When you are working at this level
of computer generated bearer
enhancement involvement
there is a lot of planning that goes on
and mainly that because of the technical
requirements of doing what we do.
Let get Eva in there just to frame it up properly.
Keep going.
My relationship with the director is
to look at what is happening
in front of the camera,
and make sure that I can make that work with the effects
that we add to the animation that we add later on.
So that means, when the actors have to hit a certain mark
that they have to have a certain eye line
I have to be there very very closely
with the director to make sure that happens.
So it’s good for three plates.
Get these three plates.
We got like that coverage.
If we got that coverage…
When I begin my day I have these story board
pages which show every scene.
And the elements of the scene are all listed
like this one is live action set,
plus Computer Graphics,
plus camera lock off,
plus pink composite
all in this one scene,
which will shot later today,
so every little bit.
And this thing have been drawn
and drawn and drawn
and redrawn over and over and over.
Let’s go to the board.
Where is the board? Where at?
Guys, I need the entrance cleared up again.
Where is our board gone?
I think that we are missing direct connections.
I mean we never have the complete direct connection,
we don’t have to over shoulder them seeing shadow.
Exactly.
It’s not a matter of remembering how
the cigarette was in the previous take
and its all these elements like,
for instance, we were
shooting scenes, called flakes,
which is the background with nobody in it.
And then we go and add the people
which we shoot in front of a green screen.
So that’s the way we can make them glow.
Do special effect and all that sort of thing
and then install them back in the background.
They have to exactly relate.
We have to measure the angle of the camera,
get the exact same lens, exact same camera position,
hopefully exact same move,
which means we use this electronically control camera.
When was the last time you saw him go down on his knees?
Yeah, he is going to go down this time.
You enjoy this process?
This I don’t mind at all.
It’s like a permanent exam though.
So, I would say, you are getting hit.
This is good. This is concrete.
This is like brain,
and brains have properties
and I can understand all that noble thing is,
I don’t know, if you photograph the green screen
but when you are all alone
in front of the green screen,
imagining everything happening.
That’s really though.
There are bits of sets,
there is a lot of smoke, a lot of dry ice
and everything is computer generated.
So you don’t really know what it’s like.
So it’s up to the boys in the back room
who is either going to make or break.
You are really in their hands, so you have to trust them.
This is Kai, one of our heroes
and his essence or his aura
is being sucked out of body
by the bad guy - by his shadow.
So David is working on the animation of the aura
itself to make sure it looks more nebulous,
more gaseous, more dangerous.
What Clod has done is add lighting effect,
so as the aura is going around it is lighting,
relighting, hitting the whole set with highlights.
And you can see what he is doing:
he is affecting different areas
and he is also affecting the actor
and the intensity of the aura going behind the actor -
he is backlighting the actor.
So the things like that really sell the effect in the scene
as opposed to something just thrown on top of the scene.
This is the other end of the spectrum where
this is all completely computer generated.
And this shot is conceived -
it’s born, lives and dies in this room.
This is moth.
This is static model;
we also have a computer generated model of the same thing.
People fly around inside the Lexx in the moth
because in the dark zone it’s great,
organic insect kind of World.
They live, and work,
and travel in bugs.
The reference for a lot of the vessels
has been more insect to it.
Being from the south there
is a plenty of bugs down there.
I brought this up so I have a good reference
for textures, materials and coloration.
This pattern is based on
a southern female black widow.
This is equivalent to a destroyer,
this is something I’ve been waiting
most of my life to work on,
and there is no kidding about that.
I think the overall caliber of
all the animators involved,
the fact that we were given
a creative license
and that the product itself is so novel.