Masters of FX! Lorenzo Di Bonaventura

Home , Chris Corbould, Dennis Muren, Joe Letteri, Richard Edlund, Robert Legato

MASTERS OFFX

MASTERS OFFX Behind the Scenes with Geniuses of Visual and Special Effects Ian Failes

Forewords by James Cameron Director of Avatar, Titanic, Aliens, and The Terminator and Lorenzo di Bonaventura Producer of Constantine, Red, and Transformers First published in the USA 2016 by Focal Press 70 Blanchard Road, Suite 402, Burlington, MA 01803 Focal Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Contents >

Publisher: Roly Allen Senior Project Editor: Natalia Price-Cabrera Senior Specialist Editor: Frank Gallaugher Assistant Editor: Rachel Silverlight Commissioning Editor: Zara Larcombe Art Director: Julie Weir Designer: Grade Design John Bruno 12 Chris Corbould 22 Richard Edlund 34 Senior Production Manager: Marina Maher Strong background in Special effects and Known for ingenious The right of Ian Failes to be identified as author of this work has effects animation and miniature effects combinations of miniature been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the VFX problem-solving. supervisor. Goldeneye, Die and optical effects, and Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Ghostbusters, The Abyss, Another Day, Christopher later digital. Star Wars: True Lies, X-Men: Nolan’s The Dark Knight Episodes IV–VI, Raiders of All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or Last Stand. trilogy, Inception. the Lost Ark, Ghostbusters, reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, Multiplicity. or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices: Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly 9 10 11 changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary. Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including Robert Legato 98 Joe Letteri 108 Dennis Muren 120 parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

Practical effects, virtual Performance capture and Pioneer from optical Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered cinematography, and real-world replication days to digital. Star Wars: trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. stereo pioneer. Apollo 13, expert. The Lord of the Episodes IV–VI, Terminator 2: Titanic, The Aviator, Hugo. Rings trilogy, King Kong, Judgment Day, Jurassic Park, A catalog record for this book is available from the Avatar, Planet of the Apes AI: Artificial Intelligence, Library of Congress reboots, The Hobbit trilogy. War of the Worlds.

ISBN: 978-1-138-84596-1 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-72777-6 (ebk)

Typeset in DIN 4 5 6 7 8

Scott Farrar 44 Paul Franklin 56 Karen Goulekas 66 Ian Hunter 76 John Knoll 86

Incredible on-set Part of the “new wave” of An innovator in digital Models, miniature effects, Co-creator of Adobe experience with practical visual effects supervisors. compositing and disaster and all-out destruction. Photoshop and digital and digital expertise. Pitch Black. Christopher films.Godzilla , The Day The X-Files, The Dark pioneer. Mission: Impossible, Back to the Future trilogy, Nolan’s The Dark Knight After Tomorrow, 10,000 BC, Knight, The Dark Knight Star Wars: Episode I—The Minority Report, trilogy, Inception. Green Lantern. Rises, Inception. Phantom Menace, Pirates Transformers films, of the Caribbean films, World War Z. Pacific Rim.

12 13 14 15 16

John Rosengrant 132 Phil Tippett 142 Douglas Trumbull 154 Bill Westenhofer 164 Edson Williams 174

Physical effects, special Leader in stop-motion VFX legend, immersive Advancing the art in Beauty work, aging, effects makeup, and animation and creature filmmaker, and high talking animals and de-aging, and digital animatronic effects. animation techniques. frame rate advocate. believable creatures. Babe: makeup effects. X-Men: Terminator films,Jurassic Star Wars: Episodes IV–VI, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Pig in the City, Cats & Dogs, The Last Stand, The Curious Park, Iron Man films, Robocop, Starship Troopers, Close Encounters of the The Chronicles of Narnia: Case of Benjamin Button, Real Steel. The Twilight Saga. Third Kind, Star Trek: The Lion, the Witch and The Social Network, The Motion Picture, the Wardrobe, The Golden Captain America films. Blade Runner. Compass, Life of Pi.

