Face/Off
QuickTime Movie #1
The following images have been scaled, compressed and stored in the QuickTime 3.0 format. They are download intensive. You will need the QuickTime 3.0 or higher image viewer loaded onto your system in order to view these movie files. All movies listed below are from the Paramount film "Face/Off," Directed by John Woo, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage.Face/Off
This QuickTime Movie is a 2,101K
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The jet engine afterburner flames were shot separately in 1/3 scale, tracked
with Inferno and composited in using Chalice. The stunt guy was on a ratcheted
wire harness. Wire removal by Cinesite, with the balance of the composite
by VIFX.
This QuickTime Movie is a 1,166K
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A fine example of morph technology serving an alternate purpose. Separate
Motion Control camera moves were photographed; one without the cut open
skin and one with the cut open skin. A delicate split screen reveals a
gentle unzipping in Elastic Reality. The laser beam was animated in 2D
and the "burning flesh" smoke element was filmed on stage separately and
tracked in. Final composites were done in Chalice.
This QuickTime Movie is a 199K
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Nicolas Cage shot against Blue Screen into a mirror. He fires a blank and
we see the reflection. The bullet hole and shattered was photographed as
a separate element. CGI Bullets were added. And CGI shattering, falling
glass was also added. All post work was done by VIFX.
This QuickTime Movie is a 159K
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The Director, John Woo, wanted to use this existing shot of Nicolas Cage
looking through the scope as looking down the barrel of the rifle. So we
created a CGI muzzle and a CGI bullet. The smoke was shot separately and
resequenced to emulate 1200fps photography. All composites were done in
Chalice by VIFX.
This QuickTime Movie is a 5,150K
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Complicated little sequence....the first shot has a CGI boat that has been
animated and rendered to match all the others in this clip. The boat was
carefully composited behind and coming through the water. The second shot
seems pretty trivial, but in fact, there were two 12" diameter holes in
the bottom of that boat. Amalgamated Pixels did a fantastic job of fixing
the holes. Final touch ups and a CGI water overlay were artfully done by
VIFX. Shots 3 and 4 both had the hole in the boat problems, once again
solved by Amalgamated Pixels. But they also had a couple of complicating
twists; these were motion controlled split-screens of the boat and stunt
guys and they required face replacements on the stunt guys.
We laser scanned molds of Travolta's and Cage's faces, used reference orthographic
photography as texture maps for the skin and hair. The 3D faces were first
tracked and animated in Power Animator, then rendered in Renderman without
the X, Y and Z information. These rendered faces were then 2D tracked in
Inferno to secure them onto the stunt guys heads. Subtle blending was required.
Oh, and we did wire removal on the guys, too......
This QuickTime Movie is a 4,101K
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This wonderful tracking excercise didn't start out complicated, but certainly
became that. Photographed using the Gazelle motion control rig, we shot
several different passes of the "dermagraphter." You wouldn't know it to
look at it, but the excellent tissue at the surface of the liquid is all
CGI. It's a long story how we came to that...email me and I will explain
it to you. Ultimately that ear surface and the laser beams had to be 3D
tracked into and composited through the plexiglass doors, vessel and
the water in the foreground. Ouch. Hats off to Rick Sanders and many others
at VIFX for this marvel.
All CGI elements seen in these clips were animated in 3D using Houdini
and Power Animator and rendered in Renderman. 2D composites were primarily
done in Chalice. Other Software used on Face/Off included Inferno, Elastic
Reality and Matador.
