Cool featurette about the production start of AVENGERS – INFINITY WAR:

The VFX are made by:
Industrial Light & Magic
Weta Digital
Double Negative
Method Studios
Framestore
Cinesite
Digital Domain
Lola VFX
Perception

The Production VFX Supervisors are: Dan DeLeeuw and Swen Gillberg.

Directors: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo
Release Date: 4 May 2018 (USA)

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2017

The post AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Here is the teaser for OKJA:

The VFX are made by:
4th Creative Party
Method Studios

Director: Bong Joon-ho
Release Date: June 28, 2017 (Netflix)

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2017

The post OKJA appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Here is the teaser for GEOSTORM:

The VFX are made by:
Double Negative (VFX Supervisors: Julian Foddy & Paul Riddle)
Flash Film Works (VFX Supervisor: William Mesa)
Framestore (VFX Supervisor: Rob Duncan)
Hydraulx (VFX Supervisor: Colin Strause)
Ingenuity Studios
Method Studios
Soho VFX (VFX Supervisor: Allan Magled)

The Production VFX Supervisors are Chris Watts and Jeffrey A. Okun.

Director: Dean Devlin
Release Date: 20 October 2017 (USA)

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2017

The post GEOSTORM appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Excellent teaser trailer for THOR – RAGNAROK:

The VFX are made by:
Industrial Light & Magic (VFX Supervisor: Chad Wiebe)
Framestore (VFX Supervisors: Alexis Wajsbrot and Kyle McCulloch)
Rising Sun Pictures
Method Studios
Craft Apes

The Production VFX Supervisor is Jake Morrison.

Director: Taika Waititi
Release Date: 3 November 2017 (USA)

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2017

The post THOR: RAGNAROK appeared first on The Art of VFX.

In 2012, Olivier Dumont explained to us the work of Method Studios on WRATH OF THE TITANS. He then worked on many films such as GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE or VOYAGE OF TIME: LIFE’S JOURNEY.

How did you and Method Studios get involved on this show?
We were contacted by Nick Davis and Alex Bicknell for a potential role as one of the main vendors on the show. I also had already worked with Nick on WRATH OF THE TITANS and despite the craziness of it, we had a lot of fun. I guess the ongoing increasing recognition of Method Studios in the VFX industry and this previous relationship played a role.

How was the collaboration with director Guy Ritchie and VFX Supervisor Nick Davis?
My relationship was mostly with Nick and Alex as I had very little interaction with Guy Ritchie. I knew from my great past experience what to expect from working with Nick again and it wasn’t disappointing. Nick is great at leading the visual while also leaving a lot of room for creativity (which is to me the best part of the job). We are fortunate to have similar ways of visualizing things allowing us to go through all the challenges in much easier way. For instance, one of the challenges could have been the distance, Nick being in London, which means any communication time becomes very precious as we are working when London is not available and thinking alike becomes very useful. This collaboration was dialogue all along to figure out the way to make out the best visuals for the story.

What was their approaches and expectations about the visual effects?
The mood of this movie was that everything was supposed to be as grounded as possible despite the magic underlying so they wanted to stay away from too much of the more fantastic type of VFX. For instance, for our work on the creation of Londinium, I met with Gemma Jackson, the great production designer of GAME OF THRONES. She had done so much research about Londinium after the Romans built it (the sets were absolutely fantastic). We ended up buying a book based on her recommendation to help us understand the full scope of architecture. Londinium at that time had been abandoned by the Romans for more than 400 years. It had to show that a “less” civilized culture had taken over, hence the wood additions to the houses or the badly repaired structures you can see throughout the movie. Although we had to stay true to the architecture history, we still had to create a city that was probably 10 times bigger than the one that really existed.

Following the same line of thinking, the magic elements were always driven by natural elements: dust and stones in the bath house fight, the real snake coming out of the Mage’s sleeve to protect Arthur with its venom or the Mage’s eyes mimicking the animal eyes she is controlling. Nick and his second hat as a director himself helped us to make sure we didn’t lose the grounded part in the numerous full CG shots we had to create from scratch for the story.

What are the sequences made by Method Studios?
They were very diverse and I am probably missing some little ones. The main one was the build of Londinium for all the set extensions, the wide establishers and all that is happening inside throughout the movie. We also handled the travel of the boat with little Arthur on board, the travel back from the execution, set extension in their hideout, the sinking of Vortigen’s boats, Arthur’s dream of what the future would look like if does nothing, Mage’s Snake biting Arthur to protect him, the boat sequence of Arthur coming back from the Darklands, and Arthur fighting the blacklegs in Camelot before the fight with Vortigen.

How did you organize the work at Method Studios?
All the work has been done at our facility in Vancouver. Being based in LA, it was great that we had very good production team up there lead by a fantastic VFX producer, Jinnie Pak, who was keeping things in order through multiple work extensions when the release date was pushed. We also had a strong DFX supervisor to lead the team locally, Michael Cliett, who handled this complicated role perfectly.

As you can imagine the asset team had relentless work to build all necessary elements. Londinium required houses that should always look different and also all the little every day objects you would see in the street. After that you need to populate it with crowds and same thing here about the variety. The amount of work was gigantic. Layout was also an intricate task to place everything according to the shots as they were looking every direction.

The lookdev artists and lighters had to make sure we could be as photoreal as possible and could always count on the solid matte painting team to help getting there for the city shots. The animators and the cloth simulation artists had all kind of motion to play with from the background crowd to very foreground elements of Arthur and blacklegs fighting. The FX team had the heavy task of creating all the natural elements being used during normal and magic time like atmospherics, dust, smoke explosions or the water. A solid compositing team that was lead by Senior Compositing Supervisor Tom McHattie and Compositing Supervisor Allan Lee got us to the finish line.

The city is seen through various conditions and lighting. How did you handle this challenge?
The way I thought about it at the beginning was to build full districts of the city based on a very rough 3D model of the layout created by the art department. We used it to pinpoint locations of the events we had in the script. We would then build those districts and reuse them for continuity purposes. But that’s not the way Guy Ritchie works and beside the main events, most of the shots didn’t require any continuity so we forgot about that and went with the flow to make the shot look right at that moment for the movie. In other words, every of those shots became a one-off which was a bit more work as you had to start a new brief for each of them instead of using just one district already built and place the camera. We used a base of about 80 houses plus variations and hundreds of props to complete that challenge.

During a sequence, Arthur and his team is running away in the streets seen from the sky. Can you tell us more about these shots?
This was one of the many shots that came after we had started. Nick let us know ahead of time that the movie would need some establishers and that was one of them. The inspiration was coming from a shot where the camera jumped from one street to another and followed multiple characters. Michael concepted this shot working himself on the camera move with Nick’s directions. The shot was much longer originally and got cut shorter for pacing reasons. We didn’t have any elements shot for this so we had to create the digi-doubles for Arthur and his team; we already had the crowd and the blacklegs. Everything was a question of timing and logic. The blacklegs had to react accordingly to the team running and the explosions happening above them. They also had to have some purpose before being alerted like checking citizens or guarding certain areas to feel that they were part of the trap. All of this was thought out and animated accordingly. We used a lot of motion capture elements but a lot has been touched up to matched the exact action needed.

How did you populate the streets of the city?
We used Massive to drive our crowd through the street and their thousands of actions. We went through a lot of iteration to make sure nothing was looking too staged or too perfect.

Many destructions happens in Londinium. Can you tell us more about it?
Indeed, we burned the Palace and one administration office, we blew up the bathhouse, we burned the brothel and we had to spread riots all over Londinium. Everything needed a different kind of destruction vector. We used Houdini to creating huge plumes of smoke for the Palace, while the brothel required more localized fire and we used everything in between for the riots. The crowd had to be reacting to this as well so more motion capture and animation were involved.

At a moment, Arthur has a snake on it. How did you created it?
We got a specific species to replicate (an adder) so we got as many references as we could (image of adders and video of snakes climbing). We then worked on the model, rigging and lookdev. The challenge, once we figured out a way for the snake to climb up Arthur’s sleeve in what we hope was a believable manner, was to get the clothing moving accordingly when it exits the sleeve and climbs.

How did you handle his rigging and animation?
We knew that we would need a solid rigging and deformation for the body so we studied the videos and made sure we had also a solid base for the roto-animation of Arthur’s arm to prevent any sliding look. The animation was another study of snakes climbing on trees, walls and so on, and it was fascinating to see that kind of agility. Basically the snake finds anchor points and those are the only marks where the snake doesn’t slide. The snake could undulate in between but never at those points; this was what made it work.

