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    Step by Step: Stargate Atlantis

    From Millimeter:

    http://millimeter.com/mag/video_stargate_atlantis/

    (Please follow the link for the complete article.)


    Step by Step: Stargate: Atlantis
    By Ellen Wolff

    Rainmaker has long been a visual effects provider for the Stargate SG-1 television franchise — work that has earned several Emmy nominations for the Vancouver-based studio. So it was natural that Rainmaker was tapped to create the visual effects for the Sci Fi Channel series Stargate: Atlantis.

    “It's set in a totally different galaxy,” says Rainmaker Digital effects supervisor Bruce Woloshyn about the water-based city of Atlantis. “Unlike Stargate SG1, where we could always use stock footage of Cheyenne Mountain, with Stargate: Atlantis, our main location doesn't exist.”

    The challenges this presented were especially evident in the pivotal episode called “The Eye,” in which Atlantis is threatened by a massive hurricane. Rainmaker's task was to create a sense of peril using a range of atmospheric effects, including lighting strikes and wind-driven rain coming off huge waves that bear down on the skyscraper-filled city. One shot in particular captures the awesome power of the hurricane by having the camera tilt up as one particularly huge wave approaches.

    “If there was a real camera guy there,” says Woloshyn, “he would be running!”

    Rainmaker created a 3D-CG model of Atlantis using New Tek's Lightwave running on Windows-based Boxx workstations. “It was the largest computer-generated model — with more than four million polygons — that we had ever manufactured. You can back up and see the whole thing, or you can drive up to a window of an individual building. We've optimized the model down to a little more than two million polys and about a gig of textures, but it's still a huge, heavy model for a television show.”

    **major snippage**

    Credit Roll Director - Martin Wood
    Executive Producers - Brad Wright, Robert C. Cooper
    For Rainmaker Digital:
    Visual Effects Producer - Michelle Comens
    Visual Effects Supervisor - Mark Breakspear
    Digital Effects Supervisor - Bruce G. Woloshyn
    Visual Effects Co-ordinator - Tara Conley
    Lead 3D Animator/Digital Compositing - Dan Mayer
    Lead Water Development Artist - Jose Burgos
    Motion Choreography / Effects Lighting - Tristam Gieni
    Digital Color Grading - Bruce G. Woloshyn


    © 2005, PRIMEDIA Business Magazines & Media Inc.


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