were 0 combioolioll of by special effects supervisor Dan Sudick, On set, Suo McM urry had also f1Im ed some ground-based Vista·
digital and procrko/ effects. !he dick's team had bl own up vehicles and launched Ulem vision panoramas that we could move around on
loner orche<trllted by ,pKiai into the air. In post, Paul Lambertand his team erased and til e very effectively,-
e{f&t< ,up,""-.or OM Sudrl. launc h rigs and added digital debris to e nhance the Digital Do main delivered its CG Howle r model to
In p... ~ Digital Domllin ef<t'l.d explosions. Th e most extensive concuss io n d estru c- CIS Hollywood so the tea m there could c reate the
,peaol.trem rig< and added tion was for all-CG shots of the Typhoon cannon tak- s hot of the sand dune opening up and the aircraft
dopal <kbl'is (0 ,nholKe ing o ut convoy helicopters. - The impact is like an lowering into th e Pit, o nto a landing platform, - The
procrka/ e.>:plo.ionI. a ccordion effect : sa id Bryan Grill. °In s low motion, production plate ofthe Howler nyi ng into the sa nd
you see it hit and compress the helicopter like a sa r- door didn' t really work camera-wise: explained CIS
dine can, and the n rip it apilrt. The helicopter couldn' t Hollywood visual effects s upervisor Bryan Hirota,
just be a shell, ei ther, becau se o nce the covering WilS - and so we did so m e photogramme try to map the
C INEFEX 1 19 0 "I
terrain and project the plate back onto the geometry. where you see people training/ observed Shermis, New =ru~s III /he
We reworked the ca mera move so we co uld ny around "On the water surface you see vehicles buzzing about, GJ 1M un". Duke (Channing
the Howler, and then we added the effect of the sand firing bazookas and blowing things up. And then, as Tarum) and Ri/Xord (Marlon
doors opening.M yo u tra ve l down vertically, you find unde rwater sub- Wayan'},join !heir teammates in
Greenlit as a digital environment only late in pro- marine training vehicles. There was no water tank a Pi! hangar in wIIich SUl1~(.me .
duction - after the art department had mos lly dis- footage for this at all- it was all s imulated." CIS used art miNto')' aircraft 011' parked
banded - the landing platform environment had to Realflow Realwave for s urface water effects, s uch as as Ha»ywood =ated mas<Ne
be designed through the v i s ual effects d e partme nt, wakes trailing CG boals, and generated additional 3D P'i! in!emm (or sequ""ces
which hired illustrator Simon Murton to develop con - s urface water detail in Maya, (hraug/lOU! !he film. In addition
ce pts. MCiS took that2D illustration and crea ted a very CIS Hollywood also built muc h ofUle bottom·most III trrId<ing 3D environments inlO
detailed, nes he d ·out.;D environment," stated Boyd level of th e Pit, a cavernous training area revealed as bluew«n piare • •hat an smaR
She rmi s. "The only thing we had s hot for that was a the c harac ters disembark from the elevator. "We had portia! sets. as alien replaced
set about the size of my living room , which isn't very built about half of the actual Pit, at the lowest leve l , set elements.• ud! '" painted
large." Diana Miao, at CiS, supervised the develop- as a set," said Shermis, "but CiS extended it vertically baddrops I1'presenling !he Pit'.
m e nt and co ns tru c tion of th e landing platform. and in depth, sending the backg round back another rod< wall•• /k."",d ulI<anl'ill<ing
200 yards. " in !he plale photography. CIS
he action then c uts to a shot of the soldiers In addition to extending minimal sets to suggest a

T
brought addilianal life III son>!'
disembarking from the aircraft and walking vast e nvironment, CIS had to replace some set pieces. shots by "'~ling in bluescreen
into an elevator- another very small set that "Shots that weren't originally going to be v isual effecLs or digirnl U!tIH.
consisted only of a small strip of tarma c and the e le· s hots became v is ual effects shots: noted Hirota, MFor
vator. CIS built a virtual elevator slmft to extend tile example, they had a backing that was painted to look
minimal elevator se t, which had consiste d ofa plat- like a rock wall, but in many cases, it was complete ly
form lift capable of moving up and down 30 fee t , in unconvincing. We roto'ed everything orf of that plate
front of a bluesc reen. Th e elevator descent brieny and replaced it with a CG rock wall. We also re ndered
reveals every level of the facility, including an aquatic out generic rock walls to give to Pixel Playground so
training tank area. "CIS built that whole environment they could continue the patCh job on the Pit." CiS com·
42 0 CINEfEX I 19
 The Ma"-ng f'lcwre posited in bluescreen extras or integrated digital char- quite keep up with realtime. "
Compall)l aemed shots of acters into shots to populate the Pit and make it look
abuzz with activity. he action cuts from the Pit to the underwater

T
the UnMtwater MARS 00"'.
built an the ",eon floor beneath G.I. J oe commander General Hawk (Dennis Quaid) facility in which MARS CEO McCullen conducts
a paIa' ice (,,/,_ Starong with an conducts a tour of the Pit, Which includes de monstra - nefarious affairs. The Moving Picture Company
art department iDu<1fati<m. MPC tions of advanced warfare items. such as a camounage crea ted the underw<ller MARS base for establishing
engaged in a mm' ..... 3D build, s uit that renders a female soldier nearly invisible. The s hots and also for a major end ballie in which the
devmping the initial Ik$ign ta camounage s uil,like all the film's technological cre· base comes under (lttack by G.I. Joe watercraft. "That
'UU'<1 a ("",plex thllt...", both ations, had a real-world foundation. "Th e re are Jap- was a mass ive 3D build for MI'C: said Boyd Shermis.
ul!r<Hnodem and utilitarian_ a nese scientists working on these invisibility suits "They started with an art d e p(lrtment illustrati o n of
/llumi""ri"" of the fadlity c",""" now: noted Hirota. · so Stephen wanted to show one th e base; but it evolved design·wise, and MI'C's art
from ,unligh t brenl<ing thmugh and make it look very realistic, The idea is that the department made those changes. "
the ice above and NgIllS mounted suit has hundred S of little cells that photograph every- "Our (lrt department worked on those des igns for
ta the ext..no, ,tructu,u_ MI'C thing around a subject and the n project that imagery the firstlwo months we were o n the production : said
odlk<1 blooming and lltuing onto the suit. So the person wearing it is n't really in- MPC v is ual effects supervisor Greg Buller. " for the
light effeas. bubble rmh and visible; but they' re camouflaged so well it makes it establishing view, we had artwork that g(lve us a sense
portkullJfe motte, ta aelJfe very diff1cult to see th e m. " of a design theme and a general scale of the facility ,
a reali'tic un<ktwater Sommers and Shermis shot the perfonner - wear- including its rel<llionship to tile surrounding under-
enl'iro""",nl ing a suit covered with tr(lcking markers - with the 'A' w<ller rock environment." MPC expanded on that art-
film camera and two HD witness ca m er(lS. "We took work, creating d esigns that were mode rn but also had
the girl's performance from set." Hirota noted , "and an industrial look. "Stephen wanted the base to have
used th(lt to drive a CG model of the camoun(lge suit. a high-tech core, but with a lot of mechanica l struc-
We looked at what was behind her in the set. and pro- tures bolted on, breaking up the s ilhouettes and giv·
jected that onto this mode l. To make it more realistic, ing an impression of inte ns i ve industrial activity.·
we introduced lag in areas of the suit t hat were mov- The MARS base designs also addressed specific story
ing more quickly, (IS if the cell photography couldn 't points. "The re were shots later in the movie where we
CII'IEfEX 119 D 45
were going to see a giant concussio n canno n firing, up to two kilometers of v isibility from th e camera to Charged w;th <leahng the
and sh ots s howi ng three missiles In their s ilos. There whatever we ' re seeing, whic h is way beyond anyttl ing ""nom rt. wamead:! is Cobra
was also a seq uence w here t he Joes in fil trate the base. real. Since it was an arc ti c underwater enviro nment, agent ·the Barone",' (Sien""
To h i t those s tory points, we designed specific areas the wa ter wo uld be as clear as any yo u'd find on earth ; MHlerl. Duke', (armer ~<IM~e.
u p front, While working on a more genera l approach but that wou ld still only get you to about 400 meters A F'<7lrn'slote Mlablish!ng sM(
to the overall base. Everything was 3D·built. Given t he of v i sibility. So we were a lready extendi ng o ut t he vis- slam with an a.rial ....w ,,(Pam,
nature of the a nticipa ted camera moves, we knew we ibility four to five tim es beyond rea lity. That meant and rrn-n filts down 10 (oIIow th.
weren 't goi ng to get away with anyth ing but a full 3 D that th ere was going to be a significant s uspension &ran." ill a ~rIey, on her way
build for the who le th ing." of disbelief, even if we did everything right. " !O her hmband" e,!OI, ouuide
Ligh t sou rces fo r the underwa ter base, loca ted be· thuiry. Slarting w;th a hdicopler
neath the polar ice cap, i nc luded s unlig h t breaking o make its underwater e nvironment as rea l·

T
plare thar wa, ~lmed in me
th ro ug h thin areas of ice, as well as lights mounted to istic as possible, MPC used compositing tec h· Itaban counuy1ide, Fl'tlln.. ~
th e exteri o r base stru c tures. "Sunlight througll th e niques to make the color fall from t he lig ht Cleared the 'hoI's bod<ground,
ice provided a genera l key li g ht that wo uld fade off sou rce above to the subject at the bottom of the ocean, midgraund and (oreground "'0
based on th e th eor eti ca l depth of wate r: said Butler. making everything at the furthest point awash in blue. muflip" m<7ue-.p.ainled hlyer< 10
"There were plenty of local sources, too - w hat Boyd MPC a lso adde d blooming and h azi ng li g ht e ffects, accommodale the larg. C<ll11,","
ca lled the ' rock·and·rolilig hting ' that you 'd expect o n bubble trails and particulate matter. "There wo uld ""'ve. Frome<lote 01'0 changed
a n oi l r ig, for example. We a lso made s ure there was a l ways be a h a n g ing fi e ld of w hat we ca lled mari ne the lime .elfing ill rrn- <h0( (rom
a g low coming from all the different ba se windows snow or detritus - little particles in the wa te r - and day 10 Iwiligh~ "nd r..rimed
to give it a l ived· in look." those wo uld be affected by things passing by: said !he pial" 10 <lighrly ac,~ra~
MPC refe renced The Abyss to determine a realisti c, Buller. "We used particles and b lobbies to c reate the the c""""ra "",ve.
but practical level of visibi lity withi n th e sim ula t ed bubbles, and a spri te system to ge nera te fi ner bub·
underwater e nvironment. "On t ha t film : said Butler, bles that c reated a sense of aerated wa ter - pretty
"there was very litlie visibility eve n in shots where yo u sta ndard effects animation, b ut huge amounts of It.
could see th e most- and t hat's w hat made it so co n· It was a ll s imulated in Maya, but relied heavily on o ur
vincing. For this film , there are sh ots w he r e th ere is in·h ouse effects too ls, incl uding custom fie lds a nd
46 0 CINEfEX I 19
 pain. even as o ne places his a rm ins ide a glass enclo-
s ure and is attacked by a cob ra. frantic films ani·
m ated a cobra - matching the live s nake used o n set
- crea ted g raphi cs s howing m icroscopic views of the
nanomites being injected into the v iper 's vei n , and
digitally extended the set.
framestore contributed to an aerial s h o t - seen
as the action cu ts to fran ce - that starts on a distant
view of Paris and th e n tilts down to fo llow til e Ba ron·
ess in a Bentley, on he r way to h er husba nd's estate
o utside the ci ty. · Starling with a he licopter plate that
was s hot somewhere in the countrys ide o fltaly: sai d
Jon Thum, "we c r eated the background, midgro und
and foreground with a lot of m atte·painted layers. We
did an initial matte painting pass of 10 to 15 layers for
Paris, fl eshing o u t the city from foreground to back·
grou nd. Th e Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Tri o mphe
would be on one layer, and othe r buildings would be
on another. Th en we filled o ut Ule midground and fo re-
ground with farmhouses and gard e ns, because th ere
wer ej ust fields in th e plate a nd th ey wanted it to feel
as i f it was closer to Paris. We needed a ll th ose laye rs
because it was quite a big ca m era move. After the first
round o f matte painting, the res t of it was don e in
compositing, us ing proper 3 D ca m era ins ide the co m·
posite. We co uld make c hanges really quickly that way.
j ust m oving the laye rs a ro und in 3 D space." fram e·
1M Baroness and her noise functions. " store also c hanged the lime se tting in th e s hot from
viPer5 - nanami!~nf...:t~d In o ne s ho t inside the base. realized by Framestore, day to twilight, and re·timed the plates to s lightly
ag.nu - gain enva",. W ~ McCulle n pushes through a set of doors. revealing accelerate the camera m ove.
m'*
Pi! .,;., pods rha! !/tl'II'e1 the three missiles in th eir launc h si los. "Th a t was a

A
b~!he ,urf""~ af!h~ d•• ert completel y CG s hot," sa id J o n Thum. "Fro m no thing, c ut back to t he Pit finds Duke and Ri pcord in
sand a f><! !hen driN in!a !he (1Joern we had to crea te a huge si lo complete Witll missi les, training, learnin g to h andle advanced ha rd ·
walls_Though CIS HaI#(wr>ad gantries, crane an d vehicles. We wer e given t he mis- ware suc h as the 'accelerator suit: a n electron·
d igi!ally ~nera!ed "'at<
af!he s ile models because they were used elsewhere in the ica lly e nhanced s uit o f a rm or that e nables wearers to
drilling male p<><k, Stan Win<!an film, but everything e lse had to be designed a nd built run very fa st. Artists at Stan Wins to n Studio fl eshed
Swdio f>u~ ( a proakal mole from scratch. We looked at pichlres of th e space s hut- o ut a n art department accelerator suit d esig n so that
pad fi"om I01!ich 1M perforINrI tle in a warehouse for the kind ofscafTolding and gan- it could be fabricated as a practical s uit worn by Chan·
would etrn'/ie an !he let ~W5 t ries and machinery t hat m ight be in a room like that. ning Tatum and Mar lon Waya ns. "Stan Winston Studio
mechanical !echnidan' Se!h We were told t hat t h e director liked things to be very took what looked g r eat on paper and t ra ns lated It to
Hay< and David CaWlrrubja, s hiny , and so we made sure th e re we re a lot of reflec· something they co uld actu a lly build a nd make func·
a " ..",b/e 1M fuN.liz. ti ve s urfaces in t h e r oom . " The s hot a lso features ti o nal o n set," sa id Boyd Shermis. "About 90 percent
n>Ok pad prop_ soldie rs, lab techniclan s and other MARS personnel. of th e time, the s uit was CG; but if the character s were
"Th e people were all digital d o ubles, c reated in o u r standingstill or if we saw the m in extreme c loseup, it
Massive p ipeline to fill o ut the space. Th e main t h ing was t he practical s u it."
was filling the room with life , so i t wouldn 't look too Stan Winston Stud io s tarted its accelerator s uit
CG. We added a lot of little d eta ils like flas hing lig hts, build by first modeling in XSI, us ing th e 2D art con·
liquid nitroge n gas coming out o f the m issiles. and cepts as re ference. - from there: noted SWS effects
sparks where people we r e solde rin g." s uperv isor Shane Mahan , " th ere was a lot of tradi·
A d e monstration i nsi d e the MARS facility iIIus· tion a l m odel maki ng, done by Dave Merritt's team.
trates a c hange i n e m otional sta te when s ubjects We b u ilt the accelerator s uits o ff ofa cast of Marlon
are i njecte d wi th a nanomite soluti o n. Th e altered Waya ns, because Channing Ta t um hadn' t been cas t
s ubjects, ca lled v ipers, d isplay n o sign s of fear or yet. So we had to retrofit t he su it to fit Channing, using
CIN"E fE X 11 9 D 47
Ma rl o n's body mOld." SWS buil t a total o f s ix s uits: two
heroes fo r Du ke and Ripcord , and fo u r stunt versio ns.
"Th e understru c ture was a light foa m a nd ure th a ne
co nstru ctio n; a nd th e n, to m a k e t he m eta l pa nels as
li g ht as possible, we used som e lig h te r·weig ht ure·
th a nes we had d eveloped fo r t h e Iron Ma n s u its. T he
s u its ha d to be lig h t enoug h for th e actors a nd s tun t
p eo p le t o run in th e m ; a nd we got th e m down to a
li l tl e less t h a n 30 pounds."

r a ining is inte rru p te d w h e n t he Pit co m es

T under attack by th e Ba ron ess a nd h er vipe rs,

who gain e nt ra nce to the facil ity v ia m o le pods
th at t ravel ben ea th th e s u rface of t he d esert sand a nd
th e n d ri ll i nto t he cavern wa lls. Th e sce ne is es tab·
l ished in a n igh tt im e desert sh o t featu ri n g a Bed o uin
a nd h is ca m els reacti ng to t he sa nd bei ng d ispl aced
a round t he m as th e m o le pod s b u rrow t h ro u g h . " We
s hot som e ca m els a nd the per form e r o n a rid iculo us ly
s m a ll bluescreen stage," stated Boyd Sh e rmis. - CIS
took th at e lem ent a nd o p e ned it u p , us ing some of
o ur D umo n t Dunes ground·based ph o togr aphy to
es ta b l ish th e d esert e nvironmen t a t nig ht."
A postproduction d ecision to c lla nge th e came ra
m ove th a t h ad been s hot o n th e bluescreen s tage re·
quired CI S to rotoscope th e a n im a ls a nd perfo rm e r
o ff th e p la te a nd t he n reposi t ion th e m wi t h in a co m ·
plete ly v irtu a l e nv iro nme nt. - Th e s urface of th e sa nd Pi t area ." At trno MARS Im~
was pa rt o f o u r virtua l e nviro nment," expla ined Brya n Th e Baro ness and h er m e n e n gage t h e G.1. Joes Cobrll OP<'rm;v.. Z",,"n
Hi rota. "At t he leading ed ge of th e sand, we d isplaced in battl e. CIS Ho llywood - work in g wi th s u pervisor (Atnald VoJ.loo) ~~'ioe<
th e textu re d geom etry to get t he look o f m ove m e nt Randy Go u xa nd h is team at CIS Va nco uve r -crea ted II fadol .uon<truction pm(~d~.~
beneath i t. A nd th en we used volumetri c a nd particle co nc ussio n wea po n effects fo r t he figh t scene. "Boyd that will drmtko/ly <hIIng~ hi'
effects fo r th e m o r e tu rb ule nt pa r t o f t he sa nd dis· gave us som e Dig i ta l Dom a in co nc ussio n s hots t hat "/IP<'II"'n<:e. S(MPP<'d to" tll/>k,
p lace m ent. We fo und t hat we could n' t j u st d o it o ne Steph en liked ," said Brya n Hiro ta, "a nd we just cop ied Z"nan', h..oo;, ,~rroun<kd IOith
way or til e o th e r - it co uld n 't be co m p lete ly pa rti cles those. We used partic le syste m s i n Ho udini a nd Maya n«dk, (hat injul. ll(lnomitel
because i t e nded up no t sca ling ri g ht. And we co uldn't to create t he effect, re nde r ed o ut som e pa sses, a nd into hil sk~", mll/Ung hi< felllU'~s
do it co m p letely volumetri c because i t fe lt too c lo udy th e n used t hose passes insi d e Shake so we could do warp "nd shift- CafeFX c.eated
a nd s m oky. We ha d to find a ba la nce." As th e ve h icle refractio n and other effects as a 2 0 process. We al so II ZII""" digifnl double for trno
b urrowed throu g h th e la ndscape, t he sa nd left beh ind added debris to t hose fi g h t s hots because they'd d o ne "'~ne, u,;ng higlH'e<oluriM fadlll
wo uld settl e, leavi ng a d epression . "Th at we n t bac k very l ittl e ph ys ica l destruction o n set - certai nly n ot <Cllns p./Wided by Aguru Imllge'.
to o u r sa nd geom etry. We' d d epress th at a nd rework e no ug h to m ake Stephe n ha ppy." CafeFX executed II matdlmove
th e tex tu re to s uggest t ha t i t h ad been d isturb ed by In t he co u rse of th e ba ltle , G.I. J oe Heavy D uty of the actor in trno plate, ""'"
th e underground craft. All o f th e CG e le m ents we re (Ad ewale Akinnuoye·Agbaj e) bl ows up t he m o le pods, writhed "' ifin "t""Y, lind
fed to o ur se nio r Infe rn o a rt ist, G reg Oehle r." setti ng vipers o n fi r e. CIS u sed a Stud io Max plug·i n !hm matchmo ... dm ...
CI S exte nded th e i nte rior of t h e Pi t e nvironme n t Gilled Fumef'X to c rea te th e syn t hetic fi re and s m o k e, the II";mariM of (he
fo r a b luescr een s h ot ofa g ua rd reacti ng to th e d ri ll an d t he s imulation was a p plied over a CG v iper m odel. dgito/ double.
bits b reakin g thro ug h t he cavern wa lls. - Everyth i ng "We u se d o ur post m otion ca p t u re system , a g ain , to
b e llin d th at b lu escreen g ua rd a nd everyth in g after drive a n i m ation ofthe CG vi p er,' sai d Hirota, "a nd
th e point o f im pact is virtu a l: no te d Boyd Shermis. then comped Ulat o n top of t he rea l vipers in the plate.
"T here's a big sweep in g camera m ove th at tra ve ls Th e r e we r e a lot o f CG c haracters i n t his seque nce,
down as t he m o le pods ind ividua lly brea k thro ug h the used in s hots o f th e vi p ers getti ng impa led or falling
wall. And th e n yo u see t he Baroness and a couple of d ow n s hafts." CG Characters were a lso re qui red fo r
h er m e n step o ut o f th eir p ods a nd walk o u t i nto the s hOts o f Cob ra martial artist Storm Sh ad ow (By ung·
48 0 CINE fEX I 19
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Durinr" ''"'i""nce 'el hun Lee) picking up lIle Baroness and Hying out of thallechnol ogy," said Shermis, -is that, beyondjust
jn Pam, th~ 8GroneJSlI'I6 the Pit - with warhead case in hand - via jet pack. facial re solution, the data it d e livers provides both
a conculI.,n ~on 10 ,hatt., •Allhat poinllllcy are both CG characters. We started subsurface scatlering and bi·direclional radius diffu-
rile roof of a flo .. bujlding. tmm with some scans, bullhey didn' t ha ve the amount of sion function. Th e dome that yo u scan people in has
wile'" ,h~ and h~r leam pIGn detail we needed; and so we used a lot of reference lights all over it, so it will photograph light samples o f
lo'rel the fjffd T~r (Dr
10 photographs to build th e mOde ls. W the face fro m hundreds of dlrferent angles and direc-
",,,,omite de'tructi<m_ Prodl1<li<>n tions. And then it pieces it all together so as you move
phoU>grapMd dig~al ,UII, o(Poris ac k allhe MARS underwaler facilily, Cobra the camera arOll nd, relaU ve to where the light is in
and ProfU~ roo(fcps to provide 1M
view tmm mop the flo .. f>u~ding,
<III octu'" <trucW", WI In Prag""_
B operalive Zarlan (Arnold Vosloo) undergoes
a facial re co nslru clio n procedure lo c hange
his appearance lo lhal oflhe Pres idenl of lhe Uniled
your sce ne, it will always know how lhe face reacts lo
lighl al any angle. So in addition lo gelling lhe way
lighl penelrales and difFuses undernealh lhe s urface,
Digital Damoin ",~o~d th~ Slales, Slrapped down to a lable, Zartan's head is yo u gel a calculalion o f lhe way lighl refleels off lhe
buildinr jn CG 10 accommodate s urrounded wilh n ee dles that inject nano mites into surFace. Yo u don'l gellhal from any olhe r scanning
new,amero mo ..., and ,hOI his skull, making his features warp and s hift. CafeFX lechnique.ll makes lhe face very lifelike in lerms of
compos;r;"",;, and <IS a means created a Zarlan digital double for the scene, usi ng lhe way lhe lighl re nects and scaUers on lhe skin.M
o(",moving light!;, til' and crew facial scans provided by Aguru Images, MAguru did Th e leam al CafeFX - working under visual effects
membel'l "'~M in the flo,,-- incredibly high·resolulion facial scanning for us,· said supervisor David Ebner and CG supervisor Selh Lipl>'
Djgilol D<>main 01$0 ",bu~1 Boyd Shermis, ·something on lhe ord e r of 5 million man - execuled a CG malc hmove oflhe aclor in lhe
offICe jnleriQrt .een thrtlugh the pOlygons, I wanled lhe higllesl resolution Facial qual· plale, who writhed as if in agony, and lhal malchmove
tron."..",nl roo( and walls. ity I co uld get because I knew thal we'd be very close drove lhe animation o flh e digilal Zarlan. ' We made
uWlg photograph< on som e of these digital c harac te rs, We did use XYZ a syslem where lhe malc hmove poinl animalion was
RGB oul of Canada for lhe body sca ns, butlhe facia l Independenl of our model shapes,· Ebner explained.
scan s were all d one by Aguru," MSO once we applied lhe malchm ove we could slill
Aguru Images used its commerc ialized vers ion of shift lhe models around. We modeled aboul five dif·
Paul Debevec's IIghl d o me technology lo achieve the ferenl poses, s haping c heekbon es and olher facial
high·resolution scans. -rhe reason I opted to go with slru clures, referen c ing pholographs of boxers being
CINEFEX 1190 5 1
punched. Then we animated the facial muscles and (IS we ll; so not o nly could we extend streets, we could
bones to s hift in 3D. In the animation program. we c le(l n up w hateve r we needed to by comp letely recon·
we re able to p ut a co n trol point over t he face; a nd by stru cting an y part of the street.- Digita l Domain a lso
moving the control point, it s h ifted it, as if you were added CG vehicles c rashing a nd flipping, a u g m e nt·
punc hing the face w ith th at con t ro lle r. We se t it up ing the physical effects work done o n location.
so th at it would look like a p unc h and then ripple and
re lax back to th e match move. All of tha t was going on igita l Domain c reated CG versions of th eac·

