GenArts Sapphire Brings "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" Character to Life

The House: Hydraulx VFX, Santa Monica, CA
This Santa Monica, CA-based VFX facility opened its doors in 2002 with 5 full-time employees. With a promise to “hire the best artists, and keep them armed with the latest tools and technology available,” today Hydraulx has grown to be 100-strong and thrives as a formidable player in the commercial, video and feature film industries. A mainstay tool: GenArts Sapphire for Autodesk.

The Artist: Erik Liles, Visual Effects Supervisor
One of Hydraulx's original employees, 15-year industry veteran Erik Liles serves as Visual Effects Supervisor & Flame artist. He's spearheaded visual effects work on feature films such as Syriana, 300, Australia, and--most recently--the 450 shots Hydraulx delivered for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Liles' first Flame came equipped with GenArts Sapphire, and since 1999, he's hard-pressed to think of a shot he's done without it.

The Project: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Following the success of the X-Men trilogy, 20th Century Fox’s latest installment to the Marvel Comics movie franchise tells the story of Wolverine’s past. Best known for his retractable claws and accelerated healing ability, Wolverine explores the origins of his mutant powers and encounters fellow mutants, both friends and foes familiar and new.

"Sapphire was a huge enhancement to our productivity and our ability to manage such a complex project. Although she was built in 3D, it was the Sapphire effects added by our 2D department that sold our unique vision of Diamond Girl to the studio."

The Challenge: Diamond Girl
“What does a girl with diamond skin look like?” Erik Liles asks.

Tasked with the visual effects for 475 shots (almost half the movie!) on X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Liles, as the Visual Effects Supervisor, was responsible for creating a myriad of battle sequences between superheroes with superpowers. There's Gambit, who wields a deck of cards like a deadly weapon. And Agent Zero, who absorbs energy from his surroundings and expels it double-charged from his fingertips. But it was Diamond Girl who engaged Liles' VFX team in an unprecedented challenge.

X-Men heroine Emma Frost (aka Diamond Girl) debuted on the Marvel scene in 1979. She possesses the ability to transform her skin and hair into diamonds at will. In her impenetrable diamond-form, she acts as a shield for her allies by deflecting bullets while glimmering and refracting light just like the precious gemstone. Decades of fans have visualized Emma's transition in their minds- it was up to Hydraulx to surpass their wildest imaginations.

“We went through 4 or 5 months really just banging our heads against the wall,” Liles says of the process of conceptualizing Diamond Girl. “We built an entire virtual girl in 3D, but when we put her into the comps, there was just something missing.”

The Solution: GenArts Sapphire
Despite revision after revision in 3D, Diamond Girl still just wasn't right to Liles and the team at Hydralux. “We started to add some Sapphire Glints and Glares on top of her,” he describes, “and that's when she really started to pop out and come to life as part of the scene.”

Sapphire v4’s effects proved invaluable to the VFX team when Emma Frost transitions from real actress, Tahnya Tozzi, into the CG-generated Diamond Girl. Using the Layer spark’s luminance and chromablend features, Hydraulx was able to layer the shading (light) from the real girl into the color (chroma) of the CG girl to make a seamless integration from human skin to diamond skin. Light3D, which performs 3D relighting, maintained the integrity of Diamond Girl’s shape by providing the illusion of depth and shadow when integrating normal map lighting and diffuse passes from the 3d department into the final 2d composite in Flame.

Using Sapphire v4 on Autodesk Flame, the Hydraulx 2D department was able to add the highlights, glints and little glares that an actual diamond would produce. This freed the expensive 3D resources to work on other aspects of the project. “Sapphire was a huge enhancement to our productivity and our ability to manage such a complex project,” explained Liles. “Although she was built in 3D, it was the Sapphire effects added by our 2D department that sold our unique vision of Diamond Girl to the studio.”

Images courtesy of Hydraulx and 20th Century Fox