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By TREVOR HOGGImages courtesy of Rodeo FX and Paramount Pictures.Picking up enough speed to do a trilogy of live-action movies plus a streaming series is the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, which has been spearheaded by filmmaker Jeff Fowler and his trusted Visual Effects Supervisor, Ged Wright. Brought into the world of Sega is Rodeo FX, which had a blast animating the title character for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 as well as his cohorts Tails, Knuckles and new antagonist Shadow for 265 shots.Shadow was a fun character to do. We didnt have the Keanu Reeves voice at the beginning. At some point, it came in, but we knew it would be him, so we were looking into Keanus behavior. Shadow is stoic, and they referenced the Terminator. Another fun character was Knuckles because he wasnt that comedic in the previous movie.Graeme Marshall, Visual Effects Producer, Rodeo FXWith all of the flying debris, it was important not to take away from the performance of the characters.When we started playing with Sonic, he was overly cartoonish, explains Sbastien Francoeur, Visual Effects Supervisor at Rodeo FX. The face was squashed and stretched because the character allows us to do that, but at some point, they wanted something that had a bone structure so you couldnt deform it too much. The mouth is always slightly toward camera, but it cant go both ways. Theres a rule with the eyes. The one thats looking forward is always a tad smaller than the other one. It was interesting and well managed because we were dealing with the Animation Supervisor on their side, Clem Yip, along with Ged and Jeff.The black hole was supposed to be nightmarish, so tentacles were incorporated into the design.All of the character assets were shared by the various vendors. This is the first time we ingested a rig because usually when we ingest the asset; its the model, the groom and texture, and were building up the rig, Francoeur states. I was glad that we could jump in that project with the right thing. It was harder at the beginning because we had an issue here and there. A new workflow was implemented for lighting. Before, we were using Katana, but we decided to do the lighting and effects in the same software, which is Houdini. Environments were also done in Houdini. USD is a file format that has eased the exchange between studios, so we were using that as well. Each vendor has a different way of working. The challenge at the beginning of the show was putting all those proprietary tools aside and making these assets be the same from facility to facility, like the certain facial expressions and movements that are specific to particular characters, notes Graeme Marshall, Visual Effects Producer at Rodeo FX. Being an established IP, we didnt do anything too far off the map.Achieving the desired look for the vegetation and mountains was a creative journey.The effects and lighting were done entirely in Houdini, which is a new workflow for Rodeo FX.[T]he black hole was something that needed to developed. We started with some concepts with the black hole, and Jeff [Fowler, director] wanted it to be more nightmarish. One guy on our team had an idea, showed it to me, and we tweaked it. All of the tentacles made the black hole more nightmarish, and we used a lot of distortion behind it to feel like theres some kind of warp.Sbastien Francoeur, Visual Effects Supervisor, Rodeo FXThe client had their own team of character builders and riggers, and we had access to them, Marshall continues. If we had a problem, we could poke them and ask technical questions. They also set up a library of key facial expressions that was shared with the vendors, so when Sonic smirks its going to be that exact smirk that you would expect from Sonic. Working with Clem was nice because he comes from the facility side. Clem understands the process and was able to work pretty much directly with our artists to stage the blocking. Ged and Clem were super collaborative on this project. Some weird physics were involved with the antagonist. Marshall notes, Shadow was a fun character to do. We didnt have the Keanu Reeves voice at the beginning. At some point, it came in, but we knew it would be him, so we were looking into Keanus behavior. Shadow is stoic, and they referenced the Terminator. Another fun character was Knuckles because he wasnt that comedic in the previous movie.For comedic reasons, the mountaintop destruction shot lasted three seconds.The shots [of the black hole sequence] are a testament to the collaboration between our departments internally. Youve got environment, effects, CFX, animation, and our lighting team had to do all the lighting interaction with the lightning.Graeme Marshall, Visual Effects Producer, Rodeo FXRodeo FX has developed a reputation for producing monsters, but the hedgehogs were a somewhat different endeavor. I feel like a monster might be more technical because its about the weight, Francoeur remarks. In this case, we started with a voice-over so you get the idea when you listen to it, then you build on top of that. You try to put the accent where the joke can work. There is another distinction. When you have someone reacting to the monster, you create the performance around their reaction, Marshall states. Whereas, these characters have to emote and perform to tell the story. Special attention was paid to the eyes. We were art-directing those eyes to make sure theyre not looking dead or flat or too cartoony, Francoeur notes. Part of their realism was putting a nice, detailed reflection in them.The look of the Chaos energy reflects the emotional state of Shadow.There was plenty of reverse engineering. A lot of the work we did with Ged and Jeff was looking back at how they shot it, Marshall states. Youd put a bounce card to give a little bit more of a soft wash on the surface of someones face and in their eyes. There were often times where we ended up doing that in CG to try to give that realism and emotion as well as additional hints of light, which you wouldnt normally get, that they do on