VFXTalk Interviews Cafefx and their work on Spider-Man™ 3

[Oracle]

10499 Spiderman 3 is hot at the theaters and we are pleased to announce that we will be interviewing the team at CafeFx who helped to make the amazing visual effects a reality! CafeFX created the vertigo-inducing crane disaster sequence for SPIDER-MAN™ 3, setting the stage for a classic Spidey rescue. The 46-shot sequence, along with 35 additional shots, was awarded to CafeFX by Sony Pictures Imageworks, lead effects facility for SPIDER-MAN 3, the latest in the multimillion-dollar franchise.

http://www.cafefx.comAbout CafeFX
CafeFX is an award-winning feature film visual effects facility offering visual effects production and supervision, CG character creation, and 3D animation. Founded in 1993 by Jeff Barnes and David Ebner, CafeFX is located in a 36,000-square-foot studio on an eight-acre campus in the heart of Santa Barbara County. The company’s credits include SPIDER-MAN™ 3, GHOST RIDER, PAN’S LABYRINTH, THE DEPARTED, ERAGON, SIN CITY, KING KONG, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA and THE AVIATOR.
www.cafefx.com

Spiderman 3
Spiderman 3 is the third installation in the highly successful Spiderman series, and is a visual effects extravaganza! As Peter gets to grips with his new-found personal life with Mary Jane he meets a powerfull shape-shifting villan known as the 'Sandman.' At the same time a strange black substance bonds with his Spidersuit, giving it new powers and at the same time causing inner turmoil as he contends with new villains, temptations and revenge.
Watch The Trailer Here! (http://www.ifilm.com/presents/spiderman3)


http://www.vfxtalk.com/feature/cafefx/spiderman3/cafefx_spiderman_moreinfo.jpg
(http://www.cafefx.com/news_events/news_events/sp3_001.html)
Read More Here! (http://www.cafefx.com/news_events/news_events/sp3_001.html)

CafeFX integrated hundreds of animated CG elements with live action cinematography, models and miniatures, digital doubles and photographic backgrounds of New York in the hybrid production of this signature sequence, which is also seen from multiple angles and triple takes. Scott Gordon, visual effects supervisor at CafeFX, oversaw the production of visual effects, along with VFX producer Richard Ivan Mann, CG supervisor Akira Orikasa, and lead FX TD Rif Dagher.


Your questions will be sent over to Visual Effects Supervisor Scott Gordon, Visual Effects Producer Richard Ivan Mann, CG Supervisor Akira Orikasa, Lead FX TD Rif (Rifaat) Dagher and Compositing Supervisor Edwardo Mendez

The company’s production pipeline is configured with Autodesk Maya, cebas Thinking Particles, Sitrisati Fume FX, eyeon Digital Fusion, Autodesk Combustion, Massive, Autodesk Mental Ray, cebas finalRender Stage-2, 2d3 Boujou, Adobe After Effects and Apple Shake.

http://www.cafefx.comThe Crane Scene
The scene opens as a steel beam, suspended from an out-of-control construction crane, spins toward a glass-encased skyscraper. From her photo shoot inside, Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) reacts to the impending disaster and the audience sees her dawning horror in the reflection of the windows. She dives for cover as the beam slices through the space, shattering windows and shearing off support columns. The off-balance crane then swings in a wild arc and takes out the floor below, causing the floor that Gwen is on to collapse and tilt at a perilous angle.

Because the scene is played out from multiple perspectives, from street level to bird’s eye view, from within the office to the building’s exterior, it has all the heightened reality of the frozen moment one experiences just before an accident. From a visual effects production standpoint, perfect continuity and precise timing were required in order to finesse a sequence with this level of drama and detail, in all of its many iterations. Scott Gordon, visual effects supervisor for CafeFX, said “The crane disaster sequence challenged us on all levels. In order for the action to work, it had to play out against the ultimate choreography, integration and interaction of countless practical and CG elements.”

http://www.luma-pictures.comBackgrounds and feature effects
Among those were backgrounds for the climactic final battle between Spider-Man and Sandman and the addition of a matte painting of the city square for the key to the city sequence. CafeFX also used Massive software to populate the large crowd that has gathered for the ceremony. Other shots crafted by CafeFX included the rivets that burst from a subway water tank; burning butter and beaten eggs in a skillet; a foggy field; eye shield extensions for the villain Venom; and tears in Sandman’s eyes to enhance emotion.

Gordon observed, “We are seeing a greater trend toward the use of visual effects to heighten a dramatic moment and to provide a greater range of editorial choices.”



Post your Questions!
We will be taking questions for a week before sending them over to CaeFx to answer so please try to focus your questions on the areas of the film covered above. You can also ask the guys at CafeFx general questions related to their tools, their work and their workflow!


To ask a question just reply to this post by hitting the reply button below and post away! Feel free to ask multiple questions if you like. Once we have some good questions we'll gather them and forward them to the artists at CafeFx to answer!

*Because this thread may contain spoilers from the movie, it is recommended that you go see the movie before proceeding further!

Thanks,
The VFXTalk Team!

[kutu_daun]

Ur all AWESOME !! :)
Which part/scene did u use in After Effect ??
I am so excited in VFX, but in here (Indonesia) dont have any VFX training/course/school..
I hope I can learn more from u guys.. Any tips/tricks? :)

thnx a lot..

rgrds,
Gorgy

[mboden]

Thank you your time, always appreciate it. The shot of Gwen Stacy running from the crane. How many people worked on this shot and what was most most challenging aspect of this shot? When you got the shot was it planned out the way we see it or was changed during production?

