American Cinematographer - August 2008 - (Page 54) The Emperor Strikes Back Right: Giant Yetis conjured up by Zijuan beat back the Emperor’s thugs. The mythical creatures were animated and rendered by artists at Rhythm & Hues. Below, left and right: Mountain sets were built outdoors on the backlot at Cité du Cinéma Studios in Montreal and covered with “snow” created with materials ranging from Epsom-salt to soap and shredded paper. Sorceress, who conjures up Yetis to help combat thugs sent by the Emperor. The Yetis are entirely CG and quite large, so Duggan worked with the visual-effects teams to estimate their movement through the frames. Burly stuntmen dressed in green suits and 9' poles with prosthetic heads on top were used to give Duggan and his operators a sense of the Yetis’ positions during the fight. The creatures were animated and rendered by Rhythm & Hues. “Hair is something we have a lot of experience with,” says Spears. “Our animation-and-fur pipeline goes back to Cats & Dogs [AC Aug. ’01] and was really refined on Night at the Museum. The trick with the Yetis being so furry is how the creatures move. We first animated them in gray shades, and it was like looking at a shaved cat. Then, we went into technical animation and simulated the fur based on the creature’s motion and the effects of wind, et cetera. Sometimes we had to go back and readjust after rendering because the creature turned out 54 August 2008
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