F R O M    T H E    T R E N C H E S Post-Production Report: Visual Effects Revealed   continued...

Boca Seca Exterior: Matte Painting with Camera Projection

This was one of my favorites. A digital matte painting with true perspective shift -- indeed, the camera dollies in toward the Boca Seca Saloon slowly, establishing the building in its arid wasteland. Heat shimmers on the far horizon.

This was primarily a single hi-res painting, the most of which was taken from the closeup in the shot where Charley and Jake step onto the porch. The surrounding terrain was taken from a still photograph of an area where the saloon might have existed.

In truth, the Boca Seca Saloon burned to the ground several years ago. It no longer exists, and didn't except as ashes when I decided I needed a long establishing shot of it. When it did exist, in was butted right up against a huge metal airplane hangar and had palm trees on the opposite side (which is why we only had tight shots of it from principal photography).

Of course, not any more.

Once you have the widest shot -- the single hi-res matte painting -- you can camera project that image onto rough geometry in 3D. In this case, mostly cubes and flat surfaces. Richard McBride, a 3D whiz at Western Images, helped tackle this projection sequence. Because the original source image is quite skewed (the camera in our earlier shot was way closer than our virtual camera, the building itself had to be built skewed out-of-whack. Richard rendered a 360-degree fly by to show you just how messed up the 3D actually is.

Fortunately, the illusion works perfectly as long as your stay in front of the building.

Dang, camera projection is cool.

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