Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/14320
Visual Effects ■ ■ ■ ■ Quick and Beautiful 3D Fire “T e particle work in this fi lm is extraordinary,” Helman says. “It took on a dif- ferent meaning for us. Fire doesn’t just behave like fi re; it behaves in a specifi c way with a story—a beginning, middle, and end.” For reference, with Shyamalan’s edict in mind to keep the simulations grounded in reality, the crew looked for examples of people playing with fi re. T ey found footage taken at the Burning Man festival. “We showed it to Night and he loved it,” Helman says. T en, a team of fi re starters launched a development project. “We brought Olivier Maury, an R&D engineer, onto the crew,” says Craig Hammack, associate visual eff ects supervisor. “He and I worked closely on the basics of the fi re during the ramp-up time, and then once production started, he got all the other technical directors up to speed. He ended up running shots as well.” To re-create the fi re-bending eff ects from the animated series in a live-action At left, ILM developed new technology to bend fi re and, above, new techniques to control water, which ranged from these long tentacles to giant waves. setting, they had to accomplish two goals: create controllable, photorealistic fi re, and do so in a manner that was easy enough to use that they could pro- duce a large number of shots quickly. “Traditionally, fi re simulations are laborious and tedious,” Maury says. “And, the time it takes from launch to render is large.” Hammack and Maury began by evaluating the interactive fi re-simulation system Christopher Horvath had developed to create the fi re controlled by Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. T at system uses a series of 2D slices to produce quick renders of detailed fi re simulations at very high resolution from camera view. But, the Airbender fi re would need to travel great distances, often straight at the camera with large camera moves. “T e camera moves Night wanted with fi re bending were diffi cult with the frustrum-based solution,” Maury says. “Also, he wanted diff erent types of fi re with diff erent textures.” T e studio’s Physbam simulation system, on the other Images ©2010 Paramount Pictures, Inc. Courtesy ILM. July 2010 27