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October 2013

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MFX wraps up Dexter work L OS ANGELES — MFX (www.mfxdesign.com) recently helped Showtime bring its popular Dexter series to a close. The studio provided visual effects for the series since its debut eight seasons ago, and according to MFX president/senior VFX supervisor, Scott Milne, their FX work evolved over the course of the program's run. "The show is set in Miami and filmed in LA and Long Beach," Milne details. In each episode, MFX was charged with removing the distant mountains of Los Angeles, and creating the stylized look of Miami. It initially represented 95 percent of the studio's work, but the list of effects needs for the show grew over its run, and in the last three to four seasons particularly, Milne says MFX was called on to create visual effects for dream sequences, to augment horror elements, and to composite backgrounds for boat footage that was actually shot on a stage, rather than on the water. MFX contributed to 96 episodes, serving as the show's sole VFX provider. For the series finale, which aired last month, the studio had to create visuals that convinced viewers a Category 5 hurricane was taking place, even though the scene was shot on a clear, sunny day. "It was very art directed," Milne recalls. "The writers knew they wanted a dark, foreboding look. We created a lot of style frames to set the tone and establish the look." Dexter was shot using Arri's Alexa. MFX typically received episodes for VFX once picture was locked. They'd then have approximately two weeks to deliver their final effects. For the series finale, Milne says the studio got on board a week earlier than normal, knowing there could be several hundred shots involved. "It was very ambitious," he says of the last episode, noting some of its sequences were shot on the ocean. MFX's primarily VFX tool is Autodesk's Flame. The studio has a half-dozen seats set up in different configurations. NewTek's LightWave is used for 3D, specifically for hard-body objects. "We are not a character animation house," says Milne on the decision to use LightWave. "It really shines in blocking out. For this instance, the boat goes off into storm. The in-camera boat [switches] to a fully-CG boat." To create the storm, MFX applied particle animation and manipulated the live action water's surface. "It involved elaborate color correction," he recalls of the scene. "We performed a series of color gradations and then began roto work, adding displacement maps on top of the placid water, and adding white caps." All of the color treatment was performed in Flame. By Marc Loftus EFFICIENTLY CONVERTED HDMI to HDSDI Converter www.doremilabs.com HDSDI to HDMI Converter Scaling Genlock AES Audio Remote Control Frame Rate Conversion

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