Name: Wayne England
Age: 40
Location: Los Angeles
Job description: VFX Supervisor/ CG Supervisor

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NL: You work on numerous CG and 3D-related projects for SWAY Studios. Could you tell us a bit about yourself, your job and your work for SWAY?

“Prior to SWAY I had been freelancing for several years as a vfx supervisor and digital artist with numerous visual effects companies in the Hollywood area. During that period, about four years ago, I worked with Mark Glaser (the owner of SWAY) for the first time on a couple of projects, including the Honda Lego spot. It seemed to me then there was something a little different at SWAY insofar as the depth in understanding the 3D-effects process and the quality of the work itself.
“In that sense, I found it a very rich environment artistically. After visiting as freelance on a number of other projects at SWAY, I could see the company was headed toward a very exciting future. And so it was two years ago that I agreed officially to join the team. SWAY has continued to expand and flourish. For example, we are currently working on three Super Bowl projects as well as a national car campaign and our first major feature film project. In a couple of months, we will be moving into an impressive 11,000 square foot facility. So it's an exciting time for the company and for the great team of people at SWAY who have been involved in making it happen.”

"The Saints are Coming"

NL: One of your latest projects was the music video for “The Saints are Coming” from U2 and Green Day. What was the idea of the project? What was the goal? What was the timeline? How many people worked on the project? What systems did you use?

“U2 and Green Day's intent in creating the song and video was to make a political statement. I think all those involved in the project were inspired that we had the opportunity to be contributing to art that carried a social and political message and that reflected something to and for the people who had suffered from what was an unnecessary neglect.

The video recreates what might have happened if the troops in Iraq were redeployed to New Orleans for the initial relief effort that actually never happened. Our goal was to create a seamless integration of photorealistic effects into news footage that had originally aired.

Flooded, still and vacant streets came alive with waves and white wash created by convoys of tanks. We did the same for the empty skies, creating helicopters rescuing people and Harrier jets and B2 bombers dropping supplies.

The short schedule of a little over two weeks and the quality of the work we produced is testimony to the talent of the artists, but also to how we were able to work effectively as a team. The software we utilized included 3ds Max with V-Ray, Modo and RealFlow4. For compositing we used Nuke and Flame.”

NL: What was your main job on the project?

“I was the CG supervisor on the project. One of the aspects of that job was executing many of the RealFlow effects.”

NL: You used RealFlow4 to create photo-realistic images of water, fluids and splashes. Could you tell us something about your work with RealFlow4?

“My first really in-depth work with RealFlow was a couple of years ago on an all-CG commercial for Crisco Oil. In wanting the oil to act in very specific ways, I remember spending a lot of time learning how different parameters of the program influenced the nature of the fluid. There was a lot of experimentation and I came away from the project with the perspective that this was a program that had come of age. I was beginning to think of different projects that I knew could be achieved with RealFlow. I think because of the hard work I had put in, I was able to think creatively in a realistic way about how to achieve certain effects. I was also excited about the aesthetic possibilities of RealFlow. I had some extensive experience with particle systems and RealFlow now seemed to be answering many of my own wishes insofar as being able to sculpt shapes or meshes from particles through the use of forces and force fields. So I started to create a series of my own projects such as the Olive Splash and Pebble project which in part lead to more RealFlow projects coming to SWAY. I was then contacted by the Gnomon Workshop and asked to create a tutorial DVD. As it turns out, some of the creative methodologies that I show in the RealFlow DVD were utilized to create the white water wake in the U2 video.”

NL: Did you use the new scripting capabilities of RealFlow4 to tackle this project?

“Scripts didn't come into play on the U2 video. We did however write in-house software for the project which allowed accurate environmental reflections for our RealWave waves, from the image data of the news footage plates.”

NL: Why did you decide to use RealFlow4 for this?

“All our preparations that enabled us to execute the fluid dynamics needed for the U2 video, had taken place in RealFlow3 and 4. Apart from us using it for many previous jobs and projects, the fact is that RealFlow is a landmark program, being the first and by far the most successful standalone fluid dynamics solution available in the industry. Now with the introduction of scripting, vast particle system creation possibilities have opened up that can be based in the natural language of physically accurate fluid dynamics. “Beyond that, there is now the possibility of creating ones own 'substances' or 'original fluids'. So these are things I find exciting.

