Achieving a Grittier Conan

Friend Wells tells us how the new Conan the Barbarian is more of a barbarian.
Posted In | Magazines: VFXWorld | Site Categories: 3D, CG, Films, Visual Effects

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Crazy Horse did benchmark shots for every environment.

Then there are the elephants that carry a CG ship with the villain. This was handled in Russia by Dr. Picture. Benchmarking was important along with communication. "We spent a lot of time with illustration and design work and doing things visually because we were working in multiple languages," Friend continues. "Also, the in-house facility didn't have a lot of experience with big environmental compositing, so we hired a local company, Crazy Horse, at the recommendation of Dylan Cole, and they did benchmark shots for every environment. We had around 50 major environments for the movie and they provided benchmarks for about half of them.

"We let Crazy Horse establish the wide shots. In one case, you'll see the villain's palace on a sea coast from a distance and a big 3D tracking shot. The remote fortress where the sand warrior attack happens is also along a coast. A ritual cave is another environment. That would set the bar and set the look for the in-house facility to finish the sequences."

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Creatures were another big element in the film.

The other big sequence is where Conan fights the above-mentioned sand warriors. Conan lures the villain by holding a woman with great powers that he wants to possess as bait. The villain sends his witch daughter to the designated location and she has the ability to turn dust into warriors.

"We created complicated particle systems and trailing dust particles on top of Parque stunt men wearing elaborate makeup. They appear and disappear into sand in a non-clumping way. This was done by Reliance. We used several techniques but the most complicated one was with Krakatoa. We used cyber scans as a base. We tracked the cyber scans onto the Parques. On some occasions they were pure CG and you trailed particle systems in Krakatoa to create constant erosion of their bodies."

Truer to the roots of Conan, perhaps, but the remake has a lot to live up to when compared to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Bill Desowitz is former senior editor of AWN and editor of VFXWorld. He has a new blog, Immersed in Movies (www.billdesowitz.com), and is currently writing a book about the evolution of James Bond from Connery to Craig, scheduled for publication next year, which is the 50th anniversary of the franchise.







Comments


Okay I'm convinced. Let's put it to actoin.

Kaylee (not verified) | Sat, 09/10/2011 - 21:17 | Permalink

My original comments were uncalled for, unprofessional, and way out of line. My words were the result of misdirected anger and frustration on multiple levels, and they put my employers, my team members and friends in a bad light. My comments against the 3d conversion were uncalled for, as i never saw the 3d version. I only reiterated the opinions of a few others. In other words, I've perjured an opinion. You are correct Sr. Alcaraz, and this apology is also directed to you, because you are right. I needlessly insulted the work of many people. My colorful language and commentary was spiteful, vicious, and served absolutely no purpose which could be considered constructive. I apologize to the others in the industry who've handled themselves professionally day in and day out from show to show. My comment perpetuated the "whining geek" stigma, and from what I've discovered through my travel and exposure to artists from around the world is this is an undeserved stigma and anyone with the fortitude to make their way in such an unforgiving and thankless environment is truly someone who is confident in their true skills and understanding of the nature of the business. I apologize to Friend Wells because I lashed out and directed my anger at him when it was I who twisted the quotes in the article and took insult from where there was none. I apologize to the company I am supposed to represent. I've pulled the "whiner" stigma onto everyone, when in all actuality nothing could be further from the truth. Not one person I work with deserves that reputation. Not one. I only hope that the bridges that were in place prior to my ignorant and irreparable commentary are still in tact, and that my display of misplaced frustration didn't so much as crack the foundation of such long established relationships. -

suckit (not verified) | Sun, 09/04/2011 - 10:29 | Permalink

Haven't seen one comment about this film that points out every Nuimage movie for the last fifteen years looks like the same shitty level of quality and they make their money ripping off their investors and paying third world employees slave wages. Why do these greedy bastards pocketing all the money and sticking it offshore and not in north america never get the criticism ?

At least this movie looked twice as good as anything else they have done.

gnuef (not verified) | Fri, 09/02/2011 - 16:41 | Permalink

Why the chip on the shoulder "suckit" ? The article says that someone on the team was assigned to figure out how to "augment" the work WWFX was doing. Look it up in your dictionary: aug·ment [v. awg-ment; n. awg-ment] verb (used with object)1.to make larger; enlarge in size, number, strength.

That doesn't sound like an insult of any kind to me. As a digital artist I get tired of hearing that we are all hyper-sensitive whining geeks but when I see comments like the above I understand where the opinion comes from.

Oh by the way, I was a lead on some of that "shitty" 3d conversion and, given the schedule and budget we were given I think we did a pretty reasonable job, as die most of the critics.

Sr. Alcaraz (not verified) | Fri, 09/02/2011 - 16:33 | Permalink

Have to say - the USA is worried about the vfx industry dying, lack of jobs and studios having to close - well this article is THE perfect example of why thats happening. I had never heard of the list of vfx companies and just googling the first two - baseFX and Dr Picture Studios (sounds similar to dr D doesn't it?) and you find American vfx/film makers creating studios abroad and doing the work from their on the cheap. If you are upset that there's no work in the USA, you only need look at the bios of those running these companies to see why. Sad times for the U.S.

Anonymous (not verified) | Wed, 08/31/2011 - 02:41 | Permalink

Assessed their abilities? F*ck you Friend... You should clarify that WWFX didn't do the sh*tty 3d conversion or the wire removals (roughly 10 frames of which are visible in the first 5 minutes) of the movie. Just because you hacked out or ran out of time to shoot any of the things that could have given this movie any sort of redeeming qualities, save for the razzie nomination, doesn't mean you have to sh*t down the necks of the crew who busted their asses for a long time on this show.

suckit (not verified) | Tue, 08/30/2011 - 06:53 | Permalink

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