Services
A sample of the digital services we offer
Visual Effects
Compositing
The origins of compositing stretch back to the earliest days of photography, with pioneering artists like Oscar Gustav Rejlander combining imagery from 32 different glass plate negatives to produce his famous The Two Ways of Life “combination print” in 1857.
Advances in motion picture technology during the early 20th century brought more opportunity to thrill the audiences worldwide with fictional fantasy and adventure worlds dreamed up by the minds of Edwin S. Porter, George Melies and the Lumiere Brothers. To achieve these make-believe worlds, filmmakers developed in-camera effects of double exposure, frame splits and stop motion. Over time, advancements in film technology have allowed visual effects to become the main feature of storytelling in films, not just some sideshow novelty. For our purposes, compositing means combining more than two images, whether the original sources are live action footage or completely rendered in the computer, and making them appear integrated in the final rendered images.
This scene of Bruce Wayne’s video wall from Batman v Superman typifies the multiple visual effects techniques such as camera tracking, projection mapping, rotoscoping, chroma key extraction, displacement effects, color correction and motion graphic design that are necessary to produce a convincing final composite.
Set Extensions
Matte paintings on glass were originally used to expand the physical space of movie sets. Early examples include Skull Island in King Kong and the London rooftops in Disney’s Mary Poppins. Today, we use digital matte painting and 3D rendered assets, combined with on-set photography to do the trick. Gamma Ray Studios work on the ABC pilot “Spark” illustrates the typical challenges and creative choices necessary to produce a convincing set extension. Buildings and infrastructure that don’t fit the story’s narrative or art direction are removed. A nighttime sky stretches across the heavens with twinkling stars. Animated clouds frame the scene and give it depth. A moody river darkened with shadows, warmed up street lamps to draw the eye around the scene, and a restored skyline to finish off the background details to complement the straightened out action in the foreground.
Fake UI/Motion Graphics
Admit it, we’re addicted to our smartphones. We even wait for our digital masters to tell us what to do next…or how to move the story to the next scene with a text message. By necessity, we help you tell the story within these digital mirrors by designing convincing graphics (Fake UI or FUI) to simulate text messaging, broadcast TV graphics, computer operating systems and government surveillance systems.
Rigging & Crew Removal/ Invisible FX/ Digital Paint
Rig removal is a generic term for the removal of undesirable stage elements not intended to be in the shot. This includes wires, harnesses, errant crew members, passer-by looky-loos, non-period background buildings or objects (What? No Starbucks in Winterfell?), and unlicensed items that may raise legal headaches later.
Planar Tracking & Rotoscope, Camera Stabilization
These 2D compositing techniques are some of the most fundamental and integral aspects to all compositing jobs. To create that set extension or remove that Starbucks coffee cup, you first need to stabilize any camera movement in the shot, integrate the new elements, and restore the original camera movement back into the plate to give it realism. At Gamma Ray Studios, we’ve had 25 years experience making on-set mistakes disappear and making new things stick to the background.
Additional Editorial & Post Services
Animatic Builds
Feature and Animation Editing
(Avid Media Composer & Adobe Premiere)
Previsualization VFX and Compositing
Technical Conforming & Troubleshooting
Supervision & Consulting
VFX Supervision
Pre-production and Post Budgeting
Workflow Design/Management