Summer is here and the time is right for a big screen full of superheroes, tidal waves, deadly serpents and chatty felines. Of course, these things couldn’t sweep viewers away as they do without expertly crafted VFX. And to achieve these, several of the summer’s most anticipated productions turned to Canadian post facilities, as was the case with the titles included on these two pages.

While Snakes on a Plane and X-Men: The Last Stand were shot in Vancouver and kept part of their post north of the border, some films came north specifically for post. Some shops had their hands more than full: Rainmaker had its two facilities working on a number of shots for both the The Da Vinci Code and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties, while Frantic Films handled some FX for Superman Returns while performing pre-viz for X-Men and Poseidon.

And, as always, Canadian-made software and systems from providers including Autodesk Media & Entertainment, eyeon and Softimage helped bring the impossible to life.

Superman Returns
Release date: June 28
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Post systems used:
FX: Flood (Frantic proprietary software); Autodesk 3ds max; Discreet Flame and Maya; Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects; eyeon Software’s Digital Fusion 4 + 5.
Editing: Mac-based Avid Film Composer XL, Avid Unity MediaNetwork, Avid Symphony Nitris
Canadian connection: Using a mix of Autodesk programs and its own proprietary particle rendering and generation systems, Winnipeg’s Frantic Films completed about 140 shots for the Man of Steel’s comeback flick, but company COO Ken Zorniak was unable to divulge details of the film’s content before its release. He would say, however, that Frantic was instrumental in the film’s 40-second opening shot, its R&D, and the development of a ‘special tool’ that it shared with other post facilities working on the film.
‘For a lot of the big Hollywood features, you can’t use packages out of the box,’ he says. ‘You have to take it to the next level.’

Snakes on a Plane
Release date: Aug. 18
Distributor: New Line Cinema/Alliance Atlantis
Post systems used:
FX: Softimage|XSI; NewTek Lightwave 3D; 2d3 Boujou; Autodesk’s Discreet Inferno, Flame and Smoke
Editing: Avid systems
Canadian connection: Quebec’s Hybride Technologies produced nearly 150 VFX shots for the Vancouver-shot Snakes, accounting for eight minutes of screen time. Hybride created many of the photo-realistic CG serpents that interact with the stars, using Softimage|XSI for 3D animation, and LightWave 3D for particle effects, 3D graphics and equalization.

X-Men: The Last Stand
Release date: May 26
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Post systems used:
FX: Autodesk Maya and Inferno; Apple Shake; 3Delight; Imagineer Systems monet; Silhouette; Pinnacle Systems’ Commotion; Adobe Photoshop
Editing: Avid Media Composer Meridien, Avid Unity
Canadian connection: Though they filmed in Vancouver, X-producers sought Toronto’s Soho VFX to handle one of the film’s big fight scenes, between Wolverine and Spike, a mutant who can launch pointed projectiles from his wrists.
Using Maya, Soho visual FX supervisor Berj Bannayan and team created most CG elements in the scene, including a shot of Wolverine’s clawed hand removing a spike from his shoulder, after which the wound closes.
Frantic Films was involved in some of the film’s pre-visualization.

The Da Vinci Code
Release date: May 19
Distributor: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Post systems used:
FX: Digital Fusion 4, Maya, LightWave 8, boujou, ALICE (proprietary of contributing post house The Motion Picture Company), Adobe Photoshop, Next Limit RealFlow, 3DBOXX workstations
Editing: Mac-based Avid Media Composer XL, Avid Unity MediaNetwork, Mac-based Avid Xpress Pro
Canadian connection: The new U.K. branch of Vancouver’s Rainmaker handled 43 shots on the controversial Ron Howard film, 38 of which were part of a sequence taking place at Saint-Sulpice. An integral part of Dan Brown’s source novel – but inaccessible to the filmmakers – the Paris church was digitally reconstructed by Rainmaker artists after extensive research of reference images, using LightWave, Photoshop, boujou and Fusion.

Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties
Release date: June 16
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Post systems used:
FX: NewTek’s LightWave 8.5 and Sasquatch; Digital Fusion 4; Worley Laboratories’ Fprime; IRIDAS Framecycler; boujou
Canadian connection: Vancouver’s Rainmaker contributed to a whopping 170 shots on the sequel about everybody’s favorite lasagna-consuming feline. Rainmaker performed face replacement on a number of different animals to give them the appearance of speaking. This zoo includes a rat, a rabbit, a goose and an English bulldog named Winston.

Poseidon
Release date: May 12
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Post systems include:
FX: Maya, RealFlow, Digital Fusion 4, Zeno (Industrial Light & Magic proprietary 3D software), Maxwell Cinema Radiosity, Scanline’s Flowline, mental images’ mental ray
Canadian connection: Vancouver’s Mark Stasiuk, of post house Fusion CIS, drew on his background in geophysics to develop the fluid simulation pipeline used on the film by Fusion CIS’ Hollywood facility, enabling controlled spray and foam effects in the cruise ship disaster flick. Stasiuk trained the shop’s artists on his system, and spearheaded the creation of the spectacular wave that crashes through the titular ship’s corridor, along with other aquatic catastrophes.
Frantic Films was on board for some pre-visualization.