Clint Eastwood’s Changeling tells the story of a mother’s search for her lost son. At first this doesn’t sound like it would require a lot of visual effects until the setting is taken into account: the bustling metropolis that was Los Angeles in the 1920s and ’30s. Shooting on the Universal backlot required the city being rebuilt digitally. Set extensions are standard fare for VFX house CIS Vancouver, but this one had a twist: adding crowds of digital people into these CG environments to replicate the bustling city environment. Okay, so adding crowds has been done before. But these digital actors are not just wandering around in the background, they are crossing right in front of camera and interweaving among the real actors shot on set.
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Comments (5) for "Massive Digital Actors In the Foreground of Changeling"
1.
Amazing Digital Matte Paintings and a teriffic job, just saw the film today, and just couldn't see how things were done.
The shot at the top of the article and insets 2 thru 5 are from the last shot in the film with credits rolling over, and lasts at least a minute. I had a feeling perhaps big quarter scale models were used for the car and streetcar (the driver didn't seem to be moving), but I'm probably wrong here, a mixture of real cars and CG ones. I also had a feeling that in another shot in the film the streetcar was slightly going off track (the track probably being a matte painting and the trolley probably a mock-up on car-base. But I might again be wrong. Hats off to CIS for the wonderful period VFX.
Posted by Roloff on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 06:36 PM
2.
great article! makes me want to go see the movie now! I work as a First Ast. Director and am very keen to learn the guidlines of the do's and donts when you are staging background on the set and know going in that additional cg extras will be added in the foreground later on in post -
Posted by babu subramaniam on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 09:51 PM
3.
The marque lettering is too large and too crisp, but everything else is awesome.
Posted by Lynn Doughty on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 10:58 PM
4.
It definitely didn't even cross my mind that those weren't real people when I saw it. Great job CIS, the less people notice your work, the better job you're doing!
Posted by Chris Yi on Sunday, November 30, 2008 @ 06:44 PM
5.
Interesting that they would use a plate of Vancouver's mountains instead of LA mtns for the bottom-most image
Posted by Heinz SV on Tuesday, December 2, 2008 @ 11:38 AM
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