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SPIN VFX recently completed signature shots on Max Payne, but it was another film, Outlander, which gave the Toronto-based facility the opportunity to break new ground in terms of delivering cutting-edge effects on a less-than-cutting-edge budget. Directed by Howard McCain, Outlander is an unlikely combination of an old-time Viking saga and outer space sci-fi thriller. In 2007, SPIN VFX began work on 450 shots for the film, including the formidable task of bringing the Moorwen to life.
The Task
The Moorwen, a creature from outer space who lands by chance among the Vikings, is featured in 150 shots, "The Moorwen is an animal, but is perceived as a vicious monster by its enemy," explains VFX Supervisor Jeff Campbell. "Our task was to create something that an audience could empathize with: feel its pain and desire for vengeance, recognize its intelligence, and yet ultimately root for its defeat."
Creating the Environments for Outlander
SPIN VFX joined early on for pre-vis, sending a team to Halifax where the first location involved building an entire Viking village. The pre-vis team helped with proper scaling of the set elements and with lens selection.
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Building the Beast
The Outlander project brought several unique challenges, including the Moorwen's 'bioluminescence.' The Moorwen has special organs beneath its skin which emit light to lure prey or warn enemies. And if that were not challenging enough, the colour of the bioluminescence changes, depending on the emotions the creature is feeling.
"There is a fine line between looking menacing, which was the director's intention, and looking like a Christmas tree," explains Eric Doiron, Compositing Supervisor at SPIN VFX. The task of making this work fell, above all, to the compositing team. "We had to massage the bioluminescence in Fusion for each shot to get it just right. And we had to make sure the look and feel was consistent when red or blue." To speed up this complex task, Fusion macros were used extensively, both for the bioluminescence effect, and for the Moorwen in general.
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Fusion has become the compositing workhorse at SPIN VFX. "We used Fusion for roto, paint, keying, tracking, rig removal, matte painting, set extensions and CG environments, as well as for final creature composites and much more," says Eric. In addition, Fusion was used by other artists at SPIN VFX for lighting and effects comps.
Using eyeonScript, the team at SPIN VFX created custom scripts for everything from proxy creation to assembling 3D layers in comp. Scripts were also created to assign auxiliary channels from EXR files and pass the result to macro tools for further processing. The Moorwen itself was built this way to ensure continuity from artist to artist.
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The workflow for Outlander often involved importing cameras and/or geometry via FBX into Fusion. "We did this primarily for set extensions, matte paintings or CG environments," explains Eric. "Working within Fusion's 3D environment allowed us to manipulate scenes quickly without having to go back to the 3D department."
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Fusion's bins were used to keep a library of common elements, footage, tools and settings which were accessible to all of the artists at SPIN VFX. "This also provided an easy way for us to share comp files and settings amongst ourselves," adds Eric.
Other Achievements on Outlander
As if creating a photo-real CG creature isn't hard enough, in Outlander the problem was multiplied since the creature is on fire, in the water, or in the snow - and sometimes all three in the same shot! "We had to integrate many layers of practical and CG environmental effects including mud, dirt, smoke, fire, snow, oil and water. This meant pulling elements into Fusion from all departments."
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The finishing touch is the slime in the creature's mouth. "The director wanted it to look stringy and cling to the monster's teeth," says Eric. The solution involved a complex mix of live action elements, stretched and shaped in the Fusion Grid Warper which was linked to trackers with expressions to match the movement of the jaws.
Aside from the considerable artistic achievement of the team at SPIN VFX, the Outlander project presented the challenge of, as Eric puts it: "delivering unconventionally high-quality creature shots, on a conventional budget." Jeff Campbell agrees, and praises eyeon's contribution. "Fusion was a huge help in terms of economy, because it has all the tools you need in one place," says Jeff. "That saves money at both ends: the initial investment and the added efficiency to the workflow."
2. How They Did It: Outlander, Shot TS 148_121
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The Moorwen was conceived as a 2-3 ton quadruped mammal with taut leathery skin. The full-grown Moorwen stands almost 10 feet tall and is 45 feet long, including a 30-foot multi-pronged, razor-sharp tail which it whips like a weapon.
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1. The first pass was diffuse lighting which carries light, shadow and displacement detail. Lighting was matched to photographic reference material taken on set.
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2. Next were the color textures which get multiplied with the diffuse lighting.
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3. Then we did specular passes to catch surface highlights and give the creature a shiny wet look. Fusion's deep pixel tools were used to apply specular highlights to the Moorwen's eyes using UV passes embedded in the EXR files.
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4. At this stage we colour matched the Moorwen to the environment and added the slobber and slime in the mouth.
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5. Then we added a combination of practical and CG elements, including ground shadows, snow, smoke, and fire.
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6. Since the creature weighs several tons, CG mud and dirt helped press the feet into the ground.
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7. Next came additional lighting passes to add interactive reflections of the firelight.
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8. Then we added CG fire to the Moorwen itself.
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9. Finally we added foreground elements including snow, smoke (with displacement to show heat ripples in the air), fire, and dirt flying as the Moorwen's foot hits the ground.
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All told, the Moorwen was comprised of approximately 30 layers, all of which were rendered as two EXR files containing all the channels. Rendering was handled by eyeon's Render Manager.
3. Artist Profile: Eric Doiron
Eric Doiron, Compositing Supervisor at SPIN VFX, learned his craft on his own. Eric began studying theatre in his hometown of Saint John, New Brunswick and then at Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec, where he studied lighting and sound design. He entered the workforce doing sound design and mixing for TV commercials. Unleashed on the world of postproduction, he began poking around the other suites and soon began learning how to use other tools of the trade. "I always knew I wanted to work in film. I have been fascinated by VFX ever since I saw the first Star Wars movie."
In 2004, Eric was Compositing Supervisor on Disney's Get Ed. He started using Fusion full-time then and he hasn't looked back since. "I know how to use the other tools, but I still prefer Fusion because it's fast to work with and it offers a full suite of tools." In 2006, Eric came to SPIN VFX, looking to get his first shot at a feature film. "I love the combination of the scientific, technical, and artistic elements in this work," he explains." You have to understand the technical aspects, but it's the art that brings it to life."
4. A Short History of Toronto's SPIN VFX
SPIN VFX is one of the pioneers in the visual effects industry. The company opened its doors in 1980 with one of the first computer graphic systems in Toronto. Partner Nigel McGrath was also a founding member of Alias Research, who developed a 3D modelling and animation application. The first version of what we now know as Maya was introduced at SIGGRAPH in 1985. In 1992, the company was re-branded and that same year the newly-christened SPIN VFX invested in the first Henry system in Canada. In 1996, SPIN VFX also installed the first Inferno in this country.
For the first two decades in business, SPIN VFX's focus was commercials and broadcast design, but in 2000 they added long-form work to their portfolio. With the push into feature film projects, SPIN VFX needed a more distributed production pipeline. This is where eyeon came into the picture. Fusion has now become the compositing workhorse at the facility. Today SPIN VFX has locations in Atlanta and Vancouver, in addition to its Toronto studios.
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Images courtesy SPIN VFX. All rights reserved.
Digital Fusion, eyeon Fusion, eyeon Generation, eyeon Vision and eyeon Rotation are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of eyeon Software Inc. All trademarks, company names and products are the property of their respective holders. Copyright © 1988-2009 eyeon Software Inc. All rights reserved. |
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