The most "visible" aspect of the Max Payne's vfx is the Valkyries. Spin modeled and rigged the Valkyries in Maya and used Zbrush for detail work. Courtesy of Spin. All images ™ & © 20th Century Fox Filmed Corp.

Max Payne is certainly not the first movie adapted from a videogame, but it is one of the rare few that try to provide a little bit more than a simple ride. The recently released Fox movie follows the dramatic adventures of DEA agent Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg) whose wife and child have been brutally murdered. Max embarks on a quest to find those responsible, but in the process, ends up venturing into the underworld where he will meet his own demons.

In the videogame format, Max Payne is a straightforward cop vs. mob shooter, but in the film adaptation, the hero confronts supernatural elements, as a key part of the plot involves a hallucination-inducing drug called V. To visualize this, director John Moore turned to Visual Effects Supervisor Everett Burrell (The Mist, Sin City, Hellboy) who, with VFX Producer Ken Wallace, oversaw the creation of 264 shots throughout an intense 15-week post-production schedule. "The shot count surprisingly stayed very close to the initial pre-production estimates," Burrell says. "We had originally planned for 170 CG shots, plus approximately 100 rig and wire removals."

The sequences were broken down as follows:

• 3D work

  Spin (Toronto): 107 shots

  Soho (Toronto): 30 shots

  Mr. X (Toronto): 12 shots

• Production fixes, rig and wire removals, simple composites

  Himani (Burbank): 41 shots

  Modern Film and Video (Burbank): 74 shots

A challenge was to create a stylized look somewhere between Sin City and The Departed. The vfx had to enhance the film and not to replace it, so visual effects were used only when necessary. Courtesy of Spin.

A Stylized Look
One of the key issues was the stylized look that the director was after. "John Moore had very specific ideas for the look, somewhere between Sin City and The Departed," Burrell adds. "From day one, he said that he wanted the visual effects to enhance the film and not to replace it. So, the intent was to always shoot the film with as many practical effects as possible, and use visual effects only when necessary. The main challenge was trying to be faithful to the script and to the concept art. Keeping on budget and on schedule was always an issue too."

The most "visible" aspect of the film's vfx was the Valkyries, nightmarish winged creatures that may be real -- or not. Burrell recalls that Moore wanted them to be very demon like and always taunting Max. "The only way they can get a hold of him is if Max makes a mistake and dies. Once Max is dead, they can torment him for eternity. They were designed by illustrators Chris Roswarne and Rob McCallum. Once John signed off, we gave the artwork to Spin in Toronto. They modeled and rigged the Valkyrie in Maya, and used ZBrush for the detail work. It took a while to get the feathers to look correct. The self-collision and wind dynamics were all done in Maya. The key was to get the specularity and transparency correct."

The Valkyries' performances were created using keyframe animation. "We also built a practical Valkyrie suit and make-up that was worn by performer Mako for certain shots. Originally, we used him as our point of reference for animating the CG Valkyries. Mako is a great dancer and performer, but John wanted to tone it down. He wanted the Valkyries to have a slow motion quality to them, almost as if they were underwater. I feel it really helped them not to look and feel 'CG-ish'.