The VFX of Pirates of the Caribbean

[TRi-14]

Awsome leo! thanks for the link :) the visual effects were amazing in the movie. so many "How did they DO that moments."


-chris

[Spindle]

interview "We really didn’t want to get into motion control and that sort of static, sterile composition"

It amazes me when they have hand held camera movements for large portions of the effects portions, and still track the footage so accurately. Like in LOTR etc. does anyone know how they do this, I dont see little blue markers all over the scene. I know doing my own tracking attempts is quite challenging, I'm just wondering if they people meticoulsly mesuring every aspect of the set, or if there is some really good specialised software that makes this easier???
anyone know?

[malcolmvexxed]

I'm really really surprised how much i loved this movie. Entertaining as all hell, the effects were great.

[Clanger]

Media Munky:
If you haven't already give Boujou a try, seems to be what most people are using. No experience of it myself though.

[lildragon]

Great job Leo, can't wait to see it this weekend.

-lild

[jum'bok]

Originally posted by Media Munky
interview "We really didn’t want to get into motion control and that sort of static, sterile composition"

It amazes me when they have hand held camera movements for large portions of the effects portions, and still track the footage so accurately. Like in LOTR etc. does anyone know how they do this, I dont see little blue markers all over the scene. I know doing my own tracking attempts is quite challenging, I'm just wondering if they people meticoulsly mesuring every aspect of the set, or if there is some really good specialised software that makes this easier???
anyone know?

they actually don't use handheld cameras at all , it's a big arm setup with the camera on it, that holds it loosely enough that you can still move it by hand. however, the camera mount is sensing the movement and recording them. then the second time the arm moves the camera on its own, replicating the exact movement. they are also able to translate this information into computers to motion control the cameras on the cg characters.

seems like a really high percentage of the shots in the movie had to be done that way, although they said for helicopter shots they had to composite/track it all by hand.

edit: to clarify, i'm referring to the lotr movies. check out the dvd extras for some more info, or the fellowship of the ring issue of cinefex

[gga]

Originally posted by Media Munky
interview "We really didn’t want to get into motion control and that sort of static, sterile composition"

It amazes me when they have hand held camera movements for large portions of the effects portions, and still track the footage so accurately. Like in LOTR etc. does anyone know how they do this, I dont see little blue markers all over the scene. I know doing my own tracking attempts is quite challenging, I'm just wondering if they people meticoulsly mesuring every aspect of the set, or if there is some really good specialised software that makes this easier???
anyone know?

Besides motion control, there's matchmoving.

Sometimes markers have indeed been placed in the original plate but then they are meticulously painted out by "borrowing" small portions of the nearby picture, so the final comp does not have any markers.

The choice of whether to have some markers on set or not may depend on whether the plate has information that can easily be distinguished and whether the set and shooting schedule makes placing and removing those markers for each shot feasible.

For plates that have noticeable features, many times just having the basic measurements of the set and the camera information is enough to create some lores geometry (cubes, etc) approximating it. With that, you can put it thru a 3d matchmoving software, which can extrapolate quite decent 3d camera moves from multiple 2d tracked points (trigonometry at work :). Hammerhead and DD were the first studios that I am aware that used this technique for extracting camera moves, but now the technique is rather common. bujou3d, equalizer, etc. are off-the-shelf tools that allow you to do this.

Even the best matchmove software out there is not flawless and requires some artist interaction to fix issues. And yes, for these types of software to be the most successful, the more accurate the measurements and the better lit the plates are the better. Ideally, you want to measure each and every shot you plan to track and talk to the DP or camera operator to know what types of camera moves (zooms, etc) he will be doing. As such, it is important to have a vfx and matchmove supervisor on set that can explain to the director the importance of taking the time to do so.
Sometimes the matchmove software will not give you 100% but will at least make the first 80% very easy.

Finally, when all else fails, there's one single and most accurate way of doing it: having a person manually keyframing the 3d camera and doing iteration after iteration until you don't see any shifts. Shots that usually still require this much manual labor are those in which you need to track deforming surfaces (for example, the face of an actor speaking for some facial replacement).

[roger]

I like the line " The time constraints ILM had to work under were unspeakable. It’s amazing the detail and care that’s been taken.”
It would be interesting what "ILM" thinks are time constraints..........???? :)

[aurora]

I saw a short segment on 'Extra' yesterday on the VFX for this and it was pretty damn cool. Now I can't wait to get the DVD to see more and I have not even seen the movie yet. I have to wait till next week when I can take my daughters to see it.b They're 7 and 10 and choose this movie over Sinbad. Ahh-proper training pays off!

