VFX BREAKDOWN MUFASA
Creating the vast landscapes for this film was a major challenge for Valdez and his team, with MPC sculpting environments down to every blade of grass. “There is so much potential material to draw from in a continent as vast as Africa,” shares Valdez. “We relied on local knowledge, and scouts captured photos and gathered information for us. “That’s how we approach complex worldbuilding movies – we are not inventing entirely fantasy places but aiming to represent some truth,” he continues. “We were lucky to visit Africa for Mufasa ; you come back with a sense of obligation to represent it – a place so powerful in many ways. You’re striving to make a world that functions for a story and creates an experience for an audience, while also honouring the truth that gives it depth.” MPC has extensive expertise when it comes to 3D worldbuilding. “You’re constructing complex worlds using libraries of plants, rocks and landscape elements to replicate the variety found in nature,” says Valdez. “There’s a detailing phase where the team applies a simulation approach – imagining how water flows through an environment, eroding and leaving traces of its history.” He elaborates: “They combine texture maps to achieve a sense of naturalism and complexity. While you’re doing all that, you still need to art direct, making it a whole series of steps and tools that combine to solve the classic filmmaking issue of capturing environments in all their fullness.” WE ARE NOT INVENTING entirely fantasy places BUT AIMING TO REPRESENT some truth ”
MANE ATTRACTION Photogrammetry scans of African savannah helped form realistic landscapes
One of the film’s most visually striking scenes introduces a snowy mountain terrain the characters must journey through. “There was something fun and novel about seeing lions in snow,” admits Valdez. “I don’t know if lions naturally go to that high altitude, but there are pretty significant mountain ranges not many people might know about. “For the snowy mountains, it was about being as far away as possible from the end scene, which is a beautiful, lush green world,” he adds. “I was concerned about whether our snow would actually resemble snow; it’s not an easy thing to convey in the computer. The main focus was on the crystalline aspect. I think the
team did a fantastic job of bringing the material definitions of ice, including ice with bubbles and veins of frost. There’s so much layering in those environments. Additionally, there’s a beautiful love song beneath the frozen falls, where sheeted water is frozen into icicles, creating beautiful moments of distortion and reflection. It was a highly complex scene.” Just shy of 1500 visual effects shots were created for the film in total, with one of the major production challenges being the simulation of the interaction between animal fur and water – a noteworthy innovation. Another tricky process was capturing the nuanced facial language of the animals.
20
DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
Powered by FlippingBook