News In the news: Farewell to Scandal Scandal came to an explosive, gripping conclusion last month, which capped off our 3-year run as the sole visual effect company for ABC’s award-winning political thriller. The series is shot in LA, while its story unfolds in D.C. where deception and intrigue ensue as its central character, Olivia Pope, (Kerry Washington) the staff of her crisis management firm, and the White House’s inner circle ravenously vie for power. While this episodic drama didn’t call for futuristic CG worlds, Legion were called upon to create composited sequences, set extensions, full computer-generated environments and exacting digital replications of iconic buildings in D.C. that would have been too expensive, impractical, or impossible to shoot. This show put us through our paces from the very first episode, where we had to turn around 50+ shots in a week, and we built a solid working relationship with the show’s team, paving the way for increasingly challenging effects as the season’s progressed. Film Contact “The Burbank studio has been the driving force behind the hundreds of computer-generated effects that the show’s viewers didn’t see each week. The team took great pride that their photorealistic world went unnoticed by fans.” Renderosity “Scandal’s series finale marks the culmination of three year’s work on a breakthrough television show,” says Hattin. “The team at VFX Legion is proud of its contribution to the series and thrilled to have had the opportunity work with Shondaland Productions and ABC Studios on the final three seasons of the show.” VFX Express “VFX Legion pulled out all the stops to deliver a large quantity of complex, high-quality VFX, and make last minute changes, whilst still meeting a tight deadline and getting the most value out of the budget.” CGW “VFX Legion made time to explore ways to optimize production value and the show’s visual effects budget. Revisiting original CG shots and developed new, highly detailed White House assets to support updated environments, with new and interesting perspectives.” ProductionHub “VFX Legion multi-disciplined collective of 70+ artists were able to help the workforce handle the volume of visual effects that the show required, and spread out the shots to allow the talent to focus on creating quality work.” Creative Cow “VFX Legion worked closely with the client to get a full understanding of their vision. Everything was thought of from streamlining workflow to crafting a plan that worked with the show’s budgets, schedules, and resources.” Viewers can catch all seasons of Scandal, a streaming favorite on Netflix. Watch Scandal’s VFX breakdown reel below – Read more
News In the news: Shattering expectations for surprise Power Rangers teaser VFX Legion has been pooling its resources for yet another project with a super speedy turnaround. Transcending dimensions and galaxies, this latest piece of work puts us slap-bang into the exciting world of the Power Rangers. As well as being a huge hit on both big and small screens, the blue, black, red, yellow, green and pink power rangers have also seen great success in comic books. And, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Power Rangers franchise, comic publisher BOOM! Studios has launched Shattered Grid. The Shattered Grid storyline will be told in upcoming issues of BOOM!’s two ongoing comic series, Kyle Higgins’ Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Ryan Parrot’s Go Go Power Rangers, beginning in issue #25 of Mighty Morphin, available 28th March. Animation Boss “James David Hattin, creative director, senior visual effects supervisor and founder of VFX Legion, helmed Legion’s team of managers, supervisors, compositors, matte painters, layout, lighting, texturing and CG artists. The Burbank-based company produced a mix of visual effects for the trailer, including computer-generated set extensions, replete with holograms.” Renderosity “Legion’s team worked closely with the writer/creator on the concept, approach and style of the VFX that augment Lord Drakkon’s real-world environment. The effects draw upon the footage from the early seasons of the TV show, maintaining continuity and building upon the iconic Power Rangers legacy that Higgins is creating.” CG MeetUp “VFX Legion took the live-action promo to another level. The feedback on it has been overwhelming and built anticipation beyond anything we expected.” CreativePool “VFX Legion creates sci-fi inspired effects for ‘Power Rangers: Shattered Grid’ trailer.” HighEnd3D “Kent Johnson, one of Legion’s on-set supervisors, gathered camera data at the shoot while overseeing the production to ensure that the bluescreen elements were correct. VFX coordinator Matt Noren took hundreds of photographs of the set, capturing every detail. A rough 3D model was then created from the photos using a photogrammetry program.” Behance “Legion’s team bulked up Drakkon’s army of foot soldiers and henchmen, working from a couple of shots of soldiers saluting, flanked by spaceships that set out to attack Power Rangers in the other time dimensions. ” Shattered Grid will be told in alternate issues of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Go Go Power Rangers, starting with Issue #25 of Mighty Morphin. Watch the live action teaser below – Read more
