Method, recently completed 3D animation and effects work on "And She Stares Longingly At What She Has Lost," a distributive short film offering directed by Phillip Van as part of the "Exquisite Corpse" project launched by Little Minx partnered with RSA Films. Drawing its inspiration from the parlor game of the same name, "Exquisite Corpse" comprises five short films by Van and directors Chris Nelson, Malik Hassan Sayeed, Josh Miller, and Laurent Briet. Through the progression of films, each director responds to the last line of text of the previous director's script and gives their concept of what it means to be a minx.
"This was a challenging project for us," admits Sabrina Elizondo, Visual Effects Producer at Method. "It was also completely irresistible because the creative leeway we were offered was a unique experience. Just about every live action scene was shot on bluescreen, so defining the look was technically up to our team. The opportunity also lent itself to a close working-relationship with the director, Phil, and that collaborative effort really made a big difference."
Van's film is a compelling and ultimately heart-wrenching depiction of the loss of childhood innocence. The piece opens against a deep blue sky populated with light, waffle-like clouds. As a bespectacled young girl hurls an oversized plastic bone for her dog, a gentle voice sings "Come Wander With Me," a melancholy tune with haunting resonance. Sitting quietly on the grass, the suddenly unsmiling young girl sees a watery vision of a man in a suit standing at the edge of the field. As she stands in front of him, the man removes her glasses and tosses them into the grass, before holding out his hand. She thinks for a moment, then reluctantly takes his hand and follows him into a gnarled forest. A firmly tied rope prevents her dog from following. Sunlight is magnified through her dropped glasses, setting the grass, and her childhood, alight. The conclusion, when it comes, proves as familiar as it is shocking.
According to Visual Effects Leads Andy Boyd and Seb Caudron, the first significant challenge came with creating a ghostly figure of the "Water Man" who seems to simply pluck the girl from her idyllic environment. Admitting to being influenced by Charles Laughton's exquisite The Night of the Hunter (1955), Caudron and the 3D team were eager to create the Water Man, paying close attention to texture and the look and feel of the water.
"Phillip had this idea of a man made out of water, someone who is not quite there," says Caudron, Lead 2D VFX Artist on the project. "It was essential that he be a palpable presence, but also that he seem otherworldly. It was quite a challenge to appropriately balance the real and surreal worlds."
To nail down a realistic image, the animation team scanned the real life actor into a 3D model, which gave them the man's complete geometry with which to work:
"The 3D model was a huge help," says Caudron. "We were able to apply all our lighting and water effects in a series of layers. The character ended up being very layer-heavy, but it sped things up considerably."
In creating the gnarled and twisted forest that represents the hardships of life, Boyd was reticent at first, but quickly enthused by the challenge:
"Forest scenes are notoriously difficult to render, due to all the detail," he explains. "We got so into this project, however, that we started looking for new ways to work and new things to learn. Almost everything was shot against bluescreen, with just a few plants and shrubs around the set, so it was up to us to create the forest. To render the entire thing, I used a system called 'delayed reads.' With the geometry of one 3D tree, we were able to have the system procedurally create unique trees at render time. While 3D trees are typically so dense in information that you can't have more than one open at a time, we were able to render out 100 or so each time. It was tremendously helpful."
Technologies used: Houdini, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk Flame.