Glossary 184 Picture Credits 190 Index 186 Acknowledgments 192 Foreword > by James Cameron [1]

Leading Hollywood director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, and inventor

This book celebrates 16 masters of visual effects. I know We used to paint matte paintings on glass, most of them personally, and seven of them I’ve worked and combine them in the camera with live action with over the years. A few I consider close friends. Though or they would be combined later in the optical printer. they know me as a director, I actually started out in their Sometimes we would use forced-perspective techniques game, doing visual effects on low-budget movies, so they like foreground miniatures to extend sets. High-speed also know me as someone who talks their language. This photography gave the models their correct movement so makes me both sympathetic and responsive to their needs they would “scale.” Blowing up models was my favorite but also demanding, because I know what’s possible. part of the whole process, which is a measure of how [1] James Cameron Often the job requires knowing not just what’s possible, much we were all really just kids in grown-up bodies on the set of Avatar. but what CAN be possible, because we are constantly getting paid to stay kids. Since wire removal—and all inventing to bring the impossible to life on the screen. the other myriad of paint-out techniques—was still over The masters in this book are collectively responsible the horizon, we had to keep the wires hidden, using the for some of the most stunning images ever projected on thinnest gauges of piano wire or monofilament possible the world’s screens. They have transported audiences to to fly a spaceship or to lash an alien Queen’s tail. There realms of fantasy and brought fantastic creatures and was front-screen and rear-screen “process” projection, characters to life that are so iconic they are indelible parts both now obsolete, replaced by digital greenscreen of our shared global cultural dreamscape. And yet, though compositing. Those massive projectors are now most of them are still actively producing astounding museum pieces, or for all I know being used to imagery, the tools and techniques they use now are not create artificial reefs. Not one of these techniques at all the ones they started out with. These masters have is still widely practiced. Cameras are digital now, with also pioneered the very techniques that make movies the no moving parts except the lens elements and the fans dazzling experience they are today. that keep them cool. Film is arguably gone except for Just as the age of sail gave way to steamships, and its use by a handful of filmmakers, none of them among the horse-drawn carriage to the automobile, technology the new generation. And certainly film is 100 percent advances relentlessly. In our world what was once novel gone for compositing. The optical printer itself has and bleeding-edge becomes the norm within a few gone the way of the steam engine. years. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the Though a small minority still clings to physical visual-effects world. miniatures, the tide has overwhelmingly swept away the I think back to when I was a young VFX practitioner model shops with their buzzing Dremel-tools and the in the early 1980s and compare it to where we are smell of resins, in favor of photo-realistic digital models. today. At that time we built physical miniatures and Physical miniatures have become a quaint artisanal photographed them with cameras, which drove strips niche, though still fondly remembered by those of us of light-sensitive film through mechanical movements who started in that era, but nevertheless resoundingly as precisely machined as Swiss watches. Often we obsolete. To bring a creature to life back then you had would take those images and combine them together three choices: prosthetic makeup (or a rubber suit) on using arcane optical printers that nevertheless often an actor, stop-motion animation, or an animatronic yielded jaw-dropping results. Think Douglas Trumbull’s puppet moved by hydraulics or puppeteers. Stop motion images for Bladerunner and Close Encounters of the Third is now gone, except for the occasional film that makes a Kind, or Richard Edlund’s work on Star Wars, if you want virtue of the stylized look, and animatronics are in a slow to visualize that technique’s golden age. sunset, now mostly phased out by computer animation.

