Festival of Visual Effects: Day 2 - Part 1

Day 2 of the VES Festival started off with a bang! This was an exciting day, and only to be improved upon when this show wraps up on Sunday! Without further ado, the topics and my thoughts and summaries.

10:00-11:30 Spiderman3
This panel hosted Jonathan Cohen, Spencer Cook, Peter Nofz, and Scott Stokdyk, vfx supervisor for Spiderman3.

I haven't seen the film, but after seeing some of the visual effects, I think it's only fair that I head to the theatre to catch this one in 2k glory before it's relegated to the annals of the DVD shelves.

This panel went over the creation of the Venom black goo and Sandman's birth and sand. Clips from the film were shown, as well as breakdowns on the birth of Sandman sequence, and a couple of other sequences..Sphere simulation, where grains of sand as spheres, where simulated to give the illusion of millions of sand particles. During the beginning of the sequence, a couple sand grains were keyframed, which then fell into a simulation of multiple sand grains. The actor was matchmoved and his motion was conveyed through surface sand simulation, with slow blending into the real actor as he walks forward. There was some fluid sim for sand.
For venoms goo, there were lots of keyframe animation for good strands, with procedural goo between the main goo strands. Originally they wanted to have a fully procedural approach, but there would be no direction that way, so keyframed animation was the way to go, with procedural goo for the smaller and filler bits. They showed a bunch of Venom goo shot breakdowns, with the big kicker in the church, when Topher Grace gets attacked and it overcomes him.
The CG environments were much simpler for this film. Not much had changed from the second film, but the buildings got a little more elaborate, and there was some miniature work in the film.

1:00-2:30 The Art of the Miniature
Moderated by Ian Hunter

This panel consisted of Scott Schneider, Aaron Haye and Matthew Gratzner. They went over four films that each of the worked on where the turnaround time for miniature creation and shooting was less than 3 weeks. These films were Don't Say A Word, Constantine, Star Trek Insurrection, and The Forgotten. Most of the miniature shots described were done in 2 to 3 weeks, from planning to final photography. A couple shots, like in Insurrection and Constantine, relied on CNC millingin machines to accurately create miniature pieces from either onset plans or 3D models. Most of the below shots were shot at high speed.
In the film, Don't Say A Word, Sean Bean's demise near the end of the film was accomplished with several miniature shoots. They had several miniature sets, a half, a full, and a third sized set. The set comprised a trench, lined with earth on either side, which exploded inward and covered the trench with earth. The full sized set was partially built, to accomodate the effects of Sean Bean getting covered in dirt. They did several takes, which were then composited together with footage of Sean running on a greenscreen. There was another shot in the show where they did an element shoot to put parade floats into the reflection of Michael Douglas' car.
In Constantine, Rachel Weisz gets pulled into the air through a building by the angel Gabriel. One of the sets, which was shot in the trailer, was a small cubicle room which ripped apart as she was pulled through it. Aaron Haye supervised and built the set, which consisted of miniature office supplies and walls and the like. The set could be pulled apart down the middle to ease the task of resetting each shoot. The set was rigged with lines and pneumatic rams and a doll of Rachel was positioned in the center of the action. The breakdowns for this scene were very cool, and it does show how much effort is done to give you a very short shot in the film!
In The Forgotten starring Julianne Moore, several sequences in the film used miniature effects. In the one they showcased for this event, the roof of an armory gets ripped off near the end of the film. They build two armory sets, which they proceeded to film and demolish from the outside in. They couldn't use air rams from inside the building, as the magical alien force is supposed to be outside. An external rig with a plethora of wires attached to the outside of the armory yanked the building apart. They shot these takes vertically, so they would be able to whip pan up in the comp.
In the last film, Insurrection, the building of the Collector ship at the end of the film was a miniature, as it blew up. The other shots in the film of it are a CG model. They did a wipe from the CG to the miniature as it blows up. The scale was achieved correctly since they already had the 3D model, they could cut pieces on a CNC machine. This worked out really well, and they exploded the ship on the first take the way they wanted to. This was similar to a shot I did in The Matrix, when the Hammer crashes into the pilons in the Zion dock. It was a CG model, but it didn't wipe to the miniature model. Instead, I used the flames and explosions from the miniature ship and placed them into the 3D ship.
I'd also like to add some trivia that Ian Hunter and Matthew Gratzner had their last names featured in Pitch Black. It was the name of the ship that crashs on the planet. The ship was called the Hunter-Gratzner. Be sure to check out their great work over at New Deal Studios!

3:30-5:00 Previz: All the Ins and Outs
Moderated by Tad Leckman

This panel featured a collection of artists from a number of different companies, The Third Room, The Ranch, Pixel Liberation Front, and Proof. Tad is a SCAD teacher, originally from ILM, and described different techniques of previs and what it encompassed, from animatics to videomatics to story reels and 3D animatics. There was a wealth of information, and previs is starting to gain steam with directors to get their vision into visual form before they even start shooting. They are responsible for camera interaction on set, and it has been occasionally required for the previs department to provide the production with details on sizes and purchase requirements for equipment to be used. They gave the number of gallons of chocolate for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the amount of turf needed. The panelists were; Colin Green, Mat Beck, Ron Frankel, Tad Leckman, and Matthew Ward.

Coming tomorrow, VFX Manipulation: With great power comes great responsibility and VFX Guilty Pleasures! Be sure to get the RSS feed or subscribe via email on the right hand side of this page! All this week, summaries and thoughts from last weekends VES Festival.