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March 24, 2011
It All Ends 7.15
Posted by dschnee at 9:29 PM
March 21, 2011
HP7
Last week Tippett found itself on Platform 9 and 3/4, this week we arrive at the deathly hallows assisting on a small'ish portion of vfx work for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the (freakin') finale of the phenomenon. (in-sane)
How awesome is it, to be able to contribute to this series. I have truly enjoyed the books over the years, 6 & 7? fantastic. So yeah, I'm crazy happy to get this opportunity. Nine, one, one... so a ton of work in a short amount of time, what, who expected this to be any different? and... I'll see you all in a little over a month or so.
HP7: Part 2 will be released on July 15th, 2011 in the US.
Posted by dschnee at 12:20 AM
March 15, 2011
Season of the Witch: Blair Clark Interview
Vincent Frei's The Art of VFX blog is chalked-up full of fantastic VFX Interviews, and he has added this one from Blair Clark along with some assistance from some other Tippett SOW crew to talk about the work we completed on Season of the Witch.
Blair so generously let me answer a couple below:
How did you create the death of Felson (Ron Perlman) who falls in ashes?
David Schnee (Compositing Supervisor) // The idea behind Felson's death brought to screen over the course of just a few shots was that once he was wrapped up by the demons wings, a spark would ignite sort of furnace that would quickly warm up moving into a super heated blast furnace by the end, engulfing Felson in heat, flame, and fire. The demons big reveal left Felson in a momentary statue like state of ash. Once she drew her wings back disrupting the air, Felson's remains came toppling down the heap of ash with bursts of ember, smoke, and flame. We actually referenced some of our previous work from the burning vampire deaths from BLADE II, and Samuel's death in HELLBOY.
We needed many elements to pull this off, and we did so using a combination of elements from the FX department as well a slew of practical elements shot on stage. We shot a variety of flame elements (think a propane burner cranked up way over high) that we made dance around using flags to fan air at them. This gave us more interesting performances from the standard horizontal flame in a calm environment. These elements worked out well when licks of flames spilled out from the edges of the demons wings and arms. Senior Compositor Satish Ratakonda used these elements along with creative 2d distortions in Nuke to sell this wrapping around for the close up shot. We shot burning twisted up newspaper that we physically beat against a household fan giving us rising embers, which was a lot of fun. Padding the CG with the right practical elements seems to alwasy give you a truer sense of reality, so one of the elements we shot that really worked out for us was burning steel wool. Another of our Compositing Supervisors, Chris Morley mocked up a sculpt Felson in his final pose built entirely of steel wool. When he light this on fire, it gave us a great organic burning look that we were able to composite to some degree in all 3 shots, but primarily used across the entire shape of FX driven ash at the beginning of the reveal. Articulate hand animated regions of burning Felson steel wool was achieved in the composite matching timings from the FX ash toppling down, but offset for a more organic feel. The FX department provided us with great elements for the ash and embers that had an almost Brownian motion quality to them, the rising and swirling, caught up in the pull of air from the animation of the demons wings, it was great. The lighting department also provided us with great interactive lighting across the shots, along with a vital SSS (sub surface scattering) AOV, that we used in the comp to achieve the look of internal lighting inside the membranes of the wings. Again we padded all of this with 2d smoke, dust, fire, embers, and heat distortion elements making it as interesting and real as possible.
Can you explain how you create the impressive death of the demon?
David Schnee (Compositing Supervisor) // The death of the demon starts subtly over the course of a few shots as the reading of the passage in the book begins to inflict pain and damage to her, for the earlier shots leading up to the death, we used Color Codes painted up from our Art department as well as some AOV's for the wing membranes used to create levels of a leading edge burning quality (think burning paper) the look created in the composite. We would animate intensities across the panels of wings driven to flare up more intense when the demons wings moved more (as if the moving air fueled it with more oxygen), and then become more tame when they didn't move as much, all the while trying to ramp up the intensity over the series of shots. The compositors tracked in 2d smoke elements that we turned black as sort of an negative 'evil' smoke element that burned from markings inflamed by the reading, padded with some heat distortion.
