Visual Effects of Ghost Rider

[Hunter Rider]

Do you think that most of Ghost Riders scenes will be Cage/stuntman in the GR attire with a blue mask on and the CGI Flaming Skull added in post or will he be entirely CGI like Spidey?
I hope its the first:) :ghost:

[BIGGUN]

I hope so too...i dont want a 100% cgi'd GR (unless its for some kind of impossible bike stunt). i would prefer a costumed stunt man w/ a cgi'd head. much like what they did for the Headless Horseman in Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" who is also a type of "Ghost Rider" as well...heh

[The Flash]

I hope so too...i dont want a 100% cgi'd GR (unless its for some kind of impossible bike stunt). i would prefer a costumed stunt man w/ a cgi'd head. much like what they did for the Headless Horseman in Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" who is also a type of "Ghost Rider" as well...heh
That's what I'm hoping for too. They did very good with the Horseman in Sleepy Hollow, he looked real.

[FlameHead]

Again, this all depends on how demonic they are going to make this particular bouty hunter. I've seen some designs that were prett different than what we've come to know and love. It may have to all be done CGI because it goes way beyond just a flaming skull.

[BIGGUN]

this is true...if they tried the trenchcoat there would be more cgi involved than just the head..
the problem is i just dont want GR to look fake... cgi is really good now ...but its not that good yet. it could probably simulate leather but its the body movements that will be a problem. you know how you can tell the difference between how a real person moves and a cgi character...thats what i dont want to see...or at least for the entire movie.
suppose we will just have to wait and see on this ....gonna be a longgg wait...errr

[FlameHead]

Very long wait. In a way, this whole internet thing is bad. In the old days, we wouldn't even hear about the movie until next fall or something. I wouldn't have anyway. Things sure have changed.

I hate waiting.

[Hunter Rider]

Waiting Sucks:mad:

Can anybody post the trenchcoat GR i havent seen it.
Some of GR has to be real or it will hurt the movie like it did in hulk,most audiences don't like just watching a fake image bounce around the screenand ghost rider will be on screen a lot.plus the CGI spidey was good but he is light,CGI still dosent create weight very well and GR is a big dude:) :ghost:

[Dr.Dude]

Can anybody post the trenchcoat GR i havent seen it.
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/15658/1011/19538_main.jpg


But in any case, for most of the movie they should definitely try to have the actor actually there, with a completely CGI'd over skullhead and flames---if Ghost Rider's costume tears, it'd be a nice visual to see flame covered bones peeking out from the rips 'n tears as well. But besides that and various special effects scenes that would be impossible to pull off in real life, I don't think Ghost Rider's actual body should generally be completely CGI.

[Hunter Rider]

But in any case, for most of the movie they should definitely try to have the actor actually there, with a completely CGI'd over skullhead and flames---if Ghost Rider's costume tears, it'd be a nice visual to see flame covered bones peeking out from the rips 'n tears as well. But besides that and various special effects scenes that would be impossible to pull off in real life, I don't think Ghost Rider's actual body should generally be completely CGI.
Thanks for the pic:)
I think its awesome and would look great on screen.:ghost:

[FlameHead]

From what MSJ has said, I don't think we'll see this Grim Reaper type version of Ghost Rider. I could be wrong but I get the feeling from what he's mentioned that we're going to see the old and true version of him. Direct from the pages.

Having said that, I wouldn't be dissapointed with this version because it's also kickass.

[BIGGUN]

well he also said at that conference that GRs look would "evolve" throughout the movie so there might be a possibility of different outfits. they might use the trenchcoat idea..might not....but from what i gathered the spiked 90s outfit would be the final version.

[FlameHead]

And that excites me to no end. That's what I want to see. You all know how much I love the 90's version. The question remains if he'll use the spikes as weapons like Vengeance was able to do.

[Hunter Rider]

This has nothing to do with the actual thread (sorry)but if anyone has The hammerlane graphic novel could they scan it and post the pic please.:)
I want to print it and transfer it onto a T-shirt.:ghost: :)

[FlameHead]

Which pic are you talking about? If it's the covers you're talking about, they're available online in several places... like this one.

http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/GhostRider_Hammer_Lane-01.jpg

[Hunter Rider]

Which pic are you talking about? If it's the covers you're talking about, they're available online in several places... like this one.

http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/GhostRider_Hammer_Lane-01.jpgThanks that was the picture i was after:) :ghost:

[DarkKnightJRK]

Dude's got a flaming skull for a head. I'd assume there's going to be a bit of CGI.

[GuardianofOa]

I think that as long as the bike stunts are real, it will be good. Too much cgi could kill this movie. Also, there is so much emotion in GR that his face (skull) will actually show it. And that right there will be a sweet arse effect. To actually see the frown or a smile or his eyes wrinkling a bit, like, a saddened look. That will be cool....















P.S.
Nic Cage sux

[FlameHead]

Nic Cage is fantastic. I had doubts about him in this role but those feelings have been extinguished from the words of MSJ. Nic loves the character and we must have faith in that.

The special effects that is out there today can handle this. Think of Ballrog. Think of the scene where agent smith is on fire in one of the matrix movies. I'm not sure what we're going to see but I'm very confident that it's going to be brilliant.

[FlameHead]

I'm sure everyone is concerned about this. Hunter Rider talked about it in another thread saying....

I didn't want to open a new thread for this idea so i thought i'd stick it here as it seems to kinda fit the topic.I was thinking about the Flame CGI needed for GR and his bike and as we all know realistic CGI fire is one of the hardest things to achieve,so after seeing the impressive Torch CGI in the FF footage i was wondering do you think it would be a good idea to hire the FF VFX guys for GR?

I figured it did deserve it's own there and started it.

Up until seeing seeing the recent movies that have been developed, I was worried about the special effects for a Ghost Rider movie. I have none now though. I'm pretty sure they're going to be able to pull this bad boy off.

I haven't seen the FF footage yet so I can't really comment on that.

[darthhalen]

Hey guys, I just read this at Comics2film. I couldn't read the whole article,as you have to be a member to open it. Maybe someone here can get the whole article. This has not been officially announced anywhere else has it? If so, sorry for posting a new thread.
This is more good news for the project and relieves some of my worries about Cage's indescisive BS over signing. :)

[Hunter Rider]

Good find:up:

now hopefully the fact that they now have an effects company lined up it means cage signining is just a formality as you don't usually set up the vfx unless your sure you'll get your star.:) :ghost:

[Retroman]

Heres the full article from VFXWORLD:

Sony Lands Superman’s Return

Friday October 29, 2004


As expected, Sony Pictures Imageworks got the SUPERMAN RETURNS gig after Warner Bros. took it away from ESC Ent., forcing it to close shop and go on hiatus, reports HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

Former Imageworks staffer Mark Stetson, who is supervising vfx for Warner Bros., was instrumental in helping Sony beat out ILM in the bidding.

Director Bryan Singer will helm SUPERMAN RETURNS beginning early next year in Australia, with relative unknown Brandon Routh (GILMORE GIRLS an WILL & GRACE) in the lead. An internal vfx supervisor has not yet been selected at Imageworks, which expects to create approximately 800 CGI shots, comparable to the work done for SPIDER-MAN 2.

Imageworks announced that it is also performing vfx shots for Columbia Pictures’ GHOST RIDER, with Oscar-winner Kevin Mack serving as vfx supervisor.
http://vfxworld.com/?atype=news&id=12305&a=search&term=ghost%20rider
http://www.comics2film.com

Kevin Mack's bio: http://www.imageworks.com/company/bios/kmack.html

[MarvelMovies]

Thanks Retroman for posting the article..

:)

Good news to me..!

Previous works --> Spider-Man 2, Matrix Reloaded, and the upcoming Superman movie.. definitely BIG names!

[BIGGUN]

indeed....this does sound like good news.
at least they are attempting to get the best tech people from Hollywood...definate sign that Sony wants GR to be done right.

[FlameHead]

When the lead/title character is purely animaton, you have to hire the best.

[FlameHead]

I just seen a pic of Nic and he looks pretty skinny. Do you think he's bulking down to make sure they use his body as much as possible? Just have a CGI skull and that's about all? Hmmm...

[BIGGUN]

yeah..i mentioned that in the official GR thread....
here are some more pics....
http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/Yeehaacon/National_Treasure_Cage.html

lookin rather "skeletal" in some of those pics...heh
i would think he would be in some kind of a costume as MSJ has stated that GR would be a combination of CGI and prosthetics. i certainly hope that is the case.....wouldnt look as realistic if they went 100% cgi


EDIT:
here is what MSJ said about how GR will appear...

Will you be using prosthetics or all CGI for Ghost Rider and Mephisto?

It will be a combination of things to bring these characters to life. What’s most important is that we give G.R. weight, even when he’s riding up a skyscraper or along a wall. He can’t feel light, or like CGI, he’s heavy metal. Like the Terminator. And he leaves total devastation and destruction in his path.

[FlameHead]

'And he leaves total devastation and destruction in his path.'

I freakin' love that.

I really can't wait to see some images or concepts of actual things they plan to do.

[Danalys]

i think they should make a model skull that they can set on fire and then super impose that on whoever's shoulders.

[FlameHead]

I have a feeling that it'll be something like that. I figure they'll use tactics like they did for the headless horseman in Sleepy Hollow. I doubt it'll be a model skull or real fire though. As real as that is, it just won't look as real as CGI on screen... I don't think.

[Danalys]

cgi flames are one of the hardest things to do. with a life size skulll model you'd get photo realism. it could even be animatronic if you can protect the mechanisems from the flames. they should at least do it to use as reference for CG

[Retroman]

How much CG they use is essential for this the Ghost Rider character to come alive.

