This was another ML project, aimed at generating building footprints for my ‘Greenhouse’ tool. I eventually ended up writing a differentiable SVG renderer in an attempt to make the training fast enough to run on my home machine. Another interesting exercise, which turned into more of an academic challenge than something robust enough to actually do anything useful (an ongoing theme with ML tools).
For the most extreme movements, we had to re-create the road surface entirely. To save time, this was done in entirely in nuke – including the wet road and puddle reflections. The projected environment was simply mirrored, blurred, and revealed with a mask.
I was bought on to the project only a few weeks before principle photography, with many of the virtual environments not yet optimised for shooting. My role was to work with the external vendors, my team at Bunker Digital, and the stage operations team from PXO to make sure each environment was as polished as it could be for the volume, given the available time and technology.
I created an animated flowmap shader and the sky for the Roku’s Mountain sequence. Seemed like a small thing at the time, but the same shader has been used on virtually every show since. Augmentation by BigHugFX, but it looks like some of these backgrounds made the final frame.
FX development for the Avatar Kuruk sequence – heavily treated in post, but looks to have made it through to final.
I created this showcase environment to demonstrate the use of the tool. This was originally intended only for internal use, but ended up being the first part of our talk at Siggraph.
Unity Scene containing a number of assets shown elsewhere on this page. This is a legacy render, before the switch to HDRP (which greatly increased the quality of translucent leaves).
Photogrammetry de-lighting experiment. Uses a partially emissive shader to create realistic baked indirect lighting from the photogrammetry solve itself. I haven’t yet found a use for it, but the results were promising.
There is actually a fairly detailed matte painting in the background here, but (as is often the case) the DI grade makes it virtually impossible to see anything.
Noah’s Ark concept – pitch for Rushes
This was the one matte painting I did for ‘American Sniper’ at the very end of the show, along with Laurie Kindiak. The base render was the same city model created for the aerial shots, and the MRAP and wall were rendered by the lighting department.
Establishing shot for Dr. Fludd’s city
Concept for destruction of the Elizabeth Tower (‘Big Ben’)
Forest track illustration, also for the title sequence
Texturing for the ‘Spider Vision’ in the spider bite sequence.
Alternate aerial view, often used as an alternate background in marketing posters
Final concept painting for the iconic ‘skyline’ matte painting