Computer Graphics World

March/April 2014

Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/298092

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 32 of 51

C G W M a r ch / A p r i l 2 014 ■ 31 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is now close to midway through the shooting schedule on its 14th season. For the landmark 300th episode, Inhance was tasked with creating a 30-second show opening shot that would include motion-control cameras, miniatures, and lots of CG magic. Although we worked on five seasons of CSI: Miami, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is new to Inhance for 2013. We are creating all the visual effects as well as providing on-set supervision. This job is handled by Larry Detwiler, a former client of Inhance and the in-house VFX supervisor on CSI: Miami, for which he directed a number of episodes, as well. Episode 300 For the show opener of episode 300, the writers described a crime scene where a murder had taken the life of a young woman, leaving her body resting on a four-foot-tall architectural model of a hotel called "The Premier." How we get there is where the magic comes in. Model Builder Craig Currie provided production with a basic miniature of the hotel. This not only served as the base layer for the exterior of the open- ing shot, but also as a screen prop in several other non-VFX shots. Detwiler and I were both present on the CSI stages at Universal for the miniature shoot, with the motion-control camera rig provided by Pacific Motion Control. VFX Cameraman/Motion-Control Operator Joshua Cushner was at the helm, dialing in a smooth flight path for the tiny film camera to follow. The model was placed on a riser with a black curtain stretched taught behind it. Tracking markers were placed on the curtain so that real, B-roll footage of Vegas could be 3D tracked and comp'd in behind the hotel. The concept was that the viewer would not know they were looking at a model until after we had completed our run down the front of the building, through the front doors of the casino, past reception, through the main gaming floor, and all the way to the side doors, where, instead of seeing out to the strip, we saw a giant un-blinking eye of the victim lying dead. Pieces of the model, such as the four searchlights that adorn the roof of the casino, were removed so that CG versions could be added in post. This enabled us to make them sweep around; we also added volumetric cones of light and lens flares where appropriate. CSI 's veteran gaffers swarmed down on the miniature and surgically lit every piece of the hotel from every possible angle, adding life and depth to the hotel facade. Several passes were made with the motion-control camera, and we attached additional tracking markers to be used as reference when adding to the model in postproduction. The actual MOCO camera data was saved to a thumb drive, and I returned to Inhance to translate the data into a digital 3D camera path. Tackling Postproduction While I had been building the interior of the casino from sketches provided by production, Artist Kevin Quattro started on the exterior. Using the MOCO data and some 3D tracking, Quattro began adding the searchlights, neon, window reflections, and a whole lot of roof detail. Air-conditioning units, vents, and an assortment of pipes were placed on the roof to add believability to the building when the camera scraped over it at the top of the shot. Finally, the marquee was augmented with shimmering lights, and the front doors completely replaced with 3D doors, modeled by Tony Stranges. This would allow the CG camera to take over from the real one and fly seamlessly through the glass and into the fully computer-generated interior. For the sake of time, I purchased some of the gaming table models from a 3D model website and then spent some time cleaning them up and re-texturing them so they worked for our specific art direction. I built the rest of the casino interior using NewTek's LightWave 3D. Every detail needed to be realized, from the reception desk, down the stairs to the gambling pit, over the fully stocked bar, past the slots, and up to the side doors. Detwiler spent one morning with his 7D camera at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, shooting tex- tures for the casino interior, which was to be Art Deco in style. The Wiltern is a beautiful Art Deco building ■ CSI AND ITS SPIN-OFFS are known for generating unique camera views. Here, a miniature model facilitated that. micrOscope

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Computer Graphics World - March/April 2014