D
Duke and RiIKo,d. in
w hile th e actor was s till pe r formi ng; and so, In a way ce le r ator s ui ts that dom ina te til e sequ ence, ekctrDllica/ly eMIIlKed
we were able to a nimate it in nearly realtime andj ust as we ll, using sca ns and photos of th e prac· IIcce/emlM surt<. =e Ihrough
put it on loop play to see how th e effect was goi ng, It ti ca l s ui ts as modeling g u ides. The look of th e s uit ~ s~1S o(Pllns in purwit of
really sped up the process.- evol ved somewh at once it was in th e digital r ea lm. 1M Bamne .. · ..,n, InltOdu<M in
"They decide d they wanted it to be more refle ctive an ellrlierrmining sequence, the
nna has th e warheads weaponized at a par· than th e practica l version: sai d Gri ll, "a nd beca use

A
""ce~m!or .uilS w.", (llbricmed
ti cle accelerator lab in Pari s, and th e n races we we re doing it in 3 D, we we re able to p lay willl a ll by S!lIn Win""" Studio (or __
wi th h er team towa rd the Eiffel Tower - the of th ose options." Although th e s u its were virtually actian shot< with the acto", ShOIS
intended target of the war head. Duke a nd Ripcord , identica l, t he runn i ng gaits a nd body languages of ,,(the ch<!rncte" in /lCCe/mi!ed
wearing accelerator suits. chase the Baroness and he r Marlon Waya ns and Chann ing Tatum va ri ed s ignifi· molion w.", relllized by Digitm
vipers as th ey speed through the city streets in a va n. can tl y enou g h th at the s u it models had to be r igged Domain, ..mid! modeled!he
" Ha lon helped m e previz this big c h ase seq uence,· differently. " We did motion cap ture sessions wi th IIrmored .uilS u..-ng ""am lind
said Boyd Shermis, -a nd they did a fantasticjob. I had Ho use of Moves ea rl y on to get th e actors' cadences photographs o(!he prncrklll .uits.
a great working re lations hip with a g uy t here named a nd gaits so yo u 'd recog nize t hem as they were run · Though idenlkal in appearance,
Clin t Reagan. I spe nt abou t six months working with ning in the suits. Animation su pervisor Bernd Angere r eoch .uit wm cu.!onH'igge<i
him, fine·tuning that sequence. Once we got it just the a nd h is team kep t those same c ha r acteristics even (or animmian to capture the
way we wanted, we sh ot good portions of it in Prague w he n motion capture wasn't used. With those subtle distinctive gllrt< and running
before we ever went to Pa ri s. We s ho t a lot of the flip- nuances, you could easily tell w h o th e actor was in .~< o( Dlanning Tlltum
ping ca rs a nd o th er prac ti ca l components of th e the suit just from t h e way he moved," lind Marlon W<rfam,
accelerator c hase th e r e.- Stonn Shadow, armed with the na nomite warheads,
Afte r t he Prague s hoot, the production team went climbs to the roof of a la rge g lass office b uilding to During !he .~t chase.
to Paris to film additional plate photography for the ta rget t he Eiffel Tower. Prod u ction s hot d igita l sti lls Duke and RipaJrd SUffer II
c hase seq uence, "We had moving camera cars s hoot· o f Paris a nd Prague rooftops to provide the view from cO/Kll.sion _apan blast FiooJ
ing Vistavision plates in Paris: sa id Shermis. "We a lso atop the stru cture. Though the building itself had been CG /lCCe/er<ltDr .uit cha,Me"
s hot aer ia l refere n ce p lates - b ut you can·t fly a he li· s hot in Prague, Digita l Do m ai n was ca lled upo n to r eo did not march the 5!lIn Winston
copter in ('aris, certainly not ar o und the Eiffel Tower, create it in CG, "A CG g lass building was not a n easy Swdio ve"",m exocdt. '" !he i0oi<
Which was ve ry disconcerting to learn after I had de· thing to do: Boyd Shermis said. "You can do g lass in ,,(1M wi! cO/Ilinued to e ........ in
signed the seq u e nce. I s udde nly rea lize d I couldn 't 3 D, of cou rse - but to create an e ntire building made ~tproduction, Digitol Domain
s hoot h alf th e plates I wanted. What t hey did allow u s of glass presents a lot of problems, beca use it'sjust c~a~d up produc!iOll pla!e$ sho!
todo, t ho ug h, was go u p to the top o f t he EiITel Tower a bunc h oflransluce n t mirrors. You ca n sec t hroug h on !he weelS o(Prague and Pa",
to aim both digital a nd Vistavision cameras down, so them, you ca n see wl1at is reflected off of t hem. It was (or rile (/lase <equence. ~mo""-ng
we we re able to get all of th e landscape s urrou nding (I m(lss ive fe(lt for t hem to do t h(l t. - pmcrkm ~ffect< rig •• cllmera
the towe r. Th ere was quite a bit of guerilla second unit -We rebuilt the i nterior with photographs in Nuke,- cor< and other equipment Digit'"
work through the streets o f Paris, too. We s hot a lo t of Bryan G rill e laborated , "whi c h we adde d to plates DonIain a"" extended <treet•.
plates i n and around the Arc de Triomphe, as well as or used a lone. Th ere werea lo t oflimes whe re they'd "'ing lidllr datil lind photographs
sti lls, so t hat we cou ld virtualize it. " s hoot a plate to sim ula te following one of o u r a n i· from the location<, Md addM
Digital Domain, unde r the di rection o f composit· mated cha r acters; but, then, wh e n we showed th em flipping lind era<hing CG
ing supervisor Michae l Maloney, did a lot of c leanup what we could do with t he (lnimated c h ar(lcter, th ey vehicle. to augment pmmcal
a nd othe r work o n t h e Prague a nd Paris plates. "We would ask u s to a ugmen t a ca m era, adding part of efferu wall<.
we re either removing thin gs i n th e scene that we re n' t the interior to t he top and bottom to better preserve
s upposed to be lIlere: noted Bryan Grill, -or adding the a ction.· Even shots t hat were fine i n terms of com·
things to make ('rague look like Paris. We c leaned up posi tion and move ment requ i red r ebuilding so that
a lot of pr(l ctica l effects rigs , camera cars, ramps- Digital Dom(lin could re move li g hts, rigs a nd c r ew
you name it. We did a lot of extensions o n th e streets, m e mbers reflected in t he g l(lss. - When we were s hoot·
too, whic h we had photographed very th oroughly on ing, it was, 'Oh, gre(lt, we got t his plate (lnd we won't
location. They had lidar information from th e streets, h(l ve to build t h is: Bu t t he n we'd get it bac k h ome
52 0 CINEfEX 1 19
C INEI"EX 1 19 0 53
54 0 CINEfEX I 19
 and start seeing the camera crane and 50 people re- fOllowed the engineering rules; but in a couple of
nected in the glass, so we would have to rebuild most sh ots, we added 110llywood moments, such (IS when
of it anyway.~ the tower snaps right in front of the camera - the e n·
gineers sa id it would actually snap a little lowe r.~
ith the impact of th e nanomite warhead, a In the wide s hot of the tower smashing into the

W leg of th e Eirfel Tower begins to disintegrate,

ca us ing the landmark structure to co llapse
and c ra sh onto a bridge and then into the Seine River.
bridge and ri ve r, Digital Domain rem ove d both the
tower and the bridge from the o riginal photographic
plate, repla ce d them with the CG ve rsi o ns, added
CclNa martial ortis! ~ Making the Eirfe l Tower crash and fall required a lot water to create an appropriately sca le d splash . and
Storm SIIadow (Byung-hun of rebuilding of th e s urrounding area and the tower then n estl ed all of the 3D imagery into a plate shot
l ....j lakef aim 01 1M fJfffi itself: said Grill. ~ Except for a plate we use d for the from a tall Paris bridge. using a ca mera attached to
To",", (rom wilhin !he g/a<s rlrst shot of the missile hilting it, th e EiITel Tower was a 100-foot·tall co nstru c ti o n cra ne. "The o nly way to
buHding_ Wi!h!he mp.acr o(!h~ a full CG model. We were lucky enough to have a lot get that angle was to be about 120 feet in the air:
lKlnomne W!I~od. wPPO" of pictures a nd v ideo of til e tower, as well as books said Boyd Shermis. · Since we co uldn 't fly low in that
wuctures di';nl~grat~. cou'ing we co uld draw from. You see every detail from every area, we had to put this cons tru cti o n crane up on a
!he ;emU landmorl< 10 ,oNap~. v iew, down to th e tables and c hairs on the different bridge to get that h eig ht.~
To augmen! limiled plare levels and all the light bulbs and sockets lining th e Back at stree t leve l, Duke and Ripco rd , in their
pM!Of:raphy o(IM area - ""~re exterior. In fact, the Eiffel Tower m o del was so co m - accelerator s uits, finally s top the Baron ess' spee d ·
lo ......~ ""rial (liming W!IS plex and heavy, we were never able to load the e ntire Ing van and capture o ne o f her vipe rs - but the char·
prohil>i!ed - Digilnl Domain build into a single file. Th ere was also an incredible acter self-destructs, disintegrating into a m o und of
rebuil! 1M to_r and en,;rom in amount of texture work.~ Artful lighting by Hanzhi dust before they ca n extract information from him.
3D . .,.;ng pM!Of:raph, and >id.o Tang and his team was instrumental in ensuring that CafeFX created the viper disi ntegratio n effect fo r thi s
a, re(ereMe 1M final CG Iow.r the CG tower matc hed the real stru cture. and oth er scenes. - The v iper in the Paris chase scen e
W!IS uceptionaDy <kla~ed. down Digital Domain CG supervisors Nikos Kalaitzidi s is completely eaten away from th e inside o ut: said
10 evuy liglll oolb and sockel and Swen Gillberg, along w ith digital effects super- Da vi d Ebner, - which makes his head collapse. That
lining !h~ eXlenor. and heavily visor Darren Hendler. opted to use a cloth simulation effect took place over about five s hots. We started by
le>twred. based "" daseu~ to achieve the elastic deformation needed to simulate doing 2D artwork to s how th e progression of it, and
pMtograpl" ofEiffd Tower the metal fatigue of th e Eiffel Tower after nanomites then we neshed it o ut from there. In th e final s hots. it
Uructures. Digrt'" Dom,,;n u..d eat away its s upport structures. Effects lea d Phillip looks as if the nanomites are eating through the head,
a da!h <imularion ID adlieve !he Prahl developed a system in whiCh structures dynam- with bone structure and muscles co llaps ing and mak-
look o(mel'" fatigue as lKlnomileS ically switched from static to rigid s imulatio n objects ing the face si nk in. Th e re is also a bruising, black
melIWrrf m !he rower', bme. and while th eir shape was continually eroding. - This e n · effect when it i s being eaten away, and blood spills
animaled !he resulting c"",,pse abled eroding pieces to recognize where th ey were o ut. Finally, it diSintegr(ltes down to dust. They didn' t
in M<rfa_ In a.,,;m. $hot of!he no longer being supported by surrounding material, ~ w(lnt it to be too gruesome, to avoid r(lUng probl e m s,
landmari< c",Jiling inlO a bndge sa id Grill, -and the n begin to realistica lly fa ll and col - but the final effec t was still very effec tive. We did a
and !hen !he Seine River. Digilnl lide with other ite m s. Th e tower was also run through lot o f cool programming for the nanomite destruction
Dom";n rem<>ve<I bo!h !he lower a secondary s imulation step in Which each of the thou - s hots, and that plus a new three-dimensional inter-
and 1M bndge trom !he oIiginai sa nds of tru sses and their sub-trusses would bend, face ca lled ICE, Which is part of XSI, gave us nearly
~""Iographk plale. replaced m-m s hea r and s nap based on t h e m otion ofthe tower.· re(ll·time control ofthe effects."
";!h CG IIl'rWn,. I1d<kd water Th e base Eiffel Towe r motio n was animated in Maya
or s imulated in Houdini , and those results were then (lving learned ofMcCullen's part in th e Eiffel

H
10 creOle an appropria~1y fCa"'d
splash. and !hen nes*4 all 0( automatically run through all the simulatio n steps, Tower d estruction. the J oes travel by s ubma-
!he 3D imagery inl/} a plme including nanomite erosion , m e tal fatigue simula- rine to his secret facility beneath the polar ice
$/Io! trom a comtruaion crane tion and secondary truss s imulation. cap. The Moving Piclllre Company crea ted all-synthetic
map a Iall Pari. bOOf'_ The Digil<ll Domain crew sought the guidance of views of th e facility from the sub, and also animated
an e ngineering firm in animating th e towe r 's actual a 3D polar bear that reacts wilen the vessel breaches
collapse and fall o nto the bridge. "None of us has ever o nto the ice, deploy ing Joes o n snowmobiles t o ex-
seen th e Eiffel Tower co llapse,~ remarked Grill, ·so plore an ice cave that will allow them to gain entrance
we had no idea what this should look like. So we called into til e MARS lab. Production had Sl10t live-acti o n on
these engineers, and asked: ' What would happe n if a very s mall ice set o utsi de a stage at Downey Studios.
the Eiffel Tower sta rte d to fail?' If th e front leg was MIL was a short set o f carved foam ,M said Boyd Shermis,
ealen away, how would th e stru cture fa ll?' I t was very Mwith salt crystals for s now, surrounded by green·
important th(lt it look pl(lu sible. for the most P(lrt, we screen; and so every shot in that sequence, both inte-
CIN l':fEX Il g D 55
rior and exterior, had to be extended virtually. To give project. " He asked if we still had that polar bear: said The G-'. joe. ~ by
us backgrounds and e nv ironments to build from , we Greg Bulle r, " because he needed one. We still had it, .ubmmi"" !O the '''''re!
had sent a unit out to Norway to photograph some and wejust did som e quick upgrades on it us ing fur uno'er....."., Mo\RS b.... and
aerials and som e land·based HDRI panoramas of ice technology that we'd developed for NaTllia last year. deplar SHARC submarine aaft
shelves and glaciers. We used pieces of that to con· We went ba c k and forth with CIS to establish timings, initioring a SUr Wa",,,¥e
s tru c t our own ve rs io n of the ice cap." Lhen gave them a final pol(lr be(lr render Lo comp into uf>derwtl!er banle. The MalOing
CIS Hollywood created the virtual ice cap e nviro n- Lheir s h ots." Picw", Company contrioo!ed to
ments, including interiors and exteriors of an icc cave, the design afth. ~HARc., as
d esign ed by artist Robert Stromberg, wh ich h o uses eneath the ice cap, Generaillawk deploys

B
we/! as (he ManU. Cobra figll~"
Typhoons and the high-tech 'Night Raven ' aircraft. SHARC submarine c raft to attack the MARS that join rhe figIIl adhering
" for the exterior of the icc cave," said Bryan Hirota , base, initialing a huge unde rwater baltle real· g..".ralty to rhe IaaI< of Hosbra's
"they'd built may be 20 feet o f ice wall, with some fake ized by MPC. "Stephen Sommers wanted a classic Slar dossic toys. MPC then modeled
snow o n the ground, But any of the blowing s now, the Wars style ballle, o nly underwa te r: Butler said. " We and animated CG SHARe:. and
sky, the dista nt mountains and the large icy environ· did design work on the ships yo u see in that ballle- Cobra ~ghl'" - with piIots -
ment was o ur virtual environment. The shot where yo u the SHARCs, the Mantis Cobra fighters, and McCullen's as well ... McCullen's T/iden!
see th e submarine break through the ice was a co m · Trident s ub. Th e SHARe and the Mantis were based .ubma"'-"", seen Ia!er in
bination of Ho udini and Maya rigid body dyna mics to on toys that Hasbro made in the eighties, and these the .equmce.
handle the large·scale c hunks of ice breaking up; and s hips had to bear some resemblance to them. There
we used Real Flow to generate the fluid dynamics s im- was almost n o d esign o n the 'J oe sub,' though, th e
ulalion of the water coming around the sub and drip- big com mand vehicle that launches the SHARCs; and
ping o ff oflt as it came out. We worked o ut the liming so we did that one from scra tch. "
and camera move o n that, and then shared the s hot MPC built generic ve rsions o f the SHARCs and
with MPC, who animated the polar bear." Cobra fighters, with pilots, and then built custom
She rmis had asked MPC to provide the animated versio ns as needed. "We did a souped -up SHARC for
polar bear because he recalled that th e company had Heavy Duty: said Buller, "beca use they wanted him
generated one, years before, when bidding on another to have bigger ve rsions of everything. We put four big
56 0 CINE fEX I 19
 A Cobra Mantil pu"ue< c hain g uns o n it, and o th e r bi ts a nd pieces Just to sio ns ri g ht from t he beginning. Th at was a good thin g,
Q SHARC s~ip as trno warfare make his SHARC stand o ul. We c ustomized som e o f too, beca use Stephe n So mmers was a l ways sayi ng,
in!ell<i~s. Am<>llg rile d>dIenge. th e pa int jobs, too. I look ed a t t he toy d esig ns to see ' More explosions!'-
o(rIIe se<jill'n<e was de~ing i f th e re was anythin g we could pull ofT o f the m . So, in
one insta nce, Ul e SHARC has a liUlesha rk icon o n the n th e hea t o fbaltle, McCullen la unc hes th e na n-

I
unde .... arer .... pIo1ians in CG
MPC referenced unde.....,,,r hood , w hic h I fo und o n som e o f t he o ld toys. - o mi te wa rh ead missi les, targe ting Lo ndo n , Mos·
P)'rolec/lllio in movies sudI m Am o ng the c ha lle nges o f th e baUle seque nce was cow a nd Washi ng to n D.C. CIS Ho llywood created
Crimson TiM and The Hunt d eveloping underwater explosions in CG. - I talked to virt u a l m issile la unc h es, composi ting t ha t i m agery
for Red October. and trnon uled som e practica l effects people to see i f th is was som e· w ith g ree nscr een foreground c ha rac t e rs. Ri pcord
kanline's Rawline <itmlimion thing we could even t ry to sh oot: said Bulle r. -Il has th en board s th e Nig ht Raven a nd ta k es off a fte r th e
pockage 10 crear. trno look o( bee n don e, but it ca n be ve ry d a ngerou s. So we did missi les. Prod u ction had film ed Ma rl o n Waya ns in a
explalians in trno near weigllde<s i t all CG. We took a look at th e few good examples o f Night Rave n cockpit, a nd CIS s u rro unde d t h a t w i t h
el!"'ronm.n~ wil~ smoke and underwater explosio n s in m ovies like Crimson Ti d e vi rtu al air cra ft a nd ha ngar extensions. Fra n tic f ilms,
fire (t<>i/ing in trno waler. a nd The HUll /for Red Oc t ober. The expl osio ns in this w h ich c reated th e Night Raven aer ia l sequ en ce th a t
se que n ce are th e r esult o f co nve n ti on a l t orp edoes fo llowe d , b uilt th e a ircra ft m odel a nd t urned it over
bei ng fired by th e SHARCs a nd Ma ntis. The co nc ussio n to CIS fo r t he ir ha nga r s hots.
ca nn o n w as a speci fi c , h igh ·e ne r gy bla s t effect ; b ut At Fr antic film s, look d evelo pme n t o n th e Nig h t
th e J oes s hut d own t he con cu ssion ca nno n before it Raven began w ith productio n concept art a nd a m odel
d oes too much damage. Wh enever yo u see expl osions m ockup illustra t in g ge ne ra l scale. Fra ntic Films d ig·
goin g o fT, it is gene rall y because a to rpedo has e i t her ita l m a Ue lea d Ke n Na k ada th e n p ai nted m ore d e·
expl o d ed near a ship, or a ship has been ta k en o ut by tailed co ncepts from whic h t he c rew m odeled th e fin a l
o ne.- MPC use d Scanline's Flowline s imula ti o n pack- Nig h t Rave n. - We d id som e pre-m odeli ng fi rst to gel
age to c reate the look of explosio ns in the nea rweig ht- o ur base shape: sai d Ch ris Bond, ~a nd t hen th ere was
less en vi ro nme n t, with fi re a nd s m o k e tra iling i n t he quite a b i t of r e fin e m e n t to t h al. We ha d to be care-
water. - Flo wlin e had th e righ t tool set for t his effect, ful how we ch a nged it, t ho ug h , beca use t he re was a n
a nd we gol r eally good at t h ese unde rwater ex plo · approved toy concept a lrea d y, a nd we couldn 't s t ray
CI NEFEX 11 9057
too far from that. " to build th e story arc so t hat you would feel th e in·
The final Night Raven model was extremely com· te nsity grow as th e sequ e nce progressed."
plex, with some 10,000 moving parts. "Th e re were Fran tic also v i rtu a lized Washingto n D.C. for s hots
small components allover it," said Chris Harvey, "mov- of t he Nig h t Ra ven fOllowing the missile as it travels
ing and adj usti ng to make it look rea l. If it rolled o r along t he Poto mac Ri ver towa rd the Whi te Ho u se.
banked hard , flaps and e n gi ne pieces would adjust Refere nce imagery for the Wa shington D.C. build con·
accordingly. Also, if i t hit a certain angle at a certa i n s isted o f h elicopter footage s hot by Boyd Shermis and
speed there 'd be contra ils com ing off th e wi n g tips. 16,000 digital stills s hot by a fra n tic films unit over
Thin gs like that we r e a ll built into the rig. But even the course of four days. "We couldn't get access to t he &ploring an ice
though t here was a procedural system built in, that White Ho use grounds to s hoot, o f course,' said Chris c~ an m. paIor ice cap
could be ove rd riven and artistically contr o lled by Bo nd, " but we got as close as possible, b oth on th e above m. MARS bcHe. m. jM'
th e a nimators." ground and on nearby rooftops. We s hot all this ref· di,c_r a hit/1/y admfIC~ aircraft
e r e nce materia l and m apped o u t t h e whole pa t h of ~.-eJoped by MAR5In(/u.trle,.
o captu r e Ripc ord piloting the Night Raven, t he jet, which was quite lo ng. We had to create very called me Nighl Raven, ..midi

T production filmed Marlon Wayans in a cockpit

mockup, mounted to a gimba l. " We s h ot that
in Prague on a bluescreen,· said Boyd Shermis, "with
large environme nts because, even in a sing le second,
the jet covered a lot of distance,"
" Frantic really ca m e t h ro ug h o n t hi s seq ue n ce,"
Rj~ord pilot< 10 cha'e and

down """amile wamead mi' ''/es

largellng Landon, Mo<cow and
,,,,,,11

ca m era cranes flying around him. Th en f ra ntic films Boyd 5hermis com m e nted. "Th e ph oto realism of that W""'ington D.C. Worl<ing from
tra cked that a nd d ropped it into the 3 D versio n of the aerial e nviro nment and t he way we m ove through it c"",ept ",1' by Robf:n Slmmberg.
flying craft. Everything in t hose s hots - the aircraft, is better and more e xciti n g than anything I 've eve r CIS H~ mmed a 'Yn !hetic
sky an d clouds -was virtual. Frantic had done previz seen. And we got t hat because we were able to com· ice c~ hangar and bo<kground
on the seq uence early, a nd th ey'd done a very nice job pletely virtualize it, without having to r e ly o n aerial Typhoon <Jirc"'(~ as
atti<1< a/<o
o n i t; and so I asked th e m to do th e sequence i tse l f. photography Shot from a he licopte r. " compasited 1M Nighl R~n -
I turned it over to them very early because I knew this a CG modeilMlized by Fran1ic
had to be t he coo lest, best aerial dogfight people s th e J oes infiltrate t he MARS base, McCullen

