The latest iPhone. The newest car model. Technology is constantly upgraded and interchangeable - but what happens when you're in love with an Alyssa, and the Joy Corporation releases an upgraded model?
The Director, Daren D. Dien, approached us to take on the limb replacement SFX for the actress. YBFX was brought on in post production. There wasn't an Effects Superviser on set so motion tracking was a challenge for many of the limb shots.
Daren's vision wanted the Alyssa to have mannequin-like joints. We spoke about several options of what the joints would look like and settled on something relatively simplistic. YBFX interpreted the joints to be hidden and stream line. So that allowed us some room to stretch for visual effects.
Ultimately we didn't have the technology to create photo-real CG limbs. So animating joints was the main solution to achieve the effect. YBFX resorted to using clothes and skin marks as track points. Many of the shots were tracked by hand as the actors moved through the shots. Some points were added to the skin by the make up person on set, but due to motion blur the points would disappear when ever the actor would move.
One such shot showed the actors moving from a standing position to laying down in a shot where the camera trucks around about 100 degrees. It was probably the longest of the 48 VFX shots. Which means the 2D joints needed to parallax with the camera's 3D movement. After nudging keyframes around for a couple days we had something that was "good enough for jazz". If you freeze frame the shot it looks weird. But in the movement of the action the effect doesn't stick out.
Outside the tracking and painting frame by frame, YBFX was also tasked to do some basic compositing and logo work, which is our bread and butter. Things like a light up button in the back of the actors neck, or billboards and LED screens. We also had the opportunity to design the "Joy Co" logo for the company that produces Alyssas.
In the street shot, we thought it would be great to see that the world is a bit lived in. So the animator found footage of a broken LED tv that they used as reference to replicate the broken ad at the bus stop. For the button shot YBFX created a masked loop like you would see on a computer power button. We then put a static light underneath the moving mask so when the actor would move the light would show depth by not being directly connected to the button itself. Adding some realism to the effect. It's hard to look at a finished product and imagine how much of a challenge it was to get to this point. The hundreds of hours and revisions working with the production team to achieve their vision was arduous but very rewarding.
Yellow Brick FX wants to thank Daren D. Dien and his team for this opportunity.
Talk To Me was nominated for 5 categories and won for "Best Short Film" at the 2022 Pasadena Film Festival.
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