[flaagan]

saw the film on opening day. Hat's off to the cast, crew, and especially the cg team on a superb job of making a very good and entertaining movie

[fiercestudios]

it's a pirate life for me!!!! go see this brilliant film!!! Depp is very entertaining. he's like Keith Richards (to much in the sun)
:beer:

http://www.fiercestudios.com/3delite/art/pirate.jpg

[malducin]

Well if anyone knows time constraints is John Knoll. He supervised ILM's last minute work on Deep Blue Sea, something like less than 2 months before release.

As far as the tracking, yep it depends on the company too. ILM does have a tyeam of matchmovers and they do have to do manual tracking sometimes. They also have propietary software, MARS won an Academy Sci-Tech awatrd a ouple years ago, it was used on AI, and it sort of worked like Bojou. Apparently they have an even newer tracker at work now, though I don't know the name. Besides, tracking the set is one thing, sometimes you have to track people, like the CG prosthetics for Arnie in T3 and the magnetized skin of the TX, or the skeleton to Geoffrey Rush in Pirates.

[Boone]

A pirate film is doomed to failure if the following dialogue is missing...

"HAVE AT YOU!!!"

...so I shall be very critical when I go to see POTC...:wise:

(...oh, hell. Its got Orlando Bloom in it, so it must be awesome! ).

[WhiteRabbitObj]

I work at a theatre so I saw the employee screening and now I just got back from seeing it again... this film is definitely one of the best movies of the year and especially the summer so far. The effects are utterly fantastic, I was trying to find something wrong with the effects and I even upon a second viewing I couldn't. I can't wait for the Cinefex article on this so I can find out what was done practically and what was computer generated. The sailing sequences where you see the entire ships sailing I guess are CG, since they said they didn't have a full ship for either of the ships, and those shots looked totally real. Awesome job to ILM! And awesome job to the screenwriters, as they pulled a fun and creative story out of a silly ride from an amusement park.

:buttrock:

[danylyon]

Woah.. some badass textures.

Designers scanned turkey jerky to replicate the dried and desiccated meat look of the skin of the skeleton pirates.

I was wondering.. what's "turkey jerky"? I know whats a turkey.. but what means the whole phrase?

[AB09]

Jerky is a snack food made by smoking (drying out) strips of meat. (venison, elk, turkey, beef) Its great for backpacking because its compact and doesn't require refrigeration.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=jerky

[danylyon]

Thanks AB09..

I'm always looking for new materials to scan in as textures.. That's why it really interested me...

Darn Google (http://www.anvari.org/db/fun/Computer/Bart_Uses_Google.gif) ;)

[WhiteRabbitObj]

Originally posted by danylyon
Thanks AB09..

I'm always looking for new materials to scan in as textures.. That's why it really interested me...

Darn Google (http://www.anvari.org/db/fun/Computer/Bart_Uses_Google.gif) ;)

Do they not have jerky meats in Switzerland? It's always interesting to find out little differences around the world that you wouldn't ever consider. BTW, jerky is pretty gross.

[Atwooki]

No 'Turkey-jerky' here in England, either....unless I've missed something!

Also, BTW, looking back at the last post, it would be impossible (here in England UK) to expect to see a film in a theater.....

Atwooki

[danylyon]

Originally posted by WhiteRabbit.obj
Do they not have jerky meats in Switzerland?
Well we have something similar.. it doesn't come in pieces like your turkey jerky. It's either very thin sliced.. or as a whole block: link (http://www.city-metzgerei.ch/grafik/trockenfleisch.jpg)
And it's no turkey (as far as I know).. and only some of it is smoked.

That one is actually quite tasty. :drool:

Edit:.. and it goes very well with our cheese!! :D

[malducin]

I can't wait for the Cinefex article on this so I can find out what was done practically and what was computer generated. The sailing sequences where you see the entire ships sailing I guess are CG,

I doubt there will be any Cinefex article. Next one is slated to cover T3 and Matrix Reloaded.

As far as the ships there were miniatures except for a few shots of an underwater hull. Here is a few tidbist about the work:


There were 324 ILM shots, 134 of which were Skeleton shots. The other 300-some non-ILM shots were suped by Charlie Gibson and shopped around to a number of small houses.

... there were 3 model ships built for Pirates. The Dauntless (14' at 12th scale), the Black Pearl (24' at 1/6th scale), and the Interceptor (22' at 1/4th scale).

... ILM built a 250,000 gallon water tank on the lot with wave makers (cylindrical and plunger), Ritter and V-8 fans, rain bars, smokers, etc. With special purpose proportional hydraulic (repeatable) model movers.


I guess I'll collect and post all the info later.