A
Film. - inlo 1M (oreground o(
had ever seen." and Cobra Comm an de r (J oseph Gordon·Levitt) it< ;;nua len ;;r"""'~nt
Toward t hat e nd, Frantic films engaged a specia l· escape in the Trid e n t s ub. CafeFX c reated til e
ist in c lo ud simulations to generate th e vir tual skies. underwater v iews from ins ide the subma rine. "We had Flying over W mhiIIgron
" Most aerial wo rk in r ecent film s has been executed developed an entire underwater e nviron m ent when D.C.. in !he Nigtu R.,..,.n.
wi th rea l came ras: comm e nted Ch ris Bond , " using we were bidding o n t he s h ow: reca lled David Ebner, Rjpcord shool' down d>e mi"i/e
rea l plates for backgrounds. But in this sequence, the ' so we had tha t 3D environme nt all ready to go. There and carriM !he ""nomit • • .."Im
Nig ht Raven was s upposed to be traveling at outra· were rocks and plant life cli n g ing to th e rocks, and high ~ the dry. frontic. Flln"
geous speed s - Mac h II , o r something like that- d etri t us in the wate r. We also did som e matte paint· in l~gf(7!edlre. 3D Nit/11 ~n
a nd yo u ca n' t speed up aerial photography or s hoot ings for the buildings in t he background." model inlO ;;nual Wa, hington
enough film to get that sense of speed. 50 we had to MPC delivered s hots of th e MARS base being d e· D. C imllgery and ,"""",, 10
create entirely synthetic clouds a nd sky e nvironments. stroyed when McCullen and Cobra Commander, from .imula~ Modi II ~ighl . peed.
Looking around at the technology that was out there, the Trid ent, blow up t h e ice pack above it. "Th ey det· The ""nomile cloud con,lsled 0(
we didn ' t really see an approach that didn't have a onate these explosions in the ice pack: stated Greg billion, o(partkk. rendered in
puffy, cotto n·ba ll cloud loo k to it. So we developed Bulle r, " which brings huge c hunks of icc down onto franrk'. Krak<lll><l ,o{iware.
o ur own technology, combining a number o f tools, the base, demolishing it. Earl y o n , th ere were a lot o f froMk wfl>!e (Ullom code 10
including our Krakatoa particle rende rin g system , to d iscussio ns about the fac t that ice doesn' t s ink. Even ,ugge<1 in~lIigen l beh<MGf in
create smoke and cloud c le m e nts. Ke n Nakada su per· heavy icc floats - so how would these c hunks o f ice m. I .."Im a. i1 mo~d aaa«
vised the building of the virtual s k ies, usi n g these fall through til e water? To solve that, we sold th e idea me .urface o(IM ("'ft eallng
c loud e le m e n ts a nd matte painting." ea rli er that th ere we re metallic tunnels and stru ctures away d>e melOllo reveal Ire.
"To he lp convey a sense of s peed," added Chris woven into t he ice, whic h would make i tsink a nd slam in~rnal m.mani"" •. allo(
Ha rvey, "especia lly i n all·sky s hots w he re you don't into the base. We hand·mode led a couple o f h ero icc ..nidi had 10 be (u9t
see landscapes passing by, we added a lo t of t hin pieces, a nd t hen built a library of m o re generic ones. madekdin J D.
w ispy clouds or particulate in th e air o r vapor off th e We used procedural animation based on particles to
plane wing -a ll manner of things to keep that sen se create a sense of th em falling a s a group and Obey·
o f speed going. At the sa m e time, we were tryi ng to ing th e rul es o f underwater gravi ty. But then , effects
create a story arc through the sequence. If the air· artists would take over a nd move things around as
craft is always moving at Mac h II , t h e n it never is, needed , givin g a couple of the big c hunks a liltle bit
because i t isjust t he same thing all th e ti m e. We had of rota lion as they fe lllhroug h the water. It was never
58 0 CINEf EX 1 19
C INEFEX I 19 0 59
a complete simulation or complete keyframing, but somewhat different than what was in the final mask, MPC delivered 'holll of
rather a combination of the two. - too, - said Ebner, · which meant we had to grab those u.. MARS bme being ~uoyed
The last shot in the sequence revea ls the remain s areas from the footage and relocate them. So there with the explosion of 1M ice pock
of the base and the giant concussion cannon disap· was a lot of complicated 3D technical work that went """'~ it Attim hornJ.mod.led
pearing into an ocea n noor chasm, along with the into it, from match moving, to reprojecting the match· he", ke pi..,e, (or u.. .ee"", and
McC ullen family mask - a reminder of the fate of the move onto th e mask model, to altering the ma sk then buih a hbra.., of mare generic
McC ullen ancestor. Family history is repeated when model into the final approved design.- one$. MPC employed procedural
a weapons exchange with Duke sears a nanomite· onimation bmed on porode. to
based helme t onto McCullen 's head , transforming he film concludes wilh theJoes having beaten

T
make the i::e <:hunk, (all as a
him into the villainous Destro. CafeFX created the - at least temporarily - the Cobra organization, group according to the ",,,", of
transformation effect. - His face first begins to burn: and with Anna held aboard an aircraft carrier. unde~r gra"'Y. E/feas artin.
explained David Ebner, · which is a practical makeup Framestore executed an extended pullout that starts would IMn manipulate ir>dMdu<J!
application. Then, digitally, we heal the skin a bit as inside the c orridor of lIle aircraft ca rrier, pull s out ~Ce$ to enhance drama ond
you see all these little nano mites crawling under his through a window and continues to pull ba c k, heli · ae<ltheua. To ju.tift u.. ice (alljng
skin. And the n the skin begins to blister, with black copter style, to reveal the ship at sea. Other than a thrtlllgh 1M woter rather thon
blisters taking over his whole head. finall y, the blis· plate featuring a s mall interior corridor se t , every· flooring, MPC <:reared the look
ters turn silver, forming the Destro mask. For the look thing in the shot - the ocean, the aircraft carrier and ofmetallic ,tnJcwre' wo~n
of the mask itself, we had to collaborate with Hasbro, the beautiful s unset s ky - was CG. throug/lO<lliL
as well as Stephen Sommers and Boyd , because there framestore modeled the aircraft carrier based o n
is a toy version of the character. We went back and real o nes in the U.S. Nail)' neet, but adapted it to more
forth with different head d esigns until we came up closely resemble the toy version in tfas bro' s G." J oe
with the approved version.- product line. " It didn't have to match the toy exacUy:
The final Destro head was slightly narrower than said Jon Thum , - but we had to make s light c hanges
the helmeted c haracte r in the plates, requiring Cafe· to the layo ut o f the deck and runways, and we had to
FX to erase parts of the real head and res tore bits of add a logo in a co nve nient position for the camera
background. "The location o f the mouth and eyes was to see it in the shot. Other than those adaptations, it
60 0 CINEfEX 1 19
 l "lll

F"'m~<fo", U~01!..d Q was based o n a rea l a irc ra n ca rri e r. We had to build to come. If Boyd Shermis is ca lled in again to oversee
nearly all.£G shot!hor " Ortl' in a l o t of detail a nd texturing fo r th e beginning of the visual effects, he wi ll re ly on the sam e multiple·
;mkk 1M corridor of on ";rr,,,(r the shot, w hic h starts very c lose on th e ship. And th en, ve ndo r approach that enabl ed him to d e liver m ore
carrier, where the &Iron ... i, fo r the e nd oftlle s h ot, the tri c k was j u st maki ng it t han 1.600 effects s hots relatively quickly fo r G.t. Joe:
~ng Mid, and 1M" puIh bock (0 look rcal. An ai rcra ft car ri er at sea is som ething that The Rise o{Cobra. -I t has a lways been m y philosophy
"'... ,,/ the ship or seo. Frnmeno". everyone instantly recognizes; a nd so we had to work to utilize ta lent all around town : obselVed Shermis.
m<><kkd the aircraft <Drfier bam r ea lly hard to m ake s ure lIlis a ll-CG image l ooked - I find people w ho are partic ularly good a t doing
0II1hw' in !he U.s. Navy fI~~ absolutely r ea l." ce rtai n things, a nd ca n do them very efficiently. And
odoprM I<l "..emblo: H".bm', Wo rkin g in Houdini , f ra m estor e generated t h e because they ca n do them e ffi ciently , t hey can do
toy """"n. Wot/ant in Houdini, o c ea n s urface u ti lizin g a sta ndard m athe m atica l them cost-e ffective ly.-
Fmme<rote ~nermed!he oce"" m odel, applied as a displace m en t map. "We've done Efficiency and cost-effec ti veness were essential
sUrfoce employing" <la Mord CG ocea ns before,· Thum o bselVed , "for projects like to a director w hose filmmakin g philosoplly appears
mmMmmkal m~l. applied.,. Superman Returns; and so we had the setup to make to be ' more is more: · Stephe n Sommers is a g uy who
" di'plac~1I! mop, IMII added i t work. The mathematical model wo rks qu i te we ll . likes t hings b ig : said Brya n Hirota. "I saw a quo te at·
..mitecaps ond . eo foam [0 make generally. but you te nd to see repeti tion in it because tri buted to a s upeIVisor atlLM who had worked o n o ne
it IooJ< Jib " rougher "'''. as it's a til ed s urface. So a lot o f the work i sjust i n break· or ooth o f th e Mummy m ovi es, a nd h e said, 'Th e re 's
wtWD' /><>rTide whi~wtl!er ing up t he repetitio us pattern. We t hen added w hite· big, there's really o ig, a nd then t her e's Stephen Som·
around the huQ and " 'orge caps and sea foam to make it look lik e a ro ugher sea. m e rs big: I found th at to be tru e on this s h ow. G.t.
lroiNnt wok • . We also added particle whitewater around t h e edge Joe was d efi nite ly 'Stephen Sommers b ig :"
of t he hull and a huge wake in t he ba c k. All of t hose
w e added in separate effects passes. · Joe : Th e Ri se of Cobra photographs copyrigh t
G,].
In a stirri ng final sh ot. t he v i ctoriou s G.!. J oes exit ~ 2009 by Pa ramount Pictures . All r ights reserved,
the Pit in th e Howler fo r yet another m ission - a co n· Special thank.s 10 Ngoc Nguyen, Cryslal Shin , Greg
elusion t hat perfectly sets th e stage for a m ovie fran· McMu.rry, LYIl·Del Pederse n, Ellen Pas ternack., Ri la
c hise tha t may be selling t he po p co rn and putting Cahill, Tim Ellstice, Chris Slaughter, Jim Charm atz,
Joe e nUlus iasts into t heater seats for m a ny .summers and Gemma Samuel/'
CINEFEX Il g 0 6 1
 • Agora by Alejandro Amenabar
• Biutiful by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
• EI Che Parts 1&2 by Steven Soderbergh
• Volver by Pedro Almodovar
• The Sea Inside by Alejandro Amenabar
• Goya's Ghost by Milos Forman
• The Others by Alejandro Amenabar

-
 Earth, ind
and
ARTICLE BY JOE FORDHAM

Toward the end of

postproduction on Harry Potter and the
Order of the Phoenix - the fifth film based
on J.K. Rowling's literary juggernaut-
visual effects supervisor Tim Burke and
visual effects producer Emma Norton were
deep into preparations for Harry Potter
and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth in the
series. Winding down one film while gear·
ing up for the next at England's Leavesden
Studios had become a well·honed practice
for the team; and this time, they were pre·
paring and budgeting magical goings·on
as young Harry Potter neared graduation
at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft ".".".
and Wizardry. To simulate Death Eaters rocketing down into the
The screenplay by Steve Kloves streamlined Row· city, Double Negative developed s wirling spec tral
ling's 652·page narrative Into 153 minutes, and fea · forms beyond th ose they had created for previous
tured Death Eater demon aUacks, ny ing broomstick Potter films. "The Death Eaters travel e d further and
Quidditch aclion and mysterious ' pensieve' memory faster than they had before," explained franklin. "Il
journeys that lead Harry (Daniel Rad c liffe) and his was a big challenge to get our s imulations to hold up Hlrry Poeeer and ehe
mentor, Professor Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gam· under speeds of hundreds of miles an ho ur, because H.lf·Blood Prince,'ixth in
bon), on a quest to retrieve a fragment oflhe Dark at those speeds the smoke plumes completely brOke the ~Im s~rie, dlroniding 1M
Lord Voldemort 's splintered soul. up. We first s imulated s m oke emitting from target '"<ilKalion of ",*,",K~nl "';za,d
Director David Yates, returning for his second Pot· objects twisting through th e air. We th en used Side Hony PO!l~r, Of><'n< ".;th vaporlllJ'
ter Film, drew up plans for the production with an eye Effects Ho udini to emil soft.body ribbons and, in th e o..ath Eaters ""rnSlorlning ",0/.
toward the Final novel, Harry Polter and the Deathly proc ess, tweaked the speed , keeping it fast enough world 'muUIe' London. Direaar
Hallows, "There was a conscious decision on Half- to fit the dynamics o f the shot. It took a lot of c reati ve David Yate .. on hi< '~PO!l~r
Blood Prince to keep aclion based around dialogue balancing to achieve the effect we needed and make ouignm~n~ re-leam'"<i with
and drama: noted Tim Burke. "We'd had wand batlles the speed convincing." fron<h;'~ ""t~ran.induding
before, and tllere is going to be a tremendous number prodlKtion d~.igne' 5worI Croig,
of them in Dea/hly Hallows; but David saw this til m n o ne s hot. Death Eaters dive into Trafalgar Square ,;suo/ ~ffects ,up"rvi:sar Tim
more as a story of adolescence and young re lation·
ships. His approach was to treat it less as a v is ual
effects Film , and more as a drama."
I from a height of 10,000 feet. "David wanted it to be
a rollercoaster ride through London at fighter pilot
speed: remarked Tim Burke. "There was no way we
8u,*~, 'p"dIII ~tfMS
John Richordson, ond mobup
~~s ond creature m"igne,
wp~rvisor

Joining Yates on the production was director of were going to altempttoshoot backgrounds for that Nick DUdmon_ Doul* Negar;..,
photography Bruno De lbonne l, making his Poller live, so we used photogrammetry tools that Double hondl'"<i the Death Eater 01tOd:
film debut. and series regulars s uch as production Negative had developed and digitally re buillthat en· using dighaJ smoke simlJation.
designer Stuart Craig, special effects supervisor John tire section of Central London." ond phologrammetry IDOls
Richa rdson , makeup efFects and creatu re designer Paul Riddle oversaw a high·a ltitude point o f view 10 ",bu~d a large ..ction
Nick Dud man , and Cinesite mode l un it supervisor looking down over the city - a vast hand·pai nted dig· of C~nlTa/ lDndon_
Jose Granell. Visual efFects s uperviso rs Chris Shaw ital environment based o n satellite photography and
and John MofFatt assisted with second· and third·unit Ordnance Survey maps. Artists generated textures for ~oth Eoters c"",mir
eFfects duties, allowing Tim Burke to maintain an over· the River Thames In Double Negative's dnOcean reno a parting <ICI of Wlnd<lNsm,
view o f vendors in Lond o n, California and Au stralia. derer, and populated the city with trees generated in lipping opart the MiII~nnil1m
Returning vendors inCluded Double Negative, The a procedural modeling system developed in Ho udini. Footbridge The produc6an sIIOI
Moving Picture Company, Industrial Light & Magic f or lower·leve l views, seq uence lead Phil Johnso n plot~. oflM .effl and cancrete
and Ri s ing Sun Pictures, joined by Cinesite, Frame- gathered textures u si ng a Canon I DS digital single .usp"nsion bridge fi"om a crone
store and, new to the franChise , Luma Pic tures. le ns renex ca mera mounted to a he licopter flyi ng at on th~ south bank of the Thom~',
approximately BOO feet over Central London, Double ond ~lmed dru~up, ofl~rri(red
he film opens with vaporous Death Eaterappa· Negative shot street·level photographic textures on fl"deSl,;ons on 0 f'~enscr~~n sel

T ritions emanating fro m a supernatural c loud

formation above the Ri ver Tham es and wreak·
ing havoc around Lo ndon. Yates s hot interlors for
foot , while walking from Trafalgar Square through
Charing Cross Road. - The stills served as a highly
detaile d s urvey, " noted franklin. ' We used them to
ar Leollum.n Srudi(l •. Doubl~
Negar;.., photogrophed "'ference
imagery afthe Londan locorion,
tile Tham eside scene at Leavesden in a greenscreen· reconstru c t arc hitecture, and created levels of detail digita/~painted oul the ..m
backed se t repre senting an office in Lon don's City d epending on proximity to ca m era. Lighting condi· brid~, ond re<..m~d 1M .pan
Hall, Double Negative used its volumetric render tool , tions were pretty close to the conditions David wanted and su rroondi ng M..-"""""n! in
dnSquirt, to generate window views of clouds form · in the shot, overcast and moody, so the stills were fan· CG. Animators k~,,,,,,,"d bridge
ing Voldemort's si nister skull·and·serpent Dark Mark tastic reference for compositors and 3D artists to get defOnnorion .. and effects artise,
Insignia and Death Eater e missions. "Squirt reall y the lighting right. " appli~d dynamO: .imulmiom af
came into its own on thi s show/ sai d Double Nega· Double Negative added pedestrians and automo- plank< and cables snopping,
ive visual effects s upervisor Paul franklin , who shared biles using 3D-animated crowd technology deve loped and d~bm .ploshing in!o
c redit with v i s ual efFects supervisor Mattias Lindahl for Th e Dark tlnighl , combined with key frame anima· th~ w(J(~r_

and 2D s upervisor Paul Riddl e. " It gave us precise tion o f ve hicJes. The Death Eater night culminates at
control over nuids, allowing us to Fill 3D s hapes, with Th e Leaky Cauldron pub, e ntry to a hidde n wizard
vapor dissolvi ng at the edges, Th e Dark Mark looked realm. "We wanted to link our 'muggle' world with t he
like a natural skull·like c loud in constant motion , wizard world, " noted Tim Burke. "Th e idea was that
never completely resolved. " the entrance to The Leaky Cauldron was right on our
66 0 CINE fEX 1 19
C INEFEX 1 19 0 67
 AIbu. Dumbhodo'e /MidI<1<!'1
Gambon). ""'adm/lf(e, af
Hogworu 5d!oaI ofW;(dtaaf!
and Wizardry. pays a vi,i(!O an
old colleague. Profe"", HOl"«e
Slug/larn (j;m &<><rdb!'nIJ. wIlo
h/lf ruriOl1<1y difguj,ed hlm"'if
/If an atmehai,. For Slurharn',

lran'formaIiM from <II"I1"Kha;, (0

man. a, Dum~ wield< an
unmasking spd. &~( $(J(
on a (~(erl>oa,d wi!h hi' limb,
alig<led (0 !hose of !he armcha;,.
!hen 'pranr (0 hi< feet ,hakinr
and blithering. Ri,;nr Sun f'lctUI"M
blel>ded mgi(al (,an<formlllg chai,
e>(en,ion, (0 !he acro,·,I><>dy.
and covered cha;, ~euy wilh
dam ,imuia!iQn' "''''mbling
5111g/lom ', 'ilk p~ama,.

doorstep, down a litlle a lley ofTCharing Cross Road.- quenced that to our pyrotechn ics,-
Double Negat ive b u ill a hig hly de tai led model of following the rai d on Diagon Alley, Death Eaters
Cha ring Cross and adjoi n ing Great Newport Street, take night back toward th e Tham es and, in an act of
and swapped out a storeFron t with The Leaky Caul- g leeFul vandalism, rip apart t he London Millennium
dron fa.;ade_ Modelers bui lt the pub interior from Footbridge. The produc tion s h ot establishing views
photo s u rveys of a Leavesden set used in previou s from a c rane mounted on t he south ba nk of the river,
fi lms, which the camera traverses in 20 frames. The and the n reconstnlCted a portion of the bridge backed
camera then exi ts to a courtyard, and blasts th rough by greenscreen at Leavesden. John Richardson's crew
a brick wa ll into Diagon Alley, the wizard wo rld's main built closeup insert pieces for s h ots of cab les snap-
street. Double Negative s ho tl idar and photo s urveys ping an d bolts explodi ng, wh ic h served as th e basi s
of the Leavesden Diagon Alley set, modeled the loca- for fully digital versions that Double Negative created
tion digitally, added w i zard pedestrian s and dove- in May(l (l nd the studio's dynamics tool. dnDynamite.
tailed the compute r generated camera move into a Double Negative rebuilt the environment for t he co l-
practica l wire-nown camera that accelerated toward lapSing bridge. · We adde d stormy Clo uds from s till s
Ollivander's wand shop. s hot off t he roof of Double Nega tive,- r eca lled Pa ul
The Death Eaters cause the shop front w indows to Franklin, -Closcups ofthe undu lating bridge featured
explode, staged as a practical effect. "The camera was the Leavesden se t wit h a background created from
nying down th e road a t about six meters per second,- th e 10C(ltion sti lls . for wide s hots of t h e bridge pitch -
said J o hn Richardson. - We had to time multiple deto- ing arou nd, we digit(lily re moved t he real bridge (lnd
nations as the came r a trave led by th e s h op i n about river, and added a CG bridge and river with CG people
24 frames, so we were dealing with fractions ofa sec- running back and forth. · Double Negative key frame-
ond fo r th e w indows blowing out and fire balls trav- anim(lted t he bridge for twisting and w(lrping motions
eling t h rough t h e shop. We rigged everythin g u s ing (lnd applied second(l ry animation in dnDynam ite to
a signal from th e wire-now n ca mera, Whic h tripped create planks springing ofT (lnd cab les sn(lppi ng. The
a multi-way firing box. We worked o ut timings us ing fina l collapse fe(ltured (I fully synthetic e nvironment
flashb ulbs , then h ooked up o u r flri ng box and se- with dnSquirt s pla sh simu lations.
68 0 CINEfEX I 19
 Harry (Da.wl R~)
and (dow Hogwan< <t!!den!
W"" IDvegood (E""n"" lyndl/
appraad! th~ ,chaoI', main gll!~,
...mere Pm(e"or F~iu, Flilwid<
(Wa"";c/< Dam) in,pKtS arri.mg
' Wlknlll'luaage. Davi<I Yar~,
filmed th~ see"" on location in
Wirulsar Grear Pari<, Surrey, with
Dam wearing pm,th.ric makeup
supplied by Nid< Dudm<lll', r..",.,
Onesite mad~ unit ,u~rvi1Dr)o"
Grandi wpplied fWn elen>l'nlll
o(the eve,~voMng HofW<'rts
minialUre, ..nidi were merged
into the en.;"",trn'nl by 0""""
compo'illll'S. O""site also <:rea red
an a""""red bird zapped by a
magical (oree (odd pmrec~ng
the cmlle perimerer.

ea th Eater a llacks prompt Dumbledore to wit h a visce ral and disorienting transition. · Wh e n

D seek out Harry Potter in a s uburba n Lo ndo n

train s tation , w he r e Harry g limpses Dumble-
dore's wit he r ed right h a nd - evide nce o f a recent
Dumbledore takes Harry t o the v illage / noted Tim
Burke, " it is t he first time Harry apparates, and Da vid
wa n ted audiences to feel w hat Harry was exper ienc-
wa nd duel, for s h ols featuring t he inju ry , Michael ing, Going from descriptio ns in the book , I t ri ed to
Gambon wor e a g love m ade of green screen m a teri a l m ake th e e ffect feel solid and not too ethe real."
affixed wit h tracking m a rk ers. Ri s ing Sun Pictures Burke discove red intriguing refe r ence imagery i n
then produced a series of digital degeneration effects slilsca n photography, a pre-digital tec hn ique of mov-
tracked to th e glove based o n cyberscan geo m e try ing m attes, lo ng exposures a nd incrementa l camera
a nd textures derived from photographic s tudi es of m o ti o n that produced bizarre photorealistic distor-
the ac tor's skin, · We created three stages o f decay/ ti ons. " ' thoug ht it wo uld be interesti ng if we could
said RSP visual e ffec ls s upervisor Gregory Yepes. - Il m ake a t hree·d im e nsiona l object appear to unwind
started w ith a lillie d ecay around Dumbledore's rin g as the came r a f lew around it'- observed Burke, - I
ringer, as i f t he n esh was dying around th e ring and c h alled wit h Nicolas Aithadi at MPC abou t how we
adjacen t ri ngers, By the end of th e m ovie, the decay co uld apply that to human fo rms to not o nly unwrap
progr essed to cove r his ha nd. Il h e lped that Michae l th e m , but a lso combi ne them, so bils of Dumbledore
Gambon down played t he inj u ry , so m ost of the tim e and Ha r ry wo uld mix together, We applied tha t idea
when he held a wand, he held it in his other ha nd. But to the e nvironment; so, for a spli t second , a ll th eir
it was still a c ha lle ng ing match move to re-create the body parts combined, like He n ry Moore sculpt ures,
CG ri ngers a nd make s ure th ey didn ' t s lide about and then un wrapped e lsewh ere. ·
re lative to the rest o f th e hand." MPC illustrated the effec t in abstract co nceptu a l
Dumbledore w h isks Harry from the tr ain station art. · One of o u r a rti sls, Paul Catlin , produced som e
to the distant vi ll age of Budle ig h Babber ton usi ng amazin g artwork ," re lated M PC v is u a l effecls s u per-
an 'appa ra tin g ' spell - a powerful m agica l m eth od visor Nico las Aithadi. · Th ey we re stunning images of
of instantaneous transportation wie lded by sen ior m el ted faces and bodies, an eye h e re, an ear there,
wizards, David Ya tes so ug ht to represen t th e effect fused toge th er and set in jelly. Tim l iked t h em and
C I NEFEX 1 19 D 69
 In a memo')' sequence
in wIUd> ~ lirn meelll m.
yaung Ootl< LnrrJ Voidemaot
Tom Riddk (~'" t.en,,",Tiffin).
Dumble~ demonstrate'! hi.
ability 10 m ag;caRy manipulale
~re. causing" wardrobe to burst
into /lame,_ The produrnon filmed
rhe "ene on a set at u<l'I'e,den
SIUda, repre.. nring an in1erior af
m. Dick e",;.,n otp"'mage ""'ere
the boy reside'!. John Ridlardson',
leam supplied flame bars to can
~relight on the performers and the
.e~ and then bui~ ond rigged"
I:tIad< meui replica afm. "",rd",,,.
for a pyrolechnic ekmenl .hOOl
Gnesi1e compo.~ed the /ire
into productjon plale •.

