“The shoot took place over a couple of weeks in February 2007,” recalls VFX Supervisor William Bartlett, “Mostly on the Coromandel Peninsula, close by Auckland, New Zealand.” The 3D team, led by Dan Seddon, had already started on the numerous models that would be needed, including the battleship, Spitfires, a Lancaster bomber, Spanish galleons and a Viking longship.
“Because a lot of the animation was basically static objects spinning around,” Bartlett continues, “For a lot of it we set up the cameras in Flame, previzzed lots of things in Flame and then exported the set-up to 3D. This was done on even very complex shots, such as the end one, where we go past the cliff and then dive under water to where the bottle lies. For that one we had a live action plate of the cliff, which we tracked. We then made a rough model and re-projected the live action footage onto that in order to change the camera move. We made all the bits for the undersea section out of helicopter footage taken over beaches at low tide projected onto a rocky surface. We rendered all that and gave it to 3D in the set-up, so that they knew where the sea was supposed to be. They then created the sea surface, through which our stuff could be refracted as well as adding any 3D model elements such as the battleship. This was then put back into Flame, where I reassembled it."
As is often the case, the fact that Framestore CFC works on many projects in multiple media came in handy on a sequence set on and by a North Sea oil rig. “The rig itself was a 2D collage I created using plausible elements I’d shot in Auckland Harbour using a still cam—which was very economical as well as neatly side-stepping possible permissions issues. But despite having had two goes at it,” recalls Bartlett ruefully, “Too clement weather meant that I couldn’t capture sea activity that was as fierce looking as we wanted. Dan Seddon takes up the story. “We restored the Houdini-based system that was used on “Superman” to do the sea,” he says, “Initially thinking we’d pick it up and run with it. So we ended up using their methodology, but in a simplified form involving tools sourced off the internet to give us the waves. I’m really pleased to say that our work— created on a commercial’s punishing schedule— can stand comparison with the “Superman” shots.”

VFX Supervisor: William Bartlett; VFX CG Supervisor: Dan Seddon; Technical Directors: David Mellor, Guillaume Fradin, Alex Doyle, Michele Fabbro, Daniel Stern; Modelling: Kate Hood, Mary Swinnerton; Animator: Dale Newton; Junior TD: Paul Jones, Jabed Khan; Matte Painter: Paul Chandler; Inferno Artists: William Bartlett, Marcelo Pasqualino; Roto Artists: Savneet Nagi, Laura Ingram, Sam Osborne; Telecine Colourist: Matt Turner; VFX Producer: Scott Griffin

Framestore (UK) is the largest visual effects and Computer animation Studio in Europe, with more than 20 years of experience in digital film and video technology. Employing over 750 staff, the Company works out of three buildings in London’s Soho district, with another Office based in New York. Among numerous international awards, the Company won the 2008 Academy Award for Visual Effects for its work on "The Golden Compass".