REPLICAS: PREVIS, MOCAP AND VFX
Get an in-depth look at the visual effects in sci-fi thriller Replicas, starring Keanu Reeves and a motion-captured robot character
Replicas, a sci-fi thriller starring Keanu Reeves that tells the story of his character’s ambition to bring back his family, offered many opportunities for filmmakers to consider how best to bring the future sci-tech visuals to the screen. Various elements of virtual production were in the mix to visualise the storytelling and prepare for shooting. Replicas incorporated a new pipeline for previs, motion capture and postvis utilising Reallusion’s iclone and Noitom’s Perception Neuron.
Storyboards were in place for developing the previs of a car crash sequence as the crew arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Look dev was in the process for shots that would require creating a believable interaction between Keanu’s character William and a futuristic ARV augmented reality system. 345, a robotic character, would be tracked as a stunt performer during shooting with motion capture using the Noitom Perception Neuron and iclone. Later, the CG robot was added with the tracked motions to bring 345 to life. Crew led by on-set VFX supervisor, Gunnar Hansen, teamed up with VFX artists and Reallusion on previsualisation and effects for the film. Rapid prototyping for on-set previsualisation was necessary for pre-production and Replicas executive producer, James Dodson, enlisted Reallusion VFX artists James Martin and John Martin (the Martin brothers) to join the VFX crew, build the animatics, previs AR interaction, motion capture and postvis. The first project was to develop 3D characters of the main cast members to be used throughout the previs for the augmented reality ARV system, and also to visualise the car crash sequence.
The real-time animation toolkit from Reallusion threaded with the tools the VFX crew were utilising to create the augmented reality effects in the film. Character Creator, iclone, Cinema 4D