The idea was to create an action shot that has CG elements integrated into a live action plate. This was my first attempt at matchmoving onto a back plate and also first attempt at rendering with Solidangle's Arnold. It really is a great brute force renderer, allowing the user to focus on more artistic tasks. The helicopter was rendered in Arnold while the effects were rendered in Mental Ray. We shot the footage on a Canon 5D, graded in Nuke, and tracked in Boujou. The entire process took around 10 weeks while rendering took one week.

 

Special thanks to Daniel Kho for the beautiful Pavelow model, Katerina Berezhnova for being an awesome actor, and Stephen Delalla & Stephen McClure for putting up with my endless questions regarding Arnold and everything.

Thanks for watching!