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For this miniature composite, we added interactive red blinking lights and a 3D 'push-in' to (literally) add a new dimension to the shot.
©1998 Warner Bros.
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For a "meanwhile, back at the ship" transition shot in the film, BFTR artists combined three passes of a spaceship miniature sitting on the planet surface --beauty pass, smoke pass and running lights-- in After Effects. In order to give the shot a bit more depth and life, Van and artist Martha Soehendra gave the 2D composite an added dimension by meticulously painting two distinct mattes for the originally locked-off shot, allowing them to do a camera 'push-in', as if the camera is dollying over a garbage heap, moving closer to the ship and bringing the audience closer to the action. A simple zoom could have done the trick, but it
wouldn't have been as visually interesting as the perspective shift that
occurs with a push-in.In addition, sufficient amounts of dust were
composited over the shot in various layers--both computer generated dust
(created by artist Gunther Schatz), as well as stock dust elements
photographed by the production, were used in the shot. In addition, a pair of blinking running lights were added in the composite to add even more life to the shot.
For one of the film's dynamic transitions, BFTR created a full-screen graphic of Todd's combat history, which then dissolved to a matching live-action shot of Todd in formation. Download a Quicktime movie (5.1MB) of this shot.
©1998 Warner Bros.
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A late addition to our visual effects duties was one of the film's
stylized transitions. Beginning in darkness, a rastered graphic image of Kurt Russell writes on and fills the left half of the screen, while the right half displays scrolling information about Todd 3465's combat history. His battles
included the "War of the Six Cities", "Shoulder of Orion", and the
"Saudi Campaign", which were specifically mentioned in the script.
To
fill up the screen with data, other information was posted, such as his list of attributes, weapons ratings and commendations (including the Cash Medal of Bravery, the Plissken Patch, and the McCaffrey Fire Award --boy, were we having fun). The graphic elements fade away, leaving Todd centered in the shot, sitting motionless in a bunk hall. The camera then dollies right to reveal dozens of soldiers behind him, all similarly motionless in their "present status: between wars". The nearly 600-frame shot is one of the film's coolest dynamic transitions.
Possibly our most ambitious shot was for a scene where Kurt Russell revs
the engines of the spacecraft. Looking right up into the engine's exhaust port, the film's antagonists see a ball of flame rushing toward them, indicating that the ship is about to take off. The only element BFTR was given was a single frame--a matte painting-enhanced shot of a miniature set. It was up to us to create all of the other elements of the shot. We started by creating the tunnel itself in 3D. Gunther created a forced perspective 3D tunnel in Alias PowerAnimator, with textures painted in Photoshop. He then animated an invisible light source traversing the length of the tunnel to create interactive lighting, added subtle reflections of fire, and even animated some exhaust flaps flipping up at the near end of the tunnel. Todd put together a fire element using Artbeats' ReelFire stock CD-ROM, heavily manipulated the element, and animated it down the length of the tunnel. Van composited the shot in After Effects, adding realistic touches like a rimlight along the edge of the tunnel, rippling heat distortion and a camera shake that gets progressively violent as the flame gets closer to the camera.
 
The only element we were provided for this shot was a simple matte painting. Several computer generated layers later, a fireball rushes down the tunnel toward the camera. Download the Quicktime movie (2.6MB), which illustrates just a few of the layers involved with this shot.
©1998 Warner Bros.
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Our work on SOLDIER gave us the opportunity not only to add to our repertoire of realistic film effects and graphics, but more importantly to stick in a lot of jokes into the graphics so that anyone with a DVD or laserdisc player could have fun reading the various displays in freeze frame. Woo hoo!
continued...
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General Information: info@bftr.com
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