By the time we get to her death, the atmosphere in the room was full of 2d smoke which gave us something to light up when we needed to support the internal forces that broke out in intense beams of light from her body, or 'God Rays' as we call them. Often times this is a cheesy 2d effect only, but due to the need for interaction with all the moving parts we were provided a few volumetric lighting passes from our CG Supervisor Aharon Bourland to achieve the look. We continued the same 2d burning wing effect into this shot, but was taken over by an FX Simulation that eroded and dissolved away her wings, arms, and legs using a similar leading edge burn effect. The FX guys orchestrated a series of cracked panels on the demons chest and torso that for a moment tries to hold it all in, but ultimately breaks apart opening up to release our seasoned witch in a burst of light and energy. In the comp we used some 2d distortion techniques making a concussive wave that helped sell the energy during that moment. We padded the naked witch (which was shot as a green screen element) with 2d Schwap! or blood elements made to look like a gooey glistening slime.
After this event, more violent demon animation ensues (see addendum below) as we are left with a eroding shell of the demon and a soul like energy getting ripped apart from it's shell. There is now a slew of swirling debris, ash, bits of demon from FX, as well as this animated ball of particles that tears off and shoots up out of the Scriptorium. It's here that things started to become a bit abstract in the composite. Using the raw FX passes we created a series of interesting throbbing, swirling, and orbiting passes as pre-composites,and then heavily processed them together animating fits of distortion and bursts of light and energy in 2d using Nuke and Shake.
The original idea for very end of the shot was that the ball of energy was to exit through the oculus at the top of the Scriptorium, and up until the eve of delivering this shot for final, the client changed their mind... why would it know to just leave through the hole they asked? So the new plan was to have the ball of demonic energy miss and smash into a blast of chaos at the top of the celling. This turned into a very fast paced science experiment on how the hell are we going to do this and what exactly this should look like. In less than a day and a half, we took a number of quickly generated FX passes from our Lead FX Animator Joseph Hamdorf, and using Nuke heavily processed the exploding particle simulation renders that blasted across the curvature of the ceiling. Using time offset and re-timing tools on the raw FX elements helped us quickly generate a much more complex looking array of elements. Using every trick we had in the book we built on this using tons of layers with glows, distortions, displacements, ripples, 3d projections for concussive shock waves, 2d smoke and dust for atmosphere, and in the end trying to make a few frames look that of distant galaxy with veins of antimatter shot from the Hubble helped get the job done. It was a very collaborative effort in the end, multiple compositors joined in to help generate bits a pieces, pulling off the finale conclusion to the demons death together in pretty much one day. I have to also mention that this would never had come together so quickly with out the compositing speed and strength of Nuke.
Addendum:
"as a more violent demon animation ensues... Senior Animator // Randy Link was responsible for animating the pain inflicted, spastic, death of the demon. He was able to achieve a wickedly disturbing performance that served as the foundation for the rest of the departments to build from. The FX team drove their particle simulations off of it, the TD's creatively catered their lighting to it, and it birthed the opportunity inside the comp to play off his/her key moments, contributing a slew of elements in stride with Randy's performance." (xoxo randy, -your pal schnee)
To read the complete interview visit The Art of VFX: SEASON OF THE WITCH: Blair Clark - VFX Supervisor - Tippett Studio
See Also: Over a years worth of insightful exclusive interviews can be viewed over on the artofvfx.com, definitely worth checking out.
« THE GREEN HORNET: Greg Oehler – VFX Supervisor – CIS Hollywood
15 03 2011
SEASON OF THE WITCH: Blair Clark – VFX Supervisor – Tippett Studio
Posted by Vincent Frei in Season of the Witch, VFX Supervisor
What is your background?
Blair Clark (Visual Effects Supervisor) // Attended school at California College of Arts and Crafts (now CCA) in Oakland CA, I was hired by Chris Walas to join crew working on the first GREMLINS film. From there went to ILM, where I met Phil Tippett and began to learn the process of machining Stop Motion armatures from Tom St.Amand, who is still the undisputed master of the craft. I continued to work for Phil, creating armatures for several films at Tippett Studio, then went to Skellington Productions for NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS after which I returned to Tippett Studio in 1994 and have remained here since.
