| Paddy
Eason, visual effects supervisor at Rainmaker,
discussed the facility's work on The Golden
Compass. "We used Maya extensively
on The Golden Compass. We took the
top of the cliff and the distant mountainous
horizon from the original plate, and extended
the landscape down into the depths. The warriors
were replaced entirely with digital doubles,
and the original camera move was replaced
with a CG one that extended the tilt of the
cliff. Animated noise deformers on the 3D
geometry helped simulate fast moving cloth
and wind dynamics and additional snow particle
effects were also created to add interaction
with the environment."
Sony
Pictures Imageworks used Maya and Autodesk
Flame visual effects software to help shape
I Am Legend, the science fiction
thriller about the last man on earth. In
the case of I Am Legend, the multitude
layers involved were difficult to place
in scene and matchmove, mainly because of
the complicated scenery of fast-moving New
York City street scenes.
The
CG deer, weeds, and aging elements all needed
to be integrated and prioritised accurately.
Between the Tracker, Paint, Modular Keyer,
and Sparks functions, Flame helped handle
these challenges. Flame is a 'catch-all'
for complex, problematic composites, and
the finessing that goes along with them.
For
its work on Alvin and the Chipmunks, post-production
facility Rhythm and Hues used Maya and Flame.
John Heller, Flame artist at the facility
said, "I was brought in on the film
to composite a complicated shot that needed
to be completed on an extremely tight deadline.
The shot itself involved complicated tracking,
keying and parallax, which was being applied
to the track for a large, multi-layered
matte painting. I doubt we could have completed
the job on time without our Autodesk Flame
system."
Rhythm
and Hues also turned to Autodesk solutions
for compositing work on The Kingdom.
Heller explains, "The most complex
and difficult shots we crafted for The
Kingdom were also put through our Autodesk
Inferno and Flame systems for completion.
For example, Flame was used to create a
large terrorist explosion scene, which involved
numerous set extensions. The system was
the backbone for complicated tracking work
and color correction. We also used it to
composite CG assets, practical effects elements
and matte paintings into the scene. Flame
was also used to create a lot of moving
screen graphics that mimic news broadcast
graphics."
Using
Autodesk Maya and Autodesk Mudbox 3D modeling
software, one of UK's leading post-production
facilities, Cinesite, textured and modeled
reindeer for the holiday film, Fred Claus.
Cinesite also animated the photo-real reindeer
using Maya. Similarly, for The Golden
Compass, Cinesite artists used Mudbox
to model Lee Scoresby's air balloon and
to sculpt displacement maps for several
creatures and completed all character animation
and non-speaking demons using Maya. Maya
was also used to create the digital environment
for the spectacular final battle scene at
Bolvangar, as well as Scoresby's air balloon.
CafeFX
used Autodesk Mudbox and Maya as part of
its production pipeline for The Mist,
an adaptation of the Stephen King science
fiction novel in which horrific creatures
emerge in a small town in Maine after a
massive thunderstorm. All creature modeling
for the monsters, including a giant crab,
huge bugs, birds and spiders, was done with
Mudbox, while all character animation and
rigging was done with Maya.
The
first step for Miguel Ortega, lead model
and texture artist at CafeFX, was to create
3D creature concept art in Mudbox. Ortega
accelerated the character design process
by providing digital 3D maquettes for director
Frank Darabont's review. Thanks to the speed
and flexibility of Mudbox, he was able to
deliver the 3D maquettes just as fast as
the 2D concepts were hand drawn on paper.
Ortega
sats, "We used to build models entirely
in Maya and then detail them in Mudbox.
With The Mist, we took a different
approach; it sped up the process, allowing
us to be more creative with each character's
form without getting bogged down in its
function. Since The Mist characters were
so complex, we first used Mudbox to obtain
signoff on rough characters, then, we created
extremely basic shapes in Maya and sculpted
them in Mudbox, redoing each model's topology
after details were added. We were able to
transfer the resurfaced models into Maya."
As
the sole visual effects facility for No
Country for Old Men, which many critics
call the film of the year Venice-based Luma
Pictures used Autodesk Maya to create more
than 60 shots. These included action sequences,
photo-realistic CG antelopes, a CG airplane
and CG destruction and debris.
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