Cinefex Weekly Update | Issue 24

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Article by Barbara Robertson

In 1872, author Jules Verne's eccentric inventor Phileas Fogg -- on a bet -- conjured up the secret of flight and traveled around the world in 80 days. But he had nothing on the visual effects wizards who, in 2004, helped actors Steve Coogan (Fogg), Jackie Chan (sidekick Passepartout) and Cecile de France (Monique) cross the Atlantic in a digital paddle steamer and jury-rigged flying machine -- without setting foot in either.

The first Around the World in 80 Days film was made in 1914 and since then, the book has been revisited through at least four more features, a mini-series, an animated film and numerous knock-offs including The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze (1963).

For the new Buena Vista version, visual effects supervisor Derek Spears masterminded 400 shots, 80 of which were created at Rhythm & Hues. Among the company's effects were the sail-powered paddle steamer boat and a pedal-powered flying machine that transport Fogg and crew on the final leg of their journey.

Rhythm & Hues modelers built the digital boat in Maya, referencing photographs of a practical half-boat used on location in Thailand. To age it, they relied on displacement maps. Animation was accomplished with the studio's proprietary VooDoo software, lighting with Side Effects Software's vMantra and rendering with the in-house Ren software.

The tricky part of the illusion was putting the boat in water. In Thailand, the crew shot background plates of a Thai tug chugging through the ocean to simulate the paddle boat's journey across the Atlantic. The tug's movement was later applied to the CG boat. "The plate gave us a wake and a good position for where the boat was supposed to be in the water," Spears said. The waterline was assembled from CG water created in Side Effects Software's Houdini using Martian Tools' Hydrous. "Integrating the boat into the water and adding the waterline took endless hours of slaving on an Inferno. It was a lot of tedious hand work."

The boat not only sailed through the water, it paddled, so the effects crew needed to move CG water through the paddlewheel. "We used a particle system, but particles look like dots," said Spears. "The tricky part of water is getting sheeting action. Particles try to stay local to one another, so it was hard to get them to not look like rain. We used smoothing techniques to stick the particles together so they'd look like streams of water coming off the wheel." Rendering techniques in vMantra helped turn some of the particles into a foamy spray as the wheel churned through the water.

To complete the illusion, Rhythm & Hues populated the boat with digital characters that walked, climbed ladders, and pulled on ropes, using animation cycles created from motion capture data altered by animators. Variations among the people on deck were created with texture maps; the actors were simulated using still photos taken on set. All the people were parented to the boat so as it rocked and rolled -- to match the movement of the tugboat tracked from the plate -- the digital people stayed firmly aboard.

With digital people, digital water streaming through the paddle wheel, digital sails with a bit of cloth simulation on them, and the boat moving through water that was, in part, digital, rendering with global illumination became impossible. "We tried to render the whole thing together, but it was too expensive," said Spears. "Instead, we had rings of lights follow the CG actors around. If they walked over a white part of the deck, white light would reflect on them. We also used ambient diffusion to get soft shadows, and ray tracing for the wet areas."

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When Fogg, Monique, and Passepartout realize that they are not going to make it across the Atlantic in the boat in time to win the bet, they use pieces of the boat to build a pedal-powered flying machine. Fogg drives, Monique sits behind him, and Passepartout pedals. "Most of the flying machine shots were completely synthetic," said Spears, "although some have live-action backgrounds."

Working from Lidar laser scans of the practical flying machine, Rhythm & Hues built a digital equivalent and then staffed it with digital doubles of the actors. Because in one shot the characters are almost full frame, their faces were rendered with subsurface scattering techniques to add transparency to the flesh, and animated by hand using reference photos shot on set. The background sky was a matte painting enhanced with an occasional CG cloud formed by in-house volumetric tools. The water was practical unless camera moves made that impractical -- in which case the crew simulated water, again using Houdini and Hydrous.

Near the finish line at the Royal Academy of Science square in England, the CG plane flies into a practical set actually filmed in Berlin's Gendarmenmarkt. Waiting to cheer the intrepid travelers' homecoming after their remarkable journey are thousands of people moving, as on the boat, according to animation cycles from motion capture data. In these shots, the direction that the digital people moved was controlled by crowd simulation software, Softimage|Behavior. "The people are reasonably small, but they cover the screen," said Spears. "There are thousands of them running into the square from edge to edge."

Some of the shots in the sequence were greenscreen composites of the practical flying machine filmed on stage. "We used background plates shot in London that we had to change to match the period," Spears said. "We tracked in 2D paintings of buildings from other plates. London looks period from the ground, but when you look sideways, you see the modern buildings because they tend to be taller."

Re-creating Jules Verne's Victorian-age scientific fantasy on film for the illusion-savvy moviegoers of 2004 required tools and techniques that a Victorian scientist could hardly imagine.

Avid and Softimage, along with event sponsors HP and Intel, are pleased to offer to the readers of Cinefex, this special advance invitation to the "i am 4. power." launch tour for SOFTIMAGE|XSI version 4.0.

