Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/639267
36 cgw j a n u a r y . f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 6 lating the area of interest around the object. "It was very efficient," says Hyde. "We were not doing large-scale simulations that we didn't really need when the procedural water representation was just as good." D I F F I C U LT I E S A T S E A According to Hyde, there were four sequences involving "heavy" CG water simulations, and they all had different requirements – from wide, expansive shots to others extremely close-up, and some underwater. "That is something we hadn't faced before, having to accommo- date such a variation of 'water' environments, but we were able to adapt and meet those shot requirements through tool and pipeline development. And it worked across most of the shots the majority of the time." One sequence involves the initial whale hunt, when the "Es- sex" first comes across the large pod of whales. "The idea being the whaling crew had been at sea for months and didn't see anything, then suddenly they come across all these whales," he says. "We had to simulate many whales for this epic look." Early on in production, the animators built multiple animation cycles for the whales so that the effects artists could build up a library of generic sims for placement in some scenes later on, such as this one. Another challenging sequence involved the second whale hunt, when the leviathan first fully appears. "Big, wide shots with the whale charging out of the water at the 'Essex,' " says Hyde. "Here the challenge was having convincing scale to the water in simulation areas approximately 300 feet wide in-camera." The third is the other extreme, occurring at the end sequence when First Mate Own Chase (Chris Hemsworth), in one of the small whaling boats, confronts the great beast. The actors – and the water – appear in close- up. "We needed detail from one or two feet off the top of the water," Hyde adds. Some of those sims were done over two or three days and generated 5 tb to 10tb of simulation data each. The movie also contains a number of underwater effects that had to be approached differently than the surface water. Effects Lead Tamar Chatterjee created an approach that enabled the group to do a localized fluid simulation around the object that would be underwater, such as the whale or dolphin. That simulation mimicked the water currents that would flow around it in a real-world scenario. Next, the artists used the same approach for the channel bubbles, krill, and general detritus, to make them appear as though they were interacting realistically within a body of water. "We took the opportunity to re-create the style of the cinema- tographer and what he created on the production side, placing our CG cameras onto the whales and using very wide fish-eye lens- es," explains Hyde. "That, along with the effects, helped create a claustrophobic underwater feel and put the audience right there with the whales." Indeed, water scale is always an issue, and it was here. How- ever, it is the attention to detail that sells the realism. "You are constantly trying to get a realistic look with the scale of the water. And to a certain extent, you can push the simulation within the constraints of memory and time. But then you have to augment it with white water, foam, spray, mist, and so forth. That is gen- erally what sells it at the end of the day," Hyde contends. "If you don't see those details, it does not sell the scale. We were con- stantly battling to get the scale and detail into the water." For both the surface and underwater shots, secondary sims were generated for the atmospherics, like mist and spray. Primary sims were done on the whales to get the initial cresting and breaching, and then secondary sims were run to get the "sheet water" running off their backs as they crested. Simulations also helped achieve whitecaps, to make the ocean appear stormier. Almost all those sims were accomplished in Houdini. Overall, Hyde estimates the effects team generated more than a petabyte in water simulation data for the film. Fortunately, this amount of data did not sink the effects crew. For the feature In the Heart of the Sea, some of the "Essex" crew overcame insurmountable odds and eventually conquered the elements, enabling them to eventually recount their harrowing journey. In Philbrick's and Melville's books, words are used to paint a vivid picture of this struggle. For the film, though, that task was given to the effects crew, which used state-of-the-art visual technolo- gy to bring this rich, visceral story to cinematic life. ■ Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor of Computer Graphics World. ARTISTS USED HOUDINI AND DNEG'S PROPRIETARY DYNAMO SOLVERS FOR THE CG WATER IN THE FILM. VIDEO: GO TO EXTRAS IN THE JANUARY.FEBRUARY 2016 ISSUE BOX C G W. C O M