May 29, 2015

Meet the Unknown Star of "Kung Fury": CGI

It may technically be a live-action film, but Kung Fury, the intentionally flashy '80s action movie fever dream that swept the Cannes Film Festival and the Internet, owes much of its success to computer animation... and obviously CG, like the T-REX and the eagle. It's not just about the characters:

Swedish director David Sandberg was able to turn a proof-of-concept trailer into a full-fledged short on a shoestring budget thanks to a highly successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $630,000, but "the VFX played a story played an important role in the film," he admits. The final film contains 399 VFX shots produced by a 46-person crew at Scandinavian VFX house Fido.

Director Sandberg, a self-taught 3D animator who began his professional career in visual effects before turning to directing commercials and music videos, created the assets for the original pitch trailer in 3ds Max. Using Maya's Alembic support, we were able to quickly transfer 3D assets between programs and work efficiently to meet David's deadline," Cameron Scott, VFX supervisor at Kung Fury, said in a statement from Autodesk stated.

Kung Fury's three main environments (a street intersection, the interior of a police station, and a giant steampunk-inspired Nazi hall) were all created digitally using Autodesk's pipeline and integrated with green screen footage of live actors. Scott continued, "Our job was tough because the film is essentially a 30-minute VFX roller coaster, but having Maya as a pillar of the pipeline gave us peace of mind." David [Sandberg] also directed with a strong creative vision and a deep understanding of VFX, so it really helped that he spoke the same language as we did, even though we faced some pretty crazy challenges."

Here is a breakdown of the VFX by Fido for the music video accompanying the film, starring 80s icon David Hasselhoff Fido did this by combining various layers, green screen footage, and digital effects into a single shot, "The The Mayhem Shot": [David Katzenberg, son of DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, is working on a feature-length version in Hollywood through his KatzSmith Productions.

Kung Fury Animation and VFX Credits Director/Screenplay by David Sandberg

"Ride to Heaven" Sequence Animator: Will Goodan The "Heaven" Sequence - Old Skull Games: Art Direction by Etienne Badia Storyboard by Rudy Wilde Background art by Rudy Wilde Animation Nicolas Pochet, Rudy Wilde Compositing: Etienne Badia

Fido VFX Crew VFX Supervisor Cameron Scott Lead Lighting TD Johan Gabrielsson & Philippe Orby Composting Lead Daniel Norlund & Tomas Naslund VFX Pre-Production Breakdown Nils Lagergren, Kaj Steveman & Eva Åkergren Pipeline Engineers Erik Johansson

VFX Artists: Alexander Eriksson, Anders Nyman, Cameron Scott, Carlos Correia, Chris Judkins, Daniel Norlund, David Enbom, David Nelin, Egil Eskilsson, Erika Johansson, Filip Orrby, Fredrik Höglin, Fredrik Olsson, Gustav Alexandersson, Janak Thakker, Joakim Eriksson, Joakim Olsson, Johan Gabrielsson, Jonas Lindfors, Jonas Manell, Jonathan Skifs, Karl Rydhe, Klas Trulsson, Kristian Livén, Kristian Rydberg, Kristian Zarins, Laura Andersen, Magnus Eriksson, Martin Borell, Mattias Sandelius, Mattias Snygg, Niklas Lundgren, Rickard Engqvist, Rodrigo Vivedes, Sandra Scholz, Staffan Linder, Stefan Lagerstam, Sven Ahlström, Teo Mathlein, Tomas Näslund, Viktor Andersson, Zebastian Lilja