Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/834195
12 cgw m ay . j u n e 2 0 1 7 THE STATE OF THE ART We asked MPC Visual Effects Super- visor Patrick Ledda in what ways this film pushed the state of the art of visual effects. Globally, approximately 800 artists at MPC's studios worked on the film. In broad terms, artists in Montreal worked on the characters, while those in London developed tools for water simulation, parted the seas, and creat- ed the third act. "For us at MPC in Montreal, it was the hair work, the technical animation, and the simulation of cloth and hair," he says. "The amount, the accuracy, the art direction needed was a first. We hadn't pushed that kind of work to that level. The simulation needed to be the main actor in a way. In London, the work they did on water was on the next level. It's really amazing." – B. Robertson On set, all the performers wore partial costumes to make it easier to add the digital cloth and run simulations later. Those who would appear in close-ups in long coats wore chopped coats that stopped at their rib cage. "All the ghosts also have CG hair and dig- ital prosthetics on their bodies," Brozenich says. "Their legs, arms, hands might be digital. They are all a conglomeration of digital prosthetics and practical makeup and costumes. So, we made amazingly detailed and naturalized digi-doubles of all of them. In a lot of cases, it made sense to rotomate and add the necessary [digital] parts back in. It was really a harsh pipeline of people working at MPC in Bangalore getting in there and just doing it." Three of the four previous Pirates of the Caribbean films received Oscar nomina- tions for best visual effects, with the 2006 film Dead Man's Chest winning the Oscar. And, all four films were box-office success- es. The first, The Curse of the Black Pearl, earned $653 million; the second, Dead Man's Chest, and the fourth, On Stranger Tides, topped $1 billion worldwide; and the third, At World's End, brought in $958 million. This fih film has a lot to live up to. But, like the ones before, it has unique, state-of-the-art visual effects powering the story and, of course, Jack Sparrow. As the irreverent trickster puts it, "No matter how difficult, I will always prevail." Barbara Robertson (BarbaraRR@comcast.net) is an award-winning writer and a contributing editor for CGW. ANIMATORS SET KEYFRAMES TO TARGET THE SIMULATION OF SALAZAR'S HAIR.