Hasta La Motion!

MPC’s VFX team led by Rob Walker and Tim Civil was involved from an early stage to figure out how they would create Virgin Atlantic’s stylish spot. A complete pre-viz helped determine the timing of the shots, camera moves, and transitions between scenes.

Filming took place during 6 days at Pinewood, using multiple stages. Most of MPC’s work focused on the complex composites and extensive environment work, which was achieved using a combination of Flame, Maya, Cinema 4D, Nuke, Realflow, After Effects, and Photoshop.

The opening shot presented a typical challenge for the team. All the elements were shot green screen using motion control and integrated in Post. For the small people sliding down the suitcases, a practical to-scale platform was built, and the talent was filmed using a modified camera move derived from the original Girls plate.

The effect in the X-Ray scene was achieved by dressing the talent in mesh clothing, and colour inverting the plates in Flame.

Apart from numerous environmental elements, CG was used to create all the featured planes, mostly notably the full-frame shots with the crew standing on the wing. Also of note are the melting ice-cream girl, Gherkin building, disco ball, martini glass, and cloud layers. Paul Harrison added the master grade.

The 90 sec commercial and cut-downs will be on air in the UK from 1st October.

CREDITS
Directors: Traktor
Agency: RKCR/Y&R
Agency Producer: Jody Allison
Creatives: Pip and Chris
Production Company: Partizan
Production Company Producer: David Stewart
Production Company Producer Manager: Mags Millen
DOP: Stephen Blackman
Editor: Rick Russell @ Final Cut

Post Production: MPC
VFX Lead: Rob Walker and Tim Civil
VFX team: James Adamson, Anthony Bloor, Tim Civil, Russell Etheridge, Bruno Fukomothi, Liam Griffin, Robert Hesketh, Richard Hopkins, Kamen Markov, Mikael Petterrsson, Nidhi Seth, Charlotte Tyson, Rob Walker, Byron Woofendon
Telecine: Paul Harrison

RELATED LINKS
www.moving-picture.com

Here, Skin drives along while her boyfriend’s sleazy infidelities are played out on the backseat. It’s a fetish for the obscure combined with the violent temperament of the editorial tone that makes this video unique and compelling.

Directed by Paul Street (Streetlight Films) it is a rare diversion into promos from his usual commercial work: “I’ve been a fan of the bands work for a long time,” says Street. ” I connected to the Ugly Boy track immediately – the idea and images for the video came right out of the lyrics. – very quickly and subconsciously.”

Adrian Harrison, Executive Producer of Streetlight says: “I’m absolutely thrilled with Paul’s Skunk Anansie video as it was a challenge to pull off but a big credit to all who were involved in the making of it.”

CREDITS
Record Label: v2 Benelux
Commissioner: Paul McKee
Director: Paul Street (Streetlight Films)
Producers: Julia Guignabel & Adam Frisch
Editor: James Rose, Cut + Run

RELATED LINKS
www.cutandrun.tv
www.skunkanansie.net

“The stunt work in the film is fantastic, and in keeping with Phillip Noyce’s brief for realism, our VFX team worked heavily with the stunt crews to achieve key shots that would blend seamlessly within the stunt sequences,” said VFX Supervisor Ivan Moran.

Framestore NY was the lead VFX house on Salt and was responsible for key creative direction, technical CG and compositing. This is the first feature film to come out of the recently established film division in the company’s New York offices.

“This was a great film to come out of our new film division at Framestore NY, building on the Framestore legacy for VFX,” said Executive Producer VFX Sarah Dowland. “We knew how key the VFX work would be to the success of the film. There were many scenes and stunts that could not have been achieved without VFX involvement, and if those VFX moments were not realistic, the viewer would not believe the story. The demand for realism and transparency from Phillip Noyce was a challenge, but we were confident we would meet his expectations and we did.”

Salt focuses on the thrilling hunt to uncover the truth behind the identity of Evelyn Salt (Jolie), and that hunt takes the moviegoer on a wild ride. The film features countless stunts, explosions and car chases, each propelling the narrative forward and providing Salt with a number of narrow escapes.

Framestore worked with the Director and DP to carefully map out what could be captured in camera and then partnered with the film’s crew to ensure that the suspense never lets up due to a lack of realism. As the lead vendor on the movie, Framestore worked on over 300 shots.

