Eden FX designed, produced and delivered 75 VFX shots for the January 9th premiere episode of the new NBC TV series “The Cape,” it was announced by John Gross, Creative Director, Eden FX. The new series depicts the adventures of a superhero named “The Cape,” who in real life — as an honest cop framed for murder –decides to transform himself into a larger than life character based on a popular comic book.
Eden’s work on the show included numerous digital “cape” effects, smoke/fluid dynamics, wire/rig removals, and compositing. For the majority of the show’s action sequences, the hero’s cape was actually a digital element. In this series, the cape, itself, is essentially depicted as its own “character,” capable of being dispersed over long distances, ensnaring villains and throwing things around. To view a Quicktime montage of Eden FX’s work on “The Cape,” please click here.
For many of these shots, Eden’s Lead VFX Artist Stefan Bredereck developed a pipeline using Newtek’s Lightwave3D to roto-animate a digital human character over the real-life actor’s motion, and importing this character’s animation into Autodesk’s Softimage XSI for cloth animation. These digital cape shots were then brought back into Lightwave for rendering, through Eden’s in-house render controller, using HDRI photography. This HDRI photography was captured on set by Eden VFX Artist Christian Bloch, to integrate the cloth into the live-action scenes.
For another recurring gag featured in the premiere episode of “The Cape,” Eden FX artists utilized 3D Studio Max and FumeFX to generate the effect of a magician who literally “vanishes in a puff of smoke."
Regarding work on “The Cape,” Steve Pugh, a Visual Effects Producer with Eden FX, said, “This show made use of our entire toolset, and was definitely a prime example of an FX house using the right tool for each step along the way. One of the show’s biggest challenges was its tight delivery schedule, which meant we had to ramp up to a crew of about twenty 3D artists and compositors. While that’s part and parcel of the television pilot season, I’d be curious to see how Red Bull’s sales spiked last April and May.”
To view a Quicktime montage of Eden FX’s work on “The Cape,” please see http://www.edenfx.com/#gallery
About “THE CAPE”
“The Cape” is a one-hour drama series on NBC starring David Lyons (“ER”) as Vince Faraday, an honest cop on a corrupt police force, who finds himself framed for a series of murders and presumed dead. He is forced into hiding, leaving behind his wife Dana (Jennifer Ferrin, “Life on Mars”) and son, Trip (Ryan Wynott, “Flash Forward”). Fueled by a desire to reunite with his family and to battle the criminal forces that have overtaken Palm City, Vince Faraday becomes “The Cape” – his son’s favorite comic book superhero – and takes the law into his own hands.
“The Cape” is a Universal Media Studios and BermanBraun production from Executive Producer/Creator Tom Wheeler (“Empire”), along with Executive Producers Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun (NBC’s “Mercy”), John Wirth (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”), and Gene Stein (“Accidentally on Purpose”). Ed Irastorza is the Visual Effects Supervisor for “The Cape.”
About EDEN FX
Formed in 2000, Eden FX is an award winning studio specializing in 3D animation, virtual environments, compositing, matte painting, character animation, and on-set supervision for film and television. Eden FX, a Point .360 company, is located at 12421 West Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90064. The phone is 310/481-7002. Please visit www.edenfx.com for more information.
