When the Game Stands Tall with Pixel Magic

Lafayette, LA, August 22, 2014...Pixel Magic announced that it produced all of the visual effects for Mandalay Pictures When The Game Stands Tall. The movie opens on August 22, 2014.

Inspired by a true story, this sport drama is about the journey of legendary football coach Bob Ladouceur (Jim Caviezel), who took the De La Salle High School Spartans from obscurity to a 151-game winning streak that shattered all records for any American sport.

Pixel Magic completed over 240 VFX shots of which 220 were stadium crowd shots. According to Raymond McIntyre Jr., VFX Supervisor on the movie, The production utilized an electric motorcycle for much of the football game footage, which meant a moving camera all the time. They also wanted the ability to shoot in any direction at any time. This eliminated the traditional approach of locked off cameras and tiling practical people in different positions in the various stadiums as well as any reliance on green screens to help with mattes. My approach was to rotoscope everything that crossed over the stadium seating areas and to create a fully digital crowd mixed with extras shot on green screen and composite them with the few extras available on set. Shooting HDRIs on set allowed for realistic and accurate lighting for all the digital crowd shots.

CG people of various shapes and sizes, and their clothing were created in Maya. We used our in house motion capture system to generate animation cycles of people clapping, cheering, sitting and standing says Victor DiMichina, Pixels Production Supervisor. The CG crowds were randomized using Golaem inside of Maya and rendered in VRay. These CG elements were then composited with the live action game plates in After Effects and Nuke.

The movie was shot entirely in Louisiana, and 95% of the visual effects work was performed at Pixel Magics facility in Lafayette, Louisiana.

In addition to When The Game Stands Tall, Pixel Magic recently completed over 100 shots for Sonys 22 Jump Street and 85 shots on Barley Lethal for RKO Pictures. They are now working on My All American for Anthem Productions, and Hallmarks Big Sky.

About Pixel Magic:

Located in the media district of Toluca Lake, California since 1985, and in Lafayette, Louisiana since 2010, Pixel Magic has earned a long list of film and television credits including everything from Hollywood blockbuster films to cult classics.

The company maintains a culture of combining art and technical expertise. The companys efficient production pipeline, combined with its knowledge of visual effects, allows it to tackle any size project, from independent art-style films up to holiday weekend blockbusters.

Pixel Magics studio in Lafayette, Louisiana, can offer its qualifying customers aggressive tax incentives for film and digital media production.

For further information, contact: Pixel Magic, 10625 Riverside Drive, Toluca Lake, CA, 91602, sales@pixelmagicfx.com, http://www.pixelmagicfx.com

###

LINK:	http://news.creativecow.net/story/876795...
	See more stories from creativecow

Most recent headlines