Thursday, March 28, 2024
Subscribe Now

Voice Of The Crew - Since 2002

Los Angeles, California

HomeBlog the LineVicon and Framestore Help Raise Armies of the Dead in Marvel Studios’...

Vicon and Framestore Help Raise Armies of the Dead in Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok

-

blobid1_1511221645642Vicon and Framestore Help Raise Armies of the Dead in Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok
Vicon Motion Capture Cameras and Software Aided in the Creation of Undead Soldiers, Crowded Cities and Even the Hulk, All in a Matter of Days
In Marvel Studios’ latest blockbuster, Thor: Ragnarok, an electrified god of thunder fights off an army of undead soldiers high above the waters on the narrow Rainbow Bridge, as the citizens of Asgard watch on in fear. The scene is a highlight of the movie, but also a complicated one, as the script called for dozens of characters to be onscreen at once. Hiring enough extras and stunt people would be costly, so instead, Marvel turned to Oscar-winning VFX studio Framestore, which managed to produce performance motion for armies and populations in a matter of days, using only a handful of cameras and Vicon’s ShĹŤgun software.
Having recently helped Marvel Studios bring characters like Rocket and Baby Groot to screen for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Framestore’s assignment on Thor: Ragnarok was even more expansive. Instead of using crowd simulation software –creating more work for the animators –Framestore produced the military and civilian crowds with just two actors in a motion capture studio. Filming took place in the Capture Lab, a space outfitted with 16 Vicon cameras and ShĹŤgun capture software, a tool specifically designed for professional entertainment projects like Thor: Ragnarok.
Framestore filmed its performers engaging in numerous actions, the majority of which used to create individually moving characters in Hela’s army, as well as the citizens of Asgard. To help speed up the process, Framestore made use of ShĹŤgun’s real-time output, and recorded it direct to disk. ShĹŤgun also allowed the team to view the performances with a mesh overlay surrounding each actor. This created a fluid silhouette alongside the skeletal data, giving the team a better look at how the movements might look.
The software also automated the entire marker labeling process, from Live Subject Calibration to providing clean data within a day of the shoot. In total, Framestore completed three separate orders for Thor: Ragnarok. Each order, from the moment Marvel Studios called to the delivery of the completed data, took less than five days.
“Our performers were running around, jumping off of decks, dying, getting shot – just creating a whole host of animations,” said Richard Graham, studio manager for Framestore’s Capture Lab. “Because of the time constraints often common to our projects, it was all filmed so it could be placed right into the shot. The sequence was on a tight turn around and ShĹŤgun helped us to take some of the weight off our animation team by allowing us to create animation vignettes placed directly into shots.”

Marvel Studios also asked Framestore to create the giant fire demon, Surtur. Using Vicon optical cameras, the team set out to capture as much detail as possible, recording the scene at 240 fps, rather than the standard 120 fps.

“With any big budget film that’s heavy in effects, there’s going to be a tight schedule,” said senior mocap technical director, Gerardo Corona Sorchini. “ShĹŤgun gave us the confidence to deliver motion capture into our animation pipeline quicker than we’ve ever been able to before. That creates more options for us, and for filmmakers around the world.”
- Advertisment -

Popular

Beowulf and 3-D

0
By Henry Turner Beowulf in 3D is a unique experience, raising not just questions about future of cinema, but also posing unique problems that the...