6> FOREWORD Makeup is still very much with us, but its domain has to digital. I consider them my contemporaries, since we been deeply eroded by the creation of photo-realistic, are all about the same age, give or take 15 years. And fully-expressive characters, such as Gollum, in The we all, earlier or later in our careers, spanned the two Lord of the Rings films, or the simians in the newPlanet sides of the uncanny valley. We started in a world of of the Apes movies, and the Na’vi characters done for models, film cameras, and optical printers, and are now my own Avatar—all three examples done by Joe Letteri’s working away in the digital world happy as hogs in a amazing team at Weta Digital in New Zealand. Now, waller. Most of the masters honored in this book made instead of actors having to express emotion through major contributions to advancing the art of computer uncomfortable and constricting layers of foam rubber, animation and digital visual effects. You couldn’t be a they can express freely while a Performance Capture pioneer of the new way of making outlandish images system literally captures every nuance of their without being an early adopter, and you couldn’t be an performance and stores it in the computer so that early adopter without becoming a pioneer yourself. It animators may apply that performance to the humanoid was a positive feedback loop. Every project offered character the actor is playing. It’s a whole new world. challenges that were in fact opportunities to push the About the only thing that’s stayed the same techniques farther and faster. And it was all market in cinematography is that we still use light going driven. Because when audiences got their first look at through glass lenses to form an image on a recording CG creatures and characters that looked utterly real substrate—even if that substrate is now an unmoving and yet were so impossible it defied their ability to guess sensor as opposed to a racing strip of film—and even how they were done—they wanted more. Three of the that domain is being relentlessly invaded by the creation masters in this book (Dennis Muren, John Knoll, and of characters, sets, landscapes, whole worlds using John Bruno) were there with me on The Abyss in 1989 computer modeling and animation. CG lighting has to create the first soft-surface CG character ever seen come to look as real as bouncing photons around in in a motion picture—the so-called “pseudopod” or what the physical world, and even the very definition of I always called the water weenie. Though the film itself cinematography is changing, when increasingly large wasn’t a huge hit, the impact of the pseudopod scene amounts of a movie are lit entirely virtually. But, as was enormous. It was an impossible yet utterly real the French saying goes, the more things change the character unlike anything audiences had seen before. more they stay the same. Despite the almost complete This led to Dennis Muren and John Rosengrant replacement of every single trick and technique that creating the T-1000 liquid metal dude in Terminator 2: effects wizards prided themselves on back then, in its Judgment Day, then to Dennis Muren’s group bringing essence, the job hasn’t changed at all. The goal was dinosaurs to life in Jurassic Park. Three milestones of always to bring worlds and characters out of the pioneering CG in the span of four years—each building imagination and onto the screen by whatever means on the lessons of the prior one. The T-1000 would not necessary. We learned the techniques that had been have been possible without the pseudopod, and the pioneered before us and we pioneered our own. It was T-Rex and velociraptors would not have been possible that no-holds-barred pioneering spirit that drove the without the socking and splining tools developed for change that ultimately made obsolete everything we’d the T-1000. This was a revolution taking place at warp learned starting out. speed, and when audiences saw it, they voted with their The visual effects masters in this book all share in wallets. Studios began to realize the game was changing common that transition across the eras, from analog and that films driven by visual imagination were the

