Solaris

Soderbergh's High-Res Space Odyssey

For the latest proof of the enduring influence of Stanley Kubrick's2001: A Space Odyssey, look no further than the lengthyspaceship shots in Steven Soderbergh's Solaris (Fox/Lightstorm).The Oscar-winning director of Traffic may have only been 5 when2001 was released, but it provided the benchmark for the lookSoderbergh wanted.

The wireframe model of the space station Prometheus.

“Steven arranged a viewing of a 70mm print of 2001, andhe told us, ‘I like the looks of those models even though they'reover 30 years old,’” recalls visual effects supervisor TomSmith of Cinesite. But unlike the physical models in 2001,Cinesite would be creating Solaris' spaceships in 3D CGI at 4Kresolution, which would reveal them in great detail.

Those details are particularly evident in the film's openingsequence, in which George Clooney's character travels to the spacestation Prometheus — a swirling structure with semi-translucentsolar sails.

“It's a long and elaborate sequence in which individual shotsare up to a minute long,” explains Smith. “George'scharacter is traveling in a ship which has a small pod that detachesand takes him to dock with Prometheus. We come very close to thisdocking bay, which fills the whole screen — and it's all CG.Because the ships are constantly moving, all the bits and pieces ontheir surfaces cast shadows that are always changing. The amount ofdetail that you see when you get up close is where the payoffis.”

These ship designs were based on concept drawings provided byproduction, and were “buffed out,” says Smith, by Cinesitesequence supervisor John Hewitt. To understand where Hewitt needed todevelop the most detail, the effects team had to determine which partsof these ships would come closest to camera at various times.

“We set up a previz room where Steven could sit down and movethe [virtual] camera around,” Smith explains. UsingAlias/Wavefront's Maya, Cinesite created this previz with rough,flat-shaded models that could be moved around quickly. “Thecomplicating factor in this was that the shots were so long. To bereally interactive, we had things stripped down. We did it in phases.First we got a rough blocking for time, and the next pass was forcontinuity between shots,” Smith says.

Once they had Soderbergh's choreography of the spaceships lockeddown, Cinesite conformed these shots for the director's favored editingtool, Apple's Final Cut Pro. They then moved on to modeling the ships,which was done in Maya running primarily on Linux hardware. The highlydetailed models had to be assembled with an eye on the amount of timeit would take to render them.

“The heavier the model gets in terms of details,” notesSmith, “the more complicated the renders become. You can get intosome extreme render times very easily.”

The earliest renders were at 1K, done with Pixar's RenderMan.“[These renders] were enough to start making determinations aboutlighting,” says Smith. “The quality of the lighting wasimportant since there isn't an atmosphere in space and everything isfairly sharp. We started to experiment with the lighting, and beganfilming out four- or five-second chunks to see what they looked like onfilm. We actually took those chunks on through the dupe process aswell.

“The stars in these shots were quite fine and specific. Wewanted to be careful that we didn't lose them going through the releaseprint process, going to another generation,” explains Smith.

The flat-shaded CG model.

As they worked through the 1K renders, they developed ways tooptimize the rendering of the models. At this point, Smith's team wasable to reuse certain parts of the renders so they didn't have to redothem each time — presuming Soderbergh didn't want major changesin lighting or animation.

At this time, the compositors were also at work. “Usually bythe time you're looking at 1K renders, you're in the arena where you'vegot a lot more control over all kinds of things,” says Smith.“By the time you're looking at final lighting, you're actuallycomping the shot properly, similar to what you're going to do forreal.”

As things became more locked down, Cinesite began 2K renders, wherethey could see shots to length. Finer details emerged, and Soderberghmade precise decisions about lighting subtleties such as thefill-to-key ratio. While some lighting was added digitally using AfterEffects, Smith also shot some photoreal elements that would be used assweetening. “I borrowed the B camera from production to shootelements against black through an anamorphic lens — which is whatSteven shot the film with. I wanted to make sure we were accurate as towhat an anamorphic lens does to lens flares. We put up a big screen andjust shot light right into the lens through a pinhole.”

Final composite of Prometheus.

These lighting effects were then used to kick flares off the ships,just like a photographic lens would do. Having broken down the rendersof these many elements into discrete pieces, Cinesite could completethe final 4K renders at two to four hours per frame. “At thatpoint,” says Smith, “we shifted gears from a 3D emphasis tothe 2D compositing.” The final assembly was then done in Cineon.“It can be difficult to integrate CG elements into that format,but it's a workhorse. It's not dead yet!” he says.

The final results are effects that Smith is pleased with.“Steven was careful not to make this a visual effects movie. It'sreally about a relationship, and the effects are more of a backgroundplayer. But we think our spaceships stand out.”

Of course, unlike Kubrick's audience back in 1968, contemporarymoviegoers have seen footage of real spaceships. And that, says Smith,“just made us want to do a better job.”

Director/Writer/DP - Steven Soderbergh
Producer - James Cameron
Production Designer - Philip Messina
Concept Artist - Tim Flattery

Visual Effects Supervisor - Tom Smith
CG Supervisor/Look Development Lead - John Hewitt
CG Lead/Technical Director - Mark Shoaf
CG Lighting Supervisor - Wayne Vincenzi
Compositing Supervisor - Brigitte Bourque
CG Animator - Mike Makara
CG Supervisor - Jonathan Gerber
CG Supervisor - Kenji Sweeney