Archive notice: This article was originally published on October 6, 2015. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
In addition to Pixomondo, who are working on “Iron Sky: The Coming Race”, which will be released in cinemas in 2016, Troll VFX from Finland will also be attending this year’s animago. CEO Antti Kulmala and Visual Effects Supervisor Samuli Torssonen will explain how the first “Iron Sky” was financed and realised with the available budget. There are still tickets available for the animago 2015, you can order one here.
You can find the complete interview with Thilo Ewers in DP 03 : 2015.
Dino in the iron sky
by Mirja Fürst
even before its cinema release in 2O12, “Iron Sky” had such a large fan base that the film was financed to a considerable extent via crowdfunding. the second part will be released in 2O16, for which Pixomondo has already produced an elaborate teaser trailer with dinosaurs and lots of CG backdrops. With its satirical, bitter humour and plot inspired by Nazi esoteric theories, “Iron Sky” is certainly not to everyone’s taste. But beyond that, the visual VFX result of part 1, which was realised with a total budget of around 7.5 million euros, was very impressive for an indie film production. Three Finnish studios, Blind Spot Pictures, Energia VFX and Troll VFX, realised the Nazi moon station illusion and the other set extensions of the first part.
Second round
As the second instalment of “Iron Sky” was to top its predecessor in terms of visual effects, director Timo Vuorensola entrusted the project to a single studio this time and opted for Pixomondo. The teaser for “Iron Sky: The Coming Race” is almost four minutes long and builds a plot bridge between the two films. In it, Mrs President meets a dinosaur on which an old acquaintance of the Nazi regime is riding. Not dead, as assumed, but alive and kicking:
After the first teaser, two more short ones were released, one featuring a trigger-happy Jesus Christ:
And a dancing Vladimir Putin:
In addition to a new VFX team, the second part relies on many proven factors from the first film: Udo Kier will be back as would-be leader Wolfgang Kortzfleisch, the project will once again be supported by crowdfunding and the Slovenian band Laibach will contribute the film’s soundtrack.
VFX supervisor Thilo Ewers explained in the DP interview how the teaser was created and talked about some of the things to come for the feature film.
Tonio Freitag will reveal all the details and exclusive information about the project in his presentation at the animago conference.
DP: How did you get the commission for the VFX work for the second part of “Iron Sky”?
Thilo Ewers: The VFX workflow had to be more organised this time than for the first part, as the visual effects for the story are much more demanding. The production team wanted to be sure that the chosen studio would be able to realise all the effects themselves and Pixomondo was able to guarantee this.
DP: How long did you spend on the trailer in total?
Thilo Ewers: Filming started at the end of February 2014 and we completed the project in September. During these six months, we built a lot of concepts, made preparations and edited – we were able to act freely during this phase, so it was a very interesting and fun time for us. The actual post-production time at Pixomondo took about three months.
DP: How many artists worked on it?
Thilo Ewers: About 30 in total, and the workflow was clearly asset-based: One artist only worked on the dinosaur asset, the next only on a specific environment and so on. Finally, four composers completed the project.
DP: How was your pipeline structured?
Thilo Ewers: The same as for all our projects: We modelled the T-Rex dinosaur in ZBrush and textured it with Mari. We modelled Washington with 3ds Max and implemented further effects with Fume and ThinkingParticles. We realised almost everything for the project in 3ds Max and rendered it in V-Ray.
DP: What preparations did you make before the green screen shoot?
Thilo Ewers: The shot with the T-Rex was one of the most complicated factors during the shoot, as the scene with Mrs President standing in front of the dinosaur was shot in one take and the scale therefore had to be realistic. So that we could determine the height of the animal’s back in advance, we supplied a standard dinosaur model that we had left over from another project before the shoot. We placed the Hitler actor on a techno-crane to match the height of his back – i.e. about five metres high. We swivelled it back and forth during the shoot to simulate the movements of the T-Rex dinosaur.
DP: What did you have to consider in the rig to realise the unnatural greeting movement of the dinosaur?
Thilo Ewers: For his rig, we rummaged through and scanned various science books, which gave us a realistic T-Rex skeleton. Its shoulder had to be fully functional for the greeting movement. This was a little difficult at first because the skeleton doesn’t have a real shoulder, but a shoulder blade that looks more like a guitar plank. We built additional elements for this vestigial bone so that the arm could rotate. Our lead animator had a lot of fun animating the dinosaur because you don’t get an opportunity like this very often. We also didn’t want to caricature the T-Rex’s movements too much, as it already looks absurd enough with its greeting action.
DP: How did you create the illusion of the animal’s massive weight?
Thilo Ewers: By having him shift his weight from his right foot to his left foot. The slight wobbling of the belly intensified the effect. We also added muscle tension to his calf and thigh so that the illusion of his enormous weight worked well in the end.
DP: The teaser shows a bird’s eye view of a snowy landscape. Did you also shoot anything for it?
Thilo Ewers: Yes, Mrs President on a toboggan run in Finland with an octocopter. In post-production, we left a bit of real snow around her for the scene and filled in the rest of the environment with matte paintings, 3D elements, snow effects and footage.
DP: How was the little chattering penguin in this scene realised?
Thilo Ewers: The penguin was very polarising in the team at the beginning: Timo really wanted him in the scene, but we were of the opinion that we didn’t necessarily need him. In the end, however, he fits into the overall picture quite amusingly. He’s completely CG modelled with a bit of fur. It wasn’t necessary to work him out in extreme detail because you can’t see much of him anyway due to the snow flurries in the situation.
DP: What large CG sets did you build?
Thilo Ewers: The first CG set was the White House, which we were able to use for several shots. The city of Washington, which we only needed for one shot, we still had to build completely because there was no footage of the corner of the city and the tracking shot we needed. We also realised two versions of the ice desert and a catacomb, which we were also able to use several times. The final CG set was the centre of the hollow earth, which consisted primarily of a giant matte painting that we back-projected onto individual pieces of geometry. The last big set was the walking environment of the dinosaur.
DP: Were there any real scenes filmed at all?
Thilo Ewers: Only one or two shots: When Mrs President runs down the stairs and opens the door – that was a real basement room at Studio Babelsberg, which had a nice steel door. But this door is actually the only real element of the teaser apart from the actors. We opted for the full CG solution because we didn’t want a change of location, as that wouldn’t have been feasible in two days of shooting.
DP: That sounds very elaborate for such a short trailer ..
Thilo Ewers: Yes, that was also the main issue and the biggest challenge of the project. Every shot was more or less something different …
DP: Were you able to use some of the teaser assets in the second part of the film?
Thilo Ewers: Definitely the T-Rex. We will make a few adjustments to it for the film, but it will be used again. Washington will also appear again, but in a more broken form. Apart from the dinosaur and the hollow earth, the other assets are no longer important for the second film.
DP: The sequel will have a budget of around five million US dollars more than the first film. As the second part will be moreCG and VFX-heavy, are the production specifications feasible for you with the available budget?
Thilo Ewers: It should be manageable within the budget. We have the fourth version of the book and the VFX elements have already been reduced. The short running time of around 90 minutes also helps. It’s important to plan what can really be shot and what can’t. In this respect, I think that in some cases you should look for a functioning real set so that you can realise the CG sets with more time and budget. But of course the typical “Iron Sky” look should also be retained in the second part.
Would you like to know more about the project? A student ticket for the animago costs 48 euros, a normal two-day ticket costs 98 euros.