David liked th em; but I thought t o myself: 'Damnl from one to the other, and added light effects to
How do we do that? '· make it look like they were traveling."
Aithadi's team dove into s hot production in Pixo-
logic ZBrush and created a series of 3D models based umbledore and Harry rind Horace Slughorn
on six pieces o f conceptual art. Modelers developed
blend s hapes to bridge transitions between models
in Autodesk Maya and worked w ith animators to estab.-
D (Jim Broadbent), a retired Hogwa r ts potions
master, hiding inside his apparently wrecked
home by impersonating an armchair, from wh ich he
lish t imin gs. " We started w ith models of Harry and transfonns back to human fo rm . To set the scene, the
Dumbledore: noted Aithadi. "Our lead ri gger, Dan production rilmed a practical armchair wit h striped
Zelcs, c rea ted a special rig that cou ld deform the faces fabric simi lar to Slughorn's pajamas. Yates then s hot
and bodies wh ile keeping th em 'a nimatable: Our ani- the transformation by seali ng Broadbent o n a teeter-
mators did preliminary animation to establish timings. board , with h is limbs spaced to c orrespond with t he
The modelers worked on top of that, extracted geom- geometry o f th e armchair. · We u sed the teeterboa rd
etry every rive frames, reworking the model in ZBrush, to nick Jim up in t he ai r: explained Tim Burke. " He
a nd building high·resolution blend-shapes to create then stood up, s haking. in an 'I'm·turning·from-an -
smooth transitions. It was a long process.· armchair-into-a·hu man' performan c e."
To integrate t wisting bodies into e nvironmenls. Tim Burke' s team provided color c ha rt photo ref-
MPC c r ea ted 3D models of production plates, pro· e rence, high dynamic range imagery, lidar scans and
jected textu res from the plate onto the geometry, and blueprints to Rising Sun Pictures, whic h generated a
th en created blend s hapes between corresponding duplicate chair that vocal ized as Dumbledore prodded
portions of the two loca les. ·We added deformations it with his wand. "TIl e second he got poked: recalled
to make the platrorm twist as it r e-created ilselfinto Gregory Yepes, "Jim Broadbent open ed his eyes and
the vi llage," said Aithadi. · We then re nde r ed a still said, ' Merlin's beard I' from that point o n, we used the
texture of the t rain station deforming, and did t he actor's head. The rest of the armchair consti tu ting his
same thing with a slilltexture of the v illage. We com· body ceased to be a practical element and became a
posited those t wo elements, c hose w here to blend CG exten sion of Slughorn. As his body transform ed
70 0 CINEfEX I 19
FILM EFFECTS TV EFFECTS SCANN ING & RECORDING MODELS SFX TRANSATLANTIC PORTAL
.....
Telephone +44 20 7973 4000 W\VW.cinesite.com
CINE SITE
• KO DA K COMPANY
 Ron W~o"ey (R.up~tt
Grint) ,u~rs a cmk of
confid~M~ ... k~~per ofrM
GtyffindOl' Qujddi!ch ~am_ Th~
""'1:",111 ,parting ~n! fK~~d
on ~ffeCU mak~r !a ~nhOM~
!he udt~m~n! or!h~ game. John
Rkilcmkon', reom revamped
uiuing mmaniclll firing rig< !o
c,.. a t~ mo,.. d)inomic bhif:<c,..~n

~..",..nrs of pl~" on broQm,1ic.\:

mounts, and MPC p"''Iiwo~zed
and anima!~d <C~"'" !o .,.,ulm~
,ports plKltography. willl
' ''''''' fling cam~r" m<>Ve1 and
dur. rou, hand.<!ff< to digi!<Il
<hameter animation.

fro m chair to pajamas, we blended each secti o n of th e at Shepperton Studios unde r the s upervis io n o f J ose
c hair to a part of Slughorn's body, w h ile matching his Granell a nd d i rector of miniat ure photography Nigel
performance. We built bl end s hapes fo r different parts Stone. The production fi lmed scenes approaching the
of t he body, and th en did cloth simulatio ns on top to school in Wind sor Great Park, Surrey, a nd Ci nesite 2 D
M
resemble th e motion of Slug horn 's pajamas. s upervisor Andy Robinson ove rsaw composi tin g of
Dumbledore and Slughorn use a spell t hat repairs the Hogwarts m iniature into the t r ee·lined wa lk.
wreckage around the room , ca us ing scattered furni-
ture to hop bac k into place. - Tim asked us to animate a rry Po tter's yea r at Hogwarts is plagued by
the effects to music, stated Yepes. MHe wanted the
M

reverse destruction to have a c horeograph ed rhythm ,

as opposed to s imply running sim ulations in reve rse.
H romantic complica ti ons, some caused by an
infatuating love polion, w hic h Luma Pictures
created as particle animated heart-s ha ped bubbles. In
Timings were very Clea r for bi g props like t he piano other scenes, a m agical flock of lovebird s, animated
a nd c ha i rs. We created CG i n ser ts o f other pieces, at Cinesite. twitter around Herm ione Granger (Em m a
grouping items. The ca m era was traveling around the Watson) and th en dive-bomb Ron \Veasley (R upert
room . focus ing o n We cha racters , so some pieces fl ew Grint), th e object o f h er frustration,
M
around Harry, trying to get back where th ey belo nged. Hermione scolds Ha rry for flaunting his populari ty
Animators brought to life m ore than 200 CG props in in a libra ry sc e ne , w he r e floating books g lide back
the scene, inCluding a large crysta l chandelier, which and forth between s he lves. Th e production film ed th e
required keyframe a nd proce dural dynamics to chor- scene us in g J o hn Richardson's practical w ire· fl own
eogra ph t he obj ect's m yria d parts. levi ta ti o n effects and g r een-gloved performers who
Both Harry and Slughorn ret urn to Hogwarts, the reached through bookshelves to pass books back and
former aboard the Hogwarts Express, a CG loco m o- forth to stude nt performers. Luma re moved rigs and
tive ge nera te d at MPC, seen trave rs ing t he Scottish greenscreen arms, a nd added 3D animated books.
co untrysi d e. Esta bli s hing views o f Hogwarts incorpo- MWh e n a girl walked by i n the bac kground wi th a IlUge
rated loc atio n photography film e d in Scotland and stack of levitating books, expla ined Luma v is u a l
M

e le m e nts of the 1/ 24-scale Hogwarts m i niat ure, shot effects superviso r Vince Cire lli, Mthat was one of o u rs,
CINEFEX 11 9073
 The HOgw1rt.< hpre«
rransp.oru student> home
for Chrinm .... 1M producIk>n
returned 10 familiar .,.,atiom in
korJand 10 fJlm mo<l of the KMK
lexwre< used in generming rural
landKapes around Hot"""t', ond
u<ed ""rial plalM shol jn NorYmf
far ,now<o""",d ""ajn. MPC
genermed a dighal model afthe
""omori"" and rroded jl jnlD
plo", IOith digilDl milrood rrod<s
ond rk,. porDde <imulmions
of \lentjng neam, ond I~" of
almosphenc effe<:!S, induding
falling snow.

On a counuy road;
,Iuden( K~ 810. (Georgino
leonid"') ...... arM. po" .... ed,
ofier louching a ru .... d /lKkJoce.
)OOn Richardson', (eam wpplied
wi", rit', jnduding 0 four.winch
coble 'Y'leln wirh a rigid body
fonn 1l!Olded ID J.eontidos ' bodf, ID
{1M! ~ actress on .. ~ For ""rial
shot!, J.eondo, ~ormed ag"'-n,.
blues""",n jn a wa(.nook, ,,*,ich
<reOled ~rie {looring motiom in
I!.r h"'-r and dmhing. DOIJb.I.
NegotNe ",ma ... d the bubblM,
rompo,j"d the girl with digjlDl
..IextemiOll$ and falling $!lOW,
and u$ed hond-poinfed I>o/dou(
mones 10 grade the sIIoI and
<reOle o!mO<phenc depth
andfauing.

74 DC INEFEX 11 9
Also in that seque nce, oneof the boys has a big book to give quite an interesti ng looking flame.' Cinesite
open with a P/aywil c h magazine hidden i ns ide. The combined pyrotechnic c lements wi th interacti ve lig ht·
productio n provided us with footage o f a girl in a ing, and digitally re built portions of the plates.
witch 's hat, sca ntily clad. We compos ited h e r into A later pen s ieve v is ion revea ls Slughorn's e m o·
th e magazi ne, throwing ki sses.· tional o u tburst at an adolescent Tom Riddl e (Frank
Dillane), tearing apart th e liqu id fabric o f the scen e.
any faces m o re pressing issues when Dumble· " It was g r ea t to have s uc h strong m o ti va tion in t h e

H dore instru cts him in private pen sieve lessons

tha t d el ve into the Dark Lord VOldemort's pasL
Th e pe nsieve - introduced in earlier films as a stone
plate t o activa t e th e d ynamics of th e e ffect : Paul
f rank li n commented. "As Slugho rn yelled a t Ridd le,
it c reated a vio lent break -up of the image. We had
font into w hich m emories ca n be po ured - was rede· smoky mate ri a l swi rl up around Slughorn and warp
s igned as a floating si lver dish containing liquid t hat th e background. It was an id ea we brought to pe n -
revea led inky flu id v is io ns. · Th e pensieve liquid acted s ieve scenes quite la te i n th e d esign process, and
like a cata lyst: sai d Tim Burke. · It ca used images to we didn' t have any textures fo r o u tside t he borders
form , like ink poured into wate r, which t hen beca me of th e frame , so we broug ht in m ore layers of fluid
a memory. We s ho t memory scen es wi th cllaracte rs on effects t o fi ll t hose areas."
greensc reen , the n built up backgrounds us ing layers
of e le ments and fluid s imulatio ns. Do uble Negative ess disturbing activi t ies at Hogwarts in cl ude
did a 101 o f wo rk cr ea t ing th e look.·
The fi rst memory scene follows a younger Dumble·
d o re th ro ug h a London street to an o rphanage where
L a return to the flying broomstick wizard tour-
nament of Quid ditc h. " It is the last tim e we wi ll
see Quidditc h in a Ha r ry Po tter film : re marked Tim
he m eets Vo lde mort as a c hild name d Tom Riddle Burke, "so Da vid wa nted to send itoff with a bang. We
(Hero fi ennes-Timn). Stuart Cra ig adapted an existing had Quidditch tria ls, and a Quidditc h match. The trials
set a t Leavesden to re presentlile orphanage fa~ade. were predominantly abou t Ro n, playi ng o n his inade-
Michae l Gamban perform ed the scene walking toward quacies in the keeper role. David wanted to int roduce
greenscree n. Do uble Negative keyed Gambon from humor into th at, a lot of whi c h we s h o t o n t he blue·
the plate a nd digita lly re placed th e street with three· screen stage, re lyi ng o n Rupert Grint's performance.
dime n s ional volumes. "We made conta in ers o u t of Da vi d a lso liken ed t he tria ls to Saturday morning
the buildings and filled th em with swirling in k e ffects rugby games in the middle of w inte r. We usedjust th e
in dnSquirV state d Paul Franklin. ' We made th e ink raw superstru c ture o f t he stadium, wi th no banners,
bleed outside objects by controlling fluids with force and everyth ing was very muddy, with kids fallin g off
l1elds. We a lso use d practical i nk e le ments tha t we th e ir broom s and s pla s hing into puddles."
s h o t as tes ts. We had a n ordina ry I1s h ta nk, abo ut To faci litate th e bluescree n r ide r sh oot, th e phys-
four feet across. We dropped black ink into t he water ical e ffects team gave mechanica l fly ing rigs an over-
aga ins t whi te, and s hot th at on low·defvi d eo. As we haul. ' We completely r ebuil t our broom sti c k motion
we r e putting s hots t ogeth e r, we rea lized t h ose e le· base: said John Ri chardson. ' We refilted everything
m e nts could be useful as background e ffec ts, so we wi llI e lec tro nic actuators, and no hy draulics. That
luma·keyed i nk swirls from the bac kground , whi c h made the rig m ore respons ive, and more compa tibl e
he lped estab lish timings for o ur si mulations. Th e w ith vis ual e ffects programming." Ri chardson worked
composiUng team did a tremendousjob pulling that with s tunt coordinator Greg Powell to rig mech a nica l
scene togethe r. Th ey had hundred s o f layers - a llthe m ea ns for s upportin g and unseati ng t h e Quidditc h
buildings resolving, Dumbledore resolving, the road, riders. "We had about eight different broo m s ti c k set-
the rai n a nd a comp lex came ra move.' ups. Some i nvo l ved traditi o nal rigs that Ron was ha r-
Stuart Craig built orphanage interiors at Leaves- nessed onto. On o thers, he wa s s itting on the rig, wired
d e n fo r a scen e in whic h Dumbied ore d e m o n stra tes from above, so lie could litera lly stan d o n t he broom.
s upe rnatural p owers fo r Riddle, ca u si ng a wa rd robe We got more physical inte rac tion o n th e c ras hes an d
to s pontaneo us ly combu st. John Richardson s upplied la nd i ngs us ing a Rus sia n swi ng to throw s tuntmen
flame bars to c r eate interactive lig h ting o n set. Th e through the a ir Into rubbe r padded floors. Th at was a
effects team later provide d a se parate py ro techni c double-ended swing, like acrobats use in the c irc us: a
e le m e n t to si mula te t he wardrobe burn. ' We built a pair of stunt m e n s tood on o ne e nd of t h e swing, and
re plica of th e wood en ward robe i n blac k m eta l,' said got i t swinging fa st. a nd t hen another stunt performer
J o hn Richardson. 'We ran flammabl e l iquid down i t. used the ve loci ty of t h e swing to throw himself 40
and burned propane up it, mingling t he two together feet throu g h th e air."
CINE·fEX 11 9075
 Ha,t)' and Giliii)' W,mJIoy
(&nnifo Wligllt) ,nle, !he Room
ofR."uill'm.n~ a cavUlKlus
Slo,ag' room o<ceu.d th,ough
a magically cOlICeoled door. The
mom. pte"-ous/y s..,n .mpty in
H>rry PotIer >nd Ihe Order
of the Phoeni X, ,.(,,, /k<igned
10 be a menacing .n ';ronmenl
cOll1aining an appoll'ndy infinite
army of wizord parapmma/io.
The producrk>n buill !he room as
a partial ..1 <Iad<ed with props,
including a <ini:l1er blad< obeNsk
- a "",,;,hing cabinet Doubl.
Nega~ dlgilally ~Iended !he
an;hite(1UIl', adding arcms in !he
background, ond buill a ~brot)'
of pllmog,aphi< a$$el$ 10 dll'so
~ ..I ..nth arTi(acts_

S in pri o r fi lms, the Qu idd itc h a re na of woode n a nd sti tch ed scenic textures into a pa noram a wit h 3 D

'A bl eachers a nd ta ll goal hoops a round a g rassy

fi e ld was a vi r t ua l e nviro nme nllha l inco r po-
rated scen ic tex tures s hot in Glen coe a nd Glen Nevis,
e nha n ce m e n ts. - We d evel oped he i g ht c urves fro m
to pogra phy : ex pl a ined Nic o las A ithadi . "We c r ea ted
a sph e r e, m atche d th e s ph e re to a tree in th e fo re·
Scolla nd. Th e produc ti o n u se d a se t at Leavesd e n to ground , a nd th e n m oved t h a t sph e r e b ac k i nto t h e
rep resen t a porti o n of t he s ta nds for a ud i e nce close- dista nce until i t m atched an other tree. Fro m thal, we
ups, a nd p rovi d ed blu e prin ts o f th e sta dium to MPC, ca lc ulated t h e d is ta nce b etwee n trees, and we k e pt
whic h rc buill lhe envi ro nmen t from scratch wilh m od· re peati ng th e p rocess until we had a 3 D layo ut of th e
i flcati on s to enha nce ga m e p lay. " In previo us film s,· s u rro und in g hills . We b uilt geom etry f ro m t ha t a nd
o bserved Tim Burk.e, · we fe ll lhal lhe Qu idditc h e n · p rojected textures from th e pl ate o nto t he m odel. We
vironme nt had been too sp rea d o ul. We freq ue nlly had th en use d m a tte p aintin g to n il i n a bo u t te n m il es o f
s h ots o f p layers nyi n g against s k y w i t ho u t a ny o th e r terrai n fr o m t he b ottom o f th e h i ll to th e s tadium _"
back ground to crea te a se nse of speed . Work ing w illl To c rea te a tmosph eric d etail s, 2 D s upervisor Mar ia n
St ua rt Cra ig. we decided l o c enle r the sta d i um i n th e Mavrovic and hi s team i ntroduced co mplex layeri ng
middle o f a s l ee p bowl. At o ne end, we had Ule school. o f mist t hro u g h t he sce ne.
Atth e o th e r , w he r e th e re u sed to be a l ow va lley, we For th e s ubsequent Quid ditch m atch , MI'C draped
chose a n a rea o f Gle n Nevi s, ca lled Steal I f alls, w hic h stadi um geom e t ry wi th h igh-reso luti o n cl oth s i mu-
h ad a huge 150·foot waterfa ll . We s hot roc k a nd run · la tio n s, dis pl ayi ng live ri es o fth e te a m s , and t r a ns-
ning water textures in Scolia nd , a nd placed th ose be· form ed th e envi ronme nt i nto a s now-covered te rrain.
h ind the stadium. By brin g ing the envi ronm ent closer, "We had t h e g r ee n e nviro nme nt fo r th e t ri a l s, " sai d
ch a rac te rs we re a l ways nyi ng agai nst th e m o unta in- A i thad i, - a nd a s nowy o ne for th e m a tc h. Th ere was
s ide or t he stadium, whic h c reated parall ax a nd a n no way to a ppl y th e s n o w p roced urally, so w e took
exciting sen se o f spee d .- o ur m atte pai nti ngs fro m the tri a ls and hand-pain ted
MI'C create d th e stadium s upe rs tru ct ure as a 3 D s no w over every t h i ng _"
m odel of 3 5,000 o bjects textured w i th bare wood s ur- MPC a n i ma tio n s upervi sor Ferran D o m e ne c h
faces referenced fro m th e full-scal e portio n o flh e set, d o ubled as the p reviz s upe rv isor at Lea vesd e n, and
76 0 CI NE fEX I 19
 get very closeup s h ots o n o ur digital doubles.·
To assist keyframe animation, MPC shot reference
of stuntme n catching balls and laking fa lls onto crash
pads, Animators also rigged a makeShift prop at MPC
- a broom with coat hanger attachments - to study
bala ncing on the prec ariou s flying vehicle, " It wa s
important to understa nd the way it felt t o be o n the
broom / sai d Aithadi. "Our keyword was 'sharp' ani·
mation, with twitc h es, grittiness, and a lot of s ubtle
movemenL·
Th e animation, combined with videogrammetry
realis m of digital doubles, allowed MPC to minimize
hand-ofTs between live and CG c haracters, "They s hot
pretty muc h th e whole game prac tically / observed
Aithadi. · Once we had the real footage, we planned
where s hots would be CG and real, with takeovers in
between, \Vhil e we were reviewing scenes where dig·
ital doubles took over from live elements, I sta rted
having tro uble telling what wa s CG. So we rea so ned,
' Wh y spend lime doing complex tran s itions, match·
ing live·action to the pixel?' We talked with Tim, and
dec ided that a lot of s hots we'd planned as takeovers
would become full CG s h o ts." Hand·o ffs , when reo
quired, were strea mlined in the bluescreen shoot by
tucking in actors' capes, "It wa s diffic ult to control a
real cape on set with a wind machine, and very dim·
c ult to hand· tweak a digital cloth s imulatio n , so we
During Chnnm". br~ol<. helped plot broomstic k action, referencing footage o f agreed that on some shots we would add capes as
1M W~o.I'"Y home <~, m o torbike rac es and f ormula One. To c horeograph CG. We sometimes 'cheated ' elements. In one s ho t ,
w><1., onod by D..mh fa",, _ Quidditch gameplay, Domen ech 's animation team we had Ron full ·frame: his head and right arm were
The prodll<rion built a />IIrtian spent approximately six months refining animatics real; his left arm, cape, leg and broom were CG -
,,(1M W~o'I'"Y Su"owQn 1M and determining distribution between live and ani· but it workedl"
Leove,~n badlal II< a (iJ/I.,ellle mated e lements. MWe made it very physical, said Tim
M

Burke. "We had lots of close·proximity c harges and uring winter break, Harry Po tter visits the

D
<e~ which john Rkhardson', leam
rigged (or a pmpa"" pyrnlwlnjc barging between players, with con tinuously moving ru stic \Veasley ho useho ld fo r Christmas. Cele-
bum_The Cillfiile model leom cameras that flowed with th e game, We wanted to brations are inlerrupted by th e arrival of f e nrir
!hen budl !he & .mw 01 IIJ--«:,* create a dy namic fluid feel to the action, so we relied Greyback (David Legen o), a malicious we rewolf in
fo. 0 (iJfl.bui/djng burn effect An on our digital d o ubles a great d ea l." league with the Death Eaters, who attacks the home.
~d;lorial "'''-'''n, calh-ng fo. 1M MPC generated digital Quiddi tch players using a Nick Dudman's team provided prosthetic makeup for
Burrow I<> "" <eM jnlOCl ""fore it v ideogrammetry technique. Performers sat in a c hair Legeno in Greyback's partially lupine state. Til e Cine·
;. , el Gblou, ",quj.~d Doobi!' with 60 tracking markers on their faces, and four video site model team built a 1/3-scale version o f the Weas-
Neg<1live 10 rebuild!h~ nru<Wre cameras aimed at them - one on each s ide; and two ley Burrow, and collaborated with John Ri chardson's
digrtoilt u,;ng leJCWr~ fi'om !he in front, o ne aimed low, one aimed high. Players en· effects team to stage a propane-fu e led pyrotechni c
minimure_Attim genel'llted acted th e game, emoting as dictated by th e screen· effect that burned the miniature to the ground, Edi-
flome effern u,jng d)lnom;,;: play. MPC then extracted animated texture maps of torial revisions caused a rethinking of th e scene, "The
fire ';muJarion.. the perfo rmer' s faces, painted o ut tra c king markers, original idea wa s for Harry and the others t o find th e
and digitally projec ted faces onto 3D mod e ls of th e house on Fire at th e end o f the sequence," sa id Tim
actors d erived from cybcrsca ns, "This gave us m ovi ng Burke, MThe revised story line had Be llatrix Lestrange
geometries based on th e markers,· Nicolas Aithadi (He lena Bonham Carter) fly past in he r Death Eater
noted. "The textures moved exactly to th e m ovem e nt fonn and blow up tile house. So we had to c raft a new
of t he face, with all th e d etai l of blood fl owing in their shot to sho w the ho u se exploding,"
cheeks, and then we used a Skin s hader to light char· Double Negative re built the \Veasley home as a 3D
acters as t hey m oved through fram e. It allowed us to digital model us ing textures from tile practical mini·
CINEFEX 1 19 0 79
 Harry and Slugflom
mil Hogwatts' h<1'f-gkmr
gomu~ep." Ru/>eu, Hagrid
(Robbie Cckron<!'/, who is ,Uiden
with glief <11 !he gm""'iok ofM
belo...d Aaomonwl", Amgog. I
Nrl DlJdman', I~om provi<kd"
rj(ad """,ion o(!he llllimmtoni<
giIInl ,pj(ju!hey hod fo, hion<!'<i
for !he 'e<'ond 1'0«., film. TM
prodlKlkm shOI the scene on !he
bad</al 01 leovesden, agoinS!"
bJmo"ll'~n, ond pooragraphed
"'p"mle P"'"'' for R<Jddjffe ond
8roadben~ ond for CMmne and a
Nellpolit"n mmliff repr~ ..nting
Hagrid', bIoodhoond, Fang. R<"<inf
Sun I'1cruIl'I ,ompo'tted H"frid
and Fang <11 a large' ",ale, and
extended the environmenl
u'ing ",enic texroll'l "nd
almO'lpheric elements.

ature that Tim Burke's team had shot as sa fety clean "ab o ut 700 feet tall. Th e seas were too big to g oout Harry', pkm 10 ingmriare
pla tes befo re th e py ro technic burn, Co m positors th en on in a b oat, but t hey we re n o t b ig e no u g h fo r ou r him'eIf with Slughorn by
used e le m e n ts o f th e b urning m in iature a t the climax purp oses. So we s ho t stills a nd m o ti o n p ic ture tex- inllOdudng the pmf~"or to
o f a dig ita lly gene ra ted supern atura l b urn. - We use d tures o n location , s ho t b luescreen ele m e nts o f Harry H"frid bea", froil II< Slufllorn
dnSqui rt to cons truc t a wa ll of e nc ha nted fi re th at th e a nd Dumbledore at Leavesden , a nd rebuilt the scene unbu,~", himselflo the gende
Death Eaters cr eated around the Bur row, _ Paul Fra nk· as a dig i ta l e nvironme nt a t ILM.- £ian! 0'-" dlinks in'ide Hagrid',
li n elaborated , - As Ha r ry a nd th e o thers br eached th e Th e h e l icopte r p la te, ei r c u mn av igati n g a la r ge ~ul To Cll'<1Ie the fflusion of
f irewall, we gene ra ted g ia nt se r pe n ts o f n a m e that roc k j u lting fro m th e storm y sea, served as a g u id e Hagrid', ",a/~, th~ production
rose o u t of th e fire, k eeping th em a t bay, Th e s na kes for came ra motion a nd textu re p rojections, "Tt wa s a filmed each tKto, in a .. po,a!e
we r e quite a bs tra c t , b ut t h eir m ove m e nt sold t h e ir bea utiful pla te," r e m a r k ed ILM v is ual effects s uper- p"", a<!iu,ting the ~amem',
serpe ntine n ature. _ Cha racte r an im ato rs establis hed v isor Ti m Al exa nder. "Origina lly, a ll we wer e going to proximity 10 the perf"""".
th e underlyi ng m o ti o n o f th e serpe n ts; visu a l e ffects d o wa s in tro duc e th e cli ff i nto th e p la t e fro m a sep - IIrooel"/>enr and Co/1m"" u",d
th en appli ed secondary dyna mics in dnSqu irt. "As th e a rate e le m e nt shot by Tim Bu rk e, Bu t th e ocean plate guide' for their ~~-li"" .. wfli'"
s na kes reared about, the names swi rl ed around th e m, was n ·t storm y e no ugh a nd th e wate r s imula ti o n was the ,a",.m """mtor performed
revea ling nashes o f s na k es' hea ds, Th e n , as th e fi re- so complex it was easier to crea te a CG m o d e l o f th e "/><,n "nd ti/r,Il'pe"ting the
wall buil t up, Bellatrix fire-bo m bed the ho use a nd le ll roc k , w ith a n c lem e n t o f Dum b led o r e a nd Harry, ele- m"", withOU! />e""fil ofm<>Iion
it to burn, w hic h is w he re we used t he miniature," m e nts o f th e cl i ff, a m a tte-pa inte d sk y a nd a full CG ~onrrol. Double Negod"" camped
o cea n ," ILM fl uid d y na mics ve te ra ns Frank Los asso the ~I..",.nt$, paying d""e
s th e Death Ea ter presen ce e n c r oaches o n Petter son a nd J o hn Ha nse n lever age d techn o lo g y