[The Flash]

I think the effects company is going to work thier magic and make GR's flaming skull look as real as possible. There ain't going to be no bogus looking CGI effects. However they do it, I'm sure it's going to look amazing. :ghost:

[DarkKnightJRK]

There's going to be some CGI for GR. Dude's got a frickin' flaming skull for a head for Christ's sake.

Considering the advances on CGI, I think they can do the flames without it looking hokey. :up:

[FlameHead]

Agreed. Just think of Balrog. He was awesome... and flamey.

[Hunter Rider]

Agreed. Just think of Balrog. He was awesome... and flamey.
yep he was,and fire is the hardest element along with water to do with cgi so these are good signs and the company doing the effects are a quality outfit.

[FlameHead]

They'll probably use a lot of practical fire shots as well. Superimposing pre shot images and what not, ya know. Like, the flames left from him riding down the road will possibly be real. I mean, there is no real reason to make that CGI, all the time. That is, of course, if they leave a flaming trail as he rides.

[Hunter Rider]

They'll probably use a lot of practical fire shots as well. Superimposing pre shot images and what not, ya know. Like, the flames left from him riding down the road will possibly be real. I mean, there is no real reason to make that CGI, all the time. That is, of course, if they leave a flaming trail as he rides.
yeah no need to waste CGI effects when there not needed,an intelligent use of practical effects is what is needed when the budget isnt massive b/c it leaves the money for those all important WOW shots.I even think it may be possible to do some of the bike stuff without going overboard with cgi,i mean they could use a rig for the riding along wall shots i reckon.

[Hunter Rider]

bump

the CGI for blackheart is also going to be important,how do you reckon they should do him?
I'd go for a mix of prosthetics and CGI:ghost:

[BIGGUN]

bump

the CGI for blackheart is also going to be important,how do you reckon they should do him?
I'd go for a mix of prosthetics and CGI:ghost:

more than likely... i do know he will have to be bigger than GR. maybe they can shoot the scenes like how they did it in LOTR. the ones that involved hobbits and normal humans.
his tail will have to be cgi....if they keep it of course

[Hunter Rider]

more than likely... i do know he will have to be bigger than GR. maybe they can shoot the scenes like how they did it in LOTR. the ones that involved hobbits and normal humans.
his tail will have to be cgi....if they keep it of course
I thought the lycan effects in underworld were quite good and while i know blackheart isn't a werewolf he is similar looking to the lycans in UW so that could be a good place to start plus the hellboy prosthetics would be a good example to check out.

[FlameHead]

... this is all presuming that Blackheart isn't human, or in human form rather. IF so, he'll not need any special FX. I can't see him being human though. It would work on one level yes, but when you have a flaming headed demon running around catching bad guys, you kinda need something non human for him to face.

[Hunter Rider]

... this is all presuming that Blackheart isn't human, or in human form rather. IF so, he'll not need any special FX. I can't see him being human though. It would work on one level yes, but when you have a flaming headed demon running around catching bad guys, you kinda need something non human for him to face.
I agree a physical non human must be GR's opponent at some point in the film to keep the supernatural edge.

[BIGGUN]

I can see them having Blackheart using a human form for some or most of the movie. that way he would be able to convince others to follow him....if they go that route of course. also he would attract less attention if he was just a normal joe.....couldnt do that in his demon form.
just have him change for some important dialogue scenes and the fights w/ GR of course

[FlameHead]

That's what we'll likely see. Save the demon form for the final battle... sorta like how the first Blade movie worked. Normal Frost for most of movie, then super Frost for final battle. For this we'll have demon Blackheart in form of human for most of movie, then demon form Blackheart for final fight.

As for Mephisto... he's not going to die anyway. He's just the overlord and not beatable by Ghost Rider quite yet. I hope not anyway. It woudln't be right if the devil gets his due in one film.

[Samaritan]

This "Nick Cage's Skull" thread reminds me of a thought/concern I recently had while considering the movie. To me, it seems essential that the actor or stunt person wear an actual flickering light on their head during filming. Sound ridiculous? While the flaming head will be cgi, this necessitates that every surface around the Ghost Rider also be artificially lit during the post production of the movie. This works fine for a completely computer generated background, but in a physical setting it would add a lot of work to make it look convincing. Any thoughts?

[WarBlade]

It'll be done in digital post. I don't know how they do this in film exactly, but with my dabbling with PhotoShop etc. I can imagine they might do something like oversaturate the lighting a little during filming and then throw the dimmer on everything to get those nicely defined black areas that gave the second series so much of it's character. From there it should be a fairly straight forward process to bring back some fiery glow to certain nearby surfaces.

As for the "light on his head" approach, that would be even worse to try and film. You'll wind up with lens flares happening constantly! :eek:

[InVictus]

I am quite interested in to how they are going to represent Hellfire.
In the comics(Danny's Ghost) it was a cold bright yellow fire, inextinguible like normal fire (see Zodiak ep.). Even the color of the flame was meaning something "different" (although probably it was also a wanted magistral color scheme:yellow on black contrast was cold, yet powerful, quite similar to Hellboy's red/black).
But i think on screen the flame will need the standard true fire properties(IE heat, color), as show even of the Cannes poster.
It was one of the better things in Goyer's script imho, it was similar to the vision of Ghost i always imagined: a skeleton not engulfed on flames, but "erupting" flames.
Where clothes, chain, metal, bike, all acted as the magma crust, and bones were the source of the flame, like phoshporus. Every time i saw Ghost clothes being torn in the comics i imagined he would "regrow" them as ash reform on the cinder surface.
The only retain of real fire i think would be "wrong" it's the smoke. Smoke means that something physical is burning, while hellfire burns soul, and Ghost's fire is "alive".
Really they shoul make the fire part of the acting: should ghost be really pissed off, i think the flame would be roaring, almost white, with a heat haze making the air waving.
But i think this kind of FX would overcome Nic Cage acting too much.(and maybe resemble too much the torch)

[BIGGUN]

Really they shoul make the fire part of the acting: should ghost be really pissed off, i think the flame would be roaring, almost white, with a heat haze making the air waving.


when the film was being developed in 2001 by Goyer and Norrington there was mention of how the flames would represent GR's emotional state at the time. the angrier he would get the flames would get redder or darker in color as well as getting larger. dont know if MSJ plans on keeping that idea but its possible.

[ScryerToo]

To be totally honest I am not sure how the Ghost Rider flame effects would be done, but I would hope that it is a combination of animatronics/CGI, as opposed to one or the other because even the best CGI tends to lack "weight", a feeling of substantiality (which makes sense because there really isn't anything there in the first place) and can look really fake (if there's any doubt, look at the multiple Mr. Smith vs. Neo fight from the Matrix Reloaded (or Revolutions. They kinda blur for me. The original Matrix is the only one that stands out). It's good CGI, for a video game, not so good if you're talking about a feature film.

[WarBlade]

Lacking weight is not the problem for fire though. With fire the 'fun part' will probably be generating the random nature of it's movement and working out the illumination and shadow play on nearby surfaces. That's assuming the flames get designed to look natural in the first place though, which may not be the case.

[AmerikazMostWanted]

special effects

http://www.goat.com/Graphics/ghost004.jpg

[FlameHead]

All I know is that it's probably a blessing that this movie has taken so long to come out. The special effects that are out there these days, those which have been developed in the last 3 years, are what's needed for Ghost Rider. If the movie was made a few years back we would have all cried. Now... NOw I have faith.

[Night]

That looks cool with the flaming skull I can't wait!

[FlameHead]

The flames look cool, yes. The actual skull is horrid and hopefully will be improved apon 10 fold.

[Compi716]

I know that some Ghost Rider CGI test footage was once done. I'm pretty sure that a picture of it is in Vartha's wallpaper (in his wallpaper thread). Does anybody know where I can see this footage?

[BIGGUN]

here is the link for the pics and info for the 1995 test shots....sadly no one has or seen the actual footage. just pics

http://www.goat.com/ghost_rider.html

[Compi716]

Oh, okay. Thanks.

I hope GR looks more realistic in the movie.

[FlameHead]

I'm sure he will. Those tests shots were done 10 years ago now. Things have advanced incredibly since those shots were done.

[Vartha]

Yeah Comp that's about how long I've had my Set of those. There never was actual footage on-line to my knowledge

[FlameHead]

I'm sure some of you out there who make those incredible animated avatars could animate those pics into something... interesting. There may not be enough images though... I don't know.

[Caliber]

Thats actually pretty good.

[FlameHead]

Really? I'm not very fond of it personally.

[deep98]

Hi, I'm new here.

Sorry if these ere already posted, but I ran accross this and thought this would be interesting to post for you Ghost Rider Fans.

http://www.goat.com/ghost_rider.html

Enjoy, Don't know if its real, but it was supposedly a test for Marvel.

[BIGGUN]

thanks for the effort but those pics were already posted here a long time ago.
those pics were from the 1995 GR treatment....which of course never got anywhere. like you said it was just a test by a cgi company in the hopes to land the job for the GR fx.

[HighVoltage]

Cool & excellent pics for my new Ghost Rider avatar,thanks.:up: :up: :ghost: :ghost:

[Fantastic-Boy]

Old......

[FlameHead]

I'm sure some of you out there who make those incredible animated avatars could animate those pics into something... interesting. There may not be enough images though... I don't know.

Hunter, if you're out there, how about usin' your Avatar makin' skills to whip us up some sort of animated thing using the goat images... if you have the time, of course.

That request, goes out to anyone by the way.

[FlameHead]

Bumpin this thread with info from the ComicCon info; http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0508/20/ghostrider.htm

Question: I would like to see some excellent CGI done on Ghost Rider.

