Project: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Role: Compositor
Company: Industrial Light and Magic
Time on Project: 8 months
Working on Rogue One was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my career. I took a major step forward in terms of the scale and complexity of the shots that composited, and grew a lot as an artist.
The work that we did at ILM London was everything that happens on planet Jedha. This included the battle between rebels and Stormtroopers in Jedha City, Saw's hideout and, most notabley, the Death Star attack. It was predominantly environment extensions and lots of blaster fire, but also included CG ships, and a massive fully CG sequence.
Composite - CG U-wing and environment extension.
Composite - CG foot replacement. This shot was particularly fiddly, as it involved removing the real foot of actor Forest Whitaker, matching the defocus levels, particularly for the thin bars of the grating. This required close collaboration with the paint artist, and was a real team effort.
Composite - fully CG shot with live action Bodhi element added. This was a huge shot for me, involving the managing and correct layering of many different FX layers.
Composite - environment augmentation with giant fallen statue, CG U-wing. Unfortunately, this was a trailer only shot which never made it into the final film. But the shot got such a good response in the trailer that the filmmakers added an entirely new sequence, taking place in the ruins of the fallen Jedi statues.
Composite - blaster fire, falling debris.
Composite - adding CG Star Destroyer reflection to robot visor
Composite - CG K-2SO, taking particular care of the light interaction from the explosion on the robot.
Composite - environment extension, blaster fire, retime stuntment to react to explosion.
Composite - CG tank turrets and turret fire, environment extension. Look dev on new weapon fire look.
Composite - Environment extension and blaster fire.
Composite - CG Bor Gullet tentacles. In order to successfully wrap Riz Ahmed with the CG tentacles of the Bor Gullet, we decided to completely replace his shirt with a CG shirt. This allowed us to get interactions between the shirt and the tentacles, but it created its own technical challenges for the composite it terms of getting the digital shirt to join with the plate Riz.
Composite - CG K-2SO, interaction with plate knapsack.
Composite - CG U-wing, environment extension.
Composite - CG U-wing, environment extension.