Tripp Hudson - Framestore

Apologies for not posting sooner but anyhow here are the notes I took from Framestore's talk at Animex with representative Tripp Hudson, the Senior VFX Producer.  The talk was focussed particularly on the studio's contributions to the recent blockbuster Avatar.

Framestore retrieved incomplete and in some case untouched scenes from WETA workshop, the studio responsible for Lord of the Rings and District 9.  The workload was too high for WETA alone so Framestore jumped on board project.  Avatar was filmed in stereoscopic this meant matchmoving twice, animating twice and rendering twice to create the desired effect this was an an epic task.  The introductory shots to the planet "pandora" including the interior dropship shots and the landing of the dropship at basecamp were Framestores responsibility as well as the first shots of the tank like human exoskeletons.

 The visors in the interior dropship shots were perhaps the most simple of Framestore's duties with their addition of reflective visors on the corp's helmets however this still meant carefully calculated reflection information. On the basecamp shots over 400 assets needed to be tracked and composited including digi-double soldiers, buildings and vehicles. The sheer scale and detailing of this production meant this one shot required even distant buildings to be modelled inside out at photo realistic level.  Obviously with this amount of detail a substantial number of layers were rendered and required for effective compositing of the final edit.

In production "Dailys" was a term given to the daily previews of the composites which were in progress.  These were arranged so that the team could assess very regularly the progression of a shot,  prototype 3D glasses were worn that allowed an unfinished shot three dimensionality.  James Cameron as a director was praised by Framestore, his technical knowledge of occlusion and render composites was extraordinary for a man of his position.  Contact between the studio and Cameron was via satellite link video meetings scheduled at awkward times where the London and L.A time difference meant staff presenting in the early hours of the morning.  Nuke and Maya were the major softwares used by Framestore in the production of Avatar, showing just how much potential these programmes have.

The Framestore talk was not very long but I felt that I managed to note down most of what was said.  If anyone wishes to delve further into the Framestore contributions to Avatar or purely the company and its other work the studio's site holds alot of cool info: http://www.framestore-cfc.com/
I also have a link to brilliant BBC coverage featuring Tripp Hudson of Framestore showing, at a basic level, how shots were created for Avatar.

I Hope to put up my Blue Sky notes soon, a brilliant talk so keep an eye out for Michael Deffeo on my next Animex based post.