What are the sequences made by Tippett Studio?
Blair Clark (Visual Effects Supervisor) // We were contacted by VFX Producer, Nancy St.John and VFX Supervisor, Adam Howard to assist in supplying Visual Effects for the portion of the third act, involving the girl (played by Claire Foy) transforming into the Demon and engaging Nicolas Cage, and Ron Perlman’s characters in a battle to the death.
How was the collaboration with the director Dominic Sena?
Blair Clark (Visual Effects Supervisor) // The film was well in post production by the time we became involved, and we worked exclusively with Mark Helfrich (2nd Unit Director / Editor).
What references did he give you for the winged demon?
Nate Fredenburg (Art Director) // There had been no design work done on the demon when we became involved with the film so there was no reference. When we asked what kind of demon they were looking for, we were told, "you know, a demon." So it was an open playing field. The demon is identified as Baal in the script, so we started there. We looked at both old engravings of Baal and more contemporary renditions to familiarize ourselves with the range of interpretations. We decided this demon needed to be a demon of old manuscripts to best support the story so we leaned toward a classic representation.
Can you explain how you transform the girl in the demon in particular in the closeup on her face?
Aharon Bourland (CG Supervisor) // The close up was actually the test bed for working out our technique. The first step is to build an accurate model of the subjects face. Once you have that you can get camera and facial match move solves. This has to be really accurate because we will be using this mesh to generate pRef data. pRef (position reference or texture reference) is used in a projection shader to stick a projection onto a deforming surface. We now take the girls face and build a set of blind shapes that will transform it into the demon face. Then the plate is reprojected back onto the newly transforming face and since we use pRef instead of P in the projection shader the plate is warped into the shape of the demon. Were about half way there now. we need to get the color and skin texture changes in. A procedural shader that used coordinate systems from maya to wipe on passes of veins skin erosion masks and other textures was used to animate and render these passes. And finally we have a light pass of a face painted like the demon but morphing from human to demon. All of these passes were then comped together to achieve the final effect.
How did you create the cart taking fire and starting to melt?
Blair Clark (Visual Effects Supervisor) // Those were shots that we shared with UPP (Prague), who had the lion’s share of shots in the film and in these shots, they did all of the fire and melting cage work, and we did the integration and augmentation to the girl turning into the demon.
Can you explain the shooting of the final sequence? Did you use a stunt double dressed in blue to simulate the presence of the demon?
Blair Clark (Visual Effects Supervisor) // The final sequence was shot in Shreveport, LA. Our VFX Supervisor, Eric Leven and Location Data Supervisor Eric Marko worked with the Director and the Stunt team to choreograph the fight between the actors and the Demon. There was a stunt double (dressed in gray tights) used for interactivity (eyelines, choking and grabbing actors, etc.) and was covered with the CG Demon. There were also a few shots that had been previously shot in principal photography with the girl (Claire Foy) acting as the Demon in which we covered here with the CG Demon, but closely followed her performance.
Have you encountered some problems with the wings of the demon? And how did you create them?
Nate Fredenburg (Art Director) // Wings are always tricky. Since we didn’t have much time to build the demon, we went with as simple a rig as we could, which really put it in the hands of the animators to make look good. When designing the demon, we decided to give it an extra wing membrane that was reminiscent of a collar. We thought it would help give the demon added visual interest and presence. The animators hated it and spent most of their time trying to find poses that just got it out of their way. Even when we work hard to design with performance in mind, we can’t anticipate everything.
What were your references for the animation of the demon?
Jim Brown (Animation Supervisor) // We shot a lot of reference of ourselves acting as a demon. There were many takes to figure out how this demon would walk, move, and fight. We started with a more feminine movement, but shifted to a more classic demon character with powerful masculine poses and actions. The wings were a big challenge because of the amount of physical weight they would put on a demon’s back. We had to ask ourselves how much of that weight would we see in the demon’s movement. We looked at bird reference as well as bat reference for poses and postures. In the end having the wings affect the demon’s walk and movement too much took away from the performance of the character. However, they were great for a number of shots when we needed some exciting action. Overall the demon was a mixture of a birds, bats, and animators jumping around like they were possessed.
