Jaden Evans: Virtual Production, Week Four

Welcome to week four of my internship blog! Overall, this was a slower week at Digital Domain, but things are about to get pretty crazy for the next few weeks as we begin a series of lengthy, comprehensive shoots! Nonetheless, I learned a great deal more about the software used in virtual production, and did real-world work in a variety of projects.

For the first couple of days this week, my time was spent primarily on a few different projects. The first revolved around a set of demonstrations that DD was providing for investors as well as the press to learn more about the technology and work that the facility does. In the recent Avengers film, Digital Domain completed most of the work for the villain, Thanos. These demonstrations offered our guests the chance to immerse themselves in Vormir (the location for a pivotal scene in Avengers: Infinity War), where they can walk around the environment, as well as interact with the character Thanos, himself, in real-time. They could interact in two ways, using the virtual-camera (as discussed in a previous blog post) which allowed them to see the environment through a monitor, or through a virtual-reality headset which was fully immersive. I was fortunate enough to have the chance to participate in these demos by donning a motion capture suit and “driving” (or acting as) Thanos in real-time for the users to interact with.

Fully suited up, this time wearing an HMC (head-mounted camera) for facial capture as well

In addition to this, I spent a few hours completing a “Pluralsight” training course on Autodesk’s Motionbuilder software. Pluralsight is an online database of professional courses to train employees in tech fields, and used DD’s account to access a training on Motionbuilder, which was extremely informative to the work I did later that week, as well as the rest of my time here. Motionbuilder is a software that is industry-standard for any work in 3D virtual environments. Digital Domain uses it to assemble and view virtual environments prior Motion Capture shoots, as well as viewing real-time motion data throughout the shoots.

Example of a Motionbuilder screen-grab taken from Google

On Wednesday morning, I was tasked with compiling data from previous work that Digital Domain had done, and essentially consolidating various pieces of data into one Motionbuilder file. This consisted of pulling together character models and motion data, and “baking” (plotting) the motion data to the characters so the animation as well as the character model essentially become one complete asset. I spent most of the morning doing this process with a decent number of animations from previous shoots, but I actually really enjoyed doing this because it granted me the opportunity to familiarize myself with the program even better, as I felt I had to learn it quickly so I wouldn’t have to bother anyone with all my questions!

On Thursday, the day was spent facilitating a Marvel press event on the main motion capture stage to celebrate the release of Avengers: Infinity War on Blu-Ray/Digital. Marvel Visual Effects Supervisor Dan DeLeeuw led the event in collaboration with Digital Domain VFX supervisor Kelly Port and Digital Domain Animation Director, Phil Cramer. They spent the day walking a number of media outlets through the processes that DD went through to bring Thanos to life on the big screen. Throughout the day, we offered the same Vormir demos as before on our main MoCap stage, and again, I got in a suit and head-mounted camera to drive Thanos in real-time for these guests. I expect the media outlets to be releasing their “behind-the-scenes” videos soon, and as soon as they’re available, I’ll be sure to share them in this blog. The best part of this day, however, was the time I got to spend with Dan, Kelly, and Phil throughout the event. It was really cool to have the opportunity to pick the brains of these talented supervisors and get to know their stories, learning more about what they do and how they got there. I was particularly excited to speak to such accomplished artists the level of a fellow working professional, rather than a giddy high school student (even if I felt that way on the inside).

Wearing the production-used Infinity Gauntlet!

For the press event, Marvel also brought in the actual prop Infinity Gauntlet that Josh Brolin wore used during the production of Avengers: Infinity War. In the picture at left, I took a break from driving Thanos for the guests, and tried on the real Gauntlet for myself!

On Friday, Greg and I only worked a half-day at DD. I spent the morning working with the MoCap stage supervisor to prepare the stage, set pieces, and props for our shoot next week. We had to ensure that the  set pieces were in the correct postition relative to the virtual environment so that when the actors would interact with them, they would be spatially correct, relative to the virtual world. For example, if the action is an actor is sitting down in a chair, the chair must be in the same position that the chair was in the virtual environment, so when the motion data would be transferred to that virtual environment, it would appear as if they really are sitting down on that virtual chair. This applies to all set pieces that the actors interact with, but everything that they do not interact with, is not built on the MoCap stage because it’s simply not necessary (it’s all virtual in the end and the only data being recorded is the motion of the actors and their props, not the still motion of the set).

This can be seen in the below photo (which has been slightly altered in a precaution to hide confidential elements).

The vertical wooden slats are designed to represent walls, and the apple boxes, desks, and wooden pieces could represent anything from counter-tops to household appliances to alien computers.

At lunchtime, Greg and I left DD and headed towards Hollywood for a fun evening in the city! First, we drove to Griffith Park for, yes, another La La Land filming location: the Griffith Observatory. It was a really cool place to visit, for both its legitimate scientific value, as well as its filming history in Rebel Without A Cause and La La Land. After that, we visited one of Greg’s friends, who works for  Comcast/NBC-Universal. His friend showed us around his work for a bit, then we went on the Universal backlot! We got to take a golf-cart and were able to drive all around the property!

Yes, I know, La La Land again

The original Psycho house on the Universal backlot

Now that I am officially halfway through my internship, I would like to mention that I feel extremely grateful for the people I’ve worked with, who have been generous enough to offer their time for my enrichment in this field. I’ve learned so much in just a few short weeks, and am very appreciative to the people who have helped make this happen. This includes, but is not limited to: Greg LaSalle, Sarah Holbrooke, Thomas Williams, Julian Palacios, Jose Astacio, Scott Meadows, Steve Preeg, Doug Roble, and Lonnie Iannazzo. I can’t wait to see what the next three weeks has in store!