Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/612975
20 cgw n o v e m b e r . d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 5 how effects artists were able to complete the film without the lead character aer the untimely death of Paul Walker. Little has been said about how teams re-created scenes of Walker without missing a beat, including nailing the perfor- mance in close-ups of him post-accident, since exclud- ing them would have been noticeable. So Weta stepped in, generating 350 shots, most of them including Walker's charac- ter. Because of the actor's sud- den death, there were no scans available for making a digital double. Instead, the studio built a reference library using clips from previous films as well as outtakes from the current film. Walker's two brothers and an actor of similar build to Walker were motion-captured and applied to the digital Walker model, resulting in a realistic digital version. I N T H E H E A R T O F T H E S E A RELEASE DATE: December 11 PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Cott Productions, Enelmar Productions AIE, Imagine Entertainment The story – how a huge whale attacked a whaling ship with almost a human-like vengeance – is well known, especially thanks to the book the actual tale inspired: Moby-Dick. In the movie, In the Heart of the Sea, visual effects played a major role, particularly when it came to the environments, requiring complex CG fluid effects. And of course, there is the whale, which unleashes a deadly at- tack on the human crew. J U P I T E R A S C E N D I N G RELEASE DATE: February 6 PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, Dune Entertainment, Anarchos Productions The story line may not have enthralled audiences, but the visual effects received high marks in this space opera by the Wachowski brothers. Frame- store and Double Negative provided the digital assistance, generating a variety of aliens and supersize spaceships. J U R A S S I C W O R L D RELEASE DATE: June 12 PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, Legendary Pictures, China Film Co. In the story line, a new park, called Jurassic World, opens on the site 22 years aer the original Jurassic Park failed. But the same cannot be said of the films that carry these same names. The original Jurassic Park movie was released in 1993 (22 years ago, if you are doing the math), one of just 17 films to earn over $1 billion in ticket sales! The effects then were outstanding, as they are for this fourth installment of the franchise, which as of early November stands as the year's biggest box-office success. For this film, as for the original, ILM unleashed a horde of digital dinosaurs that became stars in their own right. The reptiles gave emotive performances, from the motion-captured raptors to the enormous Mosa- saurus. Muscle and skin systems created a frightening sense of realism. But, can the dinosaurs tame the galactic giant Star Wars in this year's races? M A D M A X : F U R Y R O A D RELEASE DATE: May 15 PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Kennedy Miller Productions, Village Roadshow Pictures We first encountered Mad Max in 1979 in a dystopian ac- tion film. Then came Mad Max 2 and Beyond Thunderdome, which take place in a rapidly declining civilization where precious resources are nearly nonexistent. In this year's Fury Road, we are thrown into the chaotic world of Max like never before. The idea is for this to be a non-VFX film, yet it contains approximately 1,700 effects shots where almost everything was digitally touched. There is a great deal of character animation (people tumbling off vehicles) and post-apocalyptic environments. One of the more complex sequences involves a toxic storm. M I S S I O N : I M P O S S I B L E – R O G U E N A T I O N RELEASE DATE: July 31 PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Paramount Pictures, Skydance Productions, Bad Robot, China Movie Channel, Alibaba Pictures Group, Odin, TC Productions In this big-budget production, actor Tom Cruise reprises his role as operative Ethan Hunt in the IMF (Impossible Mission Force). Cruise insists on doing his own stunts, most of which were shot in-camera and had audiences holding their breath. Still, to help make Hunt's mission possible in the film, dig- ital artists at Double Negative worked on 1,000 of the movie's 1,200 VFX shots. The big digital effects scenes include a sequence in the Vienna Opera House as Hunt (Cruise) battles a would-be assassin backstage, albeit the background was digi- tal, a combination of composit- ed tiled background plates and greenscreen. The other complex CG scene took place in a torus filled with water, requiring com- plicated CG work. P A N RELEASE DATE: October 9 PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Warner Bros., RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Berlanti Produc- tions, Moving Picture Company In this tale of Peter Pan, the orphan boy finds himself in the magical world of Neverland, which is both fun and dan- gerous. A great deal of digital effects was needed for the IN THE HEART OF THE SEA JUPITER ASCENDING