John Brennick – Senior VFX Compositor – Digital Domain

Here at Digital Domain we use a variety of packages such as Houdini, Maya and Real Flow for our FX needs. Generally for comp if we aren’t provided an FX element, as the request may come in last minute, we resort to hitting the element library of stock footage or pre-rendered FX elements with RGB lighting baked into it as well as being tasked with just creating the element ourselves.

Because the environments are constantly changing from show to show, the practical library elements don’t always work 100% so we find ourselves resorting to comp tricks to get them to sit in. In addition to that, due to the fact that the schedules are getting shorter and not all budgets provide the ability to task out the element to the FX department, the FX department can’t always run out specific elements if a practical element in the library doesn’t work.

This is where Eddy really shines. With the ability to take advantage of such a fast GPU solver, the ability to iterate your sims to get the look you’re after is finally possible in a compositor’s hands.

However, for the compositor, while the simming capabilities are powerful and incredibly versatile, the rendering of volumes and pre-baked VDBs from Houdini is what attracted us the most. Now the compositor can finally spend time to get an element to share the same lighting direction, density, and tonality of the rest of the shot. To be able to share the same HDRIs as lighting to integrate our own smoke stacks, render out our own AOVs and really get a specific look for our volumes, that help to integrate them into the shot at the comp level is truly liberating.

We can now provide art directed volumes that sit in each unique plate we’re provided, at a fraction of the cost of going through all of the different departments. Digital Domain has a strong history of creating outstanding visual effects for hundreds of films including most recent blockbusters Avengers: Infinity War, Thor: Ragnarok; SpiderMan: Homecoming; and Beauty & The Beast, and with the help of Eddy, we can now provide even more to our clients for less.