Top 6 of Merc's VFX on Versus Valerie
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It's been a bit of a dream working on the visual effects team for Versus Valerie, the amazing spinoff of Sexy Nerd Girl. As the season is coming to a close and the finale episode fast approaches, here's a compiled list of vfx shots Merc had the pleasure of working on for Val's story. In no particular order! I don't pick favourites here. They were just a lot of fun to work on.
http://youtu.be/VZFPf58PMsk?t=17s
Each episode has its own theme borrowed from one popular, geeky universe or another. The inaugural episode that kicked of the series called for an intro sequence in the style of BBC's hit series Sherlock. There's even a breakdown of how the effect was built, if you want to see how it was done. But really it was...elementary.
VFX Completed: Title sequence with a tilt-shift effect.
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http://youtu.be/SiE61nyKJUI?t=49s
Episode 4 was the introduction of the Doctor, so of course that meant borrowing elements from Doctor Who. Admittedly I've only ever seen one episode of our good Doctor (but I've been told that it was the best episode, so quit while I'm ahead, yeah?), but am a big fan of the opening sequence. Recreating it was a bit of an experiment in creating a particle system for the tunnel and "piloting" a virtual camera through it.
VFX Completed: Travelling through time-space vortex with 3D text.
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http://youtu.be/uZG_DKvh2Es?t=8m4s
Speaking of the introduction of the good Doctor, when he shows up in Val's life when she's down in the alcohol-filled dumps his appearance is most epic.
VFX Completed: Animated 3D text, particle sparks, Michael Bay explosion behind the Doctor with some delicious lightwrap around him for good measure.
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http://youtu.be/o6T0mlqmY1Q?t=8m27s
When Val and Peter Chao face off in Episode 6, they threw their balls down. A FPS paintball action sequence as Val tore up the battlefield and decimated her opponents. BOOM! Head shot.
VFX Completed: First-person HUD with moving reticule and compass/map; animated splashes of paint off of Val's kills.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E_nAo47HFE
Who no like adding blood and guts to the zombies? Very simple, but always fun. In Episode 7, Valerie faced her fears of past relationships and emotional baggage as we all eventually do: they take the form of the walking dead and she kicks some Ash!
VFX Completed: Adding gun blasts / sprays of blood to zombies, ejecting shotgun shells from Val's gun, blood spray hitting boxes behind zombie.
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http://youtu.be/In8BMfcCABg?t=5m11s
The series made use of a lot of great transitions from scene-to-scene. One of my favourites to work on was the transformation of Lyra from nerdy comic book clerk to Harley Quinn in mid-conversation with Val. Two shots blended into one, tracking and matchmoving the camera and some colour correction made her entrance a surprise.
VFX Completed: Like I said, two shots blended into one...tracking...matchmoving the camera action...colour correction...Surprise!
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Phew! That's just to name a few. It's been great working with the vfx team on the show, along with Davin Lengyel and (in later episodes) Xerxes Cortex. And, of course, with director Mike Fly at the helm keeping us on track and guiding us along the way.
The big finale is coming up soon, so be sure to subscribe to Versus Valerie and catch it first when it comes out on August 8th.
MORE LINKS:
Versus Valerie Official Website
Like Versus Valerie on Facebook
Or Follow Val on Google+ (if that's your kind of thing)