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VISUAL EFFECTS www.postmagazine.com 46 POST MAY 2016 h, that Lucifer Morningstar, he's quite a devil! Actually, he's the Lord of Hell, as he keeps trying to tell people. But they only see "Lucifer" as the devilishly-handsome owner of the nightclub Lux and a consultant to the LAPD. Part police procedural and part fantasy — it's based on a supporting character in The Sandman comics series — Lucifer airs on Fox and stars Tom Ellis. The title character possesses super- natural abilities, of course. He's aware of people's hidden desires and can compel them to speak the truth — useful skills in crime fighting. The LA and Vancouver offices of international VFX house Stargate Studios (www.stargatestudios.net) set the tone for the show's VFX in the pilot. Stargate has established the signature VFX look for a number of shows over the years, including the famed evidence snap zoom for CSI. "It's like creating a rich character that will last for many years," says Stargate founder/CEO Sam Nicholson. "We establish a template that will tell hundreds of stories in the years to come." Stargate devised the look and the wings of the archangel Amenadiel, Lucifer's nemesis who believes Lucifer is upsetting the balance of Earth and encourages him to go back to Hell. "We must have done angel wings 10 differ- ent times, from actors flying on wires with real wings to complete CG wings," Nicholson says. "For Amenadiel we came up with a dark, metallic look. We started with a wireframe sculpture of the wings and built out and animated them." He explains that Amenadiel's wings had to be "fluid, beautiful yet threaten- ing. The feather wingtips are like knives. The wings had to be big enough to be impressive but not too big that he couldn't walk through Lucifer's night- club," with its densely-packed tables. The dark wings were crafted in Maya with 3D volumetric lighting to give the wings a natural feel. "The wings contain at least 5,000 individual feathers, all animated and reflecting light properly," Nicholson says. Stargate also created the signature frozen moment effect, which debuted in the pilot when Lucifer and Amenadiel have a confrontation on Hollywood Boulevard that stops traffic and people on both sides of the street. Stargate is no stranger to the frozen moment, a version of which it does for House of Lies. "It's a storytelling device that fits naturally with the flow of the cinematography, directing and acting," Nicholson explains. For the Lucifer pilot, the frozen moment's live action was shot with Arri Alexa and Phantom cameras so frame blending in CG could show "a spiritual echo of where cars have been and where people have traveled," says Nicholson. Actors were either rotoscoped or shot on greenscreen and composited with Nuke or Adobe After Effects. All the car reflec- tions were CG elements. Zoic Studios (www.zoicstudios.com), whose LA and Vancouver offices picked up the VFX torch for subsequent epi- sodes, had a wings challenge of its own when it created Lucifer's wings. "He's the light bringer, so his wings have white feathers and are highly-detailed and many layered based on the produc- tion design," says Zoic VFX supervisor FOX'S LUCIFER BY CHRISTINE BUNISH STARGATE & ZOIC FIND THEIR WINGS FOR THIS NEW DRAMA O Before After