Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/759864
n o v e m b e r . d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 6 c g w 1 7 I t has been five years since the final Harry Potter feature film, The Deathly Hallows Part 2, stormed into theaters. Based on the last book in the wildly popular series, the film earned $1.3 billion at the box office and received three Oscar nominations, including one for best visual effects. But, author JK Rowling had published another book about magical worlds, one that takes place 70 years before Harry Potter learned he was a wizard. Supposedly compiled by Magizoologist Newt Scamander, the compendium of information about magical characters published in 2001 was, Rowling led us to believe, Harry Potter's textbook. That book had no story. For the current Warner Bros. release, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Rowling provided a screenplay inspired by the textbook, her first screenplay. David Yates, who had directed four Harry Potter films, took on this year's Fantastic Beasts. Stuart Craig, who was production designer on all eight Harry Potter films, also joined the Fantastic Beasts team, as did Tim Burke, overall visual effects super- visor for six of the eight Potter films and VFX supervisor at Mill Film for a seventh. For Fantastic Beasts, Burke shared the overall supervisory role with Christian Manz, also a Harry Potter alum, having led Frame- store's work on three films in the series. It's no exaggeration to say that the eight Harry Potter films helped build the visual effects industry in London, and that you can trace the evolution of visual effects in the decade from 2001 to 2011 through the series. That evolution has taken a giant leap since, as work on this film shows. With a story centered on magical creatures, it's no surprise that the film has more creature work than the Potter films. "The Harry Potter films were driven by the school," Burke says. "This story is driven by Newt and his fantastic beasts. So, we have a lot more creature animation." There are also more digital sets. "And, while Harry Potter was generally based at Hogwarts," Burke continues, "we are in New York in 1926, with half the film set outside." But the changes in the production pro- cess are most dramatic. "Visual effects is seen more as an intrinsic part of the storytelling process than it was five years ago," Manz says. "We were collaborating from the beginning on this film, all the way through. It's a more efficient way to work and much more creative for the visual effects artists, as well. Everyone looks to us now more for answers than for fixing something later." O R G A N I Z I N G T H E W O R K Preproduction, which included previs, extended for approximately eight months, followed by five months of production and eight months of postproduction. Eleven stu- dios contributed visual effects to the show. The main vendors were Double Negative and Framestore," Burke says. "Framestore was involved early on with character devel- opment. Senior Animation Supervisor Pablo Grillo came on during preproduction to do creature animation development, previs, and, later, some postvis, with a view of his taking on some hero creatures. We used Double Negative for environment work, for the major city builds and construction; also some creature work that was set-driven, and effects type of work." Beyond that, the work was split primarily by sequence. "Generally, the creatures and environ- ments didn't cross-sequence very much," Manz says. "We tended to have one action sequence with one creature in a particular location in New York. But, even though a lot of locations, creatures, and effects might appear in only one or two shots, they had to look as good as everything else. The breadth was stunning." Along with Framestore and DNeg, Rodeo in Montreal did a sizable chunk of environ- ment work and a large number of creatures. MPC created the hero creatures Occamy and Demiguise, and handled the environ- ments for an arrival in New York sequence. Image Engine in Vancouver created addi- tional creatures as well as effects. Milk in the UK added background magic, such as moving statues and origami, to scenes set in the Ministry of Magic. Cinesite in the UK sent silverware, napkins, and dinnerware flying for a magical scene and extended sets digitally. Passion Pictures created 2D animation for a book. The Secret Labs also contributed to the film, as did Lola. In addition, an in-house facility with 50 artists, some from The Third Floor, Proof, DNeg, and Framestore, and some freelance did previs, character design, postvis, com- positing, and more. "That's the main difference between the Potter films and this film," Burke says. "On the Potter films, there would be previs, the editor would cut, the director would turn over shots to the visual effects facility, they would block out animation and give it back to us, and so forth. We were always involved, but it was a very linear process. On this film, we started early in preproduction. We hired a premises in Soho [London], brought in crews with their own kits, put in hardware and servers, and we basically built a facility in a week. We could generate shots with fast turnaround. It shows what can happen in five years." P R E P R O D U C T I O N C R E A T U R E S With a brief from Director Yates, the con- cept artists from Framestore and freelance artists on the Soho-based team began designing magical creatures based on descriptions in the book, and invented other background characters. THE GOBLIN GNARLACK IS A DIGITAL CHARACTER, PERFORMED BY RON PERLMAN.