In all, the Spin team completed 107 complex shots for the film, together with some 40 more for the eventual DVD release, and they did it all in just 12 weeks. Some of those shots included some particularly evocative CG breath and body heat emitting from the characters, enhancing the sense of cold and heat within this city where it always snows and the sun never shines. While Campbell credits Autodesk® Maya® and Autodesk® 3ds Max®, along with Autodesk® Mudbox™, as critical to the look of the film, he comes back to Autodesk® Inferno® for final, personal praise:
“I love the interactivity of Inferno, and it was particularly great for the pitch that won us the job,” he says thoughtfully. “I was able to assemble a lot of critical elements, including fiery skies and visions of the Demons, and do it very quickly. I like to work with practical elements and in Inferno you will quickly be able to see if they are going to work or not. One death scene, for instance, involving the Natasha character, proved how amazing Inferno can be. I imported the entire sequence, and was able to creativly block out our CG Valkyrie in all the shots to quickly show the director at 2K for feedback. Inferno was a fantastic timesaver.”
“Maya, 3ds Max, and Mudbox were absolutely critical to achieving the distinctive, demonic look and feel of Max Payne, and Inferno proved to be a fantastic conceptual and creative tool for defining and realizing that vision.”-
Jeff Campbell,
Visual Effects Supervisor,
Spin
In the end, one thing is certain: creating so many spectacular shots in so little time, it’s clear even Max Payne has nothing on the team at Spin. Spin is currently working on the upcoming Twentieth Century Fox release of Dragonball.
