When director Shawn Levy set out to make his robot boxing pic, “Real Steel,” he was eager to shoot the 8-foot computer-generated robots as he might film humans exchanging blows.
Until recently, creating fighting robot characters typically would be achieved by filming “empty” background plates and then later adding the computer-generated animated elements.
For “Real Steel,” a virtual production workflow allowed the cinematographers to not only plan fights beforehand but also “see” the robots in action during the filming with real actors.
“We did it completely differently and we leveraged a lot of the technology from ‘Avatar,’ ” said Digital Domain visual effects supervisor Erik Nash.
Months before shooting, stunt performers acted out the scenes in motion-capture suits inside a capture space outfitted by Giant Studios, the same company responsible for such work in “Avatar.”
Artists motion-edited the capture data to resize it for the robots, which let the director choreograph a rough, but accurate, “animatic” (or initial version) via a virtual camera.
Then with a pre-visualized sequence in hand, the filmmakers shot the scene for real on live-action sets in Detroit with the main cast and extras as well as an on-set compositing system, dubbed Simulcam, bringing the robots into the ring.
That’s because the sets were also motion-capture spaces that recorded and triangulated the position and orientation of the digital camera, a high-end Sony F35.
Simulcam synchronized the pre-rendered robots with the live action directly into the viewfinder of the camera operator.
The biggest benefit, Nash said, was that it enabled the director, the director of photography and the camera operator “to shoot the robots boxing the way they would shoot humans boxing.”
Plus, it was interactive. “When Dave Emmerich is standing in the ring with the Steadicam, he’s looking at robots, he’s reacting to what the robots are doing and he’s doing it in real space in real time, and I think it shows in the camerawork of the fighting.”
Although Simulcam gave the scenes a real-world boxing feel, Digital Domain had to deliver photo-realistic CG robots. After the shooting, visual-effects artists took the original motion capture, “image-based capture” data, camera-tracking information and high dynamic range images from the set to animate and light the robots and create the final shots.
The film also relied on life-size practical robots built and puppeteered by Legacy Effects as well as miniatures from New Deal Studios.
Actor Hugh Jackman even trained with boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard. It’s hard to get much more real than that.
Until recently, creating fighting robot characters typically would be achieved by filming “empty” background plates and then later adding the computer-generated animated elements.
For “Real Steel,” a virtual production workflow allowed the cinematographers to not only plan fights beforehand but also “see” the robots in action during the filming with real actors.
“We did it completely differently and we leveraged a lot of the technology from ‘Avatar,’ ” said Digital Domain visual effects supervisor Erik Nash.
Months before shooting, stunt performers acted out the scenes in motion-capture suits inside a capture space outfitted by Giant Studios, the same company responsible for such work in “Avatar.”
Artists motion-edited the capture data to resize it for the robots, which let the director choreograph a rough, but accurate, “animatic” (or initial version) via a virtual camera.
Then with a pre-visualized sequence in hand, the filmmakers shot the scene for real on live-action sets in Detroit with the main cast and extras as well as an on-set compositing system, dubbed Simulcam, bringing the robots into the ring.
That’s because the sets were also motion-capture spaces that recorded and triangulated the position and orientation of the digital camera, a high-end Sony F35.
Simulcam synchronized the pre-rendered robots with the live action directly into the viewfinder of the camera operator.
The biggest benefit, Nash said, was that it enabled the director, the director of photography and the camera operator “to shoot the robots boxing the way they would shoot humans boxing.”
Plus, it was interactive. “When Dave Emmerich is standing in the ring with the Steadicam, he’s looking at robots, he’s reacting to what the robots are doing and he’s doing it in real space in real time, and I think it shows in the camerawork of the fighting.”
Although Simulcam gave the scenes a real-world boxing feel, Digital Domain had to deliver photo-realistic CG robots. After the shooting, visual-effects artists took the original motion capture, “image-based capture” data, camera-tracking information and high dynamic range images from the set to animate and light the robots and create the final shots.
The film also relied on life-size practical robots built and puppeteered by Legacy Effects as well as miniatures from New Deal Studios.
Actor Hugh Jackman even trained with boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard. It’s hard to get much more real than that.
