Computer Graphics World

July 2009 29 CG Characters n n n n only that he wanted little tiles that moved away to reveal the robot inside." So, the team projected Alice's image onto 3D geometry, processed the geom- etry to create the tiles, ran a simulation in Houdini that animated the tiles, and ren- dered them out for compositing. "e human model, Alice's geom- etry, was basically a point cloud," says Palop. "Each tile was a little model; we cloned the tiles and completely covered her body with 200,000 tiles; we stamped tiles on all those points across the geom- etry. en, we controlled their behavior, based on rules, with control maps that told them when to flip and move away." On one side, they had the projected im- age of Alice; on the flip side, they had the projection of the robot." To finish the shots, Pecora's team took over, working with lighting passes to match the plate and adding geometric complex- ity—cuts in the skin and so forth—as the tiles moved. "We used Nuke's robust tool set a lot for her face. It was a laborious shot but really cool. We balanced between having the detail too fine and not fine enough, until we finally found the magic number with the right number of tiles at the right size." Cool-to-Expletive Ratio Not all the robots Digital Domain created were as difficult, though. Soundwave, a Decepticon, attaches itself to communica- tion satellites using Houdini-driven tenta- cles of glass tubes, which reflect and refract light using raytracing in Side Effects' Man- tra. "We didn't have much time to create the effect, but it came together quickly, and Michael [Bay] loved it, so it became the least of anyone's worries." e studio also transformed a whole series of household appliances into Blenderbot, Disposalbot, Dysonbot (a vacuum cleaner), Espressobot, Toasterbot, Microwavebot, CiscoRouterbot, and Mixerbot, all of which went from looking new as appliances to looking scratched and damaged as robots. "We worked on a cool-to-expletive ratio with Michael," says Pecora. "If we stayed with something realistic and pristine, the expletive ratio was really high, but when we went from pristine to a robot with battle scars, the expletive ratio took a nose dive." Because the team had only 10 frames for the transformation, they didn't try to create anything realistic. ey did try to add real motion blur, though, and discov- ered that Michael Bay had specific mo- tion-blur tastes. "He likes sharp and crisp," Pecora says. "But if you use appropriate motion blur, things look smeared. So we rendered motion-blur wedges. I won't tell you the magic number, but we found one that we wouldn't have guessed. Even when we were baking motion blur in the 3D world, we'd bake in that shutter angle and it got past him." Having Fun One robot, Wheelie (not to be confused with ILM's giant Decepticon Wheelbot), provided comic relief—both at Digital Domain and in the film. It's a Decepticon that transforms from a remote-control car, and it develops a crush on Sam Witwicky's girlfriend, Mikaela (Megan Fox). It has bug eyes on poles and can skate on two wheels, or walk or spin around in circles. Butler describes a scene with Wheelie in Mikaela's chop shop. "He's running around the room and tries to crack the safe, but Mikaela pins him with giant pincers against a lathe," But- ler says. "She sticks him in a toolbox and keeps him as a pet. He's rude and funny." And, it humps Mikaela's leg like a dog. "At first, Michael [Bay] thought he was a cute, 'I wov you' kind of guy, then he decided Wheelie should be schizophrenic and high strung," says animation director Dan Taylor. "en he shifted into a little troublemaker. It was great collaborating with Michael. He pushes as hard as he can to get the most from people, but he is also very collaborative," Taylor says. "We actu- ally suggested editorial changes. He's one of the most creative people I've worked for." Farrar reinforces that opinion. "Michael was here at ILM and 100 percent involved," Farrar says. "He might hit 20 people in the animation area and then start going through the TD shots. He knows people by name. He solicits ideas. He asks, 'What should this character say? What's the line?' If someone has a good idea, he'll put it in. Every one of the people involved [in every area]—animation, lighting, everything— helped him create this movie. If you want to make movies and be involved, it doesn't get any better than this." n Barbara Robertson is an award-winning writer and a contributing editor for Computer Graphics World. She can be reached at BarbaraRR@comcast.net. The Twins, created by ILM, prove double the trouble for Devastator.

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