“The real challenge was to realistically recreate objects and effects that people see every day,” said CG supervisor Theo Jones. “People are so familiar with some of the objects and experiences that we were building in CG and animation, so we needed them to be spot on or people would immediately sense that something was off and the believability of the scene would be in jeopardy.”

Framestore created a variety of CG crowd extensions, vehicles and set extensions to achieve the scale that the Director was after. Framestore’s VFX and animation work was vital to several key moments in the film, assisting the storytelling as well as making the action more compelling. Framestore even built, cracked and eventually disintegrated the floor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral using advanced CG and VFX techniques.

Framestore also oversaw one of the most impressive stunts in the film, when Salt drives off the 59th Street Bridge. A rigged SUV was actually pulled off one of the bridge exit ramps, smashing spectacularly into the taxi’s below.

“Multiple cameras were placed to film the stunt,” said Moran, “With perhaps the most ambitious being a camera rigged inside the vehicle itself, to be used as the backplate for a composite shot of Angelina seen from inside the vehicle on impact.”

To achieve this, the impact camera was later matched on a bluescreen stage, with vehicle seats and rigged airbags built for Angelina to perform against. Framestore was able to quickly comp Angelina’s takes on set to provide invaluable feedback from the director as to how the performance was matching the inside footage of the real SUV crash. For the final shots, CG dust and debris were added to blend the plates together and combined with the surrounding stunt work, the result is a stunning sequence of Salt’s escape.

Columbia pictures presents, in association with
Di Bonaventura Pictures, and Sony Pictures Entertainment

DIRECTOR Phillip Noyce
PRODUCERS Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Sunil Perkash

VFX Framestore

RELATED LINKS
www.framestore-cfc.com
www.sonypictures.com/movies/salt

A former stuntman, Nash was very in tune with the environment and used his background skills to create the filmic piece. Unlike most directors’ treatments, Nash produced an edited version of the video starring friends to use in pre-production. He even had one of his bearded friends starring as Charlize’s sexy character.

(Click here to view the video)

The video puts Charlize in the role of savior, fighting sword-wielding Ninjas. The main effects application was rig removal from all the various production stunts. Lead Flame Artist Andy Bate worked to remove heads, animate flying ninja star weapons, detonate and rebuild windows and paint flames, amongst other effects.

Andy was very pleased with the result, adding “It was a fantastic job. Nash is a really dedicated director and his stuntman background make the experience an incredible collaboration.”

The Mill is a world-leading visual effects company with bases in the globe’s three most important advertising centres – London, New York and now Los Angeles. The Mill has worked on some of the most memorable visual effects projects in the world, including Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator’ for which it gained a VFX Oscar.

The Mill has won more awards for visual effects than any other facility in Europe including those for Johnnie walker ‘Human’, Sony ‘Balls’, Sony Playstation ‘Mountain’ and Honda ‘Cog’.

CREDITS
Artist: Brandon Flowers
Track: Crossfire
Production Company: The Directors Bureau
Record Company: Island Def Jam Music Group
Director: Nash Edgerton
Exec Producer: Lana Kim
Producer: Lawrence Lewis/Anke Thommen
Director of Photography: Morgan Susser
Editor: Nash Edgerton
Editorial Assistant: Sitha San
Post-Production: The Mill Los Angeles
Producer: Lee Pavey
Lead Flame Artist: Andy Bate

RELATED LINKS
www.the-mill.com

SOURCE
www.the-mill.com

VFXTalk to Interview Double Negative on Iron Man 2!
We are excited to announce that kicking off the series is world leading production facility Double Negative on their work for the comic book adventure ‘Iron Man 2’. The long awaited superhero sequel was directed by Jon Favreau, and the Double Negative team worked under the direction of overall VFX Supervisor Janek Sirrs.

Double Negative
Since its formation in 1998, Double Negative has firmly established itself as a leading player in visual effects production worldwide, and boasts more than 70 feature films to its credit. Located in the heart of London’s Soho, the company is led by Managing Director Alex Hope and CEO Matt Holben. Recent Double Negative film work includes: Inception, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, The Wolf Man, Kick-Ass, Sherlock Holmes, 2012, The Green Zone, Angels & Demons, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, The Boat that Rocked, Fast & Furious, John Carter of Mars, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Attack the Block.

Iron Man 2
Director Jon Favreau and Oscar nominee Robert Downey Jr. were reunited for the highly anticipated sequel to the blockbuster film based on the legendary Marvel Super Hero ‘Iron Man’. In ‘Iron Man 2’ the world is aware that billionaire inventor Tony Stark is the armoured Super Hero Iron Man. Under intense pressure from the government, the press and the public to share his technology with the military, Tony is unwilling to divulge the secrets behind the Iron Man armor because he fears the information will slip into the wrong hands.

