Thanks to Comicus, we have the following excerpts from a recent interview they did with one of X-Men: First Class' VFX teams, "Rhythm & Hues". Below, they talk in detail about the work they did on the highly anticipated prequel/reboot, but you can read a lot more by clicking on the link below to check out the interview in its entirety.
What has the Rhythm & Hues been handling in particular for this movie?
Rhythm & Hues was tasked with the design and realization of the character Emma Frost in her diamond form, Angel's wings and the Mystique transformations. We also created digital set extensions for the Lincoln Memorial, the X-Jet in it's Hanger and the MIB headquarters.
I guess that several departments of the Rhythm & Hues and dozens of artists have been working on a movie like this. How are your departments divided for such a huge project? Which is the complete process which leads to the actualization of a sequence with visual effects?
Because Rhythm and Hues specializes in working on large studio films, we have a pipeline and workflow that favors specialists and teams broken up into specific disciplines.
For example, on a shot of Emma Frost in her diamond form we have the following procedures: The asset development group creates the "model" of Emma, the surface is given shading properties of diamond and controls are created that allow people to manipulate and move the character around. Once this is setup, we can publish the character into as many scenes as needed. The next step is for the matchmove artists to frame by frame match the performance of actress' body movement using the Emma asset. This is then sent down the pipeline to the Lighting artists who render the character and create the look of the diamond in the scene. Those images are then passed on to the compositors who integrate the Diamond Emma into the scene after erasing the actress. Many hands touch the shot and it is a truly collaborative process as everyone bring something special to the work and elevates the quality beyond what a single person could do.
How did you relate to the movie director, Matthew Vaughn, and to the producers?
Usually on visual effects shows this large, the studio hires a seasoned overall visual effects supervisor to oversee all of the vendors working on the show. On this show we had the great pleasure of working with John Dykstra who is a legend in the film industry having won Oscars for his supervision of the effects for Star Wars and the Spider Man films. During post we worked directly with John who in turn interfaced with the Director and Producers. Because of the number of companies working on the film it was important to filter everything through John who would then give us clear direction based on his reviews with the Director/Producers.
Starring James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr, Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy, Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme, Lucas Till as Alex Summers/Havok, Caleb Landry Jones as Sean Cassidy/Banshee, Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw, Oliver Platt as the Man in Black, Jason Flemyng as Azazel and Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggart,
X-Men: First Class is set to be released in the UK on June 1st and in the US on June 2nd.