The Big Reveal 2005 - Part Four

The nominees for this category are Lost: Pilot, Part 2, Clubhouse: Ep #005, and Spartacus.

I felt that the nominees in this category did a much better job at creating the supporting visual effects than the previous category! Yet another reason that the effects should not be the main criteria in a show unless you have gobs of money to burn.

Lost: Pilot, part two
nominees: Kevin Blank, Mitch Suskin, Benoit Girard, Jerome Morin

This show is making ripples on the TV, and seems to be very popular! I'll be sure and rent the miniseries once it is over. The effects count blossomed to around 200 shots, which ranged from greenscreen keys to 3D environments. The work that the team did is quite outstanding, ranging from 3D polar bears to an elaborate plane destruction in mid-air a la Fight Club. They completed the work in 1080p HD over a span of 18 days. It was all done in float color, and there were many dynamic simulations created (from debris flying, to grass being pushed aside).

Clubhouse: Ep #005
nominees: Curt Miller, Jason Spratt, Doug Witsken, Michael Tonder

The supporting effects here were a bit more transparent, but nonetheless very good. The team was responsible for a number of greenscreen removals over the span of ten days. Other technical hurdles included doing numerous crowd duplications and creating a computer generated baseball stadium. Not a lot of fancy stuff, just very well done greenscreen removals, and definitely invisible effects.

Spartacus
nominees: Sam Nicholson, Eric Grenaudier, Anthony Ocampo, Tim Donahue

This two hour USA show showcased 200 visual effects shots comprised of photoreal environments and matte paintings, with some CG arrows flying and actual crowd duplications using not CG extras, but real ones! By shooting several plates of the extras in different areas of the frame, the artists were able to smoothly blend between them, and create one large massive army. While these armies were not shown doing battle (that would be a Massive undertaking), the effects did blend fairly seamlessly with the rest of the footage.