March 1, 2007

AUTODESK TOOLS USED ON OSCAR-WINNING PROJECTS

For Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, artists at ILM used Autodesk Inferno as part of the SABRE visual effects system. Inferno was used for compositing actors - shot bluescreen - with water plates and digital mattes, as well as to add birds, mist and other details to a scene.

Inferno was also used to remove telephone poles and motor boats from island footage, as well as to composite a digital matte of the village.

And pirate Ragetti's wooden eye and empty eye socket were created in Inferno, giving the eye a dry wooden texture. The tool was also used for lighting and animating the effect.

ILM artists used Maya to rig both Davy Jones and the Kraken sea creature's tentacles. The studio's proprietary Hero software was used to animate the flowing movement of Davy Jones' tentacles, while Maya was used to animate more specific movements, such as holding a key.

Animal Logic used Maya to complete approximately 800 shots for the animated feature film Happy Feet. Maya 3D software was used to form the facility's complete rendering and lighting pipeline.