“Superman” by Framestore CFC

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Conference:


Title:


    Superman

Company / Institution / Agency:


  • Framestore CFC

Description:


    Three-hundred-thirteen shots were created, encompassing huge CG environments of oceans, crystal rocks, water interaction, a seaplane, a helicopter, and Superman himself. This was all mixed with 2D ele-ments of mist, waterfalls, layered skies, and various green-screen elements. There was only one partial set built for all of this action, so our contribution was substantial.

    One of the most demanding areas of CG research and development was the ocean. We developed our own techniques for creating the roiling waters. In addition, the CG team had to break up the (CG) set, smash crystal columns, and break up rocks from the rising island. For this, we pushed Houdini’s dynam-ics to the limit, expanding its choreography abilities, and building on previous techniques developed for earlier movies.

    The overhead shots of the island, seen from Superman’s point of view as he nears Luthor’s base, were created with a combination of techniques that were repeated throughout the team’s shots. The first involved procedural textures for the crystal rock, 3D waterfalls, and projected 2D elements where pos-sible. The second involved projecting matte painting onto the rendered geometry to create extra detail, a technique that produces better results but only works for small camera moves.

Software:


    Houdini and Maya, feeding into RenderMan, and then composited in Shake Proprietary tools

Additional Contributors:


    Visual Effects Supervisor: Jon Thum

    CG Supervisor: Justin Martin

    Visual Effects Producer: Robin Saxen

    Matte Painter Supervisor: Martin Macrae

    Compositing Supervisor: Gavin Toomey

    CG Effects Supervisor: Mark Hodgkins

    Lead Animator: Catherine Elvidge

    Lead CG Lighting Artists: Christoph Ammann, Ian Frost, Ramin Kamal, Ben Lambert, Chris Lawrence, Chris Mangnall

    CG Lighting Artists: Paul George, David Gordon, Rob Hopper, Ken Jones, Chris King, Balasz Kiss, Edmund Kolloen, Sebastian Laban, Cam Langs, Philippe LePrince, Bruno Lesieur, Sean Lewkiw, Patrick Lowry, David Mucci, Davide Nicolosi, Paul Oakley, Joseph Pepper, Stefan Pütz, Ben Schrijvers, Joe Thornley
    Dan Ziegler

    Animator: Christopher Antoniou

    Matte Painters: Lizzie Bentley, Max Dennison, Thomas Esmerelda, Daren Horley, Jason Horley, Kevin Jenkins, Hiroaki Muramoto, Matt Schofield, Patrick Zentis

    Lead Compositors: Mark Bakowski, Ian Fellows, Julien Goldsbrough, Adrian Metzelaar, Anthony Smith, Corrina Wilson

    Compositors: Ben Aickin, David Aulds, Giacomo Bargellesi, Tom Baskaya, Sule Bryan, Kate Cuffin, Tim Hey, Dean Koonjul, Zoe Lamaera, Natalie MacDonald, Scott Marriott, Gustaf Nilsson, Alex Payman, Mike Pope, Scott Pritchard, Howard Protheroe, Rajat Roy, Denis Scolan, Udo Smutny, Martin Taylor, Patrick Wong

    Rotoscope Artists: Alex Cumming, Benedict Gillingham-Sutton, Katherine Durant, Rebecca Manning, Ephraim Mwakandu, Tara Walker

    Matchmovers: Erika Bermingham, Tom Bunnell, Radhika Patel

    Visual Effects Coordinators: Lizi Bedford, Lucinda Keeler, Shiraz Peer Liberman

    Visual Effects Editors: Tabitha Dean, Alex Muth, Tom Partridge

Animation / Video Overview:


Type: