Of all the shows we did for Caprica, the VFX I am most proud of was an episode that took place in a monastery on Gemenon. The entire show was shot greenscreen without any sets. Gary Hutzel had three teams for the episode. All exteriors were created in CG by Dave Morton and Neal Sopata, while all the CG monastery interiors were created by me and the amazing Farrah Welch. The icing on the cake was the beautiful comps by Heather McAuliff and Derek Ledbetter. A gigantic visual effects show, and no one watching knew it! Above is the episode’s demo reel put together by Dave Takemura. Full screen is the finished product. The inset on the lower right shows the greenscreen shoot.
Archive for the 'Caprica' Category
One day I’m sitting at my desk in the Trek art department, and my ICQ pops up with the cryptic notation “DGR!” It’s VFX Ron Moore. Just a few weeks ago we made a Trek field trip to the LA Museum to see the beef jerky people. You know the show… pickled people. It looks like people made of bacon. Actual dead peeps, preserved on on display like Pugsly Adams’s action figures. Ever since then I started getting notes from Ron emblazoned “DGR” - “Dead Guys Rule”. It took me awhile. Doug, my friend, Ron continues… we have a shot where the NX drives right into the camera. I need a transition. I want to have us pass thru the wall straight into the bridge. Can you make me some interior bulkheads, honey?
Do wood chucks chuck wood? Does an ex-marine drill sergeant make a terrible analyst? Did the little pig cry whee whee whee all the way home? Can do, Captain! Pfffht! What is it? 3 seconds of animation? Check me at the end of the day!
Never let a blurry transition go to waste.
It’s years later. Gary sez… hey Doug. The Caprica title sequence where we pass thru the wall of Graystone Industries to Daniel Graystone? We need a transition there! Can do? Can do, Captain!
Go back and look on the attached link (Youtube doesn’t allowing posting this particular video). Thatsa’ right, boss! You guess it! There is a little bit of the NX-01 in the walls of Graystone Industries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BYxWWQKFs8
A couple of weeks ago Jimmy, Luna, Dorth and I go to the El Portal Theater in North Hollywood to see Debbie Reynolds perform for the Hollywood Thalians charity. Sitting right behind me is Richard Herd from the original “V”. Luna introduces me to him and he says, Hey! I have a note here from a friend of yours, he said you’d understand! He hands me a folded up slip of paper. I open it… it reads: “DGR!”.
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Well we didn’t win! But you know what? The winner, CSI, was damned cool. You don’t mind losing when the other team showed you something that made you sit up. It was a Matrix-like freeze frame of a busy crime scene that the camera was able to move through and explore. Really neat!
We weren’t slouches, however, and the Caprica episode we submitted was something we’re all proud of. Take a look at this stuff and I think you will agree that it is on a scale you usually don’t see on television. Thanks again to our leader, the amazing Gary Hutzel, and to our team that is composed of some of the wildest talent in the biz… Pierre Drolet, Davey Morton, Kyle Toucher, Jesse Toves, Sean Jackson, Heather McAulif, Farrah Welch, Derek Ledbetter, Manny (Manster) Choi, Jeremy Lang, and our VFX producer Mike Gibson who keeps it real.
29
Jul
10
Drex Files-TV update!
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I’m waiting for a go-ahead from startrek.com to post the first episode of our new Drex Files-TV video-mag right here! Yesterday Paramount told me that it looked like a throttle-up for tomorrow. I’ll keep you informed. In the meantime, check out the trailer for Caprica season 1.5. We heat things up a bit.
Thanks to Mighty Matt Boardman for the new header! That goes for everyone. You make ‘em, I’ll use ‘em!
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27
Jun
10
Designing for Science Fiction
(Above) Caprica City at dusk from Graystone Industries.
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A few months after Caprica premiered, we caught the attention of “Rum”, Sweden’s leading design and architectural magazine. Writer Nicklas Alicki was fascinated with the science fiction mindset that it takes to design shows like Trek, Galactica, and Caprica. What follows are our thoughts on the subject, illustrated with stunning matte paintings created by our genius Davey Morton.
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Gary Hutzel – Visual Effects Supervisior – Battlestar Galactica\Caprica\Star Trek
What were the biggest influences in the design of the starships in Battlestar Galactica?
For the Cylon ships such as the Resurrection ship, the Hub, and now (in Caprica), Greystone Industries headquarters, Santiago Calatrava was a principle inspiration. The colonial fleet was obviously very strongly based on the original series designs from the 70′s, and in some cases, were exact duplicates of the originals.
