For James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster Avatar, ILM was brought in late in the postproduction schedule to help complete a few sequences and get the film to the finish line. ILM created the visual effects for many of the specialized vehicles in the film, including the Valkyrie, a large shuttle used to move people and equipment, and several different types of helicopters, as well as the landscapes and environments that those vehicles appeared.
ILM also did the effects work on the film’s final battle scene, taking responsibility for the shots of all the vehicles taking off, as well as the sequence’s cockpit interior shots. The team was also responsible for shots featuring the attack the giant “home tree,” where the Navi, the humanoid alien race in the film, live. Specifically, ILM handled the shots in which the camera looks back toward the aircraft flying and ultimately firing on the tree.
The film would go on to win the Academy Award® for Outstanding Visual Effects.
The sequel to the 2007 blockbuster film, Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen is notable for its massive action set pieces and incredibly complex animated characters.
2005 Academy Award® nominee for Best Visual Effects.
As Earth is invaded by alien tripod fighting machines, one family fights for survival.
2007 Academy Award® nominee for Best Achievement in Visual Effects.
As the lead visual effects house on the film, ILM created over 450 shots of robot mayhem.
As the Clone Wars nears its end, Obi-Wan Kenobi pursues a new threat, while Anakin Skywalker is lured by Chancellor Palpatine into a sinister plot for galactic domination.
2002 Academy Award® Nomination for Best Visual Effects.
The focus of ILM’s work for Pearl Harbor was on the creation of panoramic battle scenes that tied together computer graphics, miniatures, and practical effects with first-unit footage. These scenes were unlike many of the fantasy-oriented projects ILM was used to dealing with because Pearl Harbor called for a seamless blend of visual effects with a familiar historical reality. The resultant scenes contained thousands of elements. The complexity of any one shot was equal to the work that would typically go into 10 isolated event shots.
A “sailor management” tool was created to help insert computer-generated people developed from motion-capture performances. Wherever a sailor was missing in a frame, the VFX artists would use this tool to select an actor and an appropriate uniform to put the CG character right where they needed to be. By the end of the development of this sequence, not even Michael Bay could tell the difference between the real and CG sailors.
Part of recreating such an important historical event is accurately depicting reality. ILM researched the movement of aircraft and ships in reference footage so they could create models of real battleships and CG airplanes from the World War II era. When it came time to film the battle scenes, ILM utilized advances in dynamic simulation techniques to realistically portray airplane crashes and other explosions at sea.
ILM’s Hayden Landis, Ken McGaugh, and Hilmar Koch adapted some concepts originally developed for the studio’s work on Speed 2 known as reflection occlusion and developed a new production technology for Pearl Harbor called ambient occlusion. This lead to the three of them being awarded the Academy Technical Achievement Award at the Academy’s 2010 Sci-Tech Awards. You can read more about the history of the development of ambient occlusion and the technologies that built upon it in the FXGuide article here.
Working on a Steven Spielberg film always carries high expectations, and ILM was up to the task, developing new techinques for Minority Report to enhance the CG elements and environments in the futuristic world of the film.