In a flashback, Arthur can see a dark future. How did you created this devastated environment?
These were brought to us at the very end. Nick came with concepts that we interpreted with the elements we had already built to deliver on time. We still had to destroy most of those elements and this specific task was shared between CG and matte painting. The elephant in the BG was rendered by MPC based on our lighting and was then comped by us.

How did you find the specific look of the flashback?
We had to find a dreamy look to apply to it and went through some grading of the plates to bring all the elements together. The dreamy look was obtained through layering of effects made in Nuke to keep some depth to it.

When Arthur is using Excalibur is has super speed and strength. Can you explain in detail about the creation of the beautiful action sequence in the castle?
The logic of the sword was, when Arthur grabs it with his two hands, everything slows down around him. One of the first shot we experimented with was the one on top of the stairs right after he grabs the sword with his hands. We explored how slow this would be through the animation of the blacklegs. We didn’t use any motion control as we needed to stay true to the Guy Ritchie style and went full on with the blackleg digi-doubles. We also wanted to see a remnant of what Arthur went through during the bathhouse by adding the dust cloud that forms around him to link the events. But now, he is more in control and it didn’t have to be so chaotic. We thought it would bind the action and the magic more without being over the top.

For some shots, we were able to use multi plates to get the slow motion effects but most of the time, and especially the long shot of Arthur fighting the the blacklegs, we used full CG characters. The latter was a full CG shot and we borrowed the castle from Framestore to make our own for this fight.

How did you created the various digi-doubles for this sequence?
The blacklegs were the first high-res characters we created for the movie and were shared with the other vendors as needed. We had plenty of time to create the best version of that. Arthur became a little more tricky as the sequence wasn’t supposed to be like that from the get go. Built as an afterthought, it was hard to get all the information needed from the actor since we had very limited access to him once the main photography was done, and we weren’t able to get the usual FACS poses up front to build expressions and the rig. We chose then to work with face replacements where the CG was breaking. Some of the face replacements were even coming from other shots. We got a very good help from the production VFX editor to find those.

Many FX are also involve during this fight. Can you tell us more about it?
FX in this sequence included the smoky element coming off Arthur’s sword and the dust and pebbles we see rising when he grabs it with his two hands, the dust that follows Arthur and his moves, the fire pit Arthur throws at the blacklegs, the sweat coming off the punch and the dust from the hits, the breaking of the spear, and the dust following the arrows and the big shockwave taking out the archers. We also added the multiple fire pits and torches all over the courtyard. One thing to know is that FX and re-speed do not work well together and every moment becomes a challenge. We found out that the best way to get the FX working is to animate everything real time and slow it down and then use subframes to generate the proper look but that comes with a lot of inconveniences as every one of those subframes needs to be worked on as well. It was at the end a mix of several techniques that got us through.

What was the main challenge on this show and how did you achieve it?
If the long full CG shot of Arthur’s fight in the castle was probably the most challenging, the build of Londinium was a marathon.

Was there a shot or a sequence that prevented you from sleep?
Not really, thanks to the great team I had in Vancouver. But I surely had some lack of it…

What is your best memory on this show?
Surely the collaboration with Nick Davis and Alex Bicknell, his VFX producer, and their sense of humor made it easier get through the usual challenges. Our Method team was great, and also a real pleasure to work with.

How long have you worked on this show?
Almost 2 years.

What is your VFX shots count?
Around 430 shots, but we worked on more than 600.

What was the size of your team?
In the hundreds.

A big thanks for your time.

// WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Method Studios: Dedicated page about KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD on Method Studios website.

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2017

The post KING ARTHUR – LEGEND OF THE SWORD: Olivier Dumont – VFX Supervisor – Method Studios appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Here is the teaser trailer for BLACK PANTHER:

The VFX are made by:
Industrial Light & Magic (VFX Supervisor: Craig Hammack)
Luma Pictures
Method Studios
Rise Visual Effects Studios
Scanline VFX
Trixter

The Production VFX Supervisor is Geoffrey Baumann.

Director: Ryan Coogler
Release Date: 16 February 2018 (USA)

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2017

The post BLACK PANTHER appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Erik-Jan de Boer began his career in the VFX at MPC in 1989. He then worked at Rushes before joining Rhythm & Hues in 1996 where he worked more than 16 years as an animation supervisor. In 2013 he won an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects for LIFE OF PI. He then joined Method Studios.

What is your background?
I started using computers for textile print designs and pattern layouts as a fashion student at the University of the Arts in Utrecht, The Netherlands back in 1986. Soon I was more intrigued by that tool than the product I was trying to create and I switched to study Image and Media Technology, a new faculty. I got an internship (and my first job in the industry) at the Moving Picture Company in 1989, then moved to Rhythm & Hues in 1996, before joining Method Studios in 2013.

How did you and Method Studios get involved on this show?
Method VFX Supervisor Dan Glass introduced me to Director Bong at the end of 2014. They knew each other from the work that Method had done on SNOWPIERCER. Bong showed us his initial Okja concept work but was not ready to share his script yet. We discussed working with a child actor and what we could do to portray the relationship between Okja and Mija as emotional and realistic as possible.

How was the collaboration with director Bong Joon Ho?
The collaboration with Bong was great, he understands the VFX process and his direction was clear and consistent. He was always open to our ideas and trusted us to finish the work as we had planned and discussed. He is a super nice guy and it really was a fun and smooth ride.

What was his approach and expectations about the visual effects?
We received the script in April of 2015 and reading through it I realized that Bong had taken our initial discussions to heart. Mija and Okja were in close contact throughout the story. Mija slept on top of Okja, she was inside her mouth brushing Okja’s teeth, pulled herself up by Okja’s ears, rode on top of Okja, the list kept going. The interaction work was going to be incredibly ambitious. I felt some (healthy) fear and a lot of excitement.

What are the sequences made by Method Studios?
Method did all the Okja hero creature work on the movie.

How did you organize the work at Method Studios?
All the Okja work was done by the Method Vancouver facility.

How did you work with the art department to design Okja?
The original design was done by creature designer Hee-Chul Jang. He created an Okja sculpture that we used for an initial scan. Once we had her digitized and cleaned up, we invited Hee-Chul to Vancouver to kick off the build process with our creature modeler Paolo Welter. After seeing our initial model under various lighting scenarios, we played with her scale and proportions a bit. We mainly just altered ear size, feet structure and her tail; the final design is very true to the original concept work. Bong was always very confident in the design, never doubted it.

Can you explain in detail about her creation?
Okja is a GMO animal, specifically designed to produce a lot of consumable meat so we amplified the fat and musculature; she had to be substantial, but not as grotesque as you see on a Belgian Blue for example. She also had to be appealing. To make the audience care about her, we needed her to be pretty in her own huge pork way. We did this mainly by reducing the lips and going for more canine jowls and prettier teeth. We also added hair and fuzz that was not part of the original concept, but allowed us to get some softness and youth out of her.

Can you tell us more about her rigging and animation?
As always, we build our creature from the inside out: the usual setup of skeleton with muscle rig and several skin sims blended. But this time around I was not necessarily looking for the perfect, anatomically correct solution. We were looking for the surprise shapes and looseness we saw in our reference but without locking ourselves into long expensive sims that could not be art directed.

So we turned our R&D a bit upside down and specced out how we wanted our shot production workflow to be. Faster sim iterations and the ability to art-direct at the muscle level was key. We also needed to be able to tweak individual shapes, flex strength and dynamics. We ran auto fire flexing scripts but the animators had the ability to keyframe on top.

The creature team, supervised by Edy Susanto Lim, did a great job building this technology and we had a strong tech animation team led by Elise Deglau and Thomas Girdwood running our sims and dealing with all the incredible complex skin contacts.

Did you receive specific indications or references for the animation of Okja?
Yes, this is a hybrid creature and the animators got a lot of inspiration from various sources in nature, mainly hippos and elephants for locomotion. Bong had one specific piece of footage of a hippo trotting out of the water onto a riverbank that he felt really displayed the proper gait for Okja. But for some shots the trot got too prancy and did not give us enough speed so there are a few shots where she breaks into a more heroic gallop. All Okja animation was key-framed and the team did a great job getting the mass and heft into her performance.

For her facial performance, we looked at a lot of canines. Tilda Swinton’s dogs were very useful and we also had some great reference from a Beagle that I know, Jack. The Beagle had the perfect proportions, floppy ears and even demeanor for Okja reference.

There is a lot of interactions between Okja, the actors and the sets. How did you manage that on-set?
We wanted no contact restrictions so we needed solutions that could handle improvisation and happy accidents. We had to be smart about the props we built to capture the correct physicality on set, which included everything from subtle caressing to hard pulling, pushing and shoving. We also wanted to shoot everything on location for the best integration possible so our props had to be robust and travel well. They also had to be light enough to puppeteer yet heavy and big enough to provide the forces and overall physicality we needed.

