CG SEQUENCE SUPERVISOR -- RHYTHM & HUES STUDIOS

Our team focused on the Ship Rescue sequence of the movie where crystal structures grow from the sea floor out in the open ocean.  Several of the shots in this sequence were full CG encompassing ocean and water effects, crystals and a crystal island, digital doubles of the actors, a yacht, a helicopter, a seaplane and dozens of props.  Due to the complexity of the water fx, we employed the use of SideFX Houdini which we used for fx, animation, lighting and rendering.  The artist team was small which made it easier to adapt to changes in creative direction.  In order to achieve a high level of realism in our shots, we complemented CG water effects and simulations with real footage of splashes and white water captured in Tasmania.  While the use of water footage gave the look a nice edge, it demanded extra work for selection, cleanup, modification and final balance.  The resulting composites for this sequence where some of the most complex you can encounter in visual effects.  R&H was awarded an Academy Award for Technical Achievement for the development of fluid dynamics tools used in Superman Returns.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

1. •Reported directly to the R&H VFX Supervisor Derek Spears and VFX Producer Joel Mendias
   

2. •Provided creative and technical supervision for lighting and look development of the 60+ shot sequence alongside Salar Saleh and Gee Yeung
   

3. •R&D and look development with emphasis on the ocean surface using Houdini and VMantra
   

4. •Lead development of the lighting pipeline around Houdini and VMantra
   

5. •Setup a look development infrastructure for all CG assets including the yacht, crystals, helicopter, seaplane and dozens of props as well as the ocean surface, also in Houdini
   

6. •Prototyped several custom shaders to accommodate new lighting pipeline
   

7. •Developed a normals based relighting plugin for the inhouse compositor coded in C++