[Psotek]

Now that i think of it, there really is nothing wrong with the cg effects in this movie. It all seems so pleasing to the eye that next thing you know, the movie is over and you have nothing to criticize :shrug:

[Ovi]

Wow - one great thing about living in Denmark is that you'll get to see many great movies only 2-3 months after the release in the US :rolleyes: :thumbsdow

Though, I must say that the 3-page VFX about the movie was a bit disappointing. We ALL know the skeleton-people must have been a huge challenge, so where's the stuff we CG-people want to read?

Of course there will be much more info on DVD and in magazines etc. later on, but that, IMO, doesn't entitle such low-info high-announced feature on the CG-network :hmm:

[Spindle]

Hey thanks guys for all the tracking info. Im interested to hear that they do use a form of semi-motion controll to make hand held camera movements repeatable - hadnt heard anything about that before.
Recently I was on the blur studios site - there is a short downloadable quicktime of a guy rapidly decomposing, all those surfaces seem to be deformorming - said that it was a nightmare to track. (just thought I'd mention that a fellow Cape Townian is working there.....Dave Wilson:D:buttrock:)

Back to the jerky question, back in South Africa we call it 'biltong', everyone there loves it - exept one person
............................me! I mean who first saw a piece of perfectly good meat and decided to dry it in the sun rather that cooking it?
-but nuff of that, this site is called CGTalk......not SausageTalk.

[Leonard]

Unfortunately this is as much as Disney and ILM disclosed. If you want more specific information, they may put it on the DVD or if they speak about it at conferences/festivals.

Also realize that this is one article in a string that we are about to release. We simply cannot afford to spend too much time dwelling on one feature due to resource constraints.

Thanks,

L.

Originally posted by Ovi
Though, I must say that the 3-page VFX about the movie was a bit disappointing. We ALL know the skeleton-people must have been a huge challenge, so where's the stuff we CG-people want to read?

Of course there will be much more info on DVD and in magazines etc. later on, but that, IMO, doesn't entitle such low-info high-announced feature on the CG-network :hmm:

[malducin]

I'm actually grateful since I knew (or at least suspected) this project wouldn't be covered much. A lot of people discounted it, so I doubt there will be a lot of coverage. Nice pics too. Still have to post a notice to it.

[roger]

I doubt there will be any Cinefex article. Next one is slated to cover T3 and Matrix Reloaded.
This is why I wish Cinefex would put out a "special" summer issue so the could cover ALL the summer FX films. With only 4 issues a year that can't cover everything....:thumbsdow

[Jester Capp]

The thing I found most incredible about the movie was the fact that I could pair any given skeleton with the actor who played the character. They really captured the actors in their skeleton counter parts!

[AJE]

Abosltuely loved it. Loved the action, the VFX, the dialogue.
Depp is a hoot, Rush is solid, Bloom is somewhat flat (but next to Depp's 'Sparrow', all of them seemed a little flat). Unfortunately, Knightly looks alot like my sister, so it kinda creeps me out to say she's gorgeous... but truth be told, she definitely is.

The movie feels a bit longer than it's 100 minute length, but not so long as to make you want it to end any sooner.

Bruckheimer knows how to pick 'em.

Makes me want my own 'Black Pearl' or 'Dauntless'.

See it when you can.

Cheers.

[fiercestudios]

I finally saw the film just about three hours ago. I saw Hulk, Matrix2, and T3 and I have to say, Pirates was more worth the wait then all of them.

Depp stole the show! Funny in every scene. I was hoping he'd go even further with it and really cause some trouble, but I think he kept kid friendly. This movie is the first good pirate film in years (cutthroat eat your heart out)

The FX are simply amazing. I can see lots of the Mummy tech worked carried over well because it was nearly impossible for me to tell that these things were CG. The only time I noticed anything was when one of them jumped off a box to avoid a sword and he did'nt leap right. This is being very nit picky.

As for the CG ship, I'm at a loss to tell you which one that was. So.... wow is all I can say. If at all, see it for the seemlessness, I for one learned how it can be done big and well.

It gave me everything I hoped for and for once I was'nt able to guess as often how the plot of the movie would turn out.

[malducin]

This is why I wish Cinefex would put out a "special" summer issue so the could cover ALL the summer FX films. With only 4 issues a year that can't cover everything....

Well Cinefex is such a small operation that putting out more issues would break them. You can almost count the staff at Cinefex with the fingers on your hand. They have considered doing more issues per year but it was financially unfeasable. They even considered putting some articles online but couldn't be worked out. heck I can't find their E.T 20th article online anymore or the Supernova one.

It was funny, during VES the guys at Pixar asked if someone from Cinefex was around, they were a bit miffed about not being conacted.

[The-3D-Data-Labs-Guy]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :love: thks

[SatanJr]

POTC is such an amazing movie, one of the best films ever, IMO.

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