电影“Ladder 49”视觉特效,药品包装设计

- Snow enhancement before-and-after shots. Images copyright © 2004 Touchstone Pictures. All rights reserved.
What were the main tools Pacific Title used to create the effects?
Compositing was primarily Inferno on this particular show, although Shake accommodated a few shots. We are also one of the few remaining houses using Cineon, still the package of choice in many situations in my opinion. Particles for snow, smoke were generally manufactured with Maya, although occasionally supplemented with Particle Illusion.
Could you provide a breakdown of a particular sequence or shot that Pacific Title worked on?
I’ll describe a shot from the Exterior Brookfield sequence of an exterior of a row apartment on fire with an explosion blasting out the third story windows. The shot was composited on an Inferno by Bob Wiatr. We started with a live plate of the street scene.

- Live street scene plate. Image copyright © 2004 Touchstone Pictures. All rights reserved.
Our first task was to remove a foreground chainlink fence and camera crew. We recreated the fg matching the flashing ambulance lights. To create a snowy, misty look we used a number of logic ops (mathematical manipulations) of the bg with a mist plate which was basically the bg heavily blurred and multiplied back onto itself, graduating to create a sense of dimensionality. Glows were added around lights and flames using Sapphire plug-ins and light beams were added to streetlights. Four or five layers of 3d particle snow created in Maya were combined with practical elements varying in size and focus depending on distance from the camera.

- Miniature explosion element. Image copyright © 2004 Touchstone Pictures. All rights reserved.
A miniature explosion element was incorporated into the comp, also with added glows, interactivity with the building, and rotoscoping of foreground objects. The entire comp was then time warped for editorial matching with the subsequent cut.

- Final shot. Image copyright © 2004 Touchstone Pictures. All rights reserved.
Ladder 49 was certainly not pushed as a 'visual effects' film. Was there a deliberate emphasis on 'invisible' effects and a reliance on more practical effects work?
Absolutely the goal was to produce naturalistic, unobtrusive effects shots. I find this to generally be more challenging and rewarding kind of work. As storytellers, our goal is to not impinge on or distract from the narrative. Towards that effort Peter would provide practical elements whenever possible rather than rely on CG. This is very typical of most of the shows I’ve worked on with him.

- Download Quicktime break down clip (3.9M. Copyright © 2004 Touchstone Pictures. All rights reserved.
I understand the overall visual effects supervisor, Peter Donen, unfortunately passed away while still overseeing the effects. How did that affect the production?
Of course, the primary impact was everyone’s feelings at the loss of a good friend. Peter was an extraordinary individual who could make warm connections with people. In terms of the work, He had really established such a firm look and direction that it was more a matter of execution from that point on. Visual effects producer Henric Nieminen and vfx editor Miller Drake became the point people for the effects. We all felt strongly that the greatest tribute to Peter would be to complete the show as he had envisioned it, rather than bring in a new supervisor and possibly change direction.