The VFX and SFX Team
A seamless blend of visual and mechanical artistry was needed to create complex sequences in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. With an amazing range of effects—from ancient creatures and avalanches to intricate battle sequences with massive numbers of digital characters in digital environments and practical effects—the filmmakers had an enormous task at hand.
Accomplished VFX producer Ginger Theisen headed the visual effects department and brought on two digital houses: Digital Domain, headed by VFX supervisors Matt Butler and Joel Hynek, and Rhythm & Hues, headed by VFX producer Derek Spears.
The SFX department was led by industry veteran SFX supervisor R. Bruce Steinheimer.
Steinheimer says, “We had over 100 people working in effects on different continents at the same time in order to make sure all the effects would be ready for both the main and the action units.”
Steinheimer had to come up with mechanical effects that would blend into digital extensions of CG creatures.
For example, in one of the chase scenes of the film, the chariot needed to interact with its surroundings as if it was being pulled by real horses.
He explains, “We put a plow on the front of it so we could crash into things, because the Terracotta Emperor and the bronze horses are in the digital realm. As the part of the chariot, they are on separates and start to spin out of control, so we used a hydraulic spin rig that travels down a track to create that effect. It ejects the sarcophagus, which slides through the streets, causing mayhem and destruction.”
After the shots of the chariot crashing through buildings were completed, a plastic horse was attached to the front of the chariot to give reference for the performers when they filmed.
“This gave our actors something to ride on,” explains VFX producer Spears. “We replaced the plastic horse with our CG bronze horse later.”
Animation director Craig Talmy says, “Originally, all the horses were very heavy bronze statues built by the ancient Chinese and we not only had to make them look real, but we make their movement heavy.”
Raising the Emperor Mummy
For the Emperor Mummy and his legion of Terracotta Warriors, the effects team developed a series of “liquid solid” clay warriors which were able to flex and bend at will; and at every move, crack and reform.
The character of the Emperor Mummy was tricky. A cyberscan was performed on Jet Li using multiple three-dimensional cameras; a submillimeter three-dimensional model of his entire body was created. Digital Domain motion captioned his entire body, then “staccatoed it” to infuse the characteristics of a terracotta statue.
Joel Hynek, co-VFX supervisor at Digital Domain further explains the character of the Emperor Mummy, “He is filled with magma, so when he cracks, pieces fall off; the magma comes to the surface and rapidly solidifies—and he becomes the replenished terracotta-statue emperor.”
Crafting Legions of Warriors
Digital Domain was responsible for the creation of the vast armies of both the Terracotta Warriors (the Emperor’s men) and the Foundation Army (those killed by the Emperor). They had to render a total of 2,500 Foundation Soldiers and 4,800 Terracotta Warriors.
“The Foundation Army are the good guys,” explains co-VFX supervisor Butler. “These are the workers that have been incarcerated under the Great Wall of China for a couple of thousand years. They come to life as desiccated beings that have a really spooky look. We didn’t just build them as skeletons, but in a multitude of degraded states—from ‘healthy guys’ to complete ‘bone men.’ It was tough, actually, because it was hard to depict a desiccated being as having a good character.”
By examining reference materials from ancient embalming imagery to often-macabre books on anatomy and physiology, the team became quick studies on kinesiology and musculature.
“We built a set of tools that enabled us to take a body from an undamaged-but-aged form down to muscles, tendons and sinew — in their decayed form — down to bare bones,” says Butler.
In order to give each character independent movement, Digital Domain used a program called “Massive.” Developed by Stephen Regelous, the program is used for battle scenes for multiple films including those of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
“Stephen designed and created a tool set that allows you to render thousands of sentient beings, whether they are humans or creatures,” explains Butler. “They all have their own individual decision-making capabilities. He refers to these individual characters as ‘agents.’ Each agent has the capability of making his own decision, based on rule sets designed by the artist. So the artist is literally designing the brain.
The original Terracotta Warriors provided their own reference, as each of the Xi’an Warriors was crafted with a unique face, hairstyle and body type. After scanning images of them, the team devised cunning ways to swap and exchange body parts, so the audience never sees two of the same soldier as they roar across a battlefield. When a geometric library of warriors were married with an assortment of terracotta textures, lighting, shade and movement helped to render thousands of unique soldiers.
In addition, the team needed to provide motion to the warriors, while they broke apart again and again.
“Before we did anything, we did a Battle Action Reference Shoot,” explains Hynek. “Vic Armstrong, Matt Butler and I started working with different battle actions, then Matt and Vic worked in Montreal to capture what we needed.”
Building New Creatures
In addition to his incarnation of the Terracotta Emperor, Jet Li’s character also has the ability to morph into other forms, specifically a three-headed gorgon that is derived from a mixture of Western and Chinese mythology. Image Matrix projected Li’s performance onto the CG creature that spits fire, snatches a victim and flies away.
“The Emperor chose his first incarnation to be a 30-foot, three-headed gorgon,” explains Rhythm & Hues’ digital supervisor Bob Mercier, “so we had to decide how much the face should look like Jet Li and how much it should look like the head of a reptile. It needed to have the spirit of Jet, yet the Mummy character should somehow come through as snakelike, but with a soul underneath. It was our goal to give an Asian influence to the gorgon’s face. You can see a ghost of Jet Li there, but it still works as a creature.”
