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32TEN Studios Provides Practical Effects for 'Pacific Rim'

Practical effects company 32TEN Studios provides a number of practical effects for Guillermo del Toro’s newly-released Pacific Rim.

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San Rafael, CA – Practical effects company 32TEN Studios has provided a number of practical effects for Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s newly-released Pacific Rim. Directed by Guillermo del Toro, the effects-heavy film grossed over $ 38 million during its opening weekend, beginning Friday, July 12.

For Pacific Rim, 32TEN Studios worked on behalf of client Industrial Light and Magic, reporting directly to ILM VFX Producer Susan Greenhow. The shots were supervised by ILM VFX Supervisors John Knoll and Lindy DeQuattro. Since the film was converted to 3D, 32TEN Studios was asked to shoot its contributing shots in 3D. RED Epic cameras on 3D rigs were utilized by 32TEN to shoot various scenes of destruction.

The primary scene produced by 32TEN was one in which the interior floor of an office building, filled with fully dressed office cubicles at ¼  scale, is destroyed by the fist of a “Jaeger” robot.  Followed by 3D cameras on a separate pneumatically controlled rig, the fist travels through the office floor, destroying everything in its path.

Another shot produced by 32TEN depicts several rows of seats in a soccer stadium being blown apart as a “Jaeger” lands in the stadium, using ¼-scale seats blown apart by air cannons. Additionally, 32TEN provided several practical elements for ILM’s compositing team – these included dust clouds, breaking glass and water effects.

Lindy DeQuattro, Co-Visual Effects Supervisor, ILM, on Pacific Rim, said, "The key to successful effects work is to use the right tool for each job. We love to use practical effects whenever it makes sense because the inherent serendipity in special effects work gives us a level of realism that can be difficult to achieve in CG. The team at 32TEN Studios built beautiful models for us and then utterly destroyed them. The results were spectacular and the blending of these practical effects with our CG work brought the entire project up to a higher level of realism."

Source: 32TEN Studios

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.

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