In prep we worked with a Korean company called Cell and their supervisor Tae Long Kwak. We specced out all the props (we called them stuffies) and they did a cool job converting our CG models into flat laser cut foam panels that they glued into very accurate 3D shapes: big Okja puzzles! The density of the EVA foam was reinforced or softened in certain areas to account for the correct compression and friction we needed. This way we created an arsenal of 25 stuffies that ranged from generic shape and size reference to very specific unique solutions for actions like the tooth brushing rig or the roll rig we used for when Mija sleeps on top of Okja and she turns over.

For each setup, Method Animation Supervisor Stephen Clee and a team of stuffy PAs would puppeteer these props. Steve is a great animator but also a great athlete, which was necessary as the work was physically very challenging. I would be with Bong at the monitor, with Steve in front of the camera; we really had a great setup. It also gave us great continuity with the shot production work as Steve now had intimate knowledge on each shot from his on-set work and could very convincingly relay that direction to the animation team.

How did you recreate the various sets and locations?
For the shots with Okja walking and rolling through the brush, the FX team, supervised by Lele Berti, created full CG foliage elements. They also did extensive Houdini water sim work for scenes where Okja is walking through and swimming in the ponds. For the big crash in the underground shopping mall, we built a section of the mall on a soundstage so we could crash a minivan into the store. That was a pretty spectacular shoot. For the scene where Okja saves Mija on the cliff slope, things got a bit more complicated. We had scouted a cliff in Korea but, because of safety and scheduling reasons, did not end up shooting there. Later in Vancouver, we shot plates on top of Grouse Mountain, but Bong was not very happy with the look of that location so we decided to build a full CG rock environment. 4th Creative Party in Korea did the Mija dangling, forest and cliff face shots while Method took care of the Okja shots on top of the cliff.

Can you tell us more about the interactions between Okja and Mija?
In my initial meetings with Bong, we talked a lot about what we could do to help An Seo Hyun deliver a convincing performance against the inanimate pieces of foam we would have to use on set. I really felt that the VFX department could help her feel comfortable so we did a few things. First, we always had Steve Clee puppeteer Okja so there was always a friendly familiar face for An Seo Hyun to work with. We also stayed as much as possible in character with Okja. For our more complicated setups, we would first rehearse with Mija’s stunt double to test our stuffy approach. Very often we had to make adjustments to our props for comfort, safety and performance. On some setups things got very tricky. We would switch props halfway through takes and the choreography and timing cues could get very involved. With everything dialed in, we would rehears with An Seo Hyun herself. We would find a quiet parking lot or stage corner and tape the location dimensions on the floor. We would then run through our setups until we all understood what we had to achieve. This really helped us to focus on the Mija/Okja relationship when we also had to deal with noise, traffic, schedules, extras, etc.

How did you handle the challenges of the eyes?
We took some liberties with the brows, implementing a typical brow ‘pillows’ setup that you see on canines. This allowed us to emote with them more strongly while still keeping it (fantasy) animalistic. We also added eyelashes to make her more feminine and gentle. These lashes were driven by geometry so we could pose them in animation based on our camera angle.

Geometry was added to the rig so we always had a moist meniscus rendered into the skin/eyeball contact areas. In some very close up hero shots, we actually did some FX fluid sims to help with that. The shader allowed us to control the level of bloodshot and eye corner gunk, and we did complex subsurface work on the thinner skin membrane underneath the eyes to show the different quality of that skin. For some of the extreme close ups, we shot reverse angle reflection plates to make sure we had a valid reflection at the right quality.

In animation, we played the usual dilation tricks to always have some life in the pupils and we were very conscious of the convergence on this huge, front-facing animal with a big inter-pupillary distance. Looking at closer objects made her cuter with a little cross-eye. Based on eye direction, the rig had some auto skin tug built in but the animators had controls to tweak that when required. At the bottom of our deformation stack, we added a strong asymmetrical blend shape on the whole face that was applied on top of our mirrored build. This knocked both eyes off a little bit and added strongly to the pork’s appeal.

Okja is seen through a lot of various lighting conditions. How did you manage this aspect?
For each setup, we grabbed the usual HDRI and ball passes. We also tried to LIDAR as much as possible so we could mimic the geography closely in our V-Ray renders. Using this data, our lighting supervisor, Christian Emond, and his team did a great job matching the on-set conditions and look. With her mid-grey skin tone and brighter stomach, Okja could be pretty tricky to dial in sometimes, but the early shots of the Korean countryside and forest work with the softer light look especially great. Okja is a huge shape in each shot and matching the gobo motion, quality and shape was a real challenge.

The shader work from our lookdev lead Casey Rolseth was very sophisticated and allowed the team to easily adjust the pig to the scene. Variables for tears, sweat, scars, bruises, dust and dirt levels, wetness, etc. were available for each section of the body, with presets dialed in by Christian for all sequences and adjusted by the lighting artists for every shot.

Because of Okja’s huge size, we had to make sure that the photographed plate had the proper shading built in. We knew that we would never achieve that on the set or terrain but that was relatively easy to add after the fact. We had to make sure though that we shadowed/occluded our actors properly so that it appeared there was a huge shape nearby; getting that wrong would be harder to correct down the line. Most of the time our stuffy shape took care of that but we also had flags that we would puppeteer in cases where it was necessary.

Later in the movie, we see lots of super-pigs. How did you use the Okja asset to create them? How did you manage the crowd animation?
The feedyard sequences were a whole different beast. All pigs close to camera were treated and animated as hero assets by the animation team, who also created the many base cycles for the crowd sims.

Because we had a very good idea of the parameters for the sequence, we decided to bypass our usual crowd pipe and build a more direct solution. Lighting Lead Stefan Braun and Animation TD Alan Camilo got together and mocked up a system that allowed us to interactively design and view our crowd (up to 16,000 pigs per scene), update the animation proxy caches on the fly and smoothly source them as V-Ray meshes for rendering. It was really fun to see a small team deliver such an effective solution for a pretty daunting challenge.

We created about 20 pig variations. Bong had shared some reference frames of a herd of hippos standing in a wide river with caked mud on their backs, some were wet, others had dried out, and the light was playing on their backs forming a strong pattern. The graphic quality of that was something that really appealed to him so that was an important piece of inspiration for us. We also gave the crowd pigs six nipples, making Okja “truly exceptional” since she only has one!

All of these shots are almost full CGI, with only the cast and sections of the road photographed. 4th Creative Party created the background slaughterhouse element.

With such a detailed creature, how did you handle the rendering aspect?
The movie was shot on Alexa 65s at 6.5K, cropped slightly to remove the strongest vignetting and downressed to 4K, which was our final delivery resolution.

We built an asset that was going to be rendered in some serious close ups, and not just the eyes; we had close ups of every part of her huge body: feet, soles, udder, belly, neck and even the anus got its daylight extreme close up moment. This required strong displacement, subsurface, hair, pores, 104 UDIM tiles at 8K, etc. Our CG supervisor, Earl Paraszczynec, and Christian spent a lot of time with the asset and V-Ray to get our renders optimized, but with Mija being small and Okja big, the CG always covered a lot of screen space and the closer up, heavily motion blurred frames were, to be honest, painful. Earl implemented some great tile rendering tools, which allowed us to throw more CPUs on single frames. We got gorgeous crisp stable 4K renders, which we then diffused (sometimes heavily) to successfully marry the CG into the original photography.

What was the main challenge on this show and how did you achieve it?
It was definitely the amount of complex interaction work we did. All the close and prolonged contact we had put major demands on the work from all departments. The fidelity of the match move, rotomation, animation, techanim, paint and compositing work just had to be perfect, and that took a lot of focus, tenacity, elbow grease and long hours. Our comp supervisor, Pieter van Houte, and his team did an amazing job on the composting, getting all that subtle contact shadow to work and the final images at 4K just look stunning.

What is your favorite shot or sequence and why?
I really enjoyed seeing the traffic tunnel shots come together. Mija and Okja reunite, and Mija rides Okja out of the tunnel towards the traffic intersection. Mija was going to hang from Okja’s harness and we needed her to have a great percussive bounce. We used a Mija digi double for a small section in one shot but the rest is the only green screen element we used. Instead of a motion base, we built the ‘piggo poggo’. It was a huge pogo stick on a fixed stand that allowed us to control the cadence and amplitude. We rehearsed this several times with Mija and she had a great time riding it. These were very complex shots with CG cars and complex choreography, some of the first to start and last to deliver.

What is your best memory on this show?
So many great moments: hiking deep into the Korean national parks with our stuffies helicoptered in above our heads, shooting close to the DMZ with US Air Force F16s buzzing overhead, and shooting on Wall Street. It really was a special project with a good story attached to each shot. Ultimately, the most fun though is always had back in the studio during shot production, working with the team on pretty images.