Johnson: Yeah, thanks. We've got the guys who did Spider-Man 1 and 2, Sony Imageworks, that are doing it. They're really the best in the business. Kevin Mack, the visual effects person, he did Fight Club and he's really at the top of his game.

We played with the idea of looking at a mask, but of course once you're playing with fire you're in a CG realm anyway. It's kind of interesting, the way the Ghost Rider works. We film Nic or his double, dressed as the Ghost Rider, with the spikes, chains, leather and everything on him. But he wears an interactive light collar around his neck, sometimes a whole green helmet, and that's what we're going to be removing. So it is the person, it is the actor, but the head itself is CG. And that was our biggest challenge, making sure it looks absolutely fantastic.

[Vartha]

Very cool FH.

The Torch's CGI flames had 5 different layers to achieve the look properly.
From what we've seen in the footage, I think the are doing a great job so far.

[batman 833]

by the way i think black heart should be mostly done with prosthetics and a man in a suit like the lycans(werewolfs) in underworld where they only used cg for the big leaps and wall walking so a great suit with hair muscle you know every aspect of black heart's body covered,and i haven't seen nothing about the chain remember it is GR most bad ass weapon and probably the one he will mostly use in the fights so the chain movements are really important, probably the chain when in swinging and hitting slashing mode will be mostly cg i hope not but lets see, what do you think guys?

[FlameHead]

We're not yet sure how much of the comic Blackheart is evident in the film... but I don't think they used any prosthetics or anything. I think the demon side of the demons will come out w/ CG from the reports given to us by MSJ. I too would have like to have seen that though and I fear that Blackheart wont be the blackheart we all love to hate.

As for the chain, yes that is the main weapon and I'm sure it's gonna look fantastic.

Very cool FH.

The Torch's CGI flames had 5 different layers to achieve the look properly.
From what we've seen in the footage, I think the are doing a great job so far.

And we've see so very little yet. I think we better hold onto our hats when the footage of GR actually comes out. I have faith that it'll blow us away.

[FlameHead]

Like I've done before, I'm gonna organize MSJ's answers to our questions by putting them in the appropriate threads. This'll help keep the discussion from jumblin' up....

1. How is the CGI coming along? Anything special would should know about?

Kevin Mack and his team at Sony Imageworks are awesome. They have been working night and day to make Ghost Rider the coolest character in the Marvel Universe. I'm not going to lie to you -- it's been harder than anyone thought. CGI fire is known as one of the most difficult things to portray on film. There is a fire simulation program that they've created just for the movie that looks amazing, so that the fire moves naturally with Ghost Rider, whether he's walking or riding on the Hellcycle or standing in the wind atop a 75 story building. The incredibly tedious part is that the fire needs to be tweaked on a shot by shot basis. We analyze the fire constantly -- is it too rich, flickering too fast, too transparent, etc.? Also, how much fire, the hue of the flame, etc. depends on the Ghost Rider's mood. Naturally, most of the time his mood is pissed off! But there are times when we see the tortured side of him as well. And now that we're dialing in the flames as they pertain to Ghost Rider, we have to do the same thing with the Hellcycle. Of course, the villains all have different visual effects as well. So it's been a wild ride in the FX world.

[FlameHead]

"Naturally, most of the time his mood is pissed off!"

Awesome. Just awsome.

It's awesome that they created a program to handle Ghost Rider's flames. Brilliant and I guess necessary. A not of thought has to go into the flames as it's almost a character itself.

Sounds great!

[FlameHead]

The dreaded double post.

[Uncanny Orb]

I just can't wait to see what he looks like on film streaking down a highway.

[str8raz0r]

by the way i think black heart should be mostly done with prosthetics and a man in a suit like the lycans(werewolfs) in underworld where they only used cg for the big leaps and wall walking so a great suit with hair muscle you know every aspect of black heart's body covered,and i haven't seen nothing about the chain remember it is GR most bad ass weapon and probably the one he will mostly use in the fights so the chain movements are really important, probably the chain when in swinging and hitting slashing mode will be mostly cg i hope not but lets see, what do you think guys?

A little off topic, but the "wall walking" scenes w/ the Lycans in Underworld were actually guys in suits hanging from wires, and then the just CG'd in plaster getting torn up (as the guys obviously couldn't do that by themselves) and stuff like that. I found that especially cool, as I totally love prosthetics.

I think that we're going to be seeing a lot of good CGI in here, as the movie hasn't just been pushed back so that it can gather dust on the shelves. Obviously they're going to be spending it tweaking the **** out of all the CG so that it looks good. We're hitting the point where "the uncanny valley" is a sickening reality, and I'm sure Sony's going to want to counter that as much as possible.

It's almost sickening thinking about how much money they're going to be pulling in off of Marvel movies in '07. :)

[FlameHead]

Yeah, it'll be crazy but that'll make up for the drop they'll feel in 2006. Right now they only have 1 coming out with Punisher rumored.

[Retroman]

Saw this new article about previs and visual effects at VFXWorld.com (very good site). The article is pretty long and also talks about GR incl. some exclusive shots of the previs of the movie!

From VFXWORLD:
By Tara DiLullo
January 25, 2006

The Rapidly Growing World of Indie Previs

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/9647/previs03ghostriderbikehal1at.gifhttp://img95.imageshack.us/img95/8314/previs04ghostriderhalon6qs.gif
Halon received a huge boost when it was hired by its first outside client: Ghost Rider. The job allowed Halon to get started with hardware and software and without having to borrow money. © Sony Pictures.

Halon Ent.
Although incorporated in 2003 by Daniel Gregoire (previs supervisor of JAK Films on Star Wars: Episode II and III) to handle small freelance previs and vfx projects, Halon took off in the summer of 2004 when he got traded from Revenge of the Sith to Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. “It became too problematic to keep track of time and hours at JAK Films, so I suggested that it would be easier if my company took over,” Gregoire says. The extensive previs on War of the Worlds, as previously reported, was integral to the planning of the sci-fi remake, given the protracted production schedule and logistical challenges.

However, near the end of War of the Worlds, Halon received its first outside client: Ghost Rider, starring Nicolas Cage and based on the Marvel comic. For that project, Halon dispatched four staffers to Melbourne, Australia. They worked on it for three months, allowing Halon to get started on the ground with hardware and software and without having to borrow money.

Halon is completely funded by Gregoire and the projects themselves. He wishes to avoid investors and debt, and has been able to maintain technical relationships with vendors that worked on Star Wars, particularly AMD, which helped with infrastructure and computers. Halon relies mostly on Maya, After Effects and Photoshop among its small staff. Within the last year, Halon has been extremely busy, working on three sequels — X-Men 3, Spider-Man 3 and Evan Almighty — along with Disney’s Eight Below.


“Our biggest challenge is offering as flexible a package as possible to directors that are unpredictable,” Gregoire explains. “To be perfectly honest, we’ve had to take a step back since Star Wars for two reasons. Because we don’t have the resources of the Ranch or the budget to go after things. And Star Wars doesn’t buy us a whole lot of respect outside of San Francisco. And so a lot of companies that would’ve gladly given us stuff or worked with us exclusively, are not available. Hollywood is a different animal. Relationships are different; demands are different. As we build up clientele, it’s almost like beginning from scratch again because it’s all about who you know. Getting as strong a start as we did was either dumb luck or simply being at the right place at the right time. Competition in the previs industry is mounting fast. There are several companies that have started in the last year to six months and are in direct competition with us by people I don’t know and by people I know intimately.

“[Previs] is the big buzz phrase now. People think they need previs... So I think you’re seeing a lot of companies spring up, and a culling back of those — who knows which ones or when? Or maybe even smaller teams of specifically talented people. But I think one of the biggest problems right now is that film productions and studios think they need previs, but they don’t know what to do with it. There are two areas of direction: Previs has been a stronghold of the visual effects industry for a while… what’s happening now is that previs is transcending that and becoming more of the realm of the director and the producer and bridging the gaps between visual effects and production, so that the production people actually feel as though they are a part of this process. I think it’s taking more hold now. You still see a lot of visual effects-oriented previs that is run through the visual effects department, but we’re trying to sell ourselves more as a tool for the director and the production by providing the technical assistance and the technical data for the top level of the food chain.” Source: http://www.vfxworld.com/?sa=adv&code=319b255d&atype=articles&id=2765&page=2

[Uncanny Orb]

I've always wondered how much cheaper CGE is for sequels since they have all the programs and other software from the opriginal.

[InVictus]

It's always very interesting to see the various steps of the cgi..
Surely today directors do have amazing instruments to plan a scene involving cgi.. i wonder even if there's some kind of real time superimposing of the sample cgi in the real time digital camera shooting...

[FlameHead]

I always like it when they include this kinda stuff on the DVD. Ya know, show a particular sequence as storyboard, previs and then final product.

Great find by the way Retro. Thanks for posting it.

[Toxin66]

Bring Forth The Rider!

[Retroman]

I always like it when they include this kinda stuff on the DVD. Ya know, show a particular sequence as storyboard, previs and then final product.

Great find by the way Retro. Thanks for posting it.
No problem man. Things are a little around these parts aren't they?

[Retroman]

Another tidbit - Jeff Wolverton is working on the 'smoke effects'.

http://www.jeffwolverton.com/Resume/JeffWolvertonResume.html

and check out that manip behind this other effects guy from GR.

MacDuff Knox, BA '86, takes animated imagery to the big screen

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/4392/duffyknox7kh.jpg
Photo credit: Duffy Knox

"Usually I sit in front of my computer and create imagery, but sometimes I get to go on stage to watch the special effects guys create live effects," says MacDuff (Duffy) Knox, BA '86. He works for Sony Pictures Imageworks in Los Angeles as a Technical Director and a Computer Graphics Supervisor.