FOREWORD <7 most successful ones out there. The visual effects all younger and smarter than you are. And all of our gurus reacted to this sea change by figuring out how to featured wizards know how to get both left-brain and incorporate the new technology into their art. Phil Tippet right-brain members of the team to work together. did early stop-motion (actually “go-motion”) tests for Creating great visual effects is no longer about Jurassic Park, but when he saw that the dinosaurs he producing a few jaw-dropping shots. We had 42 CG had imagined since he was a kid could be made to shots of the liquid metal guy on T2. On Avatar, 15 years absolutely come alive with computer animation, he later, there were over 2000 CG character shots. Visual set up his own CG group and never looked back. John effects facilities have become massive engines for shot Rosengrant, working for Stan Winston at the time, saw production, so more and more the job of the supervisor compelling proof that the future was in CG when they is about managing a pipeline—a vast and almost worked with ILM to create the T-1000 in 1991. Stan incomprehensible system by which money and dreams promptly put in a CG animation group in 1992, the first are fed into one end and shots pour out the other. To do makeup and prosthetics shop to have one. And to this this requires the creation of a culture—both a culture day, John is a consummate character creator who for the facility, and a culture for each movie project—and unifies the fields of both physical and virtual drawing, these cultures are, to a large degree, an extension of and sculpting to design characters that may then be the philosophy and personality of the effects supervisor. physically built, such as Iron Man, or exist only virtually, With so many people working on a single film, the VFX as with our creatures on Avatar. supervisor must find the balance of controlling the The VFX world also quickly realized that before process, to protect the facility’s profit margin and shot you create impossible images using just ones and quality—but they must also empower people to express zeroes, you had to have a rock-solid grasp of how themselves and solve problems. The VFX supervisor is light and motion worked in the real world. And all the morale officer, in charge of keeping the channels of the gurus in this book, as they transitioned from the communication clear, not only within the facility, but also analog to the digital era, brought with them the nuts- with the filmmaker whose vision they are bringing to life. and-bolts experience of real-world photography that It’s a group dynamic, and when it works well, it can be they’d been practicing for years. They also brought the most rewarding experience possible—to be part of with them the fundamentals of art—mood, perspective, something monumental and magical, history-making composition, subtext, drama. The early days of CG were and record-breaking. dominated by a reductionist philosophy that the real VFX is a love affair with the impossible. The magicians world could be broken down into mathematical rules— in this book are driven by the desire to dazzle. Like any algorithms—which, if they were sophisticated enough, good magician, they know the trick but will never reveal would inevitably produce an image on the screen it—at least never all of it. Otherwise, they think, anybody indistinguishable from reality. But that ain’t how it could do it. But that’s not really true, because you can works. While there is some truth to the reductionist know all the technique in the world and still not be a philosophy, it lacks a fundamental ingredient: the visual effects master. The master must know which magic of the artist’s eye. It takes an artist to see why technique to use, and when, and must have the vision the shot is not working, not a math major. In the brave and perseverance to realize an impossible image that new world of CG, both had to work together as a team. never existed before except in the imagination. Together, Many of the gurus herein are artists themselves, but all and with many others, these masters pioneered the of them know how to lead a team of artists, also known world of image creation we now inhabit. It’s a world as herding cats. Many of them are techies at heart, but in which nothing is impossible, any image that can all of them know how to lead a team of code-writers and be conceived can be realized, and the only limitation engineers—also known as herding cats, but the cats are is our imagination. James Cameron

8> FOREWORD Foreword > by Lorenzo di Bonaventura [1]

