Visual Effects: Intelligent Creatures
Visual Effects Supervisor: Lon Molnar
Matchmove Artists: Angel Ruiz, Arturo Revilla, Dominic Cheung, Kevin Mah, Tom Voll
Production: Watchmen - Feature Film

Transforming the influential and hugely popular comic book series Watchmen into a movie was never going to be easy or without its problems. Certainly Terry Gilliam thought so which is why he turned down the opportunity to direct it, leaving the daunting task to Zack Snyder. Soaked in symbolism and allegory the story involves some complex themes, and at just under three hours the task of conveying these in film takes on epic proportions.

The film also contains some exceptional Visual Effects, not least of which is work done on a central character, Rorschach, whose mask covered face has inkblots across it which are seen to constantly move independently of any other action.

The influential and progressive Toronto based VFX house, Intelligent Creatures, was responsible for the work using Side Effects Houdini, Autodesk' Maya and The Pixel Farm's mighty tracking kit PFTrack. The project employed a team of matchmovers headed by Angel Ruiz and supervised by Jeff Newton, who comments, "We were asked to produce Rorschach's constantly moving inkblot mask effect. This required a lot of very exact head tracking as Rorschach is a major character in the movie and had a lot of close ups". Rorschach, played by Jackie Earl Haley, wears the mask for most of the movie and Intelligent Creatures produced over 300 mask shots for Watchmen and tracked them all using PFTrack as well as several 3d set extension shots.

Working with 35mm footage (Cineon) at 2K res' and exporting solutions to Autodesk Maya, the results are remarkable and certainly caught the eye of one famous film critic, Roger Ebert who remarked, "Rorschach's cloth mask with its endlessly shifting inkblots is one of the most intriguing superhero masks ever, always in constant motion, like a mood ring of the id".

The effect was achieved with the help of PFTrack's powerful Geometry Tracking feature. Integral to the package it allows for 3D geometry to either be natively created within the application or, as in this case, imported and then matched perfectly to the desired element of the plate. In this way, Intelligent Creatures imported a model of the mask to obtain a pinpoint accurate track solution for its movement. Jeff Newton explains, "We used PFTrack to solve the camera for all of the Rorschach shots. Where the tracking markers on the practical mask Jackie Earl Haley wore were clear (in close up and where there was little motion blur) we were able to use auto tracking to help solve the movement of Jackie's head. However, mostly this was not the case and for many Rorschach shots we would then use PFTrack's geometry tracking and use a model of the mask and/or his hat to get a head track solution."

An original Pixel farm innovation, this useful additional function of PFTrack means complex geometry can be imported and used to solve cameras in addition to the use of automatic or user placed features. Using motion groups it is a simple task to extract both camera and object motion. Any or all motions can be exported along with animated geometry if required. This incredibly helpful function also allows the geometry to be manipulated in great detail by vertex weighting. This allows you to paint the influence each vertex point has on the final tracking. A simple paint tool allows you to quickly paint onto the imported 3D geometry. Additionally the geometry can be matched to the movement of the plate on a per frame basis if need be or plotted using key frames.

The film's story tells of a group of super-heroes returning from forced retirement to investigate the death of one of their number. Rorschach's suspicions lead them to discover a deep conspiracy to change the balance of power in a world disquietingly similar to our own. Rorschach's role in this journey is pivotal and his uniquely dynamic facade reflects the nature of his character, like a set of black and white values that do change shape but do not mix into greys. Matching the 3D animation to the performance of the actor was all the more important under these circumstances and Intelligent Creatures knew the results had to withstand the very closest scrutiny. As Jeff Newton remarks, "We chose PFTrack over other software because of its unique geometry tracking technology which was an ideal solution for this project".

Watchmen is a departure from the usual superhero genre. Its characters attitudes reflect a profound nihilism and cynical suspicion of global political machinations. Its themes and outlook represent a zeitgeist that seeks to deconstruct the notion of the hero fundamentally. While Hancock did this with flippant comedy and a customary happy ending, Watchmen takes on the task in earnest reflecting a more ubiquitous, unsettling disillusionment with the traditionally heroic figure, be it politician, faceless corporate power or superhero. With slogans such as "Who Watches The Watchmen" the story addresses the problem of controlling and making accountable those who hold power. So, Watchmen seeks to construct its superheroes as a means to deconstruct what they represent, their very status and power. The tone is set from the outset as the film opens to a funeral scene.

This scene itself presented its own problems for the team at Intelligent Creatures, including every matchmovers pet hate, the zoom shot. Tracking zooms is notoriously problematic and most tracking systems will simply fail. However PFTrack is famously good at dealing with such shots, invariably succeeding to produce good camera data where others cannot. 3D Supervisor Jeff Newton picks up, "The opening shot of Blake's Funeral involved complex crane shots, with a wide variation in zoom over the length of the shot. With the help of PFTrack's lens distortion correction facility we were able to engineer our own lens distortion correction and redistortion solution. We then imported the lens distortion corrected footage into PFTrack and with the help of its Automatic and User Feature Tracking it solved the camera move and zoom animation easily".

Intelligent Creatures work on this project represents an unstinting commitment to excellence and a desire to innovate. Their work on Rorschach's restless patterned mask may well be a new benchmark in film VFX, the measure of its success being the indelible impression emblazoned into the memory of every moviegoer who sees this film, unconsciously recognizing that the bar has just been raised. This remarkable work is also a salutary reminder that to do something properly you must have the right tools for the job.

For more information, visit: www.intelligentcreatures.com

Words: Martin Southwood