Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/863766
j u ly . a u g u s t 2 0 1 7 c g w 3 9 they were clearly not human by making im- possibly skinny arms and so forth, but their torsos came from plates. Alas, the undead do not breathe under- water, requiring digital artists to painstak- ingly painting out all the air bubbles of those characters. "There's a lot of heavy work that went into these underwater shots, but when you watch them, it just looks like a cold, dark, underwater scene," says Butler. Butler notes that when he first saw the cut, even before the visual effects, "it had the impact that Alex was looking for. Putting together the photography, the look we gave it, all the undead, and the underwater track- ing, it was a really nice sequence." While The Mummy is not an effects-heavy film, "it is a real mixed bag of visual effects," spread across the whole crew, says Butler. However, the roto-animation and technical animation departments were hit particularly hard due to the huge number of shots that involved tracking digital elements onto real characters. "Every department had a chance to do some cool stuff," he adds. Linda Romanello (lromanello@postmagazine. com) is the chief editor of Post, CGW's sister publication. Robot Wars Robot Wars The battle of the bots continues in Transformers: The Last Knight BY DREW TURNEY ptimus Prime has gone rogue and all-out war has broken out between humans and Transform- ers, which have been declared illegal. To save Earth, the heroes of Transformers: The Last Knight have to learn more about the Trans- formers' secret past – Transformers have been a part of history since the Dark Ages. The Autobots and Decepticons scramble to locate a magical staff that can control Earth's fate, and in the process, they awaken knights of the Old World for continuation of an ancient battle. It's the latest in the long-running film fran- chise about the Hasbro toy line that's 10 years old this year, has earned over $3.7 billion at the global box office (with no signs of slowing down), and with two more films already earn- ing the green light to move forward. Along with the action, the VFX require- ments have only grown bigger for the franchise. Industry titan Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) served as the central VFX hub, completing about 1,100 shots, with its fingerprints in almost every scene. London's The Moving Picture Compa- ny (MPC) contributed close to 350 shots (250 of which made the final cut), working primarily on the submarine and underwater scenes, as well as a drone battle in an aban- doned town. The film features many familiar faces, both human and robotic, as well as some new ones. One of those is Cogman, Sir Edmund Burton's (Anthony Hopkins') acerbic bot butler. "It was the first time in a Transformers movie we had a character that functioned at a human level," says David Fogler, ILM's VFX supervisor. "He is every single thing we've ever devel- oped for making robots at ILM, and we've been doing it now for 12 years or so." According to Fogler, Cogman's design is remarkably complex, though many of the details are barely noticeable on screen. All his internal parts function (moving gears and clockwork). Even his brass body — based on medieval armor — is covered with acid etching. Drew Turney (drew@psipublishinganddesign. com) is an LA-based writer with experience spanning the film industry, from story to VFX. o o Image courtesy Paramount Pictures