How long have you worked on this show?
About 18 months.

What is your VFX shots count?
We delivered 230 Okja shots for a total running time of 35 minutes, averaging over nine seconds per shot. We had one shot close to a minute in length.

What was the size of your team?
140 great artists and production support team.

What is your next project?
Sorry, I can’t discuss that.

What are the four movies that gave you the passion for cinema?
THE ABYSS, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (the ballroom scene), LE MARI DE LA COIFFEUSE and, of course the first movie I ever saw, “PETER EN DE VLIEGENDE AUTOBUS.

A big thanks for your time.

// WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Method Studios: Dedicated page about OKJA on Method Studios website.

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2017

The post OKJA: Erik-Jan de Boer – VFX Supervisor – Method Studios appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Here is the first trailer for THE NEW MUTANTS:

The VFX are made by:
Double Negative (VFX Supervisor: Neil Eskuri)
Method Studios
MPC (VFX Supervisor: Bryan Litson)

The Production VFX Supervisor is Olivier Dumont.

Director: Josh Boone
Release Date: 13 April 2018 (USA)

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2017

The post THE NEW MUTANTS appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Check out the VFX work made by Method Studios for OKJA:

WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Method Studios: Dedicated page about OKJA on Method Studios website.
Erik Jan de Boer: My interview of Erik Jan de Boer, VFX Supervisor at Method Studios.

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2017

The post OKJA: VFX Making of appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Andrew Hellen has more than 20 years of experience in the visual effects. He worked at Fuel VFX and Iloura before joining Method Studios. He took care of the effects of films such as IRON MAN 2, GODS OF EGYPT, GHOSTBUSTERS and FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM.

What was the approaches and expectations of Director Taika Waititi and VFX Supervisor Jake Morrison about the visual effects?
In broad terms, production wanted the approach to be based in reality, nothing too “magical.” We approached most FX tasks from a minimalist angle rather than over producing it; for example, Hela conjures weapons through gestures, not magic.

Obviously there have been two prior THOR films and Marvel have a fairly well established universe they have created, so we’re adding to that universe, but not hemmed in by it. The Marvel Universe has been evolving as it expands, so we were able to explore within those fairly broad boundaries.

The scenes we were a part of were diverse: two big fight scenes, one involving hundreds of characters in a huge fiery cavern, and the other thousands out in an Asgard plaza. We also handled the theater play, where we are on top of a building in downtown Asgard. The opening scene of Surtur was partially about establishing Thor at the top of his game and to give Mjolnir a strong moment before it gets destroyed and also to establish Surtur, his Skull and what Ragnorak is. The Elite Guard fight with Hela was partially about showing how indestructible she is and to establish how she conjures weapons of all types. The Theater scene was to establish Loki’s return in a comical way. So there were variations in the approaches taken to support the work involved as the expectations varied according to the purpose of each scene.

What are the sequences made at Method Studios?
Most of our work is in the first act in Surtur’s Lair, then on the surface of Musplehielm (Surtur’s world). We also did all of the interiors of the observatory, on top of an Asgard building with Loki pretending to be Odin watching the theater play about himself, Heimdall leading the Asgard citizens to the mountain stronghold, the interiors of the Mountain Stronghold, the Elite Guard (Eguard) fight with Hela, Hela and Skurge at the Mountain Stronghold, and on the steps in Asgard with Fenris and the captured Asgard citizens, though Framestore created Fenris so it was a shared scene. We also did a few other bits and pieces.

How did you organize the work at Method Studios?
We had around ten environments to build and a similar number of characters to create plus variations of some of those. Hela was her own unique technical challenge due to having actress Cate Blanchett’s face as live action and the rest of her being CG. Then there is the animation for all of these scenes, some involving thousands of characters, FX, explosions, cloth and hair sims, pretty much the full gamut of VFX.

We try to organize the work in the same way on most large scale projects. It usually starts with the studio turning over “keystone” shots. These are usually wide establishing shots for environments, a shot that shows a character clearly, or any big FX shot that needs lots of development time, like the shot of Hela destroying the stronghold doors. These early development shots are useful for several reasons: they flesh out what has until this point only been concept or a blue screen of a key actor, feed editorial with a guide as to what the film might look like when it’s all colored in and define the pipeline needed to mass produce the shots later down the line when full scenes have been turned over. Keystone shots are also often used for teaser trailers to help market the film. The idea is to build all of these characters, environments and heavy FX dev work in the early stages of the process with a relatively contained team, preparing yourself for when the edit is locked or turnover happens.
 
For big animation scenes, production provides both previz and postviz. We generally pick a handful of shots that we all feel fairly certain will remain in the cut, and start to develop those shots while we wait for the cut to lock down.

 
Can you explain in detail about the design and the creation of Surtur?
Surtur is a character from the Marvel comic universe so the starting point was the comics, and Marvel supplied multiple concepts. They narrowed the options down to one particular full frame concept. We then had our concept artists develop different views and details based from that idea. There is a lot of interpretation that needs to take place to go from an illustration to a believable, living/breathing character, particularly with Surtur. There is a lot of movement on his surface and below the skin.
 
His physical presence was a hot topic for a while. When I first got involved with the film, Surtur was 12 feet tall; the physical set of his throne was built for a 12-foot tall Surtur. Then he was scaled up to 18 feet, which meant we ended up replacing the practical throne with CG. Surtur’s character was to be somewhat broken physically. We withered one of his arms, gave him a heavy limp and made him fairly lean, but when we did that, the fight with Thor looked too unevenly matched, so we beefed him up to Arnold Schwarzenegger type proportions. That looked too big so we toned him back down and didn’t make as much of his arm and leg being deformed.

The component parts we built started with a skeleton, which we would see silhouetted through the magma surface. Then we built a muscle system for him to both hold form through his movement, but also give us both directionality to the flow of molten “lava” and some structure beneath the surface that we could see diffused through a molten skin. On top of that, we added “slag,” a rocky cooled down component that toned down his brightness and gave us some surface detail that we could sculpt some character into. The finishing touches came from having flames and embers licking up his surface.

We rendered out all of the pieces individually and put them back together in comp. Whilst it is a fairly standard way to put a character together, in this case, it also allowed us to have his performance drive the intensity of the effect. The scene starts with Surtur fairly subdued having dialogue with Thor. Here we kept his “temperature” low, into the deeper reds and oranges, with minimal fire and embers. Then as the scene progresses, he literally fires up like a fiery mood ring.

 
How did you manage his facial animation?
For the face, we needed to develop a way for the slag to move without stretching and squashing. We used Houdini to create a cracked skin broken up enough to allow facial movement. It looked like a face cracked up into 1,000 pieces and allowed the face to move, but the individual pieces did not bend or stretch, only the cracks in between opened and closed. Like his body, we used muscles system to give proper movement to the skin and to provide some structure to see beneath the surface.

Initially, Director Taika Waititi did the voice for Surtur, but that changed late in August and Clancy Brown provided the final VO. We received footage of Clancy delivering his dialogue, which was helpful, but the plan was always to hand animate Surtur for both his face and full body.

 
How was simulate his presence on-set and for the interactions?
Given Surtur’s molten, fiery, self-illuminated quality, Chris Hemsworth as Thor was always shot with an interactive “Surtur light,” to help the two work together. Chris was often rigged on a wire to enable him to leap at Surtur. There was a practical rig of Surtur on set to make sure Chris leapt and hit Surtur at the desired spot. The stand in for Surtur looked like a giant character made of pipe cleaners. It was never intended to represent Surtur in a shot, just give interactive light and provide a guide for position when Thor interacted with him. We obviously removed the rig and replaced it with our CG Surtur.
 
How did you create the digital double of Thor for his fight against Surtur?
The Thor digidouble was provided to us via ILM, who built it from scans production provided. They supplied us with the model and textures, then we rigged him, added hair and a cape, built shaders, etc.
 
How did you approach the choreography of this fight and create it?
It started as previz prior to the shoot, and continued on as post-viz. This was handled by production. There were a number of shots that were handed over to us early so we could develop all of the assets needed. The scene was continually developed until re-shoots in July/August. This gave us a pretty solid base to go from.
 
