Computer Graphics World

Finally, someone shot a feature fi lm inside the Smithsonian Museums. And, such a fi lm. Directed by Shawn Levy, the 20 th Century Fox feature magically brings to life works of art, historical fi gures large and small, creatures, statues, and Einstein bob- bleheads in a sequel aptly named Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. e battle features, as did the fi rst Night at the Museum, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller), the museum guard from the earlier fi lm, now an entrepreneur and inventor; Jede- diah (Owen Wilson) as a miniature cow- boy; Octavius (Steve Coogan), another miniature; and Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams). Introduced in the sequel are Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) and Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams). But, enough about the actors. e fun in this fi lm centers on watching familiar inanimate objects and iconic artifacts take on a life of their own. Rhythm & Hues (R&H) was the pri- mary visual eff ects house for the fi lm, and a crew of approximately 300 in its Los An- geles and Mumbai and Hyderabad, India, studios created an animated octopus, the Einstein bobbleheads, various sculptures, airplanes, falcon heads for the Horus, a squirrel, and digital doubles. CafeFX con- centrated on bringing paintings to life. Co-visual eff ects supervisor Raymond Chen, along with Dan Deleeuw, led R&H's work on the 535 shots. " e fun of this project was that we had diff erent kinds of work. It wasn't like having an orange cat for 500 shots," says Chen. "We had a furry creature but also hard surfaces, metal, marble, and octopus fl esh—a lot of diff er- ent problems to solve." e octopus was the most diffi cult char- acter, the bobbleheads the most fun. At Rhythm & Hues, artists model with Au- todesk's Maya, and for displacement, they use Pixologic's ZBrush and Autodesk's Mud- box. For most other tasks along the pipeline, the crew uses the studio's proprietary tools. To handle the eight octopus tentacles, which were like limbs without bones, char- acter riggers created a system that included procedural animation. " e director wanted something anthropomorphic and not too cartoony," Chen says. " e rig had splines controlled with lots of knobs, automated vol- ume preservation so that if you extended a tentacle, it would get thinner as it stretched, and methods that helped the tentacles and suckers slide over each other." To prevent interpenetration, geometry on the ground or another tentacle could dis- place a tentacle overtop. "When animators dragged one tentacle over the top of another, they didn't have to worry about the contact," Chen says. " e rig would cause the bottom tentacle to push the top one up." After the animators completed their work, the eff ects department slimed the octopus based on proximity to other surfaces, us- ing geometry rendered with transparency. "When the tentacles wrap around Ben Still- er, we tracked in geometry for him," Chen explains, "and put slime in the areas closest to the tentacle. As a tentacle got farther away, the slime would stretch and then snap." e marble statue of Abraham Lincoln, by contrast, had an opposite challenge: It couldn't look stretchy or rubbery. " e animation a crew of approximately 300 in its Los An- geles and Mumbai and Hyderabad, India, studios created an animated octopus, the Einstein bobbleheads, various sculptures, airplanes, falcon heads for the Horus, a squirrel, and digital doubles. CafeFX con- centrated on bringing paintings to life. Co-visual eff ects supervisor Raymond Chen, along with Dan Deleeuw, led R&H's work on the 535 shots. " e fun of this project was that we had diff erent kinds of work. It wasn't like having an orange cat for 500 shots," says Chen. "We had a furry creature but also hard surfaces, metal, marble, and octopus fl esh—a lot of diff er- e octopus was the most diffi cult char- acter, the bobbleheads the most fun. At Rhythm & Hues, artists model with Au- todesk's Maya, and for displacement, they use Pixologic's ZBrush and Autodesk's Mud- box. For most other tasks along the pipeline, the crew uses the studio's proprietary tools. To handle the eight octopus tentacles, which were like limbs without bones, char- acter riggers created a system that included procedural animation. " e director wanted something anthropomorphic and not too cartoony," Chen says. " e rig had splines controlled with lots of knobs, automated vol- ume preservation so that if you extended a tentacle, it would get thinner as it stretched, and methods that helped the tentacles a crew of approximately 300 in its Los An- geles and Mumbai and Hyderabad, India, studios created an animated octopus, the Einstein bobbleheads, various sculptures, airplanes, falcon heads for the Horus, a squirrel, and digital doubles. CafeFX con- centrated on bringing paintings to life. Co-visual eff ects supervisor Raymond Chen, along with Dan Deleeuw, led R&H's work on the 535 shots. " e fun of this project was that we had diff erent kinds of work. It wasn't like having an orange cat for 500 shots," says Chen. "We had a furry creature but also hard surfaces, metal, marble, and octopus fl esh—a lot of diff er- e octopus was the most diffi cult char- acter, the bobbleheads the most fun. At Rhythm & Hues, artists model with Au- todesk's Maya, and for displacement, they use Pixologic's ZBrush and Autodesk's Mud- box. For most other tasks along the pipeline, the crew uses the studio's proprietary tools. To handle the eight octopus tentacles, which were like limbs without bones, char- acter riggers created a system that included procedural animation. " e director wanted something anthropomorphic and not too cartoony," Chen says. " e rig had splines controlled with lots of knobs, automated vol- ume preservation so that if you extended a tentacle, it would get thinner as it stretched, and methods that helped the tentacles To prevent interpenetration, geometry on the ground or another tentacle could dis- place a tentacle overtop. "When animators dragged one tentacle over the top of another, they didn't have to worry about the contact," Chen says. " e rig would cause the bottom tentacle to push the top one up." After the animators completed their work, the eff ects department slimed the octopus based on proximity to other surfaces, us- ing geometry rendered with transparency. "When the tentacles wrap around Ben Still- er, we tracked in geometry for him," Chen explains, "and put slime in the areas closest to the tentacle. As a tentacle got farther away, the slime would stretch and then snap." e marble statue of Abraham Lincoln, by contrast, had an opposite challenge: It couldn't look stretchy or rubbery. " e animation R&H animators could cut loose with the Einstein bobbleheads and have fun creating facial expressions for the cartoony characters. June 2009 22 ■ ■ ■ ■ CG•Live Action ■ ■ ■ ■ CG•Live Action

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