Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1127068
www.postmagazine.com 20 POST MAY/JUNE 2019 SUMMER MOVIES Banner mesh as well as for the basis of ILM's Hulk facial shape library. Medusa tracks the pores of an actor's face, from which a photoreal 3D model is derived. However, the eight-camera solution requires the actor to sit in a studio environment; the directors wanted him on the set with the other actors. So, ILM began the solve using SNAP, what was then its current facial solver, which comprises two head-mounted cameras positioned in front of the actor's face, where tracking markers are placed, enabling the facial animation to be acquired on set. The trade- off is that a low-resolution mesh is used, which ILM then reapplied to the high-resolution mesh from the Medusa scan to drive the facial shapes. "We started there but felt like we needed a high- er level of fidelity given Ruffalo's performance, the nuance of his face," says Russell Earl, ILM's VFX su- pervisor. "So, we started to improve the SNAP solve system by taking the meshes we were solving, and then basically comparing them back to the shapes we had captured in that initial Medusa session." The results were better in this newer system, known as Xweave, but ILM learned about Disney Research Studio's Anyma, which up to this point was used as an ADR-style booth with three station- ary cameras for recording performance dialogue after the fact. Disney Research Studio adapted the Anyma solver to work with ILM's head-mounted camera footage that they had already shot. Anyma doesn't just rely on the low-resolution mesh gen- erated from the points; rather, it generates a mesh per frame and does a photometric solve based on the footage from the head-mounted cameras for a much higher-fidelity solve. While the performance solve was being com- pleted with the new system, ILM was simultane- ously rebuilding the re-targeting aspect, whereby Ruffalo's performance would be applied onto Smart Hulk. Once ILM reviewed the solves on a Banner mesh, the crew compared them back to plates of Ruffalo, making sure they had a one-to-one match. Then, using the system, called Blink, they re-target- ed the Banner solve onto the Hulk model using new code. At the same time, that re-target broke the per-mesh solve into Hulk facial shapes and provid- ed animators a much more user-friendly version to work with. When it came to animation, ILM used new deformers that were also more user friendly for dialing up or down the different aspects of Ruffalo's performance. (ILM provided its Hulk model, shader information and base rigging to Framestore, which also worked on some Smart Hulk shots.) THANOS As DeLeeuw points out, Thanos, like Smart Hulk, was another character who was pushed further for this film, particularly for the end battle. Whereas Thanos, like Hulk, was pushed further in this film. The Avengers band together in the final battle. Technology played a major role in character performances.