The sequence takes place in a massive cavern. How did you create this huge environment?
Production built a small portion of the set, which was scanned: the throne, a 10m x 10m area of floor and a couple of partial columns. This gave us a great starting point as to what the surface was made of, generally obsidian mixed with stalactites and rock. Because the throne was not built at the right scale and the framing of shots changed considerably, we ultimately replaced 95% of the practical set, only using some small areas of floor directly under Thor’s feet to keep the interaction between him and the floor. It was built and textured in Maya, displaced in Houdini and rendered in V-Ray. Again the starting point was concept provided by Marvel that illustrated the area beyond what was built practically, though in the case of Surtur’s lair and the surface of Muspelhielm, we did expand a lot from the original concepts. I remember Production VFX Supervisor Jake Morrison mentioning to me early on that we should approach the sets a bit like theater sets and “put everything on wheels.” This thinking allowed us to nudge pieces around for better framing in any given shot. We built five large columns for close-ups then another 12 dozen for wider shots and a lava-fall behind the throne. We also added lots of cracks in the floors with lava flowing in them and scattered rocks, from boulders to small pebbles. We could move any component part around to help frame any given shot. Then in the far distance, we had matte paintings provide extensions to the caves to enlarge them. We always knew we would have to have thousands of fire demons crawling along the roof and columns, so we built most of the set out in 3D to allow for that.

An army comes to help Surtur. How did you create the various soldiers?
The fire demons were modeled and textured in Maya, displaced in Houdini, then rendered in V-Ray. The concept we were provided for the fire demons (we called Surtur’s army fire demons) was solid and we didn’t deviate much. We built five variations with a rig that allowed us to mix and match with the horns to give us more variations.

How did you manage the crowd creation and animation?
We used Golaem to create the crowds and Marvel provided us with tons of mocap data of stunt people doing all manner of running, jumping and crawling. Our animators also provided run cycles and many specific actions like them crawling down columns. Anything close to camera or interacting with Thor was animated.
 
Lots of FX and destructions happens during the sequence. How did you created these elements?
All the FX work was created in Houdini. We had cracks in the floor with rivers of lava running along them and lots of embers. Whenever Thor hit a fire demon with his hammer, we had them shatter into pieces, and created spark elements for the impact and large showers of embers and the odd fireball.

Given Mjolnir gets destroyed in the film, Taika wanted it to have a moment in the opening scene alongside Thor at full power. There is a profile shot tracking with Mjolnir smashing through endless fire demons, an above shot doing the same and then a shot with Mjolnir flying at the audience then Thor calls for it and it turns and flies back to him, all the while smashing through endless fire demons. We wanted to do a fire demon support group shot for the end credits where all the fire demons sit in a circle and discuss the trauma Thor puts them through, but unfortunately we didn’t have time to do this.

A dragon comes into the fight. Can you explain in details about his design and creation?
Marvel provided us with a solid starting point with a 3D model, which gave us the basic proportions and some details like the whiskers. Unlike most dragons, she doesn’t have wings, and is instead propelled by rocket type thrusters emitting from gills down her rib cage. Other details changed quite a bit along the way. She started out coming from the same type of finish as the fire demons and Surtur, with a rough burnt charcoal type outer surface and a hot molten surface underneath, with lots of fire down the spine and along parts of her body. These ideas worked well with the rough burnt charcoal look, however, she was looking a little too complicated and we weren’t getting a good read of her form, so we tried a more leathery finish. This helped get a better read of details like muscles under the surface and generally made her less complicated.

What is your favorite shot or sequence?
Probably the Eguard (Elite Guard) fight with Hela, although I’m very proud of the teams efforts in Surtur’s lair. The Eguard fight was a unique challenge due to when it was delivered. Up until mid-August, the fighting part of the scene happened in a single shot. We’d been working on the shot for around two months, so it was pretty well developed and used a full digital version of Hela, no live action. Then we had a call with Marvel and it was decided to cut the scene up and use live action Hela. The scene was extremely challenging in its complexity.

We had half of the shots acted out with a stunt double of Hela so we could match move her actions but couldn’t use her face. Then we had many live action Eguard without their helmets and wearing padded suits so we had to remove and then match move them. On top of all of this, there were around 400 crowd Eguard that were always moving in on her, and we needed to thin them out fairly quickly. Add to that around 10 skiffs that needed destroying, and we did it in seven weeks. We tracked cameras, matchmoved all of the relevant Eguards and Hela, and cleaned up all of the plates before we could start animating. This alone took between two and three weeks, which left four weeks for animation, lighting, cleanup, sorting out intersections, adding capes, blowing up skiffs, throwing a multitude of weapons and have Hela believably kill 400 Eguard.

What was the main challenge on this show and how did you achieve it?
VFX is a team sport, and to achieve what we did in those final weeks – the revised Hela Eguard battle, redoing all of the dialogue for Surtur and reworking the entire scene with new takes of Thor and creating the scene of Skurge and Hela with the Asgard citizens and Fenris – was only possible because of a massive team effort. The project may have been challenging, but it was quite special to be a part of.

How long have you worked on this show?
13 months.

What’s the VFX shots count?
We finalized 481 shots that went into the film, and many more that were cut.

What was the size of your team?
We had a total of 294 artists working on the project at Method, with our peak week having 190 direct contributors on the team.

What is your next project?
I can’t say due to non-disclosure agreements.

What are the four movies that gave you the passion for cinema?
BLADE RUNNER, APOCALYPSE NOW, TAXI DRIVER, and JAWS.
I was born in the early 60s; these were the films in the cinema during my impressionable years!

A big thanks for your time.

// WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Method Studios: Dedicated page about THOR: RAGNAROK on Method Studios website.

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2017

The post THOR – RAGNAROK: Andrew Hellen – VFX Supervisor – Method Studios appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Don’t miss this excellent new teaser for DEADPOOL 2:

The VFX are made by:
Double Negative (VFX Supervisor: Mike Brazelton)
Framestore
Method Studios

Director: David Leitch
Release Date: 1 June 2018 (USA)

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2017

The post DEADPOOL 2 appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Check out the really nice main title created by Method Studios for the Netflix serie, GODLESS:

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2017

The post GODLESS: Main title by Method Studios appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Oh yes! Great trailer for AVENGERS – INFINITY WAR!

The VFX are made by:
Industrial Light & Magic (VFX Supervisor: Russell Earl)
Weta Digital (VFX Supervisors: Matt Aitken & Charles Tait)
Double Negative (VFX Supervisor: Graham Page)
Method Studios (VFX Supervisor: Greg Steele)
Framestore (VFX Supervisor: Patric Roos)
Cinesite (VFX Supervisor: Andrew Morley)
Digital Domain (VFX Supervisor: Kelly Port)
Lola VFX
Perception

The Production VFX Supervisors are: Dan DeLeeuw and Swen Gillberg.

Directors: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo
Release Date: 4 May 2018 (USA)

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2017

The post AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Here is the first trailer for ANT-MAN AND THE WASP:

The VFX are made by:
Double Negative (VFX Supervisor: Alessandro Ongaro)
Scanline VFX (VFX Supervisor: Jelmer Boskma)
Method Studios
Luma Pictures (VFX Supervisor: Brendan Seals)
Rodeo FX (VFX Supervisor: François Dumoulin)
Cinesite (VFX Supervisor: Stephane Paris)
Crafty Apes
Lola VFX
Perception NYC

The Production VFX Supervisor is Stephane Ceretti.

Director: Peyton Reed
Release Date: 6 July 2018 (USA)

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2018

The post ANT-MAN AND THE WASP appeared first on The Art of VFX.

The two studios Iloura and Method Studios have joined their forces to become Method Studios!

Here is the press release:

Award-Winning Australian VFX & Animation Company Iloura Merges with Method Studios
Sister VFX studios come together under one brand

Los Angeles, CA – February 6, 2018 – After integrating operationally over the last year, Deluxe sister VFX companies Iloura and Method have taken the final step in joining forces, unifying under a single brand; Method Studios. Now with a team across Melbourne, Sydney, Vancouver, Los Angeles, New York, Pune, Chicago and Atlanta, Method is a growing, global VFX force, with one of the industry’s deepest talent pools. The company works on blockbuster and prestige features, episodics, design, advertising and immersive experiences. Method launched a new merged website today.

Method President and GM Ed Ulbrich said, “We’ve been quietly building something new here; bringing together the best of what each studio has developed around the world – whether it’s production processes, artistry, sales and marketing, technology or culture. We’re now one of the biggest VFX studios in the world. Our ability to take on larger and more meaningful pieces of big features, to act as sole or co-lead vendor, choose our projects, and produce the stunning work these teams are creating doesn’t come from one studio or brand alone. It’s a combination of the best of everything we have to offer.”

