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| Why do you think you were chosen to work on the Garfield? |
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"I was chosen by VFX Supervisor Charlene Eberle to work on this film. Rainmaker was chosen for the Garfield sequel A Tale of Two Kitties because of their work on Garfield and our experience and skill with animal simulation. Our client was 20th Century Fox. They selected Rainmaker to provide full 3D Facial replacements for 10 animals, including 1 Bulldog, 2 Ducks, 1 Goose, 1 Bull, 1 Ferret, 1 Rabbit, 1 Parrot, 1 Rottweiler and 1 Rat. These ultimately had to speak and perform facially via our animation team."
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| What were some of the biggest challenges you faced on this project and how did you overcome them? |
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"Most of the challenges we faced were in 3D and Animation. Once we had studio approval, the shots were then completed in Lighting and sent to our Compositing dept for completion. In the Compositing side of things, the biggest challenge was to create a seamless and believable comp."
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| How did Fusion help in this regard? |
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"Fusion's Grid Warper really helped us blend the CG seamlessly into the plate. It gave us the control that was necessary to finesse each shot. "
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| Who were the artists working on the shot? What particular features were essential in getting their work done? |
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"The artists working on the shots were familiar with the 'talking animal' pipeline. With a similar knowledge across the board, we were easily able to integrate new techniques using UV passes."
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| What specific tools were used and why? How did Fusion fit into the overall production pipeline? |
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"The most distinctive tools we used were the Grid Warper and the UV Texturer. We were able to create custom tracking markers using the UV texture tool which were then used to create tracking information. This information was then applied to the splines of the Grid Warper. The amount of tracking markers and their position would constantly change and, with the UV Texture tool, we were easily able to create custom markers. This made for a very procedural way of animating and warping a plate to match to the cg animation. "
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| How deadline driven was this project and how did Fusion comply and assist in this? |
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"The most distinctive tools we used were the Grid Warper and the UV Texturer. We were able to create custom tracking markers using the UV texture tool which were then used to create tracking information. This information was then applied to the splines of the Grid Warper. The amount of tracking markers and their position would constantly change, with the UV Texture tool we were easily able to create custom markers. This made for a very procedural way of animating and warping a plate to match to the cg animation. This technique was also used to create mattes and masks."
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| How deadline driven was this project and how did Fusion comply and assist in this? |
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"Our shot count was pretty high and ideally was set up for weekly delivery but, due to things out of our control, most of our shots were delivered within the last few weeks. Fusion helped with this because our farm was easily expandable and gave us the power we needed to get the shots through."
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| What can we expect from you in the future? |
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"A lot more creative, solid work. The fun part of this industry is all of the creativity that goes into the final result. This doesn't just mean artistically. It also means being creative with the technical approach and pipeline."
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| What was the most rewarding effect that you feel you pulled off? |
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"I think the most rewarding and challenging effect that we did was 'Winston'. This was the talking bulldog. His jowls had so much independent movement that it was a real challenge in all departments."
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| What do you see in the future for compositing? |
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"I can see a lot more integration of 3D into our day-to-day compositing; either for using a camera to create textured projections in a comp or using UV and normal passes to help with controlling the cg."
For reels, credits and more information on Chris Van Dyck, please
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All images courtesy of Rainmaker