Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/786150
22 cgw j a n u a r y . f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 7 oen viewing those alongside the anima- tion for accuracy. Most helpful, though, was the close-up reference footage of Princess in flight, shot in a wind tunnel. "That turned out to be the most useful for look development and reference for the motion of small tus of feathers rather than the overall action, as [the bird] was too constricted in the studio space to act naturally, as if it was gliding out in the open sky," Page explains. While the eagle appears in just a handful of shots, these include some of the lon- gest, most complex in the film. "We had to build a complete CG version of ancient Granada that pretty much appears in only two of these flyover shots," says Page. "So we were very much focused on these shots from day one." Moreover, the relation between the matchmoving, camera animation, and character animation were particularly tricky given the vast scale of the shots, with everything appearing in the far background except the eagle, which was close up. So, any small movements in the camera that were not apparent on the background would become massive jolts in the eagle, Page points out. CINESITE: WAGON CHASE VFX also played a big role for the Wagon Chase sequence in the desert that ends with the wagon launching over a cliff. In the scene, Cal and Maria, an Assassin and his companion in the past timeline, are deployed to rescue the young prince Ahmed, kidnapped by the Templars to coerce Ahmed's father to surrender the Apple. Maria hijacks a wagon with the im- prisoned boy caged in the back. Templars are in pursuit, while Cal on horseback (as his ancestor Aguilar) tries to rescue the boy before the runaway prison wagon tumbles over the cliff. "There's quite a bit of CG," says Christian Irles, Cinesite's VFX supervisor on the film. "The wagon tumbling is CG, and so are its horses once they start collapsing to the ground. The cliff was modeled and textured in order to enhance principal photography, but also to achieve full-CG shots. We creat- ed a digi-double for Ahmed and used Dneg's digi-Aguilar. There are also CG weapons and many, many layers of effects (dust and debris) throughout the sequence. Lastly, roto-animation models of the actors were used in shots with multiple plates to make sure their scale was correct." The sequence contains four main beats. "We tried to give a physical and photo- graphic framework on which to base things, to lend the shots a more tangible reality," says Wright. As discussed earlier, parkour is a fun- damental element to the fighting style in Assassin's Creed gameplay and, now, the film. During the chase, Cinesite facilitat- ed the parkour as Maria jumps from the DNEG CREATED THE EAGLE AND ANCIENT GRANADA IN THE BACKGROUND. ARTISTS ADDED SET EXTENSIONS AND FULL-CG BACKGROUNDS TO SCENES, HERE RE-CREATING 15TH CENTURY SPAIN. Photo Kerry Brown