VFX SUPERVISOR -- RISING SUN PICTURES

One of the key challenges for the film is a sequence involving large numbers of snakes threatening our heroes and in some cases there could be more than 5,000 snakes in a single shot.  In shots where only a handful of snakes existed, we used traditional animation techniques through XSI and carried out the lighting through Maya using 3Delight.

As soon as we had to handle more than a couple of dozen snakes in a shot, we introduced a procedural crowd solution -- for this we used Maya particle effects to both build the snake poses as well as layout their animation paths.  The snake poses were represented by very lightweight curves, since we were dealing with so many snakes, it was prohibitive to even use low resolution snake geometry for animation and rendering purposes.

In another sequence of the film, our heroes also face killer icicles controlled by the forces of the Dark.  Our brief for this sequence was to populate the ceiling of the mansion with hundreds of icicles and have them fall towards our hero in a purposeful but realistic manner.  Initial focus was on what shape and size the icicles should be, which was closely followed by the look.  For the most part, icicle appearance was defined by refraction, reflection, specular and most importantly internal caustic properties.  Each of these was strongly influenced by both shape and displacement qualities of icicles and a fine balance of all these factors was required to realize the final icicle look.  To fully realize the icicles a final layer of CG particles and volumetrics was added to help sell the movement and final integration of the icicles into the environment.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

1. •Reported directly to the Fox Studios VFX Supervisor Jamie Price and VFX Producer Jamie Stevenson
   

2. •Responsible for bidding, scheduling and resourcing for the 60+ shots in the film
   

3. •Designed a look development pipeline for the snakes, icicles and other props around Maya and 3Delight
   

4. •Supervised all aesthetic and technical aspects of shot production from turn-over, look-dev, modeling, texturing, tracking, rigging, animation, lighting, compositing and final delivery
   

5. •Helped to put in place many organizational and functional solutions in order to guarantee adaptability and fast turnarounds