Tech Anim is responsible for all of the cloth hanging from armor, the flags in the hands of the massing armies and the tent flap that moves to reveal Aslan when he emerges to greet the children.

One of the biggest issues we’ve had to deal with in the Tech Anim stage is wind. While on location in New Zealand, I would often jokingly call this film, The Lion, the WIND and the Wardrobe, because there was rarely a time when we weren’t being buffeted by strong gusts all day. Even though on screen, the effect seems far tamer than what we experienced, we still need to make sure our CGI characters are affected to the same degree as the other objects in the frame. Our software team has given us two types of wind control: Dynamic Wind and Pelt Wind. Dynamic wind controls handle the broad scale motion of wind as it bends the large mass of Aslan’s mane around his form. Here, hair-to-hair collision detection is also determined to help maintain a sense of mass the in hair volume as it blows. Pelt wind allows individual hairs, especially at the tips, to blow independently. This is most evident in a close-up when there is a slight breeze blowing the frizzled ends of the more wispy hairs.

Tech Anim is also responsible for all of the cloth hanging from armor, the flags in the hands of the massing armies and the tent flap that moves to reveal Aslan when he emerges to greet the children. We are using our custom cloth solver for this and have integrated Massive output with it to handle cloth simulations for our Massive agents.

Sep. 11, 2005
Our supervisors and I watched the rough cut of the film tonight, and it was great to see our work and the work of Sony and ILM starting to come together. It’s always a boost to the team’s spirit, especially now that hours are getting long and the work pace more hectic, to see that you are working on a project that has the potential to be truly spectacular.

After nearly two years of work, from the moment it was awarded the job, through shooting, motion capture, hero animation and final lighting and compositing, R&H delivered its last batch of shots for The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe.

Oct. 28, 2005
After nearly two years of work, from the moment we were awarded the job, through shooting, motion capture, hero animation and final lighting and compositing, we delivered our last batch of shots for The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe. The final weeks were quite intense. Our sequence supervisors Dave Lauer, Art Jeppe, Mark Rhodal and Raymond Chen and their teams all worked hard to make the final tweaks and adjustments to deliver some truly exceptional work. The last week, in particular, took a lot of coordination and back and forth reviews with ILM and Sony, as we incorporated their work into our shots and vice versa. In total, we delivered 380 finished shots to the production, touched about 460, and if you count Massive agents, animated the motion of more than 460,000 characters. Bob Mercier, our digital supervisor, has just informed me that we also completed more than 200 years of render time with our processor farm.

Being a part of the production of this film was an extremely rewarding experience for me. It was exciting to have the opportunity to work on a story I’d loved since childhood; and then to watch this talented group of artists and technicians more than do it justice — with exceptional imagery and animation — was a wonderful experience. I want to thank Andrew Adamson, Walden Media and Disney for giving Rhythm & Hues the chance to contribute to what is certain to be a cherished classic.

Bill Westenhofer is the visual effects supervisor for the Rhythm & Hues team on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. His numerous credits as visual effects supervisor include: Elf, The Rundown, Men in Black 2, Cats & Dogs, Stuart Little I and II, Frequency and Babe: Pig in the City, the latter a nominee for Best Visual Effects by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Starting as a technical director with Rhythm & Hues in 1994, Westenhofer’s lighting and effects animation were featured in Batman Forever, when he first worked with Narnia director Andew Adamson, and numerous television commercials. Westenhofer quickly rose to CG supervisor for Speed 2: Cruise Control, and continued in that role for Spawn, Mouse Hunt, Kazaam and Waterworld.