The Monuments Men
Environment modeling, projections, and prop work.
The main build was centered around Neuschwanstein Castle. originally slated as a photogrammetry build but that was shelved for a more efficient solution, matte paintings and simplified projection geometry.
The open shot had to be impressive and it was the shot where the audience would see the location it all it’s splendor. I produced the geo for the buildings. The wooden door and hanging lantern were modelled as standard assets and textured in Mudbox and Photoshop.
To help speed up the modeling, I looked for patterns and repetition in the structure, the side building was littered with arched windows but in reality, there were only three main styles, I was able to copy-paste the geometry for the projection artist.
The castle had buildings in almost every direction, it was a little trial and error to see how much detail we needed for the matte painting to work, it was all dependent on how good the original texture photography was.
The staircase was modelled and textured very roughly, it was really just the base pass and the projections filled in all the details.
At one point the client VFX supervisor came into the studio and I was asked to construct a simple model to show how the god rays might look and the direction that would enter the shot, it was a fun task and I always relish talking directly to the main supervisor.
