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FEATURE TROY: FALL OF A CITY
VFX
OTHER VFX INCLUDED LOTS OF BLOOD, BOTH POOLING ON THE GROUND AND SQUIRTING BLOOD FROM WOUNDS AND SWORDS
Definition: Please explain the extent of the VFX; set extensions, crowd extensions etc. Also any other VFX that we haven’t seen yet. Nick Bennett: The minute-and-a- half battle sequence was the main sequence we worked on. This alone had 35 shots. We also completed crowd repetition with CG and real characters. Other VFX included lots of blood, both pooling on the ground and squirting blood fromwounds and coming off flailing swords. To carry on the gory theme, we did finger removal as well. There was also removal of modern tyre tracks and Converse All-Star footprints from sand. We also extended stunt swords and made them look less wooden. Also, as in the Bible, we managed to turn water into wine! Def: What were the main challenges for this job and how did you manage to overcome these? NB: We managed to deliver 225 shots at 4K to a tight deadline and high standard. As for the battle scenes, there were lots of handheld cameras which are tricky to track. Comping through dust was also a challenge and we needed to hand track many of the shots. Unfortunately, we didn’t have dedicated crowd plates for many shots so had to recycle bits from other takes. Also for a few shots we used Golaem Crowd, a crowd simulation piece of software, to create armies. Working at 4K was also a challenge but we had a good supervisor, AdamMcInnes, who expected a very high level of detail. For the blood content we needed to use elements that weren’t shot specifically for the show. In the end we bought a blood library and also created CG pools of blood for a few shots. What was also challenging was getting last minute shots given to us towards the end of production that needed to be finished ‘yesterday’. But we had an amazing team around us to come to the rescue.
IMAGES On the set of Troy: Fall of a City dealing with high contrast conditions and keeping dark scenes as they would have been with minimal lighting. VFX included set extensions to removing all signs of film-crew activity.
DEFINITION APRIL 2018
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