'A
att~ntion 10 shadows and
Hogwarts, Dumbled ore a nd Ila r ry e mba rk o n d eveloped for the Pir a tes of t he Caribbean films. "We eyHn<!'1 to ,r-em~ ~"",bIe

a miss io n to d estroy Vo lde m o rt by see k i n g a used a h igh-resolutio n simula ti o n around til e rock to ch<1rocrer inreroction.
piece o f th e Da rk Lo rd 's soul hidde n insid e a ta lis m a n c r ea te t he m o tion of th e b iggest wave break i ng a nd
kn own as a Ho rc rux, in a distant cave. Th e prod uction wa te r SUCk i ng bac k_ We had add i ti o na l simulatio n s
s hot es ta bl ishi ng scenes fo r th e Ho rc ru x quest from a fo r pa rti cles, sp ray a nd splash, The n we had o u r d eep-
he licopte r around t he cliffs o f Mo her, in County Clare , wa ter ocean s im, a nd th e h igh-resolutio n s im pa tched
Tre la nd , "Th e cliffs were huge: re m a rked Tim Burke, into th a 1."
80 0 CI NEfEX 1 19
 for scenes at the cave mouth, Yates shot Radcliffe
and Gambon on a set represenlinga narrow a lcove in
the cliff face, where Dumbledore opens a co ncea led
door. ILM creatu r e s upervisor Michael Balog employed
the studio's rigid dynamics tool, Fraclure, to crumb le
away the rock face. Dumbledore the n leads Harry
into a vast crysta llin e cave, filmed as a partial set at
Leavesden. MStuart Craig wanted to c reate a salt·like
crysta l cave ,~ commented Tim Burke. "Th e crys tal s
had a little bit of spa rkle and s light translucency, but
they we r e not s hiny, polished surfaces. We wanted
itto feel like Ha rry and Dumbledore were en tering
a h orrible place, so we kept it very dark, lit on ly by
their wa nds. ~
Th e production built crysta l sln.clures using fiber·
glass wilh a resin·based skin, with s ubtle internal
illumination , backed by illuminated greenscreens.
To simu late a magical nare that Dumbledore emits
from his wand, the grip and electric team employed a
SuperTechno 50articulaled camera cra ne to puppe·
teer a China ball lamp high above th e set. MThe flare
new around causing refractions through th e cave /
said Tim Alexander. · We built t he cave in 3D because
the moving light source didn't lend itself to a painting.
We used a crowd tool to populate crysta ls around the
cave and wrote s haders to sculpt hard-edged ·dough·
nut' s hapes around th e columns, and th en broke up
the shapes to make t hem refract like crysta ls . ~

umbledore and Ilarry boat across a lake sur·

D rounding a small island where the Horcrux is

en sconced in a crysta l basin. The production
filmed th e sce ne dry fo r we t , with t h e ac tors riding
a mechanical rig thalJohn Richardson s upplied t o
gently rock th e boat as it moved on a rail toward the
island. ILM built a match move model of the boat to
s imulate interactions with a digital water plane. CG
s upervisor Willi Geiger generated the lake as a two-
dimensional fluid simu lation with depth refractions.
Stuart Craig's team designed the Horcrux basin as
an internally illuminated prop filled with milky fluid.
During postproduction , ILM digitally modified the
basin, red ucing th e g low, and replaced the practical
liquid with a more ominous, murkier fluid.
Dumbledore collapses after drinking th e liquid ,
leaving Harry to be menaced by a mass o f reanimated
co rpses - known as Inferi - that r ise o ut of the lake.
MThe Inferi were emaciated beyond anything we could
have done with a r ea l person," observed Tim Burke.
"Th ey were based on the look of dead bodies from
concentration camps - horrible, but very real. David
wanted us to feel empathy wi th th em as they dragged
Harry underwater, because they were all victims of
CINfffX 11 9081
 Dumbkdore lak"
Harry 01\ a ~1iI"'" QU"I
la la<:me a piece of Voideman',
JOOI hidden in a c"""_ Sttl<!rt
Craig cM'UlJCled 1M crynalli ....
C",," inleria, 01\ <I .oond.lage in
l...,,,,,.den, u.ing proctk<ll CIY'lals
made ofrt,errl"" with <I resin
s/tin. and ""ch d 1M ",I with
illumin<lled g'eellSCl"'em. ILM
compleled 1M e"";ranmenl with
3D digila! e..remions, wand and
Hg/Hing effws. <lnd " digit<lllake_
I A m"" of ~<lnimmed corps ..
- Infen - ns" oul of!he dan:
wale~ ILM gene'<IIed rile Infen

"" <ligna! ktyfmmNlnimmed

<:harnete", with em«imed laob
ba",d on phol<lgraph. of
death camp i""""!e~

For ",en.. of!he Infen

dragging Harry u/lderwaler,
me producrion used performel'f
.....<lnng green""een £10""', <lnd
sIlOI Daniel Rod<Jiffe in!eMCling
with a $CUba diYer in a 1<1'* <II
L.",,".den_ILM digilalty ,"nored
<lre<1I of Radcliffe', body hidden
by !he Infen ~rfo"""I'f, and
Qdded me <lnimmed <:haroctel'f_
I Pmfe.. o, $e""ru, Soope (AkIn
Rkkman) reka,e, <I ""nd blan
"" o..mIl fme" rorch H<lgrid',
hUl john Rkhardson', leam
<knroyed !he ""I u'ing a nap<ll......
Hke explo.ion <lnd " cMlroll.d
pymtfihflic burn_ IINng Sun
l'ic!ure< genemled dgillJl W<lnd
effects ond cre<lted em';mrvnent
exten';"n, using ",e";" !eXWre<
siIoI in 5cmklnd.

82 D CINEFEX 1 19
VoldemorL ~ The production used performers wearing
greenscrecn gloves to pull Radcliffe from the island,
and a scuba diver in the water tank at Lea ves den to
grapple RadclifFe underwate r. ILM then generated
Inferi digitally, with limited performer refere nce and
zero motio n capture. ~ We tried some early tests to
see wllat it would be like if we had people interact and
grab Daniel, But David didn 't feel the performance
ofa real person gave him the weirdness o fthe way
th ese creatures moved .~

LM 's creature team and animation supervisor

I Marc Chu worked from production artwork and a

full ·size maquette oFthe c reature sculpted by Nick
Dudman's tea m to develop several hundred Inferi.
~The art directio n is always great o n Potte r films, ~
noted ILM associate visual effects supervisor Robert
Weaver. ~They generally provide us with everything
and we build what tlley provide. This time around, they
hadn't gotten as far with the Inferi, so they asked us to
produce versions from llieir designs. Our art director,
Aaron McBride, d esigned all the textures, resembling
dead bodies soaked in water, and we made them as
humanoid as possible, avoiding zombie behavior.
They were very sa d and emotional c reatures.~
To generate masses of Inferi swarming the island,
Chu's team hand· animated 80 to 90 c haracte rs into
a nightmaris h, writhing mass, After dragging Narry
into the lake d epth s, Inferi scatter as fireballs rain
d own, ILM generated the fireballs , seen from unde r·
water, using 3D objects to em it cascades of bubbles.
Narry fights his way to til e s urfa ce to find Dumble·
dore revived and conj uring the firestorm.
John Ri c hardson's team u se d practical fire bars
o n set to generate refle ctions of interactive firelight
o n the actors.ILM digital artist Christopher Norvath
then used en tirely digital fire to choreograph torna·
d oes of name that swirled to Dumbledore's bidding,
- We started with a three-dimensional particle si mu·
lation : explained Tim Alexander. " It had a very low
particle count, so we could generate versions very
quickly. Those particles acted as 'fuel' to the fire. We
then had settings to contro l how th ey burned, Aller a
bit of practice, we could visualize how the fuel par·
ticles would afFect the final simulation, and we Could
render a bunch in one day to build up th e motion of
the big twisting wall of fire. ~ 2D supervisor Nelson
Sepulveda oversaw layering of c haracte rs into th e
inferno, adding cave and island extensions and inte r·
active light passes. Compositors then adjusted color,
contrast, heat haze and levels of fi II light, darken·
ing t he foreground to cause fire to burn brightly
behind Characters.
CINEfEX 1190 83
 VoIdfflHm', Darl< Marl<
ap~a" jn m~ niehl <Icy over
Hogwarts, ,ignifYing me Oeam
Eare'" pres~n(~ aM meir 00"')'
o~r AI"",Immbkodor~_ DoufW:
Nega~ ~".mled me Da,*
Marl< by adapting a 3D mr>Ikl
prodlK~d initially for m~ roJm',
o~ning ,~quenc~ o...r London.
()jgitol ortim fjl~d m. 3D ~
orm. uno:kr¥ng 'kuN ,,""""'II)'
wim vnpomu, 'imulation, <"'IiI~d
in Daubko Negalive" fluid 1)'<1,"""
dnSquirt and vorumelfi< r~nder
1001, DNB_ ComposilOr< ~n
layer~d me roiIjng doud,ca~,
over a bod<gmund pIoI~ of a
f'"m,y s/o~ 'hOI iii teove,den
and a digilol matle painting
C1~ared from plar.. orm.
ca,de min;arur~_

looI<ing oul from Hogwaru'

mU'Onomy lower, H~rmion~
Gron~r (Emma Watson)
c<>m<>!e, Harry I'oIler rrfier me
Iraumatic .... nts orm.;, ';xm
year ar Hogwart<_ D<Md Yale,
fJlm~d WatsDII OM Radcliffe or
uovesden, jn a (iJlk<:oIe lower
,et bod<ed by g~nsc~n_}o<'
GraneS', 1~(Itn ~n buill a 1110-
",ale mjni/ilu", of ~ rower for
uI~rior view< orme cmlie 'pi"'_
Daub'" N~gmNe combined me
H... plare wilh 11ICk<:a/~ and
1114.-«:,* ca,de el"""nl<, and
layert<! rhe background 'ooith
digilol g""",elry OM man.
pointing< ofHogwort<'
loh OM II< en..-rons.

84 D CINEFEX 1 19
 arry and Dumbledore return to Hogwarts to Yates then introduced a new co n cluding scene,

H nnd Dea th Eaters in the cas tl e's astronomy

l ower. Fo r th e lowe r exteriors, J ose GraneWs
learn buill a I/ lO-scale miniature. Stuart Craig buill a
co n ceive d wit h J.K. Rowling's approval, in which
Hogwarts' Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGo nagal1
(Maggie Smith) rallied students in the courtya rd to
full -sca le lower interior at Leavesden, surrounded by dispel th e Dark Mark. - It was quite a poignant mo·
greensc rce n . Do uble Negative then generated 360- m e nt: sa id Tim Burke. " McGonagaliled all the chil·
d egree panoramas of th e surrounding cas tl e and Its dren to raise their wands, and they sent up a sp ell to
scenic environs. The selli ng served as th e stage for a break up the Dark Mark. It replaced Dumbl ed ore's
s howdown where Defense Againsllhe DarkArls Pro· fun e ral scene from the book, whiCh at one point we
fessor Severu s Snape (Alan Ri ckman ) defeats Dumblc- were all set to do. It came ba ck to the fact that Dav id
dore in wand combat, ca u s ing Dumbledore to fall was more interested in drama than action. It was
from a parapet to his death. performance·led, emotio nal, and very powerful."
Gamban pe rformed Dumbl ed o re 's death by step- Double Negative g enerated the Dark Mark destruc-
ping into a blu escreen rig. MSir Mic hae l stood back tion, reworking th e apparition's base model c reated
inlo the r ig: re lated John Ric hardson. 'hat held him fo r the film 's opening scenes. "We re·lit th e model for
sa fel y upright a1the right allitude to the cam e ra , so night and placed it in a big boiling cl o udscape,- said
he could l ean ba c k and perform his fall. We blasted Paul Franklin. "As the light from the wand s began to
him with air fro m behind us ing every air m over and affect the skull, we introduced light inside it. illumi·
blue w ind mac hine we co uld get our hands on. David nating the vo lume of the clouds. Th at was tri c ky be·
filmed him at high speed, and tra c ked the camera ca use our earlier scenes had been gea red toward
ba ck, s imulating the fall ." Double Negative co mpos· making th e Dark Mark look g ood in day light. A lot o f
ited the background plunge toward a stone co urtyard, work went into the compositing to get layer s of light
based on tex tures of the Hogwarts miniature and a to build up i nsi de th e skull, cracking al o ng fiss ures
full ·sca le Lea vesd e n set. that related to the way s utures between parietal bones
Snape and the Death Eaters escape, leaving a path fit together in a real skull. Th e Dark Mark then dissi·
of d es truction in th e ir wake as Bellatrix Les trange pated into tile c loudsca pe, th e Death Eaters driven
gleefully throws out wand blasts. Cinesite generated away by th e childre n and tea c hers at Hogwarts.-
an effect , co nceived in p os tprodu c ti o n . s hattering
th e windows of H og warts' Grea t Hall . Th e expl osive he film co ncludes w ith Harry, Her mione and
e ffect was accomplished by shooting tex tures of the
se t, and th e n usi ng th ose sUils to build geometry of
the hall with dy namic s imula ti o ns o fflyi ng g lass, tum·
T Ron conte mplating t heir unce rtain fulures as
dawn brea ks o ve r the astronomy towe r and
Dumbled o r e's p e l, Fawkes th e Ph oenix, nies away,
bling furniture and fl o ating candles snuffed o ut i n animated by Frames tore. Th e adaptation, alth o ugh
the bla st. "J ose Grane ll explain ed to u s how h e would not slavis h to the events o f Rowling's nove l. captured
have achieved the effect pract ically: stated Ci nesi te Ule intent of th e penultimate vo lume and set the stage
.}D supervisor Ivor Middleton. " We a ppli ed that to our for the grand finale still to come. -It has been a very
animation through a seri es o f multiple explosions. enjoyable experience: commented Tim Burke, who
Fo r each window, there were a seri es o f staggered de t· re main ed energized and optimistic halfway through
onations; t he n we added d e bris from vi r t ual gas can· production of th e firs t half o f a two·fi lm adaptation
no ns exploding in. We set o fT90 expl osio n even ts over o f Ha rry Po tier and the Deathly Hal/ows. ' We've got
four secondS. Andy Ro bin son 's 20 team then laye red a huge tas k ahead of us, but the firs t part is looking
each explosi o n with refra ction, specularity, dust and great. and th e second is going to be phe n o menal. I
d e bri s to make a very ph ys ica l·l ooking event." think there w ill be m ore than a few words to write
Bellatrix next destroys the ru s ti c hut belonging o n that on e.-
to H ogwarts' hal f·gi an t gamekeeper Rube us Hagrid
(Robbie Col tran e). John Ri c hard so n 's te am rigge d Harry Polter and th e Half·Blood Prince photographS
the hut's detonation as a pyrotec hn ic event film ed at copyright @2009byWarnerBros.Pictures.Allrights
nightagainstgreenscreen on t he Leavesden ba c kl o t. reserved, Pro duc t io n st ill p hotography by Jaap Buil·
RSP provided wand effects, scale-enhancing co mpos· endijk. Special than ks to Gina Soliz, Jesse Mesa, Dam·
ites o f Coltrane, a nd backgro und pan ora mas built inic Sidoli, Aistin g O'Brien. Melissa Taylor, Sophie
from Scotti s h sceni c textures, the cas tl e miniat ure Trainor, Clara So/dani, Greg Grusby, Stephen Ken -
and th e animated Dark Mark, which Double Negative neally, Brooke Liv ing ston, Tan Cope. Linda Ros ner.
generated o ver Hogwarts. Kei t h Gayhart and Heten Moody.
CINEFEX 1 19 0 85
From Cinefex publisher Don Shay,
an exciting journey into a world beyond pixels ...
Join writerwpnotographer Don Shay as he draws upon 20
years of travel experience to take readers on the ultimate
African wildlife safari. With stirring text and striking photos,
Shay presents the life~an,h:leath contests of predators and
prey, details his close encounters with many of the planet's
most endangered speCies, and examines the seductive allure
that has drawn him again and again to the savannas and
waterways and deserts of Africa.

For orderine information , plus excerpts and photos from

this lavish new coffeewtable book, we invite you to visit:

africagraphica.com
Or Gall 866-539-7428 (Toll Free)

-- --
•
 ARTICLE BY JODY DUNCAN

Michael Bay's 2007

monster hit. Transformers, ended with
teenager Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and
his new girlfriend Mikaela Banes (Megan
Fox) having survived being swept up in an
eruption of hostilities between two races
of robotic aliens: the peaceful Autobots
and the evil Decepticons. At the opening
of Bay's sequel. Transformers: Revenge
of the Fallen, the Autobots have since
gone undercover, working with a covert
military unit called 'NEST: while Sam and
Mikaela have attempted to return to nor·
mal lives. But Sam's plans for normalcy
- which include going away to » >
college - are disrupted when the DecepUcons declare Trallsformers was that Michael Bay preferred robots
all -out war on the Autobots, NEST and the cit izens that looked like th ey were made of real -world , rela -
o f earth. tively low-tech m echanical parts, rather than fa ntastic,
At his Bay Film offices, the director worked with futuristi c mechanisms. ~ Ba ck o n the fi rst movie: said
previz artist Steven Yamamoto and his crew to design Fogler, -nobody really knew what th ese robots should
action sequences that would de liver even more bang look like. Because they aren't from earth, they could
than those in the previous rilm. Bay also upped the have had alien insides with fantasy mechanics, and In !h~ "qu~1 [0 MKhMl
ante for Industrial Liglll & Magic and Digital Domain, we went down that road for a while. But at a certain 8ay'. 1007"~ T n.n , lormef'$.
which would generate visual effects that were both point, Michael had said: Th ey d on't look real. Every- 1~~""g~r Smn Witwidy (Shia
flashier and subtler than those in the original. ~Th e body knows what an engine looks like when they open la~uf) is drawn, anc~ again.
easiest shots on this m ovie were equivalent to the up their car hood. We need to tie th ese things to the i"la !h~ a~d war berwe~n
hardest shots on the first movie ,~ noted Wayne Bill- real world by stuffing them with rea l, recognizable gitrnl aI;'n mI>ot<. !he AUlai>ou
heimer, visual effects producer atlLM , which would mechan ical parts.' So we started franticall y making and Dec~p1kan'_ Bay a"ignoed
contribute the majority of the s h ow's 1,600 eFfects a parts library - springs and gears and hoses - and !h~ majority o(!he e(fKlJ in
shots. ~We took a big step forward from where we had stuffed all these parts into the robots. Not only did T ..n.lormer<: Revenge of the
len off. The first movie had II robots in it, and this that help tose lilhe robots as real , italso helped willl hllen 10 1000triai light & Magk.
o ne had 60, total - 46 that we did , and another 14 scale. You could tell how big a robot was in relati o n with <igni(Kant wppon pro'li<k<J
that Digital Domain did. Thi s movie required 140 tera- to a carburetor or spring. It was an attempt to fool by Digifnl Domain and other
bytes of storage, whereas the first movie had needed the eye into believing it was real through absurd ",,/Ida ... !lay roi,ed!he bor (or
about 20 terabytes. In every respect, this movie was mechanical complexity.- all o(!he mual e(fKlJ t~a",. by
considerably more challenging. ~ induing many mQI"e robots. aoo
"The numbers were higher for everyth ing this lime or the sequel, the mode l department's first

F
"""" c.Io$~up. III> !ho.e robots,
around, ~ ILM visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar order of business was to build a much m o re !han _'" in !he origifllJ! film.
agreed. - We had huge model and paint and anima - exten s ive library of real·worid parts. Mode le rs The "qu~ al.o (emur~d
ti o n crews. Eac h robot took 12to 15 weeks to build, would then assemble their robots from those parts major 'equence. </lot in h!gII.
and then at least that or more to rig. It would be 25, 30 - a CG version of model kit-bashing. ~ I come from the /8OIuri<>n IMAX (ormal
weeks before we were ready to put a robot into a shot. ILM model shop, ~ said Fogler, -and there was a lo ng
With 40-plus new robots, that was a lot ofhours. ~ Con - tradition of kit·bashing there. We 'd walk up to the loft A~r .~nding month.
tributing to the complexity and size of the show was where th ere were carton s of model kits, dig around p",'limaJizing rh~ (11m. Bay
the fact that two major seque nces would be realized in and find what we needed for building and detailing and hit production '''''" .hot
the high-resolution IMAX format. ~ Rather than shoot our models. This was the same idea. We wound up Jocaoon , equeMel o,,", .. ea •. m
on 35mm and bump it up, we ac tuall y s hot these se- with easily a thousand parts - every little screw and konk $ite$ in Egypt 000 jordan,
quences on 70mm IMAX cameras. IMAX is eight times gear and spring - all textured and plugged into this and within !he l/nit..,j State" at
larger in frame size than an anamorphic frame; and library. Our first robot took a long time to make, be- urban 000 wilMme .. area< in
so, for us, that meant more render space, more resolu- cause we were building everything from scratch; but P~nm)'M"'ia. California and N~w
tion, more lime to make the re nders. Just managing as the s how went o n , we were able to work faster be- Mexico_ Th~ duen noear lonoe
the show, which fell to our digital production super· ca use everybOdy had access to everything that had Pinoe. CaJjfomilJ, . erved a. !he
visor, Jason Smith, was a major feat unto itselr. ~ been built and could use it in their models. That' s not '~aing (or 0 prologue ,equeMe.
to say that the later robots built them se lves. There drca 17,000 S.c.. in ..nKh human
ue to the large number of assets that would was a lot of custom work for every robot; but when

D
primitives ~ncount~r 0 ~t*
have to be built, modeling and texture s uper- we got down to making the elbow. there was no need Dfi~p1kon kader ""fmd !he
v isor Dave Fogler was among the first c rew to make all -new e lbow bolts. Th ey were right th e re falkn. """ o( nearly 50 highiy
members at ILM to start work, laun ching the project in the library.~ detailed CG robots ILM
in February 2008 with a trip to production designer Th e model crew continued its construction of robot ,,,,,,t..,j (or the film.
Nigell'helps' art department, the walls of which were parts as Bay and his production team shot the film o n
cove red with arlwork by Ben I'rocter and I'age Buck- locations around the world. The desert outside Lone
ner. - We walked in there, ~ Fogler recalled , ~and there Pine, California . served as the setling for a prologue,
were rows and rows ofrobols illustrated o n the walls. set in 17,000 B.C., in which human primitives have an
Some didn't end up in the mov ie, of course, but a lot encounter with a Decepticon leader, called the Fallen.
of them did. Wh en we came home, we hired a /0/ of In his initial visit to th e production art department,
people. At our peak we had 25 modelers and painters, Da ve Fogle r had noted that the illustrations of Fallen
and we stayed at that number for about a year. ~ were m ore organic-looking than the other robots; and
A hard lesson thallLM had learned on the first so, rather than assemble Fallen from the mechan-
90 0 CINE fEX 1 19
CINEFEX 119091
 TM pr%gu~ ~, way 10
moo.m-day Shane/l"-, wh~",
!h~ (abri<:ar~d report of a 10.ric

wtI'l~ .pi" provid~. owe. for

!h~ ..varuation o(!h~ drt du~ ID
o"."PIicOll onack. Mkh~ Bay
and ILM mum efferu 'UPl'M'"
ScO(( fa"", !/Iol !h~ Sllangh"-
seq""""e at a dfiommi"io""d
SI~eI foondry in 8o:thI<'hem,
Penn.ylvonia. TM "",In", o(!he
<I~el pkln~ whkh had .prawling
<lit/au"" wi!h l(}().foo(-{aN
",,"" mocks. pra'lided an idMl
en 'li.onmenl ID ,ell !he ,cale of
!he ,obolS. The ILM digimlltle
(/epa"",..nl i."med sI<~mpel'$,
filmed in long Beach, California,
inlD !he fa. bodgl'DlJnd. o(
,hOI', and added colorful neon
.ig""ge in me A<ian 'l)'Ie.

ica l parts libra ry , t h e m odel c rew rirst sc ulpted th e i nte r es t ing bits of m e ta l that could be composed Pading 10 le~ home for
character's form. " Fallen looked more a lie n : noted into a m o uth or expressive eyebrows. " cDlleg~ Sam drop. a .plinle.
Fogle r, Ma s if he wa s made up of pieces t hat we re n ' t "A huge amount of t he c haracter's performance is from !he AJhporl< cube. which
rea l·world. So I took t he approach t hat we could trea t delivered throu g h the eyes: added animation s uper· londs in /he Wirwid<y kitchen
h im as a crea ture , sculpt h im as a s i ngl e mesh and visor Scott Benza who , a long w itt1 associate anima ti on and b.ing' 10 life an a.roy of
th e n cut that up into litlle bits. Th a t approach didn't s upe r viso r Rick O 'Conn or, s upervi sed a team of 54 ,mall applia""... Digitnl Dom..-n
rea lly work, th o ugh . As it turn ed o u t, Fallen was n ' t ani m ators - nearly three tim es the number o n t he realized the 'kilchen bol<' -
a ll th at different from the o th er robots. Even th o ug h original f ilm, "and so a lot of a tte ntio n to deta il was ;ndmHng an ,'pre"o machi",, -
he is c urvie r and more organic, he is still made up o f g ive n to t h e eyes and h ow t hey wo uld arti c ulate. All under !he .upe.....lon ofMartMw
thou sa nds of litlle hard·s urface m odels. By the time the ' muscles' around th e eyes had to be represented 8utho •. Ugh!!ng arti'l< 'emopPI'd
we were finished , Fallen looked like a big cast·iron by individual m eta l pieces. We had to make s ure t hat high dynamic range !mag.. 10
skillet, wi th pits and burnished edges." the robots had some representa tion o f a brow, a lower re.<:",me !he sel In Nuke, which
lid and c h eeks, so th at their eyes co uld open w ide o r enabled !hem 10 ''''''/Imre!he
o accommodate c loseups - whic h would be squint. In addition to g iv ing th e m eye movement sim ·

