American Cinematographer - August 2008 - (Page 56) The Emperor Strikes Back A wide shot of the crew shows the immense scale of a key set. also shot with empty frames, during helicopter shots, for example. In an aerial shot, a human being is the size of an ant, so you’re better off working with a clean palette.” Ultimately, those “empty frames” evolved into almost entirely CG shots for which Digital Domain re-created the land- scapes; the only surviving element from the live-action plates was the original camera move. The hordes of fighters in the opposing armies were also created by Digital Domain, whose artists did crowd simulations with Massive and built a complex “brain” to drive each warrior. Butler notes, “We’d used Massive before, but we hadn’t ever used it for engaged battle, when Massive agents make decisions on how to fight each other. You build an emotion tree, a library of behaviors that Massive agents choose from during a virtual battle. Each character can actually see his own image rendering of the battle and make his decision. It’s exponentially complex computation, and it was very innovative for us in this capacity.” After production wrapped and postproduction was well underway, the studio, Universal, requested that the Emperor be given a more graphic look. “I think they wanted to get a little more of the essence of horror,” observes Cohen. “The reconfiguration involved new motion-capture sessions with Matthew Yang King, an expert on Jet Li’s and Bruce Lee’s 56 http://www.k5600.com http://www.k5600.com
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