News In the news: How to Get Away with… Scandal Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months you’ll know that two of ABC’s biggest shows – Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder came together for an epic two-hour crossover episode. The team at Legion has handled all of the visual effects for both shows for the past three years, so we were doubly psyched for the opportunity to combine our efforts in this highly-anticipated episode. Our work on the episode included blending the VFX of both shows, building the Supreme Court Building that was central to the storyline, and extensive environments and set extensions work. Watch a reel of our work and take a look at some of the coverage of our work on the crossover episode below. CG+ News “Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder are both shot in Los Angeles, while the shows are set in D.C. and Philadelphia, respectively, yet the cast never needs to leave Hollywood, thanks to the creativity, technical ingenuity, and experience of the team at VFX Legion. PostPerspective “VFX Legion has handled all of the visual effects for both shows for almost three years and is slated to work on the next season of Murder (this is Scandal’s last season). Over the years, the Shondaland Productions have tasked the company with creating high shot counts for almost 100 episodes, each matching the overall look of a single show. However, the crossover episodes required visual effects that blended with two series that use different tools and each have their own look, presenting a more complex set of challenges.” Digital Cinema Report “The Los Angeles-based company created a mix of photorealistic CG environments and other effects that made it possible to transport the actors into a variety of digital surroundings that seamlessly match the live-action footage, and defy the viewer’s eye. The invisible effects dramatically augment the shows’ visual landscapes with shots that would be either too expensive or impossible to shoot on location.” Creative Planet Network “The CG replication of the US Supreme Court Building is central to the storyline. Building its exterior facade, and interiors of the courtroom and rotunda digitally, from the ground up, were the most complex VFX shots in these episodes.” ProductionHub “A rough 3D model of the set was constructed from hundreds of reference photographs stitched together using Agisoft Photoscan, and a technique called ‘photogrammetry.’ HDRI panoramas and 360° multiple exposure photographs of the set were used to match the 3D lighting with the live-action footage. CG modeling and texturing artist, Trevor Harder, then added the fine details and created the finished 3D model.” Film Contact “The process began during preproduction with VFX supervisor Matthew T. Lynn working closely with the client to get a full understanding of their vision. He collaborated with Legion’s head of production, Nate Smalley, production manager, Andrew Turner, and coordinators Matt Noren and Lexi Sloan, on streamlining workflow and crafting a plan that aligned with the shows’ budgets, schedules, and resources. Lynn spent several weeks on R&D, pre-visualization, and mockups. Legion’s end-to-end approach was presented to the staffs of both shows during combined VFX meetings, and a plan was finalized.” AnimationXpress “Scandal is shot on an ARRI Alexa camera, and How to Get Away with Murder on a Sony F55, at different colour temps and under varying lighting conditions. DP preferences and available equipment required VFX Legion to shoot the same environments twice, once with green-screens for Scandal and then again using blue-screens for How to Get Away with Murder.” Read more
News Please Stand By – a Star Trek fan’s dream project VFX Legion was called upon as the sole visual effects vendor for Please Stand By. The team were trusted to bring some visual familiarity to this story of a Star Trek fan’s journey across America. To be asked to work on your dream project is not something that comes round very often for many CG professionals. But, for VFX Legion’s Rommel S. Calderon that’s exactly what happened when he got a call about Please Stand By. “I was in seventh grade when the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation came out. It was then that I decided I want to do visual effects as a career,” explains Calderon. “Personally, Please Stand By is a dream project for me.” Please Stand By tells the story of a young autistic woman who runs away from her caregiver in order to boldly go and deliver her 500-page Star Trek script