Case Studies
Lost (Branit | VFX)
Branit|VFX has completed some ground-breaking work for the season premiere episode of "Lost". The small Midwest studio handled two large sequences that were critical to illustrating the time-shifting storyline. "Lost is my favorite show on television," says owner, Bruce Branit. "So to be able to contribute and play a part is both thrilling and a huge responsibility.".
The most difficult and challenging sequence is one that most fans probably never noticed. Way back in Season One, the character of John Locke discovered an airplane hanging precariously high in a cliff-side banyan tree. For the Season Five premiere this location needed to be revisited, this time in an earlier time-line, just moments after the plane had crashed in the tree. For several reasons, the physical plane and the location used 4 years ago were not available. There was some debate about just reusing footage from earlier episodes, but the character's position relative to the plane was very different than anything that was shot before. So Branit|VFX was asked to recreate the entire scene digitally.
The Beachcraft airplane, a Nigerian drug-running plane in the story, was modeled and surfaced in Lightwave based on carefully researched photos and drawings. The Beech-18 has had over 100 different production variations, so care was taken to match the right plane details with the previous appearance of the plane on Lost, both flying and treed. Branit VFX has modeled planes for several shows and commercials before, but the biggest challenge in this scene involved the environment the plane would be perched in. Artist Eric Bacus took on the challenge of building this jungle environment. "I found that the roots actually merge and divide as they grow, making incredibly complex shapes and relationships. Stitching all the intersecting branches together manually was going to be incredibly tedious," he said.
However, Bacus had just finished a sequence using Next Limit's Realflow for an episode of "Pushing Daisies", and it occurred to him that RealFlow might be a useful tool for "Lost". Instead of modeling individual branches and roots and connecting each one individually, branches could be grown up and down the cliff's face like wax from a candle.
First, a simplified cliff face was created that closely matched the real-world geography from Season One. That geometry was then brought into RealFlow. "I grew two-point poly-chain 'fibers' and allowed them to conform to the cliff face. They followed the path of least resistance up and down the cliff."
RealFlow's metaball mesher was then used to define the thickness of each root, as well as how they grow into and around one other. This process could be tweaked and refined for vine thickness and other qualities relatively quickly.
"Once all the pieces were in place, the entire process could be run through in an hour or so. Manual modeling methods would have taken days, perhaps weeks," said Branit. "This was one of those sequences we felt like was going to tax us on every level. But with this elegant solution, we found we had the hardest part out of the way very early.
So we could spend more time polishing the surfacing, details and lighting. We even had time to match the gnats flying around Locke in some of the adjoining cuts in the sequence."
About BRANIT VFX:
Branit VFX is a Kansas City based visual effects company located at 1906 Wyandotte. Branit VFX specializes in high-end, photo-real visual effects work for television, film and commercials. Their recent credits include, Lost, Pushing Daisies, Californication, Brothers and Sisters, Moonlight, King Kong, Ghost Rider, as well as spot work for KCP&L, Sprint, Community America Bank, Time Warner, and Honda. They have recently moved into a new facility at 1920 Wyandotte Street in Kansas City's Crossroads Gallery district. Branit VFX is owned by Bruce Branit who returned to Kansas City in 2004. He is an accomplished director and visual effects artist with 4 Emmy Award nominations, but he is probably best known for his short films, "405" and “World Builder.”
For more information contact Bruce Branit, 816-221-0102, info@branitvfx.com or visit www.branitvfx.com
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