Eden FX, a Hollywood-based creator of visual effects for feature films, television programs and commercials, has helped to create the largest visual effects-laden episode ever of the hit CBS TV series GHOST WHISPERER.
For the GHOST WHISPERER episode entitled "Ghost in the Machine" (which aired on October 17) Eden FX, the sole visual effects provider to GHOST WHISPERER, created an entire CGI virtual world, comprised of a major urban exterior environment, which included street scenes, and a live arcade. This work was composited against live action that had been shot against an enormous green screen (30 feet high by 150 feet long, which can shoot up to 260-degrees) on Stage 20 at Universal Studios.
In the episode, series star Jennifer Love Hewitt becomes a digital "avatar" character, who enters into an entirely virtual "social networking" type environment inside a computer. Hewitt's character must hunt down a predator who is targeting young girls on the web.
Eden FX's new work represents the company's most extensive digital work ever for a GHOST WHISPERER episode. To view this work, go to YouTube.
GHOST WHISPERER Executive Producer Ian Sander said, "Eden FX was brilliant in its execution of our avatar world. Because the parallel universe Eden digitally created was unrivaled in network television, there has been a great and tremendous amount of buzz about the 'Ghost in the Machine' episode -- our viewers loved it!"
Said episode Director Steve Robman, "There is a huge amount of green screen work in this episode, and very large physical areas of green screen that we were trying to create. We had to map out, in advance, where the ends of buildings were going to be, and doorways and benches, so that when we shot against the green screen, and those things weren't inside our viewfinder, they would work out correctly, when the CG images were transplanted on top of it."
Adds Armen Kevorkian, Visual Effects Supervisor & Associate Producer, "This was the largest visual effects episode of GHOST WHISPERER since the beginning. Just the sheer number of the shots, and the complexity of the shots, required a tremendous amount of work. When we set out to do this, we were very confident with our team at Eden FX. Knowing what we had with Eden gave us the courage to go ahead and agree to a lot of this, because of the team that we've been working with for years now."
Eden's John Gross said, "The software we used for this project included Digital Fusion, After Effects and LightWave for the 3D work. The producers had referenced such futuristic-looking worlds as those from the films BLADE RUNNER and METROPOLIS, so we melded the feel of those films into our creative process as well."
