Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1399888
42 cgw j u ly • a u g u s t • s e p t e m b e r 2 0 2 1 unlike those found on the Earth's surface. Sometimes the sky and mountains are up- side down, for example, but Hollow Earth's massive creatures seem to navigate the unusual environment with ease. The team of scientists who discovered Hollow Earth, and its entry point in Antarctica, are able to safely explore the underground world using vehicles called HEAVs, which float and hover using futuristic engines. In Hong Kong, Godzilla senses Kong's pres- ence underground and uses his atomic breath to burn a hole deep into the Earth's core. It's this hole that brings Kong to the surface, with the crew in the HEAV closely following. "I think the shot — that was the most challenging," says Lefebvre. "The HEAV comes out of the hole and goes along a building, and it's a bit like that adventure ride, with Kong's mouth — 'Arghhhh!' And then the next shot is all one sequence. The HEAV is riding along the beam, and there is a building that gets destroyed. They go through the building and continue to ride along Godzilla, so it looks like a wild ride. It's quite intense. It's a long shot." MPC's pipeline consists of Autodesk Maya, SideFX Houdini, Foundry Katana, and Pixar RenderMan, with Foundry Nuke for compositing. The studio also created a few propri- etary tools, particularly for the interaction between the titans and the buildings of Hong Kong. The Populate HK (Hong Kong) technology is a script, based on PACS, built by MPC Film CG Supervisor Joan Panis. Pop- ulate HK meant that any updates that were undertaken in the main environment build could be easily integrated into new shots. This included reading any changes made to shots by the animation team. Populate HK would read the base environment and the amended animation, and prepare the city for render. The script also held the capabili- ties to ensure that the shots were populated based on which sections of the city were visible, making them less heavy to render. "We had a system where everything that would be touched – either by Godzilla's beam or elbows, knees — everything that gets destroyed during the fight gets pro- moted to a special building where it gets its own interior, with office furniture and special glass that we can break," Lefebvre explains. "We had a cool system, where it was based on interaction. We didn't cut corners. It be- came a way we managed to track continuity. When you destroy a building and the shot is three seconds, in reality, the building contin- ues to fall down, so we let the simulation run. That way, when they are doing their 'up' and 'down' [camera shots] in the city, we can get a continuity of the destruction." CG Supervisor Timucin Ozger created an automated Houdini destruction workflow scene, which could also render the outputs with neon as the light source in Mantra Renderer. This workflow created similar outputs to those the lighting department would render. This helped to avoid surprises of different looks between departments and to keep consistency. MPC also upgraded its parallax shader to make the skyscrapers look photorealistic. The new shader could merge windows into the offices and create parallax rooms that actually looked like offic- es, not limited to single rooms. MPC began work on Godzilla vs. Kong in 2019 and was close to completion when the pandemic hit. Its work was pretty evenly distributed among its facilities, with London handling the hero assets, CG being created in Montreal, and compositing split between Montreal and Bangalore. "In the beginning, every facility was op- erating as normal," Lefebvre recalls. "I think it was March of last year when we got the notice from the local government to finish and go home. We [worked from] home from March until June (of 2020). I think we finished in June. It wasn't that bad, to be honest. It took a week or two to maybe set up and [get] everybody used to the different system. I think finishing a movie is easier than starting one." So, back to the earlier question as to whether these two titans can coexist, and if not, which would reign supreme. In the film, Kong ends up as king of Hollow Earth, while Godzilla returns to the ocean depths as ruler of the surface world. So, it appears that each is master of his own universe and stands ready for a new conflict should one arise yet again. Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor of CGW. Marc Lous is the chief editor for Post Magazine. The battle of the titans continues in a CG-constructed Hong Kong.