Dean Wright (who shares vfx supervision with Wendy Rogers) admits the bar has been raised in this second installment of the Narnia franchise. There is not only more action, but also more complex models from Creature Supervisor Howard Berger.

“There are huge battles in this film, so we’ve got a lot more character integration,” Wright says.

Since this time they shot primarily in the Czech republic, it made financial sense to use London-based MPC and Framestore CFC along with Weta Digital. Framestore is doing Aslan, Trufflehunter, the badger, the River-god sequence, kids entering and leaving Narnia; MPC is mainly doing the battles; and Weta is focusing on: a werewolf, a wild bear and all of the environments for the castle.

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Olivier Soares, Technical Director of Framestore CFC, will present some techniques implemented at Framestore-CFC to groom, simulate and render fur & hair efficiently. Olivier’s talk will also introduce the new fur system to be used on “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.”

Hair and Fur Rendering
Olivier Soares, Technical Director, Framestore CFC, www.framestore-cfc.com

Olivier will present some techniques implemented at Framestore-CFC to groom, simulate and render fur & hair efficiently. These techniques have recently been used on “Underdog” (3 full CG realistic dogs) and “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (CG centaurs). Olivier’s talk will also introduce the new fur system to be used on “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.”

Olivier Soares has been working in the CG industry for 5 years. At Framestore Olivier has worked on the fur system used on “Underdog” and “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix“. He is now working on “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian“.

Wednesday
May 02, 2007
17:00 – 18:00
Raum Karlsruhe
fmx/conference | fmx/technologies

New Techniques for High-Resolution Face Scanning and Rendering
Paul E. Debevec, Executive Producer/ Graphics Research, University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, www.debevec.org

Reflectance of light from a human face is an odd mix of specularity, self-shadowing, mutual illumination, anisotropy, and spatially-varying subsurface scattering. Techniques for measuring these properties and simulating their effects are converging to produce powerful new techniques for creating photoreal digital versions of real people. This talk will present new techniques for measuring sub-millimeter surface detail based on novel lighting patterns and rapid acquisition of subsurface scattering behavior for both offline and real-time rendering applications.

Paul Debevec is a research associate professor and the executive producer of graphics research at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies (USC ICT). His 1996 PhD presented an image-based modeling and rendering system for creating virtual cinematography of architectural scenes from photographs, techniques later used to create the Academy-Award winning virtual backgrounds in the “The Matrix“. Debevec pioneered Image-Based Lighting techniques seen in films such as the X-Men series, the Matrix sequels, and The Chronicles of Narnia. His recent Light Stage systems allow actors and performances to be synthetically illuminated in postproduction, used to create realistic digital actors in the films Superman Returns, King Kong, and Spider Man 2 & 3. Debevec received ACM SIGGRAPH’s first Significant New Researcher Award and co-authored the recent book “High Dynamic Range Imaging”.

Wednesday
May 02, 2007
14:00 – 15:00
Meidinger Saal
fmx/conference | fmx/talks

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Framestore CFC has taken over a lot of the effects work for the next Narnia film, Prince Caspian, and it appears they have a lot of work on their plate. Having worked on such high-profile film series as Harry Potter and Christopher Nolan’s incredible Batman reboot, they have the chops that this film requires. Here’s the report from their website WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS:

(UK & US release 16th May 2008)

The next Narnia film is now well under way, and Framestore CFC has got a lion’s share (pardon the pun) of the VFX work. As well as the CG creatures, Aslan and a badger called Trufflehunter, the 500 or so shots our team expects to complete will also involve a spectacular River God sequence.

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The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian promises to be an even bigger visual spectacle than The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was — if that’s possible. However, in spite of the top-notch CG work done on LWW by companies like ILM, Rhythm + Hues, and Sony Imageworks, the producers of Caspian are apparently hiring different companies for the sequel, notably two British effects houses. Industry sources tell IGN Filmforce that Moving Picture Company and Framestore, both based in London, will be responsible for the bulk of the film’s digital effects.

The information, if accurate, could hint at where director and producer Andrew Adamson’s has chosen to shoot his film. While LWW was made in New Zealand, locales for the second Narnia adventure have been up in the air, with New Zealand and Ireland rumoredly competing for the honor. London is a lot closer to Ireland than New Zealand, and keeping your effects teams close to your production crew doesn’t hurt. Nevertheless, New Zealand can’t be counted out quite yet.

The producers could also be moving effects work to England to take advantage of tax breaks instituted earlier this year. The British government has been trying to make the country competitive again, wooing back a once-vibrant filmmaking industry that has lately fled to less expensive nations like the Czech Republic.

Neither of these two London companies is new to fantasy film effects. Moving Picture has contributed its expertise to all four Harry Potter films, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and X-Men III. Framestore’s oeuvre also includes the latest Harry Potter and X-Men motion pictures.

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