Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/65909
plates in the parking lot of the Mets' current home, Citi Field. The parking lot is the former site of Shea Stadium. The entire stadium — inside and out — was built digitally at Imageworks from the ground up. The baseball diamond, lighting fix- tures, flags, bases, dugouts, scoreboards and more were built in full detail. The models had to withstand both day and night lighting sce- narios, close-ups and wide shots. The look is photoreal, yet stylized to fit the narrative and overall style of the film. Using motion capture, keyframe animation and simulation, crowds and baseball players were animated and rec- reated for key moments of the 1969 World Series's final game. THE CHARACTERS Most of the character work of Academy Award-winning special effects make-up leg- end Rick Baker was "untouched by digital hands," says Ralston, a long-time buddy of Baker. Nevertheless, the Imageworks team augmented certain physical characteristics of the aliens in the headquarters scene and helped reveal more of the alien qualities of the villain Boris as the ending approached. They also crafted a digital version of the giant alien fish at Wu's restaurant, which was inte- grated with footage of the gun fight sequence and set destruction. Mixtures of practical and digital effects were implemented to integrate both the set and Agent J into the scene. For the monocycle chase, Imageworks built entire blocks of Queens, fleshing out neighborhoods with digital streets, cars, build- ings and characters. They created digital ver- sions of the monocycles, which existed onstage as props with chrome bases that reflected everything in the environment — an effect the team had to replicate in the digital world. Digital doubles rode the mono- cycles during the pursuit. Ralston and Redd note that the motion of the monocycles posed a challenge to make it feel real, due to the highly pre- carious nature of riding around at high speeds on one wheel. Using practical set pieces and animation to augment them allowed stunts and maneuvers that would otherwise have proven too dangerous in the real world. Extensive 360-degree HDRI photograph- ic captures of real streets in Queens served as a basis for the eventual creation and light- ing of the digital backlot streets. Foreground bluescreen ele- ments were shot with particular lighting changes and sequences on the actors. These same light- ing effects were later carefully choreographed on the digital background in order to marry the two elements realistically. Autodesk Maya was the main animation tool, with Side Effects' Houdini in a supporting role for effects and simulation. Imageworks used a lot of pro- prietary software, including Rocket launch: Imageworks added tons of steam and smoke to this fully detailed digital model. Arnold for rendering and Kata- na for compositing, lighting inte- gration and shot management; Katana is now being adopted industry-wide, Redd reports. "We took all the tools to new heights, pushing them as far as possible, which is pretty far," says Ralston. "Almost every scene used image-based lighting and HDRI lighting techniques to capture the 360-degree views and give www.postmagazine.com Post • May 2012 19 another level of reality to the integration," adds Redd. Just as Hugo demonstrated the power of stereo 3D as a storytelling device, Men in Black 3 will showcase stereo 3D's comedic capabilities, according to Ralston and Redd. "In all honesty, it's the most fun 3D movie I've done," says Ralston. "Jay and I were surprised how hilarious some scenes turned out in 3D. When Will jumps off the Chrysler Building you just go crazy! The way Will and Josh [Bro- continued on page 44 Jay Redd: "We had to react to different demands and changes in plans all the time."