MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Into The Void FX, LLC (http://intothevoidfx.com), recently completed visual effects work on the new feature film Shockwave Darkside. The 3D feature is about the last war on the moon and an ice mining operation designed to harvest a resource that’s been depleted on the Earth. The film will premiere at London’s Fright Fest 2014 on August 22nd.
According to Into The Void’s CEO, Wayne H. Johnson Jr., the studio completed approximately 1,000 VFX for the film, serving as its primary effects provider. Work involved hundreds of digital set extensions, including the crash site where the story begins and the huge battle takes place. Johnson says the scene is full of crashed gunships and bodies of the soldiers that were on-board.
Additional CG work included gunship flyovers, satellites and the robotic Crawler Mines. There are also over 300 heads up displays in the film, which were designed at built by Bambula in Argentina. “My team then had to animate all 300 plus HUDs,” explains Johnson. “We also designed a few HUDs ourselves for the gunships.”
Into The Void worked with John DeMayo from East Harwich, MA, who was responsible for all of the muzzle flashes and explosions during the gun battles in the film.
Workflow for the project involved using FTP servers and services like DropBox to transfer files. “We used a service called Cut Reaction (CutReaction.com) to have the director review VFX shots and leave notes,” recalls Johnson. “Those tools and Internet bandwidth are finally at the point where we can really push some big data around. The team used tools like Google Docs to keep track of shots and build spreadsheets. We met using services like Skype and Hangout. My local team only worked together in the same room three days out of the three years we were on the project.”
The studio relied on Adobe After Effects CS6 and Autodesk Maya.