R!OT Santa Monica Recreates 19th Century London for League
R!OT Santa Monica created a massive and richly detailed digital replica of 19th Century London as part of its VFX package for Fox's new THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. The R!OT team also concocted a roomful of missile silos inside a giant submarine, impaled a man on a rhinoceros horn and came up with a unique way of visualizing the voices on an old phonograph recording.
"Our artists were charged with helping the filmmakers to create an alternate past, a vision of Victorian England that looks real, but filled with amazing creations," said R!OT exec producer of Visual Effects Andrea D'Amico. "It was a wonderful opportunity for the team to apply their imaginations and their talents in creating a series of unique visuals."
R!OT's most spectacular accomplishment was an 854-frame shot panning across the horizon of Victorian London. The shot begins on a horse-drawn carriage rolling along a cobblestone street in a rundown section of the city. The camera then lifts into the air and travels quickly across rooftops before dropping down into a prosperous commercial area, the site of a handsome museum.
In the entire 35-second expanse of the shot, only the carriage and roadway seen at the opening, and the museum and its immediate environs at the end, are practical elements (some of the rain that falls in the scene was also shot live). Everything else -- other buildings, rooftops, the sky -- was produced digitally using a combination of 2D and 3D digital matte painting techniques.
Buildings seen in the foreground on either side of the carriage at the opening of the shot are full 3D creations (modeled after period architectural drawings and photographs), as are foreground structures in the rooftop pan and the buildings nearest the museum at the end. Mid-ground structures were produced by mapping 2D paintings onto the surfaces of 3D models. Background elements, including the sky, were produced as multi-plane 2D matte paintings. Horses and carriages that appear in the background were also CG animations. Additionally, artists extended and enhanced the practical rain and added interactive lighting and other environmental details to fulfill the illusion. Digital matte painter Laurent Ben-Mimoun designed the sequence, and animator Marc-Andre Samson was the lead CG artist.
"Our team built the entire environment…," said R!OT Santa Monica visual effects supervisor Kenneth Nakada, adding that the "team" included only a half dozen artists. "Normally, it would take an army to do a shot like this: texture painters, modelers, lighting specialists, renderers. We did it all in a very short period of time with a small, but exceptionally talented group."
The most challenging aspect of the shot lay in linking the practical camera moves used to shoot the carriage and museum elements at the beginning and ending of the shot with the artificial camera applied to the middle rooftop section, and to make it appear to be a single, smooth motion. In order to accomplish this, artists had to "overtake" the two practical camera moves and alter them, adding an artificial bend to their paths.
In overtaking the camera moves, R!OT artists needed to force a perspective shift on the practical film elements. "Everything in the shots that would have shown a perspective shift had to be modeled and replaced," noted Samson. "That included people, props and foreground architectural features."
R!OT matte painters created artificial environments for several other scenes in the film. One shows Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah) striding through a section of his enormous submarine, Nautilus, and passing by a series of towering missile firing mechanisms. In that case, the only practical element is the actor. The missile batteries on either side of him, the walkway, ceiling and instrument gauges were all matte paintings. The camera eventually pans seamlessly from the digital set to a practical stage set. Artists designed the firing mechanisms to be appropriate to missiles used in other scenes in the film.
"Our artists were charged with helping the filmmakers to create an alternate past, a vision of Victorian England that looks real, but filled with amazing creations," said R!OT exec producer of Visual Effects Andrea D'Amico. "It was a wonderful opportunity for the team to apply their imaginations and their talents in creating a series of unique visuals."
R!OT's most spectacular accomplishment was an 854-frame shot panning across the horizon of Victorian London. The shot begins on a horse-drawn carriage rolling along a cobblestone street in a rundown section of the city. The camera then lifts into the air and travels quickly across rooftops before dropping down into a prosperous commercial area, the site of a handsome museum.
In the entire 35-second expanse of the shot, only the carriage and roadway seen at the opening, and the museum and its immediate environs at the end, are practical elements (some of the rain that falls in the scene was also shot live). Everything else -- other buildings, rooftops, the sky -- was produced digitally using a combination of 2D and 3D digital matte painting techniques.
Buildings seen in the foreground on either side of the carriage at the opening of the shot are full 3D creations (modeled after period architectural drawings and photographs), as are foreground structures in the rooftop pan and the buildings nearest the museum at the end. Mid-ground structures were produced by mapping 2D paintings onto the surfaces of 3D models. Background elements, including the sky, were produced as multi-plane 2D matte paintings. Horses and carriages that appear in the background were also CG animations. Additionally, artists extended and enhanced the practical rain and added interactive lighting and other environmental details to fulfill the illusion. Digital matte painter Laurent Ben-Mimoun designed the sequence, and animator Marc-Andre Samson was the lead CG artist.
"Our team built the entire environment…," said R!OT Santa Monica visual effects supervisor Kenneth Nakada, adding that the "team" included only a half dozen artists. "Normally, it would take an army to do a shot like this: texture painters, modelers, lighting specialists, renderers. We did it all in a very short period of time with a small, but exceptionally talented group."
The most challenging aspect of the shot lay in linking the practical camera moves used to shoot the carriage and museum elements at the beginning and ending of the shot with the artificial camera applied to the middle rooftop section, and to make it appear to be a single, smooth motion. In order to accomplish this, artists had to "overtake" the two practical camera moves and alter them, adding an artificial bend to their paths.
In overtaking the camera moves, R!OT artists needed to force a perspective shift on the practical film elements. "Everything in the shots that would have shown a perspective shift had to be modeled and replaced," noted Samson. "That included people, props and foreground architectural features."
R!OT matte painters created artificial environments for several other scenes in the film. One shows Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah) striding through a section of his enormous submarine, Nautilus, and passing by a series of towering missile firing mechanisms. In that case, the only practical element is the actor. The missile batteries on either side of him, the walkway, ceiling and instrument gauges were all matte paintings. The camera eventually pans seamlessly from the digital set to a practical stage set. Artists designed the firing mechanisms to be appropriate to missiles used in other scenes in the film.
Printer-friendly version
Post new comment