Teradici’s PCoIP technology is used to create most of the movies you are enjoying this Summer! We shared with you how PCoIP Remote Workstation Cards were employed by Industrial Light & Magic, a Lucasfilm Ltd. division, to bring films such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens to life, and with Sony Pictures Imageworks to help bring the new The Angry Birds Movie to life. The long-awaited revival, Independence Day: Resurgence also leveraged PCoIP technology in the creation of its visual effects.
In a WIRED DesignFX profile, Mike Seymour goes behind-the-scenes to learn how Independence Day: Resurgence was brought to life. VFX Supervisor Volker Engel shares how as co-producer he developed key images early on to dictate the look and feel of the film. In 2014, Engel began working with visual effects company Trixter in Santa Monica to create the iconic imagery. Engel and four others (Marc Weighert, Roland Emmerich, Luis Guggenberger and Simone Krause) were the core team working on the images, but they were joined by artists around the world and later by over a dozen external VFX companies – including Scanline VFX – making it a project that truly spanned the globe.
Scanline’s team, which ultimately worked on 248 shots for the film, was headed by Bryan Grill as the VFX supervisor. About 20 percent of the team were located in LA while the other 80 percent were at Scanline’s main office in Vancouver. Scanline’s team is able to seamlessly work on shots between the two locations thanks to the superior user experience and collaboration support of PCoIP.
The structure of Scanline is such that there is no need to allocate shots between LA and Vancouver, as the company is set up with a dedicated gigabit connection between the offices and all the PCs are virtualized via PC-over-IP).
Mohsen Mousavi, the VFX/DFX supervisor for Scanline in Vancouver, jokes that he started work at Scanline in 2013 but it took him almost 6 months before he discovered his personal PC machine was not actually in Vancouver. With two 2K monitors on his desk, “I just did not know the machine wasn't there – you see, no lag.”
The full article gives you an in-depth look at the VFX process for Independence Day: Resurgence and the technology used to support it. Thanks to technology including Teradici’s PCoIP, companies such as Scanline can take advantage of a dispersed talent pool, working seamlessly to create the ultimate science-fiction action film.
To learn more about how PCoIP Remote Workstation Cards can be used to facilitate collaboration, share dailies instantly, and protect intellectual property for the Media & Entertainment industry, visit Teradici.com/workstation.
Image: 20th Century FOX