How did you create the death of Felson (Ron Perlman) who falls in ashes?
David Schnee (Compositing Supervisor) // The idea behind Felson’s death brought to screen over the course of just a few shots was that once he was wrapped up by the demons wings, a spark would ignite sort of furnace that would quickly warm up moving into a super heated blast furnace by the end, engulfing Felson in heat, flame, and fire. The demons big reveal left Felson in a momentary statue like state of ash. Once she drew her wings back disrupting the air, Felson’s remains came toppling down the heap of ash with bursts of ember, smoke, and flame. We actually referenced some of our previous work from the burning vampire deaths from BLADE II, and Samuel’s death in HELLBOY.
We needed many elements to pull this off, and we did so using a combination of elements from the FX department as well a slew of practical elements shot on stage. We shot a variety of flame elements (think a propane burner cranked up way over high) that we made dance around using flags to fan air at them. This gave us more interesting performances from the standard horizontal flame in a calm environment. These elements worked out well when licks of flames spilled out from the edges of the demons wings and arms. Senior Compositor Satish Ratakonda used these elements along with creative 2d distortions in Nuke to sell this wrapping around for the close up shot. We shot burning twisted up newspaper that we physically beat against a household fan giving us rising embers, which was a lot of fun. Padding the CG with the right practical elements seems to alwasy give you a truer sense of reality, so one of the elements we shot that really worked out for us was burning steel wool. Another of our Compositing Supervisors, Chris Morley mocked up a sculpt Felson in his final pose built entirely of steel wool. When he light this on fire, it gave us a great organic burning look that we were able to composite to some degree in all 3 shots, but primarily used across the entire shape of FX driven ash at the beginning of the reveal. Articulate hand animated regions of burning Felson steel wool was achieved in the composite matching timings from the FX ash toppling down, but offset for a more organic feel. The FX department provided us with great elements for the ash and embers that had an almost Brownian motion quality to them, the rising and swirling, caught up in the pull of air from the animation of the demons wings, it was great. The lighting department also provided us with great interactive lighting across the shots, along with a vital SSS (sub surface scattering) AOV, that we used in the comp to achieve the look of internal lighting inside the membranes of the wings. Again we padded all of this with 2d smoke, dust, fire, embers, and heat distortion elements making it as interesting and real as possible.
Can you explain how you create the impressive death of the demon?
David Schnee (Compositing Supervisor) // The death of the demon starts subtly over the course of a few shots as the reading of the passage in the book begins to inflict pain and damage to her, for the earlier shots leading up to the death, we used Color Codes painted up from our Art department as well as some AOV’s for the wing membranes used to create levels of a leading edge burning quality (think burning paper) the look created in the composite. We would animate intensities across the panels of wings driven to flare up more intense when the demons wings moved more (as if the moving air fueled it with more oxygen), and then become more tame when they didn’t move as much, all the while trying to ramp up the intensity over the series of shots. The compositors tracked in 2d smoke elements that we turned black as sort of an negative ‘evil’ smoke element that burned from markings inflamed by the reading, padded with some heat distortion.
By the time we get to her death, the atmosphere in the room was full of 2d smoke which gave us something to light up when we needed to support the internal forces that broke out in intense beams of light from her body, or ‘God Rays’ as we call them. Often times this is a cheesy 2d effect only, but due to the need for interaction with all the moving parts we were provided a few volumetric lighting passes from our CG Supervisor Aharon Bourland to achieve the look. We continued the same 2d burning wing effect into this shot, but was taken over by an FX Simulation that eroded and dissolved away her wings, arms, and legs using a similar leading edge burn effect. The FX guys orchestrated a series of cracked panels on the demons chest and torso that for a moment tries to hold it all in, but ultimately breaks apart opening up to release our seasoned witch in a burst of light and energy. In the comp we used some 2d distortion techniques making a concussive wave that helped sell the energy during that moment. We padded the naked witch (which was shot as a green screen element) with 2d Schwap! or blood elements made to look like a gooey glistening slime.
