“We’ve worked with Louis a few times now and we really liked the dynamic of working with him and the other companies,” he added. “Louis knows we have a strong motion graphics team and he knew we would be able to contribute creatively on a project like Source Code.” 

Modus FX - Train and Station

“Source Code is the most ambitious and the most challenging project that we’ve tackled so far,” said Yanick Wilisky, VP of production and VFX supervisor at Modus FX. The company was brought on board in pre-production. “We started doing the pre-vis for the main action scenes – how the train would explode, and where this would take place,” said Wilisky.

In total, Modus handled 150 shots for the film including creating the train in CG, involving thousands of individual elements. The train was often used in close-up shots, requiring extensive camera tracking work, especially for scenes where the train has pulled into the station and crowds of commuters enter and exit the train. “The train was seamless,” said Louis Morin. “It doesn’t look CG. It looks just like a real commuter train in Chicago.”

Artists at Modus FX also created the fictional “Glenbrook Station” in Chicago and its surroundings. The CG set extension included everything from the station itself, to digital trees, large crowds of people, and commuter traffic on a busy Chicago street. 

Crowd shots were created using Massive Software’s 3D crowd behavioral simulation system. Massive was also used for aerial shots of cars. “We needed to craft some pretty big highway traffic scenes with about 6,000 cars. That’s a lot to render, when you count the number of polygons per car,” Wilisky explained. 

Montreal Delivering Excellence in Visual Effects

"All the vendors pushed really hard to make it the best show possible," said Annie Godin, VFX producer on Source Code. "Duncan and the producers had a lot of trust in us and that was very motivating for everyone. Louis guided the work so well that the vendors got shots approved quickly and could move along to the next tasks very efficiently."

“I was delighted by how effective those facilities were at dividing up the work like that. They were very professional, and I think they really enjoyed the process themselves,” said Jones. 

Source Code was produced by the Mark Gordon Company and Vendome Pictures, and is a Summit Entertainment release. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga, and was directed by Duncan Jones. 

The film has been nominated for a VES Award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture. This is Louis Morin’s second VES Award nomination. His first nomination was for the visual effects on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The VES Awards will be announced Feb. 7 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles and will air on ReelzChannel.