Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1489831
o c t o b e r • n o v e m b e r • d e c e m b e r 2 0 2 2 c g w 1 9 F rom children of the 1980s to teenagers and everyone in between, Stranger Things has connected with audiences worldwide. The fourth season is the most epic yet, racking up a record 1.15 billion viewing hours from Netflix subscrib- ers. With superpowered showdowns, exploding helicopters, and sin- ister vine attacks, these episodes presented Scanline VFX with its fair share of challenges to battle with, and thankfully V-Ray was its weapon of choice. "The visual effects work in previous seasons was stellar, but this season was more like nine blockbuster movies," says Justin Mitch- ell, VFX supervisor at Scanline VFX. "We were given some huge se- quences and complex effects to work on across eight of the epi- sodes." Picking up eight months aer Season 3, Stranger Things Season 4 finds our heroes separated for the first time, a situation made all the more difficult by the complexities of high school, a sinister new su- pernatural threat, and revelations about the origins of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). Scanline had a hand in many of the season's most ex- citing moments, with the climactic events of Chapters Seven, Eight, and Nine forming the bulk of the work. ONE BIG DISINTEGRATION Chapter Seven builds to a critical moment in the story of Stranger Things when a young Eleven stands up to the villainous One (Jamie Campbell Bower) in the Rainbow Room of Hawkins Lab. The super- powered face-off ends when Eleven throws One through a window and causes his body to erupt in a maelstrom of ash and light, creat- ing the first ri, a nightmarish portal to the Upside Down. Scanline put V-Ray's superior capabilities through their paces to achieve this jaw-dropping effect. To start with, Scanline built a full 3D replica of the Rainbow Room and a digital double of One, with which they matched the performances of the actor and stunt profession- al. One's digital double contained a full series of bones and internal organs. "I don't know how much of that appears in the final image, but you get a sense of the volume," adds Mitchell, "I wanted it to be volumetric and not simply a shell tearing into an empty space." Houdini's procedural generation tools then took care of tearing the detailed mesh into discrete particles as One's body dissolves. V-Ray quickly and efficiently rendered the sequence's physically accurate effects, meaning Scanline could render multiple lighting passes and extra textures, allowing them to deliver interactive lighting that cre- ated a burning effect as One disintegrates. BLACK HAWKINS DOWN The action ramps up in Chapter Eight when Eleven, having been drawn into a trap, makes a superpowered escape from Dr. Brenner's (Matthew Modine) shady laboratory and the attacking military forces. Her newly restored powers bring a helicopter crashing down outside the facility, a major moment for a character at their most vulnerable. Scanline was tasked with adding and animating the CG helicop- ter, using V-Ray to create a cinematic spectacle as it spirals down to the ground. "I love V-Ray," adds Mitchell, "it's our renderer of choice. Houdini's procedural generation tools tore One's digital double to shreds.