After this event, more violent demon animation ensues as we are left with a eroding shell of the demon and a soul like energy getting ripped apart from it’s shell. There is now a slew of swirling debris, ash, bits of demon from FX, as well as this animated ball of particles that tears off and shoots up out of the Scriptorium. It’s here that things started to become a bit abstract in the composite. Using the raw FX passes we created a series of interesting throbbing, swirling, and orbiting passes as pre-composites,and then heavily processed them together animating fits of distortion and bursts of light and energy in 2d using Nuke and Shake.
The original idea for very end of the shot was that the ball of energy was to exit through the oculus at the top of the Scriptorium, and up until the eve of delivering this shot for final, the client changed their mind… why would it know to just leave through the hole they asked? So the new plan was to have the ball of demonic energy miss and smash into a blast of chaos at the top of the celling. This turned into a very fast paced science experiment on how the hell are we going to do this and what exactly this should look like. In less than a day and a half, we took a number of quickly generated FX passes from our Lead FX Animator Joseph Hamdorf, and using Nuke heavily processed the exploding particle simulation renders that blasted across the curvature of the ceiling. Using time offset and re-timing tools on the raw FX elements helped us quickly generate a much more complex looking array of elements. Using every trick we had in the book we built on this using tons of layers with glows, distortions, displacements, ripples, 3d projections for concussive shock waves, 2d smoke and dust for atmosphere, and in the end trying to make a few frames look that of distant galaxy with veins of antimatter shot from the Hubble helped get the job done. It was a very collaborative effort in the end, multiple compositors joined in to help generate bits a pieces, pulling off the finale conclusion to the demons death together in pretty much one day. I have to also mention that this would never had come together so quickly with out the compositing speed and strength of Nuke.
Was there a shot or a sequence that prevented you from sleeping?
Blair Clark (Visual Effects Supervisor) // There were several shots, but the death of the demon section was a pretty challenging one.
What is your pipeline and your software from Tippett Studio?
Aharon Bourland (CG Supervisor) // Our primary 3D packages are Maya, Mudbox, and Houdini. For 3D paint we use photoshop, and our in house tool shallowPaint. We do a mixture of geometry caching to gto files and translating maya scenes to ribs, so we can render them in Renderman. For Comp we use a mixture of Nuke and Shake. Nuke was used on the transformation shots in SEASON OF THE WITCH.
How long have you worked on this film?
Blair Clark (Visual Effects Supervisor) // After the Demon design was approved and ready for production, we started working on shots in early September and finished mid-November 2010.
How many shots have you done and what was the size of your team?
Lee Hahn (Visual Effects Producer) // 60 people, 75 shots, 80 days
What do you keep from this experience?
Blair Clark (Visual Effects Supervisor) // What’s not to love about a show with a Demon in it?!?
What is your next project?
Tippett Studio is currently in production on PRIEST (Screen Gems), THE SMURFS (Columbia Pictures), THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN (Summit Entertainment), IMMORTALS (Relativity), HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN (HBO Films), as well as a commercial for Busch Gardens. In our spare time some of our employees, under the guidance of Phil Tippett, are working on a stop motion project called MAD GOD. You can see a trailer for it on our YouTube page : www.youtube.com/PhilsAttic
What are the 4 movies that gave you the passion of cinema?
Blair Clark (Visual Effects Supervisor) // Just 4? That’s a tough one. I grew up on a steady diet of Universal and Hammer Horror films, and those gave me a combination of being a creepy little kid, and a desire to be involved in film making. I know as soon as I answer this, I will remember 30 other films that were just as influential, but BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, STAR WARS and GOLDFINGER.
A big thanks for your time.
// WANT TO KNOW MORE ?
- Tippett Studio: Official website of Tippett Studio.
© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2011
Posted by dschnee at 10:45 PM
March 11, 2011
Immortals to debut at Wondercon 2011
We are in our final stages of completion with our work on Immortals this week and next, with a few more pieces yet left to put together in the coming months, looking forward to what the panel will reveal.
Saturday, April 2, 5:00 PM - Mascone Center South, San Francisco, CA - Footage and Panel - Main Hall
Visionary director Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall) and producers Gianni Nunnari (300), Mark Canton (300) and Ryan Kavanaugh (The Fighter) unleash an epic tale of treachery, vengeance and destiny in Immortals, a stylish and spectacular 3-D adventure.(ohh joy) As a power-mad king razes ancient Greece in search of a legendary weapon, a heroic young villager rises up against him in a thrilling quest as timeless as it is powerful.