For each creature, Rhythm & Hues produced a 3-D computer-generated model highlighting muscle tone and skin texture. This was then sent to the filmmakers for their approval. Once the model was agreed on by everyone, only then could animation begin.
“The Yeti have always been a favorite part of the movie for the filmmakers,” states producer Daniel, “We’ve always thought it was just really cool to have the Yeti and Shangri-la be a part of this movie. The Yeti are other creatures, like the Mummy, that people from all cultures can relate to.”
Cohen wanted his abominable snowmen to have unique personalities. However, with no dialogue for the Yeti (save roars and grunts), the animation team needed to convey everything through body language.
Talmy says, “We had to find a way to pump character performances into a scene where all that’s required of our character is that he run down a hill and smash a guy in the face.”
The Yeti were originally designed to be a cross between a man, polar bear and snow leopard. Over time, the animators moved the design closer to that of a man. They liked the fact that the creature—when obeying the enigmatic Lin—could pick up an enemy, give him a razor-sharp look of disdain, then toss him into the frozen wilderness.
Action Costuming
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is the third collaboration between costume designer Sanja Milkovic Hays and Cohen. One of the biggest challenges was creating costumes for the beginning of the film.
Hays says, “There was some reference to jewelry, a few drawings, a bit of cloth and discovered mummies. I based most ideas on research from museums and books. The most useful were findings from Xi’an when we went there to look at the Warriors.”
Hays and two sketch artists worked nonstop for four months to imagine the costumes for Cohen’s world.
“After you have a sketch approved, you then look for fabrics and the details from all over the world—from Hong Kong, China, Thailand and India to New York and Europe. I used hundreds of yards of fabric, many which I bought in Montreal,” explains Hays.
The designer supervised a large team on two continents. She created a huge workshop at Mel’s Cite du Cinema, where she employed craftsmen from every area of expertise: a sketch artist, cutter fitters, embroiderers and jewelry makers. She also outsourced to Film Illusions, a company that specializes in unique costumes for the film industry and was responsible for creating the Emperor’s armor.
Hays also designed a new look for Rick, and more mellow outfits were created for Fraser.
She says, “Brendan now wears a few suits and looks terrific in the ’40s look; he is so built now. As the action begins, we put him in a bomber jacket to toughen him up, and, toward the end of the movie, he goes back to his ‘mummy chaser’ look: pants, shirts and big guns…so he becomes the Rick O’Connell everyone knows.”
Designing for Luke Ford was amusing. “Luke starts the movie down and dirty; a Marlboro man with a 1946 leather jacket, unshaven,” she explains. “He carries that look beautifully, as he is tall and has such great charisma. Then, we clean him up and switch him into the white tuxedo, Bogart-style. Alex is more like a ’40s hip-hop, with the big, baggy pilot pants, big old shoes, big jacket. It all is very proper period, but the silhouette is more modern and appealing.”
Isabella Leong’s character begins as an anonymous assassin.
“For the scene in the museum where she tries to save Rick and Evy,” Hays explains, “I dressed her up for Chinese New Year in a coat—a little Matrix-style. She needed to be ready for action, so we added dress pants underneath. The coat is a long cut, so when she flies through the air, it flies behind her.”
The designer created nine stunning costumes for Michelle Yeoh, designs not exactly determined by the period.
Hays notes, “She is a sorceress, so it gave me more freedom. When Michelle put them on, they became alive. She is so graceful and wears the costume so beautifully. The way she moves and holds her neck…she almost floats.”
One of Yeoh’s costumes was inspired by Chinese ethnic minority clothes.
Hays recounts: “It was for the big sword fight with Jet Li where she wears a pleated skirt. I bought a knee-length skirt for myself in Shanghai; I swirled in it, and the way it moved was amazing. We made it in a long version, and one of the girls here, Malika, went through hell trying to figure out how they did it. Everything was hand-pleated, but we finally figured it out. The skirt is very straight when Michelle is standing, but when she kicks, fights and swirls in it, it flies out in a full circle. I can’t wait to see it on screen.”
Designing armor for Jet Li was a long process and was the first thing Hays designed as many needed to know what the armor was going to be—in particular the visual effects and art departments.
Hays had to design several versions of the armor, as each served a different purpose.
“For the scenes where he walks around and looks majestic, we created the heavier outfits, which used the replica jade pieces. We had to come up with a much lighter version for the fight sequences, so he is able to move properly. Finally, we needed a version for VFX as he turns into terracotta, covered in mud and goo.”
“Initially, I got into these philosophical discussions about the Emperor and his search for immortality with Rob,” Hays concludes.
“We realized that the jade in ancient China was connected with immortality, and that he may have been dressed in jade just before he died. Rob and I got very excited because armor had never been made out of jade. Then the search started for the perfect piece of jade to give it the color, and how to make it. Each piece was individually done and they are connected.”
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Comment by Cecil — July 27, 2008 @ 3:32 pm
Magaling talaga si Rob Cohen. More power!
Comment by chris — July 27, 2008 @ 4:18 pm
Magaling talaga yan si Rob.