Quicksilver slow motion scene of stopping bullets has become viral online. It is one of the most amazing visual effect sequence of all time from Hollywood. Check out the behind the scenes images and interview of the VFX Supervisor – Tim Crosbie – from the studio ‘Rising Sun Pictures’. 

Tom Crosbie has already worked with the Director of X Men DOFP,  Bryan Singer,  for his earlier block buster superhero flick Superman Returns. This bond made this movie’s work on fast pace and as per the requirement. The duo also got great technical help from Production VFX Supervisor Richard Stammers.

Pre – Production :

The VFX pipeline was very much accurate and in-depth. The detailed Digital Previs (Pre Visualization) was made for this entire sequence. It consists complete informations regarding the camera angles, frame composition and perspectives for the shooting. The previs was create by other post production house named The Third Floor.

It was creatively approved by Bryan and Stammers and only after that it was handed over to Tim for the shooting start up.

Production :

Major shooting is done via Stereo Cameras. The biggest challenge was to maintain the optical flow of camera animation with timing of bullets, kitchen props, fx and fluid simulations. The physical props had settled down properly so it don’t disturb the movements of Quicksilver (Evan Peters – Peter Maximoff) and other supporting cast.

High Speed Photography was one of the most essential module of the shooting. Water streams were shoot at 3200 fps(Frames Per Second). Onset special effects and specialized stunt rigs were majorly used to achieve this complex sequence through live action shooting.

Post – Production :

The onset Survey Data was used extensively for seamless Compositing. LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) technology was used to reproduce the original kitchen in 3D. To produce photo realistic lighting conditions, HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imaging) was used from scratch. This helped to adjust proper color levels for FX simulations also. The Digital Compositing artists were given full access to cyberscans of props, lens shutter speed and aperture and other related data.

The CG elements that were added in post production process were static objects, props (cutlery, vegetables, pans etc.), water droplates, bullets and bullet vortices, muzzle flashes and hell lot of other small details. Crosbie’s team had made a special algorithm for various water interaction like splashes, high detailed trails, dripping off effect from various characters and props and so on. This was creatively enhanced later on.

It was one of the most complex Compositing of Live Action Plates and huge number of CG render passes. As Stereo Camera was interacting with 3D objects, it required pixel perfect continuity and accuracy of Matchmoving. It was a continuous back and forth process of enhancing the look and feel of the final output.

  All the before after images shown here are copyright to the VFX Studio ‘The Rising Sun‘. 

Two more things that made this marvelous VFX sequence a killer hit are : 

1. The ever green song by Jim Croce – Time in a bottle  as background score
2. Iconic  Pink Floyd T-shirt that Quicksilver wore for this scene

Check out the low resolution version of the said shot. Please don’t watch it if you have not scene the movie in theater first. If you do, you will regret forever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTLIvnkm2KQ