Deep Blue Sea

With Hammerhead's interest in all things shark, we were interested in Deep Blue Sea from the start. After Viewpoint Data Labs built a model to our specifications, Thad created custom controls for it so that shark behaviors like swimming, or baring teeth, could be addressed procedurally using our in-house 3D animation system called Z. This enabled the animators to concentrate on the way the sharks acted rather than on the technically correct relationship of shoulders to body while swimming, for example. The sharks were rendered using RenderMan, shaded with textures Rebecca painted in Photoshop, then composited into background plate photography using matte, another in-house system. In this final part of the process, depth filters were applied in the form of fog, and we added blood, bubbles, particulate, shadows, and caustics as each shot needed.