The VFX of Flashforward

All images courtesy of Zoic Studios for ABC. Click any images to enlarge

We're pleased to publish the second part interview with Andrew Orloff and Kevin Blank from Zoic Studios Learn more about the work by Zoic on Flash Forward. Flashforward revolves around a mysterious event that causes nearly everyone on the planet to simultaneously lose consciousness for 137 seconds, during which people see what appear to be visions of their lives approximately six months in the future—a global “flashforward”.

Click to watch Flashforward first 17 minutes and VFX made by Zoïc

IT'S ART : Can you give us some background on the development of the effects for FlashForward?

Kevin Blank, VFX Supervisor FlashForward: David Goyer sent me the script and our first meeting revolved around the Flash Forward effect as the central storytelling device. We knew it had to be accordion-like – a visual cue that would immediately transport the viewer, intellectually, into that time and place. It was exciting to set up a visual language that would be instrumental in how the story was being told. The show revolves around the notion of what the future holds and what you do if you possess that knowledge. I was fascinated by the premise and found it creatively freeing to be able to extrapolate on what might happen, the stories and results that radiate out of this single black out event. From there we conceived the aftermath, tearing up the city and taking the viewer in and out of moments to finally show the wide swath of destruction. Another major part of the visual effects work on the show is with virtual sets. We sent a photographer to various locations to shoot footage and stills and then married that with sets and visual effects enhancements to create location scenes that would read as authentic.

IT'S ART : Can you brief us on the work you've done for the pilot episode?

Andrew Orloff: Kevin Blank and I supervised the freeway sequence, which was shot on an overpass dressed with wrecked cars. We couldn’t close the freeway below – it’s too busy at all times of the day – so we had to digitally remove all of the cars and replace them with full CG vehicles. We shot with a steadycam and did tons of rotoscpoping. We used a CG pipeline of Lightwave, Maya and Mental Ray, creating everything in passes so the details could be dialed in.

IT'S ART : Zoïc has worked hard to make impressive explosive effects and damaged buildings. What was the most difficult parts to achieve? Why?

Andrew Orloff: For the buildings, we shot a giant matte painting. It was the only way to achieve the photoreal look we were going after on such a massive scale.

IT'S ART : What else did you create for the episode?

Andrew Orloff: The whole sequence was an intensive undertaking, and includes car and helicopter crashes. I took hundreds of detailed reference photos from the real wrecked cars on the overpass and we used those in creating the CG cars so they would feel authentic and photoreal. For these and the helicopter crash we hired talented animators who specialize in this kind of imagery and understand the physics inside and out.

Links

Flashforward Official website on ABC   |   Zoic Studios    |   See Also : The VFX of 'V' 2009  

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Many thanks to Jessie Nagel