Duffy has worked on numerous Hollywood films including Ghost Rider, Bewitched, The Polar Express, The Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Charlie's Angels, Hollow Man, and Stuart Little.

"On a live feature film such as Spiderman, we have to match our 3D imagery to live action plates and make it appear real," says Duffy. "In a fully animated feature film such as Polar Express, we are creating the entire world."

After work, Duffy heads to the California mountains to climb, ski, or mountain bike, or to the beach to kayak, surf, or swim. "All of this makes the time in front of the computer worthwhile," he says.

http://duffyknox.smugmug.comSource: http://alumni.uwaterloo.ca/alumni/e-newsletter/2005/calendar/duffy_knox.html

[FlameHead]

He reminds me of Michael Chiklis.

Another great find Retro. What would we do without you?

[Chris Wallace]

Your avi makes GR look scary as hell. If I saw that coming toward me I'd lose about 5 pounds instantly.

[FlameHead]

It's not my avvy that makes GR scary. It's GR himself. He's one scary badass dude!

[Advanced Dark]

12:00 AM, 17-JANUARY-07http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/images/film_banner.gif http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/news_thumbnails/cage_ghostriderpos_tn.jpghttp://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/images/shadow_thumbnail_right1.gifhttp://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/images/shadow_thumbnail_bottom1.gifGhost Not Quite Ready Yet

Mark Steven Johnson, director of the upcoming Ghost Rider, told SCI FI Wire that he's still working on the film's visual effects and editing with only one month to go before its Feb. 14 release. "I literally came from the Sony mixing stage, but I wanted to give a good introduction to the fans," Johnson said at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles on Jan. 14.

Johnson appeared with one of the movie's stars, Eva Mendes, to show nine minutes of new footage from the movie, based on the Marvel Comics superhero with a blazing skull and flaming motorcycle. An appreciative audience of about 200 whooped and applauded after seeing the footage.

"I'm still working on it," Johnson said. "There's still some rough stuff. There's some old footage on the Internet with some early effects, and this is a huge step up."

Mendes, wearing a light dress and high heels, was introduced to the crowd cradling a hot coffee and bundled in a jacket. "I'm so cold," she said, as she was coaxed out of the jacket by applause so she could reveal her outfit.

Mendes admitted that she wasn't a comic book fan, like her co-star Nicolas Cage, but became a fan after reading the script. "I want to thank Mark for not making me just the 'chick.' I think she's a modern day powerful female role who still shows that she's vulnerable," she said.

Mendes added: "I think there's a superhero in me. I would watch Nic and say, 'Aw, why can't I be on fire?' I would like to be a superhero." —Mike Szymanski
Source: SciFi Wire via comics2film

[Vartha]

Cool, Mark is definetly a busy guy.

[Canadian Rider]

B**T**DS !! Eva says she is cold but they make her take her coat off! Pigs.






Sorry.




quiet now again until I can find some audio ....


:ghost:

[Advanced Dark]

Heh heh heh. Photo-opp.

[The Ones]

I wonder if some of the effects would have to be improved from the theratrical to the dvd. This is some serious crunch time they are playing at here

[webhead731]

MSJ is working this to perfection.:up:

Good for him.:up:

[NDX]

Must love the dedication to perfect this film. Not surprising he's still working on it, probably will be until the first week of Feb.

[Buttman]

I wonder if some of the effects would have to be improved from the theratrical to the dvd.
I can't see that happeninng buddy. :cwink:

[hellfiremaster]

"Mendes, wearing a light dress and high heels, was introduced to the crowd cradling a hot coffee and bundled in a jacket. "I'm so cold," she said, as she was coaxed out of the jacket by applause so she could reveal her outfit."

Her, cold. Yaaa OOOOOOK... she could walk down the frozen food isle and melt ever Birdseye package in the place... :heart:

Who is she kidding....

HFM

[FlameHead]

Awesome find AD!

Not that any of us really need it but, it sure is refreshing to know that after 4 years of complete dedication to something, MSJ still has the determination for perfection. I truly get the feeling that not only is he trying to make the absolute best product he can but, he's also ensuring that we, the diehards, are gonna be happy as well.

Either way, I'm sure it'll blow everyone away. This is a first of it's kind. On Feb 16th, we're going to see things that has never been seen before and, to me, that's kinda rare these days.

[zer00]

This is...a surprise?

[PenanceStare]

MSJ is working this to perfection.:up:

Good for him.:up:


Yep, this flick is going to be great!

[FlameHead]

This is...a surprise?

Nah, not really. Still fun to talk about though...

[zer00]

Alright

if you excuse me I have to help Lucifer break into Heaven

I have to load some equipment into the blimp

[Lobster Charlie]

I don't have real issue with the effects---more with the miserable, plain, music-video/t.v. show lighting, the lack of grit, and casting an old man to play Johnny Blaze.

Of course, I'll watch it anyway.

[zer00]

Are you a Cinematographer?

No?

Okay, just asking

[The_Raven]

I don't have real issue with the effects---more with the miserable, plain, music-video/t.v. show lighting, the lack of grit, and casting an old man to play Johnny Blaze.

Of course, I'll watch it anyway.

Cage is 42. Hardly what I'd call an "old man".

Would you have been happier with Justin Timberlake?

[Lobster Charlie]

Are you a Cinematographer?

No?

Okay, just asking

:whatever:

[Lobster Charlie]

Cage is 42. Hardly what I'd call an "old man".

Would you have been happier with Justin Timberlake?

Not necessarily Justin, just someone younger and more fitting for the role. I think 42 is too old for something like this.

[zer00]

:whatever:

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/193/buckwheat5ih.jpg

[The_Raven]

Not necessarily Justin, just someone younger and more fitting for the role. I think 42 is too old for something like this.

To each his own, man.

Nearly all of us around here have embraced Cage as Blaze, so I don't know what to tell you. Personally I think Nic is a pretty awesome dude.

I feel ya, though, I still don't 100% dig Tobey as Spidey, and I'm like one of the three people left on the planet who think that. So who knows?

Just keep an open mind, it can't be that bad.

[Advanced Dark]

Nic Cage has a personality that can't be replaced just by age. He's very "alive" in his films and can pull it off. In a perfect world it'd be nice to have him do this 10 years ago but they could not have made this film back then...not with these f/x.

[shatterstar4ml]

Am I the only one who has a bad feeling about this movie? The shift in release and constant tweaking set off the alarms in my head. I really hope I'm wrong but this project has me more than a little worried. Nicholas Cage is an ok choice for Blaze but when he's bad he's HORRIBLE. Sometimes I think he mails it in just for the paycheck.:huh:

[Advanced Dark]

The release date shift was smart for a few reasons:

1) The film wasn't ready.
2) The competition was too fierce for this type of character making his first appearance on film.
3) Presidents Day offers no competition. There are no other comic book films of significance or any other mega-budget event films so this should quench the thirst of those waiting for Spiderman, etc...

[shatterstar4ml]

They always give you those reasons though. I'm finding that more and more a shift to the early stages of the year is a dumping ground. Johnson already ruined Daredevil for me so I can't take disapointment this time.

[Advanced Dark]

Presidents Day is not a dumping ground and they wouldn't place a 120 million dollar film there if it was. It's a solid release date which has proven successful several times with comedies and action films.

[The Ones]

Johnson already ruined Daredevil for me so I can't take disapointment this time.

Dude, he got it right first time, its just no one got to see it. Buy the directors cut and see how the movie was ****ed by Fox and see what a masterpiece his version was

[Mr Nick]

Nicholas Cage is an ok choice for Blaze but when he's bad he's HORRIBLE. Sometimes I think he mails it in just for the paycheck.:huh:

He certainly didn't phone this one in. He's been a Ghost Rider fan since he was a boy and has been behind this movie for years.

:yay:

[Midnyte_Sun]

This movie's production reminds me of the production time of a certain award-winning videogame - Eternal Darkness. (it took 5 years to make) (If you guys haven't played it, you're missing out BIG time!)

It took years to develop, it went from one console to another, but in the end the game was a Masterpiece, every fine little detail was tweaked out in this game, every little thing they could possibly add to make this game more frightening, they put it in, this game was just simply amazing to watch and play.

I think MSJ is tweaking this movie to make those little things stand out, every flame by flickering flame...

[Canadian Rider]

Make it so MSJ ... we can wait ...

[GDM]

I truly believe this movie is going to amaze. It's going to be the coolest comic book movie ever.

[Vartha]

yes, the thing is, to get people INTO the theaters to see the film tho.

[shatterstar4ml]

As a fellow fan I hope you're all right. I haven't been this excited about a movie in awile. By the way did anyone pick up that Ghost Rider and Flame Cycle set? I bought it today and that is a work of art.

[Advanced Dark]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/photos/stylus/2227.jpg "Ghost Rider"


Sony Pictures Imageworks at 15

The effects unit continues to raise the bar for digital production with creatIons that span the invisible,the spectacular and the emotional.

By Deborah Kaufman
Jan 17, 2007

"Beowulf," director Robert Zemeckis' latest partnership with Sony Pictures Imageworks, promises to bring us one step closer to photoreal humans and to making animation as easy as filming live actors. The imaginative retelling of the ancient epic poem features performance-capture animation, which Zemeckis has enthusiastically adopted as an animation technique -- and also highlights the well-honed strengths of his visual effects/animation facility of choice. In fact, the Paramount-distributed "Beowulf" could be said to be a showcase for everything at which Imageworks excels: sophisticated character animation, proprietary performance-capture techniques and tools and photoreal, spectacular and invisible effects.

