Captain America finds German allies

Tuesday, 08 November 2011

Coinciding with the DVD and Blu-ray release of Captain America, Art of VFX website talked to Trixter VFX Supervisor Alessandro Cioffi about Trixter's involvement with the film.

From the article:

Art of VFX: How did Trixter get involved on this show?

Cioffi: Since the time of our collaboration with Captain America’s VFX Supervisor Christopher Townsend on Ninja Assassin first, in the late 2008, and Percy Jackson afterward, we had the pleasure to strike up a nice friendship along the years and many times we’ve looked forward to working together again. Eventually, around the end of March 2011, beginning of April we received an informal telephone call from Chris, who was by that that time extremely busy finishing the visual effects on the show, in which he asked us if we felt up to embracing the challenge on a tricky sequence, the so called Flashback sequence, which presented some complexity for being somehow different from the rest of the show. And guess what? Two hours later we set up our first cineSync session for an initial briefing.

Art of VFX: How was the collaboration with director Joe Johnston and Production VFX supervisors Christopher Townsend and Stephane Ceretti?

Cioffi: It has been an excellent collaboration. Rewarding, effective and mostly easygoing, even in moments of hectic hard work. Though, throughout the entire production we mainly had contact with Chris Townsend, from whom we received briefings and feedback and, as said, we had frequent Cinesync sessions with. We also received editorial comments almost on a daily basis, as the Flashback sequence, i.e., is all based on a visually vehement concept made of frequent and multiple dissolves upon a variety of elements, creatively combined. And naturally we received director Joe Johnston’s comments as well, every time one or more of our shots were screened for him, he always had good words of encouragement and recognition.

Art of VFX: What sequences have you made on this show?

Cioffi: We worked on the above mentioned Flashback sequence, describing how Schmidt descends into madness and eventually becomes the Red Skull, and on the train sequence where Captain America tries to high-jack the train and where he fatally loses his friend ‘Bucky’ Barnes. Plus a handful of shots from other sequences. In total we worked on over 115 shots.

Art of VFX: What references and indications did you receive for the flashback sequence?

Cioffi: For the Flashback sequence we were provided with an editorial version of the sequence for timing reference and naturally plenty of scans. Many backgrounds were then recreated and enhanced by us in a creative way, as well as the picture compositions were rebalanced according to the story that every shot had to tell. As I said, we were given the opportunity to be proactive in the look development of this sequence, and the process naturally involved many long talks and cineSync sessions with Chris, which we used with great enthusiasm!

The rest of the interview is available at the Art of VFX website.