Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1062194
www.postmagazine.com 18 POST DECEMBER 2018 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 elaborate. 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 also came in and completed a sequence with Meryl Streep. "Framestore London was responsible pri- marily 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. It was huge amounts of rendering. A sequence where they are floating above the ocean with a gigantic ocean where every single sphere of the bubbles had to be rendered correctly to 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. Framestore in Montreal did the animated world and this amazing animated music hall and the chase environments." 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. They 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, which is CG. Complicated stuff!" Teams relied on the tried and true combo of Maya, Nuke and particle systems at the center of their software packages, while each "cer- tainly had their own kind of special sauce," says Johnson. "We shared a lot of assets, including di- gi-doubles of characters and Cherry Tree Lane." According to Johnson, his biggest challenge was, "Not screwing them up!" (laughs). "When we were previewing it, everyone was very aware, even when filming it, that it had the potential to be a very special movie. There are a lot of things that were filmed in green rooms, or looking at something that's not there or they're dancing with people with green leotards on. 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 create something that everyone could be pleased with and proud of." Johnson says that while challenging, many of the big sequences were his favorites to work on. He is particularly pleased that Mary's famous talking umbrella was not CG and rather "old- school" animatronic. "I'm really excited for people to see it," he says. "I think we made a really special film. I think the visual effects are amazing but I think we made something that I hope people who liked the first move will get something out of it and will enjoy… and without copying it. I want people to think that we were respectful of the original film. I also want people who never saw a Mary Poppins movie to like it, too. And, of course, I want Disney to feel that we kept the crown jewels intact." MARY POPPINS RETURNS Cherry Tree Lane was part set and part CG creation. Blunt as Poppins about to kick off the CG underwater scene.