Behind The Scenes With Animal Logic VFX
As the lead VFX company for Australia, Animal Logic was awarded the task of designing and creating the key VFX shots that take place within the port town of Darwin. This entailed creating a CG Darwin, complete with harbour, wharf and ships that had to be re-dressed across the three time periods seen in the film: ‘Cattletown’, ‘Militarised’, and ‘Post-bombed’.
The Animal Logic team brought to life a CG Wharf modelled from lidar scans of Darwin wharf as well as various larger-than-life ships, creating the “heightened reality” of a romanticised Darwin. Referencing colour palettes from vintage photographs and classic epic films, the splenderous 1930s landscape provided an exciting canvas for the wide aerial shots and set extensions created.
In addition, CG cattle were added to boost the numbers in the cattle yeards, the cattle race and during the “triumphant return” when Sarah droves cattle into Darwin. These shots involved the combination of multiple plates shot accross three locations: the cattle town set in Bowen, Darwin harbour and the bluescreen wharf set on a stage in Sydney. The CG FX work includes the harbour water, huge burning smoke plumes, burning oil tanks, funnel smoke, fog, clouds, wakes, flames, atmos and cattle dust.
As seen in excerpts above, you can view a fantastic gallery of images, credits and additional information at the Animal Logic website Australia section.
June 16th, 2009