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LONDON (Oct. 30, 2002) -- Cinesite (Europe) Ltd has completed nearly all of the digital effects for the new James Bond film Die Another Day, produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, directed by Lee Tamahori and photographed by David Tattersall, BSC. In total, Cinesite's work, which involved extensive 3-D animation, comprised around 480 shots, the largest number of digital effects shots ever in a James Bond film to date. To complete the work, Cinesite increased its workforce by around forty percent, bringing on board some major international talent. This was one of Cinesite's largest and most challenging projects and involved extensive research, software development and pre-visualization. Visual effects supervisor for the production was Mara Bryan and the visual effects producer was Alex Bicknell.
Some of Cinesite's main sequences include: The Icarus Sequence In a sequence set in space, Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) demonstrates the awesome power of his "Icarus" satellite, which is able to control the weather and also to unleash destructive forces on the Earth. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
An 18-foot model of the rear two thirds of the Icarus was filmed using motion control at Pinewood Studios, supervised by Cinesite Motion Control Supervisor Mike Talarico (Mission to Mars, Inspector Gadget, Armageddon, etc.) with Motion Control Cameras' Ian Menzies as motion control operator. Cinesite's Matthias Larserud and Jon Neill modeled and animated the front third of the satellite, which was tracked into the live-action plates. As the Icarus is activated, its sails unfurl beginning as metallic-looking, crumpled Mylar sheets and unraveling slowly into half mirrored solid reflectors.
Earth in the background of these shots was created from a combination of NASA stock photographs, combined with CG star fields and clouds. The Ice Wave In Cinesite's most challenging sequence, James Bond is hanging from an ice cliff that collapses into the water. The impact of the cliff on the water produces a massive tidal wave. Bond emerges from the wave, surfing through the icebergs to the safety of an ice cliff at the opposite side of the bay. The biggest challenge for Cinesite's team was recreating the scale and natural phenomenon of the sequence, which involved a mass expanse of CG water, foam, ripples and spray within 250-feet-high computer generated cliffs in a one kilometer virtual environment, approximately 350 icebergs and an entirely computer generated environment which needed to be photo realistic in bright mid-day sunlight.
Dottie Starling (Tomb Raider, Spiderman, Hollow Man) was sequence supervisor for the 20 shot ice and water sequence. "We discovered that water in Iceland is very blue, which when recreated looked strangely unrealistic," says Starling. "While we wanted to make the sequence as realistic as possible, it was necessary for us to tone down the natural sea colors to make the sequence more believable!"
Water software originally developed by Cinesite Hollywood-based Jerry Tessendorf was adapted to the sequence's specific needs by software developers Andy Whittock and Peter Yesley. Additional research and development was required to add shaders that covered ripples, smaller wave movements, the texture of the water surface, foam, splash and deformations for the larger waves. Additional particle animation software was also used to create spray in the final sequence.
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| Maya plug-ins were written to sit the icebergs in the water and ensure the naturalism of their weight and movement |
In many shots there are between 300 and 350 icebergs and a beta version of Renderman's new raytracer (Renderman 11) was adapted to work for the team's specific requirements. Maya plug-ins were written to sit the icebergs in the water and ensure the naturalism of their weight and movement. Cinesite's compositing team was responsible for matching the live-action Pierce Brosnan with the CG environments and live-action splash elements. David Rey supervised the 2-D aspects of the wave sequence and oversaw the integration of the CG Bond who appears in eleven shots.
The "Vanquish" Q (John Cleese) has developed a stunning new gadget for Bond's Aston Martin in Die Another Day-the power of invisibility. This invisible car effect, known as Vanquish, was worked on in 3-D by Mathias Larserud and Phil Borg, and in 2-D by Gavin Digby.
We first see the car in Q's MI6 laboratory, appearing in front of a surprised Bond in an apparently vacant space. Tamahori wanted a very specific look for the car as it appears and disappears. A damaged digital camera of Tamahori's produced an aberration of random shuffling image squares, rather like picture searching through digital footage. Cinesite was supplied with a CAD model for the Aston Martin, which was rebuilt and simplified. A custom written shader projected the distorted background image onto the car model and additional distortion effects were then added in 2-D. In other shots where the car is moving, Cinesite subtly distorted the clean background plates and added tire tracks in 2-D to show the movement of the vehicle. While the invisible Aston Martin was intended to be invisible when stationary, when moving there needed to be a suggestion of presence. Die Another Day begins releasing in the United States and United Kingdom on November 22, 2002.
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