Double Negative – The Monaco Sequence
The Dneg team, under the supervision of Janek Sirrs, completed around 250 shots in the Monaco sequence which begins with Tony Stark’s arrival in Monaco for the Grand Prix.

Tony Stark owns one of the cars competing in the race and he decides to get out onto the track and race the car himself. As the race unfolds Ivan Vanko’s Whiplash, disguised as an official, walks out onto the track and activating his lethal electric whips, he slices both the lead car and Stark’s in two. Stark’s driver, Happy Hogan and former PA, Pepper Potts witness the attack on TV and jump into Stark’s Rolls Royce, driving onto the track and weaving through the oncoming race cars.

Stark manages to crawl from the wreckage of his car as more cars pile up on the track. Whiplash closes in on Stark, slicing several more cars until Stark is trapped, surrounded by flaming wreckage. The Rolls Royce screams around the corner and slams into Whiplash, pinning him against the barrier. As Stark opens the car door to get in, Whiplash recovers and starts slicing the Rolls Royce into pieces. Pepper manages to throw Tony a high-tech suitcase containing his lightweight, portable Mark V Iron Man armour. Stark activates the suit transforming himself into Iron Man, and takes on Whiplash in a manic struggle, with eventually the Ivan Vanko character coming off second best.

DNeg’s work on the Monaco sequence fell into three broad categories: Race-day Monaco and Grand-Prix, the Whiplash Attack; and Stark’s Mk V armour and suit-up.

Re-recreation of Race-Day Monaco, Crowds & Historic Grand-Prix Cars
DNeg created two highly detailed digital versions of each of the eleven cars which feature in the Historic Grand Prix race through the Monaco streets. Five art-department cars were built specifically for the Monaco sequence and six genuine vintage grand prix cars were brought in to make up the rest of the grid. The non-digital cars are only seen static on the starting line before the race begins.

Throughout the entire Monaco sequence sprite crowds and practical crowd elements were used to populate the Monaco stands and buildings, with CG agents used to break up the sprite crowd and perform any specific actions.

Whiplash’s Electric Whips and Associated Damage & Destruction!
Producing a look for Whiplash’s whips and the damage they cause to the cars, racing track and Iron Man himself, was a considerable challenge for the DNeg team. Drawing a parallel with the creation of the Mk I Iron Man suit in the previous Iron Man movie, the Whiplash rig is homemade and somewhat rough around the edges.

One of the most complex VFX tasks undertaken for the movie was creating the interaction of the whips with Iron Man. This ‘Thermite’ effect required a combination of all other ‘whip VFX’ to generate the smoking, molten metal that streams from Iron Man when the whips are wrapped around him.

Mk V Iron Man Armour and Suit-up
Some of the greatest technical and creative challenges on Iron Man 2 came from the 50 shots at the end of the sequence featuring the Mk V Iron Man ‘suitcase’ armour. This portion of work posed a couple of unique challenges, firstly the conceptual challenge of making the deployment and assembly of the armour plausible, and secondly the choreography of the close-quarters fight with Whiplash and Iron Man’s interaction with a live-action performer to whom he’s directly connected for much of the fight. The notion that Stark would have designed the Mk V to be as easy as possible to use led to the idea that the case can be deployed whilst still on the floor, so when Stark lifts it to his chest the armour is already partially formed.

Speak to the DNeg Team!
So now here is your chance to ask the DNeg team about their work on Iron Man 2, the thoughts behind the process, the difficulties that they encountered, how the shots were realised; and the finished elements that they are most proud of.

Your questions will be sent over to DNeg Visual Effects Supervisor Ged Wright, 2D Supervisor Victor Wade, and co-CG Supervisors Jordan Kirk and Katherine Roberts.

This call for questions will be open for one week and will be closed at the end of working play on Tuesday 7 September 2010.

*Because this thread may contain spoilers from the movie, it is recommended that you go see the movie before proceeding further!

Related Links:
www.dneg.com
http://ironmanmovie.marvel.com

Image Credits:
Iron Man 2, the Movie: © 2010 MVL Film Finance LLC. Iron Man, the Character TM & © 2010 Marvel Entertainment LLC & subs. All rights reserved.