Zoic Studios’ VFX Shots for Twilight

Above: Before and After of Zoic's VFX Transforming the Charlie Swan Home

 

 

For The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, director Bill Condon, visual effects supervisor Terry Windell and visual effects producer Karen Murphy gave Zoic Studios another high-profile opportunity to showcase their expertise in digital environments and animation. 

 

Zoic Studios delivered 82 shots across several sequences. Zoic’s principal VFX challenge involved a sequence in which Bella unexpectedly encounters a human when she is hunting for the first time. 

 

The production planned and shot the sequence on a combination of locations, sets, and green screens, with most actions covered by stunt players or shots with Robbert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. As the sequence developed in editorial, however, significant continuity issues emerged. Zoic used 2D and 3D CG environments, digital doubles of Bella, dynamic digital effects and high-end compositing to complete the scenes.

 

Zoic’s work began with conceptual development. VFX Art Director Syd Dutton created a series of concept sketches to help define the look and layout of the wilderness environments. The locale evolved along with the cut, from a scenic mountaintop to an enchanted forest. As the thinking changed, Syd Dutton and Zoic artist Jeremy Melton quickly responded with new interpretations to help Terry and Bill validate their thinking.  

 

Once Bill and Terry settled on the “environmental blocking” of the sequence, Zoic’s team got into the details of developing the scenes, and integrating the revised blocking with the aerial plates and elements provided.  Climbing sequences were shot on the Stowamus Chief cliff at Squamish in British Columbia.  To solve the continuity problems on this location, Zoic chose to create a CG replica of the distinctive precipice.  Creative Director Mark Stetson and CG Supervisor Michael Cliett traveled to the location and shot numerous photos of the Chief for photogrammetry and texture mapping. Cliett’s team quickly solved and edited the geometry and started making texture maps. Soon Stetson began asking for renders of some of the extreme angles of the cliff. “At first, I was thinking we would use the CG renders of the cliff, which were POV’s just inches from the cliff face, as underlays for digital matte paintings.  But the resolution of the CG cliff really held up, and we started seeing features that we never imagined. So then the task became art directing those features on the CG cliff face and selling the ideas to Terry and Bill.” 

 

With concept development and technical development advancing, the CG team turned their attention to enhancing shots with other CG elements including splitting rocks, flying debris, dust and dirt off the forest floor, clouds and rivers… and Bella. Terry Windell and Karen Murphy had not intended that Zoic would be using digital doubles of the characters, but Stetson and Zoic VFX Supervisor Ralph Maiers looked at the photographed elements of Kristen Stewart and her stunt doubles on wires and jumping into airbags, and they jumped to a different conclusion.  Maiers said, “Mark and I both knew that we could improve some of the performances from the physical stunt team, simply because we didn’t have to deal with the physics and safety requirements of the real world. We could animate Bella to perform some of her leaps, and her single-minded race up the cliff face, more gracefully and powerfully at the same time. This sequence gave our animators a chance to strut their stuff.”

 

Compositing Supervisor Kenton Rannie’s team worked entirely in Vancouver. The biggest challenges were merging the location features with CG features, matching the stunt doubles and CG doubles to Kristen Stewart, and especially adjusting the lighting on both Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson from the green screen stage to the newly designed dense forest environment. Kenton Rannie and Ralph Maiers made repeated forays to the nearby woods of Stanley Park to shoot additional trees and undergrowth to create foreground, midground, and background layers of the forest.  These elements gave Zoic the tools to really fill in the lushness of the forest, as Bill Condon art-directed the environment almost bush by bush.  On one aerial shot, to satisfy Bill’s sensibilities, Zoic’s comp team had to reposition the cliff face relative to the camera move and under the climber’s position, rather than simply move the climber to the correct spot on the cliff - virtually moving mountains to get the shot. 

 

Along with key establishing shots of Seattle and Denali, Stetson’s favorite moments included making two Twilight icons: turning a summer shot of the Swan family home into a snowy winter scene, and making Bella sparkle in the forest. Stetson concluded, “It was a great pleasure to work with Terry Windell and Karen Murphy again. They made this project an experience we enjoyed and a result we are proud of!”

 

Credits

 

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2

Directed by: Bill Condon

Visual Effects Supervisor: Terry Windell

Visual Effects Producer: Karen Murphy

 

Visual Effects and Animation by Zoic Studios

Visual Effects Shot Count: 82 Shots

 

Feature Film Senior Visual Effects Supervisor: Mark Stetson, VES

Visual Effects Art Director & Matte Painting Supervisor: Syd Dutton 

Matte Paintings: Robert Scifo Images, Jeremy Melton

Visual Effects Supervisor: Ralph Maiers

Compositing Supervisor: Kenton Rannie

Compositors: John Fukushima, Patrick Kavanaugh, Jeremy Price, Graeme Baitz , Debora Dunphy, Nate Overstrom, Darren Mackay, Harrison Rutherford

CG Supervisor: Michael Cliett 

CG Artists: Sang Kyon, Rafael Lescano, Matt Anderson, Gal Manor, Kevin Struckman

Digital Double Animators: Chris Derochie, Scott Fritts

FX Animators: Bill Martin, Arlend Engar

Tracking Artists: Gerald Feather, Christina Murguia

Rotoscope Lead: Joni Williams

Rotoscope/Paint Artists: Michael Bienz, Michael Plotnikov, Jayson Castro, Marcela Silva, Rafael Perez, Shao Cui, Steven Soo, Thiago Trilux

 

Visual Effects Producer: Lauren Weidel

Visual Effects Coordinators: Andrew Cox, Deanna Louie, Simran Khalsa, Meghan O'Brien

Zoic Studios Vancouver Senior Management: Andrew Orloff, Patrick Mooney, Chris Roff

Zoic Studios Executive Producers: Kristen Branan, Raoul Bolognini