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Whether it’s a film that needs effects to tell a story, such as Disney’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice or Sony’s Resident Evil: Afterlife, or a character-driven thriller like Focus Features’ The American, visual effects have become as ubiquitous as the stars themselves. As digital artistry — overt and invisible — is being used more and more to en- hance the story, the visual effects artist’s role is becoming even more important. They are being called to create things that don’t exist in reality and to fix things like Mother Nature’s fury, such as rain and damage caused by an earthquake. These pros below were challenged with quick turnarounds,multiple one-off ef- fects shots and 3D zombies with anger issues. Nanny McPhee and the By Christian Manz,VFX supervisor, Framestore, London L ONDON— Framestore (www.framestore-cfc.com) were approached by Working Title Films late in 2008 to work on the visual effects for Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang — the sequel to the 2005 film written by and starring Emma Thompson.There was a wide range of VFX work to complete, but director Susanna White and the producers felt that thanks to Framestore’s experience with creature work they could pull off the key sequences involving CG piglets and a jackdaw. We worked closely with the production team in the lead up to filming. Animation tests for the key piglet sequences educated how the scenes would be shot,as well as provided character development time for the ani- mators — led by animation supervisor Kevin Spruce. Filming took nearly four months, during which we spent a lot of time on set gathering relevant data and references.We had about the same amount of time in post to turn around 320 shots — which is very tight when creature work is involved. The look dev team, lead by CG supervisor Chris Lawrence, spent a Mr. X created dogs that split open and attack Afterlife’s hero Alice. They feature an interior ring of spikes that VFX supervisor Dennis Berardi calls “gruesome.” RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE Resident Evil: Afterlife is the fourth in a series of feature films based on the Resi- dent Evil videogame. Paul W. S. Anderson, who has written and produced all four Resident Evil films and who directed the first, is back at the helm for this iteration. Afterlife features our long-suffering hero Alice battling the evil Umbrella Corpo- ration.And zombies, of course.The film’s visual effects supervisor is Dennis Be- rardi, president of Toronto’s Mr. X (www.mrxfx.com), which was lead shop on the film. He has collaborated on multiple movies with Anderson, including Resident Evil’s Apocalypse and Extinction. Mr.X worked on about 300 shots, but because of the volume of effects and the tight schedule, Berardi called on Montreal’s Rodeo Effects,Toronto’s Rocket Sci- ence and India’s Anibrain for the remaining 200. As if creating visual effects for a Resident Evil movie wasn’t challenging enough, Afterlife was shot in 3D, making the visual effects that much tougher to pull off. But Berardi is fast becoming a seasoned 3D veteran. He is currently working on the VFX for the post-heavy Tron Legacy, which was actually shot before Resident Evil: Afterlife. Both films used the same camera set-up: Sony F35 cameras strapped to- gether using Vincent Pace 3D rigs. Berardi says the 3D workflow is much more intense than a 2D film.“On a stereo production you can’t just digitize the footage and start working. Because of the camera system, the images are kind of raw and need to be corrected for stereo.To get rid of the disparities between the left eye and right eye camera data streams,we have to prep for vertical asset color differences.” He also reports that working in 3D “absolutely” affects the way they work with visual effects.“There is just so much more to deal with in designing a shot for a di- mensional effect versus a flat effect.The very nature of having the audience expe- rience the moment,we have to spend a lot of time to make sure the image is not confusing, because it can be dimensionally, and that it tells a story and that it’s spa- tially correct.” One complicated and very long shot that took eight months to complete is set in Tokyo at the famous Shibuya Crossing. It starts with a tight shot of a business- man as he is being killed by a zombie.The camera pulls out from him and the au- dience feels the buildings around them as they continue to pull out to the Shibuya area and the Tokyo City Center, which is ground zero for the infection that created www.postmagazine.com September 2010 • Post 27 large portion of that time finessing the look of the piglets, jackdaw and baby elephant that would be featured in over half the shot count.The brief was that they should not only be completely photoreal but also perform amazing magical feats.The creature work was completed in Maya using proprietary plug-ins for the complex animation and deformation rigs, as well as the fur and feather grooms and dynamics. Rendering was com- pleted in RenderMan via our in-house fRibgen software. Also on the CG slate were several FX elements, which were completed in Houdini.The piglets perform a synchronized swimming routine in one sequence — this involved replacing an in-plate pond with a CG water sur- face.3D simulations were enhanced with 2D ones to increase the detail required for the scale of the water and its size in frame.Water elements, filmed specifically for each shot and animation were used by compositing lead Russell Horth to enhance the finished 3D renders in Nuke. The climax of the film involved Nanny McPhee using her magical powers to harvest a field of barley. Once the crop has been blown into the air the brief was for it to flock, like starlings do, into various shapes — in this case various animals, barnyard and otherwise. In wide shots the barley field itself was a dynamic CG element, created with our proprietary fur system.The flying barely was a combination of an animation-driven particle system en- hanced with flocking simulations in Houdini.This was again composited in Nuke. Our shot list was completed by some environment and matte paint- ing work for a journey through wartime London — for which we also pro- vided CG vehicles and extras — period cleanup and greenscreen comp work.The team grew to just over 100 people across all disciplines. Big Bang