Priest’s extraordinary VFX artist, Nathan Anderson, read a super interesting interview with Jonathan Weber, one of the VFX supervisors on the film Black Panther. Aside from the highly detailed rotomation work, Nathan fawns over the holographic design work (mostly seen in this impressive car scene).
“It’s impressive that some of the establishing shots were full CG. No plates were used. The benefit of being full CG means much more control over the look the shot as well as the camera movement. One is not constrained to the movement of the original camera plate. This reduces additional time-consuming post work of integrating the live action and the CGI.”
“The snow has been created digitally to cover up the snow that was shot practically. CG snow is already something that is really difficult to achieve due to the complex refractive nature and the mixture of almost fluid-like and sand-like movement. Additional complexities arise in the close-up shots with the interaction of actors. This would require accurate rotomation work that would have most likely have to be done manually frame by frame. Tracking wouldn’t wouldn’t be possible when an actor is covered in snow.”
My favourite was the car chase scene! I loved the idea of the kinetic energy being stored in the suit, to be used back against the enemies. The holographic design work was incredible and created a visual link between the suit technology and the holographic car.
We asked Nathan how he’d like to have been involved in this incredible production. “I would have loved to work on any of the simulation work, creating explosions, destroying cars, making ground impacts. That I am sure is a VFX artists dream! These effects are what most people tend to see as VFX. However there is also a massive amount of ‘hidden’ VFX work that goes into blending everything together and making it all believable. This hidden work might not be as grandiose but it is just as important. On films like this a huge amount of work goes into research and development. Being part R & D is something that would be both challenging and rewarding. It would be interesting experimenting and developing new tech and concepts.”
Watch this space to follow Mr Anderson’s next tech-venture!
