Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/763341
www.postmagazine.com 38 POST DECEMBER 2016 PREVIS reversing elements. As most shots needed multiple passes, all of the shots were tech- vis'd using knowledge gained from the previs, production collaborators and visual effects tests. "Marvel has truly embraced previs as a powerful tool to help explore, design, con- ceptualize, plan and assemble a movie," Faraz notes. "I was very impressed by this process. From the first moments of R & D with the art department, it was very liber- ating to be given time to explore and help develop the visual landscape for the film. Scott and Stephane were feeding us refer- ence from mathematics and other sources as well. It was exciting for all of us to be able to approach story ideas with many visual palettes that we had absorbed. Not to mention that my artists had become dimensional and fractal pros by the end!" DARK FORCES, FASCINATING BEASTS Turning the page to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Warner Bros.' motion picture adaptation of the J.K. Rowling novel), artists at The Third Floor London, under previs supervisor Peter McDonald, faced a similar-but-different brief: Deconstructing cities that con- tained mythical beasts. Highlighting new powers and creatures within the Harry Potter universe was part of a creative previs process that also included depict- ing the impacts of magic across a circa 1926 New York. "We visualized multiple sequences from the arrival at New York Harbor to various Prohibition-era buildings to scenes on the street," McDonald says. "We had to cap- ture a period look while also giving shots the required action and magic elements." The previs team worked to support visual effects supervisors Tim Burke and Christian Manz, as well as the film's director, David Yates. Postvis was created to assist editorial and visual effects work as well. The film has many scenes that bring out the personality of various creatures as the beasts are lost — or recovered. Previs animation helped define action beats across these key moments with charac- ters from a disappearing Demiguise to the butterfly-like Swooping Evil. "The Occamy in the attic sequence had a very evolved previs," McDonald notes. "After the previs was reviewed and finalized, the scene was filmed almost shot for shot. We also did a very detailed postvis that included mock-ups for a half-dozen or so CG shots. The whole scene is kind of a camera ballet around where we see a really dramatic encoun- ter unfold with a shrinking and growing creature in close quarters." Other scenes visualized action from the bling-loving Niffler to a grand thun- derbird. More mysterious forces had to be visualized as well — streets being sucked skyward or rain falling up. "Some of the coolest camera and creature work happens in the subway station sequence," says McDonald. "Here, we reveal a mysterious force called The Obscurus and also got to visualize a pret- ty nice wand fight." See Barbara Robertson's Fantastic Beasts VFX feature on page 26. Previs supported Beasts' VFX team. Magic spanned across 1926 NY.