Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/83694
Stop-Motion Visual Effects n n n n each set using surveys for measurements. Then they match-moved the sets and camera posi- tions in the final images with CG versions and CG cameras to position the fire in approxi- mately 60 shots. "We' the fire should go, lay it in, tweak it, and en- hance it," Ledbury says. The effects TDs started by using Maya Flu- ids to simulate several versions of fire, for three shots to start, giving Burton options to consider before set- tling on a final look. "His main concern was the speed of the fire," Ledbury says. "We started too slow. Faster fire put more energy into the scene." d talk to an effects TD, decide where pets against greenscreen, and we built a CG interior, part of the windmill exteriors, and the sail," Ledbury says. "We couldn't use a previ- ous image of the set because we needed to have flickering light from the fire. I hope no one can tell." torches held by a crowd of puppets that chase Sparky through a CG town. They tracked each torch in the crowd and inserted fire in the appropriate scale. And, they tracked in 3D flashlight beams for shots in a pet cemetery. "Doing five of those shots would have been fine," Ledbury says. "But we had 20 torch- beam shots in a misty scene with lens flares." The effects crew also put fire into CG when they went to black and white," Ledbury says. "They could apply the black-and-white lookup as they went along, but by the end of production, it wasn't an issue. We all kind of forgot whether we were working in black and white or color. It was just the movie." Digital environments and set extensions, water, fire, and smoke simulations, electricity, rotoscoping, greenscreen shots, match-mov- ing, compositing. It all adds up to Ledbury calling Frankenweenie an effects film. "I think we had close to 800 more visual ef- fects shots than we had on Corpse Bride and twice the shots I worked on for Fantastic Mr. Fox. It worked out to between 600 and 700 shots per year, which is a lot for 40 people, but we pushed through. We had to be quite fast and efficient. We didn't have a massive techni- cal infrastructure." But, the approval process was quick. "We ered in other CG elements, such as falling debris, bits of digital wood, planks that hit the wall and splintered, and smoke. "For smoke, we went half and half," Ledbury says. "Smoke is notoriously difficult to get to work in CG, even when you have all the time and money you need. So, we enhanced the CG smoke with live-action elements. Then to develop that Frankenweenie look, we tweaked. The fire took a lot of tweak- ing. It was weeks of pain." At the end, with all the elements rendered out, compositors could drop out frames for a final bit of tweaking as needed. One of the most challenging windmill shots Once the fire was in place, the artists lay- moved into the visual effects department after all the sets were gone. "They filmed the pup- Shine a Light Although Frankenweenie is a black-and-white film, the artists worked in color. "The art de- partment painted some of the sets in black and white, and some in color," Ledbury says. "The grass is green. But the matte painters worked in color for their own sanity." This was true for the skies as well as ele- ments on the ground. "We created a whole raft of assets for the artists to study," says Heinrichs. "In a movie like this, the sky is an important character; it's part of the storytelling process. The people who did the backgrounds were incredibly skilled at extending the look and feel into the environment." Without color to put depth into a scene, the artists needed to experiment with the tone. "People soon learned what would happen were quite low on layers of management," Ledbury says. "We didn't have CG supervisors or a compositing supervisor. It was just me. And, I went directly to Tim." Ledbury has worked as a visual effects art- ist on several live-action films as well as stop- motion features, and he finds himself drawn to the stop-motion world. "It seems to be more special in a way," Led- bury says. "The process is grueling. Compared to six months on a live-action shoot in Soho, 70-odd weeks on a shoot can wear you down. But the end product can be more satisfying. The shelf life of some live-action films is short. This feels like something that might last. And, the artists at this studio have more ownership, as well. We can wander around at lunchtime and have a look, see the puppets in the work- shop. It's a lot of work. But it's fun." n Barbara Robertson is an award-winning writer and a contributing editor for Computer Graphics World. She can be reached at BarbaraRR@comcast.net. August/September 2012 41