The final daemon look was photorealistic, although we added a slight color shimmer according to the host characters soul. This proved a wise move when the required look developed to become more realistic during post-production. In the initial brief, the daemons had a spirit look with a slightly transparent feel, but we decided to over-engineer the fur system to cope with possible future changes, Rowe notes. The number and length and size of feathers are controlled by a highly tractable system, with grooming parameters for direction, inclination, curvature, twist, bend and feather type. Feathers were created using a system that grows out of curves placed on the models surface. It was developed as an in-house plug-in enabling the team to groom the fur, and then export the fur description to RenderMan. CG Supervisor Ivor Middleton oversaw rigging, feathers and lighting set-up, before the daemon models were handed over to Animation Supervisor Quentin Miles and his team.Ĭinesite used its proprietary fur and feather pipeline on a wide variety of daemons. Modeling Supervisor Stephane Paris first sculpted clay maquettes, then remodeled the creatures using Mudbox.
VFX Supervisor Matt Johnson joined the team during post-production to helm the huge Bolvanger battle sequence. VFX Supervisor Sue Rowe and VFX Producer Aimee Dadswell-Davies oversaw the 19-month assignment at the London-based Cinesite.
While Rhythm & Hues created all the characterization shots, Cinesite was responsible for all background non-talking daemons, which represented a total of 15 distinct animals. It basically implies that photorealistic creatures should be animated for just about every shot in the movie, except for close-ups and cleverly framed shots! Suddenly, the nice concept turns into a massive vfx effort, so massive, in fact, that two vendors ended up sharing it. When a vfx supervisor reads a script in which every character has a daemon alter ego, his first reaction is, Hmmm, thats a nice concept! But then, he starts realizing what it means from a visual effects perspective: every character must always have a daemon beside him. The most unique aspect of Philip Pullmans His Dark Materials books is probably the concept of daemons. Read the first part of our in-depth coverage of The Golden Compass.
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