A Vancouver visual effects company has played a major part in the making of Angels & Demons, a sequel to The Da Vinci Code, and one of the most anticipated movies of the summer.
A virtual set was created here in B.C. by a company called CIS Vancouver, which used thousands of digital pictures, to recreate the St. Peters Basilica, a Vatican church where much of the action takes place.
"I think I know more about the Vatican than a priest," CIS animator Mark Breakspear said. "We went to Rome. The process that we used, we take a lot of photographs on our computers, and our computers are able to recreate the space."
The leading actors including Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor, were filmed in front of a green screen, before the Vancouver animators digitally added the church behind them; first with photographs, then with shadows and lighting effects.
"You're looking at three months per shot, and each shot would only last three seconds," Breakspear said. "It's a really difficult thing to do."
Vancouver has a long-standing reputation as Hollywood North - a place to film blockbuster movies that has stood in for New York and Chicago, to name a few - but it's growing talent pool of animators is attracting new business.
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"There is a desire on their part to look to Vancouver to start taking on bigger challenges on visual effects," Dennis Hoffman, another CIS employee, said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jon Woodward