New designs such as the Basestars, Raiders, and Mark 7 Vipers had their own unique heritage each stemming from a different source. The Basestars were based on two idea’s – one was that the ship’s shape should be an easily recognized “logo” representing the Cylon millitary. In this case an “X” and “Y”. As originally conceived by the Mini-Series Director (Michael Rymer), the Cylons represented the feminine aspect of the conflict (sensitive and artistic), while the Colonists represented the male (war like and brutish). My idea was that the Basestar is the military symbol of the X and Y chromosomes. Continue reading ‘Designing for Science Fiction’
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(Above) Bear graces us with his unique talent.
I came across this video of Bear McCreary’s off the cuff performance of the Caprica theme. So much of the emotion, mood, and psychology of a piece of film relies upon the composer’s ability to plug into our sense memory.
Check out Bear’s blog for some unique insights into the mind of one of televisions most gifted composers -
01
Feb
10
Caprica Opening Titles
All shot against a green screen.
31
Jan
10
Caprica City
(Above) Graystone Industries. Gary was looking for a “Microsoft campus” feel, which Davey nailed with aplomb.
A couple of days after the Caprica pilot aired, an architectural blog picked up on it and featured the shows design work. Gary Hutzel’s point man for developing these vistas is the amazing Dave Morton with an able assist from Joe Lawson. More on Davey and the rest of the crew in an upcoming entry. These caps came from the Arkinet blog. Thank you Ana for the attention! Sometime in the near future I’ll run some higher quality images. In the meantime visit Arkinet and let them know you appreciate the spotlight on our work.
http://arkinetblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/vancouver-as-caprica-city/
(Below) More Graystone campus.
(Below) One of many Caprica cityscapes created by Davey.
(Below) I designed and built the Graystone estate, but Dave’s environment makes it sing. There is a VTOL pad in the back.
(Below) The Atlas stadium, home of the Bucs. We decided that it’s architectural inspiration would come from renowned architect Calatrava. This ties nicely to the the Cylon Resurrection ship from BSG, also Calatrava inspired. Atlas stadium was built by modeling maestro Pierre Drolet.
11
Oct
09
The U-87 – Keeping It Real
(Above) The hardest working man in show business, Gary Hutzel, and the in-progress, real world, full scale U-87 Cylon from the BSG spinoff show “Caprica”. Gary is like that bunny on TV with the batteries… he keeps going, and going!
Recently the Caprica\BSG VFX team had an extraordinary experience. It’s rare that a CG model is built into the full meal deal and you can stand in the same space with it. Gary knew that “Caprica” would have shots where the proto-Cylon would be deactivated and standing by. It made sense to have a real world version built for those, saving us from having to render and composite the CG version.
Gary enlisted the aid of awe-inspiring model maker, Lou Zutavern. Lou and his guys built the U-87 in an unbelievably short time frame. What’s really remarkable is that Lou and the crew built every part by hand with no computer prototyping of any kind. I might also add that Lou built the robot where no other shop could have pulled it off, meaning that they did it for a pittance. It’s a regular Hollywood battle cry in our arena… no time and no money. Funny how sometimes the best stuff grows from those limitations. Lou and his guys made it happen because they thought it was cool. Kudos gentlemen!
Note the “Trial and Tribble-ations” Enterprise hanging overhead. Lou was part of Greg Jein’s crew on that milestone.
(Below) Gary looks on delighted by Pierre Drolet’s reaction to seeing his CG model being built in reality, right before his eyes. Pierre designed and built the U-87 under the supervision of Gary. Hutzel.
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(Below) Some of Gary’s Caprica\BSG VFX team with the finished U-87. From left to right: FX artist Farrah Welch (Farrah is one of our newest discoveries. She came out of nowhere as a breakout tech, and is rapidly making a name for herself as a modeler), next the ultimate CG modeler Pierre Drolet. That’s me in front Pierre, and in front of me the diabolical Davey Morton (Dave is THE CG matte painting sorcerer). Behind the U-87 is our genius IT master Jeremy Lang, and to the right of Jeremy is Jesse Toves (Jesse is one of the greatest character animators I have ever seen, not only that, the dude can sculpt, model, and draw!). Kneeling in front of Jesse, Prince of Darkness Sean Jackson ( Sean is responsible for all the most impressive fireworks you’ve seen on BSG), and far right is Dave Takemura, affectionately known as D-Tak (Dave is our master VFX coordinator who not only coordinates, but has no problem rolling up his sleeves and getting into the comps as well). Dave, like Gary and I, is an old school guy. We began our journey working together on TNG, and we’re still keepin’ on keepin’ on!
01
Aug
09
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