Prolific blockbuster and quality genre-film producer

Not possible. Possible. Not possible. Possible. Not new world. Yet, over the last 25 years I’ve been in this possible...Possible! Pushing the boundaries beyond what’s business, we increasingly have demanded more of VFX known is, in my experience, one of the most exciting to establish new worlds, carry characterization further, aspects of VFX. I’ve had a front-row seat watching Scott and blow boundaries in execution. In the movies I have Farrar make a Transformer metamorphose in the most worked on, we have taken audiences to the moon, inside spectacular, ever-impossibly complex ways; Stefen a computer, through a wormhole, through a monster Fangmeier conjure angry oceans and a wave exceeding hurricane, and on other epic journeys. These were [1] Lorenzo di Bonaventura. your imagination for The Perfect Storm; and John Gaeta all visual extravaganzas, and they all relied on the help Keanu Reeves first dodge, then stop bullets inThe staggering imagination and execution of the effects to Matrix. It’s thrilling work that can define how the audience make movie-goers believe that the story they were being first experiences and, later remembers the sensation and told was “real.” But when these fabulous images can emotion of that first exposure. also evoke a whole new dimension with a single shot, The artists celebrated in this book are truly that: it gives the filmmakers the capacity to tell a larger story. artists. Yet, often, they are simply thought of as the It also leaves an indelible imprint that will last well past computer-savvy guys who merely push a computer to the initial viewing. greater heights. Or perhaps this is a notion of the recent What is often overlooked is how to make things past, and this book recognizes that this misunderstanding feel part of the real world or to hide the unreal by the has begun to disappear. I know that was my journey with high quality of the execution. For the movie Red, Bruce VFX. Now that I have participated in more than 150 films Willis had a great idea: Let’s take a familiar action- in one way or another, I’ve learned why what these movie sequence—a cop throwing open his car door, masters do is so much more. Storytelling is such an then jumping out of the car with his gun held high and immense aspect of VFX. Yes, effects are often meant firing—and let it unfold in a subtle yet ultimately quite to make you go “Wow,” but they also shape a film in so different fashion. His idea was to have his character exit many other ways. With 3D creatures, VFX artists help the car while it was still moving and, without losing his imbue characters with personality: it’s why you can fall balance, fire away. To top it off, the creative team decided in love with them or believe their ability to menace and the car’s bumper should slide by his leg in a way that destroy. Of course one can’t diminish the roles of the would make the audience expect he’d be hit and then, writer and director, but during the transition from the miraculously, it just brushes by his pant leg. Physically, page to the shoot and finally to execution of the VFX, it’s not possible to pull this off, so our VFX wiz James the nuances and colorfulness of a character are born Madigan worked his magic to render the fantasy-physics from a great artistic VFX collaborator. When Scott and aspect of it undetectable. Without those effects, the gag his team, working with Michael Bay on Transformers, wouldn’t have worked. Among the VFX creators in this make you love Bumblebee, it’s not about how cool his book are some of the early pioneering giants and some of transformations are—it’s about how his body posture, the current masters of the craft. This book could feature his eye movement and more contribute to your response. many more of the talented men and women who are Relying on VFX for storytelling is not a new idea. considered the industry’s finest, but the work of this I remember sitting in the front row of a theater in group represents an awesome array. Myself, I look Brookline, Massachusetts, watching the opening salvo forward to being inspired by the many VFX journeys to of Star Wars, with the battleship drifting overhead. come and to being surprised by what indeed is possible. I immediately knew that we had entered a brand Enjoy Masters of FX! Lorenzo di Bonaventura

FOREWORD <9 Introduction > The Masters of FX [1]

A spaceship zooms over the audience’s head. A tyrannosaurus chasing down a jeep incites screams in the theater. A tiger wins the hearts of viewers by learning to get along with a young boy in the middle of the ocean. These are some of the most remarkable film images from recent times, ushered to the screen thanks to talented visual and special effects supervisors.