"(2004's) 'The Polar Express' and (Sony's July release) 'Monster House' were also performance-captured, but 'Beowulf' has a completely different look," Zemeckis' producing partner Steve Starkey says. "(Imageworks' senior creative director) Ken (Ralston) suggested we try this technique because it would give us the freedom to express ourselves, and yet we could layer all different kinds of styles. Ken keeps coming up with the technique, the solution ... and this has allowed us to make the movies we wanted to make. We go to Imageworks for that kind of inspiration."

Finding innovative solutions always has been at the heart of the company's success. Making key hires that attracted top-end talent, creating tools and an infrastructure to support their artistic visions and pushing beyond the boundaries of what had been done before helped Imageworks evolve from a small in-house visual effects division into a full-fledged digital production company with active divisions in key-frame computer-generated animation, performance-capture animation, visual effects and stereoscopic 3-D films. With an extensive digital backlot of buildings and cityscapes, Imageworks, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, is the quintessential digital studio.

From its humble beginnings in 1992 in a couple of borrowed offices in a far corner of the Columbia TriStar Pictures lot, Imageworks has been on an upward trajectory. It opened its doors at a time when motion picture studios were buying or creating their own in-house visual effects houses -- among them, Warner Digital Studios, Disney's the Secret Lab and VIFX, an independent company that Fox purchased. Fast-forward to today, and Imageworks is the last man standing, a testament to Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment president Yair Landau's vision of what Imageworks could be. "My contribution was to say, 'Let's be the Sony of the visual effects companies,'" Landau says. "We'll only work on shows where the quality level is such that our artists are motivated, and we can grow the abilities of the company."

Attracting those artists and other core talent was the first step in growing the company. The 1995 arrival of Ralston, whose visual effects career includes 1977's "Star Wars," marked a major shift in the company's direction. Ralston brought with him Industrial Light + Magic colleague Debbie Denise, now executive vp infrastructure. Ralston also brought with him a relationship with Zemeckis, one of the early Hollywood directors to embrace the new digital technologies. And when president Tim Sarnoff joined Imageworks from his previous position as senior vp at WDS, the course was set. "With the arrival of Ken, Imageworks found creative leadership, and with Tim, operating leadership," Landau says. "They righted the ship, and when I came onboard, I steered it."
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With creative and operating leadership in place, Imageworks was ready to move beyond the spectacular and invisible effects for which the company had become known. 1999's "Stuart Little" was the motivating force behind the company's launch of both CG-animated features and performance capture. What began as a spunky mouse with realistic fur and a digital wardrobe designed by a real tailor led to Sony Pictures Animation, which opened its doors in May 2002, and the push into motion capture, or what Sony calls performance capture, the technique whereby movements of real actors animate CG characters. And, after "Polar Express" stormed the U.S. boxoffice in an IMAX 3-D version, Sony also opened a division devoted to transforming 2-D movies into stereoscopic versions for IMAX theaters and ordinary motion picture screens turned into 3-D theaters with Real D technology.

Today, Imageworks' creations span the invisible, the spectacular and the emotional. "Imageworks as a company has directed a great deal of its focus toward creating believable digital characters," Sarnoff explains. "Its contribution to the industry is to allow those characters to perform in a live-action movie, a performance-capture movie or an animated movie -- all with the same degree of verisimilitude you'd expect from a real actor." Sarnoff notes that the company's evolution from producing spectacular effects to achieving emotional performances is much like the evolution of the industry itself. "Films started out being the spectacular -- (1904's) 'The Great Train Robbery' was all about the train -- and the movies that move us today are about the performances."

Sarnoff points out that Imageworks is not simply focused on performances in animated features such as (Sony's September offering) "Open Season," "Polar Express" and the upcoming "Beowulf" and Sony's "Surf's Up" but in its continuing visual effects work. "We're as focused on the wave in 'Surf's Up' as we are in the surfer riding the wave," he says. "We're not talking about the technology used to create the pixels but about the feeling that the image gives us. All our artists are actors, whether they're doing lighting or shading or performance -- they're performing for the audience, and their creation can be seen on the screen."

These abilities all come together in such work as 2002's "Spider-Man," 2004's "Spider-Man 2" and Warner Bros. Pictures' "Superman Returns," all of which featured healthy amounts of all genres of visual effects. Visual effects supervisor John Dykstra describes why he trusted Imageworks to make Spider-Man fly and to create a "stunt" version of the superhero up close and digital. "I always feel that the people working there are motivated by a true desire to make the product better," he says. "Each of the people who took a leadership role was as dedicated to the project as to the company, which is a huge advantage in going through a creative, intensive project. I just find the environment there is based on creativity."

Having proved its mettle in creating an aerodynamic Spider-Man and Superman, Imageworks was irresistible to Mark Steven Johnson, director of Sony's upcoming "Ghost Rider." "When you see someone that's done great work in the superhero genre -- it's one thing to create something artificial but something else to understand heroes," he says. "I knew their work with completely CG characters, especially ('Spider-Man 2's') Doc Ock in close-up. That's very hard to pull off."

An additional bonus, Johnson says, is that the Imageworks artists he's working with already are comic book fans and motorcycle enthusiasts. "We have a shot of Ghost Rider (Nicolas Cage) going off a building," he says. "He was going to hug the wall and go straight down. The artist had him bash into a parapet and go airborne. It was so much more than what I asked for, and that's what you always hope for."

Imageworks executive vp production Jenny Fulle says that pushing the visual effects envelope for so many years has resulted not just in an expertise in digital characters but a repository of digital assets that give the company a leg up in new creation. "We have a digital backlot of environments -- the buildings we've created, the cityscapes we've done," she says. "We absolutely use it as a library. It is easy for us to take the geometry of a building, for example, and redress it. Whether it's animation, visual effects or motion capture, we're encompassing all the digital tools to create the most options for a filmmaker to tell his story. And we have a lot of tools to offer."

The challenge has been to create a production pipeline for each of the four divisions -- key-frame CG animation, performance-capture animation, visual effects and stereoscopic 3-D films -- all of which must maximize efficiency and maintain the integrity and value of the digital assets flowing through it. "We take a modular approach," Denise explains. "I like to refer to the infrastructure as the hub of a wheel, with different departments being the spokes. Being modular, we can pick and choose what module we want for each part of the pipeline, and having two or three ways to go for each task is really helpful."

Senior vp technology Bill Villarreal notes how the pipeline distinguishes Imageworks.

"I think from a technology standpoint, we're the only facility that has developed pipelines for live-action visual effects, performance capture and fully animated CG movies," he says.

Fulle adds that with the pipeline group, the main focus is to accrue and centralize the technologies developed on each show. "In the early days, we reinvented everything for each show," she says. "Now, we leverage what we develop for each show." For the animated projects from SPA, that means the filmmaker is free to design characters and environments to his specifications. "There is no 'house look' for Sony Animation," says Sarnoff, who notes that this ability is based on the company's longtime expertise in visual effects. "Whoever comes to this facility can design exactly what they want. The ultimate goal is to create stories based on what's interesting to the audience, and we can create whatever we need to."

At the heart of that ability are Imageworks' technical whizzes, who write the computer code necessary to create new effects and new ways of working. Senior vp and chief technology officer George Joblove and Villarreal have provided the technological basis for Imageworks' transition into character animation, both key-framed and performance-captured.

Their crowning achievement is the trademarked performance-capture system, which the firm assembled from scratch and has developed into a sophisticated means of capturing facial and body movements simultaneously. Joblove reports that they continue to develop the system, to improve the way Imageworks' assets are managed and to write better tools for creating realistic visual effects and more effective rendering of animation, as well as to work on ways to manage Imageworks' expansion to remote facilities.

"I think it's a great time to be in the industry," Sarnoff says. "More and more, we're becoming less about the cycles of the big visual effects movies and more a part of moviemaking. We've become part of the fabric of making movies, whether it's a romance or a drama or an action-adventure (film)."


Nice Read.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003534149

[NDX]

yes, the thing is, to get people INTO the theaters to see the film tho.

You think there's any possibility of starting up a worldwide Ghost Rider cult in time for the movie release and have the culmination at the movie debut?

[CAH]

Pretty cool.

CAH

[WiscoD]

Nice Read.Great read !!!!

[Advanced Dark]

The Cult is already here. Join us.

[The_Raven]

The Cult is already here. Join us.

I wanna kill...everyone...

Satan is good....Satan is our pal....

[MarvelMovies]

AD,

What was the original ink of that article?

Thanks.

[Advanced Dark]

Oh hell sorry. I think it was Variety. Hold on...it's gone now. It was Hollywood Reporter or Variety. Sorry to the source but I usually put the link and forgot.

I found this one but this isn't it:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003534145

This one is similar but not word for word:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003534147

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh HERE IT IS:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003534149

[Mr Nick]

LOL. Love that film.

:woot:

[Mr Nick]

Thanks, AD. Must be cool to work for an effects house. Hard work, but fun.

:wow:

[MarvelMovies]

:D

Thanks very much AD, great find.

[Canadian Rider]

Come to the Rider Side. It's way cooler over here ... :ghost:

[thegameq]

Interesting read. I like Imageworks; they aren't in the same league as WETA and ILM, but their work is commendable.

[FlameHead]

They always give you those reasons though. I'm finding that more and more a shift to the early stages of the year is a dumping ground. Johnson already ruined Daredevil for me so I can't take disapointment this time.

Those are very good reasons to push a movie back. You have to realize that the visuals that's been created for this movie have never been done before and stuff like that takes time to perfect. You also have to realize that MSJ wanted to do extra scenes; another reason for the push back. To me, the date change is not a horrible thing at all because we now are getting Ghost Rider fighting with a helicopter.... not to mention unrushed special effects.

[Advanced Dark]

Come to the Rider Side. It's way cooler over here ... :ghost:

"Cooler" Ya think? I'm sweating!

[Spider-Steve]

"Cooler" Ya think? I'm sweating!