T
HDR! from a"'l poinl of 'liew
more num erous and more lingering on th is ilar to what yo u' d see in a human c haracter, we also as !h~ CG applio""" moved
s how th an o n the last - the mode l and paint gave the m som e robotic types of eye articulation, like !hrough a <cene. DigrtaJ Domain
team d etailed facial areas of the robot m odels to a very mechanical spinn ing a nd dilation." inleg.ated !he kitchen bol< inID
fine degree, building th em o ut of hundred s or thou· ILM viewpai n ter Jean Bolte provided m o r e d eta il live plates. rwealting anim<7l.ioll
sands of sma ll pa rts . Ma ny movable parts a lso gave a nd var ie ty in the Fa lle n model, painting a s himm er· timings (0 correspond ID
th e animators th e flexibility t hey needed to create ex· ing lapis lazuli blue in some areas, su ch as the fins on OHel effecl< gags.
pressions o n faces made of ha rd metal s urfaces. "With the s ide of his face .•Jean painted that co lor through·
metal: said Fogler, "we ca n 't str etch thing s o r envel· out the model. a lmos t making i t look as if he was in
ope stuff o r provide smi le s hapes o n a s ing le mesh. military dress uniform: said Dave Fogler. MFa lie n also
All we ca n do is ad d a lot of small ri gid pieces that the had a lava·like glow inside, and so J ean pain ted heat
anima t ors ca n m ove to create expressions. Fallen discolorations o n h im , like yo u would see o n a m otor·
fel l into that camp. He needed many l ittl e piec es of cyc le exhaust pipe, to m ake him look hot. Adding U13t
91 0 CINEf EX I 19
colo r desig n on top of the cast·iron ski llet aesth etic
crea ted his fina ll ook.~

h e p ro logue g i ves way to t he m odern·d ay

T story, Wllich opens in Sha ng ha i, w h ere a r e·

ported toxic waste spill provides cover for the
evac uation of t he ci ty due to oeceplicon attacks. Bay
a nd h is p rod uclio n c rew s hot the Sha ng hai seque nce
a t a decomm issioned steel fo undry i n Be thl e he m ,
I"en nsylva nia. ~Th e steel p la n t was severa l b lock s
lo ng: reca lled Scott f arrar, 'wi th 1000foot·tall s m o k e-
stacks, a n en vi ronm e n t th at rea lly h elped to sell t he
scale o f t he ro bots. Dunca n Blackm an was m y o n-set
layou t a rtist, a nd h e p ut o u t l itlle b alls a nd m ark e rs
a nd poles to represen t th e robots o n th e set. All th e
skyscr apers a nd othe r b uild ings in th e b ack ground
we re actu a lly s ho t in Long Beach ; a nd th en o ur d ig i·
m atte d epartm e n t, led by Richa rd Blu ff, ad d ed sign·
age in the very co lo rful style o f buildings in Asia.~
Th e Sha ng hai scene re introduces Oplimus Pri m e,
th e t ran sform er h ero o f th e firs t film . ILM refin ed
th e m o d e l consi d e ra bly to accommo d ate close u ps
a nd th e greater r esoluti o n dem a nds of IMAX. ~ \V e
added layer u pon laye r of fin e deta il to th e Optim us
m odel,· sa id Dave fog le r, " ri g h t d own to s mudges
of grease a nd n icks o n to p of indivi dua l bol ts. " Th e
u pg ra d e a lso fill ed i n a r eas t h at h ad never been e n·
t ire ly neshed o ut for the fi rst fi lm . ~ I t was a lmost com·
ica l - we wo uld get a s h ot a nd fin d t ha t a n e nli re
underside o f Opli mus' a rm was unpa inted . And we'd
thin k, ' Now did we get t h ro u g h th e firs t m ovie w i t h·
o u t ever showing t he u nd erside of his a rm ?' Yo u ta k e
t hese g uys to 8 0 percen t, w hatever yo u actua lly need
for your s hots, bu t yo u never com p le te ly fi n iSh th em .
Yo u could wor k o n th ese ro b ots for th e n ext /0 0
years a nd never fini s h th e m l~
Th o ug h t he c lla ra cter's a n im ati o n ri gging needed
lillie u pgrading, O pti nms a n im a ti o n benefited co n·
s iderabl y f ro m impro ved tools use d to (l ssis t th ose
r igs. Du ri ngsho t p roductio n o n t he fi rs t film , a n im a·
to rs had worked wit h full· resolu tio n C O c h aracters,
Wh ich m ea n t lo ng save tim es, esp ecia lly in scen es
featuring m ore lha n o ne robot. "It would ta ke an ho ur
o r m o re to w ri te all th at in form ation to disk : recall ed
Sco tt Be nza. ~O n th e n ew m ovie, e(lch ch ar(lcter ha d
five to seven di fferent resolutio ns tha t we co uld work
w i th a t a ny given t ime. So yo u Could wor k o n t he d e·
ta il ofj u st o ne c ha r acter in a scene, a t h igh er reso lu·
tion , a nd a ll t he oth er c har(l c ters in t h e scene Could
be at muc h lower resolution . wh ich e nabl ed us to sa ve
t h e scene qu ickly. It was al most like workin g i n r eal
ti m e, w h ich was a huge step forward. All of t h e bots
fro m the first m ovie were upgrad ed to have t hat multi·
CINEfEX 1 19 0 93
reso lutio n p rocess run on th em , which was a bi g d ea l of the m ." As befo re , an imators executed tra nsform a· ILM mode llighl
to d o, ini lia lly; but I d o n ' t t h i nk we could have done ti o n s th a t looke d som ewh a t pl a usi bl e , w ith many co.melic chengM 10
th e m ovie at th e level o f q ua lity we d e live red without ro b o t p a r ts corresp o nding to p arts o n th e vehicles &mbJo:be<- - s...,', Aurob<ll
th at ca p a bility. - fro m Whic h a c h arac te r trans fo rm ed . C rea ture TO silkldd< - to occommodale 1M
Fo r Oplimus a nd o th e r t ra ns fo rm e r c h a ra c ters, Keij i Ya mag uc hi beca m e ILM's r esiden t tra ns form a· ,equel'. ~r.model Come",
th e a n i m a tors had v ideo referenc e oflh e vo ice per· lion expert, d esig ning a nd ha ndling t he majority o f (rom which ~ IflInsform,_The
fo rm ers d elivering a nd record ing t he ir lines. Bu t how th e tra nsforma t io n s hots, w h ich were ty pica lly ha nd- origincl model held up well in
h elpful that re ference was d e pe nded en ti re ly on th e a n ima ted . · We wo uld s ta rt by sc r unc hing th e r o b ot lerm, 0( rigging ond .lJUCDJrnI
characte r a nd the scene. - Mic hael ha d a very s peci fic into th e m ost compact fo rm o fthe ve hicle tha t it was inlegriry, """" ver_AI !he only
idea in mind abou t how th e ch a racters s ho uld act in bei ng t r a n sform ed fro m , a nd t he n we would co m e mojor Aurobol chortlCler
th ese scen es: rem arked Be nza, - a nd it o fte n was n ' t up willi a coo l way to go from tha t into robo t m o d e. ;nccpcble of <p~ch, &mblebe<-
w h a t t he ac to rs we r e d oin g i n th e v ideo. Bu t if we finally, we'd go back and find pa t hs of action fo r each hod 10 deliver en expI'M';v. fedo!
fo und ou rse lves in a pi nch , wond e r ing what Optimus individua l pa rt of th e ve h icle to r o bot. No two tran s- performonce, cchieved,.., !he
('ri m e's m o u t h s ho uld d o to m a k e a cert a in so und, fo rmati o ns w ere alike,- key{",me mornpulolion of
or w h a t his facia l expressio n s hould be o n a p a rlic· hundred:! of <maR medlonical
ula r piece of dia logu e, we wo uld refe r back to w h at ro m th e chaos of th e Sha ng ha i sequen ce, th e

F
pom to Jimulme fro wns, .",Qe..
Pete r Cull e n, t h e vo ice ac to r, h ad d o ne." s to ry c u ts to th e Witwick y h o m e, w here Sa m ond eye ond brow mo.-emenL
Th e Sha n g ha i se quenc e features the fi rst of m a ny i s getling rea d y to lea ve for college. As Sam 11M rendered &mble~e, end
tran sform atio n s in the fi lm. Initi all y, Mich ael Bay h ad packs, a s plin ter from th e All spa rk c ube - th e source all ofit< CG ",1>0(., occording
decided he would spend less lime o n t rans for mat io ns o f life e nergy for the ali en robots - fa lls o ut o f aj acket 10 rile dieter.. ofMichoelllay,
i n t h e se que l, his logic bei ng th at t hey ha d a lread y pocket, burns th ro ug ll the floor o f his room a nd la nds who wonted !he ",1>0(. NI
b een we ll es ta blis h ed in th e firs t film . However, as in th e ki tc h en , brin gi ng to l i fe applia nc es s uc h as a ~oU!i(uI/y ond weQ, even if
p roduc ti o n wo re o n , h e c ha nged his mind. " Mic hae l bl ender, toas te r, router, m ic rowave , espresso m achine !har meant Ik,..,ling from
did a 1800n th at d eci s ion : sa id Be nza. - He'd say, a nd ga rb age d is p os al. Digi ta l Do m ai n r ealized th e l!ricl phOlOreolism.
'You kn ow, t his m ovie is ca lled 'Trallsform ers' - we k itch e n bots, under t he v i su a l e ffects s upervisio n o f
need m o re tra nsfor m a tio ns l' Sowe added a lot more Mat th ew BuUer a nd th e a nima tio n su pervis io n o f Dan
94 0 CINEfEX I 19
 The De.oeplkon
Sau~ inlercept<
communkatiom at NUT - o
.terel m~ila'Y unil wori<int in
col/obomli<>n wirh rhe Amab<l1.< -
by in(ottraUnt a WleWle in .pac~
The Di(ilai Domain ,hal ~a. ~
nafHInrhropomarphic: SooMwa~
.pawning <>rganic lenmd.. !hm
cannKlla rhe .mellile lind
rhen lmn'farm 10 'UU"'l"
teamel1icaJ/y pallerned drruil
board. To.""" produaion lime,
ye! fulfdl Michaeillay'. re'l"en
(hm ~ 1001< It'I ifit
""'. madfo up of many <litre",n!
materi<rl:<, Digikll Domain
brol<e up rhe rnGfaCId, Ngh~nt
inkl oeparme rende",d layers.
enabjint quid< adjuslmenl$
in Ihe comp.osile.

Taylor. i l lis was a o ne-off sequence: sai d Tay lo r, -so fair ly w ide a na m o rph ic p lates . " We h ad t o warp o u r
th ere was n' t a lo t o f tim e to establish th e ki tc hen bots' CO to m atch th e p la tes , In a lo t o f cases, the ed ge of
c h aracter s ; b ut we fig ure d o ut h ow th ey wo uld be· fra m e is w he re tra c k i ng fa lls apart; a nd in som e o f
have based o n w ha t t hey wer e. Th e garbage dis posal, th ese s hots, we had th e kitc hen bots on bo th e nds o f
for exa mple, h ad g a rb ag e fly ing off o f h im as he ra n t h e f r a m e a tth e sa m e tim e - i n a ll fo ur co rn ers a t
a ro und . Michael Bay got i nto a little to ile t humor for th e sa m e ti m e, in som e cases - so i t wa s g ru e ling to
t h e espresso bot, having i t fa rt na m es b e hind it a s get th e trac k i ng to work a nd g e t everyth i ng to s lick.
i t runs d own th e ha ll. Fo r a ll o f t hese s m a lle r, co m ic· And o f co u rse, we had to m atch th e le ns a b errations
re lief bots, we ha d to look fo r t h ose li ttl e m o m e n ts a nd t h e c hro m atic se p aration w he re t he red , g re e n
a nd b its o f bu siness tha t wo uld make the ir brief ti m e a nd blue c h a nne ls s pli t a part i n CO, as well. It was
o n screen specia l, m e m o rable and funny. The kitchen t ra ditio na l 2 D work , bu t th e re was a lo t o f it, a nd i t
bots had a bi t of a classic cartoo n feel, bu t we had to was p retty unfo rgiving.-
fi nd t h e balan ce betw een cartoony and th e world Digital Do m ai n m ade significa nt lig hti ng im prove-
o f Transfor mer s .- m e n ts fo r th e k i tc he n bots a nd o th e r CO c ha rac ters
Anim ators integ ra te d t h e k itche n bots w ith live· in enclosed e nv iro nme nts, using hig h d y nam ic ra nge
actio n pl a tes tha t inc luded inte ractive s pecial e ffec ts images in a s l ightly diffe re nt m a nne r, - Il was base d
g ags. -Oetting th e k itc hen bots to time up w i th a ll the o n o ur reg ular pi peli ne," explained DD lighting s u per-
diffe r e n t p r ac t ical e le m e nts o n t h e set was a c h a l· viso r Cha rl es Abo u Aa d , " but we took it a ste p furth er,
le n ge," comme n ted DO co m positingsupervisor Lo u re m apping th e HDRs o u t to a wi d e fra m e re prese n ·
Pecora. - Th e re wa s a lot of inte ra ctive s t u ff t hat we tation of th e enclosed s pace w here t he CO c haracters
added , as we ll . f o r exa mple, t h e stuff thrown up by we re. An y lime th ere was a n indoor e nviro nment, we
t he ga rbage disposa l - what we ca lled t he Ga rbu retor wo uld re-project t he HDRs a nd re-crea te t hat env iro n·
- wa s a fluid si m . We al so s h o t som e n ew practica l m e nt wi th sim p le geo m et ry, in Nuke , Once we'd d o ne
e le m e n ts, a nd res c u ed othe rs f r o m t h e plate, So i t th a t, we could reca p t ure t h e HDR fro m a ny po int of
wa s a combination o f practica l and CO.- An other c hal· v iew, w he r ever th e c h a rac te rs we r e in t he r oom . We
le ng e in t he ki tc he n bot sequ e nce w as tra c kin g to we re n' t res tr icte d to us ing HDRs th a t were ta k e n o n
CINEfEX 11 9 D 95
 Informarion £feo~d fmm
Ihe 'a1emle inl.",.pI lead,
10 ~pticon' !torning tile
wMreobour:. 0( on AI"porl<
,hDrd, heavily guorded al a II<IVOI
fdry. The ~tp!icOl" d..ploy
!he ctn.Jil<. Rm'tIg. robOI: 10 Mlp
relli.... til. 'hard. ItM', model
a"d painl crew creoled delOiled
le ..IUre'!, adding ",,,,Idle,, dlip'
and _<lIMnng la Rava~', m.laI
.Xltriot I<> ,ugge<t a ""ttl~W(I'"
dlal'GC~r.
ItM m<>d.lers built
and n~d tilf' digital I>IGdd at
tile from-end 0( tile prodlKtion
Jdl.dul. 10 give onimDlors mnple
time 10"""* OUI tilf' dlamc!er'1
port-~ine, p"rt.med><lnical
moW'tl1enl$.

Ravage ,p'gorg" liny

melal .pher.., whkh ,pi~ 1"10
the roam where til. AJIoparl<
.hard;' held Th. ball beori"g!
tile" Iro"'form into mkmco",
tOOl ,warm logether I<> form
'R..,d Ma".' Oigitnl Damllin
re<reate</ tile physiallJeI a. a
;;rtual."';,onm.nllO I""ak 0
361M1egree c"",e", rna ... and
"",inlain til. p",itjon ofR..,d
Mo";,, f''''''''. To add >i<uDl
;nle,..,11O tile dlamc!er - which
wm comp,ised entirely offlal
pia"., - Digila/ D"",IIin modelel'l'
fi'" buill Reed Mon '" a tIlrler
modellOith g«Wn.1Iic d..!M.
Attim bGl<ed ,urface delOH ond
hghting 0Il1O tOOl m<>d.I, tilf'n
flott.ned tile geomeuy.

96 D CI NEFEX 1 19
se t , the way they were taken on set. We were able " It was fascinating to watch lhe way Michael works
to almost revisit the set and get o ur lighting cues, on set and then try to apply those principles to ou r
moving around with the c haracte rs as they moved CG work, ~ added ILM v is ua l effects co-supervisor Jeff
through the se t. U's rare to have the lime t o recon- White, "On set, they would get the basic s unlight o r
struct a se t inside of Nuke a nd then recaptu re the environ m e ntlig lll first, but then they would add little
I1DRs, Normally, with any MDRs s hot o n seC you end lights all over the c haracte rs, kicking light off o f re-
up u si ng the cove rage from that specific point of nector boards and all kinds of things, When we start
view. That yields decent e n o ugh res ults, butthis a s hot it is all abou t gaUlering o n·set d ata and build·
was beUer. ~ ing our environments so it's a perfect match and o ur
characters will fit right in, But w hat Michael pustled us
igital Domain gave ILM r ende red kitchen to do was say, 'Okay, that's a great first take, but d o n't

D bot elements for a shot in which Bumblebee

- Sam's Camaro-transformed side kick and
an ILM creation - rolls out oflhe garage to shoot down
be afraid to start putting in m o re lights, or unmo ti -
vated lighting.' We c reated packages fo r our lighters
so th ey could do the sa m e thing In CG that Michael
the peskycreatures,lLM had to make a few cos m etic had done on set. ~
c hanges to its original Bumblebee model to accom - " Michael Ba y is very hot on lighting: Matthew But·
modate a newer model Camaro with s lighUydifferent ler agreed, "and he thinks practically in terms of lights
hubs and head lig hts; bu t, m echanica lly, Ule o riginal and le nses and cameras. So that's w here you start with
Bumblebee model held up very well, As the only Auto- him; but he also likes to s how off stuff, Me doesn't like
bot incapable o f speech, Bumblebee had to d e live r to feel as if he's paying for som ething you ca n 't see.
a n expr essive facial performance, particularly in an So we were always straddling that line between photo-
e m otiona l scene in whiCh Sam explains that the bot realis m and making t he robot look really s harp, It was
can not accompany him to college, · We had to depend a line between integrating o ur e le m ents seamlessly
heavi ly on Bumblebee's face and eyes to deliver the into the photography a nd making them sta nd out.
performance ,~ noted Scott Benza, ~as well as his hea d Wh ere we would normally de-focus a CG e lem ent co m -
and body move m e nt. Whe n Sam tells Bumblebee that m ensu ra te with th e plate, Michael asked us to make
he's going o ff to co llege without him, yo u ca n really t hings sharper than the plate. Wha t I learned on this
see t he heartbreak on his face,~ s how is t hat we are perhaps overl y cautio u s about
Th e s ho t of Bumblebee rolling out of the garage integratin g CG with photography and making it look
illustrated a philosophy that would g uide both Digital absolutely real. It may be that the general public is
Domain and ILM in creating theirshots: Mic hael Bay less discerning about 'real' tha n we are. Michael forced
wa nted to see th e robots, and h e wanted t h em to be us to deviate from rea lity here and there, but that j ust
lit beautifully and well - regardless of the dictates of m ea nt o ur sh ots had to be that muc h better i n every
absolute photorealism, ~ Everybody wants to go o uC other aspect.·
record the lig hting o n th e location or set, and plunk
that down o nto a c harac ter: said Scott farrar. 'We ay's directive that the robots appear crisp
did, o f cou rse, have to record each and every camera
location and lig ht ing setup so that we could create a
reflective sphere a nd get our base lighting. But I ca n't
B and s harp in s hots also led th e visual effecls
teams to minimize m otion blur. · You wan t a
certain amount of m otion blur: stated Scott Farrar,
think ofa s ingle s hot where we didn't go back in and " butl t hi nk the mathematica l r e nderi ng of motion
a ugment the lighting, just like a 01' would d o. A OP blur doesn't look exacUy righ t. When th e motion blur
doesn't just put actors in fro nt of th e ca m e ra witho ut setting is no nnal o n s harp o bj ects s uch as robots, th ey
fin essi ng the lig hting, l1e might block o ut the s un and look so blurry that it's hard to read th em. So, in this
put an a rlifi dallight o ut th e r e. l1e might want more film , we cra nked m o tion blur way down, to half or o ne-
backlight or more ora beauty light or m ore light o n quarter normal for, say, a closeup o n Bumblebee w hen
the eyes - t hat's what yo u d o with glamour photog- he rolls up from the garage, so we would see his face
raphy in films. And that's w hat we did on t he robots, very c lea rl y. And th en, when he started m oving again,
We had t h e se t lig hting as a starling point, but we we cra nked up the blur. We we re fiddling wi th motion
reconfigured it a lot, In virtu a lly every s hot we added blur on every s h ot. People tend to oppose changing
lights and s hadows, changed t he co lor te mperature. th ose m o ti o n blur settings, so in dailies everybody
Sometimes we completely ign ored th e angle of the would say, 'No, nor' But Mic hae l would co m e in, and
key in the plate - so th e global illumi nation didn't do say: 'It's not s ha rp e nou g h . Yo u 've got to make the
m e any good there," robots s harp: So I ca m e up with t hese formulas for
CINEFEX I 19 0 97
reducing motion blur, We got on the Ray Na nyhausen a nd mechanica l; t hen he spawns o r ga nic te n tacles, A <mall DeceptkOIl
bandwagon - no motion blurl Or very litUe," rendered as metallic bundles offlbe r optics, When ~-ng as a remot. control toy
they connect to the satellite, they c hange to a more (rod: seaM" for me A/Isp.ark
h e narrative c u ts from th e domestic drama geometric pattern, aki n to the look of a circuit boa rd.

