For more than 20 years,
Matte World Digital has been dedicated to producing
'invisible' environments for film. Their
artists create visual effects shots so realistic, you
might assume they were filmed on location. The scene may be an
exotic location, another time period, or an impossible camera
angle, but the finished effect will look like a real place,
photographed with a real camera.
We spoke to Ken Rogerson about their post production work for the film My Sister's Keeper.
|
 |
| Q: How did you get involved in this
project? How long were you working on it and with how many people? |
|
|
We have been wanting to work with Nick Cassavetes for several years and were glad the stars aligned for this project. This wasn't a typical Hollywood 'I want it yesterday' job, so we had plenty of time in the 2nd half of 2008 to do the shots.
|
|
| Q: Why did you choose Fusion to accomplish the shots for My Sister's Keeper? |
|
|
Fusion is the obvious choice for our matte
shots. It's integrated into our pipeline and handles this type
of shot with ease.
|
|
|
| Q: What were some of the biggest
challenges you faced on this project? How did you overcome them and how did Fusion fit into the solution? |
|
|
These shots were produced at 4K resolution to maximize the detail. That was actually a decision that was made part-way through production. Fusion handled the high-resolution elements without difficulty.
|
| Q: Tight deadlines and large shot
counts put a lot of pressure on the artistic team. How
does Fusion help you achieve your deadlines? |
|
|
When deadlines approach, being able to render the shot quickly is a key asset. By having a relatively large renderfarm
with lots of Fusion render nodes available, we are able to power through spikes in demand. The reasonable cost and no annual fee for the Render Slave nodes allows us to have Fusion available on machines that are typically assigned to other tasks but can be used for contingencies.
Fusion's ease of use is extremely helpful when tight deadlines are looming. Navigating in Fusion is very easy so this allows you to focus on getting your shots out.
|
| Q: What was the most rewarding shot using Fusion? |
|
|
Our biggest contribution to My Sister's Keeper was a shot establishing the Santa Monica Pier. At the present-day pier, it was impossible to get the arrangement of roller coaster, ferris wheel, and foreground tents that was needed for the scene, so multiple plates were used along with a matte painting to bring all the elements together in one shot. It's a 'quiet' shot, one that we hope the audience doesn't even recognize is an effect but helps tell the story more clearly.
|
|
|
| Q: How do you find working with eyeon’s technical support during production? How would you rate our level of responsiveness? |
|
|
Technical support is great, you guys are fast to respond and always try to find solutions to problems.
|
| Q: What are some of your favorite tools in Fusion and how do they help in production? |
|
|
|
The Full Tile Render Indicators is one of
my favorite features in Fusion. It provides the feedback I
need to optimize my comps. It's extremely valuable to be able
to see which tool is currently rendering in the flow and see
how long each node takes to render. Because I can
easily identify sections of the node tree that take longer to render, I
can redesign or precomp those sections, making subsequent
renders much more efficient.
The ability to change the background and text color of each node
speeds up the work because you can assign colors to actions
that need to be taken in the comp.
The ability to type notes into each
tool and a notes section for the entire comp make finding
changes in previous versions quick and easy. It also enables
me to keep a running to-do list right with the
comp.
Customizable tool
bar buttons that I can drag and drop into the flow, right
where I need them, makes it fast and efficient.
Another favorite is the wait option in the loader. It's an
excellent feature for when CG elements are still rendering at
the end of my day. I can feed in a first and last frame of the
CG elements and set off my render. As each CG element becomes available, my flow will render that frame. The producer loves hearing that the comp render will finish within minutes of the element render!
For more information about Matte World Digital, please go to their website,
www.matteworld.com.
|
|