Framestore completed 338 out-of-this-world shots on The Martian , directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon in the leading actor role. The sequences portray Damon's character, Mark Watney, and his fellow astronauts in the outer-space environments, which have become synonymous with the Framestore name, thanks to 2013's Oscar-winning Gravity .
Informed by the heavily-researched detail of Andy Weir's novel, and with significant input from NASA on genuine contemporary technologies, Framestore reveled in the opportunity to further refine the CG and VFX techniques needed to portray a realistic space setting for the year 2035.
The dramatic story and its setting are maximized in native stereo, with images of Mars drawn from vast datasets to create a stunning, high-resolution picture.
HERMES TAKES FLIGHT
The build of the Hermes was a major focus for Framestore's teams. At 225 meters in length, the spaceship is the biggest and most complex created by Framestore to date, and is more than double the size of the current International Space Station (ISS). Early pre-visualization and production design defined its measurements, with consideration for practicalities, such as the time it would take the astronauts to move around it and the space needed to store supplies for a mission as long as Ares III.
Chris Lawrence, VFX supervisor, notes that this attention to detail was a driving force throughout the project. Everything we did, we tried to ground in reality. It's sci-fi, but it's real - the production design isn't overtly flashy, and there is minimal design from scratch.
Details for the build were frequently drawn from existing spacecraft designs. Like the ISS, the enormous Hermes has a modular structure, based on the knowledge that it would theoretically need to be launched in stages and pieced together in orbit.
The six solar array wings (SAWs) are integral to both the look and design of the Hermes, and were a complicated CG challenge for Framestore's teams. Made of various layers of materials - silicone, plastics, and metals - the panels are continuously reflecting and refracting light. CG Supervisor Neil Weatherley explains: They contain a lot of layers and respond differently depending on distance, light, angle. We had to take a realistic point of view - we're not used to seeing solar panels in space, and they do look quite strange compared to our Earth view. It was a real challenge to replicate something that looks inherently unnatural to us.
The gravity wheel provides the astronauts with a sense of normalcy during their epic mission. Not only does the audience see the brilliant contrast of astronauts engaged in everyday activities, such as running on a treadmill, in this space, but the vast windows allow for some spectacular composited views and provide a backdrop for some key moments in the story. Large pieces of the wheel were created as physical rotating sets, calling for the most seamless of integrations between CG and live-action plates.
Naturally, it was important for the film to maintain a cinematic beauty alongside the dedication to accuracy throughout. Cultural reference points were frequently drawn from 2001: Space Odyssey, which, Lawrence notes, set the subconscious benchmark for all as to what space looks like and how it would feel to be there. Director Ridley Scott also drew inspiration from Chesley Bonestell's sci-fi illustrations from the 1950s/'60s, adding a retro space look into the design mix.
Despite the measures taken not to go too sci-fi in the look, it was arguably inevitable that such a dramatic story set in a foreign outer-space environment would dazzle. Form follows function, says Lawrence. We believe in the accuracy, and that's cool in itself.
Framestore's compositors followed suit, delivering a photographic finish to shots of the Hermes. 2D Supervisor Bronwyn Edwards explains that the approach was naturalistic: We used very controlled amounts of convolve and glow to beautify the shots - though what came out of Lighting was already great, they made some excellent passes. Our compositor Nico Coronado Rivero developed a lens flare tool, which digitally matched the flares captured in camera, and was used across all of the shots for maximum continuity.
THE RED PLANET
Designing an entire planet was another task for Framestore, which was responsible for the look of Mars throughout. With a key opening shot and various space establishers, it was again important to strike the balance between accuracy and cinematic beauty.
Framestore knew that it would use the same technology as for the Earth in Gravity, consisting of a volumetric render of extremely high resolution texture information, combined with dust and atmospheric clouds. The challenge lay in finding adequate reference material for Mars. There's not much color photography out there, says Lawrence. We used a combination of photography and satellite data, in a fairly novel way, to get everything we needed.
Unlike the Earth, with its surface of blues, greens, and browns, Mars is a dusty, reddish planet, says Lawrence. Our first attempts were very realistic but lacked the interesting variation of color and contrast found on Earth. The movie demanded something more vivid, so we spent some time on a creative journey to show the variation in features, surfaces, and textures - all of which also had to fit with the live-action footage shot in Jordan, plus the scenes at launch stage in the lower atmosphere.
The colors used were in constant debate, as was the volume and style of clouds used within the atmosphere. Says Weatherley, We added light clouds to the surface, to echo the dust clouds; above that, we worked to create something that would add the depth we wanted, without importing the fluffy white variety we're accustomed
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Framestore completed 338 out-of-this-world shots on The Martian , directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon in the leading actor role. The sequences portray Damon's character, Mark Watney, and his fellow astronauts in the outer-space environments, which have become synonymous with the Framestore name, thanks to 2013's Oscar-winning Gravity . 
