At Worlds End
I hope all of you had an enjoyable Memorial weekend! It's been a little while since I last posted, and for good reason, I've been relaxing. I haven't done too much on the visual effects side of things. Letters from Iwo Jima came out last week, so I'm in the process of going through that and cutting out my shots to amend to the Flags and Letters Q/A session posted on VFXTalk. Feel free to ask questions about the shows, I'll try my darndest to answer!
I've got a couple more weeks before I head back into work, so I'm spending a large amount of my time relaxing. I also finished my Motorcycle Safety Foundation course, and I went to the DMV and am now licensed for both C and M1! Now comes the harrowing task of finding a suitable bike. We hit up Yosemite National Park near the beginning in the month, and did a quick day hike up to Vernal Falls, and spotted a bunch of other beautiful scenery as well. We managed to get some video as well as a number of great photos. My wife is an amateur photographer and I'm a compositor, so between the two of us, we hopefully captured some decent photos. All the waterfalls were particularly powerful in the spring, as the ice melts. 
And over the Memorial Day weekend we hiked up Camelback mountain in Phoenix, with my brother and his girlfriend. It was a strenuous climb, but the views were very rewarding. The reward is in the accomplishment!
Also in Phoenix, we went and saw At Worlds End. The theatre was a little more than half full for a 7pm Friday night showing. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it did feel tiring at times. The multiple subplots and barely understandable dialog made for annoying viewing, but the effects and the pirates made up for it. For those that saw it, continue on below to read what Digital Domain did for the show!
We did the waterfall and ice sequence, where they fall off the edge of the world into Davy Jones' locker, as well as the Death of Beckett sequence, mostly the effects occurring on the Endeavour, which were comp shots, not fully 3D shots. We also did quite a number of Pirate armada shots, with CG pirate ships among one or two real ones during the Tia Dalma growth sequence. The shots I completed include a number of background ship additions during the Tia Dalma growing sequence, as well as a number of mast and sky replacement shots in there. Two shots I did for the death of Beckett came to me after a number of artists had to leave as their contract was up and they had to get to their other work places. My responsibility for those shots was sweeting the edge detail on the characters and adding a little bit more smoke and debris. All the shots on the Endeavour that we did were shot on bluescreen, with miniature boat exploding elements, CG debris, and both element and 3D smoke.
I do have to say that Davy Jones in the rain was mindblowing. ILM did some spectacular work, as always. The entire last 45 minutes of the movie were just great! At 170 minutes, it's a tad on the long side for a popcorn flick, but it was entertaining to say the least. If you stay for the credits, my name is smack dab in the middle for Digital Domain compositors. And of course, stay until after the credits for a deleted scene.
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