Flat
Earth Productions uses LightWave 3D to create vampire disintegrations
and other vivid effects beyond the capabilities of human actors.
(October 5) ORLANDO, FL, SIGGRAPH '98, July 21, 1998 - Audiences watching the movie Blade might scream or cringe as they watch realistic disintegrations of vampires into dust, but they can leave the movie confident that no human actors or stunt doubles were hurt in filming the movie. NewTek, manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video production products, today announced that its LightWave 3D professional animation software was the tool of choice for Flat Earth Productions, who created special effects for Blade.
"While there are many 3D rendering tools on the market, no software other than LightWave 3D offers the toolset and rendering quality at such a value," said Bryan J. Blevins, 3D animator at Flat Earth Productions. "LightWave 3D has the tools to let me create great stuff. Doing the Blade effects in LightWave 3D allowed us to get a true three-dimensional look and to rapidly work any changes to a shot."
Flat Earth Productions used LightWave 3D to create over 60 special effects for Blade, a sci-fi thriller starring Wesley Snipes. Blade, which came to theatres in this summer in 1998, is the story of an immortal warrior who battles a thriving underworld of vampires seeking to decimate the human race. For this project, Flat Earth Productions used LightWave 3D on PC's and DEC Alphas. Some of the special effects work depicts vampire disintegrations where LightWave 3D was used to show skin burning away, revealing an ashen body that would crumble and flake off to show a skeleton that also crumbled to pieces.
"For some of the more extreme shots, we not only made an actor disintegrate, we also created complete digital actors with LightWave 3D," said Blevins. "In one case, a vampire flips end over end and breaks in two when he lands backwards on a rail. Human actors and stunt doubles understandably have a certain aversion to the kinds of physical pain that would result from that stunt. But our digital stunt doubles are immune to all pain and are more than willing to do whatever it takes to get the shot."
In addition to the disintegration shots, Flat Earth Productions used LightWave 3D to create a number of other effects for Blade, including a photorealistic building that, in a slow-moving pan of the city, seamlessly integrated with other skyscrapers. LightWave 3D was also used to make a computer schematic/simulation that is displayed on computer monitors throughout the movie, as well as to create miscellaneous props such as guns, swords and sunglasses.
"We found the camera options and pixel aspect settings features of LightWave 3D to be important for this project," said Blevins. Blade was shot anamorphically, or in a 2:1 aspect ratio, meaning the picture image is squeezed in the film frame. "LightWave 3D has a variety of preset camera options, so we could match the settings of the camera used during the shoot to the effects we desired," said Blevins. "LightWave 3D not only lets us put the film plate in the background, but it stretches it back to the correct aspect ratio while we're animating, which simplified our work and saved us considerable time."
Flat Earth Productions also finds the MetaNURBS feature of LightWave 3D to be indispensable. "We can model a low-polygon object for animating and instantly turn it into a high-detail object for final rendering," said Blevins. "Beyond that, LightWave 3D has some of the best third-party plug-ins available. We use Puppet Master for doing character animation, and the fact that it works with LightWave 3D is the icing on the cake."
In addition to Blade, Flat Earth Productions has used LightWave 3D on a number of high-profile projects, including Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, Timecop, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and a new TV series called Young Hercules.
About
Flat Earth Productions
Founded in 1995, Flat Earth Productions, Inc. Is a leading digital
effects company formed by president Kevin Kutchaver, Visual Effects
Supervisor Kevin O'Neill and 3D Animation Supervisor Doug Beswick. The
company handles all the digital special effects work on two of the most
successfully syndicated, one-hour television drama series ever,
"Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena:
Warrior Princess," both of which are produced by Renaissance
Pictures and distributed by Universal Television.
About
NewTek
With headquarters in San Antonio, NewTek is a leader in providing
full-featured video editing and special-effects tools that allow anyone
to produce professional video and graphics. The company's products are
used worldwide on projects from home video to feature film, including
some of the most widely anticipated recent blockbusters, such as Men
In Black, Titanic, Lost in Space, HBO's From the Earth
to the Moon, and The Jackal. Contact NewTek at 8200
IH-10 West, Suite 900, San Antonio, TX 78230. Phone (210)370-8000.
Fax (210)370-8001.
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