Sony Pictures Imageworks helped Digital Domain enhance the storybook-like sets. Credit: Digital Domain.

Digitally Doubling Peter
Digital Domain was also called upon to perform a small amount of doubles work, for two scenes that proved difficult to nail live. In one scene that has the hero caught in a net and another in which he launches into the air after kissing Wendy.

“In the first scene it was proving hard to avoid having both the net and Pan look like they were being dragged by wires, so we got the best reference we could then basically remade three shots in 3D,” Forker explains. “For the second the angle on the original bluscreen wasn’t satisfying, so we replaced the arms and legs to make him appear more nimble.”

“We worked from the original Cyberscans of Jeremy Sumpter, but then created our own rig and textures,” adds Forker. “The work required some very intense animation, though we didn’t have to worry about face and hair issues.”

Just as ILM made use of in-house compositing software CompTime, so Digital Domain turned to its own well-established solution, Nuke. “We only used Flame for about 5% of the work, the rest was Nuke,” says Forker. “The amount of rig work meant we needed a large roto team, and there were also times on set when we simply said not to worry about pulling up a bluescreen, so that added to the workload.”

Sony Pictures Imageworks to the Rescue
Digital Domain had expected to take on even more scenes, but, like ILM, found the number of shots ballooning. A third studio, Sony Pictures Imageworks, was brought on board, and in fact all three studios have a hand in an end battle sequence further complicated by a technically demanding color scheme that dramatically changes from a yellowish daytime light through deep orange and crimson to cobalt blue as the sun rapidly sets.

“We not only needed to look and see what ILM was doing, but the scene also had our work intercutting with Sony’s,” says Forker. “We’d animate our CG Pan and they’d need to add environment CG, plus animation, including a trail behind him. What we ended up doing was taking our part of the shot all the way to completion, then breaking the entire thing back down and handing them the pieces, the mattes, 3D character models, Maya files and so on. Quite often there’s an element of competition when working with another studio, but with Imageworks it felt just like one big company. Nothing was held back. I’m sure we’d have all liked even more time to share and keep things looking unified, but in the end Don McApline and digital intermediate colorist Steve Scott did a great job of homogenizing all the work to create a single vision.”

Such was the ever-expanding nature of the show that R!ot also pitched in, taking around 50 shots, including opening scenes of an idealized picture book version of London. Then, as R!ot found itself running out of time, things eased up at Digital Domain, so the closing shots were handed back again. With a need to match the opening scene, more sharing of material was required.

“This is certainly the most collaborative project I’ve have been involved with,” says Forker. “There was such a sense of camaraderie between all the studios. I’d love to work with all these people again.”

Mark Ramshaw is a freelance writer. He has worked as a computer game programmer and producer and a magazine editor, but now avoids grown-up office work by writing about the visual effects, video game and music industries. He is also contributing editor for 3D World.