set. A signature character effect is the Chaos energy which is electrical in nature. We received a base recipe and needed to learn the aesthetic, such as its parameter and curve, Francoeur explains. Theres intention behind the Chaos energy in that its always linked to the emotional state of the character. We were playing with proper physicality so that the lightning had the proper shape and was illuminating the character correctly.The Test Track Chamber appears in two different conditions. We tell the story of Shadow at the beginning of the movie and see him in the Test Track Chamber for 10 seconds, Francoeur states. The client wanted to see the operational and disused Test Track Chamber, so we had to run them in parallel. You need one to match the other, but at some point, we said, Okay, theyre similar enough, so we can split it up. The destroyed one has been 50 years without maintenance, and vegetation would have taken over. When the black hole opened, we needed to have huge interaction with everything. Honestly, that was a good challenge because it was not a linear workload. We didnt have enough time to say, Lets finish our environment and then were going to do the destruction. The vegetation had its own entire setup. You need a huge machine, and we dont have unlimited render power. One of the challenges was playing with the animation of those weeds moving because at some point the weeds looked like they were headbanging!Two versions of Sonic were created, with the mirror reflection being squashed and stretched.With all of the flying debris, it was important not to take away from the performance of the characters. There was a lot of balancing that we had to do, and we had a talented effects team, Marshall remarks. Weve got moving bushes, smoke, bigger chunks of debris, the black hole, and one-offs around environment, like air conditioning ducts. Then theres Tails with his little tuft of hair! Different development approaches were adopted for the portal and black hole. The portal is a ring that we ingested to make sure they all look the same, but the black hole was something that needed to developed. We started with some concepts with the black hole, and Jeff wanted it to be more nightmarish, Francoeur reveals. One guy on our team had an idea, showed it to me, and we tweaked it. All of the tentacles made the black hole more nightmarish, and we used a lot of distortion behind it to feel like theres some kind of warp. The sequence required the entire expertise of Rodeo FX. These shots are a testament to the collaboration between our departments internally, Marshall notes. Youve got environment, effects, CFX, animation, and our lighting team had to do all the lighting interaction with the lightning.The portal was an effect provided by the production that was ingested by Rodeo FX.When we started playing with Sonic, he was overly cartoonish. The face was squashed and stretched because the character allows us to do that, but at some point, they wanted something that had a bone structure so you couldnt deform it too much. The mouth is always slightly toward camera, but it cannot go both ways. Theres a rule with the eyes. The one thats looking forward is always a tad smaller than the other one.Sbastien Francoeur, Visual Effects Supervisor, Rodeo FXJim Carrey plays the roles of father and son, occassionally having to perform against himself. It was a basic split screen with no real overlap, Francoeur remarks. The one we had was fairly easy. We had to make sure that the ground was aligned because for each shot, they had a double and switched the character so the lighting fits everything. Production provided a solid foundation. Jeff shot us really nice plates and kept it as simple as possible, Marshall states. I dont think they did motion control, so to speak, but they certainly kept things locked off and tried to keep lighting the same for the two passes. Jim would have to go and get makeup done to look like Robotnik Senior. They would have to lock down the set and wait for that process to happen.Rodeo FX had to make sure that the ground was aligned for the split-screen shot where Jim Carrey plays Robotnik Sr. and Jr.Shadow is responsible for a shattering glass effect. They had a tank but didnt like their fracture, so we needed to remove that one and rebuild the background, Francoeur states. If you look into a reflection, youre going to see yourself squashed. Its not a full ray trace. Its a complete cheat. In that scene, we have two Shadows; one is by the camera and the other one looking at us. They are doing the same thing. A proper reflection is stretched and thin. It was not challenging, but we needed to make sure that it would work at the end of the day. We made the character squash and stretch a bit to help it out. Then we rendered the facets of the destroyed surface so we were able to offset that, so hes not at the same height. Its not a perfect reflection.A mountaintop collapses. We had three seconds, Francoeur laughs. It couldnt be longer because the joke wouldnt work. It was all about timing. We added some plate photography, but they were not happy with the mountains. It was shot in Iceland. The plate was looking great; however, there were no mountains to service it, and the vegetation over there was not the same as it would have been in Colorado.We struggled a bit, but at the end of the day it looks great.Rodeo FX created two versions of the Test Track Chamber in parallel where one was operational and the other dilapidated.Highly-detailed reflections were placed in the eyes of Tails to give the character more life.The rigging setup for the characters was provided by the production team to ensure they remained consistent no matter what vendor was creating them.Watch the VFX breakdown reel of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 from Rodeo FX, who worked on the destruction of the Test Track Chamber, which pulled everything in the environment toward the black hole created by Eggman (Jim Carrey) and Shadow (Keanu Reeves) from small pebbles and leaves to an entire mountain. Click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxcP38TApOA
