The visual effects team at DIVE – a division of ShootersINC – recently delivered extensive VFX shots for director M. Night Shyamalan’s newest feature film, After Earth.
After Earth follows a crash landing, which leaves Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) and his father Cypher (Will Smith) stranded on Earth, 1,000 years after humans have abandoned the planet. With Cypher injured, Kitai must embark on a perilous journey to signal for help.
The DIVE team, began its collaboration with Shyamalan early on in the development of the film’s script. DIVE’s work on the film included a number of complex visual effects shots featuring set extension, sky replacement, paint, rotoscoping and compositing. DIVE also created 3D elements to enhance the wreckage of the spaceship and the debris field created by the crash. Additional 3D “probes” were also part of DIVE’s contribution to After Earth.
Towards completion of the film, DIVE’s VFX team handled post-viz alongside the editors at Shyamalan’s facility outside of Philadelphia. Asked to quickly develop temporary VFX, DIVE turned out approximately 250 shots for the film’s test screening. This work played a pivotal role in guiding the look of the film.
“M. Night Shyamalan is a great director to collaborate with,” said DIVE VFX supervisor Mark Forker. “He is very easy going, and we were able to work very closely with him at his studio outside of Philadelphia while the script was being developed. That was a great opportunity for us. Our team is very good at creating material that isn’t completely developed, and I feel we did a great job delivering on the director’s vision.”
The VFX team at DIVE relied on a variety of visual effects software, including Nuke, Maya, Mocha, Syntheyes, Softimage, Lightwave, Photoshop, FinalCut Pro, Shotgun Studio and Scratch Lab.
After Earth premiered Friday.
