1. The Last - deserted and decaying Piccadilly Circus, London.
2. The Last - Bridge Jump
3. The Last - deserted suburban street
4. The Bet - gunshot
5. Tiny Town - nightclub explosion
2. The Last - Bridge Jump
3. The Last - deserted suburban street
4. The Bet - gunshot
5. Tiny Town - nightclub explosion
Software used: Nuke, After Effects, Mocha Pro, Photoshop, 3ds max, Vue - and edited in Premiere Pro.
All shots from The Last were stabilised with After Effects' Warp Stabiliser.
1. The Last - Deserted and decaying Piccadilly Circus, London.
All lights and (reflections of) removed. Dirt and cracks were strategically placed, and natural light spill into the now darkened station entrance was added. The railings were dirtied down - and eventually, the middle rail was removed. The station entrance and Eros statue and steps were camera projected onto cards and geometry in Nuke .
Specular light was added to the edges of the Eros statue itself, and the entire statue projection was slightly re-aligned.
All other elements are textured cards, tweaked in either Photoshop or After Effects, with final placement and colour grading in Nuke . All building cards were placed scaled and warped accordingly in Nuke. The deactivated billboards are a textured 3ds max render.
Ivy and crack elements sampled from on set or online photos - or, in the case of the weed clumps, Vue renders - with a luma key and roto work applied, then distorted or warped on cards in Nuke. The shadows were copies of the cards flipped through 90 degrees and colour corrected.
Additional ivy detail was added, with some careful colour correction to give the impression of translucency of the leaves.
The ground plane was an overhead Google Earth shot, enhanced in Photoshop and Nuke.
The sky was a photo projected onto a sphere.
Additional colour correction to the sky element was added for a more realistic look (matching it to the shots either side of it in the final film) was also applied.
The sky was a photo projected onto a sphere.
Additional colour correction to the sky element was added for a more realistic look (matching it to the shots either side of it in the final film) was also applied.
A shot of a deer grazing was found online, stabilised (as it was a hand-held shot) and then rotoed and colour corrected.
The camera was animated prior to rendering - then a film grain, a lens flare and an overall colour grade was applied for the final render.
Additional photo references were taken from Google Earth to complete the shot.
2. The Last - Bridge Jump
Original footage was shot on location at Holborn viaduct, London.
The greenscreen footage was shot in Ealing Park on the same day, with measurements taken to match camera angle and distance. The greenscreen footage was keyed, with careful roto and paint work done to preserve the hair, which was initially outside the greenscreen boundary. This was then scaled and tracked to the main footage.
The greenscreen footage was shot in Ealing Park on the same day, with measurements taken to match camera angle and distance. The greenscreen footage was keyed, with careful roto and paint work done to preserve the hair, which was initially outside the greenscreen boundary. This was then scaled and tracked to the main footage.
A very rough digital double of the actress was created for when she passes the edge of the greenscreen covered plinth, with a bridge matte created so that the double could be seen through the latticework of the bridge.
Contact shadows at her feet were added, and animated in time with the movement of her dress and her final step off the bridge.
Edge blur and motion blur was also added to enhance the final effect, before a final overall grade was applied to the shot.
Edge blur and motion blur was also added to enhance the final effect, before a final overall grade was applied to the shot.
3. The Last - deserted suburban street
A passing car was removed in Mocha Pro and all lights were painted out. Where the actress' hair passes in front of a removed traffic light, some careful paint and roto work was applied to keep her hair intact without any haloing light effects on her hair.
Road cracks and weeds (complete with shadows) were tracked to the shot and colour corrected.
4. The Bet - gunshot
The gun was rotoed in segments: upper slide, lower pistol and end of the barrel.
The upper slide was animated, an inner barrel added (and lined up with the rotoed barrel end), the missing background created by this hole was replaced, and ejecting shell was animated - and motion blur was added to the shell and the upper slide. A muzzle flash was added along with interactive lighting on the gun, hand and actor's face. Film grain was matched on the CG elements.
The upper slide was animated, an inner barrel added (and lined up with the rotoed barrel end), the missing background created by this hole was replaced, and ejecting shell was animated - and motion blur was added to the shell and the upper slide. A muzzle flash was added along with interactive lighting on the gun, hand and actor's face. Film grain was matched on the CG elements.
5. Tiny Town - nightclub explosion
A new nightclub sign was added (and animated to flicker out in time with the explosion), complete with lit lettering and shadows, and tracked to the shot, along with some building damage.
Various elements were rotoed (foreground sign, side light and lamppost) so that they could either occlude the elements behind them, or react to interactive lighting which was added an animated in.
Various elements were rotoed (foreground sign, side light and lamppost) so that they could either occlude the elements behind them, or react to interactive lighting which was added an animated in.
The explosion is a series of individual, separately filmed elements, all colour graded and enhanced with glow effects. The debris was a particle simulation with separately rotoed elements from the original shot attached to it.
A lens flare and camera shake was added along with motion blur. Some additional sparks and smoke elements were also added, along with some heat distortion effects.
