Twin Pines Takes Visual Effects to a New Level with 'Zipi and Zape and Captain's Island'

With more than 800 digitally retouched shots, the film includes an underwater sequence recreated entirely by computer that constitutes one of the most visually spectacular scenes in recent years in Spanish cinema.

Twin Pines has done the visual effects of Zipi and Zape and Captain's Island, directed by Oskar Santos and starring Elena Anaya and the young Teo Planell and Toni Gómez, which premiered in theaters on July 29. With more than 800 digitally retouched shots, the film has a VFX development that is unusual in Spain and includes an underwater sequence recreated entirely by computer that constitutes one of the most visually spectacular scenes in recent years in Spanish cinema.

The production, whose first delivery Zipi and Zape and the Marble Club fue la película española más taquillera de 2013, se rodó en Hungría y Euskadi en el verano de 2015. En total, la labor de Twin Pines supuso seis meses de trabajo en el que participaron más de 40 personas para llevar al espectador a la mágica isla donde se desarrolla esta película de aventuras para toda la familia.

“The truth is that it is a very rich production on a visual level where digital retouching and effects have an enormous weight in the final result,” explains Juanma Nogales, VFX supervisor at Twin Pines, who was winner of a Gaudí Award and was twice nominated for the Goya for the best special effects. “The film has a fantastic display of VFX and includes a large number of complex shots where we combine many techniques and tools,” he adds.

La participación de Twin Pines en la película tuvo la particularidad de que empezó a materializarse durante la fase de desarrollo de guión. “Eso fue fundamental para poder trabajar en una película con tanto desarrollo visual como ésta, porque nos permitió delimitar las cosas que iban a poder o no hacerse con efectos, y a partir de ahí definir el guión y planificar mejor el rodaje”, dice Ana Rubio, productora de VFX de Twin Pines.

The film also had an important pre-production process, which included meticulous localization work by the entire team. “This phase was very important to define different creative aspects and for the director and the art director to set some lines for us to follow in terms of design, both of the environments and the extension of the sets,” recalls Juanma. “Also to determine how some scenes had to be shot so that they could later be post-produced in the time we had,” he adds.

underwater sequence

The most spectacular effects of Zipi and Zape and Captain's Island They can be seen in an underwater sequence in which the film's twin protagonists ride a mini submarine and face a giant squid. It is a scene of about 10 minutes that was entirely digitally recreated by the Twin Pines team and includes almost 200 VFX shots, a display of effects rarely seen in Spanish cinema.

For this sequence, a model of a submarine manufactured at a 1:3 scale was used and shot on blue screen at high speed and then enhanced with digital moving parts and integrated into a 3D generated underwater environment. As a guide to unite the physical filming and the digital post-production, a detailed animated storyboard was previously prepared that provided valuable information to the different technical teams that participated in the sequence.

Mención especial merece la recreación del calamar gigante, elaborado en colaboración con el estudio Post23 de Barcelona, que estuvo a cargo del 3D y su animación así como de la simulación de las burbujas. El trabajo de VFX en esta secuencia submarina incluyó también el proceso de integración de los personajes reales con los mencionados elementos acuáticos y entornos generados por ordenador.

But in addition, the visual effects of the film included important work on extending sets, reconstructing natural spaces, integrating backgrounds, creating countless 3D elements such as mechanisms, doors and marbles, joining spaces filmed thousands of kilometers away, and a long etcetera.

The tools

Para ello se usaron herramientas como Nuke (composición), Maya (3D), Houdini (simulación), Adobe PhotoShop (retoques fotográficos), SpeedTree (creación de plantas y árboles), ZBrush (esculpido y pintado), 3DEqualizer (tracking 3D), PFTrack (matchmoving) y ftrack (gestión de proyectos). Twin Pines recurrió también a equipos de topografía para el escaneado físico de los decorados.

Lo cierto es que en Twin Pines se muestran encantados con el trabajo realizado. “Fue una producción que disfrutamos muchísimo, con un fantástico trabajo en equipo y de coordinación entre el director, el director de arte, el director de fotografía y los VFX”, concluye Juanma Nogales.

Zipi and Zape and Captain's Island is a production by MOD Producciones, Zeta Cinema, Atresmedia Cine and Kowalski Films that Buena Vista Internacional released in theaters on July 29. The executive production is carried out by MOD Producciones and has the participation of Atresmedia, Movistar+ and ETB.

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