VizWorld.com

A new press release from Maxon reveals that their CINEMA4D and BodyPaint3D products were a big hit in several of this summer’s biggest films.

Newbury Park, CA – November 12, 2009 – Some of this year’s hottest movies, including G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Surrogates and District 9, all have one thing in common – they feature spectacular CG animation and visual effects sequences created with MAXON’s CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D, the leading 3D animation software celebrated for its intuitive interface, powerful toolset and positive impact on productivity.

Read the full release after the break, and see some great pictures of their work.

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Science bodypaint3d, cinema4d, district9, maxon, movie, surrogates, vfx

Over at VFXWorld they have some more information on Synthespian Studio’s contributions to Surrogates, with some great detail on how the “uncanny valley” isn’t always a bad thing.

They assigned the work to Synthespian Studios, Jeff Kleiser’s company. They scanned a digital double of Willis and Synthespian built a CG model from Eyetronics’ scan and original cleanup work. But most of the work was done in 2D in Shake. “There’s a lot of matchmoving and roto patching,” Stetson continues. “A lot of it was simply to make him look 20 years younger or so. Beyond that, there’s a certain level of perfection that we were dancing with. If we had done everything that Jonathan had asked us to do, we would’ve ended up with something that looks like bad visual effects work. But when you think about it, that look is actually what the movie was asking for. We just couldn’t go all the way with it in the visual environment that we’re in.”

via Surrogates: Definitely Not More Human Than Human | AWN | Animation World Network.

Graphics movie, surrogates, synthespian studios, vfx

Touchstone Picture’s “Surrogates” showcases some of the fantastic photoreal CG robots done by Synthespian Studios.  Over at Millimeter they have a great writeup on one scene in particular showcasing the loaner surrogate of an apartment landlord who’s primary surrogate is under repair.

“It was an opportunity to expose that she was in fact a machine,” says Surrogates Visual Effects Supervisor Mark Stetson (whose many credits also include the cyborg classic Blade Runner). Stetson collaborated with Synthespians’ Concept Artist Diana Walczak to develop a new look for the robot, creating iterations of concept art done with Adobe Photoshop. “I did a sketch rotoing around the actor’s mask and using a bit of a CG skull that Synthespians had developed,” Stetson says. “Then we added bits of a robotic neck to the concept and developed a ‘homemade’ previz. We put a little repair sticker on it to emphasize that it was a rental unit. Jonathan Mostow approved that, and Synthespians took it from there.”

Surrogates opens today nationwide.

via Surrogates Step by Step.

Graphics movie, surrogates, synthespian studios, vfx