Put Tuesday, July 13th on your calendar now. Join Softimage and your friends at RFX, 736 Seward St., Hollywood CA. Registration starts at 5:30pm, presentations start at 6:30pm

Spend the evening with Industrial Light & Magic's Steve Rawlins, Lead Animator on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Valve's Doug Lombardi, and our top 3-D artists who will show you that expecting more, leads to getting more.

Compiled by Joe Fordham

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: Variety announced Fox 2000 will remake this Irwin Allen 1961 submarine film and ABC television series. Justin Haythe is writing the screenplay, in which a high-tech submarine is sent on a deep-sea salvage hunt, and tangles with a predatory organism from the ocean floor.
Shadow Divers: Because these things seem to come in pairs, The Hollywood Reporter announced Fox 2000 is developing this non-fiction book, by Robert Kurson, which has the full and very self-descriptive title Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II. THR describes the plot as a blend of history and deep sea adventure, in which two divers take on the role of historical detectives, upon discovering a German World War II U-boat off the coast of New Jersey.
Serenity: Universal Pictures and Joss Whedon's feature film adaptation of Whedon's popular science fiction adventure TV series, Firefly, has launched its official website here, including an online diary following the production of the film.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: Updating their previous trailer, which had been proclaiming 'coming this summer,' Paramount has released a new glimpse here at Yahoo Movies of filmmaker Kerry Conran's art deco fantasy adventure. The trailer cautiously states 'coming soon,' but from all reports the film is now scheduled for release September 17. Internet spy reviews, based on recent test screenings, have been extremely positive, praising the film's vision and scope. For a detailed account of the making of this film, including interviews with director Kerry Conran and visual effects supervisors Scott Anderson and Darin Hollings, see the current issue (#98) of Cinefex, now available here at Cinefex.com.
Speed Racer: Variety announced producers Joel Silver and Lauren Shuler-Donner are developing a live-action feature film adaptation of this 1960s Japanese animated television show about a young race car driver, his family and pet chimpanzee. This project has been in the air for some time, attracting the interest of directors Alfonso Cuarón, Hype Williams and actor Johnny Depp. Vince Vaughn is currently attached to star, and is executive producing.
Bond, Jr.: Variety reports Miramax Books has purchased the U.S. publishing rights to two new books about the exploits of a teenage James Bond. Film rights are not part of the deal.
The Talisman: Variety reports that director Edward Zwick will no longer be directing this adaptation of Stephen King's and Peter Straub's 1984 fantasy novel. Director Vadim Perelman had previously been associated with the film, working from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger, but had left the project a month ago. Zwick, working from a rewrite by Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard, reportedly has been unable to resolve creative differences. The article states that the production has abandoned plans to start shooting in Vancouver in October, and has no other shoot date as yet.
Zathura: Production Weekly reports Columbia Pictures is developing an adaptation of this 2002 children's book by Christian Van Allsburg, a sequel to Allsburg's 1981 Jumanji, about two young brothers who discover a board game that projects them through space and time. David Koepp, John Kamps and Eric Fogel have adapted the screenplay. Tim Robbins will play the children's father. The film reportedly will not be presented as a sequel to the 1995 film, and will unleash aliens, evil robots and space pirates in place of jungle creatures. Variety states Jon Favreau will direct, with shooting due to start in August.
King Kong: The Hollywood Reporter states Thomas Kretschmann -- who had that great standoff with Adrien Brody as the music-loving Nazi at the end of The Pianist -- is joining the cast of filmmaker Peter Jackson's upcoming Universal Pictures remake of RKO's classic film about a giant gorilla exploited by show business. Kretschmann will play the captain of the boat that transports Kong from his native island habitat to the United States. The article adds that Jackson's film -- written by Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, based on the 1933 tale by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace -- will expand episodes of the original screen story that take place in the jungles of Skull Island.
The Grudge: Click here for a Yahoo presentation of a trailer for this creepy haunted house tale set in Japan, from Columbia Pictures and Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Bill Pullman. The film is based on a Japanese thriller, Ju-On, and is directed by the same filmmaker, Takashi Shimizu. Opens October 29.
Ghost Story: Not to be confused with the star-studded 1981 film of the same name, Variety has announced Columbia is developing this screenplay, by Jon Felson and Rusty Gorman, about an 11-year-old son of the President of the United States, who discovers a ghost in the White House.
Star Wars: Episode III: ComingSoon.net reports Gary Oldman will be providing the voice for a lead character in George Lucas' upcoming final Star Wars episode. Word on the street is that Oldman will voice General Greivous, the evil half-alien, half-robot leader of the Separatist army, who is looking mighty fine on page 94 of Cinefex #98, and already creating excited Internet chatter among fans.
300: Just when you thought it was safe to climb back into your loin cloth, The Hollywood Reporter announced Warner Brothers Pictures, Atmosphere Entertainment, and Hollywood Gang Productions are preparing an adaptation of this Frank Miller graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. The title refers to the army of 300 soldiers led by Spartan king Leonidas, who bravely fought much greater numbers in the invading Persian army. Zach Snyder will direct and, with Kurt Johnstad, will rewrite the screenplay by Michael Gordon and Herodutus.