The brutal and bloodthirsty King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) and his murderous Heraklion army are rampaging across Greece in search of the long lost Bow of Epirus. With the invincible Bow, the king will be able to overthrow the Gods of Olympus and become the undisputed master of his world. With ruthless efficiency, Hyperion and his legions destroy everything in their wake, and it seems nothing will stop the evil king’s mission.
As village after village is obliterated, a stonemason named Theseus (Henry Cavill) vows to avenge the death of his mother in one of Hyperion’s raids. When Theseus meets the Sybelline Oracle, Phaedra (Freida Pinto), her disturbing visions of the young man’s future convince her that he is the key to stopping the destruction. With her help, Theseus assembles a small band of followers and embraces his destiny in a final desperate battle for the future of humanity.
Posted by dschnee at 12:42 AM
March 8, 2011
Oscars vs The Box Office 2010
In 2010, 4 out of 5 movies nominated for Best Visual Effects, were also in the Top 10 highest grossing movies worldwide... respect? No, your funny, but there's an Eclipse at #6 with a 50% rotten tomato rating!
Posted by dschnee at 11:01 PM
March 2, 2011
VFX good enough? Sez who?
Compromise quality? never want that. This trend has been steadfast for years now impacting how we work and deliver on projects. Adding to the pain is 3d... Dearest 3d conversion, you wonderful little hacknique, your the best, xoxoxo, -comp.
We rape, pillage, maim, and murder(figuratively) in order to get our shots up to seamless and epic proportions. Most times fighting tooth and nail, clawing and scratching for another 20 minutes on a shot as we strive to make it the best looking picture possible, and you want us to do what? wait, for what? 3d? Criminey, it won't make it look any better, you know what will make it look better, NOT seeing it in 3d. ~enjoy
3D among many pressures squeezing f/x quality
By Ellen Wolff (variety.com)
Talk to anyone who makes visual-effects movies and they'll tell you that shortened schedules and budget pressures are squeezing the quality of vfx in unprecedented ways.
The impact is being felt in the shifting landscape for jobs, with fewer vfx vendors within U.S. borders and the shops growing in territories offering rebates. At the same time, fans are watching these movies on Blu-ray at near 2K resolution, so vfx shots are receiving heightened scrutiny.
On the one hand, artists and vfx supervisors are capable of delivering images of unprecedented detail and complexity -- images that movie fans eat up. But on the other, studios are pushing vfx vendors to deliver more work in less time, often for less money and now often in 3D, which eats up resources.
The conflict between good and good enough isn't new; Leonardo da Vinci is supposed to have said, "Art is never finished, only abandoned." But current stresses on budget combined with worries about making content that will still be valuable in a future of Imax theaters and 4K/3D/giantsized home screens is ratcheting up the tension and driving down the quality.
Some complaints about quality are linked to worries about the future of the American vfx business. American vfx companies like to link quality concerns to globalization, but the vfx industry outside the U.S. has matured, and "Made in USA" is no longer a necessary quality mark.
"There was a time when their (overseas shops') quality wasn't up what you'd get the U.S.," said Marvel Entertainment's executive VP of visual effects, Victoria Alonso. "Those were hard choices to make because you were inclined to go for the rebates. But we're lucky now that talent has grown exponentially around the world."
If an overseas vendor can meet Marvel's security requirements, she says, "We do take chances with them -- particularly for something automated like rotoscoping or tracking."
Fudges and Kludges
However, Ray Feeney of RFX, one of Hollywood's leading technologists, said, "I believe the quality of what has been delivered to the motion picture screen has gone down over the last few years, but not because of globalization."
Feeney added: "It's because of hugely foreshortened schedules and the requirements for day and date releases worldwide. Because that pressure is so strong, studios want as good a quality as they can get, but only as good as they can get and still meet these practicalities."
Feeney and those who argue for more attention to quality note that movies today receive unprecedented scrutiny. With Blu-ray and HDTV, fans can pick apart a sequence frame by frame, and they can spot fudges, kludges and cheats.
