Click Gets VFX Done Remotely in India

By Matt Armstrong

July 20, 2006    Source: Studio Daily

For 137 visual effects shots for the feature film Click, Sony Pictures Imageworks turned to FrameFlow, a visual effects studio operating out of Chennai, India, with offices in LA and Atlanta. The majority of FrameFlow’s work involved adding CG elements to the remote control, as well as garbage cleanup and wire removal.

“For every shot in the movie with the remote control, the remote needed a dynamic screen with a small screensaver and different menu options, so to make it look realistic and believable we had to layer in the right graphics in that screen,” explains Hitesh Shah, co-founder and CEO of FrameFlow. “It was a 3D element so when you turned the remote it had reflections.”

All CG work was done in Autodesk Maya, compositing in Apple Shake, rotoscoping with Silhouette and matchmoving with 2d3 Boujou.

Founded in late 2003, FrameFlow was set up with the idea of serving as a support service for larger visual effects studios in the U.S. and UK, taking on many of the time consuming, secondary effects needs.

“A lot of the basic or mid- to low-tier type of work but still very intricate and requires a creative eye but it’s the heavy lifting work it’s not necessarily the killer shot that is going to define the movie or define the visual effects house,” notes Shah. “Those types of shots were are geared to take on and be a complement to vfx facility rather than compete with them. That’s been our business model from the beginning and now we’re getting a tremendous about of validation from that.”

In addition to Sony Pictures Imageworks, FrameFlow has been working with such visual effects powerhouses as The Orphanage, Cinesite and ILM.

“We were very pragmatic about the kinds of capabilities that many of the visual effects houses struggle to meet at peak demand or with projects that exceed the scope they envisioned,” explains Shah. “So we fit very well into those needs. An operation in India is much more flexible in what we can provide. We can provide a team of 40 or can go up to 100 and go through lull periods much better than a studio here in the States could. So we are able to pass the savings on to our clients and that’s what makes us compelling.”

Shah admits that initially some clients are wary about having their effects work done thousands of miles away but that distanced has been greatly eliminated through technology and the company structure. With producers in LA and Atlanta, there is always someone to speak with to make sure everything runs smoothly. It relies largely on ftp to transfer files or when necessary will ship FireWire drives.

It also relies on a variety of communication tools including CineSync, which allows multiple users to view and annotate QuickTime files in synchronization from various locations.

“Each person has the QuickTime and CineSync connects them all,’ says Shah. “So if someone goes to 2:37, all the people see the same footage in real time. You can also draw on frames and that metadata is saved. That’s been a tremendous help in shot turnover and a great tool for feedback. Whenever you draw on the frame it generates separate image files as JPEGS so you can go back and see the notes and pull up the still frames.”

FrameFlow runs both Macs (dual G5) and PC (dual processor HP workstations), Renderfarm, Apple Final Cut Pro, Shake, Motion, Autodesk Maya, 3DS Max, Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, Boujou and Silhouette.

www.frameflow.com