Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/928269
www.postmagazine.com 9 POST JANUARY 2018 BITS & PIECES SANTA MONICA, CA — Eight VFX is a 10,000 square-foot, Santa Monica, CA-based visual effects studio that's been in business since 2004. A second location is in New York City. Among other projects that in- clude Fox's The Orville and Netflix's Stranger Things, the studio most recently completed work on I, Tonya for Fox Searchlight Pictures. Here, in an exclusive interview with Post, VFX producer Juliet Tierney talks about the work Eight VFX completed for I, Tonya. What type of visual effects work were you asked to complete for the film? "Eight VFX was the sole VFX house on I,Tonya. We worked on over 200 shots — everything from CG crowds, and face replacement to stitch shots, screen comps and graphics." I, Tonya is not a big blockbuster, visual effects spectacle, so I would imagine your work was a bit more subtle? "Yes, our work needed to be seam- less, and have the audience ask, 'What VFX?' The fact that people are asking that is a testament to the invisible integration." What were a few of the key sequences you worked on? "We touched over 200 shots in the movie. The skating shots were the biggest VFX shots, with CG crowd and face replacement. But there are also subtler elements, like the TV screens, graphics and shots where we needed to stitch multi- ple plates together to make it one seamless scene." Can you walk us through one of the key scenes? "From a VFX standpoint, the last major skating sequence at Lillehammer is the favorite. There is a scene which is almost three minutes long, created from three dif- ferent shots. The first and last shots have Margot (Robbie) skating for real, and the middle shot has face replacement. Because this is one final shot, the middle plate had to be perfect so you can't feel the differ- ence between the real Margot and her CG double. We also re-built the stadium in CG, added CG crowd for the audience and gave the sequence its own look with anamorphic lens flares. It's also a favorite of the edi- tor, Tatiana Riegel, and the director, Craig Gillespie." What were the biggest challenges for you in terms of VFX? "Time was a big challenge. We only had three months for over 200 shots. So being really prepared, attending the shoot, capturing the scan of Margot's head and prepping the CG stadiums before we received shots to work on helped us be as efficient as possible." What software tools did you use to complete the work? "We used Maya for CG, and Nuke and Flame for compositing." Did you work with any outside vendors/studios for the visual effects? "We found a great company in France called Eisko, who came and set up the scan on the set to capture the data for the CG face replacement. Their system is at the cutting edge of this technique and it was great to have them in- volved. Because of the tightness of the schedule and budget we used a company with artists in India, Trace, for tracking and roto support. We have worked with these guys for the past couple of years and they really pulled it out of the bag for us!" This was the first film Eight VFX was the sole VFX vendor for, correct? "Yes. Getting involved right at the beginning, being on set and having time to consider the best tech- niques to make this job work, and then seeing it through to comple- tion was really satisfying. We are excited to work on more features like this!" — By Linda Romanello EIGHT VFX SKATES AWAY WITH VISUAL EFFECTS FOR I, TONYA Eight VFX was the sole VFX vendor for I, Tonya, completing more than 200 shots, including face replacements and CG crowds. Eight VFX relied on a host of tools for VFX, including Maya and Nuke.