On top of all this, once certain specific concepts of the program are understood, it becomes a very practical and intuitive program to use.”

NL: What main challenges did you come across using RealFlow?

“I would say one of the great things in working with a director on the level of Chris Milk is the opportunity to collaborate not only with his eye, but with his attention to detail. For example, he provided some excellent and quite specific reference for the way he wanted the water to be displaced by the tanks moving through the flooded streets. The lingering white water residue formed by the turbulence was far from just fractal noise, but had specific gathering, branching and blending fluid dynamic characteristics. It was a challenge I ended up relishing, since I was able to utilize – through minor modification – some very specific creative methodologies I had developed using RealFlow. Essentially, these methodologies provided a set of 'tools' enabling us to achieve the effects with great realism.”

NL: did you do that was different, unusual or inventive with RealFlow4?

“For an explanation of the methodology used to create the white water effect, I would refer to Chapter Two in the Gnomon RealFlow DVD. There you will see the essential methodology explained in action.”

NL: Are you happy with the final result of the waters and fluids? What could have been better or different?

“I am very happy with the results achieved using RealFlow4 for the U2/ Green Day video. More importantly, so were Chris Milk and the band members.”

The RealFlow4 training DVD

NL: You have also been spending a lot of time working on a new RealFlow4 DVD for The Gnomon Workshop, called “Introduction to Sculpting Fluid Dynamics”, out on January 24. How do you go about creating such a training DVD?

“It was a lot about planning and the preparation of materials. More significantly, it was discerning what I considered would be the most practical and beneficial information to share.
Rather than just covering the functionality of tools, I wanted to show how going further into certain aspects of the program could establish a strong fundamental grasp of the fluid matrix.
The DVD then builds upon that knowledge and applies it in creative ways within the context of actual projects."

NL: What does the DVD focus on? Is it meant for professional users of RealFlow or also for beginners? What will people learn from this DVD?

“It is meant for both professionals and people new to the program. I think one of the things that people can come away with from the DVD is a broader perspective on how creative one can be with the program. I also think, given the sequence and content of the DVD, people who are new to RealFlow or have briefly come across it, will quickly feel that they can be productive with the software.

With the introduction of sculpting methodologies, the software really opens up in a very intuitive way, enabling huge varieties of effects and phenomena to be realized.
To summarize, there are four chapters, the first of which is the Introductory Chapter, introducing us to the fundamentals of working with the program. Chapter One deals with what’s involved in defining highly realistic fluids, within the context of addressing the subject of scale in RealFlow. We create fluids at three different scales and in doing this learn some very important principles crucial to understanding the fluids solver. Chapter Two opens the question of sculpting methodologies and uses several practical examples including the cover art Olive Splash project.

Finally, Chapter Three deals with another practical example from the Pebble project, showing how force fields or daemons can be used in combination to generate some very specific results.”

NL: Is the DVD showing the new scripting features of RealFlow4?

“There are no practical examples of scripts used on the DVD.”

NL: What would you like to see included in future versions of RealFlow?

“A couple of suggestions: I would be very happy to see development in the ability to shape particles with greater precision. Apart from being the renowned fluids solver, RealFlow competes as a powerful particle system. These enhancements would translate into more variables and controls being associated with daemons. An example of this could be a revamped magic daemon tool that has controls to define specific ways particles adhere to the shapes of volumes. Could controls, such as equal distribution, central volumetric density, expansion and ‘variable polar shifting’ work together (possibly with gradients and inverse functions) to define ways that particles could adhere to and move with shifting shapes?

On a related front, an enhanced animation toolset which includes the ability to edit and animate the shapes of primitives would be useful. Could force fields then be defined and associated with shapes we define?”

NL: Where can people purchase the DVD? How much does it cost?

“The DVD is available for purchase as of January 24th"
Gnomon website (www.thegnomonworkshop.com)