to a writing competition in Hollywood. On an adventure full of laughter and tears, Wendy, played with exquisite delicacy by Dakota Fanning, follows the guiding spirit of Mr. Spock on her journey into the unknown. As the sole VFX vendor on the film, it was vital the studio utilise its pool of international talent, bringing in artists and compositors from all over the globe, to deliver 51 shots across the film, including two key atmospheric environmental shots made to look like they’d been pulled directly from Kirk’s 1960s adventures in space. These shots, also featured in the trailer for the movie, involved recreating the space suits used in Star Trek: The Original Series. “I’m very proud of the two CG shots I got to work on in Please Stand By. They were a lot of fun to produce as we had to recreate the goofy space suits of the original series for these two characters walking on a red, desert planet,” says Calderon. Pinning down the animation in these shots was one of the most challenging aspects of the production. The team relied on a motion capture library to make the performances more realistic. “We started out with a six foot model and retextured it, then we attached the motion capture data and modified it so it looked like a limping person carrying another person.” Calderon explains. “We then placed the characters into our digital matte painting of the desert environment, and then I reprojected it over a 3D surface so I could get the texture and terrain right. Those shots were then sent over to our compositors, who added a really cool wind effect. “I’m really proud of the final look of those shots, I think they look great in the trailer and will play out beautifully on the big screen. I’m really excited to see the final cut of the film, Dakota Fanning is a force and Patton Oswald speaking Klingon is a memory I will treasure for a long time.” Please Stand By is available now on Amazon Video, iTunes and On Demand. <span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span> Read more
News Post Magazine: VFX Legion’s new studio model James Hattin (pictured below) is the co-founder of Burbank, CA-based VFX Legion, a provider of visual effects services for the film and television industry. Hattin’s career as an artist and VFX professional includes time at Luma Pictures, Zoic Studios and Industrial Light & Magic. When he launched VFX Legion in May of 2013, he rejected the traditional VFX vendor-meets-sweatshop setup, opting instead for a forward-thinking approach that prized one thing above all else: the artist. Today VFX Legion operates a global remote workforce, with creatives contributing from one side of the world to the other. Legion artists can be found all over the globe, working on projects such as How To Get Away With Murder and El Chapo from the comfort of their own homes. Why did you choose to set up VFX Legion and what was it a reaction to? “We built Legion to attract the artists that were senior, experienced and tired of running around the world for jobs. Nothing says ‘burnout’ like moving across the country, chasing tax credits, and trying to raise a family – all while working 16 hours a day. “There’s a whole group of very talented mid- and senior-level artists that want to contribute to the VFX industry, but also want work/life balance, and that’s unfortunately so rare. Legion was established to tip the balance of scales in their favor. Over the years, we have built a community of incredibly talented artists, from all over the world, who can work from the comfort of their own locations while still contributing to amazing VFX projects. It’s been an incredible journey and we’re still going, bringing the experience to more and more talented people.” Read on to find out more about Legion’s truly global studio Read more
News Outlook 2018: The rise of Netflix The rise of Netflix has posed and interesting challenge to the post industry. On the one hand, direct streaming funnelled into every viewer’s house means an increased need for post work across the globe; even so in the LA area, where tax incentives are not so readily available. The veritable content machines such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and HBO and now producing more entertainment than ever before, pouring more cash into ever more impressive projects. Of course, much of that entertainment requires vast amounts of visual effects resources. This all presents a different landscape to that of five or six years ago; a time when television work existed but not to the extent that it does today, and aspirations to cinema-level quality were perhaps not as pronounced. Today, quantity is higher, quality expectations are rising, and processes must align to this new status quo. Scalable companies that are well placed to expand and contract as needs change are the ones that will find themselves successful in 2018. Read on to find out more about the rise of Netflix on Post Magazine Read more