Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/4585
www.postmagazine.com November 2009 • Post 17 those getting involved early with effect. Star t with your deliverables front. "If you don't do that you deliverables you don't need or you deliverable you do need and costing you more time and money." experienced post house with re- color or raw science. "Don't film scan or digital video, be- behave like scans or video. Eventu- converted into film and/or video results, treat the files in their re- as often as possible." talent."We can get so caught up about artists, about contribu- creative scale.The tools will never pays to work with a facility that more important than the tools is it." T H That is the tagline for George Who Stare At Goats, about a unit can make things happen with knocking down unsuspecting goats. apparently a rare breed of goat that they are hard to find, especially on location in Puerto Rico. So option? Use a common farm goat specialists at CIS Hollywood to digitally, of course. And in order visual effects super visor on can. Thomas J. Smith served as princi- super visor on the film, working producer David Van Dyke and digital Henke, as well as a team of 25 only create a digital goat, but also butterflies, photoreal helicopters completed 95 shots overall. At Goats, we were involved in because it was a period film until current Iraq — but because cer tain things that would re- repor ts Smith, who was involved to get involved early, because have that luxury," he says."We that are already in post so the information isn't always available; you together and make it work." Puerto Rico for the goat shoot, for two scenarios: enhancing the down on camera, or creating they could control. "The goat had hoped, so we went to plan complete CG goat. Preparation re- quired us being there on set and getting all the infor- mation as we were shooting, including lens informa- tion, camera height and lighting reference." To create realistic textures for their CG goat, Smith shot detailed photographs of the live goat on set and applied those textures to the CG version they cre- ated back at CIS Hollywood. "We refined this goat to the very end, making sure our fur was a good match to the shots leading up to it falling." Modeling and animation was via Autodesk Maya; it was composited in Shake. Hair and fur was created from propriety code created in-house, based on Maya. When going on set, Smith hammers home the im- por tance of covering all bases while there, because you just get that one chance to capture what you need. "These goats were in Puer to Rico, so when we walked away we needed to have everything in hand." Another big part of CIS Hollywood's work on Men Who Stare At Goats included digitally creating period helicopters from Vietnam called UH-1 Hueys. Smith and team prepared early by researching what these helicopters looked like and how they moved. "There is a sequence in Vietnam, and the characters get dropped off in a field; we put two UH-1 Huey heli- copters behind them," he reports. "We prepared by looking at all the available footage we could find of UH-1 helicopters, studying them, seeing how they come in and landed, how they took off.The subtleties of that animation proved to be important in selling it to the viewer later on. If you fail to make something like that have weight or it moves incorrectly, it really stands out. Subtle twists and turns in the animation and good lighting integration proved to be key in the final version." CIS Hollywood also created a CG Kiowa heli- copter that's used currently in Iraq. Research was a large part of this shot as well. Smith shares these tips for those preparing for VFX: Interfacing with production design early on for any visual effects needs. "It's a balancing act be- tween what they will provide and what visual effects can do to help keep the costs down on a movie." Previsualization can be a very important tool in getting to the final product. "Whether it's con- cept stills, or simple animations, they help to clarify what the director wants early on in the process." Get good set information. "When shooting, get lighting reference, set measurements, film camera in- formation on every visual effects shot. All this is very important in making the final product believable. "Working with director Grant Heslov was great. He was ver y open and let us get ever ything we needed from day one.You don't always get the coop- CIS Hollywood's Thomas J. Smith was on set during this shoot for Men Who Stare At Goats. The VFX studio created an all-CG goat to fall on command.