Computer Graphics World

It's a dangerous world now for magicians and Muggles, as readers of JK Rowling's enormous- ly popular Harry Potter series of books know, and as movie audiences will discover. Warner Bros.' sixth film in the franchise, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, puts the villainous Lord Voldemort back on the attack, with his acolyte Draco Malfoy helping to double the trouble. And, as always, the good wizards, Hogwarts Professor Dumbledore and his student Harry Potter, the chosen one, must stop them. But Harry and his fellow students of magic have other problems to cope with. ey're teenagers now, as are the actors who portray them, and hormonal distractions play a major role in this film, sometimes with a magical twist. e kids are growing up. e plot is grittier and darker. And the result is one of the most critically acclaimed Potter films yet. David Yates, who directed the previous film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, returns to lead the crew of Half-Blood Prince and will continue on for the final two films in 2010 and 2011—both based on the seventh, and final, Potter book. So, too, does senior visual effects supervisor Tim Burke, who has now worked on five of the six films, and the acting crew who have starred as the students of witchcraft and wizardry from the beginning: Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, and Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy. As is typically the case with Potter films, several VFX studios located primarily in London conjured up most of the effects, with Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) doing some heavy lift- ing from the US. We talked with ILM, the Moving Picture Company (MPC), and Cinesite, which created some of the most interesting effects, about their work on the movie. In addi- tion, CEG Media, Double Negative, and Rising Sun Pictures contributed digital effects. ILM: Firestorm Dumbledore and Harry are on a scouting mission to find one part of Voldemort's soul, a so-called Horcrux, hidden in a crystal cave. ILM provided shots for Harry and Dumbledore's entrance to the cave, and created the cave itself as well as the lake inside. After entering, the two wizards row across the lake to the island, a set piece, and find the Horcrux. And then, the action begins. Dumbledore collapses. Harry dips a shell into the lake to bring him some water. As soon as he touches the water, hundreds of CG Inferi, trapped souls that guard the Horcrux, splash up and pull him beneath the CG water. e camera follows Harry underwater. To rescue Harry, Dumbledore, now recovered, conjures up fireballs that he slings into the lake. As jets of fire slash through the water, we see thousands of Inferi, arms and limbs wrapped around one another, on the sides of the island. ey look like coral, and it's no surprise to learn that ILM's Aaron McBride, who created concept art for Davy Jones' crew in Pirates of the Ca- ribbean, helped design them. e fire scares the Inferi. ey release Harry, and as the camera Because ILM created the digital fire using a combination of low-res 3D fluid simulations and high-res 2D simulations, TDs can produce quick results. From left to right, a data plane showing the underlying sim, particles colored according to temperature, and an initial composite. August 2009 11 Visual Effects n n n n

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