Iloura brings to Method a 30-year legacy of creative passion and stand-out VFX and animation work, teams that earned a 2016 VFX Emmy® for work on Game of Thrones, and VFX Oscar® nominations for Mad Max: Fury Road, and Deepwater Horizon. Key talent led by award-winning VFX Supervisor Glenn Melenhorst and VFX Producer and EP Ineke Majoor in Melbourne, and by GM Jeanette Manifold in Sydney, will bring their teams’ artistry to an expanding set of clients through Method. Simon Rosenthal, now Method Head of VFX, Australia, continues his 20+ year leadership of the newly-branded teams. Iloura recently completed work on Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Bright, and earlier, Game of Thrones Season 7 ‘Spoils of War,’ and Thor: Ragnarok.

Founded in 1998, Method has grown from a boutique Los Angeles VFX studio to a global powerhouse. Method’s experienced group of 30 VFX Supervisors and creative leads delivers stunning design, VFX, and immersive artistry. Recent features include Thor: Ragnarok, Okja and the VFX-Oscar-nominated Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, with Black Panther, Aquaman, A Wrinkle in Time, Ant Man and the Wasp, Avengers: Infinity War, Christopher Robin, The New Mutants, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald, Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Untitled Deadpool Sequel among the features it has in production.

About Method Studios
Method Studios, a Deluxe company, is an award-winning global visual effects company built around an exceptional team of visual effects and animation professionals to service high-end feature film, episodic, commercial, motion graphics and immersive clients. Its network of facilities in Los Angeles, Vancouver, New York, Melbourne, Sydney, Pune, Chicago and Atlanta provides a full range of services including conceptual design, pre-vis, look development, on-set supervision, 3D animation/CGI, motion graphics, matte painting, compositing, and finishing; and through Method EXP, end-to-end and a la carte AR and VR services.

About Deluxe Entertainment Services Group (Deluxe)
Deluxe is the world’s leading video creation to distribution company offering global, end-to-end services and technology. Through unmatched scale, technology and capabilities, Deluxe enables the worldwide market for professionally created video. The world’s leading content creators, broadcasters, OTTs and distributors rely on Deluxe’s experience and expertise. With headquarters in Los Angeles and New York and operations in 38 key media markets worldwide, the company relies on the talents of more than 7,500 of the industry’s premier artists, experts, engineers and innovators.

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2018

The post Iloura is now Method Studios appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Here is the trailer for SKYSCRAPER featuring Dwayne Johnson!

The VFX are made by:
Industrial Light & Magic (VFX Supervisors: Craig Hammack and Jose Burgos)
MPC
Method Studios

Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Release Date: 13 July 2018 (USA)

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2018

The post SKYSCRAPER appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Andy Brown has been working in visual effects for 30 years. Before joining Method Studios he worked at Animal Logic for 22 years during which he was VFX Supervisor on MOULIN ROUGE, HERO, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, WORLD TRADE CENTER, AUSTRALIA, SUCKER PUNCH, THE GREAT GATSBY, and THE GREAT WALL.

Todd Sheridan Perry has been in visual effects and animation since 1992. After owning a small visual effect boutique in Venice, CA for nearly ten years, Todd has worked on projects including LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS, CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, 2012, THE MIST, and SPEED RACER. He has worked with Method as a CG Supervisor on AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON and DOCTOR STRANGE.

What is your background?
Todd Sheridan Perry (TSP): I’m formally taught in fine arts with a BFA in 2D Media, which includes drawing, painting, photography, and digital media. I moved from Seattle to Los Angeles in 1995 for work in computer games, CG, and logo design. Shortly after I started a tiny visual effects company through which we did commercials, game cinematics, short films, and indie features.
Andy Brown (AB): I have an arts background, studying photography, graphic design and film in London. My background professionally is in compositing and art direction. I moved to Animal Logic in Sydney compositing and supervising lots of commercials and eventually moved into film VFX supervision.

How did you get involved on this show?
TSP: After an enjoyable and collaborative time working with Geoff Baumann on set during DOCTOR STRANGE, I actively pursued being a part of the BLACK PANTHER team at Method when I heard Geoff would be supervising.
AB: I joined Method Vancouver in April 2017 specifically to work on BLACK PANTHER. The main unit shoot was wrapping up in Atlanta whilst asset builds had started in Vancouver and the first trailer was due in a month so it was full steam ahead from the get go.

How was the collaboration with director Ryan Coogler and VFX Supervisor Geoffrey Baumann?
TSP: Collaboration with Geoff on set as well as in post, was just that – collaborative. The times were few and far between that we didn’t have access, either for suggestions, clarifications, or guidance. We were frequently included in creative conversations and were allowed to experiment. Ryan’s voice came directly into the conversation much later in the schedule – mainly because, as the director, he had a lot more departments demanding his time. So Geoff was Ryan’s proxy. When Ryan did discuss things directly, his passion and clarity of vision was a driving force that invigorated the team and reminded us of why we do what we do. Ryan was also open to creative collaboration and was willing to listen to suggestions and alternatives if he felt the new ideas were better to tell the story.
AB: Geoff is a great collaborator; he was very open to suggestions and creative exploration on our end. Ryan joined in on the cineSync sessions towards the end to give us specific feedback on some of the key battle shots featuring Black Panther and the rhinos.

What were their approaches and expectations about the visual effects?
TSP: Geoff comes from an integration background at Digital Domain. He understands the pitfalls when you don’t have enough data from set. So, his wrangling team was gathering everything possible – Lidar scans of sets, photogrammetry of actors, survey data, up to four witness cameras, reference photography, and a constantly updated database of camera and set data driven by iPads. Knowing that anything and everything can change at any point, Geoff was front-loading the production with as much information as possible so that we would have the tools we needed to accommodate. It was also critical that the facility supervisors were present on set, working with Geoff, and helping get eyes on the sequences each facility would be overseeing. Ryan was coming from two features that had little or no visual effects, so a 2500+ shot show was going to be a different experience. On set, Ryan put his faith into Geoff, and ran with the idea that things would happen and it would look great. Once the show moved into post, I think that Ryan got a taste for what can be accomplished, which became a hunger, and then the uncertainty of the possibilities washed away – leaving the desire to tell the best story – and let the artists help make that happen.
AB: Most of our shots take place in the third act when Black Panther returns to confront Killmonger and the subsequent battle. Method was responsible for overseeing the environment of Mt. Bashenga, the spire and the mine shaft, Shuri’s lab, and views looking down into the Vibranium Mine. The battle sequence was shot on a hilltop location in Atlanta and our job was to extend out from there. We enhanced the battle sequence with digi doubles and three war rhinos, built the hero suits for Black Panther and Killmonger, as well as the Talon Fighter and Dragonflyer aircraft. We also did a lot of creative development for the Vibranium mine, the komoya bead holo, cymatic energy FX for weapons and the suits.

How did you organize the work with your VFX Producer at Method Studios?
Interesting question. Method originally had a few large set pieces – Mount Bashenga and the Vibranium Mines. So the show was divided as such: we had supervisors in each primary department divided into “above ground” and “below ground.” CG supervisors Chris Ryan and Marc Roth. Lighting leads Sergio Pinto and Jon Shaw. Comp leads Louis Corr and Mauricio Valderrama. And we had key artists for the different areas. Ultimately, the show would grow beyond its original scope, which led to the Vibranium Mines migrating to DNeg. When that move happened, the final battle was divided into “Before Black Panther/Killmonger tackle” and “After Black Panther/Killmonger tackle.”

What are the sequences made by Method Studios?
Method was in charge of the third act battle, Agent Ross facing the Dragonflier (shared with ILM, RISE, Ghost, Cantina Creative), the sunset cliff at the end of the film, T’Challa and Shuri in the lab, Ross being brought into the lab after his injury, Ross and Shuri discussing Wakanda and Vibranium (some cutaways were DNeg), discussion about Killmonger in the lab, and some miscellaneous shots sprinkled throughout, including a suit formation shot in the CIA Blacksite sequence.

How did you work with the art department to design Wakanda?
AB: The art department gave us a magnificent reference manual called the “Wakandan Bible.” All of the research and key images production had chosen for the film were in this document. In it you had references for costumes, the architectural styles for each region, a map of Wakanda, the history of vibranium and its use in weapons, all of it rooted in African culture but infused with Afrofuturism. We used this to guide all of our creative choices and it was a great way to get our crew up to speed with the culture of the film.

