February 28, 2008

Imaginary Forces Pushes Technology To The Limit on The Spiderwick Chronicles

Los Angeles - Imaginary Forces (IF) director Ahmet Ahmet says key to making all of the sequences work was pushing the company’s technology to the limit within the given timeframe.

IF was commissioned to create a succinct back-story for the prologue, which was designed and directed by Ahmet. “The sequences, while imbued with magic and mystery, are set in a tangible scientific world,” explains Ahmet. “This Darwinian world conveyed the obsessive character of Arthur Spiderwick and his scientific discoveries, which were meticulously documented in his field guide. The macro photography of collected specimens, lab jars, and collaged book pages helped to propel the narrative, leading us like microscopic voyeurs into Spiderwick’s world.”

 

For the two-day prologue shoot at Paramount, study and tabletop sets were built on a stage. Ahmet collaborated with renowned Director of Photography Caleb Deschanel.

 

The prologue and flashbacks are composites of live-action footage with visual treatments applied in the Flame to create specific looks and moods. Maxon Cinema 4D was also used in the prologue to create dust in Spiderwick’s study. Adobe After Effects was used in the “Footlocker” sequence to create some of the transitions.

 

The flashback sequences, “Footlocker” and “Lucinda,” maintain visual continuity with the prologue and re-construct a particular time period. For “Footlocker,” Ahmet shot close-ups of the field guide initially on an HD camera at Imaginary Forces. IF editor Jeff Consiglio then intercut this material with the existing first unit footage to build the structure of the sequence. The field guide pages were later re-shot on 35mm.

 

“In discussions with DP Caleb Deschanel and director Mark Waters, we decided to give an authentic aged film patina to the flashbacks, but to stay away from flat sepia, in order to create a distinctive Spiderwick look,” explains Ahmet. “We used various techniques including simulating old box camera and wet plate collodian negatives, as well as lens apparition effects to create a natural organic look.”

 

Ahmet Ahmet took macro photography of textures and creature wings, which were remodeled and animated for the flashback sequences using Cinema 4D. Several stills were also dimensionalized and mapped onto forced geometry to create a 3D look.

 

The animated end titles offer a closer glimpse into the fantasy world of goblins, fairies, and sprites. Seamless CG camera moves, paced to the James Horner score, take viewers on a colorful journey through character-related iconography and themes from the film.

 

“The end titles are a celebration,” comments Ahmet. “I wanted to incorporate the creatures and film-related elements in pure detail. The technical challenge was creating such an intense amount of detailed CG scenes, with a particular aesthetic, that required a lot of rendering time.”

 

The render-intensive end titles were storyboarded and created in animatic form by IF, with pacing done through the Avid. Each shot involved a different software program with some scenes built in Autodesk Maya and others in Cinema 4D. Maya Mental Ray was used to render each scene out.

 

A 3D model from Xfrog (a plug-in application for Cinema 4D used for organic modeling and animation) was used to create the cherry blossom scenes. 

 

Real Flow was utilized for the exploding tomato scene, which Ahmet and his team researched and cited for its ability to produce and control realistic fluid effects. A combination of Maya and Next Limit Technologies’ Real Flow effects were used to make the tomato feel like it was exploding in mid-air.
 
For more on the effects in The Spiderwick Chronicles, read Computer Graphics World's February 2008 article, "Natural Forces," at http://www.cgw.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=6DE7886FAB834599A78D17B58B6EB946.
 

The software tools used by IF on the various segments include:

 

For the Prologue:

Avid Media Composer Version 11.8

Autodesk Flame/Inferno 2007

Maxon Cinema 4D Version 10

The footage treatment was done mainly in Flame/Inferno.

 

For the Lucinda Flashback:

Avid Media Composer Version 11.8 and Autodesk Flame/Inferno 2007

The footage treatment was done mainly in Flame/Inferno.

 

For the Footlocker Flashback:

Avid Media Composer Version 11.8

Autodesk Flame/Inferno 2007

Maxon Cinema 4D Version 10

The footage treatment was done mainly in Flame/Inferno.

 

Main On End Titles:

Adobe After Effects Versions 5, 6, and 7,

Autodesk Maya 8.5

Next Limit Technologies Real Flow

Maxon Cinema 4D Version 10

Avid Media Composer Version 11.8

Autodesk Flame/Inferno 2007

Adobe Illustrator CS3

Adobe Photoshop CS3