Titanic (Courtesy of 20th Century Fox & Paramount Pictures)
The dolphin scenes were particularly challenging, as we had to add dolphins to shots. Jim had shot thousands of feet of dolphins swimming and jumping, and had asked us to use those as elements, but because of lighting and other issues, this was impossible. So, Jamie and Thad created 3D dolphins, and animated them swimming underwater; using the live action dolphins as a guide to lighting, motion, and distortion. When we showed the final result to Cameron, he thought that it was great; but upon reflection, wouldn't it have been better if the light had come a little bit more from the left? When Jamie said "We can do that", Cameron snapped around, "What?!" realizing finally that these were in fact CG and not real dolphins.

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Titanic

(Courtesy of 20th Century Fox & Paramount Pictures)

The dolphin scenes were particularly challenging, as we had to add dolphins to shots. Jim had shot thousands of feet of dolphins swimming and jumping, and had asked us to use those as elements, but because of lighting and other issues, this was impossible. So, Jamie and Thad created 3D dolphins, and animated them swimming underwater; using the live action dolphins as a guide to lighting, motion, and distortion. When we showed the final result to Cameron, he thought that it was great; but upon reflection, wouldn't it have been better if the light had come a little bit more from the left? When Jamie said "We can do that", Cameron snapped around, "What?!" realizing finally that these were in fact CG and not real dolphins.

Back