The Orphanage Fires-Up SplutterFish's Brazil r/s to Create Thrilling Visual Effects Sequences for Blockbuster ``Hellboy''.

Entertainment Editors/Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

VENICE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 6, 2004

Award-winning Rendering System Fully Adopted

Into Production Pipeline for Film and VFX 

SplutterFish LLC, a high-end 3D rendering software solutions provider, today announced that The Orphanage, a leading San Francisco-based independent digital film production and special effects/post production facility, has committed to the award-winning Brazil Rendering System(TM) (Brazil r/s) as a primary rendering solution for a wide range of visual effects work, from hard-surface and environments rendering, to particles and creature FX. Citing Brazil r/s' speed, flexibility, advanced lighting features and versatile shader API, Brazil r/s was used extensively by The Orphanage visual effects team to render several dozen special effects shots for the recently-released blockbuster motion picture, "Hellboy."

Based on the Dark Horse comic book by Mike Mignola, "Hellboy", and directed by Guillermo del Toro, the Sony/Revolution Pictures release tells the story of a demon conjured up from the spirit world by the Nazis for nefarious purposes. Instead, Hellboy is recruited by the Americans to fight evil.

"Integrating Brazil into the production pipeline was an important aspect of our production efforts on 'Hellboy' where our creative team of VFX artists are faced with the challenge of making the impossible look real," said Jonathan Rothbart, VFX Supervisor. "The broad range of effects required for 'Hellboy,' including the creation of digital six packs of beer, Hellboy's tail, giant flying squid and digital cars, represented a true and successful test of Brazil's agility and breadth of capabilities. Also, Brazil's speed allowed us to deliver fantastic imagery and has even enticed us to create custom tools and processes such as porting data from Maya, our primary animation package."

Brazil r/s Stands Up to Technical Challenges On Key Effects Sequences in "Hellboy"

According to Kevin Baillie, lead CG supervisor at The Orphanage, in a sequence called 'West Side Highway,' Brazil r/s was crucial in enabling the team to achieve realistic night time lighting in a very unique environment. "Hellboy chases a monster, Sammael, across an urban highway at night. For safety reasons, the director decided against shooting the scene with real cars zooming by the actors, opting instead to add digital cars to almost every shot in the sequence. The models were lit and rendered in Brazil using HDR environment and reflection maps which resulted in virtual cars, complete with all the proper streaking of highlights in fast moving vehicles, indistinguishable from those shot on set."

In a sequence involving the creation of an exploding crystal, The Orphanage artists faced additional challenges, from ray traced shadows in a massive scene, to reflections and refractive crystal surfaces to full-frame creature animation. "When I first heard what the director was looking for, I can honestly say it freaked us out a bit," explained Shadi Almassizadeh, sequence supervisor at The Orphanage. "This was no ordinary exploding crystal. It needed to be an internally illuminated, shattering, glyph-riddled, 'God of Chaos'-filled crystal in space. Brazil's full-featured shader library allowed us to use combinations of multiple shaders, most notably the wax shader for sub-surface scattering effects, enabling us to achieve exactly the look the director required."

The 'Bridge' sequence in "Hellboy" also exploited Brazil r/s' advanced global illumination features. "This sequence takes place in a cavernous underground crypt lit only from a few shafts of overhead light. The main source of light came from indirect 'bounced' light. We deployed Brazil r/s on a 5 million-plus polygon environment which was modeled and roughly textured with a mix of texture maps and custom procedural shaders," added Baillie. "Each shot was set up, lit, and rendered as a still frame, then handed over to our Matte Painting department, which used the Brazil renders as a starting point to paint in shot-specific details such as grime, frayed ropes, crumbled rock, etc., to generally enhance the atmosphere of the shots. After the paintings were finished, they were projected back onto the shot geometry in 3ds max as fully luminant textures, sometimes in multiple layers. The scene was then rendered with a moving camera to match what was shot on set. Throughout post production, we continued to be amazed at how close the raw Brazil lit renders got us towards the finished matte painting. The results were truly astounding!"

For more details on The Orphanage's work on "Hellboy," visit the SplutterFish website, www.splutterfish.com

About Brazil r/s

The award-winning Brazil Rendering System is designed by and for production professionals as a powerful, flexible and affordable high-end rendering solution for film, broadcast, architecture and other cross-visualization applications. It offers uncompromising image quality while addressing the need for the natural, streamlined workflow that CG artists demand.

About The Orphanage

The Orphanage, based in San Francisco, was founded in 1999 by three visual effects veterans from Industrial Light + Magic. The facility provides high-end visual effects services for features, television and advertising; original digital motion picture and television production; and digital filmmaking technology development and licensing.

About SplutterFish

SplutterFish LLC, established in 2001, is a Venice, California-based software provider of high-end, affordable and efficient 3D rendering tools. The company's flagship product, Brazil Rendering System, has been honored with leading industry awards including the CGW 2003 Innovation Award, the Animation Magazine "Seal of Excellence Award," and others. SplutterFish software products are currently available from the company and its international reseller representatives.

Brazil Rendering System is a trademark of SplutterFish, LLC. Maya is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries worldwide, exclusively used by Alias. Alias Systems, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited ("Alias"). Discreet is a division of Autodesk, Inc. Discreet and 3ds max are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. /Autodesk Canada Inc. in the USA and/or other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.