At the same time, though, "The movies get bigger but the budgets seem to get smaller," Alonso says. "Because every department seems to cut down before we shoot or as we shoot, the fix-it-in-post department -- which is us -- keeps growing. You have weather issues, or an actor has to leave and you end up with a greenscreen shoot that you didn't think you would have."
Vfx supervisor Jeff Okun, who also serves as chair of thee Visual Effects Society chairman, said "I had one director say, 'I don't like my sets, but I know you can replace them.' We could, but not in 10 days, when the film was opening."
Mike Fink, head of North American production for Prime Focus, agreed. "The old triangle of 'money-time-quality: pick two' doesn't apply anymore. Studios are confident that visual effects people will figure out how to deliver what a director wants for less money, in less time."
Rush Jobs
This mindset can foster sloppy shooting, said Bill Taylor, governor of the Academy's VFX branch. "There's no digital fix for a camera that was placed in the wrong position," he said. "The pressure to get lots of setups done in a day is greater than ever, so the results coming out of production and into the visual effects labs are sometimes very bad. The quality standards of photography have declined, perhaps because of lack of time on set."
Taylor also noted, "There's a whole generation of digital artists who've never picked up a paintbrush or been on a set. Their lack of experience shows in the final result. There are shots in big movies that are unacceptable by any standard."
Quality control is even more complicated by the compressed schedules of today's movies. To get the work done in less time, studios and producers use a "wide pipeline" -- splitting up the shots to many visual effects studios. Gone are the days when a single studio, like Digital Domain or Industrial Light & Magic, would do an entire movie. Those big shops do the high-profile, research intensive work that can drive a marketing campaign. However on "Iron Man 2," ILM was one of 11 visual effects vendors, and that number isn't unusual.
For "Tron: Legacy," VFX supervisor Eric Barba of Digital Domain wrangled work done in Thailand, India, Mexico and Canada. DD had to develop proprietary networking technology so that Barba could monitor high-def images online.
"It's a new model for the visual effects community. Traditionally, we don't share anything. So keeping the quality level consistent was a concern," Barba said. "You don't want sequences looking like different companies did them."
Floor to Ceiling
The move toward 3D is also putting downward pressure on vfx quality. 3D visual effects are much more complicated than 2D visual effects, but budgets don't always make up the difference. Feeney noted that 3D also exposed some limits of today's d-cinema projection systems.
"The projectors couldn't do full quality stereo, and studios have scrambled to bring the quality of stereoscopic movies back to a minimal 2K level. That level -- which was supposed to be the floor -- became the ceiling! Because what actually gets delivered to theaters might be considered compromised, that may allow lower-end visual effects to fly through without being apparent.
"This situation established a 'good enough' mindset. Theaters have to show higher quality imagery to drive studios to deliver better quality masters."
Given all these pressures, it's not surprising that several vfx suppliers have folded. But Okun said: "Some companies are doing well because they've specialized in particular things. Scanline (which did the Oscar-nominated tsunami sequence for "Hereafter") specializes in water effects. It's like the general practice doctors who are struggling, while the brain surgeons are doing fine."
That's led to an evolution, where producers and studio vfx departments talk about "casting" the visual-effects vendors. It lets a shop such as Scanline, that has a specialty, do what it's good at without having to carry the entire show. John Swallow, who oversaw vfx at Universal for 14 years, said: "Lots of people can get images 80% done. It comes down to having enough time to do that last 20%. And if shots are added, quality tends to suffer."
So what happens when the shots aren't of sufficient quality and the release date is looming? Emergency 911 calls go out to the big shops, who have massive resources and very experienced people -- and charge a healthy markup for the rescue work. But smaller shops can't survive on 911 calls. Feeney said, "All it takes is one project from hell to put them out of business."
Taylor expects we'll see more circumstances like the last "Harry Potter" film, where the studio abandoned 3-D conversion efforts that weren't working. "Sooner or later that will happen to the VFX on movies with cast-iron release dates. Those movies will come out with whole sections missing!" (variety.com)
Posted by dschnee at 11:14 PM