T
splint., /hot Sam has gi.en to
o f Sam's departure for college to NEST Ilead- There was a nice mix o f behaviors in that shot, a co m - Mi/<oelo llanoe. (Metan FM) for
quarters, w here Optimus warns military brass bination of procedural and hand animation." S<I(ek"'ping. Digital Domain'.
tha t t h e Decepticons have i n cr eased t h e freq u ency The Soundwave s hots we r e among t he last to be Wh.eU.' . voIved lllrooghout
and feroci ty of the ir attacks, 111e NEST base includes a turned over to Digital Domain, req uiring til e effects production, changing from a <ad,
hanga r w hereOptimu sand other Autobots are parked team to c ome up with some time-savi ng techn iques, almo<t lovohle choma., to a
between missions, Among them a re t he ' twlns:jive- "Micllae l wanted that c haracte r to look like it was cru*,ft".y-«w'ted tough guy.
ta lking bots th at transform from sma ll ca ndy·app le made up of many different materials," explained Lou fer 1M "enoe in ..midi 'Nheelie
red and s hiny green cars a nd provide much of the Pecora, "but tha t was difficult because we o nly had ,.arche. M iIl ...Io', chop sh<Ip,
movie's com ic relief. The twins were th e fi rst robots about six weeks to do t hese sh ots. To save ti m e, we 0 ..... ( crews pup~t"'red props
comp leted by ILM's modeling and paint crew. " We had broke th e lig hting o ut into layers in the render so we 10 sutte<t the rob()f', interaction
nailed th e hig h-gloss look ofa ca r paint finish i n the could make quick adjus tm en ts i n t he comp, Navi ng ..nth cigar box.. and oilier it...,s
fi rst film: said Da ve f ogler. "Both twi ns had metallic various passes from the re nders gave us a lot of nex- in 1M emOronmen~ To paint out
paint breakup in th em;and the red o ne had an opales- ibility a nd control, a nd we wo uld never have finis hed puppe t..,,, and rit', Digito/
ce nt look, with hig hlights that c hanged from orange th ose s h ots in tim e without that." Domoin lIIoroughlf copwred th.
to yellow. The TDs had to work o u t sh aders for a ll o f The nexibi lity afford ed by splittin g t he lig hting into lei III <i-gital ,fiNs ond re!>uin
th at, which was tricky." separate layers came with a price , however. "There pam ofplates as n-eed.d.
Decepticons intercept communications at NEST is a l ways t he double-edged sword of nexibil ity versu s
w hen Soundwave, anoth er Digital Domain c r eation, confus ion," Butler comme nted , "A compositor wants
infiltrates a satell ite in space. "You don't see Sound- the ability to m ake c ha nges in t he composite - t o
wave ac tually transform: said Matthew Butler, " but c hange t h e ambient occlusion , for example, o r t h e
yo u do see him connect to th e satellite in an i nte rest- specu lar re nection, or Ul e d epth of field. That's th e up
ing manner. Ne's like a big spacecraft, very geom etric si de . TIle down s ide is t hat it is complicated and labo-
98 0 CINEf EX I 19
100 DCINEI'EX 11 9
 FoIk n monit"'" ri o us and tricky to track. In additio n . by giving the end and they got som e pretty fantastic res ults. 'fyo u look
Deceprkon anades on user the ability to affect light, you put the on us o n tha t at Ravage's animation, there are a lo t of signature
~ atth from th~ Neme.i. artist to essentially become the re nderer. It is nice to cat m oves in there, s u c h as the way a cat will swat
sptJ<~u,ip, con<eakd ~ind have a render that is all in o ne, that looks great j ust atatoy.M
5aturn. To add m~ defDHand us ing all th e mathe matics and physics that are i nher-
teXlu~ III FaJ~n's ~s<enli<ll ca$(· ent in the application itself. Once yo u start pulling o gain Decepticon entry into the area w here
iron d:i/lel Jook. JIM .,;,owp.ainter
~a n &he poinred some a~as
of the I>IO<kJ with a , /Iim"", rln,
those things apart to give yo u rse lf nexibili l y. it puts
more ofa burde n o n the person who has to pull it all
back togeth er. Yo u 've got the ability to tailor it, but
T Ule Allspark shard is held, Ravage vomits UIOU·
sands of tiny m eta llic sphe res into a pipe. Th e
ball bearings s pill onto t he n oor o flh e sealed room
Japis lazuJi blue. ""aring !he look yo u' d better get it r ighW and t ransform into mic rocons that begin to swa rm
of a mHi[ary unifonn. &Ire aJ,o Deceptico ns learn from the satellite intercept that and form a shape. "Th e impressio n is that each of
plJinred c/j,c:%MtiQm - Jik~ the Allspark s hard is heavily g uarded at a naval fad l- th ese thou sa nds o f little bugs has intelligence," said
Ih",~ on a mOfD'~ exh<ltm ilyon Diego Garcia. To retrieve it, they send outa ca t- Matthew Butle r, "a nd yet the swa rm also works like a
Pip" - M fa Den surf« .. 10 like bot named Ravage - one o f ILM's assets. MRavage hive of bees. Michael set the tone of thi s ea rly o n by
,uneS! hear em a""rillf was in til e original Trallsformers ca rtoo n : observed photographing ball bearings o n a set at Digital Do-
from hi! (lowin, COOl'. J eff White, "a nd we were exci te d to see him in this main. He had th ese big magnets unde rnea th a table,
m ovie. He has a m etal exterior, but he's pretty beaten and he m oved t hem around to make the ball bearings
up, with a lot of scratc h marks and textures. TIl ere are behave in a very sta ccato , skittish way. That footage
a couple of sce nes tha t are really close on hi s teeth sets up the scene, and so we had to come up with ani-
and hea d , wh ere yo u ca n see all the d eta il we put into matio n and a procedural system to emulate t hat look .
his pain t and geometry - all th e c hipping, scratching We needed procedural tool s to handle thou sa nds o f
and wea thering. To give th e animation department
M these things; but we also needed to be able to hand-
ample time t o w ork o u t the character's part-fe line, animate them because in some shots th ey were going
part-mechanical move m e n ts, ILM modelers built Rav- to be full-fram e, 20 feet high on the screen. M

age at the fro nt e nd of th e SChedule. "The animators Digital Do main realized the sh ots us ing a particle
jumped i n with early testsjust us ing cat reference, s imulatio n c r owd pipe line in Houdini. MWe se t up a
CINEfEX 119 D 10 1
 In lois c....,., donn
mom, Sam QtlI'mplS 10
""'aurar<' 1M odwJncn 0(0
nubi~ CMd ,... ,iEd AIoc~ (Isabel

I.JJcDS) - ocwafy" DK~pli<an

IWI~tobar~ ...
humonfarm- In ..... o(Oipal
D",,,<in', masl doaJt""", sha!s,
Nic~ u~. " uomfarm<n>on
from ~rllll robai. inirimnl wiIto "
~p an ' - fac~ '" it I>qi...
b:i '~f'MIII. "'--" ~
rnW!anical '1I\.ICUImi. DO
"M" buill onlJic.~ n~ (rum "
~rICOn o(lueas, IMn u/>IKfnl
lh<II fI"""'~uy inlo Houdini and
m.aoed 0 r,,,,domiznl poinl
doud 10 di:nri/woe smalI.lliflinf
"nd ,Doming til.. 011 o~r he,
body. CG Nfhtinf ond multiple
roy-(l<K~d p.a,,~. go~ DO

compo.iron final conorol

o( doe likd i0oi<.

To ",o/iu!he (uf.bo6t
tmmfOm>ation, 00 roc...
"ndk~",d"CG
"'........ oflue... """ oqwd b:i
"cornplu arrtrf of mrdoonKoI
ormowrn ond pImn p.oadJraIy
onin~d b:i I1ImI:tIo: and I'III"'~
/lit ....... , roboL One 0(
b:i ji:tmo
!he ~ ", uKWnf 1M
~ ...... ihIIIlM
octrn. hod" mud! ........ Mod
Ihon """'" -nd loot mMIXi1r
ill robot (otm. Artis .. rnoMd
!hepro' 'rnobym~Mr

Ion( IxJir, 1oU""if it up-.d and

integmtinf ... , iii"", mtdtontcal
,noI<~ wuctu", .... id ... !lit

tre<.n b:i mob !he IWI~ndu

look tnOIl' ihreoIenint
"nd "U""oM.

102 0 CI Nt:I't:X 11 9
particle sys tem with a se t o f rules the lillie sph e res
would fo llow." noted DO CG supervisor Paul George
Palop, · w hic h was s imilar to the rul es of physics that
were at wo rk with th e ball bearings and magnets t hat
Michael Bay had s hot. We gave the particles c harges
so th ey wo uld repel each o th e r, and we tracked that
motion in t h e ir ball-bearing form. Once they turn ed
into the microcons, they exh ibited more con t ro lled
behavio r, wi th some robots wa lking in one di rection
and o th ers wa lking in ano th er, For that, th e a n ima-
tion department gave us wa lking and o th er cycles
we could run in t he crowd sys tem,·

he microcons t h e n fo rm into ' Reed Man: a

T razor-thin robot. - This was our most difficult

sh ot," sta ted Mallhew Buller. - It is like a 360-
degree Steadicam shot, orbiting around as Reed Man
is formed from thousands of th ese lillie robots, That,
again. was something wllere we had to dovetail hand
anima t ion a nd procedural anima ti o n .-
· We worked on that shot for months: Paul George
Palop added. - We started by sim ulating particles fill-
ing upa volume that ended up looking like Reed Man.
That turn ed o u t to be a very cha llenging problem
becausej ust using straigllt particle simulation was n't
giving us th e right behavior, Th ey needed to move up-
wa rd s and do a ll kinds of specific things, but it was
very hard to get that kind of contro l w ith t he particle
sim ulatio n .· Digital Domain fina lly got th e look by
running a rigid body dynamics simulatio n in reverse,
· The particles were actually falling down; but by run -
n ing it backwards, it looked as if they were flowi ng
upwa rd . It was easier to control that and to determine
where each particle wou ld go to form Reed Man.-
Michael Bay wa nted to retain as much of t he orig-
inal360-degree plate as possible, but Digital Domain
had to re-create th e se t as a virtual envi ronm ent to
make the shot work. - When they had shot it," Palop
explained, "th ere was no reference object th ere - no
robot, of cou rse - and so, they just did t he best t hey
cou ld, But, eventually we had to crea te a vi rtu a l set
and tweak t he move so we could accommodate the
robot. The e nvironmen t was re-p roj ected back onto
geometry, a nd we had to build a CG floor as we ll. It
was an i nteresting cha lle nge because even t ho ugh it
was just a simple revolve , the sca le o f these things
was so sma ll, moving the camer a even an inch wou ld
move the whole wo rld . So we had to be very ca r efu l
how we moved the came ra a nd how c lose we putthe
micro-robots in front of t he lens. To h elp with sca le,
we gave t he s hot a very sha llow depth of field , as if t he
tiny robots we re s hot t hro ugh a macro-Iens,- Compos-
itors adjusted depth of field in the composite, w hic h
CINEfEX 1190103
 Sam i$ (aptured by !he
o.uptkam and jnterrogated
a...,,,,hau,.
jn by Megarron.
A major <harner,r jn u.. fi"t
T ..n.formers. MegalrOn went
through a signjfi<;anr ",design
and ",m~hngor ILM to
""commodore do<eup. oM the
hjgher ",.oIurillll "'quj",d by the
IMAX fllm10l The new M.gatmn
(eatured leg< ;,M trod< treom
running thmugh them. '"~ well
.,. " new paint job to mue,!
rull OC(!lmulored during his
.:dIe "t
jnc",e..arillll and
the bonom ,,(the oce"n.

allowed for faster s hot t urnarounds. thi ckness to it. That gave u s nice varia tion and high-
Th e final Re ed Man is so razo r-thin, h e v irtually lig h ts. We also played with s hading on every individ-
disappears w he n o rien ted a particula r way to camera. ua l blade, depe nding o n how that blad e line d up to
- It was a c ha llenge to figure out h ow something like camera. Whenever yo u saw it o n the side, yo u got th e
that wo uld m ove,- said Dan Tay lo r. - We knew fro m tile full -on .}O shaded loo k; til e closer you got to looking
mood of t he se quence that h e had to be c reepy and at it ed ge-on, th e m ore it vanished and looked like a
s in ister at first ; but th e n , when soldie rs come in and th i n line."
all he ll breaks loose, he had to be rea lly fast and agile Reed Man uses his razo r edges to saw into a cylin-
as he runs away. In the original d esign, Reed Man had der ho lding the All spark s hard, th en steals th e object,
ve ry s hort bac k legs; but whe n we tried to an imate a running o ut of the fac ili ty as soldiers fire o n him. Mean-
model ba se d on that design, i t looked like Reed Man w hile, Oeceptico ns disguised aboard a freighter s hip
was doing t ha t Fred Flintsto ne bowling thing on his dive i nto the North Atlantic to re co ve r Megatro n from
tiptoes whe never he m oved fasll So we had to exte nd t he ocea n floor_ Th e underwater scene wa s comprised
the back legs, and make the front leg s shorter, som e· of all-CG s hots created by ILM. Compositing lead f ra n-
what like a praying mantis.- cois Lambertand h is group used a c us tom underwater
No aspect o f Reed Man was m o re probl ematic tha n plug-in th at automatically created ha ze and murky
lighti ng, due to t he inhe r en t d ifficulties of making a depth e ffects, based on th e pos itio n of lig ht sources.
flat plane look interes ting. Reed Man was made up of "This plug-in was for Shake,- said compos iting s u per-
nothing bul flat planes. To work around th e problem, v i sor Nelson Se pulveda, - a nd it wa s ba se d on algo-
Digital Domai n modele rs first built t he model wi th rithms t ha t we got o u t of Siggraph pape rs a naly zing
some thickn ess and volume. 'he o ri gi nal model had prope rti es of liquids, from sea water to c ha mpagne,
diameter and geom etri c d e tail, - sa id C harles Ab o u and how light behaves in th em _Using th is plug-in, we
Aad. - We bake d a ll o f its s urface attributes o nto that could take CG images and reproduce what they would
thi c k model, and th en we flattened th e geometry. So look like inside an y particular liquid. It gave uS a ter-
what you ' re seeing a tth e end is f lat g eometry, but rific look. - Compositors refi ned the results by adding
th e lighting o n it reacted a s if th e m o del had some ambie nt lighting and layers of particulate matte r.
104 D CINEI'EX 1 19
 AI Ih~ """ thou"',
M~ga(rOn otde" Sam
Slfapped la a labJe and
pra/mj by a uab-bal sean:hing
(Of ctlKi<ll d<lla stared irI~
IN I~ger'i head. 11M g~
MkhMi 8ay camplele (,~edom
o( camera ~ nl in covering
Ihe eXM!i""lian by iending a
leM! la Ihe Iocalian la shOOI sliNs
fi"om ~ighl diff~,.n l posilian. , balh
high ond law. The digimolle leom
i lilched /ho•••
,...;reo l~
Ii "
.
11I~lhe' 10
1M "",,.wue . et
and 8ay IMn cha,.ograpMd
hi< ShOIS, firing 1M ..-.wol
camera Ih,oug/llhe .pace
as h. wished.

n th e all·CG sequ en ce that fo llows, the revived ne r Optical : said Nelson Sepulveda. · We u sed a lo t

I Mega tron m eets with Fallen, s upine o n a large

throne aboard t he Nemesis spacecrarl - an envi·
r o nme nt d esIgned by ILM art directors Al ex Jaege r
o f water e lemen ts, m ist, partic ulates and le ns fla res.
You don ' t see i t in the projection b eca use it gets c ut
off, but we eve n added th e v igne Ues yo u get o n t he
a nd Yani c k Dusseault. A major c haracter i n th e first co rn ers o f th e image w hen yo u ' r e s hooting th ro ug h
Transformers, Megatr o n went through a signifi ca nt a rea l ca m e ra. If yo u look at th ose i m ages i n their
redesign a nd re mode ling. · We g et a lot closer to Mega· e ntirety, they look like photography,"
tron in this movie: sai d Dave Fogler.ihat, plus prep- Both th e underwater and Nemesis sequences took
ping him fo r I MAX, m ea nt we had t o d o a com ple te adva ntage of a new virt ual camera system, developed
reworking ofUlat characte r. Megatron had new panels by ILM's m otion cap ture crew, th at e nabled Mic hae l
an d legs that had trea ds running throug h the m , w hich Bay to compose the all-CG shots as if he we re in a live-
ended up being quite a difficult riggi ng problem. As actio n environment wi th actors, "Michael Bay comes
we were sta rting to see him ren d ered , we rea li zed that from a background of being behind th e camera,· said
his legs wer e coming out huge, o ut of proportion w ith Scott Benza, "and so he is very specific about ca m era
his body. We had to d esign a sys te m w here, s hot by wo rk , very hands·on. But in s hots with all·digital e nv i-
s hot, we could adjust the thickness of his legs, with- ronments, all he could do was describe the ca m era to
out it affecting all the othe r animation o f the tracks us. We had to interpret what he said, and som eti m es
a nd th e trea ds, His paint job was differen t as well, t he we didn' t get i t exactly right . So we made use o f thi s
idea b ei ng that he would have a lo t of rust o n him vi rtual ca m era, which had a d isplay o n it that allowed
a fter being at th e bottom of the ocea n for so long. If Michael to look Into a CG environmen t. We'd load o ur
you compare the two Megatrons, the new one has a 3 D environm e nt into Zeno, o ur proprietary e nviron ·
lot m o r e d eta il and texture," m e nt package, and he co uld operate this virt ua l cam -
Compositing lead Tory Me r cer ove rsaw the syn- era to cr eate came ra moves w ithin tha t e nviro nme nt
thetic Nemesis shot, whic h was sweetened w i th layers o n the fly. As he moved this d evice. it would m ove like
of practical e le m ents. "Tory used a huge numbe r o f a ca m era th ro ugh the 3 D environmen t. Using controls
2 0 photographic el em en ts that had been shot at Ke r- on the v irt ua l ca m era , it co uld sim ulate Stead ica m
CIN EfEX 11 9 D 105
 rne Aulob<ll nero o(
the 1i"1 T ran,formers.
Optimus Prime, die. jn <I brutnl
/untle with !~ egatron and o~r
D~eprkons in a (~.~ one o(
~ film's lWO <iglKlW~ oction
sequences_Armed with approve<!
anjmatiCl, $cOtl Farro, and
animation WP<'Ni'o, kotl /Ie""a
.penl mt'« days in New Mexi<o,
shOO(lng spedfk p!at~ (0, the
(~<! fign~ in /MAX (ormat.
wIIi'" the ILM djgimatle leam
<1101 stills thaI would eMf>'"
them 10 [jJe bo<kground<,
;( n&esso'Y,

Though Mid!aelBoy was

<klennjned 10 u.e the IfAAX
plale. (0' the (ore" (Igtl~ rother
than ,;rwal en';ronment<. in
.ome ,<I.e< 1lA1 eXlended lhme
plate< SO animolOrs could p<!n
off o(them 10 jmp,,,,,,, 1M (rmljng
o( a srnn. r 0 ~ller jnlegrme
~ robot< inlO me (o'es! location,
1lA1 ad<kd jnle~ eff~,
oug"",nling pflXlkoJ explofion.
(JIId "~r efferu executed by
.pedal efferu supervisor John
Fro~r_ T" upgrade its existing
e(fe<:U hb,a'Y so rMI rt would IIoId
up 10 IMAX moJulion, ILM .nOl
new "'m>ent< o( dus~ .p<!ricl
and smoke on Visrovi<ion at
Kerner Oplical, then scanned
mem at 6K ~so/ution_

106 D CINEI'EX 1 19
moves, ha nd-held, w hatever. Focal length s could be
adjusted. Moves cou ld be mulliplied by any factor. so
a small move co uld be made into a la rge c ra ne m ove.
He j ust strapped this thi ng o n and sta r ted runni ng
around doing s hots within m in utes. And a ll o f those
moves wer e record ed , so we co uld plug t hem into o ur
s h ots. Sometimes there we r e artifacts in the move·
ments, so we wo uld have to r efine them; but it was
great to know that we had exacUy th e move he wanted
to sta rtrro m . ~
Due to tile size of some of t he CO e nvironme n ts,
rea l-ti m e m ovement within them was often not pos-
s ible. To get around th e problem, ILM created lig hte r
vers ions of the e nvi ro nments, still retaining e n ough
detail to enable Bay to compose s hots and get a good
sense of spa tial re la tion s hips. Low-r esolu t ion ve r -
sions o f the CO c h aracters we r e a lso on display on
th e virtual ca m era sc reen. · We maintained as much
detail in t he CO c haracters as we poss i b ly could to
h elp Mic hael as he com posed s hots, ~ said J eff Wh ite.
· We had done a couple of a nimation passes by that
point, a nd we had that a nima tion loaded in th ere. So,
much like he wo uld doon a set, he would say 'action,'
an d we'd hit 'play,' a nd the ch a ra c te rs wo uld move
a nd then he could move wit h them. It was very he l p-
ful , a nd it allowed Mic hael to work wit h all-CO s hots
in a very ha nds-on way. ~

ack on planet earth, a sma ll Decepti con dis-

B g uised as a rad io-control loy truck searches

Mikaela's c h op s hop for the Allspark c ube
splin te r that Sam has give n h e r for sa fekeepi ng.
None of Digita l Domai n's roboLs in Transformers 2
went through a m ore thorough and c ha ngi ng c har-
acter development tha n ' Wheelie. ' "Th ey c hanged
voice actors for Wheelie about halfway t h ro ug h pro-
duction: expla ined Matthew Bulle r, "a nd s in ce the
voice drives th e c harac ter, that meant that the c har·
acter ch a nged. He started off more of a lovable c har-
acter, a little sad and patlletic; a nd th en he beca me
more of a brash , J ersey-acce nted tough g uy - a
rea lly rude , nasty, ho rny littl e devil. ~
Wheel ie's look c ha nged with th e eVOlution in his
persona lity. · Starting o ut, Wheelie was more si nister
looking.· commented Dan Taylor. · So we need ed to
soften him up from a modeling and des ign sta nd-
point. He had these big scary ha nds initia lly, fo r ex-
ample, and we made them a bit rounder, s maller a nd
cu te r. We co uldn 't make him look 100 soft or friendly,
thougll . He was sti ll a Decepticon, even lf he was a
funny Decepticon."
When Mikaela spots Wh eeli e c racking i nto t h e
c hop s h op safe w h e re s h e has hidden t he Allspark
CI I'fEfEX 11 9 D 107
splinter s he c hases him down and s tuffs him into a metal Medusa·like hair stru ctu res inside a mechan· De<O~p(icons m.moy an
case. On-set c rews llad puppeteered props to s uggest ical fa ce. Then the w ho le body unzips in a very com· airaafj car,;"r ar s~a, a eG
Wh eelie's interac tions w ith the e n vironm e n t, s u ch plicated arrangemen t of panels to revea l th e robot. s~quenc~mar 100.1: IIhI ni""
as when he picks up ciga r boxes, searching for the It was i n c re dibly c omplex, going fro m a fully r ea l, momhs 10 compler.. An IIhI
splinte r. - They had put the ciga r boxes on sticks an d organic, c lothed human c h a racter, to a CG version ,",W occompanif'd Mjt;hael 8ay

moved th em on the set: r eca lled Lo u Pecora, - and of t hat human c haracter - w hich was roto-captured abaard!h~ USS John C. Ste nnis
o ur Wh eelie an imati o n was lock ed to that ti ming. But, and keyframe a n imated - to a comp le t el y proce· 10 capw~ r~f~re/ICe pholograpns
o f c o u rse , Michael didn't want to have his hands tied dural comp lex array of mechanica l a rma t ures and and lexrur~l. Model." IMn
by that, and neither did we. So we got good coverage plates that tumble a nd rotate to form t he inner robot. buil! evetyrNng on !he doomed
of that set with a lot of stills, w hic h a llowed u s to reo Th ere were a lo t of mixed software a nd disciplines ./Up's m.el< In eG, Indudlng f.18
build th ose plates. It was a good thing we did, because involved in th at.- H"'''''L$,llk!d<hawl< hdkople",
otherwise we wo uld still be working on th ose s hots. It DD artists first c rea ted an Alice model from a cybe r· mini'" carts and m.dc d.bm. IIhI
wasn't just a maller of gelling rid of til e stick ho lding scan o f Isabel Lucas, then ri gged that geom etry, - We aewm..",""" in co,w""', filmed
th e boxes - it was a lso removing th e s hadows cast spent a couple of weeks finessing a roto m alion of th e on 1IhI', "",lion capwre <lage,
by th e stick, t he boxes, th e oper ator, a ll oflha t. - plates: said Paul George Pa lop, - based on o ur geom· ~d ... "",en. b pl",lons
etry a nd rig . We had do ne t h e cybersca n w i t hout a w.re pnolographed on a Ill(/.
ikaela takes Wheelie with h e r w hen s h e dress, so we had to model t he dress and rig that as ",ale model oflM <hip', Inlerior

M nies o u t to visit Sam at th e university, enter·

ing h is dorm room on ly to discover him on
th e bed, locked in a kiss with a seductive young coed
we ll, running a c loth simulation to closely m atch w hat
the real dress was d oing on the gi rl , So far, all oftl1a t
was very straightforwa rd . Th en , for th e actu a l trans·
hu~ 01 K~r""r Oplkal, and W\'re
ougm~nr.d wi!h nundred<
of rigid simulllrion, 10 g~""rale
named Alice (Isabel Lu cas) - actually a Deceptico n formation , we export ed o ur Alice geome try cach e exploding na""""re and
disguised in human form. In one of Digita l Domai n 's into Ho udini and cr ea ted a randomized point c loud falling m.bris.
most cha llenging shots, Alice tra nsforms from girl to over locations that correlated to the real s urface. So
fully mechanical ' Pretender' robot. - The s hot star ts we had a distribution of little tiles a ll ove r the anatomy
c lose on her: commented Matthew Butter, -a nd h er of Alice, which ope ned and moved a nd rotated. We
face begins to segment and peel back to revea l nasty could co n tro l what t he size of those wo uld be, what
108 D CINEI'EX 1 19
CIN"EfEX 1 19 D '09
 Learn .
DL L a •

CENTER FOR DIGITAL IMAGING ARTS

AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
WALTHAM. MA WAS H ING TON. DC

IMen""" (,,/1- om! Pori-limo urlifiwlt Pr<>g,om.

f i""""i,,) Alli.",_ QruJ G",,, ... ,.,,,. """i/"bJ.

