Pixel Magic Red Planet Feaure

For Warner Bros. space thriller, Pixel Magic was charged with the task of recreating several miniatures in CG to perfect detail. The futuristic space vehicle Mars-1, the completed International Space Station, and a new Space Shuttle were among the elements assigned to model, texture, and animate.

Under the direction of Pixel Magic's Visual FX Supervisor Ray McIntyre Jr., Production Supervisor George Macri, and CG Supervisor Micheal Hardison, an aggressive research & development effort soon began. As most of the shots were in deep space, and meant to establish the orbital surroundings of the Mars-1, it soon became apparent that there weren't enough high resolution earth & mars images to create a large enough image.

Several different views were stitched together to create a large image which was mapped on a globe. Composite artists Patrick Murphy and Bruce Harris used several earth elements including a cloud pass, specular pass, pollution layers (to match the uninhabitable earth for the movie), color passes, atmospheric passes, and several other layers. The resulting composites blended beautifully as a backdrop for the film's opening sequence. The Mars planet was created in much the same way, however, there wasn't a need for as many atmospheric layers. The film's effects supervisor, Jeffrey A. Okun, wanted to make use of the planets terminator line in shots for an overall more cinematic look in separating the day from night.

The nature of the shots of the main spacecraft, Mars-1, demanded a high level of photorealism and detail. Pixel Magic's 3D department met the challenge. Their rendition of the Mars-1 comprised over 1.5 million polygons with intricate detail from stains on the command pod, to the amount of crumple in the gold foil. Several different elements such as depth of field mattes, diffuse passes, specular passes, and various texture passes were created by Hardison and his crew in order to give the compositors complete control of the overall look.

The hard work in creating the fine detail for the Mars-1 was most evident in one shot in particular where the camera, only 3 to 4 feet above the hull, pulls back for almost the length of the ship with the sun reflecting off the surface. In creating the sun and anamorphic lens flares, digital artist Todd Vaziri employed a variety of tools. Vaziri created a 'base flare set,' a general set of lens reflections that were then altered from shot to shot. Consisting of personalized presets of Puffin Design's Knoll Light Factory "PolySpread", 'Stripe,' 'Ellipse,' 'Chroma Hoop,' and others. The base flare set was altered in intensity, color, and scale for each shot.

"Pixel Magic's computer generated models looked so much better than the real ones that we just threw the real ones away for the most part," Okun said of Pixel Magic's work. "The flexibility of lighting, animation, camera moves and textures and the speed with which they were able to put these shots together meant that the film could get exactly what it needed, even when it changed late in the game."

In addition to 3D modeling and animation, Pixel Magic also scanned and composited four film elements along with designing the films main title sequence.

Main Title Artist
REID PAUL

Scanning & Recording
KEVIN FISHER

Render Wrangler
GABE HAGGARD

Digital Imaging Supervisor
VICTOR DIMICHINA

Lineup / Editorial
FRANKLIN COFOD

Systems Administrator
ROY ERICKSON