[Oracle]

Everyone is a fan of the Die Hard series of films, and knows that Bruce Willis is in it to win it! Well we are pleased to announce that we will be giving you the opportunity to interview Digital Dimension and speak with them about their recent work on Die Hard 4 - Live Free or Die Hard! Your questions will be sent over to Erik Bruhwiler, the Composite Supervisor, and Andrew Roberts, the 3D Supervisor so jump in and find out from the pros how they get the job done!

Digital Dimension
With headquarters in sunny Burbank, California and facilities in Montreal, Canada, Six-Time Emmy and Visual Effects Society Winner, Digital Dimension specializes in high-end Visual Effects, 3D Animation, and Motion Graphics for the film, television, and interactive industries. Founded in 1997, Digital Dimension has built a reputation early on as an innovative provider of visual effects and animation. Digital Dimension consists of teams of highly passionate individuals who strive to incorporate the principles of relentless innovation for the benefit of our customers. Our mission is to help our clients telling their stories through the meticulous blend of creative and technological innovations.
http://www.digitaldimension.com

Erik Bruhwiler – Composite Supervisor
Erik graduated from R.I.S.D. in 1989 with a BFA in Film/Animation. After exploring creative careers including Earth visualization and online interactive 3D browsing technology, he trained as a compositor in 2004 and joined Stan Winston Digital to help bring in “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”. Digital Dimension hired him in the fall of 2004, working on the Emmy-winning SuperBowl 39 Opening, “Zathura”, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, “Slither”, and “Final Destination 3” before being promoted to Compositing Supervisor midstream on “Talladega Nights” in 2006. Erik has since supervised the compositing on projects including “Charlotte’s Web”, “Norbit”, “Blades of Glory”, and HBO’s “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”.

Andrew Roberts – 3D Supervisor
Andrew joined Autodesk UK after a number of years working as a draftsman. At Autodesk, his interest in computer graphics blossomed while he assisted in the development of 3D Studio 1. Throughout the 90’s he worked in the games industry as an artist, Creative Producer & 3D Manager, later moving to commercials and broadcast graphics. He subsequently joined HyperImage as artist/animator and completed 3 x 30 minute episodes of "Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles". As Technical Director at Nueart Pictures he oversaw production on the animated feature "AeroTroopers: The Nemeclous Crusade". Andrew joined Digital Dimension Los Angeles in 2001, where his projects have included the Emmy-winning SuperBowl 36 & 39 Openings, Final Destination 2, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Talladega Nights.

Live Free or Die Hard
With the July 4th holiday, an attack on the entire computer and technological infrastructure of the United States begins. The plan is to take down the entire nation and the mysterious figure behind the scheme has figured out every modern angle. It's up to a decidedly "old school" hero, police detective John McClane to take down the conspiracy, aided by a young hacker. Die Hard 4 was produced primarily by Cheyenne Enterprises, the television and film production company privately owned by Bruce Willis and Arnold Rifkin.

For more information and to see the trailer head to http://www.livefreeordiehard.com

For Die Hard 4, Digital Dimension’s 3D team:

• 3D tracked shots both for integrating CG elements into the shots and also to aid in the clean plate process (wire/object removal etc).
• Created a fully detailed CG tunnel interior, initially intended for set extension work but later used for close-up hero shots.
• Integrated CG traffic lights and photo real CG cars into shots of collisions taking place in city streets.
• Fragmented CG rotor blades for the spectacular helicopter crash seen in the movie’s trailer.
• Added up to 1,000 CG extras to shots using crowd simulation tools.
• Reduced a building to little more than rubble, depicting the collapse as seen from the inside.

Digital Dimension’s 2D team:

• Used 3D tracking and projection map techniques to create involved clean plates and 3D comp elements for set extensions.
• Comped 3D elements including CG cars, traffic lights, rotor blades.
• Comped practical elements such as explosions, squibs, debris, cars, stuntmen and green screen driving shots.
• Comped exploding model buildings.
• Extended a tunnel location, placing the extension behind smoke, windshield cracks and glare.
• Painted out stunt wires from behind a chain link fence in fast moving camera shots.
• Performed extensive roto for plate-to-plate compositing.

Software used was Digital Fusion, 3D Studio MAX, Massive, Syntheyes and Thinking Particles.

Post your Questions!
We will be taking questions for a week before sending them over to Digital Dimension to answer so please try to focus your questions on the areas of the film covered above. You can also ask the guys at Digital Dimension 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 Digital Dimension 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!

[Motski]

Im really gonna think about some good questions! Went to the movies last friday and watched it! its freaking amazing One of the best action movies i've ever seen!

So if you havent seen it, go watch it! You wont be disapointed! I promise u!

[DJMartin]

I haven't seen it myself, but here is my fist question: How many people from Digital Dimension were evolved in the making of Die Hard 4.0? And how many people were doing sfx and vfx on this project all over?

Sorry for my bad english..

EDIT: I have now seen it in cinema.

[Timmay]

I have questions about matte paintings in the film.

How many (aprox) were used in the film?

What did most of the mattes consist of? Set extensions, entire landscapes etc?

How many matte painters did you have working on the film?

Where most of the mattes 2d, 2 1/2d or entirely 3d?

Thank you for taking time out to answer our questions!

[naveen]

I saw the movie and loved its mindblowing action.

1.How many guys were involved to complete the show.
2.For camera projection which/why of the two is used 3DSMax or Digital fusion.
3.how many shots were involved which used 3d space of Digital Fusion and how helpful it was in accomplishing the shot.

congratulations to all involved for the show and thanks for taking your time to answer here.

[muffycompo]

Good Job Guys, I personally like your studio for all its talented staffs...Muffy

[Aruna]

Did Digital Dimension do any of the Raptor vs. big rig sequence? Seems there was a multitude of miniatures coupled with CG. If you did, can you go into how that sequence was accomplished using the tools at hand?

For the tunnel sequence, how many of the cars were computer generated, and how many were stunt cars or physical cars were on set? How did you acquire the data needed to recreate the vehicles? Via 3D scan or hard modelling? From the time you were given the sequence, how long did it take to complete, with how many shots and the number of artists? Was the sequence cut set in stone, or was there some leeway in creating specific shots to aid in the storytelling of the sequence (ie, were any shots added or improved upon after seeing a rough cut)?

The sequences with the cars colliding on the city streets, how much paintwork was necessary to remove the existing cars, if any, and how did you accomplish this task?

Great job fellas. I enjoyed the movie, even if it was a little long for my taste. Now I've gotta go back and watch the first one.

[DJMartin]

I have a few more questions:

1. In the scene were all the gas-pipelines is directed to one location, and this causes a huge explosion. How was this created? Is it real footage or cg? and if so, which program was used?
2. The next question is a bit hard to describe for me, because I am not so driven in english. But I'll give it a try.
   
   How far shold vfx go? Is it better with a huge scene where all is cg, but it does not look so real. Or, a smaller scene which looks real? Is quantity vs. quality a good way of describing it? The reason why I am asking for this is because I saw an example of this in one of the last scenes. In the scene where McClane is driving the big truck and lands on the plane, is this a scene where quantity meets quality? And what made DD make this scene? Did you consider not to create it, because it would be to hard to make it belivable?
   
   I hope you understand my quesition.

And finally, I just want to say that it was on of the best movies I have seen this year, if not the best. Great entertainment!!!

[CGnews]

just a heads up that we will be closing this out in a few days so get your questions in guys!

[Oracle]

a big tanks to everyone who sent their questions over, we will be closing this interview off and will be sending the questions over to digital dimension to answer! stay tuned for our next live interview on the latest harry potter!