Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1505114
bleachers helped to establish that look. In homage to the game, we built the scoreboard to match, and used the same birch trees and placed water puddles of varying scales throughout the park. Further dressing included many different types of grass and flowers, and all kinds of shrubs at different scales. Most of the foliage, like trees, bushes, and grasses had ambient motion on them to add life to the scene. Surrounding the park were roads and walkways, with aban- doned vehicles and urban debris serving as dressing. C G W : C A N Y O U T E L L U S A B O U T Y O U R V F X W O R K F O R T H E M A J O R B A T T L E S C E N E I N E P I S O D E 5 ? Simon Jung: A substantial amount of VFX work across all disciplines went into the battle scene. In terms of creature work we generated the Bloater, the Child Clicker, hordes of Infected and Clickers, digital doubles of rebels, and a hero level Perry asset for when he gets his head ripped off by the Bloater. Other assets included multiple vehi- cles, including a highly detailed version of the truck that crashed into the house, as well as a full extension of the cul-de-sac environment including a road and additional suburban homes, trees, fences, and streetlights. We also built a CG version of the house from below which all the Infected emerge and simulated fire on it, so we were able to add more fire and destruction to it as the sequence progressed. The forming of the sinkhole was achieved through simulation also. The aim of the battle scene was to convey complete chaos and mayhem, and for us, as the viewer, to witness it through the lens of an almost documentary-style camera. That relentless onslaught of more and more Infected flooding out was used as a backdrop for distinct beats within the battle, like the Bloater emerging and going aer Perry, or the Child Clicker climbing into the car that Ellie is hiding in. Maintaining that energy meant that everywhere we look some- thing needed to be happening, people fighting for their lives and be- ing overrun. A lot of the performance was captured in camera but even the 50 plus stuntees in makeup and prosthetic suits couldn't convey the required scope. We had built a substantial library of as- sets of Infected, Clickers, and rebels, which we layered in areas of the frame in shots that didn't have enough action. That could be filling in background action or also really close to camera, like the Infected that get hit by a car, for example. Creating an iconic character like the Bloater was a really exciting task for us. Once it became clear that we had to change the perfor- mance from what was initially captured in camera, that also freed up his design and materials. That allowed us to make him look more menacing by adjusting the proportions and giving him a more de- fined musculature in areas like the legs, arms, and chest. We were also able to give him a more caved-in face and a much sturdier sil- houette, which really paid off in the backlighting we ended up seeing him in. Another advantage of having him as a CG character was that we The Bostonian Museum combines plates, LIDAR scans, and CG assets.