VES Festival: A Convergence of Technology and Creativity
VES 2003: A Festival of Visual Effects, held June 27-29 at the Los Angeles Film School, was as informative and topical as ever, highlighted by discussions of X-Men 2, Terminator 3, Finding Nemo, Hulk, The Matrix Reloaded and Tron. In addition, the well-received panel on shorts (moderated by AWN publisher Dan Sarto) along with the music video panel provided a further glimpse of where the cutting-edge technology and noteworthy vision will be coming from in the near future. Thus, for its fifth anniversary, the festival celebrated technological ingenuity as well as the practical challenges of completing the work with as much efficiency and creativity as possible.
On X-Men 2, visual effects supervisor Michael Fink had a larger scope to deal with, but was blessed with improved practical and CG elements. Of course, having to complete 800 shots in 18 weeks was still a daunting task. "This was a different animal," Fink told VFXWorld.com. [Director] Bryan [Singer] was more experienced and sure of himself with this film. We had a shorthand and a trust. Bryan didn't freak out as early over bad things, and he came up with some clever solutions. My own modus operandi is to keep it focused and not to let the FX get in the way of the story."
Fink maintained that lighting is key but that effective animation must come first. He cited advances in rendering and high dynamic range imaging as very exciting. Cyclops was improved overall, as were Wolverine's claws.
When effects were being developed, and problems with the original conception started to become apparent, such as the original concept for the Pyro scene, Singer was quick to work with Fink to find another approach that, it turns out, was a performance issue.
Picking up where Fink left off in terms of environment being key, T3's visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman stressed that you shouldn't start a project until the art direction is completed. He said a lot of the Terminatrix's fluid movement was based on a paper written for SIGGRAPH. The skull underwater scene was done on a 40'x50' stage and all the water was CG. The ground of the skull scene stage was then used for the destroyed city shots. Helman added that in these cost-conscious days "you must think about how to do things cheaper or you're out of business." That is why as a CGI man you need to know how to pitch ideas, processes and visual imagery to the director.
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