"We built the environments [using Maya as the primary 3D package] and did the final composites [using Shake and Inferno]. The rendering was done in RenderMan. The shots with Dr. Manhattan, such as the Moon landing, were done by Sony and we would do the final comps.

"We also worked on the archival footage on the monitors during the Karnak sequence. Surprisingly, it ended up being quite a lot of work because what would go where was never set in stone and then they wanted to art direct static and video glitches for all of the monitors as well. It was a big juggling act and a mad dash [to get the licensing rights]."

Hirota also singled out miscellaneous "gore work" as well. This included the assassination attempt of Ozymandias, and these shots were achieved with fluid dynamics and blood simulations.

Rising Sun Pictures' involvement in Watchmen centers on the transition from live-action 1985 Manhattan to the cel-animated "The Black Freighter," cut from the theatrical version. Photo by Clay Enos. 

Rising Sun Goes off on a Pirate Adventure
And, finally, Rising Sun handled 31 shots in support of "The Black Freighter" story-within-the story pirate saga. This is a self-contained animated segment produced for the upcoming DVD and Blu-ray release, Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood (Warner Home Video, March 24).

These ins and outs that take place at the newsstand were done using Shake and Nuke to construct pseudo 3D backgrounds of Manhattan streets. "We also applied a CMYK four-color process that recreates Dave Gibbons' original artwork, allowing us to transition from printed comic page to traditional cel animation," explains VFX Supervisor Dennis Jones.

"RSP's involvement in Watchmen centers on the transition from live-action 1985 Manhattan to the cel-animated 'Black Freighter,'" Jones continues. "This involved two distinct types of vfx work; Set extensions and comicbook stylization transitions. Set work involved extending a single street intersection to include the distant streets and urban skyline. The live-action component of RSP's work is crucial in setting up and developing the backstory and introduction to the 'Black Freighter' material. All the shots involve the newsstand and associated characters; the two [Bernies]. 'The Black Freighter' material involves seamless transitions from live-action plates of Bernard reading the comic to full-frame single panels of the artwork. As the camera zooms into these panels they transition from a halftone Gibbons' look to the final clean animated material.

"The two main challenges were continuity and a short time-frame," Jones says. "Primarily for the extended director's DVD, which will contain the film as seen in [theaters] and the 'Black Freighter' material, RSP's shots will become the bridge that links these two separate elements. RSP came onto the show near the end of the main production and had to reference shots from MPC and Sony that had already established much of the geography of Watchmen's Manhattan. The shots had to evolve slowly to bridge lighting and environmental differences between the other vendors; this added a different continuity emphasis and meant every shot had its own quirks to resolve."

Recreating the look and feel of the visceral graphic novel took 1,100 shots, a quarter of which were CG. 

The biggest technical achievement was utilizing Nuke for the first time for complete 3D tracking (it was used on Australia solely for 2.5D background elements). "One of the shots, a street intersection at night, featured a complex steadycam move, foreground characters crossing in front of the camera and greenscreen elements. Nuke was chosen for its ability to construct virtual 3D environments within a 2D platform, thus allowing a 2D artist to control the final layout of scene elements. It was impressive to watch a single artist take a camera track and some matte paintings and create a complete shot within the one application."

Bill Desowitz is senior editor of AWN and VFXWorld.