In his presentation, Framestore's CG supervisor David Lomax explained how every single feather was modeled and rendered for Harry Potter's Hyppogriff. Attendees ask if the process could have been simplified. © 2004 Warner Bros. Ent. Harry

A separate presentation by Framestore CFC’s CG supervisor David Lomax centered on the creation, animation and rendering of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’s Hyppogriff. After the rendition of fur, the feathers were another barrier to realism and Framestore's 3D artists were determined to cross it. In his presentation, Lomax explained how every single feather along with every single barb and barbule of each feather were modeled and rendered. It was a huge undertaking and the final result is brilliant, but could it have been done more simply? The debate was raging in the corridors after the conference, particularly since this presentation was followed by Buf Compagnie’s who, among other things, showcased an ultra realistic 3D eagle whose feathers seemed just as believable, despite much lighter modeling and overall work…

Massive Environments
King Arthur, Troy and Alexander exemplified massive environments and crowd reconstruction. For King Arthur, nearly every outdoor shot had to be touched up by Cinesite (Europe) as the movie was supposed to take place amongst snow-covered mountains in winter but was instead shot in emerald-green Ireland in the middle of summer. Even if on-set vfx helped to create a snowy atmosphere, many backgrounds had to be re-rendered using matte paintings and 3D effects.

The most impressive work done by Cinesite in terms of landscape reconstruction was the battle sequence on a frozen lake, originally shot on a green prairie. As Cinesite vfx supervisor Matt Johnson reiterated, Variety’s commentary on the film was along the lines of: "At last, a summer blockbuster with no special effects"… Cinesite did such a good job that other vfx supervisors attending the conference admitted they wouldn't have guessed the film had been digitally altered so heavily.

In terms of battle sequences, Johnson explained that work on the film began too early to be able to use a commercial application like Massive to create crowd sequences. Cinesite had to develop its own software to drive the armies into battle using artificial intelligence. The Moving Picture Co., which recreated for Troy large-scale battles, also created their own software to do so. MPC additionally created entire cities for Troy, and, interestingly enough, while massive sets had been built for the film, many ended up recreated in 3D for various reasons.

Of all the films presented on massive environments, the work done by Buf on Oliver Stone's Alexander was perhaps the most impressive. Since Stone had chosen to shoot pretty much free style, with handheld cameras and much improvisation, Buf had to deal with shots that had not been planned to be vfx shots.