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www.postmagazine.com 10 POST MARCH 2015 ILOURA COMPLETES 500+ SHOTS FOR SPONGEBOB MOVIE SYDNEY — VFX and animation house Iloura (www.iloura.com.au) brought SpongeBob Squarepants and his band of friends to life in the recent feature film, The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water. The studio, which has Australian locations in Sydney and Melbourne, completed 550 shots for the feature, which combines 3D and live action. Iloura was tasked with building and animat- ing the SpongeBob entourage. VFX supervi- sor Glenn Melenhorst and executive producer Ineke Majoor employed more than 100 artists and worked closely with Paramount Anima- tion, Nickelodeon, director Paul Tibbett and SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg to en- sure that the transition of the SpongeBob cast from 2D to 3D was as smooth and authentic as possible. SpongeBob has spent 15 years on-screen as a 2D character, and has built a huge fan base of adults and children. It was essential that the 3D versions of the much-loved companions retained their aesthetic. "We knew we had a huge responsibility with this film, as the audience is seeing the SpongeBob cast for the very first time as 3D characters and that transition was extremely important to Paul and Stephen," notes VFX supervisor Melenhorst. "We spent a lot of time in the design phase and R&D drawing on the essence of the 2D characters, but also focused a lot of attention on the rigging and modeling before going into animation. Every step of the pipeline was important to ensure that we didn't move away from what the audience know and love about SpongeBob and his friends." Iloura's work extended to the super-hero versions of the characters too, which provided a fun and unique way to play with the cast and the story. Further work included Burger Beard's (Antonio Banderas) ship, CG seagulls, pelicans, cannon balls and a fighting skeleton pirate. Careful attention was also paid to the environments, which included streetscapes, beaches and a CG Pelican Island. "Iloura was able to seamlessly design and animate the new 3D characters to match the nuances of the beloved 2D SpongeBob and friends," says co-producer/VFX producer, Lori J. Nelson. "In addition, we threw seagulls, snakes, spiders, a skeleton and a few other CG assets their way, which they produced to a level that any VFX facility would be proud of." Iloura uses Autodesk Maya for animation. Lighting and rendering is performed using 3DS Max with V-Ray. Visual effects are achieved using a combination of Max, Maya and Houdini. The Foundry's Nuke is used for compositing. David Ian Salter, ACE, edited the film, which features an original score by composer John Debney. The feature took in more than $56,000,000 on its opening weekend in the United States. It releases in Australian cinemas on April 2nd. BITS & PIECES QUANTEL NAMES TIM THORSTEINSON CEO NEWBURY, UK — Quantel (www.quantel.com) and Snell announced the appointment of Tim Thorstein- son as CEO, effective immediately. Thorsteinson has previously held a number of senior roles in the media technology industry, including twice as the CEO of Grass Valley, president of the broadcast communica- tions division of Harris Corp., and president and CEO of Enablence. He is currently charged with leading the next stage in the development of the combined Quantel and Snell. Ray Cross has stepped down as chairman and CEO. After 10 years and having built a solid foundation for the future, Cross decided that now is the right time to hand over to someone to lead the next stage of the business' evolution. "We are delighted to have Tim Thorsteinson join Quantel to continue the company's transformation," says Chris Hurley, managing director Lloyds Development Capital and Quantel board director. "Tim has a proven track record of value creation, and his knowledge and experi- ence are a great fit to grow the combined Quantel and Snell business into a major force in the rapidly-changing broadcast industry. I would also like to thank Ray for all his hard work and achievements at Quantel over the past 10 years." Warner Bros.'s sci-fi action/adventure film Jupiter Ascending (starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis), from Andy and Lana Wachowski, tells the futuristic story of a young, destitute care- taker and her journey to a world outside our universe that's in need of a new heir. Framestore's London and Montreal teams partnered to deliver more than 500 final VFX shots for the film. In an online exclusive, lead motion capture TD Gary Marshall talks with Post about how Vicon's motion capture technology played a significant role in helping pull off some of the film's critical VFX shots. Full details at www.postmagazine.com.