:woot:

Good one!!!

But Ghost Rider is "cool" or must i say hot?

Steve

[Retroman]

Click on the pics for some clips.

From VFXWORLD:

Ghost Rider: A Marvel in CG Fire Dynamics
Alain Bielik discovers how Sony Pictures Imageworks mastered the ultimate in “totally realistic and controllable” CG fire as the centerpiece of Ghost Rider. Includes Quicktime clips!
By Alain Bielik
[ Posted on February 15, 2007 ]

If you have the QuickTime plug-in, you can view two clips showing Sony Imageworks’ vfx work by simply clicking the image.

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/1538/ghost01ghostriderty3023vz9.gif (http://mag.awn.com/issue11.11/11.11clips/GhostRider-FirstRide-400.mov)
Out of some 600 effects shots for Ghost Rider, Sony Imageworks and vfx supervisor Kevin Mack oversaw 342 shots. All images © 2007 Columbia Pictures Industries Inc. and GH One LLC. All rights reserved.

When Ghost Rider opens Feb. 16, Sony Pictures certainly hopes that the Marvel Comics superhero will set the box office on fire. After all, it tells the tale of stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) who sells his soul to the Devil and becomes a hellblazing vigilante. With his flaming skull and fiery motorcycle, the Ghost Rider is one of the most unique superheroes ever conceived. He also was one of the most difficult to visualize on the big screen. Contrary to most superheroes, the character couldn’t be portrayed by a man in a suit -- in any shot. It could only be created via computer-generated animation.

The challenge to generate the ultimate CG fire was assigned to Sony Pictures Imageworks and visual effects supervisor Kevin Mack, with Josh R. Jaggars acting as vfx producer. “Ghost Rider features over 600 effects shots, of which Imageworks did 342 shots,” Mack says. “We focused on the more creative effects, such as characters and key environments, and we farmed out the more straightforward effects, such as rig removals and sky replacements, to other vendors.”

For Mack and his team, the priority was to develop a totally realistic and controllable CG fire. The concept behind the Ghost Rider character was that, under certain circumstances, his bones start superheating. The heat first dries out the flesh and skin, before burning them from the inside out, leaving nothing else but blazing bones. Director Mark Steven Johnson (Daredevil) wanted a rich inextinguishable layer of flames flowing over the character’s skull and hands. This supernatural Hell fire, which was clean burning and cool to the touch, would become hot when it left his body. “Our main challenge was to create a realistic fire that had a distinct quality,” Mack recalls. “We started by shooting tests with a mannequin skull on fire. It showed us that if you expose for the scene, the fire will burn white and the colors will be overexposed. On the other hand, if you expose for the fire, you do get rich colors and details, but everything else in the scene goes dark. So, I suggested that we always render the fire with the best possible exposure, regardless of the light conditions of the surrounding environment. Since this was a fire from Hell, we had some latitude to make it look beautiful. It gave us a rich, detailed and colorful fire with a surreal quality.”

http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/5702/ghost02ghostriderla5241hm6.gif
On each shot, the first step consisted of tracking the plate and then matchmoving a 3D scan of Cage to the actor’s performance. The 3D skull and hands fit inside the 3D body, allowing the fire animation to start literally within the body.

Combining 3D Packages
Digital effects supervisor Ken Hahn did the initial testing, and effects animation supervisor Patrick Witting took over to develop the fire system. “It was all about control and directability of the fire,” Witting explains. “Maya’s fluid engine was the core fluid solver, but it was limited in its emitter and colliders. So, we used Houdini to drive them, and we wrote a custom Maya plug-in to read and interpret that Houdini data on every frame. This hybrid system gave us controls for a variety of simulation situations, both physically motivated as well as crazy stuff. Each distinct piece of fire was typically one layer, coming from one simulation version. That being the case, characters were typically broken up into many distinct simulations. For instance, Ghost Rider had separate simulations for his skull, his neck, each eye and each hand. The Hell Cycle had a separate simulation for each wheel and so on.”

One of the major challenges for the CG team, lead by JD Cowles and Brian Steiner, was to generate a fire that would react to full speed motorcycle rides, helicopter rotors, and even burn underwater. When the fire lacked the required dynamics, counter-forces were built in to simulate motions that would make the fire react as dramatically as possible, while maintaining a level of believability. “Many of the simulations were parented to the character -- to allow the thin layers around them to travel with them – rather than being left behind – as you might expect of a motorcycle ripping down the road for instance,” Witting explains. “To make parented simulations look realistic, we calculated counter-forces on every frame -- one for velocity and another one for acceleration. Key-framable multipliers on these motion channels drove Maya forces to give realistic and/or artistic responses to a character’s motion.”

For aesthetic and dramatic reasons, there was not any smoke associated with Hell fire. “There was heat distortion for each fire simulation, though,” Witting continues. “It was a separate particle simulation, based on the approved fire simulation, which drove compositing warp nodes for the background and characters behind the fire.” Similar artistic license enabled the character to keep his clothes intact although his entire body was on fire…

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/6373/ghost03ghostriderdf0877gg3.gif
The vfx team’s priority was to develop a totally realistic and controllable CG fire. The fire was always rendered with the best possible exposure, regardless of the light conditions of the surrounding environment, giving a rich, detailed and colorful

Interactive Effects
During plate photography, the crew used special rigs to simulate the presence of Hell fire on set. “I didn’t want having to replace entire parts of the environment to create interactive light effects in CG,” Mack observes. “So, we used interactive lighting rigs that allowed us to capture, in camera, the flickering light of the fire being cast on the actors and on the environment. Nicolas Cage or his stunt double wore a mask that was covered with powerful amber-colored LEDs. We had a program that fluctuated their brightness randomly. The bike had the same LED rig mounted on the wheels and inside the engine. It gave us great interactive light effects on the Ghost Rider’s shoulders and on the other characters around him, as well as on the ground around the motorcycle. It made our CG fire look all the more real.”

On each shot, the first step consisted of tracking the plate, and then matchmoving a 3D scan of Cage to the actor’s performance. The 3D skull and hands fit inside the 3D body, allowing the fire animation to start literally within the body. The first visible effect of the transformation is steam, which then turns to smoke, both being computer-generated. The team rendered the skin burning away like paper, with burn holes growing all over the body, head and hands and revealing the bones underneath. Throughout the transformation, Cage’s image was re-projected onto the actor’s animated 3D replica. This allowed the team to retain the original live-action element as long as possible, and to progressively switch to 3D animation as the skin burned away.

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/6838/ghost04ghostridergr862tys5.jpg (http://mag.awn.com/issue11.11/11.11clips/GhostRider-StopFollowingMe-400.mov)
Johnny Blaze touches his motorbike, igniting a transformation on the vehicle. The team built a CG replica of the two motorcycles: the regular version and the Hell version.

During the transformation, Johnny Blaze touches his motorbike, igniting a similar transformation on the vehicle. To this purpose, the team built a CG replica of the two motorcycles: the regular version and the Hell version. The Hell cycle was later used in many shots in which both the Rider and his vehicle are entirely CG. This approach was employed whenever the character had to reach full speed or in specific environments, such as in the desert scene. “This was one of the most complex sequences,” Mack notes. “We had the Ghost Rider and the Old West Ghost Rider, a blazing horseman, racing along in the desert at night with great swooping camera moves. The sequence was so ambitious that we couldn’t even shoot any plate for it. It was entirely created in the computer: horseman, biker, environment and all. It was quite a challenge because we had this completely CG sequence that had to blend in the middle of a live-action film. Photorealism was thus of paramount importance. Using Maya, we built a 3D horseman that was key-framed throughout the shot by animation supervisor Marco Marenghi and his team. We didn’t use any motion capture on this project at all. The animation turned out to be tricky because the character had to appear as if he was riding at 70 mph… ” The far background, the mountains and the sky were created as a huge 360° matte painting. The closer desert environment was then modeled in 3D with plants, rocks, bushes and dry riverbeds.

Whenever the Ghost Rider left a long fiery trail behind him, this signature effect required a specific approach. “As you increase the volume of the area in which the fire is being simulated, the complexity of the simulation goes up exponentially,” Mack says. “We couldn’t create a simulation volume that was big enough to hold the whole trail. So, we ended up creating the trail in little sections that were then combined in compositing.”
The CG fire was rendered in a proprietary render engine, while the other elements were handled in RenderMan. Most of the compositing was carried out in the proprietary compositing software package Bonsai. “We had a variety of render quality settings - one appropriate for evaluating motion, another for final rendering, and many in between,” Witting explains. “As the memory and render times went up with increased quality, our main tool for keeping things manageable was sliced rendering: slices perpendicular to the camera direction were rendered on separate processors, then glued back together.”

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/1526/ghost05ghostriderla5241ji7.gif
The concept behind the Ghost Rider character was that, under certain circumstances, his bones start superheating. The heat first dries out the flesh and skin, before burning them from the inside out, leaving nothing else but blazing bones.

Elemental Demons
Besides the fire simulation, Sony Pictures Imageworks also had to create three complex characters: Wallow, a demon that forms out of water and dissolves into water at will; Abigor, the ethereal wind elemental demon; and Gressil, the demon that forms out of swirling bits of dirt. Each elemental demon involved building a 3D replica of the actor in Maya, and then using this body as a template to create the effects in Houdini. “The template would be used to turn the character into water, dirt or wind,” Mack says. “For instance, the Wind demon looks solid, but when the Ghost Rider swings his chain at him, the weapon passes right through him, as if he was made of smoke. We first matchmoved our 3D demon to the actor’s motions. Then, we used the body to emit particles, and the particles picked up the color of the area that they came from. We made those particles maintain their coherence for a moment after they left the surface, which made for some cool effects in which you see part of the character drift away leaving the original body behind. For some flashes, we used Inferno to add a more demonic quality to his face: his mouth would become distorted, his eyes would change shape, his teeth would get bigger, etc.”

