Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/710451
www.postmagazine.com 17 POST JULY 2016 Summer B L O C K B U S T E R S Photoshop. Proprietary layout tools charted the neighborhoods. Digital matte paintings, based on location footage shot in Jordan, formed the outskirts of the metropolis. SideFX's Houdini was deployed to pre-shatter and destroy Cairo. (MPC's Kali was used on the Sydney Opera House in another portion of the global destruction sequence.) MPC also used Pixar's RenderMan V.20 with new RIS technology. "We were able to render the city of Cairo in minutes instead of hours," says Rustad. The scene when Angel transforms into Archangel was probably "the most complex scene we undertook," says Rustad. "It was tricky. It took a good couple of months to work out how to do it. We had concept art from Fox but nobody knew what it would look like when Apocalypse reconstructs Angel's wings in metal. Our idea was to have a fractal growing and meshing process where the metal pushes the feathers out. But we had to work out which bits would be hand animated, which simula- tions, which done in shading." The feathered wings feature about DIGITAL DOMAIN AND RISING SUN LEND THEIR SUPPORT FOR X-MEN: APOCALYPSE Australia's Rising Sun Pictures con- tributed to several key sequences of Twentieth Century Fox's X-Men: Apocalypse release, most notably the Quicksilver rescue sequence. Digital Domain completed work on the opening sequence set in ancient Egypt as well as the Auschwitz envi- ronment and some one-off shots for the world destruction. Find out more about Rising Sun's contributions, and also read our exclusive Q&A with Digital's Domain's lead lighter Carlos Cidrais (pictured left) online at postmagazine.com. Archangel's wings feature about 100 primary feathers. Some scenes took months to build.