Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1058642
"When you see the animated sequence where Mary Poppins and Jack are dancing with the penguins, we built a CG music hall, a CG set, and actually textured it as you would in technical 3D, but textured it with hand-drawn artwork, so it was textured to look like it was a flat drawing," Johnson continues. The technique was used particularly for lighting purposes because Marshall had very specific notes about spotlights and fill lights due to his theatrical background. "That was a big deal to him, to make the lighting work. We were able to do that without making it look like it was com- pletely real," Johnson continues. "Again, just taking it slightly one step forward, so you get the more simple, the multiple planes of artwork for the first bit, and then we get into something more elab- orate. We were able to keep very true to the look of the original film and yet bring it up-to-date." The Main Players Much of the work was broken up among several main visual effects studios, with Framestore in London and Montreal, and Cinesite in Montreal doing the lion's share of the work. Luma came in and complet- ed a sequence with Meryl Streep. "Framestore London was responsible primarily for the underwater and above- the-ocean sequence, and a sequence at the end of the movie where everyone kind of floats around on balloons. They literally built a full-CG London park scene with a whole-CG horizon and CG trees blowing in the wind for the end sequence," says Johnson. "It was huge amounts of render- ing. A sequence where they are floating above the ocean, with a gigantic ocean where every single sphere of the bubbles had to be rendered and correctly reflect and refract light. These renders took weeks and weeks to get right. It took the absolute bleeding edge of technology to get this stuff to look right." Meanwhile, Framestore in Montreal did the animated world as well as an amazing animated music hall and the chase envi- ronments. Cinesite was responsible for the Cherry Tree Lane environment, Mary's enchanted bicycle, animated kites, and the teaser where clouds roll past and Mary Poppins comes out. The studio also completed a sequence of Big Ben. "So, we had to create a digital House of Parliament and a full-digital 1930 London with the river Thames and all the buildings and sweeping shots of nighttime London, and London is CG. Complicated stuff!" Teams relied on the tried-and-true combo of Autodesk's Maya, Foundry's Nuke, and particle systems at the center of their soware packages, while each "certainly had their own kind of special sauce," says Johnson. "We shared a lot of assets, including digi-doubles of charac- ters and Cherry Tree Lane." With so many challenges, one of the biggest, in Johnson's opinion, was "not screwing them up!" (laughs). "When we were previewing it, everyone was very aware, even when filming it, that this had the potential to be a very special movie," Johnson recalls. "There are a lot of things that were filmed in greenrooms or [with actors] looking at something that's not there, or they're dancing with people wearing green leotards. That's all great and everyone did such an amazing job filming it, but it's like, if the visual effects team doesn't get this right, then we're letting down a lot of people and, quite frankly, the Disney legacy of Mary Poppins. We just had to make sure that we worked as hard as we could to cre- ate something that everyone could be pleased with and proud of." While challenging, many of the big sequences were Johnson's favorites to work on. He was particularly pleased that Mary's famous talking umbrella was not CG, but rather an old-school animatronic. "I'm really excited for people to see it," Johnson says. "I think we made a really special film. I think the visual effects are amazing. I think we made something that I hope people who liked the first move will enjoy… and without copying the original. I want people to think that we were respectful of the original film. I also want people who never saw Mary Poppins to like it, too. And, of course, I want Disney to feel that we kept the crown jewels intact." Linda Romanello (lromanello@postmagazine. com) is the chief editor of Post, CGW's sister publication. THE CREW COMBINED OLDER TECHNIQUES WITH NEW METHODS.