Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1513434
Because of the unstructured nature of the shoot, it was not al- ways possible to capture data. "We really had to lean on our paint and layout teams to get the job done," Comley explains. "It was he- roic, the amount they had to do to get around the fact we didn't have supporting data." "The production team were monumental on this as well," Comley adds. "Gareth was working with a relatively modest budget on this one…not small by many standards, but certainly modest for [this] kind of sci- blockbuster. We needed that production team to abso- lutely be on it, to try and get every last ounce we could." The distinctive visual style of the plates allowed ILM to seamlessly integrate VFX. "You've got that visual framework, so many clues and cues to ri o, that embedding our stu becomes a really enjoyable exercise," Comley explains. "We've got that aesthetic that we can lean on and put back into the images—all the imperfections, grain structures, lens astigmatisms, and pretty-heavy vignette." The ILM team utilized their in-house soware platform, Zeno, as a major part of the VFX workow backbone, as well as Maya, Houdini, and Nuke. "We were quite Houdini-centric in terms of some of our mega explosions," Comley explains. "And that also helped with our destruction pipeline." Nomad, the massive US military base that oats above New Asia, was an especially detailed asset. It is shown from many dierent vantage points, both inside and out, requiring a massive 1.3 terabytes of data. "In order to be able to destroy that," Comley reveals, "We had to create a proxy version of the asset. Then we could pre-fracture into smaller chunks that were of a size that animation could actual- ly work with in Maya. Then back in Houdini, we're able to transpose those sort of manageable proxies back into the full-density asset again and build on various procedural layers in the process, and aug- ment and destruct." CG supervisors Amanda Johnstone-Batt and Roel Coucke played an essential role in this process. Edwards' brieng requirements about who was a human and who was a robot evolved several times during production. "In some in- stances it had to be from our hero kit of robots or hero characters, and very much had to go the full-3D route," Comley recalls. "But in other cases, when it was perhaps more of a background layer or midground layer, we could use Nuke-centric, real-time robot heads to render out additional passes to do more rudimentary tracks to get people erased and replaced rapidly. That was Juan [Antonio Espig- ares Enríquez], one of our comp supes', baby." The team utilized 2D tools to overcome budget and time con- straints. "We had to think in ways of being ecient," Chan explains. "As someone coming from a 2D background, I think we really tried to utilize as much as we could in comp using Nuke. It pushes us forward to try and do more in dierent ways." Overall, the unique challenges of the project proved to be ex- tremely rewarding for the ILM team. "People are very proud of their work, as they should be, because it looks absolutely stellar," Chan shares. Comley adds, "There aren't many projects where there's an amazing, beautiful, rich world that you're now able to almost walk around in…We got the framework and then we were allowed to play in it. It was really special." Kendra Ruczak is the Managing Editor of CGW. Reference data was captured with HDRI chrome balls during production. LiDAR scans were also used to gather reference data on location.