Special effects in the movie "Mad Max: Fury Road". Part 1/2

Original author: Ian Failes
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Everyone who has already watched the new “Mad Max” will agree that the film came out luscious: an overwhelming degree of insanity in the post-apocalyptic world, a complete lack of morality, a sense of hopelessness, powerful cars and colorful explosions. The action is in full swing and does not allow you to take your eyes off the screen for a second.

Contrary to modern trends, making films exclusively in pavilions with green walls, the creation of Mad Max: Fury Road also actively used real explosions, more than 150 cars and stuntmen. Of course, in the film there is a considerable amount of computer graphics, coupled with visual effects, but thanks to an extensive article on fxguide we can find out where reality ends and CGI begins.


The publication is divided into two parts for readability, as the source is huge. The original text contained large plot spoilers , so these parts of it are missing so that those who have not watched Mad Max yet, but want to do this, are not deprived of the pleasure of viewing.

When George Millermade the decision to return to the world of Mad Max with his new tape “Fury Road”, he began a long journey, which eventually ended with six-month filming in the deserts of Namibia. Production director John Seal used several digital cameras during his work to capture incredible stunts using more than 150 cars created specifically for shooting Mad Max by designer Colin Gibson. Cars were created, controlled and destroyed by the efforts of a team of specialists, under the guidance of special effects directors Andy Williams and Dan Oliver, as well as stunt coordinator Guy Norris.

But intensive filming in Namibia, and after in Sydney - only half of the work done to create post-apocalyptic landscapes of the "Road of Fury". Hundreds of artists, led by their leader, Andrew Jackson, have spent a lot of time giving more than two thousand scenes of visual effects, which made it possible to turn ordinary frames into the final version of the film, when watching which the viewer could feel like a participant in a crazy car chase. Even more subtle manipulations with the footage were carried out by colorist Eric Hipp, whose work gave the tape its own style and unique day and night lighting.

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Original frame from filming in Namibia.

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The final frame from the film, studio Iloura .

During the work, Jackson was assisted by visual effects specialists Alex Bicknell and Fiona Crawford, who, together with Iloura, took over the lion's share of the digital processing work. Together with Tom Wood, more than 1,500 frames of varying degrees of complexity were created, such as a toxic storm or complex 2D compositions. Post-visualization in the pavilion was produced by the film director Kennedy Miller prod's own company (now Kennedy Miller Mitchell approx.) . The development of the frames was done by Method Studios and BlackGinger together with The Third Floor previs .

In this publication, we will go over a number of basic visual effects that allowed us to create scenes imagined by the director. "Recently, I joked about the fact that the film was advertised as action using tricks, and, formally, the way it is," Jackson said. “The film has little computer graphics (CGI), but at the same time, we used VFX in more than two thousand scenes. A significant part of these effects is more like washing windows: minor corrections, removal of cables and tire marks after previous shootings and the like, but there are also enough scenes using a large number of visual effects. ”



Citadel Creation


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The final image of the Citadel from Iloura Studio.

On a rocky rock in the desert, known as the Citadel, the leader of his own cult, Immortal Joe speaks to his "citizens" and announces a gas raid led by his warlord Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron). As her Battle Wagon lands on the ground, Joe lets people get some fresh water from the pipes of the Citadel.

The Citadel was created using a combination of shots taken in Namibia and Sydney, as well as using visual effects created by Iloura. Artists photographed rocks in Australia, which were then processed using photogrammetry. “I can't stand people who draw rocks,” Jackson shared, explaining why photogrammetry was used. “I always strive to use real surfaces and shapes in my work as much as possible.”

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A model of the Citadel, created using computer graphics.

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Final result.

Jackson looked for similar cliffs in Jordan, including considering the option of using the famous Wadi Rum Mount as a prototype, but ultimately the right place was found in the west of the Blue Mountains near Sydney. “There are rocks two hundred feet high, it's just amazing,” says the director. “I took a helicopter, and we flew off to shoot rocks using high-resolution cameras. The frames of the Citadel have realistic lighting only because the right moment was chosen for shooting when it was cloudy. The helicopter stood idle for ten days until the weather we needed was established. For a week and a half there was not a single cloudy day, but we got excellent shots when the weather changed. ”

The use of photogrammetry in the process of creating the Jackson Citadel was inspired by the drone from Sensefly, which was used to photograph the area. “It was a small aircraft with a camera on board, measuring about a meter wide. You just select the area you want to photograph, throw it in the air and it takes off. In flight, the drone takes photos every two meters, and then returns to the place from where it was launched. Along with it comes the special PhotoScan software. ”

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Original footage from inside the Citadel.

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Final result.

“It was four years ago when no one heard about PhotoScan,” Jackson adds. “We started using it to create textured terrain models, and then, experimenting with software, we made what we wanted out of them. "Ilora did all the work to create the Citadel - they received the" raw materials "in the form of pictures, modified it and reassembled it into the necessary image."

In fact, Iloura spent a considerable amount of time re-processing the textures of the rocks forming the Citadel in its final form. “We had to put it together in pieces,” notes Wood. “George didn’t like the slightly dark color inherent in the Blue Mountains, so we had to re-color them and re-create the textures to keep the image realistic.” A similar technology was also applied to the Jenolan Cave south of Sydney, which later became the corridors and rooms of the Citadel.

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Computer model of the citadel.

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Final result.

