The Midnight Sky

Working on “The Midnight Sky” threw up a whole host of challenges, the foremost of which began a few weeks after I had started working on the film in the form of Coronavirus and the inevitable working from home situation. After a couple of weeks of fairly big adjustment to the new working practices we settled into the challenges of the project.

Fortunately, filming for the project had concluded just before the onset of Covid-19, so we had all the necessary source material. However, a hurdle arose when Felicity Jones became pregnant while filming, making it impossible for her to travel to certain locations. The initial challenge was to create a digital replica of her face that could be merged with footage of a body double. To achieve this, we utilized ILM’s Anyma system to capture her facial performances, which were later utilized to animate the digital version of Felicity’s face.

In addition to the intricate character development, our team was responsible for creating and demolishing the Aether spacecraft that the astronauts use to travel to K-23, a fictitious moon orbiting Jupiter.

Designing the Aether was a complex process that required a high level of detail to ensure that it appeared believable in a range of shots, including close-ups and wide angles. We had to account for the 4K resolution at which the film would be rendered to ensure that every aspect of the spacecraft looked realistic and convincing to the audience.

It’s testament to all involved at Framestore that “The Midnight Sky” picked up 2 VES awards for visual effects (for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature and Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project) – https://www.vesglobal.org/press-releases/19th-annual-ves-awards-winners/