Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1453602
j a n u a r y • f e b r u a r y • m a r c h 2 0 2 2 c g w 9 light, and then added CG on top of that. But other than that, no traditional miniatures were used. HOW HAVE THE VFX IN THIS FILM EVOLVED? IT'S BEEN ALMOST 20 YEARS SINCE THE FIRST MATRIX, AND TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES HAVE CERTAINLY CHANGED. Ultimately, some people describe it as paint- ing pictures with light. And the tools are just different ways to get you there. So, re-cre- ating a look is one level of things, but part of the goal with this film was actually not to elevate the look for its own sake in terms of trying to outdo something that the previous movies had done. Rather, it is in the story. We now have a version of the Matrix that is an upgrade, one that has learned from its past mistakes or things that had hap- pened in the earlier movies. So, there was an intent to give it a different feeling. And Lana aesthetically wanted to make it feel even more real, more convincing than the previous renditions. As a result, the focus was on shooting a lot of stuff practically and as presented on location. For instance, in scenes in a small office, we shot inside a real office. When Neo was in his bathroom, it's a real bathroom in a skyscraper in San Francisco. We were not turning to a visual effects solution in order to make that feel real, and as a result, the visual effects had to match up to that bar. They needed to now look that much better. They had to look that much more real. The tools and the skills that the visual effects artists have, they've evolved, but now we had to push them to their max to make sure there was not a question of doubt as people watched the movie. Except, of course, where they know something can't possibly be real. But the jump off the rooop in San Francisco will surprise people. Most will think that's a visual effect. And visual effects were involved for cleaning up rigs, but that was shot for real. BACK IN 2003, MATRIX VFX SUPE JOHN GAETA WAS QUOTED IN OUR PUBLICATION AS SAYING VISUAL EFFECTS HAVE TO BE INNOVATED AT A BLISTERING PACE — VIRTUAL HUMANS, PROCEDURALIZATION OF CREATIVE ANIMATION, AND ALGORITHMIC ENVIRONMENTS, IN PARTICULAR. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TODAY, BECAUSE WE'RE PAST THOSE THINGS NOW, AREN'T WE? There's always innovation going on. There are some very, very exciting things starting to happen that will transform some of the ways we tell stories in the next few years. What we've seen for a number of years now is perhaps a correction, to make sure story is fi st and foremost — that is the thing people want to hear and see and believe. All the tools, all the departments need to be focused on that fi st. I do think that as far as innovation goes, it's the advancement of real-time, highly convincing imagery through things like Un- real 5 and volumetric capture, which is really in its nascent stages right now, to be able to film and put p ople or things into three-di- mensional situations. Those technologies, which we are just beginning to see, are going to change the way we can and will tell sto- ries, because they allow us to be a lot more intuitive. Twenty years ago, if you wanted to use some of these high-end technologies, everything ground to a halt. Everything had to stop while you set everything up and you calibrated it and so forth. Now, these tools are super smart, and there's a lot more flui - ity to them, which enables filmma ers to be a lot more agile and tell stories in ways that were hard sometimes before. WERE YOU HAPPY TO HAVE THE CHANCE TO GO BACK TO THE MATRIX? Oh, for sure. You know, it was a favorite experience of mine, originally. Terrifying at the time, and I was much younger then. But yeah, to go back to that world and work with a lot of familiar faces, and yet not feel like you're just going back over old ground, that was great. It was clearly a very different project, a very different approach to the ma- terial, which made things very exciting. Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor of CGW. Visit www.cgw.com to read about more VFX work for The Matrix Resurrections by One of Us and Framestore. Also, learn about the digital work by Studio C on the various screens seen throughout the film Practical and digital explosions elevated scenes.