In one scene, Joe speaks to his citizens from a rock platform on the balcony, a place where the pipes of the Citadel with fresh water also open using the levers of a ship's pump. “The balcony went through a lot of iterations,” says Wood. “There was an option shot at one of the filming stages at Fox Studios in Sydney, which was subsequently completely replaced. The only thing that was real in this scene was the four guys and the levers of the pumps. To create the scene, about one hundred and fifty extras were shot, which later turned into a thirty-thousandth crowd. This place did not have a real prototype and we had to control the lighting based on the image of the crowd. It was really difficult. ”

Water poured from the pipes was modeled using the Houdini software package for panoramic scenes, practically without using real water during the shooting. “They simulated rain using special machines aimed at a very small area of ​​the cliff,” describes the Wood process. “Water fog and shots where water reaches the ground were obtained during actual filming. Higher - visual effects (VFX). ”

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A shot from the filming of one of the scenes at the entrance to the Citadel.

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The end result after processing by Ilora.

Inside a toxic storm


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Frame from the film.

A storm is a combination of real shots made in Namibia and shots created using computer graphics, as well as modeling the behavior of liquids, dust and the use of computer models. Plus, VFX elements were additionally used to bind everything together and ensure the presence of dust in the foreground.

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A shot from filming in the desert.

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Final result.

Jackson notes that a similar result could be achieved using only computer graphics, but from his point of view it was important that real, moving cars be used to create such a scene. In his opinion, this made it possible to preserve the realism of camera movements. “You shoot a“ layout ”with a car that can gradually change,” he says, “But the position of the objects and the camera remain unchanged. Ultimately, in appearance, you may have nothing left of the layout at all, but the final scene will inherit part of what was originally shot. I think that it’s worth shooting like that precisely because of such inheritance. ”

The filmmakers figured out where the tornadoes will be in the final version, and according to these data, they set the paths of cars. Based on this, cars moved accordingly. “Then, during filming in the desert, we did a lot of the work necessary to create post-visual effects. This is the definition of size, position in space, scale and direction of movement of the entire scene, ”says Jackson. “Then it was obvious that tornadoes would be modeled from fluid movement. Tom Wood worked a lot on various concepts, studied tornadoes and proposed a variant of a fire tornado in dust clouds. This idea was just fantastic. ”

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Computer model.

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Final result.

Wood, together with the artists, developed several concept scenes that show thunderstorms and tornadoes, which Miller later claimed. “What we did at first was, in fact, rejected and cut out,” says Wood, “and then we began to work on combining dust storm and lighting. It was difficult because all the materials were shot in bright sunlight on a completely flat desert area. The cars raised dust and gave glare, which we needed to eliminate. ”

Crash scenes inside the storm used cars created by Iloura using computer graphics. To do this, using photogrammetry, models were created that were then processed in PhotoScan. “You get a great model,” notes Wood. “But its quality is very dependent on the presence of glare and reflections in the pictures. If they are, then in the final image you will get bumps and dents. "

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An animated version of the machine taking off the ground.

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Final result.

The most obvious use of computer graphics is seen in the scene when a tornado takes a car and a group of fighters into the air, after a collision with the "Battle Truck". The car breaks into pieces and its parts rush towards other cars, past the camera. “In preparing the special effects, Miller demanded that we use equipment that captures the direction of real air flows. This was done so that in the future, when bringing this scene, to follow the real physics and dynamics of the air. " As a reference, the director actively used accident records from various sources that show the whole process in motion. Wood also used motorcycle accident recordings. “If you lose support at high speed, then you also lose control of your arms and legs - they move, basically,

Iloura Studio applied the data obtained on the behavior of objects in the real world when creating digital doubles of fighters using Endorphin software. When Miller saw the result of their work, he realized that such an approach was completely unsuitable. “The reason is,” says Wood, “that there is a real difference between what happens in real life and what happens in the movies. We are all accustomed to what stuntmen do when filming crashes and other similar scenes: they will jump with a bounce on the ground, turn their arms in flight and move their legs as if they were riding a bicycle - this is an exaggerated idea of ​​people's behavior, a movie cliche. ” Ultimately, Iloura returned to a more complex, “cinematic” model of human behavior in free flight.

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Original frame from the shoot.

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Final result.

Meanwhile, Iloura again used Houdini to create tornadoes and dust clouds. “They had a lot of practical information about tornadoes,” Wood explains. “All tornadoes had a random shape - George wanted to make sure that they do not look the same, have a unique look. We created about seven layers of dust at ground level, similar to how in the Arctic regions the wind raises snow crumbs, right up to the middle of the car. Above this level, huge uplifting dust vortices were created in which cars disappeared and appeared on the other side. I think a similar series of shots in the “hide-show” style (the difficult to translate phrase “conceal and reveal” approx.) Is great for chasing when you only catch a glimpse of cars. ”

Research and Development Team Iloura(Research and Development team approx.) Wrote a special tool called “The Meat Grinder”. The “basis” of the tornado was a volume shader, “wrapped” in a huge number of particles created using Houdini. After that, this whole thing was passed through the "Meat Grinder", which made it possible to obtain completely random forms of dust clouds. Thanks to this, the filmmakers were able to create an unpredictable light presentation inside the storm.

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The original frame.

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Final result.

To give the toxic storm its final look, Jackson decided to add dust swirls to the camera at the moments when the action takes place near the cars. “I launched a huge amount of dust towards the camera,” he says. “We went to the Old Doctor D studio in Sydney. There I got enough space to provide a black background - we shot with very bright backlight in the foreground. “The dust was so brightly lit that I was able to put fans in the background without any problems - they simply could not be seen.”

Part 2.

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