Animatrik Virtual Production

When most people think of virtual production, films such as Avatar and Transformers come to mind. Indeed, films such as these have helped to change the landscape of media and push forward ever evolving technologies. One company in particular that is at the forefront of such advancements is Animatrik Film Design, based out of Vancouver, British Columbia. The team at Animatrik has worked on films ranging from District 9 to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. In addition to film, Animatrik has worked on video games such as Cyrsis 3 and Mortal Combat 9. 

One of the ways that Animatrik has been able to carve out a niche in the media industry is by revolutionizing motion capturing techniques. Although it may be funny to see actors running around in skin-tight suits with motion sensing balls attached to them, these suits help to translate an actors real-life movements to a digital world. Thanks to modern technology, all the movements taking place are applied to the CG in real-time. Until recently, all of Animatrik motion capture work has taken place inside their Vancouver studio. However, thanks to the release of improved sensors which allow light to be emitted directly from a marker instead of from the camera, the studio has become more mobile and hopes it signals a new chapter in their growth.

5 Great Movies and Maya

This week, I was completely blown away and excited by Autodesk's program Maya. I have watched several different "behind-the-scenes" documentaries on several different films, and was able to watch as they created environments and creatures. For example, I loved watching how they made the creatures of the Lord of the Rings, and it is only now that I realized that they used the program Maya! I was so excited, and still am, to learn different aspects of Maya, even though there is so much depth and jobs involved in it. As I was researching I came across this article about 5 other movies that used Autodesk programs and the one thing they all had in common?: Maya.

The first was Inception, where they folded over the streets of Paris and had amazing settings.

Then there was Avatar, which was truly amazing with it's ability to combine live action 3D and CG effects. The actors of Avatar were so talented to be able to be on a virtually empty set and still perform as if they were in that actual environment.

Third on the list was Alice In Wonderland, which ties in my previous blog! Not only did they green screen most of the movie, but to find out that they used Maya as well really brought both concepts together in a way I never expected.

Fourth, was Iron Man 2. This was really cool to read because they not only used Autodesk 3D programs, but also made parts of the suits in actual life around the actors. Then they molded the suits later in computer graphics.

 Finally, and least expected, was Black Swan, when Natalie Portman turned into the swan.

Reading this article was eye-opening. There were a few that I suspected used Autodesk programs like Maya, but there were others that I never expected to find. After my brief experience, I can't imagine the amount of time it would take to do the things they accomplished in these films. It is truly incredible to continue to learn how "movie magic" is done.

By Amber Capogrossi

Stop Motion with Legos

So I was wandering around the internet this weekend while I was on duty and I found this little production group called Brotherhood Workshop that makes fantasy story videos. The use A LOT of stop motion and I am not complaining about it. The first video I watched was this one where they took one of the new Lord of the Rings Lego sets and made the funny video below. They even edited in sparkling candle flames and torch flames! (Keep an eye out for Gollum and for a Star Wars cameo)

                 

Here's an image from the behind the scenes of my favorite video called "Orcs" featuring two orcs, one chilling on a laptop and the other enjoying a mug of joe.

Each video seems to based on different Lord of the Rings lego sets but have a variety of other LOTR sets included in them. Watching these videos reminded me of when I was younger when my dad, brother, and I would sit around for hours making stop motion videos with the Legos my brother and I owned and then my dad helping us with recording the audio later. I would have included an example clip but those videos have been lost for many a year.

The work to make Gollum

So I love Lord of the Rings and Matt's post a while ago reminded me how much cool stuff is in those movies. I'm going to talk about Gollum.

So first of all, Andy Serkis is a pretty fantastic actor. Second of all, the amount of planning and foresight on Peter Jackson's part to put all of the Gollum scenes together is crazy. They at least shoot every scene three times: Once with everyone in the scene, once with just Sam and Frodo (or whoever is in the scene with Gollum), and then once with Andy Serkis alone on a blue screen using motion capture. The motion capture process is also really cool.

So many steps go into the process of making a character like Gollum. They use the real footage as a guide for the animators but they make decisions regarding the shaping of Gollum's character and his mannerisms and such. Ultimately they did a fantastic job integrating Gollum into the film. He is such a vital character, one that couldn't have been realistically portrayed through just makeup and costume, and the animation was spot on.