'OO-'O'-COIA INfO. COIAIU.COM COIABU.COM

1 10 DCINEI'EX 119
••
,

•
• •
•
•

To uncalo'er the m...,ning their o rientation would be, h ow th ey would move. Decep ti co ns in a forest. Th e forest fight was o n e of
a(the bizarre alien symbol, Th e n we had to fig ure o ut how to make th e til es look. the fi lm' s two s ignature action sequ e nces, overseen
he /Ia. b... n envi<ioning, Sam good. Re-projeclion wouldn't have bee n e n o ugh to by seque nce supervisors Robe rt Ho ffm eister a nd Po lly
confrOll(S on el<hrtt Deceplkon, add rca lis m to t he rende ring o rlhc liles, beca use the Ing and Ch o reograph ed in animatics crea ted by Scott
named Jetfire. "'*" 11m befon jn lig hting information wo uld c hange as they moved, Benza, Ric kO'Conno rand l ead a nimato r Greg Towner.
j""rr IOding or on oeronaulkm and we couldn't d o lhaljusl us ing th e l ighti ng from - Ninety percent of the previz had already been d o ne
dis play or 1M Smid",,"""" (or the p l ate. So we had todoCO lighting and NOR li ght- by Michae l's a rtists a t Bay film s, " noted Benza. " But
mony yeors. T" ,uae<t advanced ing and all kind s o f ray-tra ce d passes to give t he th ere were a couple of k ey sequ ences that hadn·t been
oge. IlM modeho" buj/r )e(~re compos itor final co ntrol." p revized to the level th a t th ey need ed to be, because
with ,,~fDllk t>.ord ond ~d One o f th e diffic ullies i n executing th e tran sition they i nvo lved fight Ch oreography. We lea rn ed in the
sm<!ll h",••. hjn~. ond ~ to from Ali ce to the Pretend er robot was that the actress fi rst film that e laborate fight ch oreography has to be
hit (0<". j.tree body «roClur•• had a much s malle r hea d than wh(lt would look UHeiilt- neshed o u t in previz befo r e yo u s hoot backgrounds.
illduded ,etf<>.Jool<:ing port$, e ning in robot form. "To som e d egree," s(li d Dan Ta y- So we took the initiative and sta r ted doing previz of
such M c~~, and fo .... lo r , " we had to fit the robot i nside th is (lctress' body this batlle b et wee n Optimus and t he Decepti co ns i n
dIMn by lea(her ~15_ Te>fW,. and hea d , bu t h er he(ld wa s really tiny. So, tow(lrd the th e forest. We spent abou t t wo m o nths designing a
mop' ,imuloting dirt V""" e nd of production , we sta rt ed playing around w ith th ree· m in ute fight , coming up w ith as m any i d eas
and grime e"hoMed!he her hair, making it pa rt of th e robot hea d stru ctu res. as we co uld ."
aged "ff&l. Once we too k all of th(lt h(lir and m(lde it alive w ith Al th o ugh the previz wo rk was don e b efor e new
Medusa snakes in it, it visually exp(lnd ed t he size of m odel s had been completed, t h e animators were
he r h e(l d , and that c har(lc te r b eC(l m e m ore (l ggr es- able to work w ith rob ot m odels fro m the fi rst m ovie.
sive and m e(ln. - Animators also had a good sense of th e setli ng ofUle
After b ei ng c hase d across C(l mpus by the Ali ce fight, as production had s upplied th e m with location
robot, Sam is CClptured by th e Decepticon s, and th en photographs f rom th e New Mexico forest w he r e Bay
rescued by th e Au to bots, al o ng w ith Mik(le l a (lnd his p l a nned to shoot th e scene. - from the ph otographs,-
roommate, Leo (Ra m o n Rodriguez). As th e trio races said Be nza , - we knew th e r e was a clearin g and th a t
to safe ty, Optimus fights Meg(l tro n and three oth er there we re landma rk trees, and that he lped to g ive us
C IN.E I'EX 11 9 Dill
a se nse orthe geography th e fight would take place After the forest footage had been s h ot, Bay deliv· jel~rt !r<Jnspom Sam
in." Much of the fight action was choreograph ed by ered the plates to Benza, allowing him to take a fi rst and /lis companions to Egypl
Greg Towner. a stude nt of martial arts. " Greg has a pass at edi ting th e figh t scene togethe r, based o n th e 10 searm (or an anden( matrio
knack fo r comi ng up with crazy fight moves, and so previz. "Th at experience gave me a ll-new respec t for kty thaI wiNunlod a p<>w.rful
h e became o u r resident figlll expert on the film. He edi to rs ," Be n za sai d . " If you're worki ng in Maya, yo u aI~n e ... rgy """". A corollary
had done quite a few fight scenes in the f irst movie, can just c o m e up with w hatever ca m era move yo u (oMk1lod SaYs edkrthar the
and Michae l was r ea lly h appy with h ow t hose ca m e wa nt; but when yo u' re working w i th physical plates, robots aJvmys "" w.J1 illumin<J!ed
o u t. For this Fight, he Introduced a lot of martial arts there are li mitations to what those cameras ca n s hoot was Ills pre(ertnce thllt rhty i0oi<
moves, taking i nto c o nsideration the capabilities of and how fast t hey ca n move and how long t hey ca n crisp and sha'1' in s/lolS, withoul
the robots. There were limitatio ns to w hat th e robots run , et cetera. After I took a c ra ck at i t , Michael's edi - !he "'fjening _ffeer 0(100 mud!
could do, based o n th ei r d esign." tors conformed the seq ue nce to w hat he had in mind. morion blur or /laze, e~n in
A lot of editing ch oices I made ended up in the movie, «rungs or sjlllotions rhol mje/l l
r m ed wi th approved animatics, Benza and though, w hic h was great."

A
<iem<lnd it To thar end, .scott
Scott Farrar spe nt three d ays at an Indian Th o ugh Bay was determined to use the IMAX plates Forror d~ed (ormulations
reservation near Alamogordo, New Mexico, for the forest fight, rather t han v irtual e nvironments, (or redlKing morion blur, and
s hooli ng specific plates for the forest fight - in IMAX in some cases ILM animators panned off th e plates to encouraged jIJdiOOus "'" o(
- as Bay s hot first unit with the actors, ILM 's digimatte improve the framing of a sho t. "These robots are really olmospllerlc effeers.
team was also o n locatio n to shoot stills, which would big," said J eff White, "3D to 100 feet tall. Outon loca-
enable them to til e backgrounds if the plates proved tion, everyone t rie d th ei r bes t to r eprese nltha t by
unsatisfac to ry. " In the en d ," related Benza, "Mich ae l sticking a character's head on window-washer poles;
used all the footage lIlat was s hot wit h the IMAX ca m - but t h ey were sti ll s h ooti ng empty plates and they
eras. He was touting th e sequence as one of th e first didn' t know exac tly w here th e characters were goi ng
involving CO c haracte r s s hot o n real IMAX cameras; to be. So, for th is and o th er sequences, we enabled the
a nd so to have a few s hots in th e re that we re a ll d ig- (lnimators to pan off th e b(lckground pl(lte in order
ital wo uld ha ve gone agai n st w ha t h e wan t ed th e to m(lke the c h(lr(lcte r action work better; (lnd t h e n
sequ en ce to be, " our environme nts d ep(lrtment would extend the pl(lte.
11 2 D CINEI'EX 119
 NEST lroop. aM their That really freed the animators. Rather than be stuc k o fOptimus damage as separate, distinct texture fil es,
Autobol llIfiM p",pa,~ fo' with awkward timings o r movements because they esse ntially modeling with paint, through dis place-
""ttI~ with De<O~p!kon. jn 1M were trying to pa c k robot animation into plates. th ey m e nt. He did an amazingjob of us ing opacity maps
Egyptian de.en. kene< teawM-Mg could pan off t he plate and create m oves that really to make ho les in metal pan e ls and dis plac ing th e
marry CG mbott fN,IIf'fil~ (,om a worked. We also let o ur animators d o som e preUy m e tal so it looked lorn and c hunky along the edges.
mul!ipl...,..o/ution P'''''e<' - IIf'W significant re-tim es to the plates ." Also, beca use it's in a forest a nd Optimus is falJingon
10 the (rim - iII..midl each mb<ll To belter integrate the robots into the forestloca- th e ground, Michae l had tile idea thatll e s hould have
chameter wttI .el up .,;th ~~ tion, ILM added interac tive effects, augmenting the c hunks of sod on his head, like a football player w ill
to ", ... n d~"'nl ""o/ulion<, practical explos ions and other effects executed by have in his helmet after a game. By th e e nd, he'sjust
ranging from ... ry high 10 ~ry klw. specia l effects s upervisor John Frazier. "Our existing covered in muc k and a ll of his pan e ls are lorn up."
The .ewp ,nabled fLM a"""a1a,, libra ry dldn ' t h ave clements that we re s uffic ie ntly
to wori< on the deU!il a( Ollf' "igll. high-resolutio n for IMAX: said ScoU Farrar. "So we am watch es in h orror as Optimus is killed in
re<oluriOll "'ameter in a ""ne,
..mile all 1M oth'" ,em"IIf'd al
Iow.,...oIulion, .ignificandf
had to go o u t a nd s hoot a ll of th ese greenscreen and
bluescreen elements - dust and spa rks and so forth
- things lhat we 've had for years that j us t weren't
S the fight. With the death of the last Prime, Fallen
returns to earth to lead a full-scale attac k on t he
planet and to extra ct information regarding the loca-
"'dudng ,,,,,, time<. good enough for IMAX resolution. " Robert Ho ffm eis- tion o fa v ital energy source from Sam's brain. Arriv-
ter s hot the new elements on Vi s tavision at Kerner ing o n ea rth in what looks like a meteor s hower, the
Optical, t h en sca nn ed t he m at6K resolution_ Decepticons strik e and then d es troy an aircraft car-
Th e mode l and paint crew a lso worked to accom - rier at sea. Th e sequ ence look nine m onth s to com-
modate the higher IMAX resolution, adding layers of ple te and rep resented some of ILM's most cha llenging
detail - s u c h as dings and oth er fight damage - to work o n th e film. Alex Jaeger and Yani c k Dussea ult
the robots, m os t especially Optimus. ' Our work I' m produced exte n s ive artwork to define s h ots, which
most proud of in this movie i s th e damage o n Opti- featured many digital assets in addition t o t h e ram -
mus in the forest fight: said Dave Fogle r. "We needed paging robots. To capture authentic textures, an ILM
to s how t he progression ofthe damage on h im from crew accompanied Michae l Ba yaboa rd the USSJohn
beginning to en d_ Aaron Wil son c r eated five s ta ges C. Stenllis o n a sea run . Based o n th ose refere nce
CINEI'EX 119 D 11 3
 D«~prkon. drop from
th~ 'ky !il<~ blazing m~leors,
(J'(JSiHand;ng ar th~ de.~rt sir.,
rea<lt far batd~ Michael Bay
and hi< crew< capwr~d gmund
foolage n~r rM pyramids af
Qza a ... r th~ ""''''' af ...vtral
day<. Unc~"ain a, 1<1 wheth~r
the prodlKliM would .='"
permi.siM la ,hool a~riaI plat~.
ofth~ ancienl 'lltIdmarl<., 11M
<:f't\05 p,..par~d (0 rebuild all of
Qza digila/ly using .~tIs .hot from
.vtty sid~ of !he Grear Pyramid
- a I<ID: rM leam ...." .pared
lOf!en !he fdmm<!l<eo: oblained
elevenfh.hour approWlI (or
rM ",,,ial <hool

photographs, ILM buill everything on the ship's deck ever possible to augment the CG work. Carrier light- Con,wOOn .-ehide,
in CG, including F-IS Hornets, Blackhawk he licopters, ing and look development was done by production tra"'f""" in III o..""'lal<lr,
missile carls and deck debris, all detailed in paint TDs Scott Prior and Akira Orikasa, rhe large$! compuler mode!
work by view painter John Goodson. ILM crew mem- .vtr built <71 liM, compriRd of
bers, s hot on ILM's motion capture stage in cos tum e, o lea rn the meaning of the alien symbols he

T
.."". 52,000 ,*,ces ofgeomelty.
portrayed the deck soldiers. Explosions were photo- has been envisioning since first touching the To fadJilare .Mrage of!he huge
graphed on a I /2O-sca le model of the ship's damaged Allspark splinter, Sam meels with Agent Si 01 - IMAX-<"e<OIuIion charner." 11M
interior hull at Kerner Optical, and creature TDs Karin mons (John Turturro) - blog name, RoboWarrior - "p'''<7Ied rM Pnd D~""'lalor
Cooper, J o hn Teska, Chris Evans and Mic hae l Balog who leads a missio n at the Smithsonian to uncover inlo six <P<rincr modeh - Me
ran hundreds of rigid simu lations for all the explod- old Decepticons who have been hiding on earth for for each ann and kg, and arMO:
ing hardware and falling debris. many years. There, the elderly Jetfire transforms from for rM 10/'$0 ond lIle head. I
The scale of the sinking carrie r required a massive an old SR-71 spy plane on display. Modeler Rene Gar- o..WJ<Mlor dimb, a pyramid jn
water sim ulation that took days to complete, run by cia built the character with a metallic beard - as illus- which an ancien! ,un..jesrroying
3D sequence s upervisor Willi Geiger. The si mulation trated in th e production artwork - and added s mall machj.,. i< buried, 'mmhing
included many laye rs of water, s pray and foam that hoses, hinges and va lves to his face. J etfire body stru c- b/ocI<. a, h~ ""ends. 11M buill
had to be run in s uccession and then rendered using tures were designed to suggest his advanced age, MWe a pllyska/ly accurate pyromid
a technique created by production TD Frank Losasso made a sepa rate parlslibrary for Jetfire,M sa id Dave and e<<<med if3 destrlKlion "'a a
Petterson, which combi ned multiple particle simula- fogler, Mwith very retro-looking parts, like cog wheels new simuJalion thar dynamically
tions into a s ingle volume grid. The system then used and fans driven by leathe r belts. Jetfire's s urfaces are fractured blod<. os Ill")' were
volume rendering s haders to achieve much greater also dirty and r usty; so we had to come up with many ;mpocred. A ,econd slmularian
detail than was possible with traditional particle simu- texture maps for dirt, grease and grime. We also con- cr.<7Ied auef>dam dun "nd
lations. Final composites were assembled by co mpos- veyed his age by giving him a cane made of landing portklJlo!e debris.
iting seq uence s upervisor Ben O' Brien , compositors gear and having him drip o il everywhe re ,M
David feurer and Scott Younkin, and Sabre artisls As th e robot wi th th e most dialogue and closeups,
Alex Tropiec and Dean Yurke, all o f whom added real Jetfire required some of the most delicate character
spray, foam , fire and ocea n surface elemenls when - animation ILM would be called upon to deliver for the
114DCINEI'EX 119
 movie. MWC had to do a lot of facia l performance for
him : said ScaU Bcnza, Na nd we had Lo make him a
geriatric character in terms orllis body movemenL We
started by compiling refere nce of actors we thought
were similar to this c haracter. Th e most helpful ref·
erence was Burgess Meredith from lheRocky movies.
He lalked out Oftl1C side of his mouth, and onc side of
his face was squinted up a bit -and that asymmetry
was something we did in J e tfire to scllthe facllllal
he wasa weathered veteran. We also had him hunched
over a lot oflhe time, leaning on his cane. If we fo und
o urse lVes with a few seconds where we were looking
forsomelhing for him to do, we would have him rea ch
back and adjust his back, as jf it hurt,"
Within the Smithsonian, ILM tweaked their c har-
acter lighting in CG,just as Mic hael Bay would do o n
set. "Jetfire is over 50 feet tall: Scott Farrar noted ,
"so if you were lighting him in the real world, you'd
have may be a 10K or 20K light up on a scisso r liFt,
and that might light his head and s houlder - but it
wouldn't light his whole bod y beca use of fall-off. So
you'd add othe r lights, We did the same thing in the
CG I ighting. In the end, r think we had,," r lights on
Jetrire, so yo u would see a pool of blue light on his
shoulder, or a pool of warm light o n his leg."
J e tfire teleports Sam, Mikaela, Simmons and Leo

-
• •
, ,
to Egypt, where the Decepticons plan to uncover a
long-hidden mac hine that will destroy th e sun, The
• •
•, desert becomes the setting of an epic final battle -
,•
• , •
• •
• I I
•
.
another IMAX sequence - between the Decepticons,
AutoboLs and NEST, the latter having been instructed

,'". • , • by Sam to drop Optimus' body th ere, in hopes that

he might be revived, On route to th e location. NEST
soldiers push government meddler Galloway (J o hn
• II Benjamin Hic key) out the plane's cargo door, with a
•

••
, parachute, so that they might fulfill their mission,
The shot of Galloway at th e o pen plane door was one
• '1 • • • of the very few bluescreen s hots in Tran sformers 2,
• "Th ese days, I rely a lot on roto artists,' noted Scott
• farrar, " because our roto tools and tale nt are incom,
• , parabl e, The amount of roto in practically every shot

•
• in this movie is pretty astounding. Our roto team is
led by Amy Shepard, and they are reall y the unsung
heroes of this movie,"
• s all sides prepare for baltic in the desert,

A a heavily tattoocd Starscream shoots down

from the sky, landing o n o nc of the Giza pyra-
mids. The application of tattoos on Starscr ea m -
who had appeared in the original film - was one of
the most comprehensive and difficult robot upgrades
realized for the sequel. "We had to actually go into an
existing texture setup, " explained Dave fogler, "and
CINEfEX 119011 .5
layer t hese tattoos o n top of that, as if etc h i ng into libra ry o f internal parts to work wi th - ga uges and Rigid body dynmnia
m eta l. He was covered with these thin gs, and i t was w heels and s prings and cogs- a nd we 'd bring t hose ,jmulation, provided 11I~''''aJ.e
a neat look - but it was very tri cky to pull o ff.M into th e sce ne and th e n co mbin e t he m wit h pieces robot de.truction, IImpljftjng
Starscrea m an d othe r co mputer gene rated c har· that we re act ua lly from the cha racter, runn i ng a rigid explosiMs lind o!her M--IJClion
acters we re integra ted into plates Bay and his crews s imulation o f th ose pieces breaking off as th e r o bot mayhem aelJle</ fly John Fmzier',
had s ho t o n location a t Giza, at the base o f th e pyra - is h it.
M 'p.oa! e!fern CN:W. To creme
mids, over the course of several d ays. MO ur worry at gene", mbol deb,;, upon jmf><KtS,
that point was t hat we still didn't have approval to get ix large con stru c tion vehicles arrive o n scene

S
liM used II Ubmry ofCG pM'
aerial plates: r eca lled Scott f arrar, MSO we thought and join togethe r to transform into the massive ,udl m googes, wIIeeI<, springs
we might have to re build th e Who le thing, especia lly Devasta tor, th e largest computer model ever lind cogs. lind combined!hem
from th e air. We we re committed to doing that, even built at ILM . -Optimus Prime i n th e fi rst movie was ..nih <>C!uIII pi«e, off lIIe IIfflicted
th o u g h i t was going to be rea lly diffic ult - but t hey the largest an d m ost compl icated m odellLM had ever robot. "'nning II rigid "-muillrion
fina lly got the approva l to Sl100 t plates wi th th e he li- done up to th at time: noted Wayne Billheimer. MBut 10 '.~r !hm. P"'c", II. !he
co pters. So we had motion picture film s hot from up Devas tator was essentia lly s ix Optimus Primes.- robol W(I! nrt.
hig h , and t hen we a lso s hot still s from all sides of the The comple ted Devastator model was comprised
m ai n py ramid so we could fabricate just about any· of more t han 52,000 pieces of individual, 'a nimatable'
th ing we nee d ed . M geometry, whic ll broke d own to 12 .5 million polygons.
Rigid body dynam ics s i mulations provided large- "Devastator was a n exercise in brute force comp lex-
sca le robot destruction, and amplified the explos ions ity: said Dave Fogler. "Il was like taking seven of o ur
a nd oth e r live-ac t ion may he m c reated by J o hn Fraz- a lready complex a nd ha rd-to·re nde r robo ts and stuff-
ier 's specia l e ffects c r ew. MWe ' d done some s imula- ing th e m Into o ne." Th e ILM c r ew firs t m ode led a nd
ti o ns fo r robot des truction in th e firs t fi lm, observed
M painted Ule robots and co nstruct ion vehicles that com-
Jeff White, - but we r ea lly expanded it fo r thi s one be- p ri sed Devastator. All of th a t data was th en pumpe d
ca use the e nd o f th e mov ie is a full -on battle. [t was into til e parts libra ry system, Wh ich Re ne Garcia used
rea lly importa nt to Mic hae l t h at every time robots to assemble t he mode l. Viewpainters Aaron Wil son
made contact there would be some result. We had a a nd Leigh Barbier oversaw th e texturing o f t he t ho u-
11 6DCINEI'EX 119
 Af'-~r ""illl: r~~ by sa nds o f parts. "All thin gs co nsi d ered , it was a preUy put into th e rigging to avoid collisions. I t was set up
~ dull O(rh~ molrix k..y. efficient way to do iL The biggest wall s we hit were in a hie rarc hy, so ce rtain pieces wo uld automatically
Oplimu, Mgage, FaRen in 0 j u s t technica l ones, th e physical lim i tati o ns of o ur move when he lifted h is arm, fo r example. We did that
rool balrle !hal end, in 1M storage and render abilities." for storage and re nder· with all the c haracters. but even m ore so with Devas-
Dec~p(i("on', <leorh_ One o(rhe ing purposes, th e final Devaslator was separated into ta tor.just becau se of t he large number o f pieces h e
lou 'eq~lKe' wmed "",r 10 IUvI. six models - o n e for each arm, o ne fo r eac h leg, the had. Th e riggin g a lso had to accommodate fun c tion·
~ (1g~1 wm ~roph.d in torso and t he h ea d. "The o nly way we could deal with ing cab les that ran through his body." Animation lead
o",moria by Seal! &nzo ,,,,d storing t his huge mode l was by breaking it up that Shawn Ke lly oversaw Devastator animation, a nd d e·
'-ad onimator:< Greg Towner ond way. Adding ins ult to injury were th e IMAX s h o ts, sign ed the c haracter's assem bl y from th e sepa rate
RkI< O'Connor oft-er /«oOOn w hic h were s uc h high re solution . th ey took a very construction vehicles. · Shawn ca m e up with th e who le
f>od<groull<k Md olr~o,,>, bun lo ng time to render." co ncept of how Devastator would fo rm , and it wound
<hoI in Luxor. Egypt. (ordng -Devastator wa s so huge, - Scott Benza e la borated, up in th e film a lmost exac tly as he d esigned iL" Sim·
~ onimol<m 10 devi,. ~ghl -that working w i t h him in hi g h.rezj u st ground o u r ulatio ns run on top of key frame and procedural a ni·
choreography rhal would mac h i nes to a hal l. So we were able to work o n j ust matio n crea ted secondary animation effects.
(It ~ ex;,ling plale!. one h igh.rez l imb at a ti m e, or j ust h is h ead. One of Devastator Climbs the pyramid in which the s un ·
the coo l things about o ur multi·resolution pipeline, d es troying mac hine is hidde n , smashin g a nd c rus h·
though, was that we could work with the m odel in a ing its ancie nt blocks as he ascends. Backgrounds for
super low·reso lu t ion fo rm , in real ti m e, whi c h is un· th e action were som e tim es IMAX aerial plates, oth er
heard offor a c haracter made up of so many pieces tim es high·resolutio n synthe tic environmen ts. "The
and separate parts. That created huge e fficiencies Devastator seq uen ce was a ll re ndered up at4K,- said
for th e animators.- Farrar. · We actuall y m a nufac tured the plate in som e
l£ad d igital artist Kaori Ogino rigge d Devastator. cases, from s till s we had shot on location. Beca use
"The ri gging had to be pretty elaborate to manage all o f th e hig h resolution, o ne of these s hots could lake
5 0 ,000 pieces of geometry,· sta ted Benza . • And with up to 72 ho urs per fra m e to ren d er - a nd we have n' t
t hat many pieces, it was in evitable t ha t t here would see n t hose kinds of rend e r limes in a while, - Due to
be a lot of in terpen etration, SO there was a lot o f work the lo ng waits between renders, it was cru cia l that the
C INEFEX 11 9D 11 7
effects artists perfect th e lighti ng in the s h ots while level s of d eta il. So th ere were t wo l eve ls of difficult 0" lIIe ""rge ofMalll
worki ng in lower resolutio n. ~\Ve worked at low·rez for and co mpl icated si m s." ali" a m<l<';'" expIa.ion
a lo n g time before we kic ked it up to hig h·rez. Th ey'd Sam brings Optimus back to life through the power during lIIe d~n bald., S<rm
ask if I was happy wi th t he lig htin g, and I' d cross my of matrix dust - the remains of t he key to t h e s un· appM" ra u"",,1 fa an aNe"
fingers and say, 'Okay: - and th e n I wouldn't see t he d estroying machine - Wl10 t he n engages Fallen in a mbat world - a .~z.d 'Y,,!he/i("
s hot again for four or five days. There were long shots, fi nal battle, a no th er f igh t seque nce c ho reograph ed en ....ronmenr ~nM~d by ILM -
too, some o f th em 20 or 30 seconds long,· by Scott Senza , Greg Towner and Ri ck O·Conn or. ""'e~ a gatheli"g orAuraf>or
For pyramid d estruction, digital artist Ch ristop her Transformers : Revenge oflhe Fallen co ncludes w ith elMO: ,I'ICourage, him ro ,urvive,
Horvath built a phys ica lly accurate pyramid from indi- Fallen's death a nd wo rld peace restored - for now. It The (tim enm..nth Sam ~gaining
vidual compone n ts. Animators a nima ted Devastator is far from the e nd for the movie franc h ise, however, con<dou,,,,,,, and ~uMing willi
c lim bing atop that pyra m id m ode l, a nd t h at a n i ma· w hose future was secured w he n t h e Tran sforme r s Mikado, hi. p<7renl$ aoo 1m
ti o n drove pyramid d estructio n. ·Christopher Horvath seque l broke boxoffice record s everywhe re. The film Autabor pror~"", a8 at peace
wro te a sim ulation engin e fro m the ground up t h at also broke IL M's record S for s i ze o f models, co mplex- ""Ullile ""XI TMm(ormefl (tim
co uld simulate hundred s of th o usa nds o f pyra mid ity of simulations, and many other aspects of CG shot - a third entry aJ/ bur an"red
pieces, ~ explai n ed J eff Wh ite, " w h ich was far l a r ger production. · With t he IMAX a nd everyth ing else,· con- by lIIe,m""'i,,£ 'UCC6' or
th a n a ny rigi d sim ulatio n we' d ever d one. He co uld clud ed Scott f arrar, "this movie was much bigger in Tn.n,forme".: Revenge
not on ly s imulate a ll th ose pieces - w ith collisions scope and sca l e, over a ll , tha n th e fi rst one. It wa s of lIIe Fallen.
and a ll th e other normal properties - he was a l so truly epi c, like a combi nation of Ben-Hu r and Apoca-
abl e t o make the pyramid b l ocks fracture d ynami - lypse Now.·
ca lly as t h ey we re hit. So Christopher would bring in
th e animation an d run th is bloc k d estruction s imula- Transformers: Revenge of t he fallen photographs
tion. Then, we ran a sim ulation for th e dust and sma ll copyr ight © 2009 by Paramount Pictures and Dream-
particulate debris that comes o ff of them as tll ey get WorkS Pictures, All rights reserved. Special/hank s
knoc ked down. For th a t , J o hn Ha nsen, Tim Fo rten - /0 Greg Grusby. M iles Perkins, Stephen Kenneally,
berry and J oakim Arnessen ran full nuid s imulations Brooke Livings/on, Tim t;ns/ice, Julie Miller, Marcy
for our smoke renderers , w hic h gave us i nc r edibl e Ginsberg and Henrik Knudsen.
11 8DCINEI'EX 119
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 The Fantastic Mr. Fox
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