Joel Le Lièvre of Delicate Machines reveals all the details on destruction and battle scenes in the movie “Transformers 3”

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Joel LeLièvre, originally from Dartmouth - Nova Scotia, runs a small vfx company with his buddy Jon Mitchell called Delicate Machines. Together they worked on effects for film and television focusing on particles, dynamics and fluids. Some of their more recent films are Transformers 3, Suckerpunch, Tron Legacy, and Avatar.

 

 

 

 

 

cebas: It seems that "Transformers 3" was an important project for you (and your firm). Can you tell us how you were involved?

We were asked to help out with some particle work on Transformers: Dark of The Moon. We are huge fans of Transformers having grown up with the toys and cartoons so being able to work on this film and deliver work for this franchise was great! 

 

cebas: Which shots/images/sequences in particular were you involved in?

We were asked to help destroy some buildings in the battle of Chicago sequence. Certain buildings are hit with missiles and we created the impact explosions, debris fallout, and dust.

 

 

cebas: What cebas software did you use and why?


On this project we decided to use thinkingParticles 4.0 for 3dsmax. We have done a fair bit of particle work in the past and we wanted to use something that would give us a lot of control and allow for us to make multiple iterations with quick turnaround times. I had seen thinkingParticles being used in productions when I worked onsite with various companies and I knew it was what we needed to get the effects we were after. We were also after something that would allow us to create and cache out layers and layers of particles that we could easily update, and if need be, export as geometry for fluid dust simulations.

 

cebas: How did you use our software to achieve the effects?


The first couple of weeks were pretty intense. Never having used thinkingParticles before, there was a pretty steep learning curve to overcome. But thanks to the Cebas website with its vast array of tutorials and a couple of DVDs from some very knowledgeable thinkingParticles users, we were able to create just what we needed. thinkingParticles was used to create various explosions and building destruction elements; including shattering glass, crumbling concrete, and various other bits of debris.

 

 

cebas: What features in particular helped you achieve your goal and how?


When doing any type of rigid body simulation, you need to have a solver that can handle loads of geometry and treat those pieces as one would expect in the real world. Using volumeBreaker and the new SC solver proved to be an amazing combo in the development of these effects. Having large-scale fragments interacting with smaller debris and everything behaving together in one environment was key. Additionally, being able to easily cache out these simulations meant viewport workability and rendering were smooth. I honestly do not know what we would have done without the robust caching system present in thinkingParticles 4. 

 
cebas: What was the most difficult aspect of this project and how did you solve it?


The most difficult aspect was actually learning how thinkingParticles works and behaves and then trying to figure out how we were going to utilize it in production. Having never used it before, upon first glance, it can be somewhat overwhelming. Coming from a particle workflow that focused around using event-driven setups; it took some time to fully understand how we could get rule-driven approach to work as we needed it to. Once we understood the logic behind thinkingParticles, everything fell into place and it was a dream to work with.


cebas: What was a step-by-step breakdown of a typical shot/image/sequence?

First, we got the plates and animatics from production and we decided where these explosions were going to take place. From there, we modeled the areas of the buildings we wanted to destroy and tried to add in as much detail as possible. We modeled panes of glass, concrete structure as well as the underlying steel forms. Once the modeling was complete, we brought that geo into thinkingParticles and started to break it up using volumeBreaker.

We wanted the destruction to start at an impact point and ripple outwards, so we used another particle group to control exactly when and where the fracturing would take place. We also wanted to create a system that would allow for lots of control. Movement, speed, gravity, and dynamics had to be very user friendly and allow the artist to direct what the effect looked like. (Our thanks go out to Hristo Velev for his tutorial on velocity sculpting.) Once we had the large-scale destruction happening, we could cache it out and move onto the smaller scale debris and fluid effects.

  

 

cebas: How did the cebas tools perform for you and how was the experience of working with them like?


Initially, I was a little concerned about learning a new tool while in the midst of production. With such a short turnaround period, there wasn’t a lot of time to experiment with the method we had in mind to create these effects. I had an idea and thanks to some guidance and insight from some of your more experienced thinkingParticles users, we were able to build a system that delivered just what we needed. After that, it was all about refining and directing the effect to what the director wanted.

 

 

 

cebas: How did it compare to other software you may have used?


For the past few years, we have done a lot of particles and had always used another particle tool, which for the most part, sufficed our needs. But there were a few issues we kept running into like; caching out of really big systems, being able to update and iterate new setups quickly and efficiently, and having everything work in one environment. With thinkingParticles, we could build highly complex systems that we could easily refine, cache out and get in front of the supervisor for comments and revision notes. Logically, thinkingParticles just made more sense and, in the end, that allowed us to create effects quicker and easier.


cebas: How did cebas software integrate into your production pipeline? How straightforward was it?


It fit into our pipeline seamlessly. After deciding to purchase thinkingParticles for this project, it was a matter of getting our license file from Cebas, installing the service on our server, adding the plug-in files to our render-farm and then running 3dsmax. It took all of 1-2 hours to get running maybe? Being a small company of just a few artists with no real IT department, it was nice to have something that worked from the get go and didn’t take days troubleshooting tech issues.

  

 


cebas: What was the most fun or rewarding part of this project for you?


Aside from finally working on one of the transformers movies, I have to say the most fun was learning and using thinkingParticles 4 in production (It is something that I personally have wanted to do for a while now). I have met various artists who are well known for their work using thinkingParticles and they had told me how powerful it was but I never really knew what they meant until I tried it myself. Being able to take an effect, play around with thinkingParticles and create multiple iterations quickly was a blast! In terms of rewarding, I can now take this experience and use it in future projects where we hope to exploit thinkingParticles even further. We learned a lot on this project but I know there is still a lot to discover!


cebas: What do you wish cebas software did that it's not currently doing for you?


Having only used thinkingParticles for the first time on this project, I am aware that we have limited experience and have only scratched the surface of what it can do. I can’t really pinpoint any specific options that would have made our jobs easier. One thing I would like to see implemented or enhanced in thinkingParticles 5 or future releases would be more fracturing options and types. There are various dynamic engines out there that offer splintering and various other fragmentation types, which would be nice to see in thinkingParticles.

 

cebas: What new projects can we expect from you in the future (if you're able to tell us).


We have a few projects currently in development and we will be using thinkingParticles for various effects. We have to keep what it is under wraps, though, until we are allowed to say more.

 

 

You can visit Delicate Machines Here to find out more about the company's recent work and achievements.

 

 

Thanks a lot Joel, we can't wait to see your amazing work using our thinkingParticles very soon! Good luck!

Cebas users and existing members can join us for discussion on our online forum Here...we look forward to reading your comments and maybe even get a glimpse of some of your latest artwork on our online Gallery??