VFX Artists - Industrial Light and Magic: Star Trek Into Darkness

I have recently seen the film Star Trek into Darkness, a film featuring an extensive use of VFX produced by Industrial Light and Magic.

Whilst the bridge of the Enterprise is in fact a physical set on a sound stage, there are many holographic projections to be found throughout the ship, these would have to be added in digitally.

A portion of the film takes place within a futuristic version of London. This vision of london will have been created digitally, however it would need to still recognisably be London. In order to do this many design cues were taken from the existing architecture of london, as well as planned sky scrapers being built. Also existing landmarks would be placed between the digitally created buildings, to allow the viewer to visually know that this is in fact London.

Similar to the holographic projections on the bridge of the Enterprise, space suits also utilised a HUD located on the Visor of the helmets.

Several scenes set in cities on Earth would have used virtual set extensions to create the illusion that it is indeed a futuristic version of the city in which the scene takes place.

In future projects of my own, I feel I would pay more attention to the concept stage in order to create a more believable environment similar to the futuristic london used in the virtual sets of the film.

VFX Artists - Industrial Light and Magic: Star Wars Episode 3

As with previous instalments, the film Star Wars Episode III, utilises a heavy use of VFX created by Industrial Light and Magic in order to create the fantastical science fiction world of the Star Wars films. 

Due to the fantastical setting of the film, sound stages and virtual set extensions were used extensively throughout the film. Rotoscoping techniques were also used to create the glowing Lightsaber weapon used by the Jedi and Sith characters.

In future projects of my own, I would like to use virtual sets and set extensions in order to produce fantastical locations. However I also find that the skills required in crafting a digital set are transferable over to other aspects of digital media, such as the playable environments of a video game, or the virtual set of a 3D animation.

VFX Artist - Digital Domain: Iron Man 3

I recently saw the film Iron Man 3, the sequel to both Iron Man 2 and The Avengers, with VFX being handled by Digital Domain. Like the previous films in the Iron Man franchise, the film makes extensive use of VFX, examples, including virtual set extension of Tony Stark's mansion, as well as the Heads up display on the Iron Man suit.

 The film has an extensive use of holographic projections throughout the film, detailing many various plot points. 

For Tony Stark's mansion, virtual set extension was used, in order to create the illusion that his workshop was much larger than it actually was, as well as adding an extensive array of complex machinery that would have been too expensive to produce physically.

In the film, the Iron Man suit contains a Heads Up Display inside the helmet, allowing the wearer to perceive the data being received by the suit. To be utilised within the film, the actor would have tracking points painted onto their face, allowing for the holographic displays to follow his facial movements, keeping everything in line with his face.

Unlike the previous films, the Iron Man armour was created as a physical suit, with tracking markers added for small details, such as the energy weapons or retractable fins for flight. In the previous films, only the helmet was physical, and the rest of the suit was created digitally. Physically creating the suit allows the VFX studio to save on time because they have less things that they need to track.

In future VFX projects of my own, I feel I would use physical costumes instead of adding in digital aspects to the actors, due to my prior experience in creating physical costumes.

VFX artists: Double Negative - Total Recall

In early september I went to see the film Total Recall, a 2012 remake of the 1990 film. Although the film lacked a compelling plot, I was blown away by the quality of the VFX, created by the production company Double Negative.

The film features an extensive use of various Visual Effects techniques, such as compositing, virtual set extension and green screens.

For the motorway chase scene, there was a heavy use of Green Screen and Virtual set extension. Due to the chase scene being set in a futuristic London, the virtual set needed to take visual cues from the existing city, with much of the architecture taking cues from existing landmark buildings in London, such as Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral.

During early stages of filming the combat robots initially were stunt actors in physically crafted costumes, Double Negative would then edit out portions of the actors to allow for the audience to be able to see through the gaps in the robots chassis, that could not be created physically. However Double Negative found this to be far too time consuming due to the difficulties in keying out and tracking the actors, so instead opted to recreate the drones as 3D models and placed them into the footage digitally.

For possible future projects I would like to have a greater use of virtual set extension, as I have found the work on Total Recall to be impressive, as well as enjoying constructing my own virtual sets.

VFX Artist - Weta Workshop - District 9

For the film District 9, the Visual Effects were created by the VFX company Weta Workshop. With much of the film production taking place on a physical set in Johannesburg, a large portion of the VFX involved compositing digital objects into the real environment, such as the large alien spacecraft floating in the sky throughout the film.

With a simple use of layering and colour correction, weta workshop would have been able to composite the space craft into the Johannesburg skyline, using colour gradient to mach the craft to the skyline.

Using similar techniques to those of the spacecraft, Weta would have been able to composite the animated Mech into the shot. However, difficulties would arise due to the fact that the camera would have to track the digital mech, despite it not being actually there. 

Learning from Weta's example, I have found that it is entirely possible to produce an effective composition using a very simply animated but highly detailed high polygon 3D animated model, such as the large flying saucer used in the film.