Archive notice: This article was originally published on December 21, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
For its work on “Alvin and the Chipmunks”, post-production studio Rhythm and Hues used Maya and Flame. John Heller, the studio’s Flame artist: “I was brought onto the film to composite a complicated shot that had to be completed within an extremely tight timeframe. The shot itself required complicated tracking, keying and parallax that had to be applied to the track for a large, multilayered matte painting. I hardly believe we would have completed the task in time without our Autodesk Flame system.”
Rhythm and Hues also used Autodesk solutions for the compositing work on “The Kingdom”. Heller explains: “The most complex and difficult shots we had planned for ‚The Kingdom’ were also routed through our Autodesk Inferno and Flame systems for completion. Flame was used, for example, to create a large terrorist explosion scene that required numerous set extensions. The system provided the backbone for the complicated tracking work and colour corrections. We also used it to insert CG material, practical effects elements and matte paintings into the scene. Flame was used to use a large portion of the moving on-screen graphics that imitate news-broadcast overlays.”
Cinesite, one of the leading British post-production studios, used Autodesk Maya and the Autodesk Mudbox 3D modelling software to texture and model reindeer for the Christmas film “Fred Claus”. Cinesite also used Maya to animate the photorealistic reindeer. Cinesite artists used a similar process with Mudbox for the film “The Golden Compasss” to model Lee Scoresby’s balloon and create displacement maps for several creatures. All character animation and the non-speaking daemons were completed using Maya. Maya was also used to create the digital environment for the spectacular final battle scene in Bolvangar and Scoresby’s balloon.
CafeFX used Autodesk Mudbox and Maya as part of its production pipeline for “The Mist”. In this adaptation of Stephen King’s legendary science-fiction novel, appalling creatures appear in a small town in Maine after a massive thunderstorm. All modelling of the monsters, including a giant crab, huge insects, birds and spiders, was implemented with Mudbox, while all character animation and rigging was carried out in Maya. The first step for Miguel Ortega, Lead Model and Texture Artist at CafeFX, was to create 3D creature concept drawings in Mudbox. Ortega accelerated the character-design process by presenting director Frank Darabont with 3D maquettes for review. Thanks to the speed and flexibility of Mudbox, he was able to deliver 3D maquettes just as quickly as the 3D concepts were drawn by hand on paper.
Regarding the unique workflow between Maya and Mudbox that CafeFX used for “The Mist”, Ortega notes: “Previously, we created models entirely in Maya and then worked them out in detail in Mudbox. For ‚The Mist’ we chose a different approach that accelerated the process and gave us the opportunity to approach the shapes of the individual characters more creatively without having to wrestle with the corresponding function. Because the characters in ‚The Mist’ were so complex, we first used Mudbox to have the rough characters traced. We then created extremely basic shapes in Maya and reshaped them in Mudbox. The topology of the individual models was only renewed after all details had been added. We were then able to transfer the models with the new surfaces back to Maya.”
Other recently released and forthcoming films that studios created with Autodesk technology include:
• The Golden Compass: Digital Domain used Maya for all modelling and animation work related to the mechanical components of the golden compass itself. Maya software was used to complete the shots of the Alethiometer’s internal gears.
• Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem: Hydraulx used Flame, Inferno and Maya to create more than 400 visual-effects shots for the film
• Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium: Mokko Studios used Maya software.
• The Kite Runner and Alvin and the Chipmunks: LaserPacific Media Corporation used Lustre for digital colour grading
• The Legend of Beowulf: Sony Pictures Imageworks used the MotionBuilder 3D character-animation software and Maya to shape Robert Zemeckis’s groundbreaking stereoscopic film
