Jake really threw himself into the challenge and worked very hard to do most of the stunts himself. In some of the wide shots over a billion points are being rendered.Д¬an you tell us about the shooting of the final scene in which the sand flows into the void?Дastan is a mixture of real Jake Gyllenhaal and the odd digi-double. The sand artists were able to write shader like scripts that gave complete control over the up scaling process and could also be used to produce addition surface detailing and displacement. This system allowed us to generate the number of particles need to produce a convincing render without the overhead of the extra processing and storage. The number of the semi-simulated particles was increased at render time via a custom particle management system dubbed pCache.

Any additional flow detail could be controlled via maps, allowing the artist to quickly and visually paint the sand flow direction, including any turbulence and spay. The plugin was able to create particle movement that appear fluid like and was dictated by the gradient of the under lying surface. Once the layout of the shot had been finalized we had a custom plugin in Maya that took the animated geometric surfaces representing the sand and were able to produce a flow of particles that replaced the geometric surface in the final render. The whole sequence was blocked out by the animators using geometric surfaces to represent the sandвЂ™s surface, we were able to get most of the key movement of the sand signed off in this way before an fx artist became involved. Above everything we wanted a system that could be exactly controlled by an artist reacting to the directorвЂ™s or supervisorвЂ™s comments. We contemplated doing a lot of fluid simulation work to model the movement of the sand, but large simulations are extremely time consuming and are not as directable as other solutions. Fast moving sand exhibits some fluid like properties but there are also key aspects of the movement that are un-fluid like. There was no reference for a moving body of sand the size of a football field so we had to imagine what we thought it would look like with the help of our concept artists and try and realize that. (Answer by Alex Rothwell, Lead FX artist)Д«efore starting the work, we first need to be clear in our minds about how we thought that much sand would move. There is one brief shot of a real python at the beginning of the HassansinвЂ™s Den sequence вЂ“ all the Vipers are CG. Were there real snakes on the set or are they all in CG? The Hassansin Vipers and the Sandroom at the end of the film. What are the sequences made by Framestore? He also has an great sense of design and visual style, which shows through in all the work he supervised on PRINCE OF PERSIA. He comes from a facility background and has a invaluable practical knowledge of how shots are put together. Tom, in particular, was a very creative and inspiring VFX Supervisor to work with. I really enjoyed working with both of them. How was the collaboration with Mike Newell and the production VFX supervisor Tom Wood?

I moved into CG during post-production on BABE 2 at MillFilm and moved to Framestore in 2000, where I have worked to the present day. Having left university, I joined Jim HensonвЂ™s Creature Shop designing and developing computer based Performance Animation Control Systems. I studied at Art College and then did a Mechanical Engineering degree. After working several years at MillFilm on films such as BABE 2, GLADIATOR or LARA CROFT, Ben Morris joined Framestore in 2000 and participate on projects such as TROY, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and as visual effects supervisor on THE GOLDEN COMPASS and PRINCE OF PERSIA.

Prince of persia 3d concept artwork