

#Play online snow bros 2 with new elves full
Whenever an elf had to appear at full screen height, extra detail was added in the specific areas required. The highest resolution was used to a maximum of 1/3 screen height, then two resolutions for the midground and background elves. Three different LOD (level of detail) models were made. MPC started with a cyberscan of 10 of the little people. Inevitably, some of these digital characters ended up being almost full screen height in a handful of shots. They were then reduced and composited in the scenes.ĭue to many dynamic camera moves, the sequences often required the creation of CG elves to fill in the backgrounds. To increase diversity, the team also shot 75 full sized extras on blue screen stages. Although there were 32 in the troupe, they were multiplied on screen using motion control repeat passes (with costume changes for variety). The production was lucky enough to come across a Russian circus troupe called the Lilliputians, all of whom were little people with a great range of circus skills, an ideal combination to portray the elves. Once the city and its environment had been completed, the team needed to populate it with hundreds of diminutive elves. This simplified and standardized many of the render passes, allowing the lighter and compositor to have a lot of control on the final image without having to resort to a re-render in RenderMan when lighting changes were needed. To address the tricky lighting issue, MPC used a custom lighting interface for Maya that essentially replaced all the lights, slim and MTOR. The key challenge was then to make sure that all the textures and shaders worked at night, at sunrise and in cloudy and sunlit daytime lighting environments. The highly complex building turned out to a bigger and more complicated piece than the whole of the rest of the 7,000-building city! The huge workshop was modeled, and textures were created using the on-set photography and a lot of reference shot in London. These were textured using photographs taken from the same set to create 18 houses and five large town hall/church buildings, which were then placed into the approved street layout.

Once the designs had been approved, modelers used Maya to build a toolkit of houses based on a LIDAR scan of the practical set. The general look of the city was first developed by Production Designer Allan Cameron, and then further augmented by MPC's Art Director Nelson Lowry. That effort was undertaken by Visual Effects Supervisor Uel Hormann and his team at MPC, including VFX Producers Merrin Jensen and Sally Spencer, CG Supervisor Matt Hicks and 2D Supervisor Mark Curtis. The North Pole was a huge CG build, and getting the look that the director wanted, both day and night, took an enormous amount of time and effort." The main challenges turned out to be the creation of the North Pole, its population of elves and the sleigh rides. "This was particularly relevant with the North Pole, which had to appear like a real place that existed somewhere in the Arctic, yet was warm, inviting and magical. "David wanted the look of the effects to fit into the overall design of the film, which was fantastical yet set in the real world," Bicknell recounts. When CGI Goes NorthĪs with most Santa Claus movies, the visual approach required a delicate balance between realism and fantasy. (236 shots), Cinesite (150), Peerless Camera (110), Rainmaker UK (45), Richard Bain (50), Base Black (35) and Machine (25). Seven vendors contributed to the project: The Moving Picture Co. After the first assembly, the shot count swelled to 1,200 before settling down to around 650 by the final cut.
#Play online snow bros 2 with new elves movie
The movie was originally budgeted at around 450 vfx shots. enlisted Visual Effects Supervisor Alex Bicknell and VFX Producer Arthur Windus. To coordinate the visual effects effort, Warner Bros. When Fred is obliged to enter the family business, his actions end up putting Christmas in jeopardy. This comedy tells the story of Fred Claus, a bitter man who happens to be the exact opposite of his brother Santa. This is definitely the case with Fred Claus, a David Dobkin movie opening Nov. When holiday season comes, Santa Claus is always a crowd pleaser in multiplexes, and every time, visual effects seem to reach new levels of realism when bringing his enchanted world to life. MPC was charged with completing the North Pole and its environment, and populating it with hundreds of CG elves. Seven vendors contributed around 650 vfx shots to the final cut of Fred Claus.
