Guerrilla VFX

Digital visual effects techniques are an integaral part of the way Loonatik & Drinks works. After an initial animatic rough cut, projects continue to a CGI design stage and construction of virtual locations and objects.On set we make a movie with post production VFX in mind. We use HD technology to maximise image quality and take plenty of hi-resolution digital stills.

Exterior matte for The Hand

The opening shot of The Hand required a crane shot which explored the exterior of a flat in an urban Japanese street before revealing our actress at the window. Early on I realized that a physical, real world solution to this shot was impractical, so I used a traditional matte painting, with the video sections composited into key areas. This matte was given 3 dimensionality in Adobe After Effects which was refilm using a new, moving virtual camera.

When David decided that the limited size of the main set in The Hand was less than ideal, I used this same basic technique to extend the room with virtual set pieces, into which video plates were again composited. This '2.5' dimensional approach is effective but relatively quick to achieve for shots with limited camera movement.

In addition to 2.5D, I've also found the need to incorporate truly 3D imagery, built using Alias Maya. The second Lucy Spook movie requires shots of both inside and outside a period ghost train. As relatively few of these survive anywhere in the world, I used photo references to construct 3D models of both the ride and the car in which Lucy rides. The animatic called for many different angles, so I knew true 3D was called for.

Design for Ghost Train from second Lucy Spook short

Some of our projects have been purely bluescreen work with no physical set at all; this situation presents different challenges and different possibilities. A huge percentage of one of our current projects, The Horror of the Heights is bluescreened, I've had to use all of our established VFX tricks, and develop a few new ones, but ultimately this is the direction we'd like to go in.
Using a few PCs built with parts off the shelf of the local computer shop, and shooting on an entry level HD camera we've managed to realise Arthur Conan Doyle's bizarre and visually rich tale of early aeronautics. Ultimately, drawing heavily on VFX frees us from the need for funding which would otherwise be required. No funding means no funder's expectations, we can make movies in our own way to our own schedules and that's always been our prime motivation.