MONTREAL Visual effects production studio Rodeo FX has magically delivered 350 complex VFX shots for Now You See Me, serving as the film's main visual effects vendor. The film was released by Summit Entertainment May 31.
The Rodeo FX team created and produced a huge and diverse array of shots for the new film, comprising 23 total minutes of visual effects-driven screen time.
Rodeos work involved producing the VFX for dozens of sequences. These included creating: CG crowds to fill in thousands of seats of the MGM Grand Hotel and the Savoy Theater, millions of CG Euros, a magical prop named the Crusher, Manhattan and Chicago city matte paintings, Las Vegas Four Horsement signs and promo, and holographic design rising from CG water and smoke. Of particular note was Rodeos creation of projections onto buildings and the highly complex Five Points motion graphics-driven sequence. Rodeo created numerous additional CG images, including playing cards, large bubbles, cars and helicopters, a police chase, actor doubles and even a CG rabbit.
S bastien Moreau, President/VFX Supervisor/Founder of Rodeo FX, said, This project was one of the largest and most comprehensive weve ever undertaken since the founding of our company. As the main VFX vendor, we worked on this film for more than a year. Every sequence involved a great detail of advance planning and we had to develop new techniques and workflow pipelines to accommodate the demand. Over 100 of our artists were involved with Now You See Me in total. While we are still, perhaps, best known for our innovative matte paintings and digital environments work, this film was a true milestone in the evolution of Rodeo FX.
Adds Isabelle Langlois, Rodeo FXs Head of Production, This was a very interesting project for us, one that involved a number of complex solutions to creative challenges. Every sequence we delivered for this film was so different, and each involved a good amount of communication between director Louis Leterrier, VFX Supervisor Nick Brooks, and VFX Producer Tom Elder-Groebe. We enjoyed highly productive back and forth conversations with Louis to fine-tune his vision, and Nick Brooks came to Montreal twice to visit with our artists and to work closely in tandem with them. We created numerous simulations and even handled significant motion graphics work on the Five Points sequence. I believe we delivered on this show beyond expectations-our clients were super happy with our work.
Nicholas Brooks, VFX Supervisor for Now You See Me, adds, Rodeo FX was our primary visual effects vendor on this film, and they did a fantastic job. The challenge here was to tackle a wide range of creative challenges, from major crowd replication in a 9,000 seat stadium during an extended sequence, to high-end, holographic design for a sequence in which images were projected onto the side of a building. They also brought us a virtual computer-generated car chase, photoreal magic
props and even enormous bubbles. This diverse VFX ranged from what I call photographic forgery to highly creative solutions.
The MGM Grand before and after.
Details about various Rodeo FX sequences for Now You See Me include:
Rodeo FX produced a major sequence inside the Las Vegas MGM Grand for which Rodeo filled the entire arena with a mix of 2D crowd elements and computer graphics crowd, using highly innovative techniques, which included using off the shelf solutions such as Kinect and PS3 cameras for motion capture and 3D scanning.
Rodeo used particle simulation to add millions of Euros falling onto the audience for the MGM sequence, and created and animated a CG Crusher (compactor-like prop) that teleports a lead character into a Paris bank vault.
The first shot in the MGM sequence was more than a minute long. Rodeo created this shot by stitching and morphing three different cable cam plates together to form a 720-degree spinning shot of the stadium. Rodeo filled the arena with a 2D and 3D cheering crowd, enhancing the shot (as well as many other shots) with lens flares and the addition of giant video screens.
Rodeo FX created photoreal CGI cars and a helicopter in an action packed car chase sequence set in Manhattan.
For a sequence set in the Savoy Theatre in New Orleans, Rodeo designed and animated enormous CG bubbles, developing new techniques during the process. The company filled the theater with a CG crowd; tracked and composited a giant check and designed the number transformation on it; and animated CG playing cards that were thrown into the audience by the cast.
Rodeo designed and created a prominent holograph animation, in which blueprints to magic tricks are shown to the four lead cast members. For this sequence, Rodeo integrated fluid simulations to create the water animation that leads to the holographs.
Other Rodeo FX contributions included the re-creation of a night-time city with digital matte-paintings and a green-screen shot of the actors in an office featuring a Las Vegas backdrop. Rodeo also did a good deal of plate photography using the Red Epic camera-these included a night-time city shoot (generic and shot-specific actions,) lens flares, smoke and water elements.
Andr Montambeault supervised a sequence called Five Points, which presents the third and final magic show presented within the film by the Four Horsemen cast members. The show takes place in an abandoned building covered with graffiti, where the performers present their final illusion in front of a cheering crowd. The magicians present their illusions with a blend of animated projections on the walls, along with rock-and-roll show style lighting, and classic mis-direction, as they mislead the police who are trying to apprehend them.
Said Montambeault, For this sequence, we had to come up with a design that would serve both the show visual and the theater canvas for
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MONTREAL Visual effects production studio Rodeo FX has magically delivered 350 complex VFX shots for Now You See Me, serving as the film's main visual effects vendor. The film was released by Summit Entertainment May 31. 
