PHYSICS

Production Previsualization Played Key Role in Early Design and Visualization of Film's Captivating Disaster Sequences -- Deadly twisters. Massive snowstorms. Devastating tidal waves. These are just a few of the visually-intense scenes from the special effects-packed Twentieth Century Fox film "The Day After Tomorrow," which opens this week around the world. The cataclysmic events depicted in the film come alive with the help of Hollywood, CA-based Crack Creative, a recently-launched production design and effects company and NVIDIA Corporation, who teamed up to help the filmmakers design and visualize the spectacular sequences in Hollywood's first disaster movie of the summer. Crack Creative artists, working with the NVIDIA Digital Film group and computer systems driven by state-of-the-art NVIDIA Quadro(R) FX graphics boards, provided the filmmakers with the ability to design, view, and select scenes early on in the creative process. Crack Creative's designs included the Los Angeles twisters, the Manhattan tidal surge, views of the storms from outer space, images of wolves scavenging for food, and other key scenes. Roland Emmerich, the film's award-winning director, explained, "Working with Crack Creative allowed us to see how sequences worked before shooting, to communicate with the actors and departments during production, and to aid continuity during the edit when shots were not yet available. It was a big advantage to the film to visually explore new ideas at any point throughout production." Joshua Kolden, president, Crack Creative, added, "Most of these sequences went through many versions before the final version was chosen. In a normal visual effects pipeline, the sheer volume of shots would not have been possible in the time we had. The film makers challenged Crack Creative to create sequences that included a detailed model of Manhattan, as well as massive particle simulations of storms -- while remaining interactive. This is called 'photo-realistic real-time' and it was made possible by NVIDIA graphics technology. It meant we were able to send more scenes through the pipe more quickly, saving money and time, and perhaps more importantly, giving the filmmakers the flexibility to tell a more compelling story."