FEATURE FILM
ROLE: Flame Artist | VFX Compositor
VENDOR: Hydraulx
CLIENT: Marvel Entertainment | Universal Pictures
VFX SUPERVISOR: Chris Wells
DIRECTOR: Louis Leterrier
For Marvel Entertainment’s “The Incredible Hulk,” I was tasked primarily with shots for the “University Raid” sequence, which consisted of extensive field clean-up, sky replacements, debris enhancement, the addition of rain, and of course, a CG Hulk.
As shot, the footage featured overcast skies throughout. As scripted, an oncoming storm mirrors the escalating rage of Bruce Banner’s Hulk, as he attempts to evade capture. As the action-packed sequence nears its conclusion, and the Hulk escapes, the storm reaches its peak, extinguishing the fiery damage caused during the sequence.
Seemingly straightforward, the sky replacements and clean-ups proved otherwise. The footage was shot anamorphic. The mostly hand-held camera-work was bouncing everywhere, plagued with high-frequency jitter. And the director strictly chose not to manipulate the plates, as is common practice in most compositing, to blend any of the sky replacements, as well as the grass clean-up and rig removal. Consequently, this added an extra degree of difficulty to some already challenging shots.
In addition to tackling a number of sky replacements and clean-ups, I also contributed to a few night helicopter shots, leading up to the film’s finale, where Bruce says his farewells to Betty before leaping to battle the Abomination.
