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Cinesite announced today that they have completed major digital effects and animation for the forthcoming Paramount production Sahara. Cinesite's physical effects operation Effects Associates also provided extensive physical effects. Based on the classic Clive Cussler novel, Sahara is directed by Breck Eisner for Paramount, with Visual Effects Supervision by Mara Bryan and Special Effects Supervision by Dominic Tuohy. Digital Effects Cinesite's digital effects primarily involved the creation of an entirely computer generated solar plant in the middle of a Moroccan desert. In the story of Sahara, this plant is being used to incinerate toxic waste, but has become the source of a mysterious epidemic, the source of which our hero Dirk Pitt is investigating. In a major action sequence on a helipad, atop the central burn tower of the solar plant, our hero Dirk Pitt is fighting Zakara, a henchman for the plant owner Massarde. Live action footage filmed in Morocco shot the actors on a 30 feet high platform; many of these shots were filmed from a helicopter. The finished sequence reveals the live action digitally elevated onto a 350 feet high burn tower amongst a sweeping panorama of the desert and solar plant. Cinesite's team of 3D artists, lead by 3D Supervisor Royston Willcocks, used reference footage, photographs and measurements from several full sized 20ft by 10ft solar panels (mirrors) built by Dominic Tuohy's physical effects team out in Morocco, to create a single CG panel. Cinesite proprietary code was written to replicate this panel and create slight variations in positioning over the desert floor, to give a realistic, randomized effect when the full 8,000 panels were introduced. A 3D, textured environment was created by stitching together 2D plates and importing them into the Maya landscape of the solar plant. This ensured that reflections of the ground or sky from the mirrors would be realistic, no matter how shallow or steep the angle of the camera in the live action. A light source (the sun) was also placed within this 3D environment, and the mirrors animated and angled precisely so that they would reflect light up to the burn tower. Cinesite's team also created all the light effects for the latter part of the sequence where the solar plant is activated, the panels tilt towards the sun and the combined effect of 8,0o0 light sources reflects up to the burn tower. The movement of light across the CG panels, according to the position of the sun, was supplied by the 3D team as a matte to the 2D artists. The 2D artists, supervised by 2D Supervisor David Sewell, used this matte to add in the bright, burning light effect. Footpaths and tracks were painted in by Cinesite Matte Painter David Early to enhance the sense of realism; 3D debris like abandoned equipment was also scattered around. The overall effect of the sequence achieves the aim by Director Breck Eisner to make the plant appear sinister and dangerous, like an additional character in the story. Remote and synthetic in appearance, it is the source of a terrible epidemic endangering mankind. Physical Effects Effects Associates, with Special Effects Supervisor Dominic Tuohy, were responsible for some spectacular work on Sahara. An early sequence shows a flashback to the American civil war, where a confederate Ironclad boat in an estuary is battling with Union soldiers on the land. This sequence, filmed at Shepperton Studios, utilized both a 120 feet exterior and a 100 feet interior set of the ship, the building of which was supervised by Workshop Supervisor David Ford at Effects Associates' Pinewood Studios offices. The interior set was constructed on a sliding gimble, so that the actors and action on the ship could reproduce highly realistic explosion recoil. Later shots of the ship once it has been rediscovered centuries later in the middle of a desert required extensive set ageing. As the ship is attacked, 300 bullet hits puncture the sides of the "vessel", so that shafts of bright daylight stream in. These 300 pyrotechnic hits were filmed along with the foreground action in one spectacular take. The physical effects team also created fantastic explosions, particularly for some of the many exciting chase sequences in the film, which cover air, sea and land. These included a car chase where six spectacular explosions occur when 80 gallons of fuel are thrown from the back of a moving car and ignited while the vehicle is being chased by a helicopter. The physical effects team also constructed and subsequently destroyed in spectacular fashion a full size helicopter model in the middle of a desert. A boat chase sequence filmed in a Marakesh reservoir required filling a specially constructed lightweight boat with high quantities of explosives for a spectacular pyrotechnic conclusion. |
| QUOTE (steve @ Aug 1 2005, 07:05 AM) |
| p.s. think about it mr cc tour own tv series THE ADVENTURES OF N U M A WITH DIRK AND AL. |