Understandably, the team is quite proud of what has been achieved in terms of fire simulation. “CG fire and fluids tend to look unreal on screen, but I think we broke it with this project,” Mack concludes. “Also, CG fire is generally used for daily life elements, such as a curtain on fire, a candle flame or a camp fire. For Ghost Rider, we actually created a tool that allowed us to do a lot more with it in terms of moving around quickly and realistically reacting to many different forces. We had complete control over its movement and color, all the while keeping it photoreal. I consider this our greatest achievement.”

Alain Bielik is the founder and editor of renowned effects magazine S.F.X, published in France since 1991. He also contributes to various French publications and occasionally to Cinefex. In 2004, he organized a major special effects exhibition at the Musée International de la Miniature in Lyon, France.Source: http://www.vfxworld.com/?atype=articles&id=3178
http://www.vfxworld.com/?atype=articles&id=3178&page=2

[Retroman]

Theres more info and making-off clips on Sony Imageworks official site.

http://www.imageworks.com/films/ghostrider/
http://www.imageworks.com/films/ghostrider/production_notes.html

[Vartha]

SWEET Thanks Retro!

[Retroman]

No problemo!:yay:

[InVictus]

Woha Retroman, awesome informations! So they did also heat distortion! I really like they had a layer of fire sticking around his skull, that's part of the '90 iconic look!

[Mr. Socko]

Awesome article 'n clips, thanks!

[Retroman]

You're welcome. Sent it into the hype mainpage thought it might be interesting for others to see.:yay:

[incognito rider]

Hadn't seen that before!!! Seriously cool!

[Mr Nick]

That's one of your best finds yet, Retro. Ya bloodhound you!

Love the animations too.

You just don't realise how much work goes into these effects shots.

:wow:

[incognito rider]

So how would you rate the FX in this movie? Good, bad, indifferent?

[Vartha]

I want to see MORE CARTER SLADE dangit!!! :D I need to make some Slade wall papers lol

[Retroman]

That's one of your best finds yet, Retro. Ya bloodhound you!

Love the animations too.

You just don't realise how much work goes into these effects shots.

:wow:

Thanks!!:D Loved GR's laugh in the clip when he lands on the top of the roof.

[Retroman]

Heres another effects article.

From Digit Online:

A burning desire for tax returns
Monday 12 Feb 2007 - 15:54

New York-based design and effects house Quiet Man (http://www.quietman.com/) has taken comic-book hero Ghost Rider to Jackson Hewitt in a new spot for the tax preparation specialists.

Ghost Rider is the titular hero of a Marvel comic books series who will be brought to life through Nicolas Cage in a movie version due this Friday, February 16 – just in time for tax season in the US.

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/7381/rider1gr0.jpg

"We’re all comic book nerds here, so we jumped at the spot," says Johnnie Semerad, Founder and Creative Director at Quiet Man. "We saw right away that this wasn’t your typical movie tie-in, where they just show scenes from the trailers alongside a company logo. Ghost Rider is an active character in this spot, and it’s really funny."

The spot takes place in an otherwise typical-looking office setting, with an amiable, white-shirted tax professional conferring politely with 'Mr. Rider', who just happens to be our bony, burning hero. Asking his client for important tax forms, the Jackson Hewitt representative is surprised, but never unprofessional, when the forms arrive in flames, blithely dousing them with his coffee. Printing off the Rider’s tax return and Money Now check, the rep smilingly sends his client on his incendiary way, watching a flaming motorcycle recede into the distance even as his office begins to incinerate around him.

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/2766/rider2gt2.jpg

In order to appropriately blend the Ghost Rider into the incongruous scene, Semerad and the Quiet Man team had just two weeks to create a feature film quality skull, two bony hands, and a lot of leaping flames. With a tight deadline, Quiet Man managed to turn the spot around in just two weeks -- which included the New Year’s weekend -- and deliver a final version on January 5.

"Luckily, we have an army of artists here,” remarks Semerad. “Josh Jaggers and the team at Sony Pictures Imageworks were great to work with, and provided us with all the elements we needed to do the animations. We even got to see all the effects shots from the movie, and it isn’t even out yet.

"We had a team of artists working on Autodesk Flame and Inferno to remove the actor’s head, and another team working in Softimage|XSI to create the flaming skull that would replace it. They worked around the clock to create and animate the skull, hands, and all the fire elements. We then took it back to Flame for compositing.”

http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/6228/rider3fn4.jpg

For Semerad, the spot’s biggest creative challenge was one of attaining feature film quality. The spot might be humorous in intent, but a cheesy facsimile of the film would never do:

"Ghost Rider is a hero around our office, and we wanted to do character and the movie justice," he says. "He’s a familiar and established character, and we were determined to match the movie’s professional treatment of him, even for a short and funny spot. We had as many as fifteen people working around the clock on this project, and it took everybody’s top effort to pull it off in time. Imageworks paid us a big compliment when they didn’t ask for any changes."

Imageworks’ Josh Jaggers was quick to congratulate the Quiet Man team:

"The spot is hysterical,” says Jaggers. “Quiet Man did a huge amount of work in a short amount of time. It’s great."

The commercial can be viewed here (http://www.quietman.com/jobs/ghostrider/JH_GhostRider.mov).

For more information see the Quiet Man Web site (http://www.quietman.com/).

Digit StaffSource: http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=7206

[FlameHead]

Awesome stuff Retro. Thanks a lot man!

The effects were amazing, there's no doubt about that. I can only imagine the number of man hours that went into bringing to life.

[incognito rider]

I can only imagine the number of man hours that went into bringing to life.

The dev work for the fire took nine solid months alone.....

[FlameHead]

Holy crapper. I can totally see why though. The effects were absolutly amazing and if this movie doesn't get some sort of nod from some high profile place or people, then I'm convinced that everyone/hollywood just has it out for this movie.

Amazing work and a visual masterpiece, when it comes to digital art... any art for that matter. For those who don't like the story should at least appreciate this.

[incognito rider]

Hmm - it would be awesome if it at least got a nod. It'd be up against Pirates3 and Spidey3 to name just a couple. Thats pretty stiff competition.

[Visionary]

Spidey 3
Pirates 3
Transformers
Harry Potter
Fantastic Four 2

I doubt GR will get a nod. :(

[FlameHead]

Hmm - it would be awesome if it at least got a nod. It'd be up against Pirates3 and Spidey3 to name just a couple. Thats pretty stiff competition.

Still competition yeah but, a nod at least is warrented. Ghost Rider has visuals that have never been done before and it should be at least recognized for that. IT better be!

[Nebins]

Special effects were freaking awesome! Some of the best I've ever seen

[FlameHead]

Me too. Has any one found any articles yet praising this stuff? Like FX mags or anything?

[Midnyte_Sun]

You know virtual flames, demons, dont get that much appreciation. Hellboy had some amazing digital flame work done also, but I dont remember that getting any awards.

I bet you a 15 foot tall transformer will get all kinds of awards.

Se la Vida.

[Advanced Dark]

http://features.cgsociety.org/stories/2007_02/ghostrider/img02.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3945)

Click on the pic ABOVE ^^^[/center]

http://features.cgsociety.org/stories/2007_02/ghostrider/img01.jpg


Scorchin’ Models
Modelers at Imageworks worked from cyberscans to build digital doubles in Maya of Nicholas Cage and his two stunt doubles. (One stunt double rode Johnny Blaze’s Harley, the other rode the huge “hell cycle.”) In addition, they built motorcycles and a skeletal, demonic horse.

“The hell cycle was probably one of the most complicated models we’ve done as far as the amount of geometry and detail,” says Brian Steiner, CG supervisor. “Usually, we create a whole model and then spend a week adding detail. But we built this piece by piece at high resolution. Every couple of days, the modeler would bring out another little section.”

For the horse, the modelers started with a skeleton, built a rough body on top, and then added a muscle system and interconnecting tissues. “Basically, we ended up with sheets that connected piece to piece,” says Steiner. “We had to do a lot of chaining to make them look like tendons that connected one part to another. Each piece was simple, but when added together, it was complex.”

Rigging the rides was equally complex. “For the motorcycles, we started with the Harley, which was a simpler design,” says Steiner. “We tried to make it as straightforward as possible for the animators.” Controls built into the rig, for example, automatically tightened brake lines and banked the bike when animators turned it around corners.

Once the Harley rig worked the way they wanted, they migrated the rig to the hell cycle. “It didn’t have brake lines, and the proportions were different, so we modified the basic controls,” says Steiner. The horse was actually more difficult. “It had a very long backbone which was complicated to move right when it gaited, but the muscle pieces were the biggest problem,” says Steiner. “We built a volumetric deformer that was like a little muscle system, so when the muscle got shorter it would bulge out.”

A separate system put skin on top, but only in some areas; much of the surface was transparent. “Trying to get the muscles, the interconnected tissue and the skin to work together was painful compared to most characters.”

Because the elemental villains - wind, earth, water - appeared in both their human and demonic forms, the effects crew scanned the actors, and then created digital doubles and rendered them as if they were human. Particle effects combined with compositing tricks created the illusion that the wind character was made of dirty air.

“It took a fine balance,” Steiner says. “If the air is clear you can’t read the character, if it’s too thin it looks like a ball. We have the face break into pieces so you’d see multiple versions. And, we did the same sort of thing with the dirt guy.”

The main demon, though, Ghost Rider, was a special problem. “He’s a leather-jacketed biker guy with a flaming skull and hands, and his bike wheels and motor are on fire,” Mack says. In addition to matching the skeletal character to reference of Nicholas Cage and his stunt doubles, the crew needed to give the skull an emotional performance. At first, they tried switching skulls with different expressions between shots, but ultimately, they found that using the fire to portray emotion was more effective.

