Interview with Eric Barba, visual effects supervisor at Digital Domain
CG: Nine Inch Nails through Interscore Records/Trent Reznor turned to Digital Domain for the making of their Only video. Could you please tell us how the idea behind this video was born?
EB: The director of the music video, David Fincher, had the concept behind the video in his head for a number of years. We had actually done a test about a year and a half prior to this effort, but that particular effort never went to production. When David told me that Trent was interested I was very excited for two reasons: first, it was Trent Reznor and second, we might actually have to pull it off!
CG: David Fincher worked on some very impressive projects. What made David Fincher the best director for this project?
EB: David has an incredible understanding of all things digital. He has the experience and initiative to try digital filmmaking with state-of-the-art toolsets for this video. Because of this, he can allow his creativity to go beyond the normal confines of the practical filmmaking world.
CG: Digital Domain assembled an impressive team of stunning artists for this project. Was this result of the fact that practically all of it was CG? Is there any difference in the work on NIN's Only as compared to other projects?
EB: Digital Domain has developed a team of artists that I have had the pleasure of working with over the last nine years here. For this project, it was important to have a team experienced in working together and willing to try something new. They had to embrace the use of a new 3D animation program as well as a new renderer; typically not something anyone is willing to undertake on a tight schedule. While there was some initial skepticism regarding this approach, the photo-realistic demands of the video and everyone's overwhelming desire to work on a NIN video prevailed.
While we ended up bringing in a couple of artists that had prior experience with 3D Studio Max and V-Ray, it was some initial tests that one of our artists did that helped convince everyone that I wasn't losing my mind in attempting this new pipeline. Hopefully, the results speak for themselves.
CG: Did you do something completely innovative, something you really did for the first time in this project?
EB: Yes. We introduced Autodesk's 3D Studio Max and Chaos Group's V-Ray to Digital Domain's pipeline.
CG: Were you able to achieve all that NIN, David Fincher and the Digital Domain team wanted to without sacrificing any of the ideas for the video?
EB: I believe that I can speak for Digital Domain when I say "absolutely". David and Trent can speak for themselves but I know they were both happy with the end result.
CG: Was the post-production of Only complicated? How many rendering passes were needed? Did V-Ray allow you to save time on post-production?
EB: We ended up using less passes in the composites than we would normally have done through our older pipelines. I do believe we saved our artists countless hours using V-Ray.
CG: Were there any comical or curious situations while working on Only that you would like to share?
EB: Yes there were and no I would not.
CG: Did you require much time for integrating V-Ray into the pipe-line of Digital Domain? Would you say that the learning curve was rather steep?
EB: Thankfully, we had the right people do a fantastic job getting things integrated. We also had support from the entire company to make it happen. The learning curve was steep, but well worth it.
CG: Were there any problems working with V-Ray, the solving of which was of major importance so work would continue unhindered? Was it possible to achieve good cooperation between the teams of Digital Domain and Chaos Group?
EB: There are still things we would like to do to make things better, but overall we were very happy with the lack of problems integrating V-Ray into DD. We had great cooperation from Chaos Group, which made the whole thing feasible in the first place. The only real problems are in finding talented 3D Studio Max artists that know V-Ray. Digital Domain is always looking for new talent with those skill sets.
CG: How well did V-Ray perform and did it scale well on the networks of computers utilized by Digital Domain?
EB: V-Ray performed better than our expectations.
CG: What was the feedback from NIN after the band and David Fincher as well were presented with the final video of Only? How did the audience take it, now that a couple of months have passed?
EB: We received excellent feedback from both Trent and MTV. They seemed to think it was a "breakthrough video".
CG: Could you please describe some of your latest more intriguing and challenging projects that Digital Domain has worked on? Would you like to elaborate on any of the future projects of Digital Domain? Do you perhaps plan to use V-Ray again?
EB: We also used V-Ray on a Motorola spot for the new PEBL phone also directed by David Fincher. Additionally, we just completed a Lexus RX400h spot that we used V-Ray on, directed by Jeffrey Plansker. I will continue to use V-Ray on my projects where it fits our needs.
I'm hooked. V-Ray rocks!
CG: Thank you and thanks to all of Digital Domain's team for their excellent work !
Read more here and Watch the NIN "Only" music video |
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