Lighting Technical Director / Texture Artist / Compositing / Cloth Simulations
This was my first foray into visual effects for film. I was brought onto the team at The Orphanage as a texture artist and lighting technical director. I was responsible for hard surface texture work, look development and even cloth simulations.
Red Cliff is a Chinese epic war film based on the Battle of Red Cliffs (208-209 AD) and events during the end of the Han Dynasty and immediately prior to the Three Kingdoms period in ancient China. The film was directed by John Woo.
The bulk of my work was focused on lighting and rendering of the thousands of CG arrows for an awesome scene between Cao Cao and the Wu. There were a few real arrows "stabbed" into strategic locations in the original film so that the lighting artists and animators had something to match to. I created lighting rigs that were used to speed production for newer artists joining the team and effectively matched the live action shots. It was a challenge to match so many elements into each shot, but ultimately very fruitful.
Additionally, I was tasked with compositing two shots in this scene - learning the compositing application Nuke on the fly. (Thanks to a very supportive composting lead). Being able to take these shots to final under such tight deadlines gave me a much better understanding of how I can make my compositor coworkers job's just a little bit easier.