Light My Hellfire
“The hellfire has always been described as a supernatural flame,” says Ken Hahn, digital effects supervisor. “It’s not a consuming flame. It doesn’t create smoke. It just exists. We used it to tell the emotional content of Ghost Rider. When he sees Roxanne, the reds go out and it’s a more subtle, subdued type of flame. But when he gets really angry, the flames become hostile and dangerous.”

With a few exceptions, Ghost Rider’s fast-moving fire is always CG, a computational fluid simulation brought under control by Imageworks’ Patrick Witting. “We used the Maya solver, but only for the core calculation,” Mack says. “We built a Houdini front end and back end as well as a renderer.” To modify the fluid variables in the Maya solver, that is, the velocity, temperature, density, and amount of fuel, and to specifically place the fuel, Witting wrote Maya plug-ins that read data from Houdini texture maps and expressions. “We could use painted maps to be specific about where the fuel is,” Witting says, “or, because Houdini is very procedural, we could write 3D and 2D noise functions to create lumpy shapes or areas without fuel.

The Maya plug-in read the Houdini information and modified the fluid variables. That gave us a more direct way of interacting with the solver than with forces. There’s a limit to what anyone can achieve if they’re trying to do effects animation only by manipulating forces.”

Environments
“We knew digital fire would be the number one difficult aspect, but we had digital environments as well,” says Hahn. “Cityscapes and southwest desert landscapes.”

During a hero shot, Ghost Rider bashes through the wall of a skyscraper, comes straight down the side of a building in slow motion, swings his chain around a stanchion, and pulls himself back to the building. A courtyard in Melbourne, Australia served as the location for this shot, but the buildings weren’t high enough.

Hahn shot digital photos from a rooftop so the crew could reproduce the courtyard and using pan and tile plates. They also extended and built structures using photogrammetry. “The building he drove up is always 3D except when it’s far away,” says Steiner. “Once he’s at the top you can see a full CG city below. It was kind of a tough environment to build for just a few shots, but we got lucky because it was a limited view. We only needed to do two sides of the buildings.”

The crew also created a landscape for a showdown sequence. The sequence begins in the desert. “Ghost Rider and the old west rider are riding through the desert to the final showdown,” Mack says. “It’s a pre-dawn shot. We have a flaming guy on the motorcycle, a flaming skeletal horse, huge elaborate camera moves. There’s no way to shoot that. The camera move was all CG.”

It starts with the camera in the clouds. Ken Hahn describes the shot: “The camera is in a freefall descent, going closer and closer to the ground. You see things on fire in the distance, little trails of flame. The plants are on fire.”

Over time, the crew developed setups for the hero character and motorcycle, and for the “old west guy” and his skeletal horse. “The setups are all very handcrafted,” says Witting. “Each setup was a combination of eight to 10 parts, each with a variety of knobs.” Using these knobs, the artists controlled color, speed, movement and quality of shapes within the fire, and the amount of fire, for separate simulations on the skull, the motorcycle tires, the motor, and so forth to, in effect, give Mack several takes to choose from.

“Patrick [Witting] and his team would produce quite a few iterations,” says Mack, “We’d narrow them down, refine them, pick one and use that. The parameters were all sensitive to the values of each other so they’d interact in unpredictable ways.”

A custom solution based on RenderMan RI points rendered the fire. “You could call it a volume render solution,” says Witting. “It certainly filled out a volume and you step through it.” Steve Marshall wrote the physically-based fire shader and implemented it in Houdini. “The basic shader was a typical spectrum from white hot through oranges to red,” says Witting.

To handle the memory-intensive renders, the crew sliced the shots into multiple layers. “When Ghost Rider is big in frame we needed 100 slices,” says Mack. “That’s 100 cpu’s per frame for a couple of the worst cases.”

The clouds were 3D volumes. A big, 270-degree matte painted created by Martha Snow Mack from photographic reference taken in Utah by Hahn forms the far background. As for the terrain, the crew used a combination of texture maps and procedural shaders to change the amount of detail as the camera moved closer.

“When we’re far away, we can get away with textures and simple objects,” says Steiner. “At a certain point we mixed in detail.” The switch happened during rendering: The plants knew that when they were only four pixels big, they were spheres. If they needed 50 pixels, they became lumpier. As the camera got closer they’d look like patches of grass. And, eventually the camera would see blades of grass. Similarly, the trees grew more detailed as the camera drew closer.

“RenderMan took care of that; it has a mechanism for swapping,” says Steiner. “But we had to tell it how we wanted it done. The hard part was grouping multiple resolutions of objects together and distributing them.” For that, the crew used proprietary systems - a new script to package the multiple-resolution objects into containers that knew how to switch levels of detail, and an in-house system called “GET” to distribute the objects. “We could tell GET we wanted 10% bushes and 90% tall grass,” he says.


Can those "flash" pics be changed into GIF's??? Puhhhleassee! Click on the first link to see the story. There are TWO pages with 2 AWESOME flash pics showing the tranformation. I had no idea how much of that film was CGI. The whole damn building GR was ontop of???? I thought the top was a set. LOL

[Demon Within]

A+ for GR effects. Only guy I want back for GR2.

[FlameHead]

Just got this heads up in my google alerts:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=466456

Hi there,

To coincide with the cinema release of GhostRider, CGSociety took the opportunity to visit Sony Imageworks, and Kevin Mack. His team created the skeletal Ghost Rider demon, built and animated his hell cycle, and set both on fire. Together with CafeFX and Digital Dream, they have developed a whole new way of generating digital fire. Later in the week, you can quiz Kevin Mack yourself on our special 'Meet the Artist' thread on CGTalk.

[Vartha]

Cool, wonder if those improovments will be used in computor programs in the future?

[Advanced Dark]

Wait a sec Retro posted a visual effects article (didn't realize it) but it seems awfully similar.

http://www.superherohype.com/forums/showthread.php?t=266241

They actually seem different with the same pics. :)

Flamehead I think these are two different stories? I can't tell but they look similar. Merge mine into Retro's if it's different.

[Advanced Dark]

Retro is this the same? It looks different alot different but then the same pics...sorta. Some are different.

http://www.superherohype.com/forums/showthread.php?t=266241

Flamehead merge the above thread into Retro's.

[Advanced Dark]

Click on the pics for some clips.

From VFXWORLD:

Source: http://www.vfxworld.com/?atype=articles&id=3178
http://www.vfxworld.com/?atype=articles&id=3178&page=2


Those gifs are GREAT avatars on myspace. Just put 2 on my account.

[FlameHead]

Done.

[Advanced Dark]

Thanks I see how you worked it in there. You know your google alert post...you have to click on the picture to see the whole article I posted above FH. LOL

[Mr Nick]

Those animated images were fantastic. Great find.

:yay:

[THE MR. TERRIFIC]

I thought the effects were really good. I was surprised with this movie! With MSJ directing Daredevil and all, I was a little worried.

[FlameHead]

Thanks I see how you worked it in there. You know your google alert post...you have to click on the picture to see the whole article I posted above FH. LOL

I know. That post I posted was here before the merge.

[3 Dev Adam]

http://features.cgsociety.org/stories/2007_02/ghostrider/img01.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3945)

[webhead731]

Nice find!:wow:

[Advanced Dark]

Already posted in Retroman's F/X thread. I posted it 2 or 3 days ago. It is cool though.

It's here: http://www.superherohype.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11245254&postcount=23

[Warhammer]

SFX were truly amazing!

[The Kid]

On a technical level, yes but what's fascinating to me is how perceptions have changed of visual fx.

King kong, lotr, prequel star wars movies, pirates of the carribean, that's prettymuch as good as it'll ever get fx-wise so I think kids today are so used to seeing excellent fx, something like Star Wars wouldn't amaze them like it amazed us old geezers on the board. Whats most amazing to me in GR is not how well done the cgi is, but how long the shots of the flaming skull last and how perfectly seamless the shots are blended with the actor to fool us into thinking it's real. Many comic films I've watched have rubbery unrealistic cgi segments that pull me out of the film. Here the cgi's so good, people in the theater were thinking nic cages abs weren't real or eva mendes' boobs were given a lift... when years ago they wouldn't think so.

History, fascinating subject. I'll major in it at college.

[Upset Spideyfan]

I found the CGI to be inconsistent, sometimes it was really amazing (like the police chase) and other times it wasn't so hot. I guess that's to be expected when you don't have a million jillion dollars (King Kong, LoTR)

[Advanced Dark]

LOTR had many flaws in the F/X and they were far from seamless. Same with King Kong and the stupid pole vaulting tribesman.

[3 Dev Adam]

I still prefer Ray Harryhausen over any CGI creature then can come up with.

[Retroman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/stories/2007_02/ghostrider/img02.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3945)

Click on the pic ABOVE ^^^[/center]

http://features.cgsociety.org/stories/2007_02/ghostrider/img01.jpg



Can those "flash" pics be changed into GIF's??? Puhhhleassee! Click on the first link to see the story. There are TWO pages with 2 AWESOME flash pics showing the tranformation. I had no idea how much of that film was CGI. The whole damn building GR was ontop of???? I thought the top was a set. LOL

Thanks AD!

[DarkMajin]

Does anyone know how much the Ghost Rider effects cost out of the budget?

I had heard it was a rather high number, but haven't been able to find out for sure.

Thanks...

[matrix_ghost]

Does anyone know how much the Ghost Rider effects cost out of the budget?

I had heard it was a rather high number, but haven't been able to find out for sure.

Thanks...

VFX for GR cost 30 million . The budget was 120 million.