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14 cgw j u ly . a u g u s t 2 0 1 7 animators would have the characters turn and look at the new speaker. Populating thePlanetS The Boulan, Pearls, and Doghan Daguis represent only three of the many charac- ters created and animated at Weta Digital for the film. Among the other characters, the whale-like underwater Bromosaur pre- sented no unique challenges – Reynolds calls it "basic standard whale animation." Rihanna's character Bubble was more interesting. Bubble can present herself in human form when she shis from another shape, but oen she doesn't look human at all. "Bubble has tentacles like an octopus, but because she's amorphous, the ten- tacles can go through each other," Story says. "We didn't have to follow the laws of physics as with a real octopus, so we could get interesting shapes. Once we had the base in animation, effects would marry the shapes together to give the character a more gelatinous feel." As for the K-trons, the black robots with emotional LEDs, motion-capture drove their performances and on-set maquettes provided scale and lighting reference for the always-digital characters. "We also have a jellyfish that comes out of the Bromosaur's blowhole," Hill says. "That all happens in one of our underwater environments." A Thousand Bits of Technology Artists at Weta Digital constructed Mül, created Alpha space station interior envi- ronments, shared shots in the control room with Rodeo FX, put K-trons in corridors in the internal space station, created the confer- ence room where the Pearls attack, built the hangar and inverted orchard, as well as the Boulan kitchen and banquet hall, shared shots in the exterior of the space station with Rodeo FX, and more. All to help Besson give audiences the feeling they were immersed in a megacity made up of a thousand planets. Because there were so many complex environments, the artists used many tech- niques to make the work possible. "We always built to camera when we could," Hill says. "And, we used a lot of 2.5D matte paintings. For the under- water shots, we used photogrammetry of driftwood that we'd find in Wellington and augment that to quickly add a lot of complexity. We had a lot of bespoke work – creatures that appeared in one shot. Assets that were in one place in one shot. For the kitchen, we had a library of food and platters, thousands of assets – food, tables, knives, steam, ovens, and more – but we couldn't use them elsewhere. We needed to be very efficient." Technical advances helped the artists create the characters and the worlds in which they exist. "We captured more characters simul- taneously than before and on a temporary motion-capture stage where we were also shooting principal photography," Hill says. "We advanced the rendering technolo- gy for the Pearls' skin and our capture technology for environments. We also advanced our underwater setups. The list goes on. There was no one overriding tech- nology that was a signature piece of the film – when you have a thousand planets, you need a thousand bits of technology." Hill says that the more difficult chal- lenge, however, was in making all the digital characters, creatures, and environments fit within the filmed world. "Luc had wanted to make this film for a long time, but he said the technology wasn't there until now," Hill points out. "What's interesting, though, is that the core challenges were really about making sure the digital photography had the quality and nuance that the plate photography had and the film demanded." That was true even though the look of the environments varied widely. Some are vibrant, some are monochrome and lit with vibrant lights. "Every location needed to look unique but consistent within the universe of the film," Hill says. "Scott [Stokdyk] put together a style guide using practical plate photography, so we analyzed what the component pieces were in regard to color composition. The answer was that it was quite varied, sometimes there's a frugality of color with vibrant accents, and where there is color, it's very punchy. We don't have masses of color. Luc spent a lot of time working out the color composition of the environments." What is really wonderful about this film, Hill adds, "is that the technical challenges were surmountable, so we could and had to focus on the specific creative goals of the film. We could spend time concentrating on the art direction." And that, for a film as visually complex and compelling as Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, is what any visual effects artist would hope for. Barbara Robertson (BarbaraRR@comcast. net) is an award-winning writer and a contributing editor for CGW. K-TRON MELO THE CONVERTER BOULAN BATHOR