Visual and special effects supervisors are the magicians As the following pages reveal, it is clear that each [1] Effects artists from of the film world, seemingly conjuring impossible imagery supervisor profiled is a master problem solver. Indeed Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) capture blasts on a onto our movie screens. Both artist and technician, that is often the nature of their role in the making of scale model of the Death an effects supervisor must have a firm grasp of film a film—to think quickly, but be confident about their Star surface in Star Wars: language, photography, and—increasingly commonly— ideas, a task sometimes made more difficult when new Episode IV—A New Hope. computer graphics. However, special effects (generally techniques or technologies must be developed to make Several visual effects supervisors featured in be completed on set) and visual effects (generally done certain effects possible. this book worked on the in post-production), are surprisingly not new. Some of John Bruno examines his close association with watershed effects in this the earliest films relied on trick effects photography. director James Cameron on films such asThe Abyss and film and its sequels. As movies began to showcase more intricate storylines, True Lies, and how retaining a strong sense of practical more characters, and more locations, special and visual and in-camera effects is extremely important in the effects were used to broaden the scope—firstly via in- digital era. camera, practical, and optical techniques, then with a Chris Corbould, a veteran of numerous Bond films, thunderous new wave of digital imagery. Of course, many as well as Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and of the most ingenious shots in filmmaking history are Inception, discusses his on-set experiences as a ones still completed as “in-camera” stunts. special effects supervisor. With so many productions now requiring special and Richard Edlund, who worked on the original Star Wars visual effects—an alien creature, a helicopter crash, films, speaks of practical ingenuity in the final scenes of a surging ocean, or even just the view outside a car Raiders of the Lost Ark, as well as getting the Marshmallow window—the role of the effects supervisor is critical. Man in Ghostbusters to roam New York. Their job often encompasses many facets, from planning Scott Farrar imparts his filmmaking knowledge from shots and sequences that execute a specific idea in the futuristic Minority Report to the shape-shifting metallic the script, to co-ordinating on-set action, and then robots of the Transformers films. sometimes leading an army of effects artists working Paul Franklin traces his steps in creating a brand new together to bring a director’s vision to the screen. visual effects company and forging a strong relationship Masters of FX traces the individual stories of 16 visual with Christopher Nolan to work on the director’s The Dark and special effects supervisors—many of whom are Knight trilogy, Inception, and Interstellar. multiple Academy Award winners—with personal on-set Karen Goulekas recounts her experiences on several and post-production tales. The artists profiled include disaster blockbusters, including The Day After Tomorrow, those who began in the practical and optical effects with particular insight into following a passion for art worlds of effects, as well as those who have perfected and filmmaking. the art of on-set special effects and miniatures. The Ian Hunter discusses his approach to miniature supervisors in this book have directly experienced and effects in films, includingThe Dark Knight and Inception, embraced the trend toward the digital realm, where with tips on building models and blowing them up. incredible software solutions and computing power help John Knoll, co-inventor of Photoshop, explores the bring photorealistic worlds and creatures to the screen. projection mapping advancements made in Star Wars:

10> INTRODUCTION [2]

[2] Richard Parker from Life of Pi. Real-life references and detailed anatomic and animation studies of tigers helped the effects artists create a stunningly photorealistic performance.

Episode I—The Phantom Menace and on-set motion Doug Trumbull has worked on perhaps some of the capture enabling the character of Davy Jones in the most defining visual effects films in modern memory Pirates of the Caribbean series. with 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Robert Legato discusses his collaborations with Kind, and Blade Runner, and continues to champion the Cameron on Titanic, where models, CG water, and use of high frame rates and immersive cinema. motion-captured actors were combined, as well as films Bill Westenhofer outlines his path to making firstly such as The Aviator and Hugo, which he completed with talking animals and then provides his master class in Martin Scorsese. the critical components of completely photorealistic Joe Letteri has embraced high frame rates— creatures, such as the tiger, Richard Parker, in Life of Pi. most recently in The Hobbit—as well as pushing the Edson Williams showcases the art of beauty work envelope of performance capture in The Lord of the Rings and digital skin grafting, techniques that rejuvenated trilogy, Avatar, and the recent Planet of the Apes reboots. Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Dennis Muren details his journey at Industrial Light made “Skinny Steve” in the Captain America films. & Magic, from the analog world of Star Wars: Episodes The artists in Masters of FX highlight just some IV–VI, through to computer-graphics breakthroughs with of their special and visual effects credits, providing the liquid-metal T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day practical examples of how famous effects shots and the realistic dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. were achieved. Moreover, they give insight into the John Rosengrant reveals the secrets behind key skills necessary to become an effects supervisor practical, animatronic, and makeup effects gags for and reveal how important the process of making the Terminators in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and observations of the real world are in bringing final the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. shots to the screen. If you’ve ever wondered “how did Phil Tippett also devolves information on his creature they do that?” then here’s your chance to go behind work, having moved from the stop-frame animation of the scenes with the minds behind the magic. The Empire Strikes Back’s Tauntans and AT-ATs to the frightening CGI bugs of Starship Troopers.

INTRODUCTION <11