Can you explain in detail about the creation of Wakanda?
Method created an area within Wakanda known as Mount Bashenga, a mountain that was formed by a vibranium meteorite that crashed into the earth forming a crater and a high peak with a large deposit of vibranium underneath.
Our CG geography and land forms were based in this idea. On top of the peak sits a spire and landing platform that serves as a fortification and working entrance to the vibranium mine. The primary hill for Mt. Bashenga was based on Lidar scans taken from the hill and set piece for the iconic spire shot on a Georgia horse ranch. The spire itself was a partially built set for the actors to work on — the tower and the mine shaft dropping into the Vibranium Mine would be extensions. The platform for the spire would evolve throughout the show and would be finally all CG in the majority of shots.
To build the terrain we used photogrammetry of Paarl Rocks in South Africa to extend out from the practical set and referenced Ngorongoro Crater for the easterly view looking out to the Savannah below. For views behind the spire looking towards golden city we utilised photogrammetry from areas of Uganda and table top mountain to build the crater and terrain beyond.
The Bashenga terrain was sculpted in ZBrush and placed in Maya – then ported over to Houdini for additional erosion algorithm to add realistic detail into the mountains by Houdini artist Sebastian Marsais, as well as foliage distribution driven by texture and control maps.
Ultimately, the Bashenga and surrounding environment would encompass 3,600 square km and over 50 million trees – in the crater below the mountain alone. The environment would connect to ILM’s Golden City environment. Both facilities shared components of the total area, so that distances would remain contextually sound not only for BLACK PANTHER, but for INFINITY WAR.
Our Bashenga environment team was lead on the Houdini side by Sebastian Marsais, and modelling and texturing in Maya was primarily Travis Smith, Garret Biles, and Eric Zhang.

How did you handle the lighting conditions?
Due to the “windy” weather conditions in Atlanta the lighting conditions would quite often change from full sun to overcast during a continuous beat of action. In terms of CG lighting our first pass obviously would be to match the plate using the provided HDRI light probe. But if the foreground fell into shadow we would add sunlight into the background to sell the idea that it’s a sunny cloudy day. Cloud shadows on the savanna and distant mountains were also added.

Can you explain in detail about the creation of Black Panther and Killmonger?
Both suits were a collaboration between Ryan Meinerding and Ruth Carter on the Marvel side, and were fabricated in numerous layers for both principal cast and stunt men to wear. Underneath were foam “muscle suits” which were colored and patterned specific to the characters – silver for Panther and gold leopard print for Killmonger. Those colors pushed through the thin outer skin of the suits which were silicon – and incredibly delicate. They were prone to damage during the rigorous fight sequences.
The CG versions of the suits had to feel similar to the real thing. The suits eventually evolved during post, requiring full suit replacement for all shots. But the practical suits were the baseline. Marvel sent the suits to Method for the modelers and texture artists to work with the material directly, and glean detail that may have been missed with texture and reference photography. This was critical since the suits were so complex.
Suits were modeled from photogrammetry booth scans of Boseman and Jordan by Henry Jung. These were the “actor” versions of the suits, which were needed during suit transformations and when the masks were retracted. Because it was imperative to match the neckline, we opted for the actors’ real proportions. We also had a “hero” suit, which was used for the majority of the work. The hero suits have more superhero proportions – smaller head, broader shoulders, thinner waist, larger thighs. You know – a super hero. This was used to replace Black Panther or Killmonger for fighting scenes, stunt work, etc.
The suits were injected with a ton of AOVs within the shaders for the most control in comp. All of the patterns, glyphs, scars, etc., were accessible in different channels in Nuke. This way, the CG could be dialed in to more closely match the plate photography, or to add some artistic changes like boosting up Killmonger’s leopard print. The AOVs also drove the FX for when a suit was charged up with kinetic energy. Lookdev for the suits was done in VRay by Casey Rolseth, and in Mantra by James Stuart. Texturing for Black Panther was created by Eric Zhang, and Killmonger was Justin Holt.
Beauty renders were done in VRay while FX passes were created in Mantra in Houdini.
The scene in the lab where we first see the formation of Black Panther’s new suit was driven by a Houdini procedural system, which would also be used in the CIA Blacksite and for when Killmonger faces off against the Dora Milaje. These transformation shots were lit by Jean Choi, and comped by Louis Corr, Stefen Richter, and Heidi Harnish.

How did you handle their rigging and animation?
Rigging was accomplished with blend shapes and deformations for correctives rather than a skinsliding/simulation/muscle system. It was decided early on that that suits wrap around the wearer and compress things into a tight superhero suit. So there isn’t much extra movement happening.
On set co-animation supervisor Daryl Sawchuk and associate VFX supervisor Todd Perry arranged for range of motion sessions with principal actors and their stunt counterparts, in their suits, the muscle suits, and bike shorts. Shooting from multiple directions, we were able to provide accurate movement for rotoanimators to get started even while principal photography was going on. The rotomation was provided to the rigging team who could then set up corrective blend shapes that would match the actors.
Animation was a combination of rotomation and full animation – and sometimes both. Rotomation was used to make sure that we were capturing the essence of the actors and the fighting style of each character. Black Panther has more sinuous, cat-like movement. Elegant – like tai chi or kung fu. Killmonger is CIA and military trained, so his style is harder, more square and face-on. The stunt team worked long and hard to develop these styles and choreography, so we tried hard to maintain that.
Sometimes animation would take over if movements needed to be amped up to superhero level, or if a hit needed to be harder or faster. There were also plenty of times that we would replace a Dora or Border Tribesman because the choreography wasn’t clean enough, or telling the right story. Sometimes the story would have changed from when the original photography happened.
Full animation was used for superhuman event: falling into the vibranium mines, people getting blasted by a kinetic burst from a panther suit. And for sure, the rhinos. We had a lot of animators come to our show from OKJA – so there was a lot of recent, built up experience of animating quadrupeds.
Rhino rigging and tech animation was critical. Later in the production it was decided to add armor onto the rhinos, which increased the complexity of the process dramatically. Rhinos each had a full skeleton underneath with an appropriate muscle system. Muscle jiggle and flexing was set up to “fire” based on the animation. A subcutaneous level of fat and tissue was simulated on top of the muscles. Skinsliding simulations were calculated on top of all THAT (surprisingly not as much jiggle as expected – rhinos are seriously muscular). Then armor was simulated. And then they had cloth blankets that matched their owners. Tech animators went in and made correctives to unsure that nothing was interpenetrating. It was rigorous.

Can you tell us more about the shaders and texture work?
Texture was done predominantly in Mari, and shader work in VRay. Some assets had to be developed in both VRay and Mantra depending on how the asset was being used – beauty versus effects. Justin Holt and Eric Zhang headed up the texture dev with nearly the entire team of modelers also taking up UV and texture development for the hundreds of models.
Hero characters were textured using photography from both photo sessions with the costumes on the characters, and then a separate session with just the pieces. Like the Panther outfits, Marvel sent Dora Milaje armor, Border Tribe blankets and other helpful pieces that we shot in our own session after discussion with the asset team on what would be helpful for them.
Shader and lookdev development was worked out in a Maya scene that represented the photogrammetry booth – the array of lights. This way, the assets could be compared 1:1 with the practical versions to ensure photorealism. Environment HDRs from set were also used to see the assets in varying lighting situations. Much of the lookdev work for digi doubles was shared between Casey Rolseth, James Stuart, Ken Bailey. The rhinos where squarely on James Stuart. Props and vehicles were shared between Casey, Jean Choi, Alastair Ferris, Luke Nyugen.

With this dark color, how did you handle the lighting challenge?
Great question. Onset photography was our primary baseline for how the suits should appear. It also gave us cue for key-to-fill ratio, light intensity and direction. But, there are plenty of shots that are almost entirely CG where we don’t have reference. A shot where Black Panther tackles a rhino is one in particular that gave us trouble. If the suit was too black, it wouldn’t match other black values in the shot. If we lifted it then he would go silver or charcoal. It was a fine balance.

How did you approach the big final sequence?
For the final sequence, we knew we had to dial in the environment so that it would hold up no matter what direction we were facing. With upward of 300 shots just in those sequences alone, we knew that we couldn’t custom tailor per angle. However, we did take each direction and found a key shot that would become our touchstone for how things would look in that direction. With over 20 lighters, led by Sergio Pinto and Jon Shaw and 45 compositors, supervised by Aleksandra Sienkiewicz with leads Louis Corr and Mauricio Valderrama, that’s a lot of creative minds working on the same problem. So, once we landed on a look, we would bookmark that shot and guide everyone in that direction. Mauricio was critical in getting his eyes on all these shots for continuity and making them feel like we are in the same world.

What was the most difficult part for this sequence?
The sheer volume of work to put this sequence together was the most daunting factor. But there was also a severe time constraint. This is always the case in visual effects, and has been since the dawn of film. But the faster and more efficient we get, the more is thrown at us to get done in a shorter amount of time. In this particular case, much of the final battle was shot in late October during a reshoot – which only allowed for a couple months to get everything together. We had some tracking and roto work coming to us in late December. Ultimately this time crunch made things difficult – but I can’t say that it was for naught. Everything that was shot was for the benefit of the film. And that speaks for itself.

