This article was taken from the March 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
Cloud Atlas, the new film from Lara and Andy Wachowski, contains a car-crash sequence set in 70s San Francisco. "We started with a shot of a VW Beetle on an old airport runway in Berlin," says Stéphane Ceretti, visual effects supervisor for the production. "All the rest was computer-generated." Ceretti created a digital visualisation of the crash, from the initial impact that sends the car, driven by Halle Berry's character, into the water beneath a bridge. "We looked at the dynamics of the crash, seeing what it would be doing as it tumbled." The team then created a physical rig of the Beetle which would move according to the previsualisation on three axes, and put Halle Berry and a camera inside. "She was keen to do it and was laughing like crazy," Ceretti says.
Once they had they filmed the rig, Ceretti 3D-scanned objects -- cups, papers and pens -- and recreated them digitally to float in the car around Berry. He then rendered the bridge and water to complete the crash. The process took just under a year, but doing so much digitally allowed "more control, and better camera angles". But that was combined with benefit of a traditional physical performance, says Dan Glass, senior visual-effects supervisor on Cloud Atlas: "You get a more physical reaction. She's moved around, bumped around."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
