FILM
TOP TWO: Method utilized terrain replacement for many shots like the one seen here. BOTTOM TWO: Once combined, the stereo camera rig plates created an ultra-contrast look appropriate for the moon, which Method then enhanced with terrain models that replaced the too-terrestrial grounds seen in the plates.
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in the desert heat! Director of photography Hoyte Van Hoytema had an interesting idea to make the photography of the desert look more like the moonscape. He used a stereo rig when shooting many of the wide shots, employing an Arri 435 film camera along with a modified Arri Alexa recording in infrared. When those were married together we got a very striking and stark look that strongly evoked the photography we all know from the NASA Apollo missions.” Ad Astra isn’t the first film to utilize infrared shooting to aid in realizing an otherworldly countenance. That honor goes to 1980’s Galaxina, shot by cinematographer Dean Cundey, which filmed location exteriors on Kodak’s since-discontinued Ekachrome infrared stock. Providing enhanced contrast and delivering bold highlights, Van Hoytema’s digital infrared approach delivered a controllable vision of the extreme conditions on our airless satellite. “Some shots only utilized the infrared camera,” continues Smith. “For those, we had to colorize the footage so it would all cut together, rotoscoping every different material on the rovers, from the metal foil to their red hubcaps.” The lunar sequence prep commenced with a study of NASA’s Apollo archive photos on Flickr. “We spent a long time trying to analyze what makes the moon look so strange and alien,” Smith recalls. “The texture and complexity of the surface is something we studied closely. No air means no wind, which means no erosion. Features on the surface are formed by eons of meteor impacts. To mimic this look we created a base model with the main features of our terrain, then developed a procedural lookdev system to create craters of varying sizes [in] high-resolution detail and a random scattering of rocks. We used Substance Designer and Houdini to drive displacement in our Katana/Renderman lookdev, lighting and rendering pipeline. Part way through the show, the client added a few wider aerial shots to help make the action clearer. Those full CG shots were a great opportunity to show off our moon surface environment. We animated rovers, astronauts, and also simulated dust trails and tire tracks, to help tell the story of the pursuit.” During the chase, a support rover becomes disabled from gunfire, while another explodes after taking a hit to its engine. “That was a full CG shot involving rigid-body simulation for the vehicle, plus simulations for all the dust and debris kicked up on the surface and the simulated engine explosion,” Smith reveals. “Later in the sequence, missiles are called in to put an end to the remaining pirate rovers. We created a full CG shot showing two missiles flying overhead, leading to a massive explosion. One of our FX artists had found reference footage simulating a meteor impact in a vacuum. The parabolic shape and behavior of debris were very strange compared to what we’re used to seeing on Earth. We showed it to our client, Visual Effects Producer Allen Maris, and he loved it, so we had a really good target to work towards.” McBride’s rover takes a hit from the pirates, sending it spinning out of control. “The lower lunar gravity would make traction more difficult,” explains Smith, “so the rover goes into a spin before plunging into a giant crater. We got to be really creative with the layout here, placing the rover so the crater wall was behind it in the
“The [pirate] rover goes into a spin before plunging into a giant crater. We got to be really creative with the layout here, placing the rover so the crater wall was behind it in the background, which let us play the drop moment visually as it falls inside, while seeing the pirates stop along the lip of the crater.” —Jedediah Smith, Visual Effects Producer background, which let us play the drop moment visually as it falls inside, while seeing the pirates stop along the lip of the crater.” The trek out of the crater reveals the terminator line separating day and night on the moon. “Once they are in shadow, we play things realistically dark, only seeing the console lights, the play of headlights on the ground and the starfield overhead,” says Smith. “Then they reach the second spaceport that houses the Cephius, the ship that will take them on the next leg of their journey. We took the plate shot on location at a military base and added a large spaceport with solar panels and supporting structures.” The other huge challenge in the sequence involved the visors of the spacesuited combatants. “These helmets were very much in the style of NASA’s Apollo program, with visors like mirror balls that reflect everything,” states Smith. “While they were shooting closer views on stage, tinted visors were used that would color the reflections while making the faces within look more gold and green. But when they realized this impacted being able to see the talent clearly, a switch was made to clear visors, so those shots required us to treat everything to get that gold-mirror look.” That proved to be a multi-step process. “First, we had to treat what was seen inside the visor,” Smith remarks, “making the faces darker and greener, and then add reflections for the lunar terrain environment. In some instances, that meant animating other characters who were in proximity. This required a massive rotoscoping effort to separate all the layers, then combine everything in a photorealistic way. All of the stage shots were shot on black with a single distant key light to try to mimic the lighting conditions on the moon. While it did help with realism in the end, it was a huge amount of effort in roto and compositing to get the edges looking nice over the bright background moon surface that we added to these shots.” After leaving the moon, Pitt’s ship encounters the Vesta, an abandoned vessel. “They suit up and spacewalk over to it, which production shot on stage against black, so again there was a huge amount of rotoscope,” reports Smith. “The client was very interested in realism, and the plates they shot reflected that, with a really harsh strong single key light. We ended up cheating a bit, adding some fill to keep it from being totally black. The comping challenge was addressing the edge treatment with finesse, plus incorporating our CG Vesta – which was blended with production’s practical hatch element – as a reflection on the visors.” The ending sequence again involved MR. X, working in
TOP TWO: Method Studios augmented the location shoot, extracting distance-attenuating atmosphere from the plates and adding set extensions based on imagery from the Apollo moon missions, plus a variety of animation enhancements ranging from dust to vehicle explosions. BOTTOM TWO: Some of the vehicular mayhem was accomplished practically on location, then augmented with CG lunar terrain and animated weapons fire.
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