Can you tell us more about the design and the creation of the various aircrafts?
Method was tasked with building the Dragonflyer and the Talon Fighter aircraft. We used concept designs from Marvel as a starting point and made modifications to add functionality and extra mechanical detail. The Talon fighter had a dual purpose, it’s part F-16 part vibranium cargo transporter. We designed several prototypes to figure out how it should transition and fly whilst carrying a load of weapons.
The Dragon Flyer is designed as a utility aircraft for the mine but it’s also a formidable attack aircraft armed with cymatic weapons. Lookdev referenced stealth fighter jets as well as the practical Dragonflyer cockpit shot in Atlanta.

How did you handle the crowd animations?
Method built 30 digital doubles which all ended up being used in the final battle sequence. There are the Dora Milaje, the Border Tribe (who wore blankets), the Kings Guard, and the Jabari tribe who have white hair all over their armor as well as grass-type skirts.
Each tribe had their own style of fight choreography on set so it was important to use the same stunt fighters from the shoot for the mocap session to maintain consistency. We used Golaem to populate and add battle vignettes into the shots and added cloth/fur sims to the Border Tribe blankets and Jabari costumes.

Can you tell us more about the rhino creation?
The M20 Rhino, W’Kabi’s steed, was modeled by Mayuresh Salunke in ZBrush and Maya. Then fine detail modeling and texture work was accomplished by Tristan Rettich, who had come from the OKJA team.
A hybrid of White Rhino and Black Rhino features were used, and then the size was exaggerated. A lot of time was put into the face around the eyes and the mouth. Rhinos have a LOT of movement going on around those areas, and we were going to be getting extremely close – i.e. a closeup of a rhino licking a character’s face. This model also went to ILM for a few shots in a ranch area around the borders of Wakanda, where W’Kabi’s tribe resides. So even though ILM artists likely rejiggered the model for their own purposes and pipeline, we wanted to make sure they had a base amount of detail around the face.
The two other, smaller rhinos – affectionately named Alan and Steve – were derived from the M20, scaled down, textures and shaders adjusted, and then given unique horn configuration. Like shapes of an Orca dorsal, the horns provide personality and identification.
Unique armor was concepted out for each rhino, going through tons of creative cycles to ensure that we were staying with the Afrofuturistic sensibilities that Hannah Beachler had instilled into the rest of the film. We needed to make sure that we strayed away from Eurocentric armor or Asiacentric. Wakanda is untouched by colonialism, so design and function had to evolve without those influences.

How did you animate them?
Animation for the rhinos came from our animators well-versed in movement of quadrupeds. Most of them had tons of experience from OKJA. We gathered lots and lots of footage of rhinos doing things – galloping, charging, spinning, chewing, standing with ears fluttering. Animators used that to build a library of actions. Animators began working on run cycles as soon as we had a model with the correct proportions. We also requested plates early on, even without an edit that was close to locked. The previz/postviz was a collection of quickly blocked out sequences that really had no foundation in the speed or gait of a real rhino. So animation supervisors Daryl Sawchuk and Matt Kowaliszyn pushed to get the shots early so that the animators could contribute to bits of rhino actions that could help inform editorial for timing and such. The team leads Jye Skinn and Soumitra Gokhale, and rotoanim lead Josh Samuels, made sure the vast amount of animation got pushed through.

The final sequence has many FX such as laser, beams, shields and explosions. How did you create these elements?
All of the effects for primarily driven by sound cymatic frequency patterns. That is part of the vibranium mythos, so all the technology started from this point.
Spear blasts and Shuri’s gauntlets (which we dubbed “kitten mittens”) have an initial blast, and then a residual noise pattern with the cymatic signature in them. Shuri’s kitten mittens also have a different setting that she uses to try and subdue Killmonger. Those have a pulse through them – almost like a subwoofer. The effect covers Killmonger and dissipates into smaller cymatics.
Nakia’s rings have a cymatic energy that holds the outer ring and the inner ring together.
The shields form from the Border Tribe blankets – lightly tethered to the vibranium patterns sewn into the blankets. They needed to have transparency, but also needed to feel thick and substantial. A honeycomb pattern weaves through the shields – reflecting patterns found throughout the film. The edges of the shields are partly inspired by Kylo Ren’s lightsaber – a crackling, aggressive energy that no one would want to touch.
Dragonflier blasts are derivative from Klaue’s sonic arm blast developed over at Luma. They sent over their breakdown, and we replicated for our Dragonfliers in both the battle sequence and when Ross is remote piloting the Royal Talon Fighter from Shuri’s lab.
The explosions from the Dragonflier blasts are a combination of a physical explosion – more like an air mortar than an incendiary explosion. A displacement of earth and dirt. But within the dirt is the residual energy from the dragon blast, illuminating the dirt and dust, but forming into cymatics.
All effects were driven by the FX team in Houdini led by Maciej Benczarski, providing a plethora of AOV control passes for comp to dial in the recipe.

Which sequence or shot was the most complicated to create and why?
The shot of Black Panther and Killmonger fighting as they fall down into the vibranium mine. The shot is quite long with a bunch of animation beats that had to be hit. It also went through many different iterations. Originally, it was short and had us falling down the mine shaft toward the vast expanse of the mine, then cutting to an extremely wide shot inside the mine. That changed. It became a oner that would have the camera falling with them until the impact of Black Panther as he hits one of the tracks. However there were two filmmaking styles at work here. Ryan Coogler liked to have things evolve within a shot – a long, long shot. Marvel liked to be a bit more cut-y. So, we ended up rendering from, and animating to, multiple cameras, so there would be b-roll to cut away to. Ultimately, it would end up remaining a oner.
The environment is a behemoth. There is a lot of geometry, complex shaders, and a vast open space to try and indicate scale and depth. Plus, there are these train tracks criss-crossing all over, which has to have a script that would populate the track geo at rendertime. Otherwise the scene was too heavy for Maya to handle.
Comp had to balance the color of the suits against a dark background. And incorporate the kinetic energy within the suits – but can’t be too much like a Christmas tree. And the look had to match to DNeg’s shots, which we would be cutting directly to.
And the shot was in actual stereo – so both eyes have to be rendered and then comped accordingly.

What is your favorite shot or sequence?
TSP: A a long shot of the Royal Talon Fighter and escort ships landing on top of Mount Bashenga at sunset, then the camera dives into the mine shaft and ends up looking through the windows into Shuri’s Lab. Lit by Sergio Pinto and comped by Alison Lake.
AB: I like the reveal of Killmonger for the first time and the fight between him and the Dora Milaje.

What is your best memory on this show?
TSP: Seeing the fan reactions when the first trailer was released.
AB: Working with the Dora Milaje on the pick up shoot, they can fight.

How long have you worked on this show?
TSP: One year – to the week.
AB: 10 months.

What’s the VFX shot count?
406 shots.

What was the size of your team?
Roughly 200 people.

What is your next project?
TSP: Next project is called naptime. I’m taking a breather for a few months to work on my own projects and help other filmmaker friends with their projects.
AB: Can’t say; I signed an NDA.

What are the four movies that gave you the passion for cinema?
TSP: JAWS, STAR WARS, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.
AB: BRAZIL, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, RAGING BULL, BLADE RUNNER.

A big thanks for your time.

// WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Method Studios: Dedicated page about BLACK PANTHER on Method Studios website.

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2018

The post BLACK PANTHER: Andy Brown (VFX Supervisor) & Todd Sheridan Perry (Associate VFX Supervisor) – Method Studios appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Have a look at this really cool clip from TOMB RAIDER with the VFX made by Scanline VFX:

The VFX are made by:
Method Studios
Rising Sun Pictures
Scanline VFX (VFX Supervisor: Nick Crew)
Mr. X
Soho VFX
Zero VFX
Factory VFX

The Production VFX Supervisor is Paul Linden.

Director: Roar Uthaug
Release Date: 16 March 2018 (USA)

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2018

The post TOMB RAIDER appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Get ready! The first trailer for FANTASTIC BEASTS – THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD will be out tomorrow!

The VFX are made by:
Double Negative (VFX Supervisor: Tom Proctor)
Framestore
Method Studios
Image Engine
Rodeo FX
Nvizage (Postvis Supervisor: Sam Churchill)

The Production VFX Supervisors are Tim Burke and Christian Manz.

Director: David Yates
Release Date: 16 November 2018 (USA)

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2018

The post FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Great new trailer for DEADPOOL 2:

The VFX are made by:
Double Negative (VFX Supervisor: Mike Brazelton)
Framestore (VFX Supervisor: Stephane Naze)
Method Studios (VFX Supervisor: Sean Konrad)

The Production VFX Supervisor is Dan Glass.

Director: David Leitch
Release Date: 18 May 2018 (USA)

© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2018

The post DEADPOOL 2 appeared first on The Art of VFX.