Animation World Network has published an interview article with Jonathan Rothbart, Janelle Croshaw Ralla, and Michael Ralla about the collaboration for the VFX on John Wick : Chapter 4, directed by Chad Stahelski.
As Animation World Network (AWN) stated : ‘Even super badass John Wick can’t survive on his own, often requiring a bit of help from his formidable group of friends to survive the never-ending assaults that liven up his existance. This spirit of collaboration was central to the production of Lionsgate’s […] John Wick: Chapter 4, which relied upon the visual effects team of Jonathan Rothbart looking after pre-production and principal photography, Janelle Croshaw Ralla taking over post-production, and Michael Ralla doing some last-minute pinch hitting.’
In its article, AWN relates the importance of collaboration with the stunt team but also the 13 VFX studios worldwide, including our fantastic team at The Yard, to make the 1,523 visual effects of John Wick : Chapter 4 . Janelle Crowshaw Ralla talked amongst others about hundreds of fingers removal that every studio worked on.
every single shot where we remotely saw his finger, we would reconstruct it, get rid of the black sleeve, and add in a nub. Rather than sharing that many shots by having a finger only vendor, we had each vendor do their own finger removals. It was an interesting process matching continuity and sharing setups amongst vendors because some were done all 2D, some 2.5D and others were full 3D.
The Yard team indeed worked on finger removals for the Ruska Roma sequence, as part of the many other VFX provided for the film, including the destruction of the New York Continental hotel. We also collaborated on the Arc de Triomphe car chase mentioned in AWN article by photographing the area in Paris and then using photogrammetric techniques to combine the shots before sending them to Rodeo FX (more info on this part by clicking here).
Read the full article on AWN website by clicking here.