If all you wanted for Christmas was a giant ape holding a beautiful woman atop a landmark building on a superwide screen, this holiday has certainly turned out for you.
December 29, 2005 (Press Release) --
If all you wanted for Christmas was a giant ape holding a beautiful woman atop a landmark building on a superwide screen, this holiday has certainly turned out for you. “King Kong” roared into theaters just in time for the holiday, carrying big name talent, Oscar buzz and eye-bending special effects.
The visual effects were created by Weta Digital, the same company that did the effects for Kong director Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. And as it did for “Rings,” Weta used Shake as its primary compositing tool on “King Kong.”
Even More Effects
Matt Welford, the film’s 2D sequence lead who worked on most of the film’s New York sequences, quantifies the task. “Kong has a little shy of two and a half thousand visual effects shots.”
This was a more intensive effects package than “Lord of the Rings,” says Welford, “because ‘Kong’ is more action-packed from start to finish. In the ‘Rings’ trilogy there were frequent breaks in the action. Not so in this film. And then of course, there were all the creatures that Peter Jackson loves to put into these films — the bugs and worms and flies. So the shot count went up just because of those sequences.”
Synthetic City
It is difficult for people who have seen “King Kong” to believe that the sequences, which prominently feature 1930’s Manhattan, were shot on a one-story high New York street back lot in New Zealand and then “digitally extended” by a crew of 500 artists and technicians using thousands of carefully researched and prepared elements.
“We had a huge library of reference photos, and a department of researchers who were able even to find out what color the street signs were in 1930’s New York,” says Welford.
He points out that that the jungle scenes were similarly shot and altered. “Animation would animate the creatures, the modeling guys would build the models, the TDs would light whatever was needed, and then pass them over to the comp department. We would take those elements and integrate them into the plates that were provided by Peter Jackson and the shooting crew. Then it would be our job to basically layer it together with any extra 2D elements that we need. Using Shake, we could integrate those in with the CG and the plate and come out with the final shot.”
Welford says that Shake was also used for some 3D work in the roto and paint departments. “Our TD’s could actually do rough comps of their work before they pass elements off to the comp department, so they could check that their elements were working before we actually start.”
Composite Solution
Welford, who has used Shake since it came out, says the product was perfect for their task. “Personally, I’m a big fan of the node-based compositing. It’s a lot more logical and it allows for you to change things quickly, so you can experiment and jump around to different parts of the tree. You’re not locked into pre-rendering elements and then working on those pre-renders.”
Another advantage of Shake was its ability to work with independent bit depth images.”You can have an 8-bit file, a 16-bit file and a float file and Shake will resolve and comp them all together,” he says.
...
The visual effects were created by Weta Digital, the same company that did the effects for Kong director Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. And as it did for “Rings,” Weta used Shake as its primary compositing tool on “King Kong.”
Even More Effects
Matt Welford, the film’s 2D sequence lead who worked on most of the film’s New York sequences, quantifies the task. “Kong has a little shy of two and a half thousand visual effects shots.”
This was a more intensive effects package than “Lord of the Rings,” says Welford, “because ‘Kong’ is more action-packed from start to finish. In the ‘Rings’ trilogy there were frequent breaks in the action. Not so in this film. And then of course, there were all the creatures that Peter Jackson loves to put into these films — the bugs and worms and flies. So the shot count went up just because of those sequences.”
Synthetic City
It is difficult for people who have seen “King Kong” to believe that the sequences, which prominently feature 1930’s Manhattan, were shot on a one-story high New York street back lot in New Zealand and then “digitally extended” by a crew of 500 artists and technicians using thousands of carefully researched and prepared elements.
“We had a huge library of reference photos, and a department of researchers who were able even to find out what color the street signs were in 1930’s New York,” says Welford.
He points out that that the jungle scenes were similarly shot and altered. “Animation would animate the creatures, the modeling guys would build the models, the TDs would light whatever was needed, and then pass them over to the comp department. We would take those elements and integrate them into the plates that were provided by Peter Jackson and the shooting crew. Then it would be our job to basically layer it together with any extra 2D elements that we need. Using Shake, we could integrate those in with the CG and the plate and come out with the final shot.”
Welford says that Shake was also used for some 3D work in the roto and paint departments. “Our TD’s could actually do rough comps of their work before they pass elements off to the comp department, so they could check that their elements were working before we actually start.”
Composite Solution
Welford, who has used Shake since it came out, says the product was perfect for their task. “Personally, I’m a big fan of the node-based compositing. It’s a lot more logical and it allows for you to change things quickly, so you can experiment and jump around to different parts of the tree. You’re not locked into pre-rendering elements and then working on those pre-renders.”
Another advantage of Shake was its ability to work with independent bit depth images.”You can have an 8-bit file, a 16-bit file and a float file and Shake will resolve and comp them all together,” he says.
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