SANTA MARIA, California ‘“ Feature film visual effects facility CafeFX created a scene-stealing school of computer-generated tropical fish for Universal Pictures’ EVAN ALMIGHTY. The visual effects-intensive comedy, the second in the ‘œAlmighty’ series, is directed by Tom Shadyac.
In the film, Evan Baxter (Steve Carell), newly elected to Congress, leaves Buffalo behind and shepherds his family to suburban northern Virginia. Once there, his life is turned upside-down when he is summoned by God (Morgan Freeman) to build an ark.
Evan discovers it isn’t easy being the new Noah as animals, sensing the impending flood, flock to him in the most unnerving ways and vie for his attention wherever he goes. When Evan visits the office of Congressman Long, played by actor John Goodman, the fish in the legislator’s 100-gallon tank are no exception. Their response to Evan’s animal magnetism is one of the film’s most clever and amusing sight gags.
The director, Tom Shadyac, told us we’d be playing a big comedic role in the sequence,’ recalls CafeFX visual effects producer David Van Dyke. ‘œHe asked us to sell the scene and we appreciated him giving us the freedom to express his vision.’
To create the aquarium sequence, CafeFX modeled and animated 60 CG salt-water tropical fish that exhibit some extremely fishy behavior in Evan’s presence.
CafeFX ordered 10 different varieties of tropical fish through a local shop, so that its digital artists and animators could observe their appearance and behavior, which they then captured with digital cameras and camcorders. ‘œThe reference material provided an aid for textures and lighting purposes,’ says CafeFX visual effects supervisor Jeff Goldman. ‘œEarly in the sequence, we mimicked the actual behavior of the fish in our animation, but as the scene plays out, the fish are a counterpoint to Steve Carell’s comedic timing.’
As Evan and the congressman enter the office, the fish are meandering realistically around their tank. ‘œPeople can’t even tell they are CG fish,’ Goldman notes. ‘œBut when they spot Evan, they move toward him in a flash as a fixed unit. He tries to get them to disperse, but much to his dismay, they are almost worshipful of him.’
The prop fish tank was photographed in locked-off shots, filled with water and coral, and wrapped in greenscreen material. ‘œWe replaced the greenscreen area with the actors in live action plates and put our CG fish into the tank,’ Goldman explains.
‘œIt was pretty straightforward to rig the fish,’ says Goldman. ‘œBut fish don’t really move the way you think they do. Smaller fish don’t use their tail to propel them; they use their lateral fins and the tail acts as a rudder. Some species of fish don’t move much and some are constantly moving their fins. What really makes fish look like fish is their movement, and it’s trickier to capture than you might expect.’
CafeFX wrote automation scripts to allow the animators to set up the scenes where the fish hover, swim, meander and school. The animators tapped all the shaders in Mental Ray to deal with fish scales and iridescence. ‘œA lot of salt-water fish don’t look like they have scales,’ Goldman points out. ‘œIt’s almost like they have a velvet texture, and we wanted to simulate that velvety look. Translucency was also critical as a lot of light is transmitted through their fins.’
CafeFX cloned bubbles from the actual tank of water and added bits of CG debris and fish food suspended to the water. ‘œThose minute particles help to ground the fish, otherwise they’d look like they were floating in air,’ Goldman notes.
Some of the wide shots with the tank in the background are from the perspective of the fish looking out at Evan from inside the aquarium. ‘œThe fish occupy 80 to 90 percent of the screen and we had to figure out how to deal with a really wide-angle lens, ironically a fish-eye lens, which warps their world. To simulate that warp in 3D requires long render times, so we ramped up our speed greatly by recreating it in 2D using Krokodove plug-ins for Digital Fusion,’ Goldman says.
‘œTrying to sell the aquarium joke with all the subtleties of comedic acting, for fish, was a big challenge,’ concludes David Van Dyke. ‘œBut we had a great team with a great sense of humor and they understood what we were trying to achieve. It was also a pleasure for us to work with Doug Smith, the film’s overall visual effects supervisor, and Lynda Thompson, the visual effects producer, to create this unique, light-hearted sequence.’
CafeFX employed Autodesk Maya for the animation and lighting of the fish, Maya and Z Brush for modeling, Mental Ray for rendering and Digital Fusion for compositing.
CafeFX is currently in production on visual effects for THE KITE RUNNER, THE MIST, and JOHN ADAMS and recently completed FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER, SPIDER-MAN 3, GHOST RIDER, and PAN’S LABYRINTH.
About CafeFX
CafeFX is an award-winning feature film visual effects facility offering visual effects production and supervision, CG character creation, and 3D animation. Founded in 1993 by Jeff Barnes and David Ebner, CafeFX is located in a 36,000-square-foot studio on an eight-acre campus in the heart of Santa Barbara County. The company’s credits include SPIDER-MAN „¢ 3, GHOST RIDER, PAN’S LABYRINTH, THE DEPARTED, SIN CITY, KING KONG, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA and THE AVIATOR.
Its commercial and music video division, Santa Monica-based The Syndicate, is a creative design, branding services and digital production studio, specializing in live action direction, visual effects, animation, motion graphics, and telecine.
CafeFX and The Syndicate are held by umbrella corporation the ComputerCafe Group, which has also established Sententia Entertainment, a long form production company. With a focus on both live action and animated projects, Sententia is poised to capitalize on years of experience in the feature film market while developing a catalog of properties utilizing the proven strengths of sister companies CafeFX and The Syndicate. Among Sententia’s credits are PAN’S LABYRINTH and DANIKA.
For more information please call 805-922-9479 or visit www.cafefx.com
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EVAN ALMIGHTY CREDITS
Visual Effects by CafeFX Inc.
Visual Effects Supervisor
Jeff Goldman
Visual Effects Producer
David Van Dyke
Character Animators
John Nguyen
Kris Costa
Neil Lim Sang
Ron Friedman
Lighting TD
Steve Arguello
Compositor
Nabil Schiantarelli
3D Model and Texture Artist
Miguel Ortega
3D Matchmovers
Kevin Hoppe
Andrew Byrne
Visual Effects Managing Editor
Desi R. Ortiz
Visual Effects Editor
Kevin LaNeave
Data I/O
Leopaul DeGuzman
Bernardo Rodriguez
Software Development Supervisor
Rob Tesdahl
Software Developer
Paul Hudson
Render Manager
Brian Openshaw
Say Rintharamy
Visual Effects Production Assistants
Brittany Ponting
Shannon Krueger
Visual Effects Intern
Jane Lee
Production Executives
Jeff Barnes
David Ebner
O.D. Welch
Executive Producer
Vicki Galloway Weimer
Business Development
Steve Dellerson