[rxcomic]

The introduction above mentions that you have access to 4 compositing packages: Combustion, Fusion, AE, and Shake. How do all of those packages fit into your pipeline and did you use all or only some on sequences like those listed above? For instance, is Combustion used more as a paint package and Shake or Fusion used as the main compositor?

[rxcomic]

To Edwardo Mendez, as a compositor what's more satisfying to do, the big flashy effects or making butter and eggs in a skillet so seamless that no one is the wiser?

[rxcomic]

In the crane sequence, were you asked to retime many plates and determine the timing of shots in post for more dramatic purposes, or was the director comfortable hitting those marks in camera?

[CGnews]

i saw the movie last week and thought it was awesome - best part is i remember all the effects you guys worked on from the rivets bursting out to the eggs and sandmans tears... so i have tons of questions!

the crane sequence was awesome - probably the best vfx scene in the film and the most noticable as a complete scene. i was facintaed by the explosions and debri when the crane tears thorugh the building - how was this done?

Also what tools and workflows were used to composite the actors ino the scene, especially after the crane took the floor out and the entire office was hanging out of the building? were youforced to use a mixture of traditional techniques such as minatures and sideways sets or was it all 3d and compositing?

how did you create the tears for sandman and what did it take to composit them into the scene? did you use 3d compositing or was it all 2d?

i would also like to hear more about how you got the burning butter and eggs in the skillet - sometimes the effects you dont see are the hardest and most difficult to pull off and this is one that i could have never guessed!

thanks for the great work!
CG

[Dreamie]

Greetings,

I'm a 3d generalist, for 12 years now. 2 years of them in the real industry in canada on tv shows and one feature film as a tech fx artist. My dream is to be a part of amazing movies like you guys (and gals) are working on.. Hopefully I'll get there one day. :D

I saw spiderman3 about 2 weeks ago, and WOW. The crane sequence was simply amazing. Sandman's birth as well. I don't think I ever saw a scene which is entirely CG yet so emotional.. Hats off for your superb work on ghost rider and pan's labyrinth as well.


Now for the questions:

* Did you have any shots you knew the result will look better in fluid fx yet due to time constrains you used particles instead?

* I've read that for Ghost Rider you accomplished better results by driving most of the shader work in houdini and wrote a plugin for houdini which exported that information to fluid fx in maya. Did you have any solutions like this in Spiderman 3?

* How large is your fx team? How is it divided? Do the fx artists do the comp work as well?
What do you use for comp?

* What was your most difficult task?

* What did you use for rendering?

* Does it ever happen your live footage for a specific shot just doesn't match the effect you're trying to make? In this case, can you ask to shoot again?

* Have you made any wishlists for shots the director asked to fix but you just couldn't fit it in the schedule? If so, how many of these were done and how many weren't?

* How often you were in contact with the director? At which stages you showed him shots for review?

* Could you elaborate on your in-house tools that makes your life easier?

* How much time you had for pre-productoin? How large is your RND team?

* How do you decide which technique to use on specific shots? Do you feel you could accomplish an easier, cleaner solution to any specific shot/fx yet didn't change the technique due to time constrains?

* CGnews already asked that, but I'd also love to know as much as tech details as you can how the debri, the ripped metal pieces were made in the crane sequence. Either the outdoor one, the indoor one and the shot where we see the ripped pieces from a low angle. Which is miniature work, cg, and live action?

* Did you have any shots you had to redo, fx wise cause the models\shaders were revised? How much were you relied on other departments than fx?

* Did you use your own pipeline or sony imageoworks pipeline? Can you elaborate a bit on your pipeline?

* Did you do any cg water simulations? If so for which shots and which tools did you use?

* Have you used 2d particles in any of the shots?

Thanks for your time and for making true magic happen!

Dreamie.

[Oracle]

Hey, just a heads up to please get your questions in as we will be closing this off pretty soon!

thanks!
Oracle

[Ari]

This question is for CG supervisor Akira :

for the Crane raking up the side of the building destruction shot :

1) Did you create a procedural rig which "broke" the building structurally and window panes based on a voronoi pattern, based on the crane motion ? (much like the recent siggraph paper by Pixar, how they did the "road" break-up in the small town).... or did you just cover "in-comp" the crane and building connection with layers of particle glass, debris, and dust ?

[VFXTalkDotCom]

ok just before you close it out i have a few...

* How often do the clients visit your studio to see the shots in progress?

* what do you use for rendering, mentalray, renderman or something else?

* whats the size of your renderfarm? is it intel or amd? is it 32bit or 64 bit? what software do you use to manage your renders?

* How do you work with the graders on the picture in order to get the final comp to fit in seamlessly with the film?

* What was the 'pre production to final stage' planning process you used to come up with the vfx shots for the film? What sort of freedom were you given in creating the looks for the sequences you were in charge of?

* When your team is faced with the challenge of creating their effects what are the typical work patterns you follow? Is the final result always as you originally envisioned it, or does the process often change and adapt as new ideas or challenges arise?

* What was by the far the biggest challenge in term of visual effects in this movie, and how did you overcome them? Was there a different treatment? A new techique? Which sequence was the hardest to work on, and why?

* When starting work on a really meaty shot, do you approach it as just another shot, or do you prefer to really understand the context and emotional state of it first?

* How do you work with the guys on-set? Do you have onset high-speed compositing artists or is all your post work done in house?

thats all for me!

[Oracle]

Hi all,

A big thanks to everyone who took part and asked questions! we will be pulling them togeather and sending them over to CafeFX this week! As soon as we have the final article ready we will ping yo to let you know!

thanks!

Oracle