HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE

SVFX Statement

We fly at breakneck speed with Death Eater plumes of CG smoke over Trafalgar Square and down Charing Cross, for which the whole environment was built as a 3D model using photogrammetric techniques and thousands of textures captured from the real locations, with CG people and vehicles. Next the Millennium Bridge is destroyed, which combined live action plates, with a CG-animated bridge, people and complicated dynamic simulations of cables, dust and debris hitting the CG water. Actors were also shot on a section of the bridge, which was shaken on an SFX motion base, and composited into background plates of London.

Jim Broadbent plays an armchair, which transforms into Horace Slughorn. This was created by blending the digital transforming chair as an extension onto the actor’s own body, which was then covered with cloth simulations modeled after the actor’s costume. During the same scene, the vandalised, smashed living room magically rebuilds itself, created through a combination of animated cg objects and breaking special effects props filmed in reverse.

There are several scenes in the film where Harry travels back in time through the use of a Pensieve memory bowl. The effects for this involved complex fluid simulations to create moving liquid environments in CG, through which Harry could witness the events of the past. Exterior and interior sets were built at Leavesden studios, surrounded by green screens, to which VFX then added environments or building extensions. These included; The Astronomy Tower, The Courtyard, Hagrid’s Hut, The Burrows, Hogsmead Village, The School Gates, The Station Café, Diagon Ally, The Room of Requirements and The Mill Town.

With scenes such as Quidditch, the 360-degree environment had to be created digitally at incredibly high resolution to allow the virtual camera complete freedom. A CG stadium was modelled out of over 35,000 objects, textured and lit to match the wet overcast conditions of the trials as well as the snowy environment created for the match. Most of the Quidditch players were cg doubles of the real actors, which were animated by hand to allow unrestricted freedom of movement of flyer and camera. Close ups of the actors were shot on SFX broom rigs and the CG environment added in behind.

As Harry and Dumbledore search for the Horcrux, they cross the sea at the mouth of the cave, which was created through high-resolution water simulations and complex spray and splash particle simulations. Once inside, we reveal a huge cavernous space that had to be built as a full 3d environment of light-refracting crystals with a CG-simulated subterranean lake. The Inferi that attack Harry were fully animated photorealistic humanoid creatures; as they drag him underwater we reveal another huge environment of writhing hand-animated dead bodies. To rescue Harry, Dumbledore summons an apocalyptic firestorm, which was created through complex layered 3D particle fire simulations.

Over one and a half hours of the film’s total screen time is made up of visual and special effects.